Spoiler Warning: This story is a sixth year fic that follows on from the events of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. As a conseqeunce this story contains major spoilers for book 5. You have been warned.
SNAKE HEALER: THE MALFOY MUGGLE LOVER
CHAPTER 21: SPEECHES
"My name is Leo Malfoy, I am a Malfoy who was sorted into Gryffindor," Harry began forcefully, there was no pride in his voice merely assurance and cast iron certainty, the evidence of which disguised the extreme nervousness which had overcome him when his anger at Meliflua had faded. The sight of the packed Great Hall was the main cause of his nervousness, he had never seen so many people gathered in one place – not even at Kings Cross or Diagon Alley. However, his opening words had significantly eased his nerves, and calmed him immensely. He wasn't proud of being a Malfoy and he wasn't especially proud of being a Gryffindor, however, he bore no grudge against his father and the other Malfoys – not anymore. He was annoyed by his housemates' prejudices, but he bore no grudge against them either. The calming effect induced by the affirmation of his status as a Malfoy in Gryffindor was a reaction to the injustice of the prejudices perpetrated by both his housemates and several members of his family. He knew it sounded almost Lucas-like in its arrogance but the knowledge that he was better than them in this respect gave him strength and confidence.
"I am not the first person from a Slytherin family to be sorted into Gryffindor, many people have been in my position, but few have retained their ability to see beyond the arrogant façade and prejudiced beliefs of a few to the true Slytherin that all of you are. It is as if being sorted blinds them to the honour, the loyalty and the pride that define your very beings, traits that I and all friends of Slytherin admire greatly. I am certain my feelings would be shared by everyone, if they weren't so blinded by the stereotypes and prejudices that corrupt our society or misled by their righteous hatred for those that corrupt Slytherin's name to suit their own evil desires. Voldemort has no honour or loyalty to those that serve him; he is no Slytherin. I know this, you know this, but they do not. We must show them their mistake; we must destroy the lies that divide our respective houses. We must show them that no true Slytherin can ever be a death eater, because all pride is lost when serving someone as insane as Voldemort. We must show them that no true Slytherin can be evil because killing and hurting innocents is dishonourable. We must show them that all true Slytherins are trustworthy, because loyalty requires it. But then who am I, a Gryffindor, to judge what it means to be a Slytherin? I do not see the honour in denying a quarter of the wizarding population the opportunity to use their gift for magic simply because of an accident of birth, despite being assured many times by Lucius to do so would be both extremely honourable and very desirable. I'm not the only one, some of you don't understand this claim and far more disagree with it, whilst the vast majority of right-minded non-Slytherin not only disagree with it, but find it deeply offensive. And that's the problem. Whilst those of you who agree with Lucius continue to promote your anti-muggle prejudices reconciliation between the houses is impossible. I may be prepared to ignore such beliefs, my friends will not and nothing I can do will change that. They will tolerate anybody calling for themselves, their friends and their family to be expelled from the wizarding world, anyone who advocates such beliefs is their enemy, nothing will ever change that, not even your mythical Healer. One person cannot reunite the houses, it requires action by everyone, it requires to set aside their prejudices and it requires everyone to genuinely want to end the division that blights the wizarding world. We have to tell my housemates why reuniting the houses is so important. They were warned at last years sorting of the need to unite the houses, yet they blindly ignored it, thinking that it does not apply to the people in this room. Their prejudices have blinded them to the truth, to the desperate need for unity, but then they do not know Voldemort as we do, they do not know his strength or the overwhelming need for his quick defeat. They do not know that everyone must stand united or else nothing worthwhile will survive. They must be shown this, the houses must be united, Voldemort's defeat requires it. I intend to everything that I can to oppose him, as do most of you. Well, you can start be putting aside your prejudices and reuniting the houses. It may be difficult, but it has to be done, if you don't Voldemort will win. It's as simple as that."
It was a tour de force of passionate rhetoric, in which Harry's natural oratory skills were clearly evident. It was a speech that came directly from the heart, a vocalisation of Harry's thoughts on the inter-house rivalry and Slytherin in general, an expression of the disgust he felt towards his prejudiced housemates, his anger a the anti-muggle prejudice perpetrated by some of the Slytherins and his hatred of Voldemort and the discrimination the Slytherins faced. That he was simply saying what he felt was unmistakable as the speech was delivered with the type of fierce determination which was impossible to fake. This same fierceness also made it perfectly obvious that he was saying the first thing that came into his head a point backed up his lack of notes, despite this, there was little hesitation in his words.
"An excellent speech, even if I do disagree with you on one or two points," Draco commented, once Harry had sat down. The compliment caught the Gryffindor completely be surprise and met with a suspicious reaction. He couldn't detect any hint of insult or deceit in the Slytherin's words though. However, his surprise at Draco's words was nothing compared to his reaction to the words that followed, "But then I'd expect nothing less my brother," he commented as if calling Harry his brother was the most normal thing in the world. To Harry such a description was anything but normal as his startled reaction indicated. It was a reaction, which forced Draco to explain his reason for the description. "You said so yourself, right at the beginning of your speech" he said, clearly amused by Harry's shock, "I know you said the same thing last night, but this time you truly meant it."
Harry wasn't sure how he felt about Draco being his brother, during the past twenty-four hours he'd seen a side of his school rival, which he had never thought, existed. It was enough for Harry to prefer being the Slytherin's brother rather than his enemy, but beyond that he wasn't sure what to think. Draco, ever the Slytherin, was prepared to accept Harry as his brother the moment he was certain actually wanted to be a Malfoy. Harry had been under no illusion that until that moment Draco's kindness had been based upon his father's trust in Harry and the events of the previous night, in which Harry's participation had been necessary. Harry was pretty sure that Draco trusted him now, and he knew that he should trust the Slytherin too, but he found actually generating that trust quite hard. They had been enemies just twenty four hours previously after all.
"I simply said what I felt," Harry said dismissively, responding to Draco's explanation.
The Slytherin didn't reply as he, like Harry was too busy listening to the speech of Cornelius Fudge, who stood up to speak in Harry's defence. After bearing so much criticism from the power hungry Minister of Magic due to the Ministry's year long denial of Voldemort's return, Harry was moderately surprised to find the minister was now defending him. He felt it was a rather stupid reaction, but it was an indication of the low esteem in which Harry held Fudge. He was also surprised to find that the Minister was also quite an eloquent and fluent speaker when he wanted to be, if he hadn't seen the stack of papers lying on the table in front of the minister he would never have guessed the minister was using notes. The content of the speech also pleasantly surprised Harry although he did concentrate on how the workings of the ministry was held back by the innate suspicion that many people held towards former Slytherins, especially those from the more prominent Slytherin families. Fudge seemed to know what he was on about and built a seemingly convincing argument describing how much society as a whole would benefit from the smoother and more efficient ministry that result from a healing of the division between the houses.
There were a few more speakers after the minister most of whom put forward a number of practical reasons for improving inter-house relationships and the reasons why such an improvement would benefit people's everyday lives. It appeared that Snape had decided to save the people who offered the most convincing arguments for change until the end of the debate, in what appeared a none too subtle attempt to sway the general opinion to the side he supported. He did allow Jacobson, who opposed any form of change to argue last, and to the balding man's credit he did a good job of the hopeless task of trying to rebut the arguments arranged against his position, but ultimately it was obvious to Harry that Jacobson's side had by far the weaker arguments, although they may have made more effect on some of the Slytherins. Nonetheless, Draco and Maria both made it clear that they expected to win by a convincing margin. Strictly speaking they were voting on the Slytherins attitude towards Voldemort, although even Snape made it perfectly that a vote to oppose Voldemort was equivalent to backing an attempt to heal the divisions between the houses, whilst voting for neutrality was equivalent to opposing any such reconciliation. Harry suspected though that one or two of the Slytherins who might disagree with closer relationships between the houses would vote oppose Voldemort anyway because of their attitude to the dark lord. However, Draco, who was probably the better judge of such matters, scoffed at this notion. As it was Harry turned out to be right.
The vote itself wasn't a particular formal or complex affair, Snape read Lucius motion' declaring war on Voldemort, before asking for those supporting the motion and then those voting against the motion to raise their hands. As about three-quarters of the assembled Slytherins voted yes the motion passed, overwhelmingly, without Snape ever bothering to count the exact numbers. He then repeated the procedure for Ellanora Lacetter's counter motion supporting Voldemort and naming him the Heir of Slytherin, which received just twelve yes votes and an almost hundred percent no vote. The first act following the Slytherin's declaration of war on Voldemort was to expel his supporters from the Slytherin Council on the grounds of treachery – effectively removing them from Slytherin house. Snape listed twenty-two names, including Ellanora Lacetter, Araminta Meliflua and Eleanor Nott, grandmother of one of Draco's friends as well as Voldemort himself. Those present were given the opportunity to argue against the expulsion, although none bothered, preferring to use the time to condemn the Slytherins for rejecting Voldemort and threaten various people, including Harry, with the wrath of Voldemort and the remaining death eaters. Needless to say, the votes for expulsion were unanimous, with those supporting the death eaters abstaining. Once expelled those present were forcibly removed, without any concern for the expelled death eater sympathiser's well being. In fact it seemed as though every effort was taken to ensure that those expelled were 'accidentally injured' in every possible way. Silencing charms were used too, although this didn't prevent Theodore Nott from speaking out on his grandmother's behalf. As a result of his protest Nott was removed too, even though school rules meant that the Slytherin Council did not have the power to expel current Hogwarts students, which meant that the three students in attendance who were loyal to Voldemort were not subject to expulsion votes. Apparently school rules dictated that the students of a house could force the Headmaster to resort or even expel either one or a small group of their number long as the rest of the students in that house agreed. This meant that Nott's removal was technically against council rules, although no-one seemed to object after Snape made it clear that any objectors would suffer the same fate, another act that was, incidentally, also against council rules. Harry suspected that the resounding cheer that greeted this particular statement was more than enough to silence any potential protest from the two remaining death eater sympathisers. Harry also noticed that some of those death eaters imprisoned in Azkaban were among the expelled, although not all were voted on. From want Harry could gather, Fudge had visited earlier that day with Lucius and asked the prisoners whether they were willing to back the rebellion, only three had agreed. These three it appeared were going to be released in a few days under the same terms as Lucius.
Once the process of expelling and removing the unwanted death eaters and those that sympathised with them was complete the blond elf to who Zabini had indicated earlier took over proceedings. "Is that all of them? I had thought there would be more of them," the elf asked Snape as he made his way to the front of the room.
"Apart from the two remaining students that is all who were present. As far as I am aware we had no unwelcome guests, Cornelius and I took precautions against that," Snape replied calmly, not even bothering to stand up to speak, as he had been doing. "If you wish to take measures to deal with the students feel free, they are here because I wanted to leave the decision on whether to remove them to you."
"It might become necessary later on, but leave them for now. I was more concerned with our rodent problem, which I am glad to say has already been dealt with," the elf commented cheerfully. Snape paid no attention to the obvious reference to Wormtail, which annoyed Harry immensely, Lucius, however, did.
"Wormtail was here?" He asked, before Harry could ask exact same question. It sounded as if Pettigrew's capture was only of passing interest, although Harry was sure he was quite pleased that it had happened.
"Indeed he is. Furthermore, he'll be in ministry custody by the morning and the day after, unless of course Dumbledore does something stupid." the elf replied, producing the rat animagus from the folds of his cloak and holding by his tail for all to see. It looked as though Wormtail had been knocked unconscious, presumably by a spell. Lucius indicated for Harry to give the rat a close examination, which Harry took great delight in doing, making sure to injure the rat in the process.
"It's him alright," Harry said gleefully once he had finished the examination. He could have identified the animagus anywhere, having slept in the same dorm as him for three years, "And do make sure to kill him. I promised Sirius that I'd kill him if he transformed and I don't want to break that promise."
"That sounds acceptable," the elf replied as he took Wormtail back, sounding deadly serious for the first time. Once the unconscious Wormtail was tucked safely inside the pockets of his robes the elf took a few steps backwards and began the speech that he had come to make.
"Its seems that every time I make a speech to this body a Gryffindor somehow either hijacks my speech or forces me to alter what I have to say at the last minute. At least tonight I received a warning that one Gryffindor may require me to make an alteration and I am glad to say that Leo Malfoy did not disappoint. However, I did not expect the dark lord to send another Gryffindor to gatecrash our gathering and hijack my speech, fortunately our guest has been dealt with." He began in a light-hearted tone that befitted his opening words. However, his tone of voice altered as the content matter of the speech got more serious to match what he was saying. "I have no doubt that Lucius is dying to tell me that I shouldn't be that surprised and that the dark lord has a habit of doing the unexpected. My response is to plead that until recently I have had little to do with the dark lord. Regretfully, that has changed recently.
"Within the next few months, he will try to storm Edoras and destroy the council of elders in an attempt not only to conquer the elfin world and claim the Slytherin Legacy. If he succeeds he will a start a war between my world and yours. The elfin armies will march on Hogwarts, forcibly driven here by the evil tyrant that controls them. Once he gets here he expects that as possessor of the Slytherin Legacy, all of you will bow before him and that consequently Hogwarts will fall. There is one flaw with the plan. Slytherin's Legacy is not at Edoras. Slytherin's Legacy is here in the hearts and minds of every single person in this room. Wyrmtongue is not Slytherin's Legacy, it's Slytherin's sword. His legacy is his achievement, the culmination of his life's work and the thing he wished to be remembered by. It is the house at this school that bears his name. It is the ideals that Slytherin house represent. It is something that the dark lord can never hope to possess. We are Slytherin's legacy. We are his heirs, we, the people sorted into Slytherin house in accordance with the instructions left by Salazar Slytherin house. We are the continuation of Salazar's life work. Together, we decide what a Slytherin is and who and who can be one. Together, we decide Slytherin's Legacy. The dark lord is an individual, he can do none of these things, as individually he was merely a single part of a whole, one among many. One man, however, powerful, cannot determine the nature of Slytherin's Legacy, not even Salazar and especially not the dark lord.
"The dark lord and those who follow him failed to realise this and tonight they paid the price for their ignorance. They are no longer Slytherins, no longer part of Slytherin's Legacy, no longer Slytherin's heirs. Never again will a Slytherin serve before the dark lord, because the moment any one of us does, that person will cease to be a Slytherin. Tonight we changed the Slytherin Legacy, we decided that being a supporter of the dark side and being a Slytherin were mutually incompatible. We made another decision too; we decided that good relationships with the other houses are also part of Slytherin's Legacy. Tonight, with the aid of the Healer, we healed Slytherin's Legacy; we fulfilled Salazar's final wish. We have answered the two questions Maria Malfoy presented to as at the end of her speech. However, our task is incomplete. The healing has only just begun. We must now act to end our differences with the other houses. We must show the world that we are not as they believe us to be. We must show them that we are no longer their enemy. Doing so will not be easy, prejudices run deep. We will require the aid of the Healer. However, our task is a necessary one as it is part of Salazar's Legacy. Above all, though, it is a task in which we must and will succeed."
In case you've forgotten Harry is 'Jason' and 'Leo' whilst Ron is 'Caranthir'.
Thank You to all those who reviewed chapter 19, your reviews were most appreciated. If you want me to e-mail you when I update this fic leave your e-mail address in your review.