A\N: Most of the author's note stuff is going to happen at the bottom where people don't have to read through it, but there are two very important notes here. First, I'm very happy to announce that I got my second(as in two) review after last chapter. Yay! Hint. Hint. Second, the profanity definitely starts in this chapter. If you prefer to read only sanitized fics, then you'll be wanting not to read any more of this story. Sorry.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize belongs to me. Only a little of the rest does either.

Chapter 5: Detention

A Saturday, to the ordinary student, is a great day. A day to be spent relaxing, avoiding schoolwork and relaxing under the shade of a tree or by a fire. A Saturday, to the ordinary student, is not a day to be marred by serving a detention with a teacher, which was precisely the reason that most of the Hogwarts teachers had decided to make wayward students serve their detentions on that precise day.

Which was why Harry Potter was hurrying out of his second detention of the day, rushing not to be late to his third - and, thankfully, final. His new, sullen demeanor and occasional bursts of anger had earned him punishment from Professors McGonagall and Binns - Binns, for Merlin's sake, had actually begun asking questions in class, and , as Murphy's own luck would have it, had asked him the very first one. The fact that he, like everyone else in the class, had been somewhere between half and three-quarters asleep at the time had not helped his answer had been unfortunately monosyllabic.

And detention for Binns was bloody boring.

Unlike detention with Professor Butler - which he had been looking forward to for the last hour, if only because it would be interesting... and now here he was, standing outside the door, waiting. The door was locked - briefly, he considered unlocking the door magically and checking the room before he realized just how many detentions getting caught would earn him and decided instead to wait. And wait.

Harry was about to leave about twenty minutes after the detention had been supposed to start when the door opened, revealing Professor Butler, looking as dignified and stately as ever, though their was a vaguely apologetic look on his face.

"Potter. I'm very sorry I'm late. I was just speaking with one of my friends-" Harry couldn't help but notice the faint stress put on 'friends'- "and our chat went on a bit longer than I'd expected. Sorry." The professor retreated behind his desk, motioning for Harry to have a seat. "All right. I think we'll start with you. Do you have anything you want to say first?"

Harry took a deep breath, thinking about what he wanted to say. 'Sir, with all due respect, I think you're a bloody wanker'; 'Sir, I couldn't help but notice that your head is lodged almost a meter up your arse'; 'Sir, you have no bloody idea what you're talking about, so stop'; and he was about to choke all those answers down when he looked straight at Butler's eyes and saw them twinkling. Fucking twinkling, in the same way Dumbledore's did, in the 'I know exactly what you want to say, Harry, and it's all right that you won't tell me' way that was so aggravating and yet so mollifying. "Are you related to Dumbledore, sir?"

"It's proper to refer to him as Headmaster Dumbledore or Professor Dumbledore, Potter. But I suppose it's a minor infraction."

"But-"

"Yes?"

"Are you related to him?"

"Not that I know of. But then, we both come from old pureblood lines, so I suppose there's a relationship somewhere in there. But no more than you are, really."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I really will start taking points if you don't learn respect, Potter."

Harry's eyes narrowed. Butler's obsession with the proper forms of address was becoming aggravating. "I'm sorry, sir."

"The Potters are a very old pureblood line. Though they always were somewhat less restrictive than the other lines were, I'd imagine they still have quite a bit of the Weasleys and the Longbottoms and the Dumbledores in their blood." He smiled a teasing, almost mean smile and continued: "And the Parkinsons and the Flints and the Malfoys too, I should imagine." Harry couldn't resist contorting his face at that, and Butler reacted with a satisfied expression. His expression turned more serious and he seemed to be about to add something when he stopped himself, changed the subject. "Did you have anything else to say?"

Harry shook his head, deciding against saying any of those angry, antagonistic insults that seemed so stupid - though definitely satisfying - just a few seconds after he thought of them, probably because of that infernal twinkling. But Butler just nodded, and his eyes turned serious. "Good. Then we can get back on that subject. As it happens-" Harry rolled his eyes when Marcus rubbed his hands together sarcastically-"that is actually exactly what I wanted to talk to you about.

"You have to know how to deal with people like Lucius Malfoy and Petrus Parkinson or you will get nowhere, Potter."

"Why?"

Butler looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"How is all this family stuff going to help me against Voldemort-"

"Potter." Butler interrupted him. "Names do have power, Potter, no matter what the Headmaster says. There is magic in a name."

Harry shook his head stubbornly. "His name is Voldemort, and it only makes people more afraid to refer to him by some fake name."

Butler stared across the table at him for a moment. "Very well," he finally said. "I doubt I can change your mind." He waited until he seemed to realize that Harry was waiting for him. "Oh, right. Your question." He paused. "I understand completely. It is totally understandable that, being who you are, you would be totally focused on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But you should not - must not make the mistake of believing that he is the only evil in the world." He waved a hand as Harry opened his mouth to speak. "Of course, he is the most evil right now, yes.

"But there are other evils in the world, Potter. There are evils that have become such a part of the world that most live and die without noticing them." Marcus shrugged. "I know people like you, Harry. You get so caught up in one injustice that you miss the ones happening right around you. You have gotten so caught up in fighting him that you've forgotten about all the other problems in the world you claim to be defending.

"Do you actually pay attention in History of Magic, Potter? The Goblins don't run the largest bank in Wizarding England because they want to, they do it because it's the only avenue left to them, Potter. Those axes and those toothless grins are from a culture thousands of years old, one that once spanned all the way from Kamchatka to Gibraltar, and now all that's left is a single clan, the one that was lucky enough to have a skill that fit with the human economy - hoarding money. One clan out of a score survived because it was better than the others at hoarding money. And you read - no, you're told to read the assigned pages on the Goblin Rebellions in the textbook, which tell you all about how the evil goblins tried to upset the natural boundaries of our civilization by maiming and murdering innocents - they feed you this bullshit every day, and when two students in an entire generation questions it that's considered to be a lot."

Butler paused, giving Harry a little time to absorb, wide-eyed, the sudden burst from the aged wizard. When only a few moments had passed, Marcus continued. "You ever heard of elves? I'm not talking about house-elves - they're not actually elves at all. The real elves, you know, tall skinny, pointy ears? No. I didn't think you would have. No one's met one in six hundred years - might as well be extinct, for all the likelihood any human will meet one. In fact, maybe they are extinct. We don't know. And we did it, Potter. The wizards. You don't hear much about it, but when the good wizards like you were busy fighting those wizards who openly used the dark arts, who claimed to be dark wizards, the wizards who never really thought about light and dark but didn't much like elves did so much damage in just a few generations that the elves took their wisdom and their grace and fled.

"You think the bridge trolls came about just to manage the Troll Tolls, Potter? You think their idea of a good time is to spend every night sleeping under a bridge and every day inside a booth putting sickles into slots? You think the gargoyles were created tamed?"

The grey-haired professor sat back for a moment, apparently catching his breath. Harry's anger almost delivered him into a second rage at the Professor, but he realized abruptly that he had never thought about any of that before. He remained seated, stunned; he had begun to notice the injustices two years ago, and he had noticed a few since then, but he had never given it any thought - he had ignored Hermione's House-Elf Freedom thing

"I want you to think about this, Potter. If you're content to destroy the Dark Lord and then fade away, living some life of obscurity or dying on the spot, then you come back here in a few days and you tell me you have considered it and think that saving the world once is enough for you, then I'll believe you. I'll leave you alone. But if you're willing to trust me, Potter, and you're willing to spend your life fighting injustice - and it will be a hard life, believe me - fighting injustice so deeply ingrained in the wizarding culture that only a handful of people recognize it exists at all and you're willing to do it because you're one of two wizards in the world that could-"

"Who's the other?"

"The Headmaster, Potter. But he's already made plain his decision, and I'm sorry to say that his decision was not what I would have liked. As I was saying before you interrupted, come talk to me in a few days. Tell me your answer. We can save the world, you and I."

A/N: I know that this chapter is rather shorter than the others, but I just couldn't ignore that stopping point. I'm probably going to make the other chapters shorter from now on, so as to be able to get them out faster. Sorry.

Starry: Butler was created entirely out of his head. I admit that a few of his character traits were adopted from myself, but I liked the idea of the dignified, rich professor. Plus he has certain other character traits that will be very important in the future.