I don't own Harry Potter or any part of the franchise, just this story and others I've published. I am sorry it's taken so long to update this story, but I am hoping to update more frequently - bad excuse, I know, but I am hopeful to upload more. In any case, in this short story, everything ends since Harley takes a totally different path compared to the one Harry did in canon. I've moved things along for her to reach Hogwarts.
Please let me know what you think.
Harley Potter: The Black Cat.
Harley sat alone in the small cot she had placed in the empty classroom, so she could keep as far away from the rest of the school as she could. Ever since she had been on the streets, moving from one place to another, Harley had learnt the wisdom of moving from one place to another and sleeping wherever she could find a place to kip; when she had moved into the foster home, she had actually felt a little uncomfortable without a preplanned place to doss if she needed to, and when she had come to Hogwarts, she'd felt the same. So it wasn't long before she had found a number of deserted classrooms which hadn't seen students traipsing through the doors and learning different forms of magic.
Really, the school made it very easy to hide in.
Hogwarts was a vast school, and so even if they mounted a search for her then it would take time for them to decide where to begin their search, and since Dumbledore used the portraits to spy on the school and let him have all of that knowledge of what was going on, Harley had needed to learn spells that would mask her presence; the invisibility cloak was great and all, but realistically there were more versatile means of becoming invisible. It was during one of her routine trips around the place that she discovered the classroom she was currently residing in. Once upon a time, the castle had thousands of different subjects or taught different branches of the core subjects which were taught today but under the expertise of different professors. Not anymore, no, now the school had gradually crunched down on those more advanced topics, and now the classrooms were all but abandoned. When Harley had come into the castle, she had seen the place as something new to explore, and when she had found these classrooms like the one she had moved into, a world of possibility opened up. After she'd cleaned the place out, put in a small bed, she'd found a second place to live in case anything happened with her relationship with the Gryffindors.
Harley had done this after the Gryffindors had turned on her when McGonagall, out of the blue, had taken away 160 points off her for something she hadn't even done, and the Gryffindors had turned their backs on her. At first, she had imagined it was something to do with what she had done to Snape although she hadn't expected the teachers to be that petty, although realistically in a school run by a man who treated the castle and the students inside as a social experiment, that was unsurprising.
Last year, when she had first taken her potions class, Harley had had to endure an hour and a half of Snape's vitriol. As the months had passed, little things were dropped, insults and digs about her and her father, but mostly about her father. With each insult, Harley had grown angrier and angrier, and she had used a number of magical recording methods to record it all to gather evidence against Snape. She had tried to tell McGonagall to deal with him, but the useless woman hadn't done a thing.
So she had taken the law into her own hands and gone over their heads. She had contacted Amelia Bones, Rufus Scrimgeour, Barty Crouch senior after she had spent a month researching the possible people who could force Dumbledore to rein the unpleasant bastard in even though Dumbledore was a major part of the problem given how he had been protecting Snape all this time. Many had complained about the unpleasant potions master over the years, and Dumbledore had used his power and influence to protect Snape, but what she didn't understand was why Dumbledore didn't rein him in; covering up the complaints must have taken a lot of the old man's power and political influence, not to mention his time, so why did Dumbledore not stop Snape from going too far? It made no sense.
Harley had an enjoyable week when Snape suddenly found himself under the scrutiny of Amelia Bones, Rufus Scrimgeour, and Barty Crouch senior, and there was nothing Dumbledore could do. The old wizard had found himself assaulted not only with the power of three powerful magical politicians, but also with the evidence Harley had been gathering, and not only from her but she had also visited some of the other students.
Dumbledore hadn't been able to stop the trio from making Snape pay the price, although he had tried to force her to stop what she was doing, she had refused. She made it clear her parents died saving her life, there was no way she was going to let a hateful, bitter little man bring her down. She had also exposed the nasty cracks in the Hogwarts system, how McGonagall was a useless professor who caused more trouble than she was worth, turning away students who needed hope.
McGonagall hadn't liked it.
And she was not the only one. Hermione Granger had gone out of her way to attack her for her actions that made Harley wonder if Snape and McGonagall were her parents with the way she demanded Harley just submit to Snape and McGonagall. The number of times the stupid girl had told her to submit… it made Harley wonder how on Earth she had thought she and Granger could have been friends. The pair of them were both interested in books, and what was the only way they were similar. Hermione was insecure, but she was ignorant of her insecurities. Harley had thought they could be friends, and she might have been able to coax somebody different out of that shell.
Unfortunately, she was wrong. She had quickly grown to despise Hermione for her own self. She was not intelligent, no she just read books and vomited it all. She was incredibly impatient. She hated it whenever somebody else answered a question right in a classroom and she would glare at them in disgust like they had murdered her family. But Hermione had been in the potions classroom and she had witnessed Snape's behaviour every single time, so why would she try to get her to submit to the bastard? Did she really think she was going to sit back and take the abuse?
But that was nothing compared to how Granger and Weasley had forced her into the protection of the Philosopher's Stone mess. They had taken her down into the part of the school that was long since disused - she had no idea what that part of the castle had been used for centuries ago, and frankly, as long as she never saw the place again, it would be too soon. But she would never have gotten into that mess despite her own private investigations into what was going on if not for McGonagall.
McGonagall had put her in detention, taking so many points off of her, and she had forced her into detention in the Forbidden Forest where she encountered Voldemort who was using Qurriell to drain the blood from unicorns. If she ever needed to have proof beyond everything she knew and what she'd experienced from the evil bastard that Voldemort was one of the most unpleasant and evil people whom he had ever met, Harley didn't know what would do. When she had seen that unicorn, she had seen a beautiful, majestic creature who'd joined the legions of beings and people murdered by Voldemort.
But this year… Harley folded her arms to comfort herself as much as she could while she went over everything that had happened so far. Halloween was one of the biggest banes of her existence, and she was now convinced the whole stupid day and night was definitely cursed to be against her, and she cursed her own whereabouts in the castle at the time. She hated to admit it, but perhaps Dobby the House elf was right - he might not have thought through everything he had done so far in keeping her away from Hogwarts; it would have taken more than stealing her letters to keep her away from the school, and besides Dumbledore would not have allowed her to be kept away - and Hogwarts was dangerous.
Ever since the barrier between Platform Nine and Three Quarters had been sealed and Harley had needed to rely on the Knight Bus to get her to the castle and it had been a trip that had made her violently ill, but nothing serious had come out of it for her (Ron Weasley hadn't counted since she had refused to go off with him in that flying car of his) although she had alerted the magical authorities about the sealed barrier, she had become more and more concerned by the lengths Dobby was willing to go to keep her away from the castle. There was no doubt in her mind the stupid elf was behind the attempts but she wished he would drop clues about why instead of constantly trying to batter himself with a rolling pin or something. But while she felt his heart was in the right place, Harley also felt Dobby had been bruised and battered so many times, he had lost some brain cells along the way.
During Halloween, Harley had been holding a kind of vigil in one of the towers - the school rules stated students had to attend the Halloween feast, but she had decided to ignore it, in any case, if anyone asked then she would tell them the truth - and she'd decided to hold a remembrance for her parents. She had lit a couple of candles in remembrance of her parents, and she talked to herself and to them as if they were there, it was a habit she had picked up after she had hidden in a cemetery once and she'd overheard a young woman speaking to her deceased mother. The technique actually worked in holding back her grief over the loss of her parents now she knew and understood the truth of their deaths.
Unfortunately, the Halloween curse had held true. She had been found dangerously near the site where Filch's mangy cat Mrs Norris was hanging by her tail from a torch sconce with the message THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE! And she had become the prime suspect even though she had sworn blind she wasn't involved. Unfortunately, not many people believed her, and things became hostile again until she had sworn a magically binding oath she hadn't had anything to do with it.
It seemed to have done the trick. But as more and more people were attacked, and that moron Lockhart set up that Duelling Club and her parseltongue ability was revealed, everyone had forgotten about her oath and believed she was a dark witch who wanted to purge the school of muggle-borns.
She hadn't even known speaking to snakes had that kind of stigma. If she had then she wouldn't have said a word, but with that parasite Malfoy there and the snake angered by Lockhart, she had given in to her desperation so it wouldn't bite her. If she had known parseltongue was seen as evil, then Harley would have found another way, but she had been desperate to keep the agitated serpent away from her.
Harley had moved out of Gryffindor tower and she had come to one of the places in the school far from the rest of the students when they'd begun attacking her. Gryffindors, as a rule, were light-sided witches and wizards, anyone exhibiting even the slightest dark form of magic was ostracised, and Harley was no exception. What surprised her the most was just how insanely stupid her so-called housemates were.
They knew she defended muggleborns out of reverence for her mother's memory, so why would she attack them now? In any case, if she had really wanted to attack them, why in the name of hell would she advertise it was her? Did they honestly think she was stupid enough to do that? Harley honestly hoped Hogwarts was not looked into for intelligent forms of life by passing aliens, because if they saw events like that, they would likely warp back home and tell their people humans were nothing more than barely evolved microbes. She certainly felt they were stupid.
It wasn't just the students. McGonagall was looking at her as if she was the most disgusting thing she had ever laid eyes on, but since the old bag's opinion meant nothing to her, Harley paid it no heed. Some of the other Heads of House were more neutral, Flitwick, especially although Harley, had gotten the impression whenever she had seen the little professor he wanted to do something, but the pain in his features always told Harley he could not do a thing. Still, the thought he would like to interfere was heartwarming to her. Unfortunately, Flitwick's enlightened attitude was not shared in the least with his colleagues. McGonagall believed she was guilty, and Harley guessed it was because of the stupid Gryffindor belief in the light, Sprout she could understand given one of the victims was a Hufflepuff muggle-born, and Snape hated her still but there was nothing he could do even in this environment.
Harley sighed, idly stroking her cat, Trouble who purred in her arms. The young cat had grown quite a bit over the past year and a bit. Harley had found Trouble as a kitten, abandoned just outside Brighton itself on the road after somebody had just dumped him on the side. Harley had been jogging by later, and she had heard the terrified kitten yowling his head off. She had taken him back to the foster home although he had slowed her down before she had gone into the Marina and called the foster home to send someone with a car to pick her up. It hadn't taken much to persuade the people running the place if she could keep him, and Trouble had been with her ever since.
She was glad she had managed to get the cat away from Gryffindor since there were likely more than a few extreme students who would kill the cat out of some hotheaded desire to cause her pain and to punish her for being 'dark.' It would not be the first time somebody had attacked Trouble, especially in Gryffindor. Well, she refused to allow it to happen again. The only problem that she had at the moment was ensuring nobody found her cat and hurt him. If anybody did then Harley would go mad, but it would not be the first time the magical world had acted first without using its collective brain.
Harley blew out a breath. She didn't want to be in Hogwarts anymore. The school was becoming increasingly dangerous, and although she was still a second year, if this was what it was going to be for the next six years then she wanted nothing to do with the school. It was just her luck that this year students would be petrified by 'Slytherin's monster' and she was blamed for it because she could speak to snakes. If she had known about what was coming for this year, then she would never have come back. Dobby had known or at least he would have had some idea, but of course, the stupid elf had not said a word. No, all he had done was repeat the same thing over and over again; "The Great Harley Potter must not attend school! Hogwarts not be safe for Harley Potter!"
It looked like Dobby was right.
But what was she going to do? Running away was certainly an option for her. She knew, despite what some liked to believe, Dumbledore was not her magical guardian. She knew the old wizard had said he was in public, which of course made the weak-minded people in the magical world believe him, but in truth, Hartley did not have a guardian. Lily had made sure of that. In the event of her death, by the time Harley was around the age of nine, she was to be emancipated. Lily had secretly arranged it before she and dad had gone into hiding, which meant Harley had a weapon of her own to spite Albus Dumbledore. She didn't want to use it unless she had no choice. Harley knew she had two options, the first option she had was to simply run away, but that wasn't her style unless she felt she had no alternative.
The next was to simply confront the problem head-on. The only problem she had with the second option was simple; she didn't know what the end result was going to be, but the good thing was she knew how to go about it. She kissed her cat's head, and she snuggled under the blankets.
XXX
The moment she walked into the Great Hall, all of Harley's bad thoughts and feelings rose. She might have known timing her arrival when the Great Hall was at its busiest during the breakfast rush, but she had not wanted to feel this unsafe. The moment everyone in the hall noticed her presence, she felt very worried for her own wellbeing. Already everyone was muttering about her, some of the bolder students were now muttering death threats towards her and Trouble (she was relieved she had put her cat in her book bag under a sleeping spell for the day), but she ignored them as she walked up to the Staff Table.
"Miss Potter, what are you doing?" McGonagall asked, her face becoming even more pinched as she surveyed the young witch before her. Inwardly Harley wondered what would shock the arrogant transfiguration teacher more, what she (Harley) was about to do, or the fact what she thought Lily had respected her. Lily might have respected McGonagall's knowledge, unfortunately, that was as far as it was going to go. When Voldemort rose to power, spreading his poison along the way, none of the teachers had really bothered to mitigate or stop the chaos. A few of the professors had been concerned and had done their best to prevent the worst of it, but they had their hands tied by Dumbledore for reasons Lily had never understood, although she guessed much of it was political.
McGonagall hadn't done anything, believing Dumbledore's rhetoric about everything being under control. She had turned away a few muggle-born Gryffindors - members of her own damn house - who'd begged for help after they were threatened with rape. The outcome was the pureblood's who had threatened them had carried out their threat until Harley's mother came across them and sent all three of the pureblood's to the hospital wing although she had kept out of the way. Lily had gone into a rage and while McGonagall might have forgotten the event, Lily hadn't. And since that day until the day she'd died, Lily Potter would rather have died than rely on McGonagall for help. Unfortunately for the ageing transfiguration teacher, that applied to Harley as well.
Harley ignored the woman and she stood to the side of the staff table while keeping everyone in sight. Fortunately, everyone was paying attention to her.
She pressed her wand to her throat, "Hello, everyone. I've got something to tell you! I, Harley Lillian Potter, do hereby swear on my life and on my magic, I did not open the Chamber of Secrets nor did I set any monster on the school despite the opinions of the morons in this school. So mote it be!"
Harley dropped her hand and she lit the tip of her wand, attracting the attention of the more intelligent students in the Hall with how she had cast the spell non-verbally, and how brightly she'd lit the tip of the wand.
"You people never fail to amaze me," Harley sneered as she once more pressed the tip of her wand against her throat, "why don't you just slow down and think? Stop using your mouths and start using your stupid brains, give them a fucking chance for once!"
"Miss Potter!" McGonagall jumped to her feet, but Harley gave the woman the attention and the respect she deserved which was zero. She ignored the transfiguration mistress and carried on with her rant.
"Why would I tell everyone I was attacking students in the first place? Are you stupid? It certainly seems that way to me. My mother was a muggle-born, why would I attack people like that? I live in the muggle world despite what some of you like to delude yourselves into thinking, but I know more about muggle-culture than any of you. I've seen the light and dark sides to it. I had to live with muggles who abused me for the first few years of my life. If you don't believe me…"
With that Harley yanked the top of her robes off and pulled up her blouse to show off the whip marks which were fading with the aid of magical healing salves. She smirked inwardly when she caught sight of the horrified expressions of the students as well as the staff, and she heard a few of the teachers try to get her attention, even if she hated the fact she was revealing something she would rather keep to herself, but their reactions made it worth it. But Harley didn't care. They had done this, they had pushed her, on and on and on while they'd refused to do anything to stop it. What did they think was going to happen? She didn't care how the students or the teachers took this. She didn't care what the outcry was. And she certainly did not give a toss what Dumbledore did. It was past time the old fool was knocked out of his lofty tower, and it was high time McGonagall finally woke up.
"I got these scars from my muggle uncle who, like his fucked up wife, hate magic despite the headmaster of this school saying otherwise. What would he know? I doubt he's even spoken to my muggle relatives in his life! But if I did hate muggles, I would just stop with them and people like them. I don't give a damn where anyone in this school is from. What does it matter if somebody is muggle-born or not? Well, many of you, including the teachers come to think about it, certainly do. Why else are the muggle-born victims in the Hospital Wing still in a coma? If it were a pureblood student, they'd be awake by now! Come on, grow up; this is as stupid as the house stereotypes. I hope you find some other scapegoat for this year's mess because I am done with this."
Harley lowered her wand and she walked away from the staff table, ignoring the sounds of the teachers trying to call her back. She didn't care what they wanted; they had nothing to say to her that she wanted to particularly hear when it was their job to make sure the school didn't spiral out of control. Using her wand, Holly managed to stop any of the students from touching her as she walked past, and she ignored them as they tried to beg for forgiveness but she couldn't find it within herself to give them any after the things they'd said and done. As she walked out of the hall, she walked to her lessons.
XXX
It was after dinner she got the summons. Dumbledore wished to speak with her. As soon as she heard them from Dumbledore's Patronus message given how she was still eating in the kitchens in the company of the House-elves of the castle who would not tell a soul where she was thanks to it being layered in with the castle's spells, Harley prepared herself for the inevitable confrontation. It was telling Dumbledore had used the patronus since the old fool didn't know where she was in the castle.
Personally, Harley was unsurprised she was given the summons in the first place since she had publicly denounced the school in front of everyone in the Great Hall. As long as Dumbledore was being rational with his summons and this meeting was built on rational ground, Harley didn't imagine it going too badly although she wasn't entirely certain.
After she was finished, Harley thanked the House-elves, and she headed up to the Headmaster's office. As soon as she was close to the Griffin statue that guarded the office, Harley shook her head. She wondered if the Founders of the school had been the ones who had designed the Headmaster's office in this way, and at the same time, she wondered what they were thinking if it was them since a Headmaster should be approachable. But Dumbledore was not.
She didn't care.
Harley stood coldly before the statue. "Bounty," she said clearly, inwardly wondering about Dumbledore's fixation on sweets; to somebody really thick, the choice of confectionary indicated a mad old man, but for her, Harley wondered if the old wizard wanted to set up some kind of illusion to make everyone believe he was a few pumpkins short of a whole pie.
The Griffin statue began to rise and Harley jumped onto the steps as it slowly went high into the tower. As soon as the statue guardian stopped, the door instantly opened. Harley raised a brow at that. Dumbledore was definitely not playing one of his games today. Good, she was not in the mood for them either. The moment she walked into the office, she saw the Heads of House were there, too. Whatever this meeting was going to be about it was going to be serious, but Harley didn't know what was going to happen in the few moments.
"Ah, Miss Potter, please take a seat," Dumbledore sounded and even looked like his advanced years. Harley eyed him carefully, wondering what had been happening since the last time she had spoken to the old wizard to put him into this state; the last time she had seen him was when she had been sitting isolated during meals, and he had looked happy, his eyes twinkling as if he had seen a rather amusing comedy. If he was enjoying her plight, Dumbledore was a deeply petty old man.
"I wish to speak to you about the magical oath you took in the Great Hall," Dumbledore began, taking a deep breath as he visibly tried to regain some of his composure, "and I wish to apologise for not getting involved in how you were accused of committing these attacks."
Harley didn't believe him for an instant. Oh, he was likely saying all of this for the more naive of his professors, and Harley did not doubt for an instant the rest of the school knew about this meeting given how it was told to her in a public place it was going to happen. Some of the students probably got the idea in their heads the teachers were going to apologise to her, and everything was gonna be hunky-dory. But it was not going to happen.
She decided to get some answers to one of the questions which had been on her mind for some time.
"You want me to forgive you, but do you mind explaining to me why in the name of sanity every time I looked your way during mealtimes, you looked like you were enjoying seeing me isolated? You're not as subtle as you might think, Professor. I saw the way you were looking straight at me, your eyes twinkling away…."
"Miss Potter! Do not ever accuse the Headmaster of enjoying the display of bullying! Why, why is it you deliberately cause chaos so then you can enjoy it. Your parents would be ashamed of you!" McGonagall burst out, unable to control herself. However, she quickly realised she had made a fatal mistake, one which Harley saw registered in the faces of Flitwick and Sprout, who were both staring at their colleagues in shock and disgust, although the looks they sent to McGonagall were disbelief that she would say anything like that.
However, Snape was enjoying the display a little too much to take note. "It is as I've said, time and time again. Potter is as arrogant and as spoilt as her father!"
Nobody expected Harley's reaction to that. She began to laugh. It started out slowly as a low giggle before it became a belly laugh. "Fascinating!" Harley giggled while everyone looked on, surprised by the reaction to Snape's insult before she turned maliciously towards the two professors, "You both seem to think I know what my parents were like and what they wanted, when in fact I don't. Oh, judging from what you've both said, its like you think I'm in touch with them from the other side! You're both so finite, it's pathetic!"
"Potter-!"
All humour fled Harley as she glared at Snape. "I know what happened between you and my mother, Professor," she uttered the man's title with contempt like she didn't think Snape had earned it while she sent him a chilly look which prevented even the slightest hint of an argument. "I know you called her a m-u-d-b-l-o-o-d when she was merely trying to help you, but did you really think Lily would ever really love you? She knew you were part of the Death Eater movement in Hogwarts, and while she tried to still be your friend, my mother was not naive or stupid enough to think you were wholly innocent. She began to realise what sort of person you really were when you began helping the Junior Death Eaters who were let off with more slaps on the wrist when they should have been strung up from the nearest trees attack the muggle-borns. How many times did you curse other kids who were younger than you, justifying it was because they reminded you of your own father? You're pathetic, my mother would have dated a weakling like you!"
Snape leapt to his feet, his face livid with rage. Harley mentally sneered at the display although she was a little worried she might have pushed him too far even as Sprout and Flitwick took out their wands in case Snape was arrogant enough to think he could cross the line. Insulting students and acting like an unprofessional dickhead was one thing, but if he attacked students, then they would be within their rights to fight back. One look towards McGonagall and Dumbledore made Harley want to tear them apart.
They had both listened and watched the display and yet they looked completely unsure of what to do now. Not once had the pair of them said anything to stop what she was saying to Snape, but then again neither of them had stopped Snape from saying those insults about her dead father. The very sight of the two heads of the school looking unsure of what to do when one of their own colleagues and workmates was displaying unprofessional, and threatening behaviour towards a student just for speaking back when he had insulted her first only proved to Harley how incompetent these two were out of their comfort zones.
They were good teachers, there was no doubt about that but they should not receive any responsibility above teaching. That was it. As head of house and headteacher, they were useless.
"Don't even think about it, Severus!" Flitwick warned the angry potions master, his expression dark. "If you raise so much as a finger towards her, you will regret it!"
"And if you do you will have gone too far, Severus!" Sprout's earth-encrusted face was frowning in anger and distaste. "By Merlin! I've had to deal with your behaviour for a long time now, I've had to speak to Albus here to stop you from going too far but he keeps saying he trusts you so I can't do as much as I would like to. I hope you are going to do something to mitigate this properly this time, Albus," the Herbology professor glanced at Dumbledore, who was still unresponsive and unsure of what was going on, "it would have been very bad if you attacked Miss Potter, not only because she is a student but because of her status in our community. And since you keep defending him it would be bad news if you protected him this time if he had attacked Miss Potter."
Snape was calming down but the look he sent towards Harley told everyone he was going to make her pay for this.
Flitwick had obviously realised neither Dumbledore nor McGonagall was going to say or do anything about this, so he decided to move things along while at the same time he wanted to assuage his curiosity. "How did you know about that incident?" He asked Harley curiously. He and the rest of the staff themselves knew about it thanks to the rumour network in the castle, but since it had already happened there was little they could have done although it was just another show of Dumbledore's blatant favouritism towards the Gryffindors and lack of real care towards the Slytherins.
As much as Flitwick wanted to say otherwise, he did have to admit Snape was half right; James had been arrogant, and so to were some of his friends who had believed themselves on top of the world with where they were in the castle. But while James had been a brilliant student he was an example of everything wrong with Gryffindor and truthfully he had been worried when James had married Lily; while the two had meshed later on although there were signs of some kind of connection beforehand even if Lily had been repulsed by James' arrogance, Flitwick had worried about what James would do later.
But at the same time Flitwick would have to be blind not to notice the way Severus Snape as a teenager had been interested in Lily, but it wasn't a kind, pure love despite what Dumbledore might have thought - the old wizard believed all love was identical, but it wasn't - no, it was darker than that. Lust.
Desire.
Flitwick had wondered and worried what sort of things Snape would do if given the chance, because he remembered Severus Snape as an arrogant boy who strutted around the school, believing himself to be better because of his intellect and his brilliance in defence and potions. That was his biggest weakness, really, his arrogance. Snape was so sure he was better than everyone else around him because he was Severus Snape, and while he had the skills and the abilities to back up that arrogance, even Flitwick was not denying his 'colleague' was a brilliant wizard, more brilliant than that fool, Lockhart. But he was also deeply unpleasant in appearance and attitude. And nobody had said or done a thing to make the potions master grow up.
He was curious about how Harley even knew so much, especially about Severus' father since it had struck a nerve with the bitter, petty man.
"My mother left diaries," Harley replied, telling the truth; while Lily had 'downloaded' her memories and her experiences into Harley's mind, she had still left diaries detailing other moments for posterity, knowing her descendants would like to know their history. Sadly Lily was the only one to do it since James had arrogantly believed he would live forever, "I found out about them on a return trip to Diagon Alley. I wanted to know more about the magical world and I needed help in tracking down her things."
"You should not have done that," everyone in the office turned to face Dumbledore, who was speaking once more, "you don't know what could have been in those diaries, or even if your mother even put them inside a vault-."
"I found them in Gringotts, stupid. The goblins would never let anyone who was somebody else visit someone else's vault. In any case, why would anyone impersonate a witch and plant diaries into their vault? How would they even get past the goblins' security system?" Harley interrupted, gazing icily at Dumbledore as if daring him to contradict her although everyone in the room knew the goblins would execute anyone who tried to impersonate one of their customers. It was one of the few rights they'd been allowed by the Ministry, although there was plenty of evidence to suggest the Ministry would intervene if they thought the accused by an innocent bystander who was in fact a pureblood under a controlling curse.
Flitwick, himself of goblin descent, eyed Dumbledore as well after he saw the glint in Harley's eye which said this had nothing to do with some fictional impersonator when he damn well knew what the goblins would do if someone even dared to impersonate a customer who owned a vault. He was convinced this was just another show of him trying to control and meddle in Miss Potters' life, but he would be interested to see if he thought he could get away with it.
Albus Dumbledore had grown too big. It would be good for him to wake up and realise reality for the first time in a long time. If he didn't then Dumbledore would not like the consequences.
"At least let me have a look at them," Dumbledore said after a moment where he was visibly trying to think of a way he could appeal to her without looking bad.
Harley lifted a brow. "My mother birthed me. She gave her life to protect me, and I was orphaned. I know nothing about her despite some telling me my parents wouldn't want me to do this or do that, thinking I actually care when it's my own life. Those diaries are like holy texts for me. Why on Earth would I part with them? Why would I give them to a headmaster who abandoned me to a family of filthy muggles, a headmaster I neither like nor trust?"
She knew what Dumbledore was trying to do, even if she knew she needed to be careful about how insulting she was being towards the Headmaster and his staff, but they were making it not only easy for her, it was irresistible. Harley did not give a damn right now, but she did care about the diaries. Ever since she had arrived in the castle, Harley had been hearing censored accounts about her parents like everything about them was to be kept a state secret. She knew Dumbledore had ordered it, although truthfully she didn't understand why he was going to such lengths.
She was silent as she tried to work out why Dumbledore was doing it.
Scenario One - Dumbledore had worked out her mother hadn't been as ignorant as she had let on - Lily had found a conveniently placed book on blood magic in her home a few weeks before Voldemort's attack, and while she would have read it and discovered the best way to cast the counter curse to the curse which would be aimed at her and Harley, Lily was not stupid and would have been suspicious especially the bit marked in the book which described sacrifice powered shields. Dumbledore must have known it was a risk, and he was trying to ensure if Lily had written anything down had survived so he could destroy it at his leisure.
Scenario Two - Dumbledore was afraid of Harley learning anything more advanced than what she currently knew, and he believed Lily had secreted books on magic in the vault. In a way, he was right, although Lily had been smart enough to not leave things in plain sight.
Scenario Three - Simple control. Dumbledore wanted to be viewed by Harley as a grandfatherly figure, although it wouldn't have happened regardless of whether or not she found those letters in Arabella Figg's place (a part of her wondered if Dumbledore had worked out she had known about the magical world for longer than he would have liked, but as long as she didn't let on and keep her eyes averted from him, he shouldn't find out no matter how nosy he was); she had been escaping on the streets, to a world where trust was non-existent unless you were really stupid. She had learnt that lesson quickly. But it would not occur to Dumbledore even if he had been planning to reinforce spells on her on the same night she had escaped, he would still see her as a little kid who was clueless instead of streetwise.
Harley was uncertain which scenario was the truth. All of them were good in their own way, although she was curious to see which one it was.
"I would just like to check on them, to make sure they haven't been tampered with-," Dumbledore explained with a smile while his pathetic explanation explained nothing.
"How would they have been tampered with? Why would they have been tampered with?" Harley was now willing to bet it was all of the scenarios now, and if Dumbledore seriously thought she would part with them then he would be in for a shock. The only way he could get hold of them was by going to her dorm and summoning them. The only problem was the diaries were not in Hogwarts. They were inside Lily's vault. When Harley had gotten rid of Hagrid, she had gone back to the goblins and gained entry to the vault - as the only other next of kin, she had more leeway than others - and she had gotten hold of the diaries and she had read them voraciously. While she had her mother's memories, it was still good to read them slowly from a book instead of getting them all at once.
"Why am I here?" She decided to change the subject, although if the old wizard did indeed go to her dorm where they thought she was still residing instead of the classroom she was actually staying in or got one of his minions to do the dirty work for him then they were going to be disappointed. At the same time it would give her proof Dumbledore was resorting to espionage to get what he wanted.
Dumbledore's expression showed he was not happy about being denied the diaries, but she could see he was going to do what she expected him to do. "Ah yes, your oath in front of the school…"
"What about it?" Harley didn't care about the interruption seeing as how Dumbledore and his cronies were trying to pry into her own affairs. "You had no intention of getting involved when your primary responsibility is for the care and wellbeing of the students. You were all content on sitting on your collective backsides and not stopping the accusation. Hell, some of you looked like you were enjoying the whole fiasco!"
That really annoyed her.
Hogwarts was supposed to be one of the greatest schools of magic in the world, you would think the teachers were top-notch, professional… but besides a few exceptions, it seemed all you needed to be a professor was knowledge in the subject without any real skill in teaching it to students. Snape was a prime example. That was one of the things which made it bad enough, unfortunately, the clincher was how Dumbledore and the staff never helped anyone, and right now they had shown signs of a gambler complex where they placed bets on whether a student (her) was going to live or die.
She hated them for it.
"Miss Potter-."
"Do you know how many times I've received death threats? Not only towards myself, but to my own cat from the extremists in this castle? I didn't even know parseltongue was a taboo, but if I had known I wouldn't have said a word in that language," Harley snarled, getting angrier and angrier and worked up as this was going on.
She knew she had to calm down. Ever since she had left the Dursleys and was finally able to express herself, Harley had discovered she could lose her temper more easily. But this time was worse because not only was she and her cat being threatened, the teachers actually seemed to be enjoying it. If this carried on, they were not only going to regret it, but they would, if she were lucky and she played her cards right, find themselves in prison for child endangerment.
From what she'd heard about Azkaban, it would be the most unpleasant experience in their lives although if they ever learnt from their mistakes, Harley did not know and frankly, she did not care.
"Death threats?" McGonagall sounded lost, and Harley had to close her eyes at the sound of the useless transfiguration teacher's voice and question. Surely she had made it bloody clear how things were spiralling out of control? Either McGonagall was incredibly blind, or she was just oblivious to everything outside of her own little bubble.
"Dear God," Harley shook her head, a sneer curling on her lips while she ripped out a handful of pieces of parchment she had collected over the last few days (it was an effort not to wake up Trouble). "What is it like in your funny little brains? It must be so great being so blind and boring at the same time!"
She passed them to Professor Flitwick. He seemed to have his brain wired in properly. The little professor took the sheets of parchment and sped read through them, his expression transforming from grave to enraged within moments. He lifted his eyes and glared so strongly at Dumbledore and McGonagall, Harley was reminded of the look of a goblin whenever they encountered someone unpleasant.
"This is not a game, Albus!" Flitwick's normally perky disposition was long since gone. Now he was angry.
"Now, Filius-."
"No!" He passed them to Sprout and to McGonagall, while he glared at her with contempt. "She is meant to be your student, one of your own House! Yet you don't seem to care about her wellbeing!"
Dumbledore didn't take any of the sheets. He just sat there serenely. "I am sure none of the students meant it, Harley my dear girl," he smiled condescendingly at her, "I am sure it was just a prank-."
"A PRANK!" Harley couldn't help but shriek at him. She snatched out of her backpack a few sheets of parchment, and read off it. "'You evil dark witch! If we see you and your cat, we will put you to death!'" She moved on to another. "'Your parents couldn't have killed their mistress in the crib, but we're not your parents, bitch. You're gonna die soon!'" She lifted her gaze, but Dumbledore looked unmoved. The fact he cared so much for his students' health was heartwarming.
"You're not going to do anything, are you?" She asked, gazing at the old wizard with the contempt he deserved. "That meant this whole meeting is a waste of time. I'm not going to back down from my oath, I don't care what you think. This meeting is over."
She snatched the pieces of parchment away from the horrified professors and she moved towards the door, but unfortunately out of the corner of her eye, something black…and it grabbed onto her forearm roughly.
"You're not leaving yet, Potter; while I don't care what you do so long as I don't have to look at you, you have not been given permission to leave-!" Snape was saying before a tired sounding meow echoed.
"What was that?!" Snape demanded, his hand going through Harley's bookbag.
"Get your hands out of there!" Harley shouted, pulling the bag back. But it was too late; Trouble, roused by the noise, and with the sleeping spell long since worn off, had woken up and was poking his head out of her bag curiously.
Snape whipped out his wand and fired off a curse…but it bounced off a shield that sent the spell back towards him. Snape, stunned by the shield and the spell bouncing off it, was thrown back by the force and was sent rocketing across the Headmaster's office where he banged his head against one of the stone walls.
Professor Flitwick was already on his feet while the other teachers were horrified by what their colleague had done, his wand aimed straight at Snape. "What in the name of magic and Merlin were you thinking of you stupid so-called 'ex-Death Eater,' it's bad enough you physically manhandled a student, but to raise your wand to her pet? You really are scum, you strutting bastard?"
Dumbledore had been sitting serenely in his seat, unaffected by everything going on around him while his phoenix had been watching just as unaffected by the events around him, but now the old wizard was coming out of la-la land where he had been doing lord alone knew what in his mind, but in truth he had been watching the events with shock.
"I agree with Filius, Severus," he said, his eyes losing their customary twinkle as he glared down at the dazed Potions Master. "I thought you were mature enough to not do something like this, simply because you do not like a particular student. But you have no right to take things this far! Now, Harley-," the old wizard lifted his gaze to address the girl and to make her see it was only Severus….
But the girl was gone.
XXX
Harley was cradling her cat in her arms in the abandoned classroom they'd adopted as their temporary home after checking him over for any signs of spell damage. After Flitwick had distracted Snape and the teachers, Harley had used the opportunity to escape from the Headmaster's office, shaken and horrified by what had happened. It was bad enough the staff didn't seem to give a damn about her health and mental wellbeing, chocking up the threats she'd received so far to pranks, of all things, but what Snape had tried to do…
She had just left the office, uncaring what they would do as soon as they realised she was no longer there. Her cat could have been killed, all because that son of a bitch, that fucking animal, had just wanted to use a sick chance of getting back at James bloody Potter through his own daughter, and destroying one of the good things in her life!
Granted, Harley had known taking Trouble around the school with her was just asking for trouble, but if she had left him alone anything could have happened. At least with her aware, she would know if somebody was about to harm her cat. But there was no sense behind Snape's attack. There was no doubt in her mind at all he was going to get away with it. Dumbledore never punished anyone, and for some sick reason, the old fucker had given Snape way too much leeway in the past.
She'd had enough.
She was tired of Hogwarts. She wasn't happy here. She wasn't accepted in this fucked up mess of a school where the teachers were allowed to curse their own students and get away with it because they had the Headmaster's favour. She was tired of being a victim here.
Harley did not care at all what Bones or Scrimgeour thought. She didn't give a toss what they did in the aftermath, one thing was for sure…
This was going to be her last night at Hogwarts.
Harley rested her chin on top of Trouble's head. "We're leaving tonight," she whispered to her cat.
She just needed a plan first.