Chapter 4: The Fallout of the Round Robin

The results of the Round Robin are revealed in this chapter.

&&}{&& Scene Change: An Apology and Allies

Professor Snape turned his back on Harry and everyone else in the Great Hall. The wizard ordered an elf to bring him a bottle of fire whiskey and began to drown his sorrows. Headmaster Dumbledore remained on the floor of the Great Hall for the moment, and Harry moved to sit at the Hufflepuff table. The young wizard glanced once at Professor McGonagall who seemed to be in shock, and the other professors. Madam Pomphrey who kept her eye on the trussed up 'Professor Moody', and Hagrid nodded when Harry caught his eye but the man remained beside the unconscious Moody, ready to slam the wizard against the tabletop or wall if he woke up and moved.

The teenager grew tense when he saw Professor Sprout approach him; Harry waited to hear her new abuses. Professor Sprout made it clear she thought Harry was attempting to steal Cedric's moment in the spotlight over the past week. But tonight, when Flitwick's command faded after hearing the terrible answers from Professor Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore, the herbology professor took charge of the Great Hall. After the heads and students from the two visiting schools departed for their sleeping accommodations, she'd directed the four Hogwarts houses back to their dormitories with strict instructions and dire promises of detention for the prefects if they didn't follow her directions to a 't'.

Now she approached the head table again. First, Pomona checked with Poppy about the prisoner, and then she asked Minerva a question but received no response. Ignoring Albus on the floor for the moment, the professor stepped close to Severus and bent down beside his head. Harry could not hear what she said, but he saw the shiver that went through the despicable man's shoulders.

"Will you run Death Eater?" she asked in Snape's ear.

"First, you betray Lily Evans, the woman who was your only friend. You caused her death. You tortured and belittled her son – the only piece of her left in the world. And fool that you are, you followed Tom Riddle and believed Albus Dumbledore's lies!" hissed Pomona. "I'm going to summon the DMLE and you know Amelia Bones will come. Can you imagine what she will do when she sees the memory of tonight's Round Robin?"

Leaning closer, Sprout continued, "There's a cell in Azkaban for you! One where you'll stay for the rest of your life!"

Snape took a deep breath and reached for his wand before realizing the tip of Pomona's wand dug into the side of his neck. He could feel the magic of a Diffindo spell loaded up and ready to chop off his head. The head of Hufflepuff used the spell daily in the greenhouses and he clearly imagined his head rolling across the tabletop in the next two minutes.

"Now, because I don't want anyone to suffer through your confessions and trial, you have ten minutes to depart from the castle with the few belongings you own."

Continuing to hold her wand against his neck, Pomona summoned an elf and asked the helpful creature to go to the dungeons and pack Professor Snape's belongings into a trunk. She added, "Bring the trunk to the castle door in five minutes and let him take it."

She leaned over again and concluded the one-sided conversation, "Run Death Eater! Run! May you never have a moment's rest because the entire world will want you dead."

Without looking at anyone in the Great Hall, Severus Snape rose and ran from the chamber. The elf met him at the castle's main door with the trunk after only three minutes. For one second Snape considered checking the contents but then chose to flee. He shrank the trunk, slipped it into his pocket, and ran for the gates where he could apparate away.

'Gringotts London to get my money…ten minutes if I pay a bribe for faster service,' he decided. 'I'll need pounds to purchase a ticket to Paris. No, I'll use a confundus on the train to hide until I'm in France. Then I can stop and think.'

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After Snape fled the Great Hall, Pomona caught Flitwick's eye. The half-goblin set the still full glass of Scotch Whiskey on the top of the table and levitated himself down to the Ravenclaw table. He turned to Sprout and asked, "Shouldn't we have detained him for the DMLE?"

"No. I told Snape that his trial would only cause people more pain. And with the only future before the rotten man being a cell in Azkaban, I told him to run," the witch explained. Then she glanced at Flitwick and added, "I believe you know many hit wizards and bounty hunters. I am certain someone can offer a suitable reward for the capture of Severus Snape – dead or alive."

"What about Albus?"

"Neither of us are qualified healers nor medi-witches. It's best if he remains on the floor where magic pushed him until a professional can see to his injuries," Pomona replied. "A warming charm won't hurt but otherwise he needs to remain there."

Now the pair turned toward Harry Potter. The boy had remained seated at the Hufflepuff table and appeared harmless to Professor Sprout. However, Flitwick immediately noticed the powerful shield that surrounded the boy and the multiple charms that created sparks at the tips of his fingers.

The charms professor declared, "Pax et salus spondent, Mr Potter. Peace and safety guaranteed."

Harry stared closely for a moment and then allowed the charms queued up on his fingers to dissipate. He nodded his head while listening to Professor Sprout, "Mr Potter, I apologize to you for the last week. I was wrong to think you cheated and worse, I was wrong to allow anyone to treat you badly. I am a professor at this school and each of us must protect students – all the students."

Flitwick added, "I also apologize Mr Potter. I should never have remained quiet about what was going on."

Glancing at McGonagall and Dumbledore, Harry asked, "What happens now?"

"I shall send for the DMLE and Amelia Bones," replied Pomona. This statement caused Dumbledore to groan aloud and drew a grin on Flitwick's face.

The little professor explained, "The fallout will be widespread and interesting, Mr Potter. The Daily Prophet will run extra editions for a week."

From his spot on the floor, Dumbledore whispered, "Close the owlery…no owls tonight or tomorrow."

Not the least bit interested in preventing word of this evening's revelations from spreading through Magical Britain, Pomona asked, "What was that Headmaster Dumbledore? I couldn't hear you."

From her spot at the head table, Poppy Pomphrey said, "He's delirious. Until a healer from Saint Mungo's is able to diagnosis his condition, I won't move, treat, or listen to him."

"Saint Mungo's? Can't you treat him?" asked Flitwick as Pomona's Patronus, a silvery poodle, left with her message for Amelia Bones.

Poppy explained, "Albus refused to give me authority to call anyone at Saint Mungo's for any reason… diseases, injuries, core problems, or curses. After what I saw, I'll bet Dumbledore's core is twisted or torn. Only Saint Mungo's can treat that problem."

"Should I send my Patronus?" asked Flitwick.

Shaking her head, Poppy continued, "It won't leave the castle for Saint Mungo's or any healer. If Albus doesn't contact Saint Mungo's, only an Auror can declare an emergency and send for healers."

"Well, that's stupid!" Flitwick replied as he shook his head at Dumbledore. "I suppose you thought you were invulnerable and nothing would bring you low."

&&}{&& Scene Change: Draco's Confusion

Waiting for Director Amelia Bones and the Aurors to arrive, Harry took a moment to consider his primary opponent at Hogwarts – Draco Malfoy. The Slytherin wizard slept while tied up and glued to the far wall of the Great Hall by Professor Sprout's spells. Harry marveled, 'What do you know? Draco can be silent.'

Beginning with the trip on 1 September, Harry used parseltongue jinxes and charms once a day to keep the other wizard off balance. On the first day of classes, Draco fell asleep during McGonagall's transfiguration lecture. The next, he stumbled on his way into charms class and knock an older Slytherin student against the hallway wall. Then on the third day, Draco misplaced his essay for one of his classes, and on the fourth day, the Malfoy pureblood prince belched loudly during every meal in the Great Hall. Following that pattern, Harry kept Malfoy at bay and the small victories were humorous. The belching cost Draco a bit of social standing in his house while earning detention with Deputy Headmistress McGonagall.

But after Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire, Draco went out of his way to taunt Harry calling him a liar and telling him that he was doomed to die in the tasks. That evening Draco began belching at every meal, every day. He lost all of his homework essays, continually tripped, and fell against other students (earning him many stinging hexes), and he fell asleep continually around the castle.

It was with a gloomy Harry who resigned himself to participating in the Triwizard Tournament. But he decided to use his parseltongue magic to alter the parameters of the games. 'If I have to be a contestant, I'll do my best to embarrass Dumbledork and everyone else.'

The chant that Potter cheated grew old after two days – especially when spread around by his former friend, Ron Weasley, and his nemesis, Draco Malfoy. 'I can't move against Ron,' Harry decided. 'There are too many Weasleys in Gryffindor and Dumbledork might take action to force to take him back as my best friend. Hermione aggravates me sometimes but at least she's honest and helpful with lessons.'

The books about on the Triwizard Tournament arrived and immediately, Harry surrendered two of them to Hermione to read and revise notes while he kept the third book to study. He discovered that the contest had been abandoned because of the high number of deaths among the contestants, judges and audience in the last two gatherings. Contestants died during the tasks or from their wounds. The judges died when they failed to maintain the standards mandated by the Goblet of Fire for fair tasks. And the audience members died when creatures escaped from pens or stadiums and rampaged through the stands.

'Hermione might have to write a terrible new entry for Hogwarts A History before this tournament is over,' Harry decided before handing the book over to Hermione and beginning to revise the notes she'd made from the first two books.

Resigned to participating in the tournament because of the contract penalties, Harry's attention focused on Malfoy, and Harry found the spell in one of the Greek scrolls to force a wizard to tell the truth to a single question.

'That's a waste of time,' decided the teenager after contemplating the use of the spell. Then he found the reference to the power of the Round Robin in one of the parseltongue books from Flourish and Blotts. He finally found the spell in another Greek scroll that he translated to Latin. Using a magical quill and an ancient piece of parchment from the sanctuary, Harry transcribed 'Vi Magus Loqui Verum Semel', folded the parchment and kept it in his pocket at all times.

In DADA class, Professor Moody recommended an obscure textbook with shields and attack spells from three hundred years early. The professor said, "Look at the shields in Chapter 4 and Chapter 7 and give me a foot of parchment on the most powerful one. When the muggles were hunting witches and wizards after they killed their king in the 1640s, these spells saved many good purebloods from the filthy muggles…"

While Professor Moody glared but remained silent, Draco Malfoy declared he would retrieve the book first after class and provide the best essay. The young wizard forbade anyone else from touching the book before he was complete with his review.

Recognizing the title as one Hermione had read, revised, and shared notes from early in October, Harry decided to plant the spell in Draco's hands using the book. After DADA was dismissed, Harry was first out of the classroom and threw on his invisibility cloak. He ran the full length of the castle to reach the library before any of his classmates. He pulled the book off the shelf, removed the parchment from his pocket and then hissed a charm to place a temporary read and translate compulsion on the paper. Next, Harry slid it next to the back cover and replaced it on the shelf with a parseltongue notice-me-not charm in place. Harry remained underneath his cloak and watched when the Ravenclaws, Theo Nott, and Daphne Greengrass looked for the book but they couldn't find it. However, when Malfoy walked by Harry dissipated the notice-me-not and summoned the book off the shelf.

The book Draco sought fell into his hands with the parchment sticking out of the back cover. Once Draco found the parchment and stumbled through a translation, he hurried from the library. Malfoy left the book on the table where it was discovered by interested Slytherins and Ravenclaws as Harry slipped away.

&&}{&& Scene Change: Light Fallout

In Gryffindor Tower that night, Ron Weasley watched and grumbled while his twin brothers played a game of chess against each other with his magical chess set. This broke the enchantment on the board that let him win every game. In another corner of the Common Room, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom pretended to study while actually writing down the details revealed in the Round Robin. Neville composed a letter to his Grandmother and drew out the memory and stored it in a small bottle.

With Hermione watching with some disapproval in her expression, Neville summoned Dobby Elf and sent him to his home to call for Greenie Elf outside the wards. Once the elf popped away, Neville told the girl, "My gran will watch my memory of the Round Robin. She'll raise a stink worse than fresh dragon dung with the minister, Wizengamot, DMLE and Department for Education before lunch tomorrow."

"I don't like that elves are slaves here in Magical Britain," Hermione said. Neville listened to her argument and then he demanded equal time to explain (again) that elves were symbiotic creatures who only had magic when they were bonded to a wizard, witch, or place with strong magic.

One of the people subjected to Lady Augusta Longbottom's fury the next day was Arthur Weasley. She made him watch the memory of his youngest son's tirade at the Gryffindor table about Harry Potter and his statement under the influence of the spell.

In Hufflepuff's common room where the badger gathered, Cedric spoke up and suggested that everyone apologize to Potter the next day. He said, "We were wrong and we were not good Puffs when we treated Harry so badly."

&&}{&& SMALL SCENE CHANGE

It did take ten minutes for Madam Bones and the Aurors to arrive at the gates to Hogwarts. As soon as the director's Patronus of a King Charles Spaniel appeared in the Great Hall, Sprout directed Hagrid to go and open the gates. The half-giant's footsteps thundered on the stone floor as he hurried from the hall. Flitwick joined Pomphrey as she watched the captive, McGonagall's head had dropped into her hands and she was crying silently, Sprout cast another warming charm on Dumbledore, and Harry watched the bundle that was Malfoy stuck to the far wall.

In only another minute, three Aurors in bright red robes ran into the Great Hall. Only seconds later, Amelia Bones and another ten Aurors joined the first three. Harry noticed that the young woman who tried to arrest him back in August was among the second group, but she remained quiet and wouldn't met his eyes.

"Amelia, there is much to discuss this evening," Pomona declared. "The first being the identity of someone in Polyjuice pretending to be Professor Alastor Moody."

If any person other than her old head of house had declared that someone had successfully taken Alastor Moody's identity, Bones would have begun firing stunning spells and asked questions afterwards. At just that moment, the man lying across the top of the staff table woke and began to moan as his skin bubbled and changed. The magical eye came out of his head and rolled across the floor to stop beside Harry's chair. Poppy remained close but the bindings on the man remained secure.

"Barty Crouch, Jr," Flitwick muttered. "Just as Albus said."

"Where's the real Alastor?" Amelia asked. She asked Flitwick to escort four of the coven of Aurors to the DADA professor's quarters and search for the living Alastor. "Look inside every trunk and closet. Search for secret doors or hidden compartments. He must be alive for Polyjuice to work."

Two aurors approached the man, stunned him twice, removed the bindings, and then summoned all wands, portkeys, rings, bracelets, and any other magical device. A small pile of items were quickly bagged by a third Auror while the first two wrapped the escaped man in ropes.

Amelia's eyes narrowed before she growled, "Shack, return to the ministry and take two other senior Aurors with you to arrest Barty Crouch, Sr. If he's not at the ministry, call his home on the floo and tell him there's an emergency at the ministry regarding the dragons for the tournament. That'll bring him in. Stun him and lock him in cell that only I or Rufus can open."

"Director, you've sent five of your protection detail away from the scene of the investigation," one Auror said.

"Yes, Proudfoot. You're correct to remind me but I doubt Pomona, Poppy or Harry Potter will attack me."

"It is more likely you'll need the Aurors to protect Albus Dumbledore from your magic when you hear everything he's done," Sprout replied.

"Why is the headmaster on the floor?" asked the director with her wand out but pointed down at the floor.

"Amelia, help me up," asked Albus, reaching a hand toward the stern witch.

"No! Don't move him!" ordered Poppy. "His core is damaged by magic. Director Bones, send for emergency team at Saint Mungo's and tell them to bring specialists in twisted or torn magical cores."

"I am certain I can be brought up to a seated position," insisted the elderly wizard.

The medi-witch approached the headmaster and said, "No! When did you obtain a medical degree?"

"I am too powerful for a twisted core to harm me," Albus argued, but Amelia left him on the floor and sent her Patronus King Charles Spaniel out again.

While they waited for the healers to arrive, Pomona began a preliminary list of the night's events. The director of the DMLE cursed under her breath several times as she heard about the Round Robin Truth Spell that led to the night's revelations. When the healers arrived, they immediately praised Poppy for not allowing the patient to move. Against the headmaster's wishes, he was given a muggle sedative and fell asleep almost immediately. The healers conjured a cot underneath the headmaster and used muggle straps to secure him so he could not move, head, arms, legs, or feet.

Harry asked, "Why are you using regular things to immobilize the headmaster?"

One of the healers replied, "It seems that the headmaster's core is twisted or torn. If we use too much magic around him, it will worsen the problem."

How are we going to transport him to Saint Mungo's?

I'm not certain

It was Harry who suggested, "Let's call Fawkes and see if she will move him to Saint Mungo's."

Dumbledore's phoenix? Will she listen to anyone?

Not waiting, Harry called out, "Fawkes, we need your help."

The phoenix appeared in a ball of flame and settled at the end of the Hufflepuff table where she whistled a sad tune. Harry petted the bright feathers and explained, "Headmaster Dumbledore's been injured and needs to go to Saint Mungo's in London but the healers are worried about using too much magic."

The teenager asked, "Can you flash him down to London without hurting his magic?"

The phoenix nodded and dropped down on the immobilized headmaster and looked at the healers expectedly. Harry directed them, "Grab hold of his tail feathers. He can take you too."

Three of the healers grabbed the phoenix's feather and in a flash of magical fire, they disappeared. Only a minute later, Fawkes returned and Harry thanked her for her help. An elf appeared with a bowl of grapes that the Boy-Who-Lived fed to the magical bird while the adults continued talking.

At one point, Amelia sent Aurors to the dungeons to arrest Severus Snape if the wizard had not fled the castle. Professor Flitwick returned with one of the Aurors and reported that Alastor Moody was being moved to the infirmary. Poppy ran from the Great Hall to tend to her newest patient.

The director wished aloud that she had a pensieve to view the memory of the evening's questions and answers. Harry grinned as an elf popped into the great hall with the large dish from Dumbledore's office. The elf also provided a large jar into which she dumped all the memories stored in the pensieve. She confided, "The headmaster's secrets be in the pensieve-bowl. Memories in mind might be lost and not told under truth potion or spell but they's all here."

Amelia took the memory of the evening's events from Professor Aurora Sinistra, a Slytherin who would have watched every moment beginning with the moment Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy approached the head table until the Severus Snape ran from the Great Hall. When she dived into the memory with Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick took command of the Great Hall.

He sent one Auror to release Draco Malfoy from his cocoon, revive the boy, and then escort him to the Slytherin dorm. Bleary eyed and stumbling just a bit, Draco was subdued for once and didn't ask any questions or make demands that Harry could hear.

The dark-haired boy thought, 'Wonder what his reception will be like in the dungeons?'

&&}{&& Scene Change: End of Chapter.

SPELL: "Vi magus loqui verum semel…" "Force wizard to speak truth once."