Harry had gone to Diagon Alley soon after the order meeting, it was the first chance he had got, and purchased his new wand; 13 inch Ash wood and thestral tail hair, which Ollivander said was a rather unique combination and the only thestral wand he had ever made or sold. The aged wandmaker sent him off by reiterating the statement he had made upon Harry's first visit there. "You'll do great things, Mister Potter."
Harry took the great things comment to heart. He trained more rigorously than ever before, having to be made to stop for rest on more than one occasion. Regardless of what his friends thought of his abilities, he had been the one to witness the power that the Dark Lord was able to bring to bear and it was terrifying. Sure he had escaped the conflict no more harmed than Voldemort had but he'd be lying to himself if he tried to deny the fact that he knew Voldemort was just toying with him. Even freshly reborn or rebuilt or whatever it was the ritual had done, having not practiced in nearly 13 years, the Dark Lord was more than a simple man. He was a force of nature; a titan; a God walking amongst the mortals, and Harry knew that he had a long way to go to ascend to that level and stand a chance at beating him.
On the occasions where one of his friends had made him stop, Harry tried to live like as normal of a teenager as he could; if you could call his life normal at all. He spent time with all his friends, particularly some private times with either Daphne or Tonks; both knew of the other and neither seemed to mind so Harry forced himself not to think about it too much and to just enjoy the benefits as they came. He also couldn't help but think of how he could introduce this concept to Hermione and bring her into the fold. His feelings for her were just as strong as the ones he shared with the other girls, and he figured that if he had 2 women in his life already that a third wouldn't change much. But Hermione was Hermione, she was a muggleborn and a righteous one at that. Any witch that tried to start a society for house-elves rights would surely be opposed to polygamy and he didn't want to weird her out or cause a fight by bringing it up. Though he was certain she had to have noticed the fact that he was close with both Tonks and Daphne, she hadn't said anything to him about it.
Truth be told, the bushy haired witch spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about it. She had noticed Harry leaving with one girl or the other and coming back some time later with the goofy smile that only a teenager who'd just experienced sexual activities could have. One would have to be daft to not notice it. And Merlin-dammit she wanted a piece of it. She'd made her mind up before term ended that she was okay with sharing Harry if that's what it took; though she never dreamt it would actually happen. Yet here he was with 2 women both acting as his girlfriends. And why couldn't she be one of them. She knew she was no match for either of their beauties, but before Harry got with Daphne she was certain that he was developing feelings for her. Had she waited too long? Would he be interested in having another woman in his life? Even if he was why would he settle for a bushy haired bookworm like her. Like she had done so often the last few weeks, the brightest witch of her age cried herself to sleep that night longing for the boy who lived.
Another thing that everyone kept an eye out for was news of Voldemort's activities. Dumbledore had guessed that he would lie low while he reassembled his forces, but this was too much. There hadn't been any news at all concerning the Dark Lord or any of his followers. The silence was disconcerting to Harry, who assumed that there would be at least something going on. If Tom was keeping his death eaters in check it had to mean he was planning something big, and that thought worried Harry immensely.
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The Dark Lord was indeed planning something big. Upon his resurrection, he had realized that he had been far too brash in his plans before. Sure, he had been moving in the right direction towards victory until his plans had been derailed by the infant Potter, but even if he had won and took over by force he would constantly be fighting down rebellions and that wasn't ideal. If he was honest with himself, he knew that too was caused by rashness. He'd heard the prophecy and got tunnel vision; he wanted the boy dead before he ever had the potential to fulfil it, even though he had known that he only heard part of it. The proper move would have been to find the prophecy and hear it in its entirety before he made any move.
This time, though, he wouldn't act without thought. While he was now reborn more powerful than ever before thanks to the vitality of his predecessor, the boy had still managed to grievously injure him and escape during their last conflict. He knew the boy was nowhere near his equal, but that thrice-damned prophecy still hung over his head. He would not make the mistake of rushing into another conflict with Potter before he was certain of his victory. He needed to lay low for a while, build his forces, and approach this in a more strategic manner. Perhaps it was best to leave the country for a while, after all, his followers here were already loyal to him. The entire world could become his playground if he played his cards right; the middle east was constantly in some sort of turmoil, the Russians would fight at the drop of a hat, even America could be coerced into doing his bidding if he approached properly.
As long as he could avoid Potter he could always retrieve the prophecy at a later date.
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One day while taking a break from his training, Harry sat at the kitchen table sipping on a glass of water. Today was one of the few occasions that he was completely alone. None of his friends were over and Sirius was out doing whatever Sirius did, probably something he didn't want to think about. Aside from the lack of news concerning the Dark Lord's movements, it had been a productive summer so far. Since his run in with the sphinx during the last task of the tournament, he'd been growing at an astounding pace. Whereas Moody would beat his ass with little trouble in their training leading up to the task, now he struggled to win. Harry obviously had the advantage on power but he wasn't able to match up to the mangled man's many years of experience; he wasn't legendary amongst the Aurors for nothing.
To Harry's surprise, both pleasant and unpleasant, even Dumbledore had stopped in to assist him a few times. This was a humbling experience for the teen who had begun to get a bit cocky after he had finally managed to best Moody in a duel. Sure, the teen had trained with the headmaster before, but Dumbledore had adamantly refused to duel him and now he could see why. During one of their sessions, Dumbledore faced off against Sirius, Harry, and Moody at the same time and handily won. When he actually displayed his real power and not his twinkle-eyed grandfather persona one could easily see how this man dispatched Grindelwald and became known as the leader of the light; the only one Voldemort ever feared. As Harry liked to think of them, another Titan or even a god.
Harry was brought out of his ponderings by an owl landing on the window sill. It was a large proud looking eagle owl, staring at him as if he were beneath the owl and not even worth his time. The look reminded Harry of someone but he couldn't put his finger on who. Once the owl had gained his attention it hopped over to the table and held out it's leg impatiently. Harry grabbed the parchment and gave the owl a treat for his trouble before it departed out the window once again.
"Never seen this owl before, wonder who it could be?" Harry mumbled as he unrolled the letter.
"Potter, remember when you said that I was either with you or against you? I have decided. DL has left Britain, maybe headed east. Don't reply, I'll be in touch." The short message was messily written as if done in a hurry, and though it was unsigned it was obvious who it came from which would explain why it was hurried. He idly wondered if he could actually trust the boy who'd been his arch enemy at Hogwarts from the very beginning. He felt like this letter was legitimate for some reason, though it wasn't much news anyways honestly. Best to tell Dumbledore anyways, just in case.
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As August rolled in Harry finally found something of note in the news, though it definitely wasn't what he'd consider good news.
"Corruption At Hogwarts! Is Headmaster Dumbledore Secretly a Dark Lord, Training the Next Dark Lord, or Simply Senile?"
Harry didn't even bother to read past the headline of the Daily Rag's sad attempt at news. He knew Dumbledore sometimes got lost in the bigger picture and might be willing to sacrifice more than one should be comfortable with, but dark lord? Definitely not. Without a second thought he wadded the paper up and tossed it into the fire before leaving the room to begin his daily routine. If only he could have predicted how this seemingly ludicrous article would affect him for the coming time.
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Another couple of weeks had passed for Harry in the normal manner, with the exception of the Dumbledore Scandal. The article that Harry hadn't even deigned to read had apparently been the catalyst for some shit storm that he didn't even want to imagine. Apparently, someone had finally told the right person or persons about all the shit that had happened at Hogwarts in the recent years, and Harry couldn't blame the paper for portraying it to be so bad, though he didn't agree with blaming it all on the headmaster.
He couldn't have possibly known that Voldemort had possessed Quirrell; though maybe bringing the stone to Hogwarts at all wasn't the best of ideas. And the whole chamber of secrets mess was completely Lucius Malfoy's fault, and he'd greased enough people that his name was never mentioned in connection with any of that affair. Nobody, including Arthur or Molly or any of the Weasley children who had lived with the rat for 12 years had recognized him as an animagus so why should anyone expect Dumbledore to have noticed. And then for said animagus to transform and kill the boy with whom he had been sleeping for the last several of those years, who the fuck would ever predict a boy to be murdered by his bloody pet rat for fuck's sake.
Yet the Prophet drug Dumbledore through the mud for all of it. What had started as probably another sad attempt at gossip mongering had somehow uncovered this big scandal and even had the Ministry making inquiries left and right. The most recent meeting when Dumbledore had dropped by for a few minutes he had warned Harry that things weren't looking good for him to make a return as headmaster this coming year. Apparently, Lucius was doing what he did best and making several "charitable donations" to certain "causes" to ensure the investigation would continue.
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"Potter, Father is up to something big." Harry sighed as he read another of the unsigned letters from his not so mysterious informant. Of course Lucius was up to something, the slimy bastard was always up to something. Of course he would push for and use this problem with Dumbledore to further his or his master's agenda if at all possible. So saying he was up to something was like saying that the sun would set this evening; it's kind of a big deal but literally everyone knows that it's going to happen.
Harry wished that Draco would have given him anything more but he understood the boy's precarious position. If Lucius were to catch him passing off information then he'd surely face the Dark Lord's wrath. If only he had a better way of communicating than letters.
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Somehow, the summer managed to get even worse for Harry and also for Hermione. A girl who once said "We could be killed, or worse expelled." The girl whose boggart was her failing and being thrown out of school. Her worst fears were realized one day when both Harry and she received letters stating that they had been expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, pending investigation into the death of a fellow student during the 1993-1994 school year. The letter went on to explain that while there was insufficient evidence for a criminal trial, the newly appointed headmaster felt that another investigation was needed and that the students in question would pose too great a hazard to the other students until such time as they were cleared and deemed safe to return.
Harry was mad. Scratch that, he was pissed. How could they expel him when several witnesses corroborated his version of events that night? Who would ever believe that he could kill his best mate? A load of hippogriff shite is what this was.
Hermione, though, was barely able to hold her composure long enough to finish the letter before she broke down in racking sobs and ran to her room. Harry had immediately followed and knocked to ask for admission but the only reply he received was more wailing from the girl. He tried for several minutes before deeming it a lost cause and heading for the floo to see if he could contact Dumbledore. Just as he reached for the bag of powder, the flames flared green causing him to step back.
Harry was pleased to see the Headmaster, or former; he wasn't entirely sure what was going on there honestly- step out of the fire followed by a few others including Sirius and Tonks. Harry was especially thankful to see the metamorphmagus, as he quickly drug her to the side and explained Hermione's situation, sending her off to hopefully help the distraught witch.
"Harry, my boy. Nice to see you again." Dumbledore said by way of greeting. Harry was about to start a rant about his letter when the aged man beat him to it. "I suppose you may have noticed that as of this morning, the ministry no longer recognizes me as the headmaster. They have seen fit to appoint Lucius Malfoy to the position, with Delores Umbridge serving as his deputy."
"So what shall we do then, sir?" Harry asked in reply.
"Alas, there is little we can do at the moment aside from biding our time. Regardless what the minister and his benefactors wish to think, Hogwarts acts autonomously from the ministry and she will not recognize a falsely appointed head. This being said though, we must deal with it until such time as I am able to gather the support to push back. While they won't be recognized by the school, the public will know no better so I would be as they say persona non grata for the time being." Dumbledore said as the group moved to the dining room and seated themselves around the table.
"How did everything go tits-up so quick though? And what of our expulsion?"
"Our fine minister has always had an issue of selling his support to the highest bidder, and he's just unstable enough that he eventually begins to actually believe the whispers in his ear. After that article he is convinced that I would like to overthrow the government and become the minister, despite being offered and having rejected the position no less than 3 times already. As for your expulsion, it will have to stand up to a trial by the Wizengamot which I doubt will confirm the decree."
Harry looked shocked. "We'll have to be tried in court for this mess? Why do you believe that they would overturn my expulsion when they allowed him to sack you?"
"Well, the Hogwarts headmaster is and always has been- in recent centuries at least- chosen by Hogwarts herself. That said, there is no law on the procedure to replace or appoint a new headmaster; therefore no law states that the headmaster's appointment need be confirmed by the Wizengamot. Expulsions, though, have to be voted upon to ensure fair treatment to our youth. It has been 50 years since the last successfully upheld expulsion, as you know."
"But what if Malfoy manages to convince them and I do end up expelled or even arrested?"
"Worry not, my boy, you shall be on the train come the first of September."
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It had been a close thing, but Dumbledore was right. After hearing their testimony and with both having offered to take veritaserum or submit a pensieve memory, all of the more light aligned houses and most of the neutral houses had voted to overturn the expulsion, beating out the darker aligned faction by a narrow margin.
At the conclusion of the trial both Minister Fudge and "Headmaster" Malfoy stormed out of the room with no further comment. Fudge's face was a shade of purple fit to rival even Vernon Dursley's while Malfoy just gave Harry an icy stare as the walked by, followed by the waddling toad-like form of Delores Umbridge who also sported an impressive shade of plum.
Harry and Hermione were attempting to make their escape from the courtroom as well but kept being accosted by well-wishers congratulating on them on their victory, telling them that Fudge and his lackies were full of it, and reminding them that Dumbledore was innocent and would definitely return soon.
By the time they could make it through the crowd of Wizengamot members, the press had made their way to the chamber as well. "Mr. Potter, an interview for the profit?" The sickly-sweet voice of Rita Skeeter sounded out over the crowd.
Sirius had taken a breath in so as to tell her where to shove her quill, and Harry himself considered doing the same before his mouth opened on it's own accord. He wasn't sure rather to blame his Gryffindor or Slytherin side for it but here he was. "Sure thing, Miss Skeeter."
The woman gave a grin to make the Cheshire cat envious before grabbing the boy around the arm and starting towards the door. "Perhaps somewhere a bit quieter, if you please." She said as the group left the chambers.
When they had finally made their way to one of the smaller courtrooms not currently in use, Rita pulled an acid green quill and parchment from her bag before carelessly dropping them, only for them to float up and position themselves to begin writing. Harry immediately stared at the quill with distaste evident. "Miss Skeeter, I'll be honest here. I will walk away from this interview right now before I let that thing skew my words. The only way you'll have a word from me is if you do it right and publish the truth." Here he concentrated on his inner self and pushed out with his magic, causing a small ripple through the room and making his eyes glow slightly. "I am the lord or heir apparent to several of our society's ancient and noble houses and I'll be damned if my word isn't properly represented."
Rita's face immediately fell before she thought briefly on it and decided to put the quill away and do things the old fashioned way. She was definitely interested in what the boy- no, definitely a man- in what the man in front of her had to say.
Hermione, for her part, when she felt the ripple of power surge through the room the ecstasy she felt nearly brought her to her knees. It caused a wave of heat to wash over her, focused on her nether regions, and she found it hard not to pounce on him in front of everyone there. Rita had been too focused on Harry to notice it but Sirius definitely didn't miss it and had filed the though away to tease her about at a later time.
"Okay Mister Potter, what do you have to say about the accusations made against you and the former Headmaster?" Rita started off.
"Anyone who has a brain in their head should know better than to believe that tripe. Ron was my best friend from the moment we met on the express our first year. Anyone in that castle could tell you that I'd never hurt him."
"Well, do you care to explain what actually happened then, Mister Potter? All we know is that a student died, you were reported to have been involved or at least witnessed it, and it was swept under the rug and kept out of the news."
"I'd honestly rather not, but I suppose I can just get it over with now so everyone will know the truth. The short version of things are that one night in my third year, Ron, Hermione, and I ran into Sirius Black on the Hogwarts grounds. After a brief confrontation he made clear that he hadn't broke out of Azkaban to hurt me, rather to help me. You see, he had seen a copy of the Prophet where the Weasley family had their picture posted as the winners of some contest and immediately recognized the rat sat on Ron's shoulder in the picture."
Rita interrupted here. "The animagus form of Peter Pettigrew, correct?"
"Yes that was it. When he saw the rat was with one of the Weasley children, he knew that the rat would be in Hogwarts with me, probably even the same house or dormitory. So he escaped and made his way there to capture the rat. As I said before there was a bit of a confrontation and we eventually forced Pettigrew out of his animagus form. About this time, one of the staff members happened upon us and not knowing the truth about Black, wrongly assumed that we were in danger and attempted to duel Sirius. During this confrontation Pettigrew took advantage of the excitement and grabbed Ron's wand, firing off a killing curse presumably at either me or Sirius but it hit Ron instead, before turning back to his animagus form and escaping. After this, Sirius had managed to subdue the staff member, but was pinned down by a few dementors-" Hermione and Sirius both snorted here.
Rita looked between the pair and spoke "Mind if I interrupt to ask what's funny?"
After a look between them Hermione was the one to speak. "Sorry, ma'am. Just that he says it was "a few" dementors. Harry is the most modest person I know. Instead of a few, try about 100."
"One hundred dementors were attacking and you all managed to escape? How?" Rita asked incredulously.
"Well, erm, I" Harry sputtered out, now embarrassed.
"Harry casted his Patronus and chased them all away." Hermione finished for him.
"Remarkable that a- what were you at the time, about 13-year-old wizard could cast a Patronus at all, much less with enough power and skill to chase off 100 dementors. Sorry for the interruption, please continue Mister Potter."
"Right, so after the dementors were chased away, we all ended up in the hospital wing where Minister Fudge, without the Head of the DMLE mind you, was there demanding Sirius to be kissed by the dementors immediately without a trial. I told them what had happened and he basically called me a liar and walked away, much as he did today."
"Very surprising that the Minister would try to order an illegal execution like that, especially after having multiple witnesses claiming that one of the men that Black allegedly murdered was in fact alive and well." Rita replied.
"Yes well, it's not that surprising to me considering who keeps the minister's pockets lined. Of course he wouldn't bring Madame Bones with him because she's too honest and straight to allow something like that to happen."
"Keeping his pockets lined, oh my Mister Potter are you implying that the Minister for magic is accepting bribes."
"Oh no ma'am I'm not implying anything, just saying that maybe it would do some good to look into his ledgers."
"Oh this should make for quite the story, that is quite the accusation isn't it?" Rita said with a predatory grin which faded as she heard the door seal itself shut behind her. "What do you think you're-"
"Listen to me and listen well, Miss Skeeter. If this article is published with one word out of place, I'm coming for you. I'm sick and fucking tired of being portrayed as a hero one day and a villain the next. As I said before, I am the Lord of plenty of houses and I am probably the single richest person in Britain if not the whole world. Whatever Fudge has been slipping you to publish his shite, double it and you work for me now. If you cooperate I can assure you a very fine payday and a happy retirement when you so choose but if you fuck me over here there's nowhere you'll be able to hide from me. Got it?" Harry said in a low voice, inching closer to her until his face was mere inches from her and he was speaking barely above a whisper.
Rita stared blankly for a moment before stuttering a bit until she managed to string a few words together. "F-F-Fudge p-paying me? Of course not I'm an honest reporter." She tried weakly.
"Cut the hippogriff shit Skeeter. We all know the truth here. As I said, you work for me now and I wouldn't want one of my employees running into any trouble so I suppose I'll just keep that information to myself, for now at least, so long as you cooperate."
"What's to stop me from just reporting you for extortion?" Rita said again, finally regaining some of her composure.
Another pulse of magic washed out of Harry and over the room, this time much more intense than the first. Hermione wasn't able to fight it off this time and would have actually collapsed if not for Sirius catching her. Rita did well to cover it up but Harry didn't miss the slight grimace from her as her knees wobbled under her briefly. "When I say you won't be able to hide, I mean it. I'm done playing games. If the world wants Harry Potter to be a bad guy so much, I can gladly show them just how bad I can be."
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Harry looked at the paper the following morning with a smile upon his face. "Boy Who Lived Tells His Side."
He read over the article and was pleased to see that it was more or less exactly as he had told things, with some embellishing to make it more reader friendly but nothing over the line. Maybe this article would get people asking the right questions, like why was he facing an expulsion when the issue here had already been to court once and was behind them now. On his instruction, Rita had left off the bit about Fudge and his bribes until she could do some digging and see if she could figure out just how deep the corruption ran.