Be Selfish

Chapter 18

"Shall we?" the goblin king asked, a facsimile of a smile on his face. His pointed teeth clearly displayed, one of them Harry noticed for the first time, was actually capped (presumably) gold. Huh, he'd never seen a wizard or any other magical creature with teeth that way. Humans did it all the time, so he really shouldn't be slightest bit surprised.

Harry just shook his head, putting it down to goblins just being goblins. He did notice that the goblin king looked far more at ease today. It wasn't something openly obvious, just less tense eyes and his mouth wasn't quite so clenched. Despite being a goblin, he showed subtle signs of stress, just like humans really.

"Just to reiterate, you returned to the Dursley's residence after your fourth year at Hogwarts? You did not see a healer or councillor before or after your return home." Ragnarök got right down to business, looking like he was thoroughly enjoying himself. To be the goblin that finally brought Dumbledore down with the help of Lord Potter? His name was definitely going down in history. Not that he cared much about that, no, it was actually being there to see it happen and being part of it that excited him immensely.

Harry smiled, a small thankful thing to the goblin, glad he wasn't calling the Dursley's his relatives and didn't insult him by calling it home. He hated Privet Drive with every fibre of his being. "Yes, I returned to Privet Drive. No, I didn't see anyone."

"Your magical guardian and headmaster of your school, did not show the slightest concern for your mental wellbeing after seeing a fellow contestant and classmate killed during a tournament? Did he not ask how you were? Write to you?" the goblin king asked.

Harry blinked, honestly, the goblin was going overboard with the questions. Acting aghast when he definitely knew the goblin king wasn't. Of course, wizarding DMLE would be getting a copy of the memories. He'd actually forgotten about that, no wonder he was overacting. Although, he wasn't sure if it meant they'd get everything, or just snippets. He really wanted to know more about the goblins and their nation, then he'd have answers to his own thoughts.

He'd been taught not to ask questions, and he unfortunately, still retained that fear for the most part. Not all though, since he did ask questions here and there, and just left the issue alone after. Even if they hadn't answered his questions, he preferred to search for them on his own after that.

"Nobody wrote to me, that's the point, I later in the summer that year, learned that Dumbledore had actually asked my friends not to write to me. I presume he asked the same of my godfather, since he didn't write that year either." Harry informed them, feeling a little guilty for dropping his godfather in it, but the truth was it was likely the truth.

Antonin tightened his grip on his chair, it was unreal the level of manipulation the boy had endured. It had started very early; one might argue it had begun with the death of his parents actually. Dumbledore certainly hadn't left anything to chance. Going so far as to isolate Harry completely whilst he was reeling over the death of a fellow school mate? Even Voldemort didn't indulge in such exploitation.

"You have evidence of such demands?" Ragnarök questioned pensively, it disgusted him completely the level of disregard for this young Lord. It's a surprise he was capable of rational thoughts! Instead of just parroting out whatever disgusting propaganda Dumbledore had fed him.

"My friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger confessed to me. They didn't even seem to understand how wrong it was, but that's nothing new. I mean Hermione thinks the sun shines out of Dumbledore's arse, but is perfectly fine with the idea of the headmaster risking our lives so I could meet my parent's killer at eleven." Giving a resigned nod, he might have just got up, but talking about this was exhausting. A heavy, heavy weight upon his shoulders. Having to realize his friendship was likely one sided would do that to you.

The goblin guards straightened at that, truly disturbed by that information.

"May we be permitted those memories, Lord Potter?" Ragnarök asked, his respect more obvious, whether it was due to the circumstances, getting one over Dumbledore, or perhaps him saving his sons life or just Harry himself who knew, perhaps it was a combination of all those different things.

"I'll give you whatever you need to bring Dumbledore down." Harry stated, blunt and truthful. He was being honest with Antonin; he'd much rather have revenge than be the better person. What had being a good person – even if it was just a front until he could get away – ever gotten him? Nothing, nothing but scorn, and bullied and belittled and called a liar and believed the worst of.

For one brief moment, just a tiny one, the goblins grinned ferally in delight. Antonin was smart enough to hide his grin behind his hand, as he sat there silently.

"I understand," the goblin explained, it was basically a human's chirrup. His dark eyes were gleaming like polished onyx, utterly delighted.

"When in the summer holidays, were you retrieved, Mr. Potter and by who?" they continued, the scribe was scribbling away, not reliant on spells.

Harry gritted his teeth, "I was with my cousin returning to the Dursley's on the second of August just before dinner. Not that I would have been allowed any, of course. Dementors appeared, much to my shock, I hadn't thought anyone knew where I actually lived. The dementors almost kissed my cousin." Harry's mouth made a moue, almost like he was disappointed they hadn't. He knew if they had managed to kiss Dudley, he'd have died the next time he stepped foot in four Privet Drive.

"I used a Patronus charm, fully fledged, to repel them. I was attempting to get Dudley home, when Arabella Figg interrupted us. She's lived by me my entire life, I've been babysat by her and the entire time she knew who I was, knew how the Dursley's treated me and went along with it. I couldn't believe it. Miraculously, after that, I was allowed letters again." Harry said, with enough sarcasm to fill Gringotts itself. "I received a letter from the Ministry about underage magic in front of a muggle, in front of the muggle, and two others."

"Am I hearing correctly, Lord Potter? You were brought before an entire Wizengamot for a case of underage magic witnessed by your cousin? The very boy who already knew about magic?" Ragnarök.

"You heard correctly, getting a word in edgewise in that courtroom was impossible. An undersecretary that shouldn't have been there, coughing and hemming and interrupting and Fudge deliberately sabotaging me, if I got expelled, nobody would find out about Voldemort. Wizards aren't very bright, are they?"

Antonin groaned, pressing his large hand against his face, shaking his head. The boy had no filter, absolutely none. He could feel how startled the goblins were to hear a wizard mock their one of their own, to be fair it is well deserved.

"Had you any other instances of accidental magic before?" the goblin king proceeded to ask.

Harry blinked, "A few times, I apparated onto my school roof, shrank horrid jumpers Petunia tried to foice upon me. Regrew my hair when she shaved my head. Turned my teachers wig blue." Staring innocently enough, he definitely wasn't going to tell them everything.

"I mean any that you were officially reprimanded by the Ministry for," the goblin corrected his own question, realizing belatedly how it could have been construed.

"Oh," Harry said, genuinely surprised, he'd actually forgotten one on the list! "Dobby! He used a hover charm on a cake, at the Dursley's because I refused to say I wasn't going back to Hogwarts."

"A house-elf." Antonin interjected to stave off any confusion, likely something Harry intended, judging by the quiet huff it definitely had been. Sneaky little brat, honestly, he could see the Slytherin in him there and then.

Harry shot Antonin a disgruntled look, before he turned back. "It was during my second year, if I show the memory will that get stricken from my record?"

"Yes, I guarantee it." The goblin declared all teeth.

Harry nodded, pleased, at least the truth would be known.

"So, this incident was the only warning?" he continued relentlessly.

"Yes," Harry confirmed.

"Then you most definitely shouldn't have been given a trial, it's only after three individual strikes that one's given. It's never happened in the history of the wizarding world." The goblin explained, displeased but not surprised that they'd broken their own rules.

Just more to sue them with, he was rather looking forward to that too.

"I almost missed it," Harry said innocently enough, "The time and location was changed at the very last minute. In fact, I actually was a few minutes late, which probably didn't give anyone a good impression. If I hadn't been brought to the Ministry by Mr. Weasley early the message wouldn't have reached me at all, and would have likely seen me expelled, right?" asking as if he didn't already know it was true.

"More memories to take, with proof of tampering…" came the gleeful reply.

"I thought he was gone?" Harry asked, slightly amused by their reactions. What good was it when the aforementioned wizard was already left with his tail between his legs? With most of his misdeeds unknown by the general public.

The looks he received denoted they thought he was a naive idiot in the kindest of ways possible for a goblin.

"If being sacked from Minister got rid of people, there would be a lot less corruption in the Ministry." Antonin declared dryly, "They take on other jobs, which pay far better than being Minister. Fudge I believe is working for the department of magical cooperation if I'm right."

Harry's jaw dropped, before he clenched his jaw, furious. He couldn't believe it, after all Fudge had done? He was still working in the Ministry? They were still employing him? Bloody hell, that was just unbelievably ludicrous really.

"Other than the Ministry, did you receive any other word? An explanation perhaps?" the goblin questioned seriously.

"Sirius told me to stay there and stay inside," Harry said with a sarcastic smile, as if that would make everything alright. After all, the dementors wouldn't come into number four after all would they? It's not like they didn't know his address. "Or rather Dumbledore did, through his Sirius mouthpiece," bitterness suffused him, just thinking about it.

"That's it?" the goblin king asked, its tiny mouth pursed in displeasure.

"That's it," Harry agreed sighing softly, he didn't like talking about Sirius often, in fact, he didn't talk about him full stop. Lately it felt like that's all he was doing though.

"When did you finally leave number 4 Privet Drive?" Ragnarök asked, poised to write the dates down on his own personal notes, which he took in extensive measures.

Harry had to quickly calculate how long he'd been at Privet Drive after the incident. The Dursley's had been furious, he'd gotten a whole lot less to eat, he honestly was surprised he hadn't fallen off his broom. "The sixth, they came to get me on the sixth. So, they left me absolutely terrified for four days. Hogwarts is…was my home. The thought back then, of not having that safe heaven from the Dursley's…I knew I wouldn't survive until my majority. They would have killed me and did Voldemort's job for him."

Antonin's eye twitched, as he gripped the chair tightly, stopping himself from reaching over to the boy. Aghast by his own reaction, it was over, the boy didn't need mollycoddling, he was fine. Yet he swore he could feel Harry's turmoil, but that couldn't be, he was just angry on the boy's behalf.

"They?" the goblin enquired, wanting their names.

Harry hesitated for only one second, not out of fear, or anger. However, he was aware that he may end up costing people their jobs. They had joined the Order, which likely didn't go well with the Ministry.

He listed all of them, Tonks and the rest of the Advanced Guard. Which consisted of Remus Lupin and Alastor 'Mad-eye' Moody. Moody was alright, he was retired, Tonks who had only become an Auror about what…three years ago now would be hit the worst.

"Did you at least have a lawyer? Or defence council?" Ragnarök asked already suspecting the answer. If they hadn't given him a mind healer to help then what hope was there that they'd at least use a good lawyer to ensure he didn't end up in deeper trouble.

Harry actually laughed, "You're joking right? Of course not, no, I was left in the dark, with everyone just patting me on the head saying 'the headmaster had it under control and would fix it'."

"Did you ask for one?" came the next immediate question.

Harry sighed, "No," he couldn't risk Dumbledore figuring out he knew about his family, his inheritance. Too worried Dumbledore would keep a greater eye on him, and impede the means of escape he was still cooking up to leave the magical world when the time came. He couldn't make it look like he doubted Dumbledore, Merlin only knew what sort of shit the old man would foist upon him.

"That's disappointing," the goblin grumbled, could you imagine the reaction if it got out Dumbledore denied the Lord of the most ancient and noble house of Potter a lawyer when he requested one? It would be almost as bad as the child abuse; he'd allowed the boy to suffer.

"The date of your trial?" Ragnarök asked.

"My disciplinary hearing was on the twelfth, at nine o'clock." Harry corrected the term; he had meant to go in for a disciplinary hearing only to end up before the entire Wizengamot. "Mr. Weasley and I arrived earlier as I said before, I think it was rescheduled for eight o'clock and was now a full trial of underage magic."

"Indeed, to do that to a peer of all people, bad for business that," Ragnarök declared, shaking his head, wizards were stupid, no wonder the boy was so blunt in his statement as such. "Every single one of them knew that."

A quiet "No wonder he doesn't want anything to do with them," was heard, but Harry couldn't pinpoint who spoke.

"Considering you attended Hogwarts for your fifth year, I assume it went in your favour?"

"Barely, Dumbledore's idea of helping was to drag a squib in front of the court. They just laughed at her, and quite rightly too, she was a mess." Harry shook his head in exasperation. "The whole thing was a pissing contest between Dumbledore and the Ministry. I was stuck in the middle of it."

A fifteen-year-old kid at that.

It was a serious miscarriage of justice.

Just like Sirius' was forced to endure.

"Did your magical guardian offer any wisdom? Reassure you it would be alright? Talk about what was going to come next?" Ragnarök asked.

"Dumbledore refused to even look at me, anything he needed saying he sent someone else. Including the fact that I was to learn Occlumency from Professor Snape that year." Harry explained shrugging his shoulders, as if to say 'what can you do?' which when it concerned Dumbledore it was an accurate representation. What Dumbledore wanted he got, regardless of the devastation left in his wake.

The room froze, incredulous looks of shock were shared by the goblins. Had they heard what they thought they just heard? Occlumency? At fifteen? With a professor known to hate the child? Perhaps they were overreacting, it might not have been actual spells cast. "Please tell me it begun with meditation techniques?" Ragnarök hoped, that it truly had gone that way. He was growing rather fond of the boy.

Antonin's gaze was boring into Harry's waiting for an answer.

"Meditation? No, um he would cast Legilimens at me and I'd try and block him."

Antonin inhaled sharply, reeling in shock.

"That would help no-one, without mental shields and meditation, there would be nothing built to block." Antonin explained, the goblins were speechless, Antonin had never seen them that way before. Just what was going on? Why would they put a fifteen-year-old kid through that? What was the purpose? "Did he even explain what Occlumency and Legilimency was? I mean in actual detail? Give you books? Or did he literally just rape your mind every single time you had a 'lesson'?"

Harry blanched at the word 'rape' his face turning a molten red colour. That was just gross, now he really needed someone to obliviate the image that word brought to mind. Shifting his body, deeply uncomfortable with the chosen subject. "No books, just a basic explanation of what he was doing to do and then he just demanded me to close my mind."

Antonin couldn't help but notice how close Harry looked to being sick for the second time that evening. He either hadn't seen it a specific way, or the wording had been rather…ill thought. Not that Snape was by any means ugly, but he was the boy's professor, and likely didn't see him in any kind light.

Luckily with the potions he'd had, it would take something worse than his own mind to make him sick.

"I've never spent a lot of time in his company, but he never struck me as a particularly stupid individual. He was intelligent, vastly so, knows potions like nothing I've seen before or since. I might go so far as to say he's the ultimate Slytherin, like you're a consummate Slytherin." Antonin stated shrewdly, there was something wrong there. He wondered if Dumbledore was setting Severus up to take the fall for something, or just using him to do his dirty work. Neither would surprise him, but the fact Severus was allowing it definitely did.

"Where you accompanied to these lessons? And with who?" the goblin then asked, seething in fury.

"Why would anyone need to accompany me?" Harry asked utterly befuddled, by the direction this morning was taking.

That was all the answer they needed to realize that protocol had been severely breached.

The speed in which king Ragnarök's' quill was going as he wrote everything down was so fast it was a surprise to Harry that the damn quill wasn't smoking.

"I'm sorry, but you'll actually need to answer this with a yes or no," the goblin king stated, pinching his long-crooked nose, he didn't like how this was looking to go.

"I was never 'accompanied' to the lessons with Snape," still giving them an odd look, they were being extremely weird at the moment. "Why does it matter?" his comment seemed to make their reactions even worse. They were acting like they'd been in some sort of illicit affair or something, it was ridiculous. "Nothing happened other than Occlumency lessons you know…" giving them an odd look, which was just given right back.

"It's not the point," Antonin explained, "I'll explain later." He promised.

Harry nodded, he'd hold Antonin to his word, which too bad, he'd actually wanted to visit the clinic today, maybe if they got this over with quickly, he could still make good time there.

Now if only they'd ask what they needed to so he could get going.

It seems like Harry had found something other than revenge that he wanted to focus his life on. Which was a good thing, while revenge could be good for the soul, having it be all encompassing could turn you into someone you wouldn't want to look in the mirror. There was a difference between not being the better person…and a person you wouldn't wish to be.

Luckily distance would be a good factor in Harry's life. After all, he had permission to be here in Russia, which was so far away from the corrupt magical world.

A magical world that was in for a difficult time.

A/n – sorry Sevvy! LOL but in all serious will he turn out to be another victim of Dumbledore's lies? Or will he know all about it? Will Severus survive the next few months when the news gets out? I wonder what would happen if it was mirrored in the muggle world...how would Severus be punished for breaking the law (even if he didnt know he was) but actually was? suspended sentence? never allowed to see or be near Harry or any question? Or will he be the sneaky Slytherin and survive the fall-out? Hmm, I never thought I'd see the day where I would be shoving Severus under the bus so much lol how many stories is that I've done it in? a few years ago I definitely wouldn't have done that! Then again, a few years ago I was only writing snarry ;) now I've branched out and made some really good stories (omg I know it sounds like I'm bragging but I'm really not) that I really love writing!

Annndd we will be showing people getting questioned by the goblins likely only with scenes to things that pertain to them so it won't be overly long thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews I've missed them as much as I've missed writing! R&R please xx