Harry Potter: Go To Hell

Harry told Severus bluntly. "And you know the Board does have grounds to replace him after all the stuff that has taken place during his tenure. I mean, it's not just been since I got old enough to come to school that things have been occurring. Myrtle is a teenage ghost, you know. Like Colin, the only reason she's here is because this is where she died. We're lucky Diggory didn't come back as a ghost. Or Krum. This is where they both died as well and the whole Tri-Wizard thing was his idea. He oversaw all the challenges and everything. So, in a way, both their deaths are his fault. Especially when you remember it was supposed to be non-life threatening."

"But he wasn't responsible for her death. He was only the Transfiguration teacher back then," Severus said dismissing the idea of using Myrtle.

"He was also the Deputy Headmaster," Harry said gravely. "And the mentor of the boy responsible for her death. He knew, Professor. Right from the beginning he knew what kind of a child Tom was and he did nothing to help him improve his situation. He did nothing to try and undo the lessons Tom learned at the orphanage even when he knew Tom was using those lessons here in the Castle. Nor did he do anything to protect the student population against his inclinations. Just as he did nothing to help the nuns control Tom when he went back to the Orphanage each summer or to protect the other orphans that lived there. He also did nothing to rectify the situation when Tom framed Hagrid for Myrtle's demise. He knew Hagrid didn't open that Chamber just as he knew Hagrid's pet at the time couldn't have killed Myrtle. He still has done nothing to get justice for Hagrid even though I killed Slytherin's true beast in my second year and everyone now knows what it really was."

"I'm not saying we can actually use that to oust him from his lofty seat here. I'm only saying there are skeletons in his closet. So many he has to fold his clothes and store them in his dresser because they won't fit in the closet. I think if we go digging through his years here, Professor, we'll find many instances where he has, to one degree or another, been involved in many very dangerous and harmful incidents, if not illegal incidents, where the student body as a whole or one student in particular has paid the price for his actions. Or inactions, as the case may be."

Quietly Severus nodded murmuring the name, "Slughorn."

"Hermione is but one example. Do you honestly believe her parents would've allowed her to accept his bribe if they knew what he was asking her to do? Or even if they knew why he was asking her to do it? To say nothing of where the coin he offered her was coming from. That's not an excuse for her wrongdoing. She did know it wasn't his coin to offer and she was well aware her accepting it qualified as stealing since she has from time to time freely admitted she knew my vaults and wealth were being concealed from me deliberately."

"She has also read Hogwarts: A History cover to cover. So she knew the by-laws regarding cheating and other students homework assignments. She isn't stupid. So when she read those by-laws, she knew what they said and understood being asked to monitor my class work was her being asked to break the by-laws and risked her own enrollment. She also knew the cost of getting caught breaking the by-laws was expulsion. She just likes sucking up to authority figures and if she can do something for them no one else is doing or can do, all the better for her as she sees it as making herself indispensable to them. Then they will defend her when the other students or adults get upset with her for the way she behaves. So yes, she did expect him to make sure she never got into trouble for what she was doing with my homework."