Chapter 21: Chapter 021
"So, I had to make a difficult decision. That decision was whether or not to tell Dumbledore the information about Quirrell, and thereby risk him discovering I wasn't as dense as he thought me to be; or, keeping Mum about it, thereby risking the residents of the castle to actions Quirrell or his spirit 'hitch-hiker' might launch against them.
"To me, the answer was obvious. It was time to do what was right for all, rather than just what was right for me."
Again Memory-Harry faded away to be replaced with a memory of Harry running along the corridor that led to the Headmaster's gargoyle guardian.
With barely a pause, Harry almost shouted the then current password to the gargoyle, who leapt to the side to allow Harry ingress. Harry practically bolted up the upwardly rotating stairs.
Almost slamming the Headmaster's door aside, Harry barrelled in before coming up short and looking around, almost in awe.
"What brings you up to my office, young Harry?" twinkled a slightly smirking Dumbledore.
Snapping out of his stunned reaction, Harry quickly made his way to the Headmaster's desk at the other end of the room. "Headmaster! You need to know! The students are in danger! Professor Quirrell is being possessed by, I think, Voldemort's ghost!"
Dumbledore frowned as if the news was terrible. However, he drew his wand and said, "I'm very surprised you figured it out so quickly, Harry my boy."
As Harry appeared to gape back in what appeared to be his own shock Dumbledore drew his wand on him, the Headmaster continued, "It's too early for you to learn that."
As Harry continued to stand there, his expression slowly changing to one of great anger, Dumbledore lifted his wand and cast at him.
"Obliviate!" the old man snapped out. And the light blue charm zipped from his wand to Harry's chest.
As Harry's expression seemed to go blank and his eyes glassy-eyed, Dumbledore said, "You and I had a short talk about how well you're fitting in to Hogwarts' life, Harry. You have no interest in wondering if Professor Quirrell is being possessed. However, you believe Professor Snape may be trying to get into the forbidden third floor corridor to get what is being protected there."
As Dumbledore lowered his wand and quickly slipped it back into his belt, he rose as Harry's relaxed expression regained liveliness and his eyes seemed to clear.
As Dumbledore walked around his desk, he said, "Thank you for coming to see me, Harry my boy. I'm glad you're fitting in and enjoying yourself."
"Errr..." said Harry, before he seemed to think of how to reply. "Thank you, Sir."
"Excellent," said Dumbledore. "You may go. And don't worry so much about Professor Snape, my boy."
Harry gave a little nod before he quickly left.
Once he was back past the gargoyle he suddenly stopped and seemed to stand still for a long moment. Suddenly, he spun back to stare at the gargoyle with an expression of great fury on his face.
And the memory ended, bringing Memory-Harry back.
"So, as you witnessed, Dumbledore both knew of Quirinus Quirrell's possession, knew that possession was by the shade of 'Voldemonkey', and, when I raised the issue with him expecting him to put the students first, tried to Obliviate me of the knowledge and further used the Obliviation charm to try and redirect my thoughts to it being Severus Snape going after the Philosopher's Stone. He did not want me knowing the truth.
"For you parents of students and actual students in the audience, if you haven't already figured it out, Albus Dumbledore deliberately put the children of magical Britain at great risk. He did it both knowingly and intentionally. That's premeditated child endangerment times as many students as were under-aged at the time who resided in the castle. Each case is, of course, a crime punishable by the loss of every position of authority he holds, at a minimum; and a long-term stay in Azkaban, if not execution via the Veil, at a maximum - for each.
"And that, of course, does not count the illegal obliviations."
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―==(oIo)==―
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From where they were all sitting parents, students, Ministry personnel, journalists, others who had an interest in watching the first task, staff of the visiting schools and even the few remaining Hogwarts staff who were in attendance and had not otherwise been taken into custody spent at least a few moments staring at Dumbledore in both fear and anger.
From where he was still sitting with Madam Bones's wand firmly jabbed into his neck, Dumbledore did not need his great wealth of experience to know, without any doubt, that his tenure as Headmaster was now over; as were his roles as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the ICW. Nor, at the moment, was he able to see any strategy he could employ that would keep him out of Azkaban.
He knew representatives of the wizarding world's news media were also in attendance; and that what young Potter was doing would be the lead news stories on both wireless and in the printed news press by that evening, at the latest. He had no hope of stopping it happening. He'd need to be out of the clutches of the DMLE well before either made it all public for him to have any hope, no matter how slim, of effecting that. And, with the amount of information Harry was making available and knew Bones would be asking him about, he would be lucky to be out of her clutches by the next afternoon at the earliest; if he was out of her clutches, ever again.
'Merlin's balls!' he mentally cursed. 'The Daily Prophet, at least, will parade this story for weeks!'
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Chuckling with a laugh that sounded almost evil, Memory-Harry continued. "Of course, stupid me, I kept trying.
"Oh, not that time," he corrected. "I meant at other times over the past three years.
"I, again, tried to get the old bastard to act when I complained directly to him about the way I was being illegally treated at the beginning of second year, when I figured out it was a basilisk even before Hermione did, when I told him - yet again - about how the Dursleys treated me, and all the rest of the times I kept going to him. On just about each and every occasion he attempted to Obliviate me and redirect my thoughts away from what I knew to be the truth.
"For second year that includes: He knew the exact moment when the dark artefact that compulsed a student to release the basilisk, Slytherin's supposed monster, was brought into the school; he knew who the student was; he knew it was a basilisk petrifying the students; and he knew a lot more than just that."
"You'll also recall when earlier I told you I ran from my summer prison of Durzkaban after blowing up 'Marge the Barge'," continued Memory-Harry. "And how I spent the next three weeks in Diagon Alley.
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