The Chronicles of Black.

His arse would be red raw for the next week if Lucius had been there to witness his severe loss of control and decorum, and to actually curse like an uncouth muggle, he'd be standing in the corner with his sore bum for several hours before being forced to sit on a hard, wooden chair.

"My opinion still stands; I don't believe that foolish old woman. She's a drunk and she gets high on incense fumes. You can't believe a word that comes out of her mouth. She spent all of my third year predicting that I was going to die a horrible, grisly death, which only got worse when I was going through the Tri-wizard tournament. Do you have any idea how scared she made me? Predicting my death in class when I had to go out and do those stupid tasks when I never wanted to do it in the first place! No, I don't believe her."

"You know her true predictions…."

"No! I know that you told me that they were true predictions! But I've made my own decision…nothing that comes out of that woman's mouth is real." "Voldemort needs to be stopped."

"Then why do I have to be the one to do it?!" Harry exploded. "I'm sixteen; does that mean anything at all to you? You can't tell a sixteen-year-old to save the world and to fight in a war that started before I was even born! I don't care if Voldemort killed my parents, it was their choice to fight in the war, not mine and people die in wars! I want nothing to do with it. I've made my own choice and my decision is that I won't fight just because my parents did. I don't have to be included in this war just because they were. I want a nice, peaceful life and that's what I'll get…I've seen and suffered too much death in my life already and I'm only sixteen."

"Voldemort will never leave you alone."

"I still don't care. If he believes that rubbish, that's his problem. I'm going to live my own life the way I want to. I have a family now and I'll make my own one day in the future too and I'm happy to do so. I want a nice, ordinary life. I want a partner, I want to get married and I want kids. I want a nice house; I may or may not want a full-sized, professional Quidditch pitch for a back garden. I don't want any pets outside of Hedwig and I'm hoping to get an extended family too, with in-laws, the works. I don't want to fight, I never have, so I'm making a stand. I won't fight in this war. So you need to find someone else to be your gullible scapegoat because I refuse to do it anymore. This war is your problem now, not mine."

"There is no one else, you know…"

"I only know what you've told me." Harry said through clenched teeth. "There is always someone else! You can't possibly believe that I, a sixteen-year-old boy, am capable of murder! That I'm even remotely strong enough to take out that evil bastard. I'm not and I won't sacrifice my life to that beast just because you tell me to, Headmaster." Harry turned smartly on his heel and he left the office, hurrying down the spiral staircase and striding angrily down the corridor. He had to get away or he was going to say something that would alert Dumbledore that he knew that he had been his previous magical guardian…he could not allow that to happen.

He'd done as he'd meant to and he'd declared that he was no longer going to play a part in this war, he didn't need to blurt out that he knew Dumbledore was a cold, manipulative fucker as well.

He needed to send another letter to Lucius, immediately. He had to tell his father about everything that had just happened and had been spoken about in that office, including his loss of control and his furious cursing. He had to be completely honest, even if it meant that punishment awaited him when he went home for the Christmas holidays. Until then, he needed to keep his head down and he needed to study hard, Lucius would not accept substandard grades for any reason, not even if he spent a month in the hospital wing, as he'd been told by Lucius after Draco had mentioned that Harry spent at least several weeks in the hospital wing a year. He had to work hard, study harder and keep his head down until he was out of school. It would be difficult, but he was sure that he could do it. He just needed to try as hard as he possibly could.

The large, cavernous room was lit by a huge, burning fire in the massive fireplace at the far end of the room and the long, narrow wooden table was filled with seventeen bickering people and Albus Dumbledore wearily stroked his beard with a wrinkled hand.

He was concerned; Harry's passionate speech had left him nervous, an emotion that he didn't feel all that often. If the boy refused to fight then the wizarding world would fall to Voldemort…if the boy didn't die then he would never regain his power at the Ministry.

He'd called an emergency meeting of the Order of the Phoenix and he'd told them all about Harry's explosive declaration in his office. The people who sat at the table were arguing and shouting at one another about how best to deal with the situation.

"You have to make the boy see sense, Albus!" Alastor Moody growled out over the rest. "This is a war, not a game. He can't just stop and pack it up like a set of cards! This has Malfoy written all over it."

"That was my thought also, Alastor. It is obvious that Lucius Malfoy is planning, not to kill Harry as we had originally feared, at least not yet, but his goal now seems to be to convince Harry that he doesn't need to fight in the war and thus, he'll remove the threat to his Lord. Harry is the only one who can defeat Voldemort for good. With Harry refusing to fight, Voldemort is free and unopposed to take over the wizarding world. He already has the Wizengamot; Albert Runcorn, a secret Death Eater, was voted in as the new Chief Warlock and with Lucius Malfoy whispering into Fudge's ear, I'm afraid that the Ministry holds no friends for us at the moment."

"The boy refused to pass his seats back to you?" Elphias Doge asked in outrage.

"I'm sure that that is Lucius Malfoy's doing too. He is using Harry to garner more votes for his proposals and with Harry now controlling the Potter and the Black seats, he has two very influential seats and two votes, not just one, which is very valuable. If he is merely copying Lucius Malfoy's countenance and agreeing with every word that he puts forward, then I truly fear what new laws and regulations are being passed."

"I asked my uncle, Dawson, about the Wizengamot meetings, Dumbledore. He's refusing to tell me anything about them; he is disgusted that I, an Auror, would ask him such things when it is illegal to speak of anything to do with the meetings outside of other Wizengamot members." Kingsley Shacklebolt said in his slow, deep voice.

Albus sighed and steepled his hands together and rested his chin on his fingers.

"I'm afraid that everything seems to have gone wrong. We've lost the Ministry, we've lost Harry and, as a result, we may lose this war."

"We will not give in!" Moody raged. "The Ministry needs to be cleaned out and the boy needs to be made to see sense!"

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