McGonagall and the students looked back and forth between Potter and Dumbledore wondering what was going on. McGonagall remembered Harry accusing Dumbledore of violating the terms of his parent's wills the day she had taken him to Diagon Alley, but since he hadn't done anything about it she thought the matter had been settled. Breaking a magically binding contract was a very serious thing. A person could lose their magic or their life, depending on the terms of the contract.
"Harry, this is really a matter we should discuss in private." Dumbledore made one more try even though he knew the students would assume the worst, but given they didn't know what part of the will had been violated, he might be able to come up with an explanation that would satisfy them and their families. Given that Harry hadn't come charging in here the way he had when Ginny had attacked Luna Lovegood, they might assume it was a minor breach, that he wanted resolved publicly.
"I did not give you the right to be so familiar with me Dumbledore." Harry countered. "And neither of us is going anywhere… at least not yet. Did you think I would not find out what you had done? Or maybe you thought I would forgive and forget it because your ignoring the instructions in my parent's wills was for the Greater Good ?"
"Harry," Colin Creevy spoke up from his seat at the Gryffindor table when it became evident that Harry and the Headmaster were going to engage in a staring contest until something broke the stalemate. "Just how did the Headmaster violate your parent's wills?"
"My parent's wills contained a list of those they considered suitable guardians for me if my Godfather Sirius Black was not available to take care of me." Harry answered his question without taking his eyes off the Headmaster. "Their list also contained one exception. They stated quite clearly that under no circumstances was I ever to be placed in the custody of Petunia Evans Dursley or her husband Vernon Dursley at any time or for any reason. Their wills said that even Voldemort was a better choice for guardian than Aunt Petunia, given how she loathed magic. And yet knowing that, Dumbledore went against my parents stated wishes and placed me in that hellhole."
"Harry…" Dumbledore began.
"I told you, you do not have the right to use my name. I am Lord Potter to you." Harry interrupted him.
"Very well, Lord Potter," Dumbledore said placatingly. "While I will admit I knew that your parents didn't want you placed with the Dursleys it was necessary to keep you safe. Remember what I told you at the end of your fifth year, after Sirius was killed at the Ministry. The protection your mother placed on you required you be placed with your mother's blood kin to work. Petunia and her son Dudley were the only ones you could be placed with to keep you alive, until the time came for you to fulfil the prophecy. I am fairly certain your parents would have understood and I'm certain you understand now why I had to ignore their wishes with regard to your placement. They kept you safe."
"Well you were wrong, not once but twice." Harry countered. "I had a goblin ward master check out Privet Drive this past month. And while he admits there were blood wards there, which is Dark magic by the way according to the Ministry, he told me they collapsed due to lack of power to maintain them nearly fourteen years ago. Your claim that even though my Aunt took me in grudgingly was enough to provide the protection was wrong. They collapsed within a year after I was placed there and you knew it. There were other wards placed there afterwards that were also detected by the goblins and I was told that my magic had been powering them. No wonder I sometimes had problems making spells work right, given that you tied my magic into the wards that were protecting those wastes of space I laughingly call my family. Do you remember what else you told me that night? About when I arrived at Hogwarts that first night?"
"Yes," Dumbledore didn't elaborate. He could see the looks of shock and disgust on some of the faces in the Great Hall. He knew was going to have a lot of explaining to do later on.
"You didn't place me with the Dursley's for my protection. You placed me there so you could mould your weapon to defeat Voldemort without getting your own hands dirty." Harry told the room at large. "According to your own words, which I remember very well thanks to the Dementors, 'five years ago you arrived at Hogwarts, neither as happy or as well nourished as I would have liked, but you were alive. You were not a pampered prince but as normal a little boy as I could have hoped for under the circumstances. Thus far my plan was working well.' I was not a normal little boy, unless it is considered normal in the wizarding world for a child to be treated as a slave from the time they are four years of age. Forced to watch as my cousin is showered with love and all the things that go along with it, while I am called a freak, starved, worked nearly to death, beaten for things that were not my fault, and not even knowing my own name until I went to school, and that only happened because they couldn't hide the fact I lived there. If they could have, I don't think I would have gone to school either."
.....
Join my p@treon and read ahead by more than 60+ chapters.
Link : [email protected]/Sonic_Spectre
Free members can read the next two chapters for free on my p@treon