"If you want to say that there are no Dark wizards in this world, then is there a need for the Auror Office to exist? Do you mean you want to completely abolish the Auror Office? Oh, I see..."
"Twenty points from Hufflepuff!" she shrieked. "Gryffindor—every student who raised their hand, ten points each! Mr. Potter, twenty points! Mr. Leon, thirty points!"
The classroom was in uproar. Some gasped, some muttered complaints, but mostly there was silence—the kind of silence where one dares to be angry but not to speak.
Leon stood there, his back straight as a tree, looking at the giant toad standing on the podium, dressed in pink, using the deduction of House points as a weapon.
"Professor," he said, his voice not loud, but in this silent classroom, everyone could hear him clearly. "Do we care about points?"
Umbridge froze.
"We care about the truth," Leon said. "About life. About whether we can make it back alive after we walk out of this castle. If today's seventy points—or thirty points, or however many points you want to deduct—if using these points can be exchanged for an attitude of taking responsibility for everyone's safety, exchanged for someone willing to open their eyes and look at the real world outside, instead of—"
"—instead of burying one's head in the sand," he finished. "Then the deducted points will be my medal of honour."
Deathly silence.
Then, it was unknown who started it first. A crisp sound—a hand slapping on a desk. Then another, and another, and another. Applause.
At first it was scattered, and then it swept across the room. Applause erupted everywhere along the long tables. Someone whistled, someone shouted "Well said!", and someone—seemingly one of the Weasley twins—set off a colourful firework in the corner. The firework exploded with a bang, turning into a golden badger that drifted slowly through the air.
Umbridge stood on the podium, her face flushing the colour of liver. Her lips moved, wanting to speak, but no sound came out. That pink cardigan looked absurdly garish at this moment, like a clown's costume.
At this moment, absolutely no one cared about points.
No—more accurately, most people didn't care about points to begin with, especially in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
What Gryffindor and Slytherin cared more about wasn't the points themselves, but not wanting the other side to surpass them.
And this was all thanks to Snape.
That man played his double standards far too blatantly. In his classes, he would frantically award points to Slytherin and frantically deduct points from the other three Houses. This extreme level of favouritism resulted in Slytherin winning the House Cup for seven consecutive years by the time Harry was in his first year.
So don't talk about Dumbledore pulling strings behind the scenes during Harry's first year, finding a bunch of reasons to award him points at the end of term to bump them from last place to first.
It was mainly because Snape's actions were too outrageous, inciting public outrage.
On the podium, Umbridge's face alternated between red and white. She opened her mouth and closed it, wanting to speak but unable to utter a word.
Because Leon had left her absolutely no leverage. Not a single flaw.
In the original story, the reason Umbridge was able to completely suppress Harry—carving words into his hand and doing all sorts of things—was mainly because Harry was too reckless.
The current political stance of the Ministry was "let's pretend nothing happened." Don't mention things that are detrimental to unity. Voldemort, the Dark Lord whose name must not be spoken, has been dead for a long time.
When Harry rebutted her, he kept saying Voldemort was alive, violating the Ministry's official line, which gave her a legitimate reason to punish him.
In that situation, whether Harry went to Dumbledore or McGonagall, it was useless—because both of them voluntarily bound themselves within the rules. So when she acted according to those rules, they couldn't help Harry much either.
But Leon was different.
He didn't refute the Ministry's official stance. He raised his questions based on the premise that Voldemort was already dead.
Guarantee that they wouldn't be attacked by Dark wizards after graduation? What could she possibly use to guarantee that?
As for his later escalation about her wanting to abolish the Auror Office—she couldn't even begin to address that.
Abolish the Aurors? Her?
Leaving aside the fact that the head of the Auror Office, Scrimgeour, was a popular candidate for the next Minister for Magic, the department itself was a law enforcement agency—the largest armed force in the Ministry of Magic. If word of this got out, she would likely be torn to shreds.
Finally enduring until the bell rang, Umbridge swept out of the classroom like a gust of wind. That pink cardigan disappeared behind the door, leaving only a sickly-sweet perfume scent and a room full of still-buzzing students.
Leon began packing his bag.
Someone patted him on the shoulder. He turned his head and met a pair of green eyes.
Harry Potter stood before him, with an expression—Leon didn't know how to describe it. It was like looking at a light, like suddenly seeing someone strike a match in the darkest night. That undisguised admiration, respect, and shock were all written on the fifteen-year-old boy's face.
"Leon," Harry said, his voice a little hoarse. "What you just said... how did you think of it? How could you... say those things to her face?"
Leon shrugged. It was called "critical thinking"—teaching you to stand up and refute authority when they were spouting nonsense.
...
"Someone had to say it, right?" Leon patted Harry's shoulder.
Harry shook his head, his look of admiration deepening.
"I couldn't do it," he said in a low voice. "I wanted to rebut her just now too, but I would only have let that old... let her make me lose my temper with anger, and end up in detention. But you're different. You controlled the situation from beginning to end. Every word you said left her unable to refute. You—"
He couldn't go on, just looking at Leon as if looking at a miracle.
It was no wonder he was so excited. He had suffered too much this past summer.
Ever since the end of the Triwizard Tournament last year, he had gone from "The Boy Who Lived" and "The Saviour" to a "liar full of nonsense." During the summer holidays, he was first attacked by Dementors. After using the Patronus Charm to repel them, he was accused of using magic in front of a Muggle while underage, directly violating the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery. He was first notified of his expulsion from Hogwarts; then he received an owl informing him to attend a hearing at the Ministry of Magic on August 12th to decide whether he would be expelled.
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