111 Chapter 111: Unwanted Truths
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9 January 1993, Hogwarts
Harry's little rant was met with a deafening silence across the entire chamber, until the King stood up, getting everyone's attention and spoke up, "Alright, you have made your point. The purpose of this meeting is very simple. We wish to know what's your plan to deal with Basilisk."
At their answer, Harry couldn't help but burst into laughter. By the powers, these idiots want Harry to share his plans with them. The King was obviously experienced when it came to politics. He was pretty good for someone his age, but that's it. He was a teenager.
These were all teenagers who were trying to play with something that they didn't comprehend. They were the power brokers of the school. They spied on the other Slytherins and used that information to make bargains and deals. They had contacts inside and outside the school, and they could sneak banned items in, or illegal potions, a few hard to find ingredients. At most, they attacked people from the shadows.
So, that's all this court was. For all its glorified prestige in the house, it was just an association to trade favours and enforce the unwritten rules of the house. It probably used to be something else when it was created, especially considering the nature of the magic involved, but currently, it is barely more than a Slytherin student association. It seemed powerful if you were a normal student, maybe even a little intimidating, but that was it.
They shouldn't even be anywhere near a Basilisk.
Seriously, it would be like giving a school student council the responsibility of dealing with a nuke.
It was just that the situation was so absurd that the Potter scion couldn't help but burst into laughter.
After a few minutes, the white queen seemed to take offence at his nature, "What's so funny, Potter?"
Harry decided to mess with them a bit more, "It's all about plans for you, isn't it? Dumbledore has plans. The heir of Slytherin has plans. Even the Dark Lord had plans before he got himself blown up. That's how the world works, isn't it? Plans upon plans, one on top of the other, each person trying to complete their own while making sure that their enemies' plans fail. No one panics when things go 'according to plan', even if the plan is horrifying. If someone figures out that a muggleborn or a squib gets petrified, no one panics, because it's all part of the plan. But now that you think there's a chance that the monster could kill any one of us, then everyone loses their mind. This illusion of safety that you had was gone. I guess it's true. Ignorance is bliss, isn't it? So, look at me, look at my face right now. Does it look like I give a shit about your plans..."
Every single court member shifted around awkwardly, and Harry continued, "And you know what's even funnier, you have no idea what you're dealing with. You want to go after whoever is opening the chamber, be my guest, but the fact remains that you're so outclassed, it's not even funny. That's the thing that you don't understand, you're not fighting the Basilisk. The beast would like nothing more than to kill every resident of the castle, pureblood, half-blood, and muggleborn alike. This entire thing is a game and you can't even see the board. The heir of Slytherin is a player, I am a player. As is Dumbledore for that matter, but he's being discreet about it. Or at least, he tries to be discreet."
The Black Bishop growled at Harry's answer, "And how is this a game?"
"You're not seeing it. You're going to get eaten alive if you even try to do something about this," Harry responded, "you only have to look at the attacks, idiots."
Sneering at their confused muttering, he continued, "You look at the attack, and you try to figure out who did it. And that's not a bad thing, but the more important question is why. Why was Filch the victim in the first place? Why was the attack right next to the Great Hall? The answer is simple, fear. Filch was barely out of sight for a few seconds when he was attacked, and irksome or not, he's a member of the faculty. The heir's message was simple: 'I can get anyone anywhere, and no one can stop me'. The message on the wall was also a threat, a promise of future violence. It was written by hand, but the hand was charmed to not reveal any fingerprints. It was also written before the attack even took place."
"How so?" the black queen asked.
"It's obvious. The time it would take to write a message in blood would be too long if you considered the timeline."
"He could have used magic to do it…"
The Potter scion snorted, "Dumbledore would have detected it in seconds and tracked down the perpetrator. No magic was involved in writing the message. There was no magic in the blood used. So, the conclusion is simple, the message was written before the attack. That means that the location was chosen, but maybe not the person. That meant one of two things, either the victim was random and the moment any acceptable person was in the corridor without any other students around, the heir attacked. But that would indicate a randomness that does not fit the profile of the attacker. Or, the most likely solution, the victim was chosen far before the attack was made. It was essentially a play, made using an entire network of students to get that done, although they are probably under some kind of compulsion charm. A few students made sure to block the corridor slightly, either with notice-me-not charms or physically, while Filch, under a compulsion charm or an imperious curse, ended up in the exact spot underneath the message, which was probably covered with an object that was put under an illusion. After Filch realized what had happened, he was petrified, and his cat had died, but that was probably an accident. So, tell me, oh court of Slytherin, do you think you can deal with a level of preparedness that the heir exhibited?"
Harry could tell that he had frightened them. These weren't bad people, just teenagers over their heads. The man in the Basilisk mask spoke up, "And Dumbledore is aware of all of this."
"I don't know, but probably," the Potter scion admitted, "Look Dumbledore is already putting a lot of secrecy charms on the whole thing. It's subtle but you can feel it and overcome it if you want to. Tell me, did any of you tell your parents about the chamber of secrets being opened?"
They all hesitantly started to shake their heads and Harry continued, "You just realized that you should probably do that, don't you? It's very sneaky, a compulsion added to the castle not to inform the press or anyone outside it about the shady stuff that happens under Dumbledore's watch. Like the Forbidden Corridor, last year. Did any of you think about informing your parents about it? Look, I know it's scary, but that's how it is. The more the curtain is lifted, the more you'll realize how it would have been better to stay in the dark. So, let me give you a piece of advice. Stay out of this. Don't look for the heir, don't think about fighting a fucking Basilisk, and go on with your day, hoping that the heir would still be merciful enough to stick to petrifying and not killing. If you really can't stop thinking about it, ask your parents to temporarily withdraw you from the school and just return for your exams."
Harry really did feel guilty about how freaked out they all were. He didn't know that the common room was bugged. It was a giant breach of privacy, and he could see how this feature was probably used to silence any opposition to Voldemort's movement in Slytherin during the war.
The fact is that had Harry known about the common room being bugged, he wouldn't have revealed enough clues for anyone to know what the monster was. He would have probably taken Longbottom aside in the dormitories instead and revealed the information to him there.
Now, he had accidentally involved students in this mess and that wasn't good for anyone's sake. Harry could tell that they were terrified. They wanted to do anything about the whole issue, but there was really no action they could take that would make any difference.
The Black Bishop growled, "And how do we know you're not just pulling our tail, that you're not just pretending to know anything just so that we would invite you to a place amongst up next year?"
The Potter scion let out a snort, "The answer is simple. If you doubted my words, you wouldn't be as afraid as you are now. But fine, if you need a demonstration that I'm not lying, I am more than willing to demonstrate. For example, I could tell that the entrance to this room is by blood. There are small traces of blood on the snakes in the doorway. Cleaning charms could only do so much on something as magically complex as the court's doorway. So, since the wards didn't probe my magic, that must be the way in. But for blood to be added to the wards or removed, you need something that acts as an anchor. The door itself would be risky since giving direct access to the whole security scheme to an intruder is a bad idea, but it is curious how it matches up to these wooden masks of yours. You see, wooden masks have been used all over the world for a very long time. But they were used by peasants in the old days for their cultural practices. But the masks on your heads are hand-crafted pieces of art, and obviously old. This style of masks in particular was commonly used in theatrical performances in the seventeenth century, just after the statute of secrecy was put in place. But they stopped being made centuries later, the more we were separated from muggle culture. No self-respected teenager would ever wear something as tacky, and uselessly expensive today. It would be better put on a wall as an antique. Conclusion, you're forced to use the masks. Final theory, the masks are bonded to you with blood, which is connected to the door. Now, I have a question for you all. Considering that this is the first time I have ever met the court in any capacity, and also the fact that I have no interest whatsoever in joining it next year, why would I even bother lying to you?"
They all froze for a second and Harry continued, "There's no shame in admitting that you're out of your league. So, here is my honest to Merlin recommendation. Leave the heir of Slytherin alone. I have been playing against this opponent for months and I'm sad to admit that I lost against him more than I won. He is ruthless, pragmatic, intelligent, arrogant, and very emotional. So, go back to your bargaining, to your little school politics and your intelligence network. You're better off not getting involved and I'm telling you, right now, if you ignore my words, I will not save you when you inevitably step on the toes of people far more powerful than you can handle. But most of all, stay out of my way."
With that said, he got up to leave. The King tried to activate the security enchantments on the seat, but Harry had been analyzing them using his Arcane Hearing while he was monologuing and negated them instantly by sending in a discreet inverse pulse of magic to temporarily destabilize the chair's magic.
Harry raised an eyebrow at the King, righted his fedora, and turned towards the door to leave.
However, the stone door was still closed, so, Harry focused on its song. He found the connection between it and the mask and saw that it could be manipulated to open it, by spoofing one of theirs. Choosing to add insult to injury, Harry decided to use the king's mask and spoofed the connection into sending a pulse to open the door. With a wave of his wand, the stone door opened, and Harry stepped out of the room, ignoring the baffling expression on the animated masks held.
With that done, he opened the hidden entrance near the ritual rooms and walked up to the common room. He smiled when he noticed that Daphne was sitting on his spot, reading the book he had gotten her for Christmas.
The moment she noticed his arrival, her concentrated face turned into a giant beam, and she spoke up, "Good morning, Harry."
"Good morning, Daph. You're not usually up this early in the morning."
Daphne Greengrass was many things. She was intelligent, cultured, magically gifted, a bit cold to strangers, and had a wicked sense of humour that meshed well with Harry's own, but she was not a morning person.
The girl snorted, "Yeah, I know I can be a bit grouchy in the morning."
"Grouchy? You froze Blaise's bits one day because he tried to wake you up after you fell asleep in the common room. Why your mother taught you a curse like that, I have no idea."
The Greengrass scion huffed, "I'll have you know, it's a very useful curse. It has been passed down from mother to daughter for centuries. But in this case, I'm up early because I wanted to ask you about something."
"Sure, what is it?"
"Were you serious about the red bean, blue bean thing? Because Tracy and Blaise thought it was a joke or something and that it was just an elaborate way to get us to stop asking questions."
Harry gave the girl a smile, "Yes, I was serious about that."
She handed Harry a familiar red bean, "Then I want to help. You've always done things by yourself like you're an island in the middle of the ocean. But I can tell you're lonely. I guess, I'm saying, that I don't want to leave you alone anymore."
"Are you sure about this? Because there's no going back…"
"Yes, Harry. I choose the red pill."
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AN:
So, this was essentially an introduction to the Court. I know it might seem somewhat random now, but it will be a pretty big thing later. Again, let me know if you think I did something wrong with the chapter and I'm open to suggestions if you have any.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
