12 Chapter - 12 : Griveance Part - 2

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Sadly, there was no official record of Albus Dumbledore having placed him anywhere. Apparently people just believed the old coot when he'd promised them things like, 'Harry Potter was placed with his relatives, where he'll be safe.' Note that statement - there was no actual indication that Albus had done the placing, only that he knew that Harry had been placed. He could, at need, haul in some disposable underling to blame for the 'lapse in judgment' or some such for having effectively enslaved the Boy-Who-Lived to bitter enemies of his family, who hated everything magic with a burning passion.

And, actually, he'd probably already set up Hagrid to suffer that fall for him, if such did get divulged and a scapegoat became necessary. After all, it had been the Groundskeeper who had done the leg work of taking Harry from the ruins of his parents' home and delivering him to the doorstep of the Dursleys - it would be simplicity itself for the Headmaster to disclaim any knowledge about how horrid the conditions there were.

Albus simply hadn't been informed, that's all. Surely, if he'd known how bad it would have been for young Harry, he would've stepped in. But, sadly, Hagrid had never told him any specifics that could have revealed such danger!

It was all the Groundskeeper's fault. Harry could already imagine the tears of perfectly faked remorse Dumbledore would summon as he planted all of the blame for any reported mistreatment squarely on Hagrid, for not having done any due diligence at all in investigating those wicked muggles.

I told you to do that? Why, Hagrid? How could you have misunderstood me so badly? What I'd said was...

No, the Headmaster's dodge was already in place. Of that, Harry was certain. He'd never be caught under the falling anvil of responsibility should reports surface about the nightmare of Harry's upbringing, enslaved to his enemies who'd personally hated him and everything he stood for.

Nevertheless, Harry made precisely that report - because that was what the Dursleys were, bitter enemies of his family, who hated everything magic with a burning passion. And he had been their slave for ten full years.

He also made sure to make a good sob story out of it.

A normal child would feel guilt and shame, and conceal at least some aspects of the truth in order to gloss over the worst of it, fearing as though they themselves were to blame for their treatment. Harry had no such inclination. He wanted the Dursleys to suffer. He wanted them stripped of their power over him, so he never had to put up with them ever again.

He made sure to have an auto-notes quill going under his chair when he was giving his testimony before the Aurors and Underage Magic office, where he was making a case for his emancipation because of "the barbarous cruelty of those torturous creatures who'd abused him so horribly."

Sadly, Harry couldn't tie the Headmaster to that publicly. There was just no proof. However, there would be a few who knew the truth, and would be able to connect the dots. If any of them chose to come forward, well, gravy. He did not either expect or require that, it would just be nice.

In the end, after a full examination by a team of St. Mungo's Healers and Mediwitches, who confirmed his report of massive, long term abuse, neglect, overwork and near-starvation, Harry was free to go take advantage of his next opportunity while the Ministry caught fire in righteous indignation over this newest scandal, launching off onto their next crusade on behalf of their precious Boy-Who-Lived.

Fame was a weapon, something that Dumbledore understood all too well. And certainly a part of his having kept Harry locked up and isolated was to ensure that the boy never learned how to use his own reputation.

Well, too late for that. Tom had been an expert on fame before he'd chosen fear. He'd built himself up from a know-nothing nobody without a respectable old family name to the leader of House Slytherin whose peers willingly swore allegiance to him and his cause. Selfish pureblood bigots fought for him and died for him, seeing his ambitions as their own.

That takes no small amount of skill, and Harry had inherited that. It was time to put it to good use.

Actually, Harry had a number of things to be pursuing at the Ministry that morning, and the very least of such would be to destroy one of Voldemort's servants, and in the same motion helping to free a possible ally of his own.

That takes no small amount of skill, and Harry had inherited that. It was time to put it to good use.

Actually, Harry had a number of things to be pursuing at the Ministry that morning, and the very least of such would be to destroy one of Voldemort's servants, and in the same motion helping to free a possible ally of his own.

Peter Pettigrew's destruction was not actually high on Harry's list of things he had to attend to. There were too many things he counted as emergencies for that. No, Death Eaters were strictly 'targets of opportunity' as far as he was concerned. It was just that Peter had fallen practically into his lap.

And, of course, there was also the issue of Sirius Black. Voldemort knew the man was not a Death Eater, his secret right hand man, or any of the things that poor escaped prisoner had been accused of. And, since Voldemort knew it as of the time of his death, Harry also knew it.

So, there was an innocent man out there, close friend to his parents, a good if not spectacular dueler (the only Marauder other than James to have stood up to fight Voldemort personally and lived to tell of it), who was being hunted like a mad dog, and who just happened to also be Harry's godfather.

Well, call him naive, but it seemed to Harry that a blitz attack was going to be the only way to slip anything by Dumbledore in the Ministry. Riddle'd cared little for details of all of the internal politicking going on there. During his first rise, it had been Lucius' playground, and Voldemort had been content to give orders and demand results.

It wasn't like he could pursue his own aims there in person, after all.

However, even though his perspective was second hand, Tom knew that Albus had been a shrewd player on that battlefield. One would think the old man's power base was at Hogwarts, but during political struggles at the Ministry of Magic it was clear that canny old codger never lost a battle there he did not intend to lose.

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