What if Dumbledore had not allowed Harry to go into debt with Malfoy? His Dark Side showed him this possible solution, and he would have used it if Dumbledore had not caved. What would it have looked like? Here is my best guess.
All Hail Light Lord Harry
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What if Dumbledore hadn't backed down?
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A tap of stone silenced the crowd.
"No," said the voice of Dumbledore.
Harry's head jerked around to stare at the ancient wizard.
Dumbledore's lined face was pale, the silver beard was visibly trembling, he looked like he was in the final throes of a terminal illness. "I'm - sorry, Harry - but this choice is not yours - for I am still the guardian of your vault."
"What? " said Harry, too shocked to compose his reply.
"I cannot let you go into debt to Lucius Malfoy, Harry! I cannot! You do not know - you do not realize -"
The old wizard stopped speaking as he apprehended the momentary look of fury and hatred, wrenched from Harry before his Dark Side rotated back in.
Some part of him possessed of immense wisdom realized the danger of this, but Harry wasn't listening to wisdom at the moment.
All other avenues are closed. You have tried bargaining. You have tried rhetoric. You have tried bribery. You have nothing which anyone in this room wants enough to save Hermione's life. This is the only option.
But Hermione will hate me! And she'll be right to! Said Hufflepuff and Gryffindor simultaneously.
Hermione's friendship is worthless if she is dead.
And that decided it.
Betraying not a bit of his true emotions, Harry spoke to Dumbledore. "In that case, I have another plan. I will implement it regardless of your actions, but it would be more likely to succeed if in the next fifteen seconds you took McGonagall and left this hall for approximately fifteen minutes."
Shock, and not a little suspicion, played across the old wizard's face for a few moments. Then, in two cascades of flame, Fawkes took Dumbledore first to McGonagall's side, then out of the room.
Harry looked up at the whole of the Wizengamot, all fury locked away behind the immovable ice that was his Dark Side. He looked up, and he spoke the words which he knew would end this chapter of his life.
"Dementors are manifestations of Death. Patronuses work by distracting you from your fear of Death. You no longer have any defense against the darkest creatures known to exist."
A long moment of silence passed.
And then every patronus in the room winked out. Immediately, the crushing despair of the dementor surged, buoyed forth by the newfound expectation held by everyone in the room save Harry that the creature was completely unstoppable. People screamed from all directions, many of them fell off their benches into the rows behind them, as if the dementor were a physical force. Dozens of people raised their wands, and countless cries of "Expecto Patronum!" burst out, but not a single mote of silver light was produced.
The dementor, meanwhile, slowly glided toward the chair containing a Hermione whose horror had redoubled.
NO.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Searing light, brighter than all the patronuses which had previously contained the dementor, burst forth directly in front of Hermione, as the figure imposed itself between her and onrushing Death. The despair cut out as quickly as it had begun, its source now floating blindly in the middle of the room.
People began to notice the impossible form, pointing in shock and looking about to determine the source. Absent the Chief Warlock, some of them even guessed correctly.
Harry stood, and all the scorn and malice he felt for the Lords and Ladies of the Wizengamot caused the patronus to dim before he got it under control.
Now the room was looking at him.
Harry began to speak. "At the beginning of this year, on Platform 9 ¾, I learned about this body from Draco Malfoy. He told me, as one Slytherin to another, that it regularly behaved much as I have seen today. I swore to myself, then, that I would see it destroyed."
Throughout the room, those Lords and Ladies with a modicum of intelligence remained stony-faced. Those without, however, began to chuckle. One of them, a well-built man about the right age to have a child in Hogwarts, spoke.
"You? Destroy the Wizengamot? I'd like to see you try!"
The man broke down in laughter, which spread throughout the Malfoy contingent.
Odd. You'd think, after dementor exposure, they'd be more subdued, mused Hufflepuff. At least some of them must fear death, right?
Ravenclaw saw the answer immediately. In Azkaban, Bellatrix recovered enough to perform multiple minor spells within half an hour. You mused at the time that the True Patronus Charm might return recently taken life and magic. Since they had seconds of exposure, everything was returned. They are now as convinced of their absolute superiority as they were when they entered the room.
Let's fix that. Slytherin replied.
Harry cleared his mind, then filled the whole of it with a single thought, a single expectation, like an occlumency barrier.
Dementor. You will attack the man who spoke, or you will be destroyed.
Just as they had in Azkaban, the dementor acted upon his iron-hard conviction that it would do so. It flew toward the Malfoy section, toward the man Harry had just this instant realized was probably Lord Jugson, judging by similarities to his son. The whole Wizengamot flinched and wands rose to hands again as Lord Jugson fell to his knees in horror as the wound in creation came within inches of his face.
"No! My Lord! I will do better! I wi-AAAAAAAAAghhhhhhh!" he screamed. Harry noted that Lord Malfoy had a momentary look of recognition on his face, before it was replaced with a mask mimicking the more generic dismay exuded by the rest of his coalition.
So Lord Jugson's worst memory is being crucioed by the Dark Lord, and Malfoy was there when it happened. Interesting.
Then Harry noticed the patronus was guttering like a candle. In an instant, it was in front of Lord Jugson as Harry realized he'd almost allowed a man to be Kissed.
We can't choose to let someone die while maintaining the conviction that everyone deserves to live. Got it.
"In case you were still wondering," Harry stated at Lord Jugson's quivering form, in tones of cold, icy satisfaction, "I already have destroyed the Wizengamot."
He looked back up to address the whole room. "I did my research before arriving here today. You can't apparate into or out of the Most Ancient Hall. Indeed, while those doors are sealed, the only messengers which can enter or leave are Patronuses. None of you have those any more, so nobody outside this room knows what is happening. You might think to twist time, but…"
A puff of air was all anyone else might have noticed, but Harry knew the arrival of a second copy of his Deathly Hallow. "I have just taken measures against such an intrusion."
Harry nodded to himself in appreciation before continuing. "In addition, if you do anything to interrupt my Patronus, everyone except myself is eaten by the manifestation of Death you so helpfully provided me. Anyone bolts for the doors and they also get eaten."
An empty threat, but Jugson's sobbing had not yet died down. The point was made.
"You might be wondering how I am planning to survive holding the entire Wizengamot hostage in their own Ancient Ha-"
"You forget one thing, boy!" bellowed Lucius Malfoy, wand withdrawn from cane and pointed directly at Harry's heart, "There are those of us with little to lose, and my son is not in this room. Avada Kedavra!"
Harry didn't even attempt to dodge. His patronus flickered into existence in front of him, and the Killing Curse hit it with all the efficacy of a sleep hex on a prismatic sphere.
Dead silence fell over the Hall as Harry sneered at the man who would have tortured Hermione Granger to death. An alien rush of satisfaction flowed through him, and he realized the source was his Dark Side.
He'd never realized exactly how much that part of him enjoyed crushing his enemies.
"Did you really," Harry spoke in tones of dripping malice, "just attempt to use the Killing Curse on the Boy Who Lived? And to think your son respects your cunning."
Harry looked back up to address the Malfoy contingent. "You will note that your leader just attempted to sacrifice, not just himself, but each and every one of you, in his misguided and foolish quest for vengeance. Perhaps you will remember that the next time you consider deferring to a family renowned for such treachery."
The stunned silence continued, every Lord, Lady, and onlooker having difficulty coming to terms with the compounding impossibilities. Harry took the opportunity to continue. "As I was saying before I was interrupted, you may be wondering how I am planning to survive this. It's simple: none of my enemies will have magic or wealth anymore, and none of my allies will ever be able to defy me. Everyone who just voted to torture a twelve year old girl to death is going to fuel the Unbreakable Vows which turn the festering human rights violation this nation calls a government into something less obviously evil."
Harry knew the reaction this announcement would engender, and so he pre-empted the inevitable barrage of non-Killing Curses which would have showered in from the blood purists by shoving the Dementor at them. They attempted to retain their fury, but none of them had Harry's advantages in resisting Death's influence. A few wands rose, and a half dozen curses flew, but several of them were poorly aimed (thank Quirrel that Harry's standards of what constituted good aim were so high), and the rest were intercepted by the Prismatic Sphere the invisible Harry quietly cast. The overlapping wails of the blood purist faction reliving their worst nightmares almost distracted Harry, but then that section of the room fell almost silent.
Future Harry had cast a silencing barrier. He'd have to thank himself before he went back.
"Those of you who didn't just vote to brutally execute a little girl will be required to give Oaths which bind you to the service of humanity. You will never again vote to execute anyone, and you will prepare a new prison. Azkaban is closing, and all of the Dementors in it will be destroyed." Harry's smile grew wider. "I, after all, am what happened to the Dementor you sent to Hogwarts."
Harry turned back towards the beleaguered Malfoy contingent. "They, on the other hand, will be required to give an Oath that they will never again rule over others. They will give up all of their wealth, and never again will they raise a hand in violence against another. They will bind these oaths, both on themselves and on you, so that they will never again be able to use the magic they held in such esteem. They will become that which we need to protect, for they will be unable to protect themselves."
Harry addressed the whole room again. "Who volunteers to go first?"
"No," said the voice of Dumbledore.
Harry's head jerked around to stare at the ancient wizard.
Dumbledore's lined face was pale, the silver beard was visibly trembling, he looked like he was in the final throes of a terminal illness. "I'm - sorry, Harry - but this choice is not yours - for I am still the guardian of your vault."
"What? " said Harry, too shocked to compose his reply.
"I cannot let you go into debt to Lucius Malfoy, Harry! I cannot! You do not know - you do not realize -"
The old wizard stopped speaking as he apprehended the momentary look of fury and hatred, wrenched from Harry before his Dark Side rotated back in.
Some part of him possessed of immense wisdom realized the danger of this, but Harry wasn't listening to wisdom at the moment.
All other avenues are closed. You have tried bargaining. You have tried rhetoric. You have tried bribery. You have nothing which anyone in this room wants enough to save Hermione's life. This is the only option.
But Hermione will hate me! And she'll be right to! Said Hufflepuff and Gryffindor simultaneously.
Hermione's friendship is worthless if she is dead.
And that decided it.
Betraying not a bit of his true emotions, Harry spoke to Dumbledore. "In that case, I have another plan. I will implement it regardless of your actions, but it would be more likely to succeed if in the next fifteen seconds you took McGonagall and left this hall for approximately fifteen minutes."
Shock, and not a little suspicion, played across the old wizard's face for a few moments. Then, in two cascades of flame, Fawkes took Dumbledore first to McGonagall's side, then out of the room.
Harry looked up at the whole of the Wizengamot, all fury locked away behind the immovable ice that was his Dark Side. He looked up, and he spoke the words which he knew would end this chapter of his life.
"Dementors are manifestations of Death. Patronuses work by distracting you from your fear of Death. You no longer have any defense against the darkest creatures known to exist."
A long moment of silence passed.
And then every patronus in the room winked out. Immediately, the crushing despair of the dementor surged, buoyed forth by the newfound expectation held by everyone in the room save Harry that the creature was completely unstoppable. People screamed from all directions, many of them fell off their benches into the rows behind them, as if the dementor were a physical force. Dozens of people raised their wands, and countless cries of "Expecto Patronum!" burst out, but not a single mote of silver light was produced.
The dementor, meanwhile, slowly glided toward the chair containing a Hermione whose horror had redoubled.
NO.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Searing light, brighter than all the patronuses which had previously contained the dementor, burst forth directly in front of Hermione, as the figure imposed itself between her and onrushing Death. The despair cut out as quickly as it had begun, its source now floating blindly in the middle of the room.
People began to notice the impossible form, pointing in shock and looking about to determine the source. Absent the Chief Warlock, some of them even guessed correctly.
Harry stood, and all the scorn and malice he felt for the Lords and Ladies of the Wizengamot caused the patronus to dim before he got it under control.
Now the room was looking at him.
Harry began to speak. "At the beginning of this year, on Platform 9 ¾, I learned about this body from Draco Malfoy. He told me, as one Slytherin to another, that it regularly behaved much as I have seen today. I swore to myself, then, that I would see it destroyed."
Throughout the room, those Lords and Ladies with a modicum of intelligence remained stony-faced. Those without, however, began to chuckle. One of them, a well-built man about the right age to have a child in Hogwarts, spoke.
"You? Destroy the Wizengamot? I'd like to see you try!"
The man broke down in laughter, which spread throughout the Malfoy contingent.
Odd. You'd think, after dementor exposure, they'd be more subdued, mused Hufflepuff. At least some of them must fear death, right?
Ravenclaw saw the answer immediately. In Azkaban, Bellatrix recovered enough to perform multiple minor spells within half an hour. You mused at the time that the True Patronus Charm might return recently taken life and magic. Since they had seconds of exposure, everything was returned. They are now as convinced of their absolute superiority as they were when they entered the room.
Let's fix that. Slytherin replied.
Harry cleared his mind, then filled the whole of it with a single thought, a single expectation, like an occlumency barrier.
Dementor. You will attack the man who spoke, or you will be destroyed.
Just as they had in Azkaban, the dementor acted upon his iron-hard conviction that it would do so. It flew toward the Malfoy section, toward the man Harry had just this instant realized was probably Lord Jugson, judging by similarities to his son. The whole Wizengamot flinched and wands rose to hands again as Lord Jugson fell to his knees in horror as the wound in creation came within inches of his face.
"No! My Lord! I will do better! I wi-AAAAAAAAAghhhhhhh!" he screamed. Harry noted that Lord Malfoy had a momentary look of recognition on his face, before it was replaced with a mask mimicking the more generic dismay exuded by the rest of his coalition.
So Lord Jugson's worst memory is being crucioed by the Dark Lord, and Malfoy was there when it happened. Interesting.
Then Harry noticed the patronus was guttering like a candle. In an instant, it was in front of Lord Jugson as Harry realized he'd almost allowed a man to be Kissed.
We can't choose to let someone die while maintaining the conviction that everyone deserves to live. Got it.
"In case you were still wondering," Harry stated at Lord Jugson's quivering form, in tones of cold, icy satisfaction, "I already have destroyed the Wizengamot."
He looked back up to address the whole room. "I did my research before arriving here today. You can't apparate into or out of the Most Ancient Hall. Indeed, while those doors are sealed, the only messengers which can enter or leave are Patronuses. None of you have those any more, so nobody outside this room knows what is happening. You might think to twist time, but…"
A puff of air was all anyone else might have noticed, but Harry knew the arrival of a second copy of his Deathly Hallow. "I have just taken measures against such an intrusion."
Harry nodded to himself in appreciation before continuing. "In addition, if you do anything to interrupt my Patronus, everyone except myself is eaten by the manifestation of Death you so helpfully provided me. Anyone bolts for the doors and they also get eaten."
An empty threat, but Jugson's sobbing had not yet died down. The point was made.
"You might be wondering how I am planning to survive holding the entire Wizengamot hostage in their own Ancient Ha-"
"You forget one thing, boy!" bellowed Lucius Malfoy, wand withdrawn from cane and pointed directly at Harry's heart, "There are those of us with little to lose, and my son is not in this room. Avada Kedavra!"
Harry didn't even attempt to dodge. His patronus flickered into existence in front of him, and the Killing Curse hit it with all the efficacy of a sleep hex on a prismatic sphere.
Dead silence fell over the Hall as Harry sneered at the man who would have tortured Hermione Granger to death. An alien rush of satisfaction flowed through him, and he realized the source was his Dark Side.
He'd never realized exactly how much that part of him enjoyed crushing his enemies.
"Did you really," Harry spoke in tones of dripping malice, "just attempt to use the Killing Curse on the Boy Who Lived? And to think your son respects your cunning."
Harry looked back up to address the Malfoy contingent. "You will note that your leader just attempted to sacrifice, not just himself, but each and every one of you, in his misguided and foolish quest for vengeance. Perhaps you will remember that the next time you consider deferring to a family renowned for such treachery."
The stunned silence continued, every Lord, Lady, and onlooker having difficulty coming to terms with the compounding impossibilities. Harry took the opportunity to continue. "As I was saying before I was interrupted, you may be wondering how I am planning to survive this. It's simple: none of my enemies will have magic or wealth anymore, and none of my allies will ever be able to defy me. Everyone who just voted to torture a twelve year old girl to death is going to fuel the Unbreakable Vows which turn the festering human rights violation this nation calls a government into something less obviously evil."
Harry knew the reaction this announcement would engender, and so he pre-empted the inevitable barrage of non-Killing Curses which would have showered in from the blood purists by shoving the Dementor at them. They attempted to retain their fury, but none of them had Harry's advantages in resisting Death's influence. A few wands rose, and a half dozen curses flew, but several of them were poorly aimed (thank Quirrel that Harry's standards of what constituted good aim were so high), and the rest were intercepted by the Prismatic Sphere the invisible Harry quietly cast. The overlapping wails of the blood purist faction reliving their worst nightmares almost distracted Harry, but then that section of the room fell almost silent.
Future Harry had cast a silencing barrier. He'd have to thank himself before he went back.
"Those of you who didn't just vote to brutally execute a little girl will be required to give Oaths which bind you to the service of humanity. You will never again vote to execute anyone, and you will prepare a new prison. Azkaban is closing, and all of the Dementors in it will be destroyed." Harry's smile grew wider. "I, after all, am what happened to the Dementor you sent to Hogwarts."
Harry turned back towards the beleaguered Malfoy contingent. "They, on the other hand, will be required to give an Oath that they will never again rule over others. They will give up all of their wealth, and never again will they raise a hand in violence against another. They will bind these oaths, both on themselves and on you, so that they will never again be able to use the magic they held in such esteem. They will become that which we need to protect, for they will be unable to protect themselves."
Harry addressed the whole room again. "Who volunteers to go first?"
- Location
- Greece
I was kinda lost when reading this... is this an AU to Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality?
- Location
- US
- Location
- edinbrugh
You really should say that at the start.
- Location
- Hellish Yard
Toms gonna Tom
Also, why was he never dubbed Smoldemort? Even if it wasn't a term at the time, I don't think that I've ever seen him called that?
Also, given that Lucius is one of the three people closest to the truth, and the only one who wouldn't lose a lot if the truth came out, I can see him maybe revealing it- to Draco, if nothing else. Thus providing an alternate path for Draco to take along the trauma conga line maybe with everything going FUBAR, Dumbledore will reveal to them that Narcissa didn't die? Let Draco have both his parents, and may they live a weird sitcom life, instead of only having his mother after he loses his father?
Aside from the first percieved betrayal, finding out your best friend is literally Voldemort, and presumably using you the same way he used your beloved father, has got to hurt. A lot.
Also, why was he never dubbed Smoldemort? Even if it wasn't a term at the time, I don't think that I've ever seen him called that?
Also, given that Lucius is one of the three people closest to the truth, and the only one who wouldn't lose a lot if the truth came out, I can see him maybe revealing it- to Draco, if nothing else. Thus providing an alternate path for Draco to take along the trauma conga line maybe with everything going FUBAR, Dumbledore will reveal to them that Narcissa didn't die? Let Draco have both his parents, and may they live a weird sitcom life, instead of only having his mother after he loses his father?
Aside from the first percieved betrayal, finding out your best friend is literally Voldemort, and presumably using you the same way he used your beloved father, has got to hurt. A lot.
I thought you had to give up your capacity to trust someone when making an unbreakable vow