Hostile Takeover

Chapter 4

By Halloween, Harry was very pleased to note that he had free time every single evening to do a little independent study and also to meditate with Tom before bed. He started finding books in the library that mentioned obscure forms of magic-mostly in the cultural sections-and even asked Flourish and Blotts to send him a catalogue so he could owl order some more books that would go into more detail about things that he thought would help him and Tom.

It was snowing by the time he thought he had a reasonable plan of action that Dumbledore couldn't ignore. And the holidays had just begun when he had counter arguments-and supporting evidence-to anything Dumbledore could have said.

Now if only he could figure out the password.

"Smarties. No? Snickers? Chocolate frogs? Blood pops? Lemon drops. Fizzing whizbees."

"Black peppered imps. What is so important that you need to see the headmaster Potter?" Harry started and turned to see his head of house standing behind him.

"Oh I...it's a Voldemort thing. I think I've figured out a way to fix this whole mess!" McGonagall looked stunned but waved him ahead of her. She followed him up to Dumbledore's office, gave him a few scrolls and left the two alone.

"Well, can I assume that this is about Tom?" Harry nodded and Dumbledore sat back in his chair, rubbed his eyes, and motioned for him to get on with it. "Very well. What do you have in mind?"

"I've brought evidence, working theories, and a plan from start to finish this time." Dumbledore's interest peaked at the dedication Harry had shown to this particular subject. Harry dove right in and didn't stop to let Dumbledore talk-he paused enough in areas that required a bit more thought to really understand the subject matter but as soon as Dumbledore looked like he would open his mouth to protest, Harry simply trudged on.

By the time he was done he was completely confident in himself and that confidence only rose the longer Dumbledore sat and stared at the diagrams he'd brought.

After what seemed like forever, Dumbledore smiled.

"Well my boy, it looks like you've created the perfect plan! I can't find any fault with your reasoning here and it looks like you've spent plenty long developing these theories thus far. But have you thought of what might occur should Tom decide to go back to his ways?" Harry's heart sunk as a realisation hit him.

"You don't trust him. You've never trusted him-even when he was a kid you didn't trust him. You taught him that he shouldn't be trusted and now that he finally wants to reverse the things he's done you just want to push him to the wayside?"

"My boy, it isn't that simple-"

"But it is!" he shouted. "You've never trusted me either, or have you forgotten already? I came to you at the end of my first year and told you about the abuse the Dursley's put me through and you told me I was overreacting. And again the next year when I begged you not to send me back! You've endlessly made excuses for them because you don't trust the word of a child who's being mistreated. I'd be willing to bet anything that Tom came to you at least once to tell you he wasn't being treated right at the orphanage and you told him to suck it up, he's overreacting. Oh, why the flinch? Did I hit too close to home? Magical children are abused and neglected and even killed all the time because of our magic and you're willing to just look the other way. And now that you've got the perfect plan sitting in front of you, you can't be bothered to trust Tom to do the right thing? This is giving him the chance to change the world for the better and you're refusing it? Why is that? Is it because you want all the credit? You can have it! Or is it because an abused teenager was capable of coming up with a solid plan that doesn't involve endangering said teenager when you couldn't?" Harry took a deep breath to calm himself down again as he gathered his things with a neat flick of his wand.