Summary: Harry can't abandon people to Voldemort, but he can't trust them either. Harry finds a solution to both dilemmas that might allow him to have a semi-normal life.
This is an alternate Universe fic, where no one killed Dumbledore, and Harry was betrayed. Maybe a post Azkaban fic; maybe just a pile of little betrayals. Harry doesn't trust the Headmaster, the Judiciary, the Aurors, or the Ministry. He doesn't trust his classmates to support him against the earlier mentioned groups.
Getting Past Betrayal
It shocked Harry that people still thought that he didn't know that they didn't trust him. Nearly everyone had betrayed him in one form or another, it was only the fact that he was innocent and they needed him which had kept him alive this long.
Why would any of them trust Harry? After all, they had betrayed him, so they expected to be eventually betrayed by him in turn. Surely he was capable of betraying them; after all, the alternative, that they betrayed a boy who wouldn't betray them after being given cause, was too horrible to contemplate.
Harry knew they didn't trust him; the shocking thing was they believed he hadn't noticed.
For weeks he had been checking his assumptions, doing research without the help of the Order or Hermione, and he decided he had a plan without flaws. The only problem was making sure that he survived afterwards.
Monday evening as dinner was winding down, he approached the head table, and said he'd like to make an announcement. After the expected grumbling and banter he was given permission to talk to the whole school. "Last week I figured out how I could vanquish Voldemort and his Death Eaters."
Harry had to wait until the room quieted, He ignored the questions shouted at him until he could resume his prepared speech, "Unfortunately, no one else can carry out my plan; and unfortunately I believe that as soon as he's defeated I will be expelled by the school governors, my wand snapped, and arrested by the ministry for killing people."
Again he had to stop to wait out the protests that they wouldn't do something like that. However Harry knew they were wrong, and in some cases lying, so he waited out their indignation. "Therefore I will start my plan only when I have guarantees, not promises, guarantees that I will not face repercussions for my actions towards Voldemort and his followers. Nor will I tell anyone what my plan is; there are too many ways a secret can be learned by magic, so I will not tell anyone no matter how trustworthy they are."
Complaints began again from the audience. He had given them the face saving gesture saying he would not reveal his secret to the most trustworthy, and they still complained. He could have told them the reasons he no longer trusted the Headmaster, and his faculty and followers. He could have elaborated the reasons he no longer trusted the ministry, their judiciary, or their aurors. He could have pointed out his classmates' failings as co-conspirators. Instead he allowed them to pretend they were trusted; and still they complained.
The next few days were tiresome. The papers had reported his speech before breakfast the next day. So Harry had to endure brow-beating, guilt trips, and demands from the senior faculty, any students he saw, and the parade of ministry officials who marched through the school just to see him.
They told him to be reasonable, they couldn't hand out that kind of blanket permission; surely they could be trusted with his plan. They promised to make oaths, but they wouldn't make the oath Harry demanded. "Swear you'll loose your magic for good if anyone I don't tell learns of my plan."
Again they demanded he relax his stance, such an oath could strip them of magic even if they did nothing wrong. But since he didn't want them to know in the first place, they had no leverage to compel him.
Friday morning the Headmaster learned of the army headed towards Hogwarts. Voldemort could no longer allow Harry time to act. He had needed the week to gather his army. Scores of Death Eaters, most of Great Britain's dementors, a large pack of werewolves, and a smattering of trolls and giants.
The headmaster insisted that Harry had no choice but to start his plan.
Harry just said, "You have until they reach the gates. If you can't get me the guarantees before that, Hogwarts may fall, and people here will die. It's out of my hands; you'd better hurry."
The twinkle left his eyes as he became quite pale. He summoned his phoenix and flashed away presumably to get the guarantees.
Harry moved to the battlements to watch, while the adults panicked and organized below. He had all of his possessions with him just in case; even his shrunken broom although he didn't plan to risk getting shot out of the sky. He had two other escape plans ready if Dumbledore didn't return in time.
Fortunately moving a force of disparate monsters into position was a lengthy affair. The Death Eaters' hands were full keeping the dementors from harming their allies, and keeping the brutish monsters from wandering off or killing something. When the attack would begin, the monsters would be the cannon fodder, and the Death Eaters would then be free to kill whatever remained.
And they couldn't just start the attack until everyone was in position, and Voldemort had the chance to gloat and make demands. Only then could the dementors be driven to the school.
It was only when Voldemort was finishing his insults, his gloating, and his demands that Dumbledore appeared with the director of the Aurors, the minister, and the head of the board of governors with signed official forms absolving Harry of anything he did today so long as he didn't intentionally injure any one uninvolved with Voldemort.
Binding oaths were quickly sworn guaranteeing that the protection from retribution was genuine, as the Death Eaters were cheering over their impending victory.
Harry pulled out his wand, and pointed it in Snape's and Draco's direction and called out, "accio enthusiastic unrepentant Death Eater."
To Harry's and quite a few other people's surprise, neither Draco nor Snape were affected. It was Goyle who was standing behind them that was yanked to fall in a heap at Harry's feet. Harry raised an eyebrow, before he ignored his two primary annoyances, and ripped the sleeve off of Goyle exposing his mark for all to see.
The Dark Marks had all sorts of spells woven into them; rudimentary communication, pain, punishment, paralysis, minor power sharing, and the ability for Voldemort to kill anyone who betrayed him. It required a willing recipient to receive the Dark Mark, as it was a magical contract between Voldemort and his followers; although they kept that fact from the general populace.
Only a parselmouth could control it.
Voldemort couldn't have keyed it to his body, magic, or his soul due to the number of changes he underwent. In the last fifty years he'd split his soul several times, revamped his magic through dark rituals several times, and fashioned a new body for himself.
Password protecting it wouldn't have helped since Harry had had visions of Voldemort using the mark. And Harry's connection with Voldemort meant that any protection against Harry's use of the mark would have meant Voldemort would have lost control of it at some point in time.
Harry jabbed his wand at the mark and started hissing at it. The moment he started, Goyle was paralyzed so he couldn't get away. Voldemort was not willing to put up with followers flinching and hitting him while he used their marks, even if it were involuntary; especially not if it were involuntary because that might make him look like a fool. So the mark was designed to paralyze the victim being used by Voldemort as a transmitter.
For a moment Harry considered Snape and Draco. They weren't enthusiastic unrepentant Death Eaters; however they had voluntarily followed that mad man, and they still did try to make others, himself included, miserable. Harry decided they weren't worth trying to decide if they should be handled as a special case; it was enough for him that they made their choice, and they refused to change their prejudices; they hadn't tried to turn over a new leaf. They might have been redeemable, but it wasn't likely, and it wasn't Harry's responsibility to protect them from the consequences of their actions.
Having gained access to the magic of Goyle's mark, he ordered it to send commands to all the other marks. Voldemort had used this feature in the past to send them all a burst of pain to summon the entire group. Then Harry sent the command to all the marks that their owner was a betrayer; the marks killed their owners, and returned the miniscule power Voldemort had used in making them into Harry.
When Harry killed all of the Death Eaters, Voldemort lost the tiny trickle of power he constantly received from each of his followers. He was still immensely powerful, but he was no longer vastly more powerful than Dumbledore, for example.
More importantly the death of all of the Death Eaters in the army outside of the castle meant that there was no one to keep the trolls, giants, and dementors in line. They immediately turned on each other, as well as attacking any of the unmarked werewolves they could reach.
Voldemort started screaming that this was just a setback, and that he would return with new followers.
Harry just aimed an Expelliarmus in his direction.
As Voldemort was at the back of his army, the spell took quite a while before it traveled the long distance. Before it could reach Voldemort, he portkeyed away.
With a professor and a few students dropping dead, along with an entire army of attacking Death Eaters, coupled with the self-destruction of Voldemort's less human allies and his subsequent flight to safety, the elite of Hogwarts and the ministry were stunned. As Harry appeared to be about to walk away, Dumbledore announced, "I think we should discuss this in my office."
"No." Harry immediately refused. "I don't trust any of you behind closed doors, and I won't put up with the rumors that mutate from the things you leak. I will answer your questions in the great hall with the students attending. If you have anything to ask me or say, you can say it in front of witnesses."
"I'm afraid I must insist..."
Harry smirked, "Really? Not five minutes after you guaranteed that I wouldn't face repercussions you're going to order me to do something because of those actions? Headmaster, I don't trust you. I'll answer questions only with a large number of neutral witnesses."
"This isn't necessary."
"It is necessary for me to feel safe, among other reasons. I will not do something I feel puts me at risk. In fact..." Harry paused to put his wand to his throat and cast Sonorous, "All those wishing an explanation please go immediately to the great hall where I will be answering your questions!"
Dumbledore and the minister frowned at having the fait accomplis delivered, but proceeded to the great hall which was already filling up. Harry again pre-empted his elders by announcing, "In order to save time, I'll make a short announcement before taking questions. Chances are I'll answer a lot of them this way.
"The Dark Mark which Voldemort used to mark his followers was among other things a magical contract between a Death Eater and Voldemort. Therefore it would have been impossible for someone to take it while under the Imperious. Obviously they kept this to themselves. Everyone who took the Dark Mark, died a few minutes ago.
"Voldemort insured the Death Eater's loyalty because he could order the mark to kill its wearer regardless of how far they ran. That is why none of his followers have ever openly betrayed Voldemort publicly, and it was one of the reasons he was believed too powerful to cross.
"In order to vanquish Voldemort, I used a Dark Mark to tell every other Dark Mark that they had betrayed Voldemort. No one else could do it because I am the only other parselmouth, and Voldemort designed it so that only a parselmouth could command the mark.
"The reason I did it was because of a prophesy that was made before I was born. The prophesy has now been fulfilled. 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him; born as the seventh month dies; and the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal but he shall have power the Dark Lord knows not; and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.'
"Now that I have fulfilled the prophesy, Voldemort has no reason to keep attacking me again, and there is no reason I have to be the one who stops him next time. Right now he's just a very powerful wizard with no followers and probably no allies. His funding is cut off because the people giving him money are dead, and he can not easily get to his vaults, especially as he was the one who tried to rob the goblins the summer before I started school here."
"If he is allowed time to regain his power and find new followers after I've left him so powerless now, then I refuse to be forced to deal with him again; although I could always kill off all of his followers again so it would take a real idiot to get branded by him now. Any questions?"
By dint of gravitas which Dumbledore wielded like a bludger bat, he started off the questions, "Harry, he's still alive. The prophesy hasn't been completed yet. You still have a role to play."
"Wrong. The prophesy says I will vanquish him, not kill him. Destroying his entire army, his spy system, his supply chain, and destabilizing his alliances is sufficient."
"Be that as it may, why did you kill Snape and the students?"
"I ordered Voldemort's communications system to self-destruct. It took with it every one who voluntarily swore to follow Voldemort. Apparently that included a professor and several children. The children were willing and able to make a binding magical contract which eventually turned out badly for them; if there's any blame about this, it should rest on their upbringing and their education."
"Snape had reformed himself; you know he was spying for us."
"The point is moot since I couldn't save him. But if I could have, then I'd have to have considered that he was still aiding Voldemort, or Voldemort would have ordered him dead. He also failed to reform himself to the point where he was fair to children. He also protected those who followed Voldemort's beliefs while he punished anyone they bullied. He also permitted more Slytherin children than all of the other houses combined to join Voldemort. He either failed to report the Death Eaters in school or his information was ignored. He also betrayed my father to his death while owing my father a life-debt and then illegaly harassed me for my entire school career. Had I been able to save him, I don't know if I would have, but the question is moot. You've constantly told me I had to work for the greater good; in this case Snape had to die to vanquish Voldemort."
"We could have come up with a better way."
"And you had years to look for it. People were dying and being tortured at an alarming rate. I was being pushed to fight Voldemort by you without training and without hope. You didn't want me to become powerful because you were afraid I would become the next Dark Lord after him, and I would have needed that power to fight him directly. Had I not acted, even more teachers and students would have likely died defending the school, and they would have been the innocents."
Unlike Dumbledore who was asking why Harry did something so irrevocable, the Minister was bothered that Harry might not have done it without the assurances. "Would you really have done nothing if we didn't give you a guaranteed pardon?"
"Of course. If those in power preferred the status quo so badly that they'd let me be a scapegoat, I would have used my pre-planned escape route, and been halfway to France before the battle ended. Fortunately you were able to prove to me in time that the school and the government were honest in their commitment to defeat Voldemort. Once I knew the government was behind me, I acted."
Dumbledore took over again, "I'm sorry, the prophesy is still valid. He knew you were a parseltongue so parseltongue wasn't 'the power he knew not.'"
"The prophesy said I have 'power he knows not,' it didn't say I'd use it to vanquish him. It didn't even say I'd ever know what it was. Separately it said I had the power to vanquish him, and that was parseltongue. As for 'neither can live while the other survives,' I can't see how that applies. Either I fulfilled that when he lost his body when I was one year old, or one of us should be dead. It's open to a host of semantic interpretation. Personally I feel it is taken care of because he drank unicorn blood before he regained his current form, and is therefore cursed to only live a half-life."
The minister frowned at Dumbledore's interrupting him, "Why did you cast an Expelliarmus at him after killing his followers?"
"What spell could I cast at that range that would have done any good? Besides, killing Voldemort is the Government's and the Order of the Phoenix's responsibility. You just needed me to fulfill the prophesy and to strip him of his vast resources. Now that his marked followers in the government are gone, and the neutrals don't need to fear him, the good people in the government that remain won't be hamstrung by those Voldemort turned against you. You couldn't win before, because you were fighting yourself on so many levels. Now you can.
Harry smirked, "Besides, if the spell did hit him, it would have shut him up, pushed him into the forest, taken his wand which would have made him effectively weaker, and I would have gotten it as a present."
"Why did you refuse to tell your plan beforehand?"
"Because everyone would have balked at losing the criminals that you kept close to you. Because I couldn't trust you to keep the plan from the Death Eaters when Dumbledore trusted Snape, and the government had no idea how many Death Eaters there were in government. Even now there still are unmarked people sympathetic to him. Because Dumbledore has been repeatedly risking my life for the greatest good, and would prefer to lock up the Death Eaters, who would inevitably eventually escape and try to kill me again; rather than allow those in the school who were murderers and those who took vows to murder, to die. While I know I can't convince him, I personally find that morally reprehensible, so I couldn't allow him to stop me. Too many innocents would have died if I did."
Dumbledore demanded, "What gives you the right to decide that?"
"I was forced to! I had a choice, Snape would die, or innocents would die. It was as simple as that. Snape was an accomplice to mass murder. He might have been a murderer. The marked students signed up to mass murder. Turning them over to the ministry as it was would have meant many would have gone free like Draco's father had. Those that didn't would have been rescued by Voldemort, and they would have gone on trying to kill me and slaughtering innocents. Letting anyone else make the choice for me would have effectively been the same as doing nothing. Instead I behaved as you have always preached; 'For the greater good,' I chose that the guilty few should be the ones that died. Besides I believe that a quick death is more merciful than life imprisonment with dementors, so I did them all a kindness."
The minister commented, "It's not for you to dictate what the law should be."
"I know. But on the other hand, I can't help having an opinion, and I must act as my conscience dictates. If I'm legally allowed to kill someone or turn them over to a life of torture, then I think the kindest thing to do is kill them. If they might have been innocent then I'd have had to turn them in for a trial, but the fact that I activated the punishment clause to a binding voluntary contract means that I couldn't have targeted the innocent."
Dumbledore adds, "We have only your word that it was a voluntary contract."
Harry answered, "Well you had decades to figure it out for yourselves, but no one bothered to look into it. I'm telling you why I acted the way I did. I learned it was a voluntary contract. I'm not going to try and defend myself from accusations, especially those based on not having the complete information. If people have made up their minds about me there is nothing I can do to change that. That is why I insisted on the pardon. I don't need to justify myself, I'm doing it voluntarily. And if you think you know better, oh well. Maybe I made a mistake; but I don't believe I did, and it's too late to change it now."
One of the older students called out, "So what happens now?"
"Now the Aurors know they can trust their teammates. Now they know that those in the judiciary aren't working for the enemy, and the few judges who inevitably are corrupt won't be bought out. Now the neutral people can report clues to the governemnt without fear of reprisals. Now the Aurors outnumber the enemy, and need only patrol in groups to guarantee defeating him in battle. If the wizarding world is serious about preventing Voldemort's next rise, they'll get behind their goverment and help it capture or kill the bastard once and for all.
"After all, its absurd for adults to rely on one kid to solve their problems for them. If the wizarding world is to have any pride in itself, then the people, or their elected officials have to be the ones to defeat him. You only needed me because he had had the time to set things up so that I was his only weakness.
"The first time I faced Voldemort I was too young to think things through. Then in school I was alternately praised and punished for helping people. Finally I fought this time because no one else could. But if anything more is needed it will be because someone else is too lazy to do what they know they should, and in that case I won't bother to help."
.oOo.
Author's Note:
Just to avoid confusion and reviews pointing it out: Harry lied when he said he couldn't have saved Snape and Draco. Everything else he said was the truth, at least as far as he could know.
Voldemort attacked the school, because none of his other plans to stop Potter had worked, and he didn't know that Harry could Vanquish him without preparation. He had to stop Potter before Harry could start hunting him. He presumed that Harry's plan involved some final showdown after Harry somehow evaded most of his followers.
While I started this, I hadn't decided if the minister was still Fudge, or his successor. I planned to wait until I had some reason to choose. As I finished the story without choosing, you can decide for yourself so long as he wasn't a marked Death Eater.
This story was inspired by a long-standing recurring thought. "I can't believe that after all that has happened in the books, Harry would risk killing Tom without getting some guarantee that people won't destroy him once he is no longer needed."
.oOo.
Problems: I'm not too happy with the idea of the accio spell being used to differentiate between things Harry didn't know ("accio enthusiastic unrepentant Death Eater"). It doesn't bother me that Harry's spell knew they were deatheaters; we can assume Harry thought of the\m as deatheaters. I'm not sure that the spell should be able to differentiate their loyalty. I haven't cut it out of the story because I like the idea that Harry knows they're not perfectly loyal, yet lets them die anyway. Too many Harrys can do no evil, this Harry's not saint-like, nor innocent; I was trying for human.
Problems: The last paragraph feels crudely bolted on, but I felt that Harry had to express it for his audience.
Problems: The ending reads a lot like a monologue; but since Harry preplanned what he wanted to tell everyone, it was inevitable that he'd talk more than everyone else. Is it a believable conversation, or does it read like the author is just dumping all of the information in expository dialogue?
I've always wanted to write a believable "Harry defeats a truly evil Voldemort, yet publicly lets him go."
This is an alternate Universe fic, where no one killed Dumbledore, and Harry was betrayed. Maybe a post Azkaban fic; maybe just a pile of little betrayals. Harry doesn't trust the Headmaster, the Judiciary, the Aurors, or the Ministry. He doesn't trust his classmates to support him against the earlier mentioned groups.
Getting Past Betrayal
It shocked Harry that people still thought that he didn't know that they didn't trust him. Nearly everyone had betrayed him in one form or another, it was only the fact that he was innocent and they needed him which had kept him alive this long.
Why would any of them trust Harry? After all, they had betrayed him, so they expected to be eventually betrayed by him in turn. Surely he was capable of betraying them; after all, the alternative, that they betrayed a boy who wouldn't betray them after being given cause, was too horrible to contemplate.
Harry knew they didn't trust him; the shocking thing was they believed he hadn't noticed.
For weeks he had been checking his assumptions, doing research without the help of the Order or Hermione, and he decided he had a plan without flaws. The only problem was making sure that he survived afterwards.
Monday evening as dinner was winding down, he approached the head table, and said he'd like to make an announcement. After the expected grumbling and banter he was given permission to talk to the whole school. "Last week I figured out how I could vanquish Voldemort and his Death Eaters."
Harry had to wait until the room quieted, He ignored the questions shouted at him until he could resume his prepared speech, "Unfortunately, no one else can carry out my plan; and unfortunately I believe that as soon as he's defeated I will be expelled by the school governors, my wand snapped, and arrested by the ministry for killing people."
Again he had to stop to wait out the protests that they wouldn't do something like that. However Harry knew they were wrong, and in some cases lying, so he waited out their indignation. "Therefore I will start my plan only when I have guarantees, not promises, guarantees that I will not face repercussions for my actions towards Voldemort and his followers. Nor will I tell anyone what my plan is; there are too many ways a secret can be learned by magic, so I will not tell anyone no matter how trustworthy they are."
Complaints began again from the audience. He had given them the face saving gesture saying he would not reveal his secret to the most trustworthy, and they still complained. He could have told them the reasons he no longer trusted the Headmaster, and his faculty and followers. He could have elaborated the reasons he no longer trusted the ministry, their judiciary, or their aurors. He could have pointed out his classmates' failings as co-conspirators. Instead he allowed them to pretend they were trusted; and still they complained.
The next few days were tiresome. The papers had reported his speech before breakfast the next day. So Harry had to endure brow-beating, guilt trips, and demands from the senior faculty, any students he saw, and the parade of ministry officials who marched through the school just to see him.
They told him to be reasonable, they couldn't hand out that kind of blanket permission; surely they could be trusted with his plan. They promised to make oaths, but they wouldn't make the oath Harry demanded. "Swear you'll loose your magic for good if anyone I don't tell learns of my plan."
Again they demanded he relax his stance, such an oath could strip them of magic even if they did nothing wrong. But since he didn't want them to know in the first place, they had no leverage to compel him.
Friday morning the Headmaster learned of the army headed towards Hogwarts. Voldemort could no longer allow Harry time to act. He had needed the week to gather his army. Scores of Death Eaters, most of Great Britain's dementors, a large pack of werewolves, and a smattering of trolls and giants.
The headmaster insisted that Harry had no choice but to start his plan.
Harry just said, "You have until they reach the gates. If you can't get me the guarantees before that, Hogwarts may fall, and people here will die. It's out of my hands; you'd better hurry."
The twinkle left his eyes as he became quite pale. He summoned his phoenix and flashed away presumably to get the guarantees.
Harry moved to the battlements to watch, while the adults panicked and organized below. He had all of his possessions with him just in case; even his shrunken broom although he didn't plan to risk getting shot out of the sky. He had two other escape plans ready if Dumbledore didn't return in time.
Fortunately moving a force of disparate monsters into position was a lengthy affair. The Death Eaters' hands were full keeping the dementors from harming their allies, and keeping the brutish monsters from wandering off or killing something. When the attack would begin, the monsters would be the cannon fodder, and the Death Eaters would then be free to kill whatever remained.
And they couldn't just start the attack until everyone was in position, and Voldemort had the chance to gloat and make demands. Only then could the dementors be driven to the school.
It was only when Voldemort was finishing his insults, his gloating, and his demands that Dumbledore appeared with the director of the Aurors, the minister, and the head of the board of governors with signed official forms absolving Harry of anything he did today so long as he didn't intentionally injure any one uninvolved with Voldemort.
Binding oaths were quickly sworn guaranteeing that the protection from retribution was genuine, as the Death Eaters were cheering over their impending victory.
Harry pulled out his wand, and pointed it in Snape's and Draco's direction and called out, "accio enthusiastic unrepentant Death Eater."
To Harry's and quite a few other people's surprise, neither Draco nor Snape were affected. It was Goyle who was standing behind them that was yanked to fall in a heap at Harry's feet. Harry raised an eyebrow, before he ignored his two primary annoyances, and ripped the sleeve off of Goyle exposing his mark for all to see.
The Dark Marks had all sorts of spells woven into them; rudimentary communication, pain, punishment, paralysis, minor power sharing, and the ability for Voldemort to kill anyone who betrayed him. It required a willing recipient to receive the Dark Mark, as it was a magical contract between Voldemort and his followers; although they kept that fact from the general populace.
Only a parselmouth could control it.
Voldemort couldn't have keyed it to his body, magic, or his soul due to the number of changes he underwent. In the last fifty years he'd split his soul several times, revamped his magic through dark rituals several times, and fashioned a new body for himself.
Password protecting it wouldn't have helped since Harry had had visions of Voldemort using the mark. And Harry's connection with Voldemort meant that any protection against Harry's use of the mark would have meant Voldemort would have lost control of it at some point in time.
Harry jabbed his wand at the mark and started hissing at it. The moment he started, Goyle was paralyzed so he couldn't get away. Voldemort was not willing to put up with followers flinching and hitting him while he used their marks, even if it were involuntary; especially not if it were involuntary because that might make him look like a fool. So the mark was designed to paralyze the victim being used by Voldemort as a transmitter.
For a moment Harry considered Snape and Draco. They weren't enthusiastic unrepentant Death Eaters; however they had voluntarily followed that mad man, and they still did try to make others, himself included, miserable. Harry decided they weren't worth trying to decide if they should be handled as a special case; it was enough for him that they made their choice, and they refused to change their prejudices; they hadn't tried to turn over a new leaf. They might have been redeemable, but it wasn't likely, and it wasn't Harry's responsibility to protect them from the consequences of their actions.
Having gained access to the magic of Goyle's mark, he ordered it to send commands to all the other marks. Voldemort had used this feature in the past to send them all a burst of pain to summon the entire group. Then Harry sent the command to all the marks that their owner was a betrayer; the marks killed their owners, and returned the miniscule power Voldemort had used in making them into Harry.
When Harry killed all of the Death Eaters, Voldemort lost the tiny trickle of power he constantly received from each of his followers. He was still immensely powerful, but he was no longer vastly more powerful than Dumbledore, for example.
More importantly the death of all of the Death Eaters in the army outside of the castle meant that there was no one to keep the trolls, giants, and dementors in line. They immediately turned on each other, as well as attacking any of the unmarked werewolves they could reach.
Voldemort started screaming that this was just a setback, and that he would return with new followers.
Harry just aimed an Expelliarmus in his direction.
As Voldemort was at the back of his army, the spell took quite a while before it traveled the long distance. Before it could reach Voldemort, he portkeyed away.
With a professor and a few students dropping dead, along with an entire army of attacking Death Eaters, coupled with the self-destruction of Voldemort's less human allies and his subsequent flight to safety, the elite of Hogwarts and the ministry were stunned. As Harry appeared to be about to walk away, Dumbledore announced, "I think we should discuss this in my office."
"No." Harry immediately refused. "I don't trust any of you behind closed doors, and I won't put up with the rumors that mutate from the things you leak. I will answer your questions in the great hall with the students attending. If you have anything to ask me or say, you can say it in front of witnesses."
"I'm afraid I must insist..."
Harry smirked, "Really? Not five minutes after you guaranteed that I wouldn't face repercussions you're going to order me to do something because of those actions? Headmaster, I don't trust you. I'll answer questions only with a large number of neutral witnesses."
"This isn't necessary."
"It is necessary for me to feel safe, among other reasons. I will not do something I feel puts me at risk. In fact..." Harry paused to put his wand to his throat and cast Sonorous, "All those wishing an explanation please go immediately to the great hall where I will be answering your questions!"
Dumbledore and the minister frowned at having the fait accomplis delivered, but proceeded to the great hall which was already filling up. Harry again pre-empted his elders by announcing, "In order to save time, I'll make a short announcement before taking questions. Chances are I'll answer a lot of them this way.
"The Dark Mark which Voldemort used to mark his followers was among other things a magical contract between a Death Eater and Voldemort. Therefore it would have been impossible for someone to take it while under the Imperious. Obviously they kept this to themselves. Everyone who took the Dark Mark, died a few minutes ago.
"Voldemort insured the Death Eater's loyalty because he could order the mark to kill its wearer regardless of how far they ran. That is why none of his followers have ever openly betrayed Voldemort publicly, and it was one of the reasons he was believed too powerful to cross.
"In order to vanquish Voldemort, I used a Dark Mark to tell every other Dark Mark that they had betrayed Voldemort. No one else could do it because I am the only other parselmouth, and Voldemort designed it so that only a parselmouth could command the mark.
"The reason I did it was because of a prophesy that was made before I was born. The prophesy has now been fulfilled. 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him; born as the seventh month dies; and the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal but he shall have power the Dark Lord knows not; and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.'
"Now that I have fulfilled the prophesy, Voldemort has no reason to keep attacking me again, and there is no reason I have to be the one who stops him next time. Right now he's just a very powerful wizard with no followers and probably no allies. His funding is cut off because the people giving him money are dead, and he can not easily get to his vaults, especially as he was the one who tried to rob the goblins the summer before I started school here."
"If he is allowed time to regain his power and find new followers after I've left him so powerless now, then I refuse to be forced to deal with him again; although I could always kill off all of his followers again so it would take a real idiot to get branded by him now. Any questions?"
By dint of gravitas which Dumbledore wielded like a bludger bat, he started off the questions, "Harry, he's still alive. The prophesy hasn't been completed yet. You still have a role to play."
"Wrong. The prophesy says I will vanquish him, not kill him. Destroying his entire army, his spy system, his supply chain, and destabilizing his alliances is sufficient."
"Be that as it may, why did you kill Snape and the students?"
"I ordered Voldemort's communications system to self-destruct. It took with it every one who voluntarily swore to follow Voldemort. Apparently that included a professor and several children. The children were willing and able to make a binding magical contract which eventually turned out badly for them; if there's any blame about this, it should rest on their upbringing and their education."
"Snape had reformed himself; you know he was spying for us."
"The point is moot since I couldn't save him. But if I could have, then I'd have to have considered that he was still aiding Voldemort, or Voldemort would have ordered him dead. He also failed to reform himself to the point where he was fair to children. He also protected those who followed Voldemort's beliefs while he punished anyone they bullied. He also permitted more Slytherin children than all of the other houses combined to join Voldemort. He either failed to report the Death Eaters in school or his information was ignored. He also betrayed my father to his death while owing my father a life-debt and then illegaly harassed me for my entire school career. Had I been able to save him, I don't know if I would have, but the question is moot. You've constantly told me I had to work for the greater good; in this case Snape had to die to vanquish Voldemort."
"We could have come up with a better way."
"And you had years to look for it. People were dying and being tortured at an alarming rate. I was being pushed to fight Voldemort by you without training and without hope. You didn't want me to become powerful because you were afraid I would become the next Dark Lord after him, and I would have needed that power to fight him directly. Had I not acted, even more teachers and students would have likely died defending the school, and they would have been the innocents."
Unlike Dumbledore who was asking why Harry did something so irrevocable, the Minister was bothered that Harry might not have done it without the assurances. "Would you really have done nothing if we didn't give you a guaranteed pardon?"
"Of course. If those in power preferred the status quo so badly that they'd let me be a scapegoat, I would have used my pre-planned escape route, and been halfway to France before the battle ended. Fortunately you were able to prove to me in time that the school and the government were honest in their commitment to defeat Voldemort. Once I knew the government was behind me, I acted."
Dumbledore took over again, "I'm sorry, the prophesy is still valid. He knew you were a parseltongue so parseltongue wasn't 'the power he knew not.'"
"The prophesy said I have 'power he knows not,' it didn't say I'd use it to vanquish him. It didn't even say I'd ever know what it was. Separately it said I had the power to vanquish him, and that was parseltongue. As for 'neither can live while the other survives,' I can't see how that applies. Either I fulfilled that when he lost his body when I was one year old, or one of us should be dead. It's open to a host of semantic interpretation. Personally I feel it is taken care of because he drank unicorn blood before he regained his current form, and is therefore cursed to only live a half-life."
The minister frowned at Dumbledore's interrupting him, "Why did you cast an Expelliarmus at him after killing his followers?"
"What spell could I cast at that range that would have done any good? Besides, killing Voldemort is the Government's and the Order of the Phoenix's responsibility. You just needed me to fulfill the prophesy and to strip him of his vast resources. Now that his marked followers in the government are gone, and the neutrals don't need to fear him, the good people in the government that remain won't be hamstrung by those Voldemort turned against you. You couldn't win before, because you were fighting yourself on so many levels. Now you can.
Harry smirked, "Besides, if the spell did hit him, it would have shut him up, pushed him into the forest, taken his wand which would have made him effectively weaker, and I would have gotten it as a present."
"Why did you refuse to tell your plan beforehand?"
"Because everyone would have balked at losing the criminals that you kept close to you. Because I couldn't trust you to keep the plan from the Death Eaters when Dumbledore trusted Snape, and the government had no idea how many Death Eaters there were in government. Even now there still are unmarked people sympathetic to him. Because Dumbledore has been repeatedly risking my life for the greatest good, and would prefer to lock up the Death Eaters, who would inevitably eventually escape and try to kill me again; rather than allow those in the school who were murderers and those who took vows to murder, to die. While I know I can't convince him, I personally find that morally reprehensible, so I couldn't allow him to stop me. Too many innocents would have died if I did."
Dumbledore demanded, "What gives you the right to decide that?"
"I was forced to! I had a choice, Snape would die, or innocents would die. It was as simple as that. Snape was an accomplice to mass murder. He might have been a murderer. The marked students signed up to mass murder. Turning them over to the ministry as it was would have meant many would have gone free like Draco's father had. Those that didn't would have been rescued by Voldemort, and they would have gone on trying to kill me and slaughtering innocents. Letting anyone else make the choice for me would have effectively been the same as doing nothing. Instead I behaved as you have always preached; 'For the greater good,' I chose that the guilty few should be the ones that died. Besides I believe that a quick death is more merciful than life imprisonment with dementors, so I did them all a kindness."
The minister commented, "It's not for you to dictate what the law should be."
"I know. But on the other hand, I can't help having an opinion, and I must act as my conscience dictates. If I'm legally allowed to kill someone or turn them over to a life of torture, then I think the kindest thing to do is kill them. If they might have been innocent then I'd have had to turn them in for a trial, but the fact that I activated the punishment clause to a binding voluntary contract means that I couldn't have targeted the innocent."
Dumbledore adds, "We have only your word that it was a voluntary contract."
Harry answered, "Well you had decades to figure it out for yourselves, but no one bothered to look into it. I'm telling you why I acted the way I did. I learned it was a voluntary contract. I'm not going to try and defend myself from accusations, especially those based on not having the complete information. If people have made up their minds about me there is nothing I can do to change that. That is why I insisted on the pardon. I don't need to justify myself, I'm doing it voluntarily. And if you think you know better, oh well. Maybe I made a mistake; but I don't believe I did, and it's too late to change it now."
One of the older students called out, "So what happens now?"
"Now the Aurors know they can trust their teammates. Now they know that those in the judiciary aren't working for the enemy, and the few judges who inevitably are corrupt won't be bought out. Now the neutral people can report clues to the governemnt without fear of reprisals. Now the Aurors outnumber the enemy, and need only patrol in groups to guarantee defeating him in battle. If the wizarding world is serious about preventing Voldemort's next rise, they'll get behind their goverment and help it capture or kill the bastard once and for all.
"After all, its absurd for adults to rely on one kid to solve their problems for them. If the wizarding world is to have any pride in itself, then the people, or their elected officials have to be the ones to defeat him. You only needed me because he had had the time to set things up so that I was his only weakness.
"The first time I faced Voldemort I was too young to think things through. Then in school I was alternately praised and punished for helping people. Finally I fought this time because no one else could. But if anything more is needed it will be because someone else is too lazy to do what they know they should, and in that case I won't bother to help."
.oOo.
Author's Note:
Just to avoid confusion and reviews pointing it out: Harry lied when he said he couldn't have saved Snape and Draco. Everything else he said was the truth, at least as far as he could know.
Voldemort attacked the school, because none of his other plans to stop Potter had worked, and he didn't know that Harry could Vanquish him without preparation. He had to stop Potter before Harry could start hunting him. He presumed that Harry's plan involved some final showdown after Harry somehow evaded most of his followers.
While I started this, I hadn't decided if the minister was still Fudge, or his successor. I planned to wait until I had some reason to choose. As I finished the story without choosing, you can decide for yourself so long as he wasn't a marked Death Eater.
This story was inspired by a long-standing recurring thought. "I can't believe that after all that has happened in the books, Harry would risk killing Tom without getting some guarantee that people won't destroy him once he is no longer needed."
.oOo.
Problems: I'm not too happy with the idea of the accio spell being used to differentiate between things Harry didn't know ("accio enthusiastic unrepentant Death Eater"). It doesn't bother me that Harry's spell knew they were deatheaters; we can assume Harry thought of the\m as deatheaters. I'm not sure that the spell should be able to differentiate their loyalty. I haven't cut it out of the story because I like the idea that Harry knows they're not perfectly loyal, yet lets them die anyway. Too many Harrys can do no evil, this Harry's not saint-like, nor innocent; I was trying for human.
Problems: The last paragraph feels crudely bolted on, but I felt that Harry had to express it for his audience.
Problems: The ending reads a lot like a monologue; but since Harry preplanned what he wanted to tell everyone, it was inevitable that he'd talk more than everyone else. Is it a believable conversation, or does it read like the author is just dumping all of the information in expository dialogue?
I've always wanted to write a believable "Harry defeats a truly evil Voldemort, yet publicly lets him go."
