Harry smirked as he told them. "Didn't you know? Well since Rita is so fond of the truth and getting everything out into the open I suppose it is only fair that you know." He enjoyed watching Skeeter's face suddenly grow pale. " Rita Skeeter is an unregistered animagus, a beetle to be precise. That is how she has been able to get into places she is not supposed to be in and write stories with her own special slant on the truth with information she shouldn't have had. But then the truth is all relative, isn't it, Rita?"
"And to answer your question Rita, actually it's the wizarding world as a whole and not just the Ministry that hasn't owned up to these mistakes, but we'll let Fudge here see if he can answer this question for you all right." Harry turned his attention back to the Minister.
"I don't know what mistakes you are talking about." Fudge glared at Potter, wondering how he could stop this debacle from happening.
Harry made a tsk-tsk sound as he shook his head. "Minister… Minster, you might want to see someone about your poor memory. We'll get into the errors you personally made in a bit, but right now let me quiz you on some history. And by the way if you reporters know the answer, you can speak up too. Some of you look old enough to know. So Minister today's question is: 'In the past say oh about a hundred years, how many witches and or wizards were sent to Azkaban without a trial, or else got the same sort of trial I got, where not all the resources that the wizarding world has available for getting to the truth were used?' And for your bonus question: 'Of those that were treated that way, how many of them was the truth not found out about, until they were either dead or had their souls sucked out by Dementors?'"
"There have only been two," the Minister told him told him confidently. "You and Black and we've made reparations for both of you."
Harry made a buzzing sound and then said, "wrong answer. And Sirius was dead by the time you admitted he was innocent." He looked over at the reporters. "Would any of you care to prove you're smarter than the Minister?"
There was silence as the reporters stared at each other, wondering just what the Boy-Who-Lived was talking about.
"What about you Dumbledore?" Harry inquired. "Surely you know. I mean after all you have been alive for more than a hundred years. Hell for all I know you were probably at the trials."
"Hagrid," Dumbledore offered.
"Yes, there was Hagrid." Harry agreed. "He was sent to Azkaban not once but twice. And the second time he didn't even receive the courtesy of a trial. The last time, I believe, it was because you Minister said something along the lines of: 'we must be seen to be doing something' when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened again by Ginny Weasley who was stupid enough to write in a cursed diary and allow the spirit of Voldemort to possess her. I could understand a muggle-born making the mistake of writing in an enchanted diary, since they wouldn't know to be cautious around such an item, but child raised in the wizarding world should have had more sense."
Harry paused for a moment allowing that information to sink into the reporter's minds and send them frantically writing. "I noticed though that neither you nor the Ministry have made an effort to get Hagrid a new wand. A wand he is entitled to owing to the fact that he was innocent and shouldn't have had his wand snapped in the first place, but we are getting off topic. Keep thinking Headmaster, there is still at least one more to be accounted for."
Dumbledore looked thoughtful, but he also seemed to be unable to come up with the last one Potter was referring to.
"Let me give you a little hint shall I," Harry offered, "Weyland."
"Kerr Weyland," the Minister spat. "He was guilty on all counts and it was proven using all methods available."
"I'm afraid I must agree with the Minister on that Harry," Dumbledore confirmed the information Fudge had provided. "Kerr Weyland was an ardent supporter of Voldemort, in fact he was one of the first to join him."
"And whose fault is that." Harry spat out, glaring at the Headmaster and then turning his attention to the room at large.
The reporters found they couldn't meet his gaze, because his emerald eyes seemed to sear them to their very souls and they found they didn't like the feeling.
Harry continued his little history lesson. "It was the wizarding world's actions with regards to his father that led Kerr Weyland into Voldemort's camp. The Ministry had his father convicted and Kissed and it was only after he was Kissed, that they found out that he wasn't guilty. It had been someone else who resembled him, but did the wizarding world make reparations to his family? No! Did anyone help his children given that their mother was dead? No! Take them in? No! He and his sisters got swept under the rug to the point where not even those who were alive at the time remember what they did to the Weyland family or I should say what they didn't do to correct the mistake they made."
"What is the point you are trying to make, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked.
"What is the point I am trying to make?" Harry parroted back at the Headmaster. "There is a saying in the muggle world. 'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Would you agree with that statement, Headmaster?"
"I suppose so," Dumbledore responded cautiously.
"Then what I am saying is that the wizarding world is corrupt, because a number of you see nothing wrong with the abuse of muggles, or of those who are weaker in power than yourselves. You all see yourselves as somehow better because you can work magic and they can't." Harry's gaze swept the room before returning to Fudge. "And Fudge in particular has abused his power in ways that would remind any muggle or even the muggle-born, if they bothered to think about it, of Hitler."
"Mr. Potter," Dumbledore spoke up trying to get the situation under control. "Surely you are not comparing the Minister of Magic to the insane muggle who was under Grindelwald's control during the thirties and forties."
"Oh, but I am." Harry confirmed. "He not only had Barty Crouch Jr, who could have given testimony about the fact that Voldemort was indeed back Kissed without a trial I might add." Harry looked thoughtful for a moment. "Would that make him number five to be treated to the wizarding world's peculiar form of justice? Maybe not, given that he was indeed guilty of supporting the Dark Lord. Fudge also spent the whole of my fifth year here at Hogwarts doing everything he could to squash the truth. Edict after edict that controlled what we could do, how we could assemble, even what we were allowed to say or read. Manipulating the press for his own ends."
Harry shook his head. "No, I should rephrase that because they were his willing accomplices in trying to destroy my character and good name after all just so they could sell more newspapers. They didn't care who they hurt as long as they could make a profit out of it and still don't for that matter." He glared at the assembled reporters for a moment, and they wouldn't meet his stare. After a moment his attention returned to Fudge and Dumbledore. " He was a dictator in every sense of the word and it took Voldemort getting in his face in the very halls of the Ministry of Magic before he would even consider that he was wrong. And even then he didn't remove Umbridge from her position of authority in the Ministry."
Potter paused for breath. "He was more concerned with retaining his position as Minister than in doing the right thing. Even now, I'll bet that's what this award ceremony is meant to do, solidify his position, because it is probably very shaky right now. If he is seen honouring the Hero of the Wizarding World then maybe he can hang on to his job. Well no thanks Minister. I've had my fill of being used by you and the Wizarding world. From now on you can sort out your own messes. Leave me out of it."
Harry stormed out of the room before another word could be said.
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