Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room a few minutes before curfew. Instead of the older students studying that he expected to find on his return, Harry saw that Professor McGonagall was seated in the armchair near the fire that faced the portrait hole.
"Professor," he greeted her as he headed toward the stairs for the dorms.
"I would like a word with you, Mr. Potter." Professor McGonagall told him.
Turning around, Harry came over to stand by the fire. "Very well ma'am. What do you want to talk about?"
"First of all, where have you been?" McGonagall wanted to know. "We've had the prefects looking for you for several hours."
"I went to the only place in this whole damn school where I wouldn't be bothered by busybodies and those trying to apologise for things that can never be forgiven." Harry told her.
McGonagall didn't know how to respond to that in a way that wouldn't make him angrier and prevent her from getting him to undo the spell he'd placed on Miss Granger, so she decided to come straight to the point of why she was waiting here for him. "What did you do to Miss Granger? And when will it wear off?"
The smile that appeared on Harry's face worried Professor McGonagall. "I got tired of her poking her nose into my business. I told her several times to leave me alone unless it had to do with school business, but she couldn't seem to remember that simple warning, so I gave her something else to think about. As for when it will wear off, it won't. She will never be able to read another word, unless I choose to remove the spell."
McGonagall got to her feet. "How dare you interfere with another student's ability to learn?! One hundred points from Gryffindor for deliberate assault upon a fellow student and member of your own house. I demand that you remove the spell at once."
"You demand…" Harry laughed. "You demand…. oh that's very good. Why should I do anything you tell me to do? You are not my mother, nor are you responsible for me. If you were, I would have taken whatever steps were necessary to get the ties between us severed… ma'am."
McGonagall flinched at the contempt in the last word.
"When will you learn that your opinion no longer matters to me?" Harry continued as if he were discussing the weather. "It hasn't since the day you stood by and watched as the students in your house destroyed all the best memories of my life. Lord knows I had none during my time with the Dursleys, but then again no one in the wizarding world gave a damn about how their hero was treated when he wasn't in the wizarding world. Come to think of it, they didn't give a damn about how I was treated while I was in the wizarding world either. All they cared about was that I destroy Voldemort for them, so they could go back to their happy little hypocritical lives with their blinders fully intact and their brains turned off. To all of you I was nothing more than a weapon to be used against Voldemort."
McGonagall finally found her voice. "I cared about you and still do care. I care about all the students in my house, Mr. Potter. You are all my family and each other's family. I never thought I would live to see the day when a member of the noble House of Gryffindor would deliberately attack another."
"Then where have you been for the last twenty plus years, Professor?! Living in a bubble? Or maybe under a rock?" Harry's voice was filled with venom. "Have you forgotten about Peter Pettigrew, the Gryffindor Deatheater, who betrayed my parents ? And let us not forget Percy Weasley who was both Prefect and Head Boy but yet he also joined Moldyshorts and killed Neville for the Dark Wanker. And what about last year, you stood there and watched as the members of your so-called noble House burned up the only memories I would ever have of my parents and godfather? You know you should really think about changing the emblem of your house from the lion to the jackal, madam, because during my time here at this school I have seen Gryffindors turn on each other at the slightest provocation and do it more often than the Slytherins ."
McGonagall tried several times to respond to those accusations, but couldn't come up with anything to refute what he had said, given that it was the truth after all. Peter Pettigrew a fellow Gryffindor had betrayed his parents and not once but several times the members of Gryffindor House had turned against Mr. Potter and shunned or outright attacked him, while she did nothing to prevent it. True in some cases she did it to follow Albus Dumbledore's orders, because he said it would make the boy stronger and a leader who would be needed when the Dark Lord came back. He needed to be strong if the wizarding world was to survive.
Then there was Percy Weasley, whom she never would've suspected of joining the Dark Lord, but he had proved to be a bitter disappointment, both to her and to his family. At his closed trial last month, he had been condemned to death for his numerous crimes. No coercion had been necessary, to get him to list his various crimes, though once he had offered to list his crimes, they had given him veritaserum to make sure they got all of them. He had done it rather than face the prospect of having to deal with Harry Potter in an open courtroom. Now all they had to do was figure out how to kill him, given that there were no longer any Dementors to give him the Kiss, thanks to Potter. The Ministry was currently debating making the Killing Curse a legal form of execution, though McGonagall doubted anything would come of that, given that it had been an Unforgivable curse for longer than she'd been alive.
Finally realizing she wasn't going to get anywhere by trying to appeal to a sense of House loyalty, McGonagall decided to see what kind of bargain it would take to get him to undo the spell. "Mr. Potter, what will it take to get you to remove the spell you placed on Miss Granger? You may not care about your magical education, but she does. And your actions right now are no better than theirs were last year. You have taken away something she values. We may not be able to restore all of what was destroyed, but there is no need for you to sink as low as they did. You are better than that."
"A pity that didn't occur to you last year before you believed me capable of murdering one of my friends. Or before you allowed your House to set fire to my things." The expression on Harry's face was one of contempt, but then he looked thoughtful.
After a few moments silence, he told her, "All right I'll remove it… but only if she meets my conditions."
Instantly suspicious, McGonagall asked, "What conditions?"
"Oh, don't worry, it won't be anything dangerous." Harry laughed. "She simply has to get up in front of the whole school at dinnertime on Friday and swear the magically binding oath I will give you and she will have to swear it on her magic… Oh and she can't alter the oath in any way."
"Why not tomorrow at breakfast or even right now, in front of me?" McGonagall demanded. "Why make her suffer for a whole week?"
Harry's face took on an ugly expression. "Don't talk to me about suffering. She won't be suffering. Granger doesn't know the first thing about suffering and neither do you . Suffering is spending a year in Azkaban with the Dementors when you are innocent. Suffering is spending the first ten years of your life sleeping in a cupboard and being beaten or starved for things your cousin did or for working accidental magic. Suffering is watching your godfather fall through the Veil in the Department of Mysteries and knowing it was at least partly your fault he was there."
Harry stormed off up the stairs, before McGonagall come up with anything to say.
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