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(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)
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The silence that followed that announcement lasted mere seconds as everyone then attempted to shout at once. Dumbledore stood there with a satisfied smirk on his face and watched as the hall descend into chaos for a few moments. The boy simply wouldn't be able to refuse in front of all these witches and wizards, and then Harry would be back under his control. Albus would have until the summer holidays to find a suitable family to place the boy with, so there was no rush for that.
McGonagall finally restored order to the hall before rounding on Harry. "Is this true, are you Harry Potter?"
Harry and his father had prepared for his identity becoming publicly known, it was time to put those preparations to good use. "The headmaster is well aware that my adoptive father for the last ten years has been Barchoke, Senior Accounts Manager at Gringotts, and yes I was once called Harry Potter."
The mayhem this time kicked off instantly and took longer to get back under control. Harry Potter had been raised by a goblin? A goblin he even called father! It was a shocked McGonagall who once more turned to Harry. "How is this possible? I was there the night we left you with your muggle relatives..."
Hermione was of course watching her friend intently and thought she might just have caught a glimpse of Harry's third face. At McGonagall's revelation, he stood that bit straighter and stared directly into her eyes. Dangerous was the only word Hermione had to describe this version of Harry.
"And by what right did you participate in that atrocious event, Deputy Headmistress?"
The professor actually needed to take a step back at the venom radiating from those green eyes, before gathering her wits once more. "I was a friend of your mother and father's..."
The rest of the school couldn't believe it when a student, who hadn't even been sorted yet, cut right across the Hebridean dragon that was Minerva McGonagall. "I think 'was' is the operative word there. Don't expect any warm greetings should you ever meet them again. You did a great disservice to House Potter that night - as well as ignoring multiple laws set-up to protect children. Are you sure you should be working in a school, professor?" The sarcasm Harry loaded the word professor with couldn't be missed by even the thickest of Hogwarts students.
In the silence that followed McGonagall's slap-down, Padma grabbed Hermione's arm to get her attention. "You knew?"
She could only nod by way of a reply, Harry had turned his attention back to Dumbledore and Hermione didn't want to miss anything.
"I thank you for providing me with this choice headmaster, it's rather an easy one to make. You see I was very happy at my goblin school and never wanted to attend Hogwarts in the first place, it was my father who urged me to come here. I shall now be able to return home and tell him I tried my best but was neither welcome nor wanted."
The Hermione Granger who'd left Crawley that morning would probably have placed being expelled from school marginally below being killed in her list of catastrophic things that could happen to her. This Hermione Granger though had travelled to a different country and a whole other world had opened up for her. This Hermione Granger now had a best friend and was not about to lose him. Ignoring Harry's repeated claims that he could handle himself, she shot out her seat and rushed to his side.
"Hermione?"
"If you're leaving, then I'm going too."
Draco Malfoy was seething with anger. He'd made a big play to establish who was the king pin amongst the first years and now looked like a complete fool. Harry Potter had kept his silence, standing there and deliberately letting him dig a deeper hole for himself. Draco had never been so humiliated in his life. His father's instructions were to befriend the boy and then attempt to convert him to their way of thinking, you didn't need to be a genius to see that would never work now.
His anger led to him loudly opening his mouth when he probably shouldn't have, his voice clearly discernible over the hubbub Harry's proposed leaving was causing. "Goblins and another mudblood? Just when we thought the once proud Potter name couldn't sink any lower!"
Harry left Hermione standing there beside a still shocked McGonagall and purposefully walked toward Malfoy.
The blond Slytherin was supremely confident. He was amongst his own house with his godfather sitting at the staff table. He was also certain he could take whatever verbal mutterings Potter came up with and turn them back against him. Draco nonchalantly stood to meet the advancing Potter but was totally unprepared for what happened next.
Harry walked right up to Malfoy and his hand was a blur as it powerfully backhanded him across the mouth, throwing Draco back onto the Slytherin table.
"You are a disgusting example of what inbreeding can cause, I challenge you to an honour duel."
Albus had been shocked at the boy's refusal to attend Hogwarts, nearly as much as his verbal assault on Minerva. He'd let this situation develop to see if it could be turned to his advantage, the headmaster seized the opportunity that presented itself here.
"Just how do you intend to fight a duel Harry, when you consider yourself a goblin and Mr Malfoy is clearly a wizard? You are aware the law prohibits goblins from using wands?"
"Had I been allowed to attend Hogwarts, you would have found I'm well versed in both wizard and goblin law. Perhaps if you had studied our laws more you would not have been barred from doing business with Gringotts for the last decade. Then again, you don't appear to pay too much attention to wizarding law either, they just allow you to get away with it."
You could be forgiven for thinking that the occupants of the great hall were all shocked out, given what had happened before. This revelation though drew loud gasps of astonishment, almost exclusively amongst those old enough to understand what being barred from Gringotts entailed. They had no way of knowing that the night was still young and there was a lot more to come.
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Welcome to the world of our fanfic! Your support is the heartbeat of this story, allowing us to craft new adventures and explore deeper character arcs. With over 55 chapters ahead, becoming a patron gives you exclusive access to bonus content and the chance to influence the narrative's direction.
Join us on this thrilling ride—together, we can make every chapter unforgettable!
http//patreon.com/Kun_kanshi
(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)
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