Chapter 9

''Well....this seems comfy." Harry commented as he was sat in the hospital wing, he tried to tell them that all he really had was a cut on his arm but everyone decided to act like he had broken all the bones in his body and demanded that he go to the hospital wing. Harry looked around and at the various people around him.

One of which was Cornelius Fudge, the minister of magic, who was constantly shifting on his feet and fidgeting with his green bowler hat. There was Professor McGonagall along with Professor Snape who was sneering at everyone. Harry could not help but wonder why the asshole was here but knew how futile it would be to try and get him to leave by pointing it out. There was also Madam Pomfrey who was checking the cut on his arm and treating him like he was dying, both Harry and Snape rolled their eyes at how dramatic the woman was.

Opposite Harry was a hospital bed containing Alastor Moody, except he did not look like he usually did. He was asleep, looking more tired, thin, pale and old than usual and in nothing but hospital clothes.

The other person here was none other than Albus Dumbledore, Dumbledore stood unnervingly still with the only movement coming from his eyes, those blue eye had lost their twinkle and were constantly glancing between each and every person in the room though they spent most of their time focused on Harry.

"What happened to him?" Harry asked, gesturing to Moody with his head.

"He was found in his trunk," Dumbledore answered, looking visibly upset. "I had found him shortly after you came back, as soon as he was out he informed us how Barty Crouch junior, a death eater that we thought was dead, had impersonated him throughout the year with polyjuice.

"What?" Harry blinked. "Are you joking?"

"I am afraid not." Dumbledore sadly shook his head. "I am aware that you spent a good amount of time with him, did he ever do anything you found suspicious or anything that harmed you in any way?"

"No, I mean besides usual teaching and advice plus a couple of spells." Harry said shaking his head.

"Advice? Spells?" McGonagall asked.

"Like on the tournament," Harry replied before turning to Dumbledore. "and some offensive spells, you really know how to pick your teachers sir." Harry said, the last part very sarcastic. Dumbledore frowned, as much as he hated to admit it Harry was rather right about that but in his defence their were barely any people willing to teach defence. "What happened to Crouch junior?"

"He has escaped." Dumbledore said, looking very disappointed.

"You should be fine." Pomfrey said after she finished up with her spells and potions.

"Really?" Harry drawled. "It's almost as if it was a simple cut."

"You are not a medical expert Mr Potter." Madam Pomfrey sniffed.

"Yes but I also do not need to be a medical expert to know what a cut is. I think it is the same way that you do not need to be an expert in fencing to know that the pointy end goes in the direction of your opponent." Harry commented, Madam Pomfrey gave Harry a small glare before she walked away. "Now what is this about?" Harry asked to the group at large.

"Mr Potter, we would like to know what exactly happened?" Dumbledore said, taking charge of the situation.

"It's rather simple," Harry replied. "I got to the cup, I grabbed onto it and all of a sudden I was taken away and landed in a graveyard. At first I thought that it was some surprise fourth task or something like that."

"You thought there would be a fourth task in a Triwizard tournament? Tell me Potter, do you know what the 'tri' in Triwizard means?" Snape sneered.

"Yes I do, in fact I was smart enough to remember that despite name there were four champions in the task. I also know that I am not the idiot who thinks that the 'poo' in shampoo means real poo, I will assume that is why you refuse to use it." Harry sneered back.

"Why you little..."

"Bring it Snivellus!" Harry said, his wand ready in his hand.

"Enough!" Dumbledore said before Snape could do anymore. "We are getting distracted from..."

"Yeah we are," Harry interrupted. "and whose fault is that? Why is he even here?!" Harry demanded as he gestured to Snape.

"Mr Potter, Professor Snape has my trust and..."

"So what?" Harry interrupted once again. "Minister, do you trust Lucius Malfoy?" Harry asked Fudge.

"Um...yes, yes I do." Fudge nodded, a little surprised by the sudden question.

"Well in that case let's bring Lucius Malfoy here then." Harry said to Dumbledore. "If we're just bringing death eaters that we trust into this meeting then perhaps everyone should find a death eater."

"I have a reason for keeping Professor Snape here." Dumbledore replied, his voice suggesting that Harry cease questioning him.

"Perhaps you could tell us that reason?" Harry 'suggested'.

"Mr Potter, that is enough disrespect!" McGonagall said.

"McGonagall somewhere in this castle is a pile of catnip, why don't you just go find that and stop bothering me?"

"Mr Potter," Dumbledore frowned. "that is enough, we have much to talk about and it is not helping anyone to have insults flying everywhere."

"Your pet death eater was the one who started it." Harry replied.

"Well I am the one who is ending it, now."

"Fine, just keep your dog under control before I decide to neuter him."

"You arrogant little brat!" Snape snapped.

"Arrogant? Arrogant?!" Harry demanded as he got off the bed and walked towards Snape, stopping so he was looking the surly potions master in the eye. "You dare to call me arrogant you hypocritical bastard?!"

"You're just a spoilt brat strutting around the castle..."

"This coming from the unwanted bat that stalks around the castle sneering at everyone?!" Harry cut him off. "You called me arrogant?! How fucking dare you?!"

"Mr Potter," Dumbledore interrupted. "that is..."

"No, it is not!" Harry cut him off as he glared at Snape. "I came to Hogwarts looking forward to my first potions class! I thought the subject sounded interesting and I wanted to learn it! That was ruined for me when an overgrown bat who can't teach for shit came in and decided that instead of teaching he would prefer to flaunt his superior knowledge to a classroom of eleven years old which include the muggle raised like me! School is for learning yet this arse does nothing but insult those who don't know what he knows.

All you do, Snape, is walk around taking points and throwing insults at people because you know that Dumbledore and your position protects you from retaliation. You are not smart, you are not loyal, you are not cunning nor are you brave, it's a wonder you were sorted at all. You are just a coward picking on children who can't fight back!"

"A coward?!" Snape placed the tip of his wand right at Harry's temple. "You dare call me a coward?! Take that back now!" Snape snarled, though he stopped when he suddenly felt something poke him. He looked down to see Harry's holly wand poking his leg but realised that with the slightest movement it would be aimed between his legs.

"Why don't you make me Snivellus?" Harry said in a challenging voice as he glared at him.

"Enough!" Dumbledore said loudly, causing Fudge and McGonagall to flinch.

Harry and Snape continued glaring at each other, Snape eventually wilted under Dumbledore's powerful eyes and removed his wand. Harry was tempted to just hex the bastard right now but knew that it was probably not the best course of action, especially when you consider the other people in the room, so he pulled his wand away. Harry sniffed as he looked at Snape with disdain before he took a few steps backwards until he felt the bed touch the back of his leg. Harry climbed back on to the bed and sat down but kept his eyes and wand aimed at Snape.

"Mr Potter please lower your wand." Dumbledore sighed.

"Nope." Harry said, popping the 'p'. "I don't really trust Snivellus over here to not curse me the moment my wand is not aimed at him."

"It is Professor Snape," Dumbledore said in a stern manner. "and he will not curse you."

"I don't really want to take that chance." Harry replied, keeping his eyes on Snape. "Snivellus," Harry made sure to emphasise his nickname. "is not really stable."

"Mr Potter do you not trust me?" Dumbledore asked.

"No." Harry said instantly, surprising everyone.

"Why not?"

"Because if you are idiotic enough to think that Snivellus over here should be allowed anywhere near children or a school then I don't really trust your judgment." Harry responded. "Snape has been terrorising me and other first years for years and if I can't trust you to at least do your job as headmaster and keep him under control then I am not going to trust you with my safety." A short silence filled the room, everyone including Snape stared at Harry with disbelief.

"Very well," Dumbledore said eventually, looking very tired as he did so. "Severus," Dumbledore said as he looked at Snape. "please leave."

"Headmaster you can't be serious!" Snape protested. "You are making me leave just because of this arrogant little..."

"Severus," Dumbledore's voice was soft yet his eyes and face were hard. "leave now."

"Very well." Snape said before he glared at Harry who glared right back, Snape stormed out of the room, his cloak billowing as he did so. Snape walked out before he slammed the doors shut, the sound from it echoed across the room.

"Man child." Harry said under his breath, wondering how pathetic Snape had to be to resort to slamming doors.

"Happy now Harry?" Dumbledore asked as he turned to Harry.

"I'm not unhappy," Harry said as he turned back to them. "anyway as I was saying before that filthy, unwanted, unhygienic, stupid, fucking arsehole..."

"Mr Potter!" McGonagall cut him off. "Your language and blatant disrespect is..."

"You do realise that it is rude to interrupt?" Harry said, cutting her off. McGonagall looked furious but Harry ignored her and turned to Dumbledore. "Anyway, before both of your very rude Hogwarts staff interrupted me I was about to say that when I landed in the graveyard I thought that it was a part of the Triwizard tournament, I then was attacked by Pettigrew. He fired a spell at me, I put up a shield and then we duelled. Well when I say duel, it was not really a duel, I beat him pretty easily."

"What about the cut on your arm?" Fudge asked, narrowly beating out Dumbledore.

"Oh he cut me with a knife when I got close." Harry said dismissively. "I then started attacking him, he tried to run to the portkey. I tackled him and we both landed on the portkey. Then the next thing I know we are both here."

Dumbledore frowned, clearly wanting more information. He looked Harry in the eye and used legilimency so he could see what happened and speed up the conversation. Dumbledore watched the memory through Harry's eyes, he watched as Harry had landed and began looking around wherever he could. Peter Pettigrew approached and fired a stunner, Harry had managed to dodge to the side, barely, and then went on the offensive.

Harry shot a variety of spells at Pettigrew, some of which included a bone breaker that Harry aimed at Peter's legs, it connected on Peter's foot right foot. Dumbledore was not quite sure where Harry learned that but was not able to call him out on it without revealing that he had read Harry's mind. Though he realised that he likely learnt it from Barty Crouch junior. Dumbledore watched as Harry approached Peter only for Peter to manage to cut Harry on the arm with his knife, Peter tried crawling away while Harry recovered from the attack and shock of it.

Then Harry ran after Peter and tackled him onto the portkey. Dumbledore could not help but notice how Peter no longer had the knife when the portkey activated, he was about to continue reading when Harry closed his eyes, cutting off the connection.

"Professor," Harry said, slowly opening his eyes. "can you come here a moment?" Harry asked politely. Dumbledore moved closer only for Harry to grab him by the beard with his left hand and pull down before his right hand punched the old headmaster straight in the nose, Dumbledore stumbled back and was only able to remain standing thanks to the help of an empty bed.

"Mr Potter!" Fudge and McGonagall gasped in shock.

"You know Professor, " Harry said to Dumbledore, ignoring the other two. "I do not have the best occlumency shields in the world but I can tell when someone is reading my mind."

"Reading your mind?!" Fudge blurted out before turning to Dumbledore. "Dumbledore you tried to read his mind?!"

"I do apologise," Dumbledore said, waving his wand over his face to clean the blood and repair the damage. Dumbledore was surprised that Harry had any mental defences at al but hid his surprise masterfully. "I truly am sorry Harry but a situation like this..."

"Would of course allow you to illegally read my mind." Harry glared at Dumbledore. "Do that again and I promise I will aim lower." Harry's eyes glanced towards where he would aim so that Dumbledore would definitely know what he meant.

"Once again I am sorry, but I could not help but notice Pettigrew lost his knife before you two portkeyed away."

"What does that have to do with anything?!" An irritated Fudge asked, still trying to get over the part where Dumbledore tried to read the mind of the boy-who-lived. Did that mean that Dumbledore read other people's minds? Had Dumbledore read his own mind in the past? Fudge knew that if he tried calling Dumbledore out on it then Dumbledore would easily get away with it as there was no real proof that he had read Harry Potter's mind.

"The knife would have young Harry's blood," Dumbledore began explaining. "there are many rituals, many dark rituals, that can be used with that. It is my belief that Pettigrew was attempting to use Harry's blood in a certain ritual."

"To do what?" Harry asked.

"I believe he wanted to bring back Voldemort." Dumbledore answered, McGonagall did the expected shiver while Fudge let out a very unmanly squeak.

"But...but you-know-who is dead!" Fudge spluttered. "He can't be back! Preposterous! You-know-who is dead!"

"Cornelius," Dumbledore said calmly. "it is my belief that Voldemort..."

"Stop saying his name!" Fudge hissed.

"It is my belief that he had never truly perished," Dumbledore continued. "I believe that he has simply been biding his time, trying to return to his former glory."

"That can't be!" Fudge said, shaking his head.

"My reason for having Severus here was to show you his mark," Dumbledore added. "the dark mark is a mark that Voldemort himself would place on his followers, he can use it to summon them and recently Severus's mark had been growing darker and darker. Voldemort..."

"Stop saying his name!" Fudge shouted.

"Minister, control yourself!" McGonagall said, glaring at him for his outburst.

"...placed the dark mark brand on his followers' inner left forearms both as a sign of their loyalty to him and as a method of summoning them to him when he desired." Dumbledore continued as if nothing had happened. "The deepness of the mark's colour is connected to Voldemort's physical health. When Voldemort suffered his first defeat, the marks on the Death Eaters faded, but as he began regaining his strength, the faded marks became clearer, and burnt slightly, a sign of Voldemort's return to his Death Eaters."

"This cannot be!" Fudge said, shaking his head. "There is no way he is back! What on earth would possess you to think that he could be back?! A tattoo?!"

"That is not my only reason, there is one dark ritual which involves taking the blood of an enemy." Dumbledore said. "I believe that Voldemort has used it to regain a body. If we bring in Severus then I can show you his mark."

"I don't want to see his mark!" Fudge said as if Dumbledore was offering him poison. "You," Fudge said to Harry. "did you see any sign of you-know-who?"

"The only person I saw was Pettigrew, which reminds me, you and I have something important to discuss Minister Fudge."

"Oh?" Fudge asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My godfather, Sirius Black, I told you in my third year that he was innocent. You did not believe me and accepted Snape's story about me being confounded. I would think now, that you've seen Pettigrew alive and witnessed Snape's behaviour, you might be willing to change your mind."

"Ah," Fudge's face screwed up in thought. Now that he thought about it he realised that Harry might have a point. Snape hardly seemed stable even back then and it was clear that he had a dislike for Harry Potter and vice versa, plus it was clear that the man disliked Black as well so maybe he wasn't being entirely truthful. Plus Snape, unlike Lucius, was never an imperius victim. The man had only gotten free because Dumbledore claimed that Snape was a spy.

Plus the biggest proof of all was the fact that Pettigrew was alive, everyone had seen it, and if Black did not kill Pettigrew then maybe he did not kill the muggles either. But if Fudge admitted that Black was innocent then that could go over bad with the public...unless...unless he blamed the old administration. Yes, yes he could work with that. Playing it as if he had discovered some horrible mistake and fixed it, saving an innocent man, yes he could work with that. "I think you might be right Mr Potter." Fudge said eventually.

"While I am thrilled on Sirius's behalf, I do think that we are currently missing the bigger picture," Dumbledore said. "as I have said I do believe that Voldemort is still alive."

"He is not back!" Fudge said stubbornly. "I am not about to claim that he is back and cause panic and ruin all of our lives just because of one mark and the fact that Mr Potter lost some blood!"

"Cornelius I really do think..."

"Enough Dumbledore!" Fudge cut him off. "If you will excuse me I have to go work on helping an innocent man get free. Pettigrew must have faked his death."

"According to Sirius he had never gotten a trial, he was just tossed into Azkaban."

"That should not be possible," Fudge frowned. "I will look into it Mr Potter." Fudge said, after all Potter was not helping Dumbledore in this madness by claiming you-know-who was back so Fudge had no reason to dislike the boy, plus it couldn't be a bad thing to have the boy-who-lived supporting him. "Goodbye Mr Potter, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall."

"Cornelius, is there nothing I can say to convince you?" Dumbledore asked in a sad and disappointed voice.

"No," Fudge said, glaring at Dumbledore as he put his hat on. "he is dead Dumbledore, I will not have you causing a panic and convincing people otherwise." Fudge said before he walked out of the room.

"Harry," Dumbledore let out a deep breath as he turned to Harry. "you were not very helpful."

"I didn't do anything wrong." Harry shrugged as he leaned back in his bed. "You think Voldemort is back, I didn't see him at the graveyard so I didn't say anything. I am not going to lie about something like this. Besides, I got what I wanted, Sirius will get a trial and then it's goodbye Dursley's." Harry grinned.

"Harry, they are your family." Dumbledore frowned. "And while I would admit that it is good news about Sirius getting a trial, the world could suffer if it is not sufficiently prepared."

"If you wanted to prepare the world then you should have started when you found out that Voldemort had possessed Quirrell, or better yet you should not have let the world celebrate his passing if you didn't believe that he was gone." Harry said as he placed both of his hands behind his head and relaxed. "Plus, let's say that I did tell Fudge that Voldemort had returned, he would not have believed me."

"He might have Harry."

"Trust me sir, he would not."

"What makes you think that" McGonagall frowned.

"I am also curious to know," Dumbledore said, looking at Harry. "I do not mean to brag but between you and me our reputations can do a lot Harry, surely with the both of us Fudge would at least think about our words."

"He would not." Harry said, shaking his head. "Do you want to know why?"

"Yes, do tell."

"Because if I can't convince you that my relatives are scum then I do not at all believe that I can convince the minister that the most feared dark lord of all time who is supposed to be dead has somehow come back to life."

"Harry, your relatives..."

"Even now you defend them," Harry cut him off before he let out a yawn and stood up and began stretching. "and they're just my relatives. If you keep defending them despite me, someone who unfortunately lives with them, telling you that they are horrible then what on earth would make you think I am capable of convincing a man I have only met a few times to say to the world that the most feared, dangerous and deadly dark lord is back at the possible cost of his career and reputation? Huh?" Harry waited for a response, but when Dumbledore didn't provide him one Harry just shrugged and walked out the hospital wing. "That's what I thought." Harry called back.