Legacy of Harry Potter- Chapter 77: Beginning of Harry's Counterattack (Patreon)

November 1994

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Three days had gone by since the incident with Ron Weasley in the Great Hall.

For the past 3 days Harry had been living as an outcast in Hogwarts. The entire school expect a few students looked at Harry in disdain or in hatred and with a slight fear in their eyes. Dumbledore’s move by announcing to the entire school that it had still not been established that he was innocent had only added fuel to the fire. Everyone student now seemed to be convinced that Harry himself or had asked someone to put his name in the Goblet of Fire.

Though everyone was filled with hatred against him, no one dared to speak to him on his face.

The news that he had struck Severus Snape with magical spells and that the bat had broken many of his ribs had spread in whole Hogwarts.
Once the detail of the event left Cedric Diggory's mouth, the Hogwarts rumour mill worked at full force.

Added to the fact what he had done to those Slytherin students, no student dared to mess with him.

It was early morning and Harry was having his breakfast at one end of the Gryffindor table.

On the teacher's table, the professors too were indulged in their breakfast.
Among those professors, Minerva McGonagall had an expression of slight worry on her face. She had been observing Harry for the past 3 days. Like the previous 3 years, he had been again dragged into another mess which could again put his life in danger.

In the previous years, Harry had suffered everything in silence. But this year, he was a completely different person. He had retaliated against everything with full force and Minerva was worried about how Harry would be reacting to all this he was going through.

He had not attended a single class in the past 3 days and though the participant of the tournament were exempt from classes she did not feel good about Harry skipping classes.

She casted a side eye glance at Dumbledore and Snape and sighed in frustration.

She had observed how the other students of Hogwarts were behaving with Harry. She had suggested to Dumbledore that they should announce to the whole school about Harry’s innocence, that he had not been the one responsible for his name coming out of the Goblet. But to her anger and frustration, Dumbledore had completely shot down her suggestion.

She was lost in her thoughts when an owl came fluttering in the Great Hall and dropped a letter at the teacher’s table just in front of Dumbledore.

Dumbledore had his usual grandfatherly demeanour and his classic smile plastered on the face. With the same smile and twinkle in his eyes, he opened the letter to read it.

As Dumbledore began reading the letter his expression started to change from that of amusement to frown and then finally to anger.

With anger in his eyes, Dumbledore turned in Harry's direction to find Harry already looking in his direction with an expression of amusement and mockery in his eyes.

Dumbledore clenched his fist in anger while raised his chin further up as if mocking Dumbledore. The change in expression on Dumbledore’s face was caught was everyone in the Great Hall and they wondered what was written in the letter.

The duo contained their stare competition for some time which was broken by the arrival of dozens of owls carrying mails of the students.

A good majority of students received their own copy of The Daily Prophet on their tables.

The front page of the newspaper was plastered with a glowing image of the Goblet of Fire.
Above the image, in slightly bigger size and slightly more bold than normal, the headline read:

HARRY POTTER, THE BOY WHO LIVED PRESS CHARGES AGAINST THE ORGANISERS OF TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT

In an extremely surprising event, Harry Potter had pressed charges against the organisers of Triwizard Tournament for putting his life in danger. As it had been reported in the previous editions that Triwizard had a surprising fourth participant in the form of Harry Potter. Till now it was being believed that Harry Potter had used some underhand method to get past the age line setup by Albus Dumbledore around the Goblet of Fire.

The specific people who had been named in the charges are 1. Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts; Chief Warlock of Wizengamot; Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizard.

2. Ludo Bagman, Head of Department of Magical Games and Sports.

3. Barty Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

DMLE Head Amelia Bones had called for an emergency hearing of the case in the Wizengamot day after tomorrow. Here is excerpt from a short interview she gave to out reporter.

R: Madam Bones can you please describe the case in short detail?

AB: I received an urgent complain from Lord Apparent of Potter family, Harry Potter about his life being put in jeopardy. Upon discussion with him, he decided to press charges against the 3 people.

R: Do you believe that any claims of Harry Potter hold substance?

AB: I believe this is something we have to investigate and then council will decide upon it. I should not comment on it for now.

R: What steps have you taken as DMLE head in this direction?

AB: First of all, I have confiscated the Goblet of Fire. An expert team of senior aurors would be investigating the Goblet. It is really a matter of investigation how come it gave four names when it was meant to only select 3 names. We also have 2 days before the hearing begins. In these 2 days, I myself will be holding investigation with Albus Dumbledore, Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch.

Amelia Bones refused to talk any more details about the case.

Read page 2 for the full interview.

Read page 3 for full details of Harry Potter’s name coming out of the Goblet of Fire.

Read page 5 for different opinions of various experts about what direction the case could take.