9 January 1993, Hogwarts
Harry's little rant was met with a deafening silence across the entire chamber, until the King stood up, getting everyone's attention and spoke up, "Alright, you have made your point. The purpose of this meeting is very simple. We wish to know what's your plan to deal with Basilisk."
At their answer, Harry couldn't help but burst into laughter. By the powers, these idiots want Harry to share his plans with them. The King was obviously experienced when it came to politics. He was pretty good for someone his age, but that's it. He was a teenager.
These were all teenagers who were trying to play with something that they didn't comprehend. They were the power brokers of the school. They spied on the other Slytherins and used that information to make bargains and deals. They had contacts inside and outside the school, and they could sneak banned items in, or illegal potions, a few hard to find ingredients. At most, they attacked people from the shadows.
So, that's all this court was. For all its glorified prestige in the house, it was just an association to trade favours and enforce the unwritten rules of the house. It probably used to be something else when it was created, especially considering the nature of the magic involved, but currently, it is barely more than a Slytherin student association. It seemed powerful if you were a normal student, maybe even a little intimidating, but that was it.
They shouldn't even be anywhere near a Basilisk.
Seriously, it would be like giving a school student council the responsibility of dealing with a nuke.
It was just that the situation was so absurd that the Potter scion couldn't help but burst into laughter.
After a few minutes, the white queen seemed to take offence at his nature, "What's so funny, Potter?"
Harry decided to mess with them a bit more, "It's all about plans for you, isn't it? Dumbledore has plans. The heir of Slytherin has plans. Even the Dark Lord had plans before he got himself blown up. That's how the world works, isn't it? Plans upon plans, one on top of the other, each person trying to complete their own while making sure that their enemies' plans fail. No one panics when things go 'according to plan', even if the plan is horrifying. If someone figures out that a muggleborn or a squib gets petrified, no one panics, because it's all part of the plan. But now that you think there's a chance that the monster could kill any one of us, then everyone loses their mind. This illusion of safety that you had was gone. I guess it's true. Ignorance is bliss, isn't it? So, look at me, look at my face right now. Does it look like I give a shit about your plans..."
Every single court member shifted around awkwardly, and Harry continued, "And you know what's even funnier, you have no idea what you're dealing with. You want to go after whoever is opening the chamber, be my guest, but the fact remains that you're so outclassed, it's not even funny. That's the thing that you don't understand, you're not fighting the Basilisk. The beast would like nothing more than to kill every resident of the castle, pureblood, half-blood, and muggleborn alike. This entire thing is a game and you can't even see the board. The heir of Slytherin is a player, I am a player. As is Dumbledore for that matter, but he's being discreet about it. Or at least, he tries to be discreet."
The Black Bishop growled at Harry's answer, "And how is this a game?"
"You're not seeing it. You're going to get eaten alive if you even try to do something about this," Harry responded, "you only have to look at the attacks, idiots."
Sneering at their confused muttering, he continued, "You look at the attack, and you try to figure out who did it. And that's not a bad thing, but the more important question is why. Why was Filch the victim in the first place? Why was the attack right next to the Great Hall? The answer is simple, fear. Filch was barely out of sight for a few seconds when he was attacked, and irksome or not, he's a member of the faculty. The heir's message was simple: 'I can get anyone anywhere, and no one can stop me'. The message on the wall was also a threat, a promise of future violence. It was written by hand, but the hand was charmed to not reveal any fingerprints. It was also written before the attack even took place."
"How so?" the black queen asked.
"It's obvious. The time it would take to write a message in blood would be too long if you considered the timeline."
"He could have used magic to do it…"
The Potter scion snorted, "Dumbledore would have detected it in seconds and tracked down the perpetrator. No magic was involved in writing the message. There was no magic in the blood used. So, the conclusion is simple, the message was written before the attack. That means that the location was chosen, but maybe not the person. That meant one of two things, either the victim was random and the moment any acceptable person was in the corridor without any other students around, the heir attacked. But that would indicate a randomness that does not fit the profile of the attacker. Or, the most likely solution, the victim was chosen far before the attack was made. It was essentially a play, made using an entire network of students to get that done, although they are probably under some kind of compulsion charm. A few students made sure to block the corridor slightly, either with notice-me-not charms or physically, while Filch, under a compulsion charm or an imperious curse, ended up in the exact spot underneath the message, which was probably covered with an object that was put under an illusion. After Filch realized what had happened, he was petrified, and his cat had died, but that was probably an accident. So, tell me, oh court of Slytherin, do you think you can deal with a level of preparedness that the heir exhibited?"
Harry could tell that he had frightened them. These weren't bad people, just teenagers over their heads. The man in the Basilisk mask spoke up, "And Dumbledore is aware of all of this."
"I don't know, but probably," the Potter scion admitted, "Look Dumbledore is already putting a lot of secrecy charms on the whole thing. It's subtle but you can feel it and overcome it if you want to. Tell me, did any of you tell your parents about the chamber of secrets being opened?"
They all hesitantly started to shake their heads and Harry continued, "You just realized that you should probably do that, don't you? It's very sneaky, a compulsion added to the castle not to inform the press or anyone outside it about the shady stuff that happens under Dumbledore's watch. Like the Forbidden Corridor, last year. Did any of you think about informing your parents about it? Look, I know it's scary, but that's how it is. The more the curtain is lifted, the more you'll realize how it would have been better to stay in the dark. So, let me give you a piece of advice. Stay out of this. Don't look for the heir, don't think about fighting a fucking Basilisk, and go on with your day, hoping that the heir would still be merciful enough to stick to petrifying and not killing. If you really can't stop thinking about it, ask your parents to temporarily withdraw you from the school and just return for your exams."
.....
Want to read ahead by more than 60 chapters. Then join my p@treon Right Now.
Link: p*atreon.com/BookReaderBoy (Remove the *)
Also Free members get 2 advanced chapters for Free as well.