"Voldemort is an insane dark lord. Sooner or later he will self-destruct. Look at the state of magical Britain today - the economy is still in a shambles as far as I know. How much longer will his followers put up with him? Eventually, their desire for a better life will overcome their fear of Voldemort. Then they will act and I have no doubt that either they or Voldemort will perish..."
"No Harry, I'm afraid not. Once again, you are forgetting the prophecy. Without you it is impossible to defeat Voldemort."
"Aah well, then the world will lose a few inbred pureblood bigots. Not such a great loss," stated Harry callously.
"Harry, I implore you to think about the people of Britain," begged Dumbledore. "Think about what will happen once Voldemort has built up an army strong enough to invade Europe. I can tell you with absolute certainty that he has been striving to do just that. Sooner rather than later there will be war."
"You know what Professor, you're forgetting one little fact. I already saved the people of Britain once. What happened after Voldemort's defeat in '81? Are you forgetting that?" asked Harry.
"We had peace Harry. A peace that lasted more than a decade before his resurrection."
"Yes," said Harry with a sneer. "A peace in which you let Voldemort's followers, his death eaters, who were just as guilty as Voldemort, get away scot-free. How many of them managed to get away without even a slap on their wrists by pleading the Imperius Curse excuse and lining a few pockets?"
"A few of his followers did get away but..."
"Yes, a few," said Harry in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "Death Eaters roamed free and my innocent godfather was imprisoned and tortured in Azkaban and I was sent to the Dursleys. Yes, I must say that the wizards in Britain really know how to reward someone for saving them from someone like Voldemort."
Harry continued, not letting Dumbledore get in a word edgewise. "Have you ever thought about who was directly responsible for Voldemort's resurrection? Peter Pettigrew and Barty Crouch Junior. Do you realise that Voldemort might never have been resurrected at all if you, Albus Dumbledore had simply done your job? With your position and influence within the Wizengamot you should have insured that Sirius had a fair trial. If you had done that, Pettigrew might have been captured. If, with your power, influence and position you had insured that Azkaban was secure then Crouch might never have been able to break his son out of there. Who would have resurrected Voldemort then? And even if they had, if you had done your job and ensured that every single Death Eater was punished to the full extent of the law then who would have turned up at his resurrection party? No one. Instead Voldemort was resurrected into a world where you had allowed his former followers like Lucius Malfoy to gain an incredible amount of power and influence. Power and influence that they immediately put to work towards Voldemort's goals. And now, now, you come to me to clean up your messes. No, I don't think so."
"Besides, it's not really about saving the people. Say I do kill Voldemort, what would happen? His government would probably be replaced by one very similar to what I found when I first rejoined the magical world. The wizarding world I re-entered when I was eleven was not such a great place. In my second year, I saw Hagrid sent to Azkaban so that the Ministry could be seen to be doing something. In my third, I learnt that my godfather had been imprisoned unfairly. In my fourth, I saw the Minister order the Dementors to kiss Barty Crouch Jr. That, no matter how you slice it - was a summary execution. Sirius's kiss on sight order, after he escaped, was another example of exactly that. Summary executions are the stuff of dictatorships and nightmares. They are not something one expects to see in a modern, civilised, democratic nation."
"They say a society can be judged by how it treats its prisoners. Well, Britain's magical society treats its prisoners exceptionally well. Torture by way of exposure to dementors? Tsk, tsk. Treatment that has been known to drive prisoners insane. Well, perhaps I would not mind so much if I knew they were all Death Eaters. However, I know two people who were sent there unjustly without even the semblance of a trial. Based on that, I would not be surprised to learn that Azkaban was filled with hundred of innocents."
Dumbledore was stunned into near incoherence. "Harry, you must know that I have never condoned the presence of Dementors but...Why do you say that there might have been hundred of innocents in Azkaban?"
"Are you familiar with the concept of representative sampling? One takes the characteristics of a small subset of the population and from that uses them to infer knowledge about the population as a whole. Now, I did not have much exposure to the Magical World outside of Hogwarts. So let's take the adults I did know as a sample. Even if I count mere acquaintances like Florean Fortescue and Tom at the Leaky Cauldron, I doubt I knew more than twenty adults in magical Britain. Out of those twenty adults, two of them were imprisoned unjustly without a trial. That's ten percent of the people I knew who were tortured even though they were innocent. A ridiculously high percentage, wouldn't you agree?"
"By that logic most of the wizards in England would be teachers in a school," said Dumbledore.
Harry shook his head again quite unwilling to listen to anything that Dumbledore had to say at this point - "No Professor, I'm afraid that you're wasting your time. I refuse to fight for a magical society as corrupt and worthless as that. No, I will not."
...
....
Join my P*atreon for 100 premium chapters ahead of the public release.
Link: pa*treon.com/MysticVerse (Remove the *)
Free members also get 2 advanced chapters for free.