Harry stepped back over his bench seat and turned to the rest of the Hall before turning to the head table.
"Unlike the majority in this Hall who have repeatedlydemonstrated to me, each day, that they completely lack any logical thought process, I prefer to actually find out information from those who might actually know before I consider jumping to any hare-brained conclusions.
"And - he's off and running!" murmured Neville to Hannah sitting alongside him. She quietly whacked him on his arm.
"Professor McGonagall, was Albus Dumbledore stood down from his place as Headmaster today; and, was Groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid arrested and sent to Azkaban?"
Professor McGonagall stared back with her lips a little pursed.
"Mister Potter, I realise you've had a very bad day, today..." she started.
"Nowhere near as bad as my betrothed, Lady Daphne of House Greengrass, or Lady Tracey of House Davis, or Lady Hermione of House Dagworth-Granger," he ranted. "And, by the sounds of it, Albus too-many-middle-names Dumbledore; and especially not as bad as it sounds for Rubeus Hagrid!
"Now, I've just spent the better part of this school year, over eight naffing months, being accused as being the Heir of Slytherin, and being the one who is the cause of five students, a ghost and a mangy old cat being petrified. And all because you, Albus, and the rest of your staff didn't stamp on it from the get go as being verbal bullying as you should have done.
"So, for the purpose of clarification - and replacing rumour with fact - was Dumbledore sacked today, and was Rubeus Hagrid carted off to Azkaban for a crime what any idiot can quickly prove he did not commit?"
"Yes, Mister Potter," she coldly said. "To both!"
That got a lot of the students animated with gasps of shock and whispering.
"So, you!" he continued to rant, pointing a finger at her. "And the rest of you; sit there stuffing your faces, pretending everything's fine, while your own colleague is being dragged off to that hell on earth called Azkaban!
"And not one of you is making even the bare modicum of an effort to contact legal representation for your so-called friendand colleague, to ensure he doesn't spend a single moment on that island."
"Some bloody friends you are!" "What do you mean you can prove he didn't do it?" glared Professor McGonagall.
"It's all in the public records, Professor. In June 1943, Hagrid was both expelled from this school and sent to Azkaban because it was believed he opened the Chamber of Secrets back then. You, at least, should remember this, because you were a student here at the time."
She just nodded while glaring back.
"At that time, a Fifth Year Ravenclaw student named Myrtle Malone was found dead, right?"
"Yes," she replied. "In the second floor girl's bathroom. The one she currently haunts."
"Yes. The ghost we now call Moaning Myrtle," he said. "Hagrid was - to use current vernacular - dobbed in by a Sixth Year Slytherin Prefect named Tom Marvolo Riddle. Riddle told thenHeadmaster Dippet it had to be Hagrid because Hagrid was raising an acromantula as a pet, and that the acromantula was responsible for killing the girl. That led to Hagrid's expulsion and term in Azkaban. As a bloody fourteen year old!
"However - on examination - the body of Myrtle Malone was found not to be marked in any way, nor her body to contain any trace whatsoever of acromantula venom. Therefore, the evidence that led to Hagrid's expulsion and incarceration, the word of another student, was found to be completely false. It was a lie!
"And yet, that same student - Tom Marvolo Riddle - was given an Award for Special Services to the School, had his photograph and the false story of the event printed on the front page of the Daily Prophet - with both the award and the front page now being proudly displayed in the Trophy Room here in the castle - and was made Head Boy the following year. With the last one occurring after it was proven Hagrid's acromantula didn't do it, and the boy lied.
"No one then stepped forward, other than to see him released from Azkaban, to ensure poor Hagrid received justice! His wand was unjustly snapped, he was forever forbidden from using magic even after the evidence against him was proven false and he was effectively exonerated. And, the only job he's ever held is the low paying one of groundskeeper, here at the Hogwarts. A school he is forever forbidden to study within. And a job of which he is, right now, the longest serving member of staff! Your staff! "And the most galling of all, Professor, is that you were a Seventh Year Gryffindor Prefect here at Hogwarts at the time all this was happening. And Dumbledore was the Transfiguration Professor.
You know all this. In only one monthit will be the fiftieth anniversary of Hagrid's unjust punishment. And in all that time, you and Dumbledore both - let alone anyone else - have done nothing to help Hagrid clear his name and to finally get the magical education he is due.
"Well, now it's happening again. Poor Hagrid is being carted off with no evidence whatsoever he is responsible for this latest so-called opening of the Chamber of Secrets. And not one of you are stepping forward to stop it."
"So, Professor, I now ask you all, are you going to sit there and continue to stuff your faces, or get off your arses and get your friend and colleague the proper legal representation he shouldhave had in the first place?"
In the silence that followed, Professor Flitwick slowly rose to stand on his seat. "Well reasoned, Mister Potter. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a floo call to make."
"No, Filius," McGonagall said, reaching out her hand, without looking, to grab the Charms Master by his arm. "I do."
Without another word, Professor McGonagall used a napkin to lightly wipe her mouth, placed it alongside her plate, rose, and quickly left the Great Hall by the staff entrance.
Professor Flitwick hurried after her.
That got the student body talking excitedly among themselves. Just as Harry was about to return to the Gryffindor table, Snape snarked, "One hundred points from Ravenclaw for your cheek and effrontery, Potter!"
Harry ignored him and returned to sitting at the table. He didn't have the strength to snark back at the man that effrontery and cheek meant the same thing.
"Bloody Hell, Harry," said Neville. "When you go on a rant, you really don't hold back."
"Oh, I'm not finished," said Harry picking up a goblet of pumpkin juice and downing more than half of it in one go. "I have no doubt I'll be embarrassing Lockhart the same way, in the near future."
Thinking about it and shaking his head, he said, "No, I've got a better way that just talking about it; even if it is in front of a full sitting in the Great Hall." Both Professors McGonagall and Flitwick returned to the Great Hall and resumed their meals about thirty minutes later. Professor Flitwick caught his eye when they were pointed out to him and, with a slight nod, acknowledged him.
Harry knew legal representation was now heading towards Hagrid.
Just as the meal was winding up, Harry heard his third most hated voice from behind. "So, Potter; you got your betrothed, her friend and the mudblood..."
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