[HP] The rise of the background character #14 (Patreon)

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Chapter #1 (Free): The rise of the background character #1

All characters are adults

Chapter #14: The lesser of two evils.

Barty Crouch was moved to another room, one in which only certain people were allowed to be, it seems like they have found where the real Moody was, and so, he was taken to the infirmary, but it was time for introductions as new people arrived.

“Hello everyone, I’m sorry to call you at such short notice, but it was important for you to meet someone,” Dumbledore started. “All of you know of the events that took place the night Neville Longbottom was named the boy who lived…It seems like we’ve made a mistake based on time precision,” Dumbledore sighed.

“Are we doomed now, Albus?” Asked a plump woman with red hair.

“I sure hope not after all the information we gained from our prisoner there,” Albus pointed out at Barty, who was restrained on a chair on the other side of the room.

A silencing charm was enough to prevent him from speaking his bigoted nonsense.

“But there’s also a matter we need to clarify, as you know, there were two candidates back then, one of them was supposed to be Voldemort's real enemy, and considering Neville Longbottom's fate...May his soul rest, I’d like you guys to meet who I think is Voldemort's real enemy,” Dumbledore said, and soon a young man appeared from the kitchen.

“No…There’s no way,” Snape was angry.

“Hi, Everyone, I’m Harry, Harry Potter,” he introduced himself politely.

Soon, murmurs and whispers started to be heard. Snape was sending a deadly glare at the Potter, but Harry wasn’t paying attention to his potions teacher; he would have time to deal with him later.

“Now, I know he might not look like Neville, he’s not scrawny, and he seems very confident about himself. I must admit I had my doubts, but he came up with the plan to catch Barty Crouch,” Dumbledore’s words surprised them.

“Well, anyone would’ve thought about using veritaserum to be honest,” Snape wasn’t impressed.

“What? Isn’t that illegal?” Arthur Weasley questioned.

“Albus…Why are we following a young man’s plan?” Minerva questioned the choices her long-time friend and employer had made.

“I don’t think this is a moment to worry about legality or morality, especially when the world is at risk of ending,” that was Mundungus.

Harry was surprised to find out that he was a member too.

“Illegal? A young man?” Harry couldn’t help but say in a bitter tone. “I can assure all of you that I’ve lived worse things throughout a summer than you in your entire lives, and there’s a reason why Albus listened to me and didn’t ask any of you what to do,” Harry looked at the elderly wizard, who sighed.

“It seems like Mr. Potter didn’t believe himself to be hero we were told about but he has a good potential, not only to end Voldemort but also to change the world, and let’s not kid ourselves, this world needs a change, that’s why I asked him to join us but not as a subordinate,” Dumbledore was choosing his words carefully.

“What do you mean by that, Albus?” Severus Snape didn’t know where this was going.

“It means that I’m as equal as all of you, if not more, after all, it’s my life that we’re compromising; it’s only fair I have a say in what we're going to do to destroy that bastard once and for all,” Harry intervened with a tone full of confidence.

None of the older wizards and witches were expecting to see such an eloquent display of words; it was hard to deny that Harry was charismatic. There's no doubt that he's charming.

“Albus, this is stupid…He’s Potter’s son!” Snape tried to make the old wizard get back to his senses.

“Severus…James Potter has been dead for almost two decades; it’s time to let it go, don’t you want to make that monster and his followers pay for what they did to Lily?” Dumbledore questioned his long-time friend and spy.

“I know a lot of you find my presence a bit of a shock, after all, I’m just a student, I’m your sons and daughters classmate, but it seems like destiny has something else prepared for me, and by extension, you’re involved in that, I promised Dumbledore I was going to help him, and in exchange, he’s going to help me change the world,” Harry suddenly took a pause.

He looked at the astonished members of the Order of the Phoenix, and he couldn’t help but smile at himself.

“If you don’t feel comfortable, it’s better for you to say this now and leave because tonight something interesting is going to happen, something that’s going to change the curse of the war…Tonight, we’re finally capturing Voldemort,” Harry smirked at them.

Soon whispers and murmurs were heard in a low tone, it seems like they were looking at him as if he had gone insane, Dumbledore decided to intervene and soon, he told them story of what lead to this, how he privately questioned Barty Crouch who used the tournament to capture Neville so it could help him get his master a new body at the end of the tournament but instead, Neville Longbottom died way too early but still had a backup plan, less dramatic but as effective as the first one.

“They’re preparing a ritual tonight, using the blood of the supposedly boy who lived because, yes, I can attest that the fake Moody’s clothes were covered with blood after he carried him to the infirmary, it’s clear that’s how he got the blood to use for the ritual and also, he was looking like a maniac that evening,” Harry’s words were calculated and direct.

“Shouldn’t we just kill him?” This time, it was a redhead wizard who spoke; he looked to be a Weasley, but in his twenties; he was beside another guy who looked like him but had some scars on his face.

Harry remembers that second guy; he’s one of the dragon handlers.

“No, we need him alive to question him about how he survived and also, we need to make a show out of him, we need to make a statement for the press to see this and the public too, they need to know that the dark lord is very much alive, although, according to our friend there,” Harry pointed at Barty.

The man looked furious at the words he had heard.

“He’s nothing more than a homunculus; he has the size of a baby, but he’s still dangerous, so let’s not become overconfident, but if we play our cards right, we can use him for our purposes,” Harry smirked at them.

“Our purposes? Isn’t defeating the dark lord our only purpose?" Minerva questioned.

“Yes…But what’s going to happen after we kill him? Society will remain the same, and then in a few years, we’ll have another dark lord in the making. No, we need to change the system if we want to avoid that fate again; it’s our duty, as no one but us has fought against those ideas,” Harry’s words were interesting.

“I’m on it,” the dragon handler said.

“Charlie, no!” The other younger redhead tried to stop his brother.

“Bill, he’s right, if we want a change, we have to do it ourselves, and we need to stop being merciful towards our enemies!” Charlie was clearly frustrated.

“But…Wouldn’t that make us as evil as them?” Asked Arthur, the man was clearly naïve despite his age.

“Don’t worry, I made a magical vow to Dumbledore promising I won’t turn evil, so let's not waste time and let's just start to plan,” Harry told them with a smirk.

They knew those words should have made them feel better, but that didn’t happen.

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