[HP] The rise of the background character #18 (Patreon)

All characters are adults

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Chapter #18: The more things they change, the more they stay the same

The gasps couldn’t wait to be heard. Everyone in the great hall stared at the thing presented in front of them. Many felt disgusted, while others decided to stop eating. Harry couldn’t help but caress his temple; it wasn’t a good idea to show this while everyone was eating. Luckily, he already ate more than enough.

“What is that?” Hermione asked out loud, and many people wondered the same thing.

Dumbledore, instead of answering the questions, introduced a liquid into the thing’s mouth, and soon, the silencing charm that prevented Voldemort in his homunculus from ranting was suddenly lifted. Snape grabbed the vial and smelled it; his eyes widened.

“Veritaserum,” the greasy-haired teacher said with a shocked tone.

“What is your name?” Asked Dumbledore with a cold tone.

Soon, he also placed a sonorus charm for everyone to hear what was going on.

“Tom Marvolo Riddle, I’m also known as Lord Voldemort,” soon, gasps started to be heard that were louder than the previous ones.

“Impossible…You were supposed to be dead. Neville Longbottom killed Voldemort eighteen years ago,” one random student said.

Voldemort gritted his teeth due to the insolence of a random nobody not calling him a Lord, but the veritaserum made it impossible for anyone to lie, and even if they were having a hard time believing this, they couldn’t help but see the truth behind all the crazy things that have been happening since Neville Longbottom came to Hogwarts.

“That’s a lie everyone wanted to believe in without asking for evidence, my body was just destroyed with a ritual made by his parents, the ritual required Neville Longbottom’s parents to die, it was a fair exchange, a life for a life, I killed Frank, as for Alice, Neville Longbottom's mother, she sold her soul in exchange for a powerful protection to reflect the killing curse, sadly for her, she wasn’t aware I had a backup plan in case something like that happened,” the homunculus said with a smirk.

Regardless of his current state, he was still proud of his achievements. Defying death like this was something many wizards dreamed of, and only he has done something like that; immortality has actually been a walk in the park for him.

“Tom, can you tell us the names of your associates and what they did to become your closest allies?” Dumbledore asked with a cold tone.

Voldemort smirked. This time, he was having a fun time telling everyone the names of his goons and their crimes; a lot of violence was involved, sometimes to wizards, but most of all to muggles. The people in the room were horrified by what they were hearing.

“This is what blood obsession leads to, students…Do you truly want to end like this wizard?” Asked Dumbledore with a calm expression.

Many people who were feeling interested in the dark arts as more than a school subject were starting to see the error in their ways. While power is amazing, looking like a human being is better than anything else; it made them realize that if gaining power will make them look like this thing, then they don't want it.

“Luckily, we were able to capture Voldemort before he could do something worse, like taking over the ministry and making all of us worship him like a god,” Dumbledore told them with a disgusted expression, and people were happy they did this.

Soon, there were claps for those involved in the capture of Voldemort; having him out of the streets was something that would help them sleep better at night.

“Thank you so much, but this wouldn't have been possible without the help of a person…The one we think is going to destroy the dark lord once and for all, according to a prophecy, he's the only one who can kill him,” Dumbledore’s words caused everyone to chat between them.

Many members of the order were looking at Albus with concerned expressions. This was the first time they heard about a prophecy. Trelawney, however, sat uncomfortably on the teacher's table.

“A year before Voldemort lost his body, I heard a prophecy from a trusted source. I’m not going to bore you with details, but in short, the prophecy speaks about the one destined to destroy the dark lord; he had to be born in a certain year as the seventh month dies…The only one who fit that description was Neville Longbottom,” Dumbledore suddenly stopped.

He wanted to see the reactions, and many were looking at him as if he had lost his mind, and it makes sense, divination is a very touchy subject.

“I know what all you guys must think, I know that divination is a far-fetched subject; however, someone truly believed in divination. You know what happened to that person? It's currently being interrogated without his original body,” Dumbledore added as he looked at Voldemort's current state.

Many were silent, and then they started to laugh at the misfortune of the dark lord. To know that a dark wizard like himself would believe in divination nonsense was something amusing for most of the people in the room.

“Shut up, I’m the greatest wizard that has ever lived!” Voldemort now felt again like the first time he arrived at Hogwarts.

Back then, when he had just learned about this place and his powers, he was at the bottom of the food chain, an orphan nobody who was mocked and constantly put down by everyone. It seems like the more things they change, the more they stay the same.

“As you guys realize, we were wrong to put that responsibility on Neville Longbottom. It’s bad to talk ill about the dead, but he clearly didn’t have what a wizard should if he wanted to destroy someone like Voldemort. Due to time differences, we discarded the next person…” Dumbledore finished, and then a student got up.

Hermione and Fleur looked at the figure with confused expressions. Tonks and Amelia felt the same, but then, they couldn’t stop themselves from smirking at the sight. The person who got on his feet looked so confident, imposing, and ready to take the lead. Amelia couldn't help but think of him as a natural-born leader.

“Harry Potter,” Dumbledore said with a calm tone as Harry took the place next to him.

Many had seen him on the hallways, others remember him from his speech the day Neville Longbottom was chosen by the goblet, and others remember him for stopping the dragon from killing the whole audience in the first task. Snape was looking at Harry with hatred, and others had no idea who he was, but the Potter name was supposed to be powerful.

“Hi everyone, I know most of you have zero idea of who I am and what I can do, and that is good. I prefer to keep myself aside to not give my enemies any way to know the tricks I have under my sleeve, now that we’ve clarified this…My name is Harry James Potter, and from now, I’m going to be working with our dear headmaster and our respectable minister,” he told them with a smirk.

Soon, gasps and whispers were heard. Many were jealous because getting a job in the ministry wasn’t an easy thing, especially one that seemed to be very closely tied to the minister. On the other side of the room, Percy Weasley was looking at Harry with envy; he, too wanted to become closer to the minister.

“I know a lot of you are wondering what a fourth year is going to do for the country…Changes are coming, muggles are evolving, while we remain stuck in time, it's time to wake up and realize we're in the year 2025. Don't stress yourselves for now, there’s one thing I can assure you, I plan to suggest changes to benefit everyone,” Harry said with the most charming smile he could show.

The female audience was now enchanted with his words, while the males were looking at him with hatred, curiosity, and others with lust in their eyes. It was going to be interesting to see what Harry could do for their country.

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