"I'm late..."
Faced with Harry, all Dumbledore could do was admit he was late first...
He fancied that he understood Harry's state of mind. After all, Harry had just been through a battle and had probably even killed Quirrell with his own hands. It was only natural that he was still shaken.
What he didn't know was that Harry had long since grown used to death and corpses. He wasn't shaken at all!
The reason Harry was so on guard was that, with no one else around and Hermione unconscious too, he had a chance to confront Dumbledore outright!!
Harry had spent a year at Hogwarts, and old Dumbledore had taken it upon himself to act as his guardian for that whole year. Then, because of a flaw in his plan, he had nearly gotten both himself and Hermione killed... Was Harry really supposed to keep swallowing his anger over all that?
Still, Harry was worried. He didn't know whether Dumbledore might read his mind in a fit of anger, or even attack him directly, so... he had to stay prepared at all times!
He had roughly estimated that, once his Obscurus was fully unleashed, it should be able to hold old Dumbledore off for a while. So even if he and Dumbledore really fell out, Norbert, who was resting and gathering his strength, could at least carry Hermione away from here at once.
As for himself...
Harry would bet a Galleon that old Dumbledore wouldn't simply kill him. Even if things went badly, he could still hope Scamander would come to his rescue.
"Harry, I'm so glad to see you're all right..." With Harry still saying nothing, Dumbledore could only awkwardly press on by himself. "You did wonderfully. While I was away, you bravely took responsibility for the safety of the entire school, protected everyone, including Miss Granger, and even defeated the treacherous Quirrell..."
"He wasn't treacherous!!"
The moment Dumbledore mentioned Professor Quirrell, Harry's anger finally erupted!
"He was guiding me all along, from the nonexistent Sorcerer's Stone to the professors' challenges... every single one of them! With his own cleverness, he left a trail of clues for me, and in the end, he even risked his life to create an opening that would help me defeat Voldemort..."
"Though he failed, to me he was a mentor who passed on the spirit of Ravenclaw. He was a great wizard worthy of everyone's respect!!"
"Harry, you said... Quirrell left clues for you? That—that's completely unexpected..."
Harry's words wiped the calm expression from Dumbledore's face. He hadn't noticed anything Quirrell had done under the guise of a "villain," nor had he understood the true meaning of many of the clues.
But that was hardly surprising. All his attention had been focused on Harry.
"But you abandoned him!!" Harry angrily pointed at Professor Quirrell's battered body. "You let Voldemort control him, let him walk step by step toward a dead end... You sacrificed a wizard with a brilliant future ahead of him just to carry out a ridiculous, secret plan that couldn't see the light of day!!"
"Harry, calm down first. I deeply regret what happened to Quirrell, but the truth is... I never knew he showed any signs of breaking free of Voldemort's control." Dumbledore tried to explain. "He had fallen too far. His thoughts had already changed by the time he returned from his travels..."
"Then why didn't you teach him properly?!" Harry accused him sharply. "You're the Headmaster, and a teacher at Hogwarts too. Professor Quirrell was once a Hogwarts student. You knew he'd gone astray, so why didn't you stop him in time and bring him back to the right path?!"
"Do you know how much he needed a mentor to guide him when Voldemort was tempting him? When Voldemort was taking over his body bit by bit, how much he must have wished someone would save him and find a way to lead him out of that dark abyss?!"
"But what did you do? Not only did you refuse to save him, you treated him like a pawn you could throw away, and in the end you even forced me to kill him with my own hands!!"
"Harry, listen to me... You have to stay calm now, or your emotions and your Obscurus could both get out of control!" Dumbledore urged, frowning. "I regret what happened to Quirrell, but Voldemort was involved. We had no choice but to make sacrifices..."
"Apologize!" Harry had no interest in hearing Dumbledore's sophistry. "You have to apologize to Professor Quirrell, the man you abandoned! No one deserves to be sacrificed, and no one is born willing to be sacrificed! But for your so-called greater good, for some unspeakable purpose, you cruelly abandoned him... As Headmaster and teacher, I believe you were guilty of a grave dereliction of duty! And, in my eyes, what you did was no different from murder!!"
"Harry... I think you really need to calm down!" Dumbledore's voice sank, and his expression grew colder.
After being repeatedly berated by Harry, he was starting to get angry.
"I. Want. You. To. Apologize!!!"
BOOM!!!
After his furious roar, Harry's Obscurus erupted once more, turning into a storm that seemed ready to destroy everything!!
"Harry... you?!" Dumbledore's expression tightened. He hadn't expected Harry to be willing to fight him to the death over a dead Quirrell!!
At that moment, Dumbledore faced a difficult choice.
For him, apologizing to Harry would mean nothing more than swallowing his pride. But the meaning behind it made it hard for him to decide.
Because if he bowed his head, he would be admitting his failure—and the person he was admitting it to was none other than Harry Granger, the boy he had to keep a close eye on and help plan a future for.
After this apology, there would inevitably be a subtle shift in the balance between him and Harry.
In other words, if Dumbledore bowed his head today, he might never again be able to interfere in Harry's growth the way he had before.
But... Harry was special, after all.
Defeating Voldemort would be easy. But finding all of Voldemort's weaknesses and killing him for good would be impossible without Harry's power!
So no matter how Harry had acted out or caused trouble at school before, Dumbledore had simply turned a blind eye.
But this time, Harry had turned his anger on him, and Dumbledore was undeniably in the wrong to begin with!
He hadn't noticed that Quirrell was leaving clues for Harry. He had also been slow to realize that Voldemort had discovered the Sorcerer's Stone didn't exist before entering the Chamber...
By the time Dumbledore had hurried back, Harry's battle was already over... and he had actually won!!
That meant Dumbledore had even missed his chance to save him.
So...
"I... am sorry!" After hesitating for a long time, Dumbledore bowed his head.
"I blame myself for my negligence, and I'm ashamed that I abandoned such an excellent wizard as Professor Quirrell! I am entirely to blame for his death, and for everything you and Hermione went through today, Harry!"
Dumbledore... had chosen to back down!
At last, Harry had managed to wring an apology out of Dumbledore, and the knot of resentment in his heart eased a little.
At least Professor Quirrell hadn't died without receiving an apology.
Though Harry still felt deeply regretful...
Of course, an apology to Professor Quirrell wasn't enough. Harry still had his own grievances to address.
Gripping the Space Ring and silently repeating a few calming spells, Harry slowly drew back his Obscurus, which had been lashing out wildly.
"Ugh..." In an instant, a sharp pain swept from his brain throughout his body, but Harry stubbornly suppressed it.
He had used the power of his Obscurus too much today, and it was already starting to take a toll on his body...
Fortunately, it seemed he wouldn't need to keep pretending to "fight to the death" by using his Obscurus to threaten old Dumbledore.
Dumbledore's retreat just now had given Harry a glimpse of the truth.
There had to be something about him that was closely connected to Voldemort. Because of it, Dumbledore had to make sure he stayed alive.
So Dumbledore wouldn't attack him. He would have to talk things through with Harry instead, lest Harry use his Obscurus to go berserk and kill himself!
It sounded ridiculous, but threatening to die was indeed Harry's best leverage at the moment.
He had to keep showing Dumbledore that he would rather die than live without freedom. Only then could he remain undefeated in this confrontation!
"Headmaster Dumbledore, since things have come to this, let's be frank with each other." Harry looked at Dumbledore expressionlessly. "You've already found out about my relationship with Mr. Scamander, haven't you?"
Harry hadn't spent the past year at school for nothing. Voldemort could be the only reason old Dumbledore was so concerned about him, so Harry had always asked Scamander to investigate Voldemort on his behalf.
Investigating a Dark Lord known throughout the Wizarding World was bound to attract attention. So when Scamander sent Harry some of his findings, Harry knew their relationship couldn't stay hidden.
"Yes, I've heard about it." Dumbledore nodded. "I'm sincerely happy for you. It's wonderful to have such a powerful and experienced wizard as your friend."
"Then could you answer a few questions for me?" Harry asked coolly. "Why did you put me with the Dursleys?"
"Harry, I was worried you'd be swept up by the glory of being a hero." Dumbledore spoke with concern. "A baby who defeated a fearsome Dark Lord would hear far too many things that weren't good for his growth if he remained in the Wizarding World..."
"Even so, you could have sent me to a decent orphanage, or taken the time to find a normal family like the Grangers. Instead, you ignored Professor McGonagall's objections and stubbornly sent me to the Dursleys, even though you knew what they were like!" Harry easily found the flaw in Dumbledore's argument. "Besides... have you forgotten the long-distance battle of wits we had more than two years ago?"
When I said I wanted to leave the Dursleys, Mrs. Figg passed the word along and dealt with the social worker. Then a group of wizards went around London making inquiries.
In the end, the Ministry of Magic even sent an Auror after the Royal Family so I could choose a wizarding family!
So... you did all that just to keep me from growing up into a spoiled brat? Who are you trying to fool?!
"It was because of the Blood Protection Charm..." Dumbledore had no choice but to tell him the truth. "Before your mother Lily died, she infused you with an ancient spell known as 'love,' hoping it would protect you. After learning of this, I placed another Blood Protection Charm on you, strengthening that protection. As long as you stayed with your blood relatives and accepted their home as your own, that protection would remain in effect until you turned seventeen."
So that was it. His mother had left him her love, and Dumbledore, worried that it wasn't enough, had added another layer of protection~
So Dumbledore had put him with the Dursleys to maintain that protection and help him grow up safely.
Was Harry supposed to be touched?
"Headmaster, answer my next question... After Voldemort fell eleven years ago, was I safe?"
"Yes... you were quite safe back then."
Dumbledore's mouth twitched involuntarily. At last, he understood how those professors had felt earlier.
Harry had started the familiar, relentless interrogation, while Dumbledore could only answer each of his increasingly pointed questions one by one.
He couldn't get angry, much less attack Harry. Harry was like a firecracker with its fuse exposed... one spark and he'd explode!
And if he exploded right in front of Dumbledore, everything would be over!!
Dumbledore believed Harry was already rather extreme by nature. Add the effect the Obscurus had on his emotions, and Dumbledore had to keep placating him~
"Was I safe because of the Blood Protection Charm you just mentioned, or because the circumstances at the time posed no danger to me?" Harry pressed on.
"Both were probably factors, Harry. Your mother's love had always been protecting you..."
"I have a list of former Death Eaters that Mr. Scamander gave me. It records in detail where nearly all of them went after Voldemort's 'defeat.'" A cold smile tugged at Harry's lips. "Headmaster, would you like to reconsider your answer to my last question?"
"Well... all right, I admit the circumstances at the time were relatively safe for you." Dumbledore sighed helplessly. "Some of Voldemort's most loyal Death Eaters died in the war, and almost all the rest were locked up in Azkaban. The Death Eaters who had switched sides returned to the side of justice after the Dark Lord's 'death,' so they naturally abandoned any plans to seek revenge on you. Of course, there were certainly some enemies still at large, but..."
"But you had already arranged for watchers near the Dursleys' home, hadn't you?" Harry picked up where Dumbledore left off, speaking in a flat voice. "People like Mrs. Figg, for example. There may have been others too... Unfortunately, they weren't very good at keeping an eye on things~"
"Yes..."
"Good~" Harry nodded in satisfaction.
An argument wasn't sophistry. Dumbledore was trying to focus Harry's attention on his mother's protection, exaggerating the nonexistent dangers Harry had supposedly faced before he came of age. But Harry intended to refute his argument with hard evidence!
The evidence was simple: in the eleven years that had passed, whether Harry had lived with the Dursleys or the Grangers, his mother's power had never once come into play. Nor had he ever been attacked!
If Dumbledore could name specific people and incidents—for example, who had attacked Harry, when and how, and who had secretly rescued him, and how—during those eleven years...
If he could name even one such example, Harry would stop right here and apologize to him at once!
But the truth was, Dumbledore couldn't name a single one.
There was a simple point that only took a moment's thought to understand... If Death Eaters who posed a serious threat to Harry were really still at large, how could Dumbledore have sent only Mrs. Figg—a Squib who knew no magic and couldn't even beat Dudley—to watch the Dursleys' home by herself?!
So after Voldemort "died," his lackeys had either given up or simply couldn't come after Harry...
And if there was no danger, how could Dumbledore claim that the Blood Protection Charm wasn't unnecessary?
Heh, of course it wasn't...
Because the Blood Protection Charm and his mother's love, though they drew on the same power, served completely different purposes!
"Harry, it's not that simple..." Dumbledore frowned slightly and tried to defend himself. "You and I both know Voldemort has returned, and if he finds you..."
"Headmaster, do you think you'll hear that Voldemort has returned first, or will Voldemort find me first?"
That was another question that left Dumbledore speechless, because the answer was right before them.
Voldemort had indeed returned, but he was terribly weak. He could only possess Quirrell and cling to life by drinking Unicorn blood.
Harry's battle might have been dangerous, but in truth, if Dumbledore had chosen to step in, defeating Quirrell-Voldemort would have been easy.
But he hadn't.
"Let's make a hypothetical, Headmaster." With that in mind, Harry continued with another question. "Suppose I hadn't come to Hogwarts. What would have happened after Voldemort returned this time?"
"He would probably have been defeated by me while trying to find the Sorcerer's Stone..." Dumbledore thought for a moment before answering. "But Harry, that scenario could never have happened."
"Of course that scenario could never have happened!" Harry's expression turned cold in an instant. "Because you had already decided that you would force me to come to Hogwarts, no matter what it took, hadn't you?!"
"..." Faced with Harry's accusation, Dumbledore fell silent.
Scamander had once put it well: Harry's legs belonged to Harry, and if he didn't want to attend Hogwarts, Dumbledore couldn't exactly abduct him.
And yet, while Dumbledore hadn't come to abduct Harry, he had sent someone to abduct Hermione!
Because Hermione came from a non-magical family, a messenger had to visit the Grangers before she enrolled and explain the Wizarding World to them.
So Harry wanted to ask: why was it that the messenger showed up at just the right moment, when he had gone out?
And why did that mysterious messenger seem to know so much about the Obscurus, going on at length in front of the Grangers and Hermione about the dangers of suppressing magic?
Harry had looked into it before. The numbers were small, but every year in Britain there were children who awakened magic and chose not to enroll. Which of them wasn't living perfectly well?
So why, when the messenger talked about Hermione's situation, did it suddenly become so dangerous that only going to Hogwarts could solve it?!
Besides, the messenger hadn't just made the Wizarding World and Hogwarts sound wonderful in front of the Grangers. He had even blabbed in front of Hermione about how Harry had once "driven off" the Dark Lord!
He made Hermione believe that Harry was a noble among wizards, a hero. He made her believe that Harry looked down on her. Then Hermione started throwing tantrums and acting out, and in the end stubbornly insisted on going to Hogwarts!
So, under those circumstances, did Harry have any other choice?
Even after she apologized, she was still dead set on going to Hogwarts!
Before you continue