A/N: For one reason and the other, this took longer than I'd planned to write, even though most of it has been written since ages ago. Anyway, I've completely lost in the up-dates-challenge I set for myself, yes I concede defeat! Real life or better yet University life, attacked me, mugged me of my poor plot bunnies and kicked me to the curb.

Sorry about that… but to make it up to you all this is a double chapter, huge and filled with awesome quotes and other good stuff (including some much needed in-depth into Lucius and Severus odd relationship). Also this chapter is the return to chapter sense! From now on chapter 13 will be chapter 13. Perfect hum?

By the way… this is the un-betaed version. Yep, I betaed it myself, which means mistake after mistake,(not really! lol=) but yey, it was about time I published right? RIGHT!

If someone would like to beta for me, I have a beta but I can't speak with her right now, probably computer problems, hard to tell, either way… feel free to send me a message if you're interested!

+ Chapter 11 and 12+

From the Past 'Till the Future

'All he needed to know…'

Harry found himself wondering about that for quite some time, after his trip through memory lane.

During the last few days, Voldemort and his minions had left him alone (well, relatively alone, he was still watched 24/7 by the many portraits of snakes all around the mansion), he was left alone to think and decide, he supposed.

Unfortunately, the only thing he had managed to do was try and force his head to remember that which he'd apparently forgotten, the last 2 years of his life, but try as he might, he had none of those memories, he remembered none of those things, a part of his life had been taken away from him, and an important part at that.

Together with those memories Voldemort had also shown him many newspapers; he had them right now spread across his bed, in the bedroom where he had first awoken, but they were of no comfort to him, they spoke of a world that was completely unfamiliar to him.

A strange, new world, and as he looked at the foreign pictures and read the unbelievable words, he felt as though he had stepped in some alternative reality, crossed the line to Twilight zone, or even fallen through some rabbit hole...

Yet, this 'rabbit hole' led not to wonderland, but to some kind of hell dimension, where everything that he knew was present, but changed in some abhorrent way, that made this world and what he knew of it distrustful, scary and just plain wrong.

In this world, the Death Eaters were the 'good guys'. Not good, per se, oh no… they admitted to the entire world they had indeed committed many crimes, but those were all for their cause… which apparently was equality! Equality my ass! How could people buy into this shit!

But they did! In all the papers he read, there were descriptions of manifestations, protests at the doors of the Ministry and many other places of reference for the Magical people across Britain.

Protests against everything! Against the Death Eaters and their use of Dark Magic, yes, but also protests by common people against the restrictions on the use of Dark Magic! Protests against the insertion of muggle-borns in the magical society, and in favor of the insertion of muggle-borns!

There was even a protest originated by the goblins at Gringotts, who had apparently sent dignitaries to the Ministry, with armfuls of written complaints against the persistency of warfare in magical Britain! The goblins had threatened to close doors to the public until the Ministry took measures to ensure the end of… 'Unintelligent hostilities between magical folk, which had no specific purpose, and caused monetary deficiencies and unnecessary risk for the Goblin population in Britain.'

It was Anarchy! There was Chaos everywhere! And of course it didn't help manners that the Ministry continuously made statements in several news articles affirming that there was no cause for alarm, there was indeed no war and no danger in Magical Britain.

Harry laughed, sure and the constant maim and death of people, the dark marks everywhere, and the overall panic, were all just a fruit of peoples' imaginations, some group hallucination perhaps?

Stupidly enough, the Ministry had ignored the warning and the Goblins had indeed closed doors for an indefinite period of time!

Of course that state of affairs hadn't lasted long, and soon enough the people were rebelling against the ministry and the lack of any efficient action against the constant attacks to both private and public property.

There were even some newspapers with detailed descriptions of outdoor, all-out battles, between many acknowledged public figures, which Harry read were known Death Eaters, Ministry employees and Order Members.

Those appeared to be the three sides in this war: Voldemort and his Death Eaters, aka the Dark Side; Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix Members, aka the Light Side; and The Minister and his bunch of stupid assholes in denial, aka the Stupid Side.

Mostly the newspapers related the series of events that had let to the victory of the Dark Side, not a complete victory, but a victory of sorts.

There was obviously much resistance in Britain but nothing major, after Dumbledore's death and the capture of most if not all the remaining Order Members.

So right now Voldemort's problems, from what Harry understood from his readings, were basically: to pass an image of unity and peaceful recovery to the rest of the Magical World, who was gravely distraught over the war in Britain. To convince the Goblins to reopen doors and to persuade the citizens of Britain that they were better now, under Voldemort's ruling.

Harry also discovered that apparently he was dead. Or at least that was what the magical world believed since his body had been recovered by the Order and shown in a rather graphic picture in one of his last newspapers. But according to the grapevine, his body had been cursed and ironically ended up causing the death of Dumbledore.

The Order's status of secrecy wasn't that good but from then on it got really messed up. On and on, there was, what harry could only call, bad publicity. The Order had really become the punching bag for everyone. It got so bad that they began to be individually pursued by the public in general as the real causers of this war, and the obvious bad guys.

Tough… from everywhere he looked he could clearly see that Voldemort had indeed really won, and if that was true, that he, Harry, must truly have been on the Dark Side, for why else would he still be alive?

-XD-

Meanwhile In the Dungeons…

"Ah! Dear Severus… we've known each other for what? 20 years, almost 30! No other man compares to you, Sev" he said, making the most sincere face he could. He stood on the other side of the table so he could look at the Severus as he calmly continued to brew.

Severus actually laughed.

"You always say that, and I never know if I should ask you how you come up with this stuff or if you actually mean any of it, Lucius?" he said, with a smirk.

Lucius looked indignant and hurt.

"I was being sincere. I only say it because I mean it!" he said. "No one compares to you, Sev. You're intelligent, fun…"

"… If you say beautiful I'll gag," Severus concluded for him, picking up the newt's eyes and dropping them in the caldron.

He moved closer to the table where Severus worked, he wore a small pout. "But you are beautiful! In fact, I've always found you very…"

"I know exactly your opinion of me, Lucius" Severus interrupted. "We are going to remain as friends."

Lucius raised his eyebrows at him hopefully.

"Friends without privileges," he amended.

Lucius clutched his heart with both hands, an agonized look on his handsome face.

"Ah, you wound me to the heart Sev," he gasped.

"Do you want me to brew you some healing potion?" he replied nonchalantly.

"Sev, I know I harmed you, it is one of my worse regrets…

"Oh, really? I didn't know you had any!"

"You know me better than that, you…"

"… yes you are right I do know you better than that, I know you very well, in fact I probably know you better than you know yourself! And I don't care! I don't care about that, about you, for you! Not anymore!"

"Sev!"

"Stop calling me by that stupid nickname! We are friends because I respect you and all you've taught me, because you've protected me in several occasions, and because once upon a time we had something. Feelings, I guess we could call it that, if not for each other, at least I had them for you! And then you betrayed me and in doing so, lost the right to call me by that blasted nickname! Do I have to remind you that it was you who broke up with me?"

"I know, I remember, I… It was for your own good, I… I had my reasons…"

"Don't you, always!" by now Severus was yelling, the potion completely forgotten "You went and married Narcissa, for Merlin's sake! Not wanting to diminish that woman, who I happen to respect a lot, after all, she has bared with you and your stream of lovers, for more than twenty years, and she did give you an heir, my godson, and I know you care for him even more than I do, so don't come and tell me you regret it! You don't and even if you did, it wouldn't matter because I don't! Shit!" the potion had started to burn and bubble over, Severus lowered the fire and put some herbs in it, after a couple of stressed moments he turned off the fire and drew out his wand vanishing the potion.

"This is ridiculous! It's ruined! I hadn't ruined a potion this easy, since fifth year! And it's all your fault! Get out of here!"

"Now calm down Severus, I… you need some time to think about this, about us..."

"There's never going to be anything between us ever again, and you're getting out of my Lab in this instant!"

Lucius leaned forward over the table, "Do you care to bet on that?"

Severus also leaned towards Lucius until he was really close.

Their eyes locked and noses almost touched.

Severus let out a very malicious little smirk.

He flicked his wand, and Lucius was pulled up in the air and quickly shoved out the door.

Lucius came to his senses with the sound of the door to Severus' Lab, banging behind him.

He couldn't help seeing the irony in the situation, since that had been precisely the same spell he had used to break up with Severus, a little over twenty years ago.

-XD-

6 months later…

Harry Potter walked in the massive library at the early hours of morning, as it had become a habit of his.

He sat in one of the armchairs in the room and stared at the empty fireplace. He then took out a pocket-sized little notebook. He had begun this interesting new habit of writing down his memories after that incident, a year ago, in which he had woken up without his memories. These past year had been a complicated one, and he never wished to experience that ever again. To this day, he still had no memory of the past two years of his life, before the incident, but he was now 17 years old, legally and magically an adult, he could not mope around forever, stuff happens right?

He had a new motto for his life: "Live in the today, 'cause you can end up forgetting half of your life tomorrow."

He opened his little notebook, and stared at the list of sentences there engraved.

There was no description of his memories there, and yet for him there was. He had indeed begun to write down his memories but in such a way that only he would understand.

He would write a sentence in Latin, for every major memory.

And as he fixed his green eyes on at the sentences, he smiled.

…

-XD-

nosce te ipsum (know thyself)

The Mansion… Harry learned many things about Voldemort's Mansion.

The first real home he ever had outside Hogwarts, and strangely enough, the mansion had many similarities with Hogwarts, Harry soon realized that this mansion too, was alive in a way. Everything in it seemed to have a way, a personal style and order, and everything seemed somehow connected to his master, like it was a part of him.

The portraits spoke only to and by Voldemort's direct orders. The domestic elf, the only one he was familiar with, appeared to be female and called Inky, she had informed him after much probing that there were indeed more elves in the house but they all obeyed only her commands or her master's, and they had been ordered to remain hidden at all times, which Harry could only assume was true because he never set eyes in any domestic elf apart from Inky, during the length of his entire stay in the Mansion.

The many halls and rooms of the mansion were structured in such a way that it was impossible, at least for Harry, to discover exactly how many they were. The corridors were labyrinths, in which he always got lost and ended up having to call for Inky to redirect him to his room. He had learned fast that the pictures in the portraits could switch with each other at any given time and would do so fairly often, for no other apparent reason than to piss him off and get him lost.

Most of the rooms weren't occupied, yet they did not seem abandoned, they were all clean and looked ready to live in. Somehow he had expected Voldemort's "home" to be a scary, forsaken, desolated place, with dark broody corners, cheeky decaying furniture and lots of grime and cobwebs. Maybe even some dried blood stains and bats just hanging from the ceiling.

Instead, there were huge foot-to-ceiling windows, with long black curtains, that were always open, letting in either the sun or the moon light. Except on Death Eaters meeting days'. He knew those days right away, Inky would tell him he was being restricted to the third floor, in which his room was located, for the duration of the meeting, about two to three hours, and during this time all the curtains around the third floor would be closed. So would all the doors. And stairs. Magically closed, not even sound would pass through. Harry was never claustrophobic, being raised in a cupboard and all that, but he always felt quite constricted on those times. Like a prisoner, which Voldemort insisted he wasn't, and remarkably he didn't felt like… most of the time... Well, at least after the first couple of weeks.

-XD-

Est modus in rebus (There is a middle ground in things)

The first days had been disastrous. He had started in complete denial and worked from there.

He had acted like a child, threw tantrums, tried to run away from the mansion, only to realize the grounds had a barrier of sorts and he always ended up exactly where he started. He had tried to hide, which was by itself a stupid idea, and only grew stupider by the fact that the domestic elf kept finding him for every meal, which he took in the room he had come to consider as his own.

As for Voldemort… he showed up once in a while to talk with Harry, or try to at least.

Harry had screamed at him, thrown things, glared, accused him of being Satan, attacked him, and finally just ignored him and refused to acknowledge is presence.

Remarkably, Voldemort had seemed to understand… in a way.

Though he did not take kindly to the attacking part. Nop, that was definitely an issue there.

Until finally, one day, Harry had overheard that talk, between Snape, Malfoy and Voldemort.

"Why are you keeping him here? It's ridiculous! He's a sixteen years old pain in the ass!"

"It's just a phase" replied Voldemort dismissively. "Give him time, he'll get over it."

"Yes, I'm sure he will, I've no doubts of that, what I doubt is how much time do we have." Snape said. "The people rebel against you!"

"It is to be expected, in view of the circumstances; you cannot take rule of a country by force and expect the people of it to gladly abide by your ruling. We had predicted these insurgences.

"Although that was to be indeed expected, we had counted with some aid from Mr. Potter's hero-status, and this delay is curbing our time in a vital manner. Britain will not survive as the capital of the Magical World without a firm ruling, especially now, and with this little setback in your plans my Lord, I'm afraid we might not have enough time before the ambassadors arrive." said Malfoy.

"It will have to do." Voldemort was seated, as was Malfoy, while Snape paced around the room. "If Mr. Potter is indeed not ready in time, then I'm afraid our plans must be rearranged accordingly. I cannot force his support of my ruling, of our beliefs."

Snape stopped right in front of Voldemort's armchair. "Actually there are a couple of potions, or if you are feeling unimaginative, Imperious is always a…"

"No. That would spoil the all point of it…" began Voldemort.

"…Besides the ambassadors would know." finished Malfoy.

Voldemort nodded.

"Please tell me you have a contingency plan, and that all our prayers are not resting on Mr. Potter." Continued Snape sarcastically.

"I have no plan. I need no plan. There is no plan or scheme to my hold of power over Magical Britain.

My rule is absolute, my word is law, my power is above all else, that is the way it is, and it is going to be from now on, and the sooner the people begin to realize that, the better. I will lead the willing and drag the unwilling."

"That is all very well, but if the ambassadors from the rest of the Wizarding World see mutiny and riots, not even all your strength will appease them. If they see you and your ruling as a danger to them My Lord, they will seek to destroy you, and our forces are not yet recovered from fighting here in Britain, we cannot fight the world." said Malfoy.

Voldemort just smirked at Malfoy.

Malfoy let out his own smirk. "At least not yet."

"In the future when Britain is safe and prosper again, they will thank me for this act and forget the manner in which I did it. (1) If need be, I will give them peace with an iron fist. They will live by my rule or die by it. But for now, we will wait, for Mr. Potter."

"We will wait eternally if you ask me, he's an idiot!" said Snape.

Harry stopped listening at that point. He had gotten the gist of it. Somehow they expected his support to appease the masses. He had read in the newspapers, his supposed death had been a giant hit to the Wizarding World. He had also read that the martyr idea Dumbledore had planned for him, had been followed and most if not all of the rebellious blocks were acting in his name, the name of the Boy-Who-Lived.

So things would go a little like: 'well if Potter was on their side all along, then maybe they can't be all that bad!'

Damn! But that made no sense; he couldn't see what they wanted him to do, to say to the people that would somehow convince them that they were better off with Voldemort in power. But somehow, it would save a bunch of people from getting killed, from dying in his name.

Oh, well… he had done stupider things in life. And it was about time he stopped sulking around.

-XD-

That had not been one of his smarter moves, but it had been inevitable.

He read the next sentence with a sight.

-XD-

Audi et alteram partem (Hear the other side too)

"So, how bad are things and when exactly are these ambassadors coming?" asked Harry while barging into the library, where Voldemort, Malfoy and Snape were having one of their numerous arguments.

"I love how he's always so informed!" said Lucius.

"Yeah, right…" said Severus.

Harry ignored them and just stared straight at Voldemort. They stared at each other for a couple of moments and then Voldemort spoke.

"I'm assuming this means you are ready to collaborate with us?"

"In a way." answered Harry.

"Then let's talk business."

From then on, things had kind of jumped up fast.

Malfoy had conjured a armchair, Harry had sat down, Snape had sulked in his own armchair and Voldemort had talked, and talked, and just when you thought he was finished, he had talked some more .

He had explained the all deal, exactly how the wizarding world was dealing with the Dark Side's victory in Britain, how the people in Britain were dealing with it, he had even given Harry a list of all the members of the Order the Death Eaters had killed, captured, still held in custody, and the ones who were still out there, and they believed were leading some of the major blocks of rebellion.

Apparently the problem for the rest of the magical world was not so much who had won the war, but how that would affect the economy, the emigration rates, Britain's status as capital of the wizarding world, and the many other political issues that would arise from this new political system Voldemort intended to install.

In fact, the political system itself was not even viewed as a real problem, by the WW, many countries did not have a minister and ministry, many were ruled by royalty and there were dictators in some others. Even the new laws on Dark magic usage, and the new method Voldemort intended to use with Britain's dealing with the muggle world, which was total segregation, could be easily accepted by the WW and their many ambassadors.

If only there was political peace, a sense of normality, the only thing they were really scared of was another continuous war like the one 16 years ago, and the one with Gridenwald before that.

For as long as the majority of people wanted only the acceptance of light magic and the insertion with the muggle world, then even if the political system, if the ruling hand intended otherwise, it would not be possible.

There could only be war.

-XD-

Ab absurdo - From the absurd (establishing the validity of your argument by pointing out the absurdity of your opponent's position)

Harry stared at them for a while.

He wasn't stupid, he knew exactly what they expected of him and for some strange, deluded reason they believed he was going to do it.

Boy, were they insane or what? Ok, scratch that, they were obviously insane, but why would they think he was insane too?

He looked at them… they were serious. This was for real and not some elaborate plan to humiliate him or to drive him crazy.

He thought about everything they had been telling him, he add it all up with the knowledge he already had and he came up with… a huge headache.

Damn! He was so confused, he just didn't know, he had no memory, and yet as he looked at Voldemort and recalled his words he could not stop himself from admitting it made sense- Damn!

He looked straight at Voldemort, and guess what? Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough. (2)

"So, let me see if I got this right," Harry began "you're not going to try to kill me again? I am in fact on your side, support everything you do and that's alright 'cause although not the good guys, you aren't dangerous either?"

"Yep, we're harmless as kittens." said Malfoy.
"More so," continued Snape. "Kittens have claws and piss on things indiscriminately."(3)

"But you killed thousands of people!"

"A single death is a tragedy, millions of deaths are a statistic." answered Voldemort.

"Besides" said Lucius "Many of us believe that wrongs aren't wrong if they're done by nice people like ourselves."

"But that's ridiculous; people will never accept you or your ruling."

"Then they'll die." Said Voldemort. "Come now Harry, you certainly didn't believe in all that crap about the Goodness of the Light Side and how evil we all Dark Side as the boogeyman is what is ridiculous. When it comes to magic, the only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do. (4)

And a man with power, Harry, can do anything. I can do anything, including making this country what it was meant to be. Powerful, noble, rich and great, truly great, not this sad prejudiced excuse for a magical society, we have now.
What I can't do though is wait any longer; we are, as you've learned,"

"No doubt from listening on doors," muttered Snape.

Voldemort continued. "we are on a tight schedule, our 'dead line' so to speak, is fast approaching, not only on us but on Britain. If we don't manage this… rebels" he made a face like he had just tasted something disgusting "if you don't manage them, then we are doomed, and so is Britain, we'll probably be annexed by some other country,"

"The States, most likely," said Lucius. "They will invade our country and raid our possessions. Eventually they will occupy our government like a plague. We will be nothing, but one more State, that is, if we even reach that status of equality. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they decided we should be a province."

Voldemort nodded and finished, "For the greater good, of course."

Voldemort got up, walked around the table to stand in front of Harry and said:

"There is an old adage we say to people, 'May you live in troubled times', and Harry," he sighted "this are troubled times, you can't deny it, so are you with us or against us?"

"Oh, I have a choice? The way you are making it sound, it doesn't seem so." answered Harry.

"A choice? But of course… there is always a choice. Everything can be taken from man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one's own attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. (5) You see Harry; I am a great apologist for freedom. So yes, you could choose to be against us.

"In which case, you will kill me."

"Yep" said Lucius

Severus muttered something that sounded remarkably like, "Finally".

And Voldemort said, "Of course."

"So I could choose certain death." Continued Harry. (6)

"A choice nevertheless. You see at the bottom, at the very bottom of ourselves; we are not Homo-sapiens at all. Our core is madness. The prime directive is murder. What Darwin was too polite to say, Harry, is that we came to rule the earth not because we were the smartest, or even the meanest, but because we have always been the craziest, most murderous motherfuckers in the jungle."(7)

"You can't ask me to go and try to convince people of that!" Harry said.

"Ah! I can do anything I see fit."

"But I don't believe in it! I don't agree with your policy or your beliefs, I hate the Dark Side and I hate you!"

"Yes, it's about time you stop with that childish enmity is it not?"

"You killed my parents!" yelled Harry.

"And the parents of thousands of others, and their sons and daughters. War casualties. I would like to remind you that your precious Dumbledore and his Order of Annoying Chickens on Fire, killed just as many. Some of my Death Eaters have families too, you know. You accepted those deaths."

"When I believe in a thing, I believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably. Even if I don't necessarily agree with all their actions, I must believe in their motives, in their aims. I can't defend something I don't believe in."

Voldemort, Lucius and Severus looked at each other, and said: "Gryffindors…"

"Fine. Whatever. I will do it, for the greater good, right?"

"No, never that… For our good, for the good of Britain, for your own good if you wish. But I would never presume to know what the greater good is, much less proclaim my decisions and actions are in its behalf. Unlike some people we are not hypocrites."

Harry began to answer, "Can I think,-"

"No." Severus interrupted

Harry rolled his eyes, "-about this?"

"Sure."

-XD-

Harry sighted, and with that it had been settled. Malfoy and Snape had prepared him for about two weeks, by the end of which the ambassadors would come and he would have to do a speech to the people, that supposedly would keep everyone calm long enough for the ambassadors to observe. Then they would all have dinner, and go back to whatever countries they came from, with only good things to say about Britain and Voldemort's ruling.

Sounds easy? Well it wasn't.

He read the next sentence.

-XD-

Ad captandum vulgus - To appeal to the crowd –- by any means (often used by politics)

Harry stared outside the window; there was a big crowd outside. Damn, he had almost hoped no one would come, but of course they had.

As soon as the news of his remarkable 'recovery' from the doors of death, had hit the Daily Prophet, the citizens of magical Britain had been busy like bees, and as hard as it was to admit it, Voldemort had been right. The grapevine had one common attitude; everyone was waiting on the very edge of their seats, for his opinion.

They would stand were he stood.

He just had to go up there and say he was okay with the new regime, swear his alliance to the dark side and every one of those people would suddenly say "hum, if he says so."

Sad, simply sad.

THUMP!

THUMP!

THUMP!

Well, maybe not everyone.

They were at the Ministry; he would have to give his speech anytime now. The Ministry Atrium was empty, but soon enough it would be completely crowded with the mob outside the doors. Many were reporters, and the majority were just regular, everyday people, but in the middle of this multitude were also numerous rebels, the leaders of the groups of revolt were definitely out there. Just waiting for him to confirm their beliefs and say he was a prisoner of the Dark Side, for them to begin yet another uprising. With him, leading the revolution.

And they were banging on the doors.

THUMP!

Come on, Harry the crowd is waiting!

THUMP!

"They are like barbarians." said Lucius.

"Indeed" said Voldemort.

"Are you sure this is going to work? That crowd out there looks ready to start a riot." said Lucius.

Severus smirked, "Hum, really? Then why don't we let Potter deal with this? It is after all, why he's here, to deal with the rebels… but then again, he's about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse-kicking contest."

"You are indeed correct Severus. Harry there are barbarians at the door, what should we do?-" said Voldemort.

Harry sighted, it was show time, "- just let them in. They are barbarians, they are getting in anyway…"

-XD-

There were so many people!

He had just left the room where they had gathered. Voldemort and Snape remained behind closed doors, but Malfoy was in the podium in front of him, where he was supposed to give a speech that ought to bring peace to Britain, a speech which Malfoy and Snape had spend the past weeks drilling into him.

A speech which was a bunch of fabrications and idiotic 'play-nice-for-the-people', a speech which resumed itself to smiling widely and lying trough his teeth, the speech that was going to make him once again into a pawn, the only difference was the side he was going to be playing for.

A speech he could not give.

And Harry had decided that, in the few moments in which he'd waited there and listened while Malfoy described how he had supposedly always be working in league with the Dark Side, how he supported Voldemort's ruling and why he was only speaking to the public now.

Apparently, he had been suffering the effects of some curse and was still in recovery.

Right.

Malfoy was really handling the crowd. They were all very quiet. Well, he had been expecting that.

But he didn't expect them to be so quiet once it was his turn.

He was so dead.

If the crowd didn't kill him, then they would.

They, who? Well, Malfoy's glare at him while he took the podium was enough to guess.

Harry looked at the people. And the chaos began.

Everyone started asking questions, flashes from the magical cameras blinded him and the noise! Harry could barely hear himself think.

He took a deep breath 'Come on Harry, man up, you were expecting this, just keep breathing and don't let them see you sweat' and he began at the top of his voice,

"I don't like Dark Wizards. I'm going to take a stand and say they're not good."

The crowd quieted down almost immediately. In the deafening silence, Harry could literally feel Malfoy's stare digging a hole into his back.

Oh, well… in for a penny, in for a pound…

He continued, but lowering his voice to a tranquil, more composed tone.

"But just because I don't necessarily agree with someone's lifestyle, it doesn't mean I should fear it or demonize it and I'm certainly not going to ban it. I am not a dark wizard, I never was and honestly I have no intentions of ever being, but that does not mean that I can't see injustice or that I am blind to prejudice! Now, the use of Dark Magic is not illegal, and never was. Yet many people seem to believe it is. Out of ignorance and ill-will."

The crowd attacked like a raging pack of wolfs.

Outraged screams and all.

"Yes! It is mostly used by criminals, you say, but 'When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have catapults'. What I mean is that many of the times they are only criminals because they use dark magic. Which once again, I stress is not against the law!"

The crowd raged even louder, he heard a cry of: "If it isn't, it damn well, should be!" immediately followed by many agreeing ones.

"I repeat this and I'll repeat it as many times as it takes for everyone-" and at this he looked directly at the faces he recognized from the files Malfoy had shown him, to help him identify the leaders of the rebels. He wasn't surprised to notice that the cry had come from one of them "- to get the idea: what is, in fact, a crime, is incitement to hatred."

Another uproar. Harry continued in the same even tone.

"All incitements to hatred should be treated with the same zero tolerance. But not, in my opinion, by means of criminal sanctions. Free speech is precious. It should be limited only in exceptional circumstances - when it slips into inciting violence and murder.

Now, inciting murder is a criminal offence under long-standing magical laws. Magical Laws that have been around since long before I or you all, were born.

Yet I walk down the street, only to see posters of '-Kill the Death Eaters-' and my personal favorite '-Dark Magic is evil. We must destroy it.-' And no one does a thing.

The citizens of Britain have never before taken such a hands-off approach to people who incited violence against; let's say members of a certain Order who only uses Light Magic. Why the double standards now?

Likewise, some people belonging to several high positions in the Wizangot-"

Irate screams.

"- I will not point names, regardless, they openly admit to have a policy of hunting down people who use Dark Magic, regardless if they are death eaters or not!

But why go so far? The Aurors' department admitted that on the course of this war they have followed a procedure of 'kill on sight' any Death Eaters! I don't want to state the obvious but Death Eaters are people, magical citizens of the Wizarding World. The same applies to all users of Dark Magic.

Where are the fair trials? The innocent until proven guilty? The equality?"

He made a pause here. The crowd was quiet and even the flashes of the magical cameras had paused.

"My own Godfather was denied a trial, when the simple use of Veritserum would have proven his innocence. But as there were proves of Dark Magic, and suspicions of being a Death Eater, nothing was done; instead we condemned an innocent man to 12 years in Azkaban. And to his eventual death, while still being persecuted. More double standards."

The non-prosecution of citizens of Magical Britain who incite the murder of people who use Dark Magic is a tragic betrayal of those people. They live in fear of the violence provoked by the discrimination against their magic, something that's intrinsic to their nature and that was born in their magical core."

Harry paused again, but this time due to the mayhem. He glared at the loudest ones, recognizing them from the files and when they continued with the exclamations of outrage, he continued with his speech, but lauder, he was flying high and there was nothing, short of the end of the world that could stop him now.

"Anyhow, no dark magic, not even forbidden curses cause the fundamental ills of our society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't search people for dark marks or dark magic, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."

He had to pause again, not because of the noise for it had quieted down a little. He stopped for it finally hit him. He believed in what he was saying and not only had his speech totally diverged from what Malfoy and Snape had directed him to do, but it was a completely new speech, with new opinions. His opinions. And there was just one thing left to say.

"Introducing legislation for inclusion of Dark Magic Users seems a bit amiss when already-existing magical laws are not being enforced against the much more serious crimes of inciting violence and murder against these people. Please, do not worry citizens of the Wizarding World, we will ensure the enforcement of the current laws before we start introducing new ones."

Pandemonium everywhere and he calmly stepped out of the podium.

As he walked past Malfoy who waited by the podium, he could see an expression of shock, trying to break out of an otherwise completely impassive face.

The last thing he heard, before passing through the doors that led to the room where Voldemort, Snape and likable death awaited, was Malfoy's voice as he addressed the crowd once more:

"Ladies and Gentleman, members of the press...

I do believe, that is all."

-XD-

A/N: So what did you all think? It was slightly bigger than what you are used to! All for you my wonderful readers! REVIEW I command thee! Kidding! Or not, if it gets you all to review and not just add me to your alert list!

Oh! And you will meet the ambassadors in the next chapter. Also more smart!Harry.

And the romance begins there too! After all they'll be having lots of alone time! You know that with planning world domination and all…

(1) saw that in a movie: 'Elizabeth' about the story of the golden age of England. Very good movie.

(2) Mark Twain

(3) The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

(4) Pirates of the Caribbean

(5) Viktor Frankl

(6) Yes, I know, if you have read "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett you can see the similarities in this dialogue, but What the Hell! I *heart* Terry and the Discworld!

(7) Stephen King