Chapter 077

Neville looked at Harry for a moment, before eventually nodding and returning to the potion. He took the cauldron off the fire, then added two porcupine quills that Harry had chopped up and added them to the cauldron.

As Neville began to stir, Harry debated on what he should do about man clearly couldn't be trusted with children. Equally clear was that Snape's grudge against his father still ruled his life. At the same time, Dumbledore must have a reason for keeping him at Hogwarts.

That didn't mean much to Harry, not after discovering that Dumbledore was the reason he'd been forced to live at the Dursley's, but it did mean he couldn't do much. While being the Boy-Who-Lived gave him great leeway with his peers, and could be used to further his cause politically, it would not help him win a fight against Albus Dumbledore. The man had been a leader of the light for 100-years, considered one of the most powerful wizards of the century, was looked up to, respected, and had more political acumen and pull than Harry did.

Perhaps it would be best if he did nothing for the moment, then? Yes, that seemed to be the best course of action right now. He would do nothing, and no one but him and Snape would know what had truly transpired during those few minutes. He would come to class, act exceedingly polite and not let on that anything was wrong, and he would secretly hold the fact that the man had tried to unsuccessfully invade his mind hang over the potion Professor's head like a dark storm cloud. Every time Snape saw Harry, he would know that Harry could say anything at anytime, that he could release the news that a professor of Hogwarts had attacked a student using legillemency, but for some reason wasn't. He would make the man sweat.

In the meantime, Harry would look up the school rules involving using Legillemency on a student. He would also see if some of the law books he had yet to read had anything on Legillemency and it's legalities in the magical world. Hopefully, there would be something he could use against Snape in the future, either as blackmail, or to get him fired if the man became too much of a problem.

It wasn't exactly what he wanted to do, which involved publicly humiliating Snape and having the man live the rest of his life in shame, but it was the best he could do on such short notice. It would be enough, for now. Harry was nothing if not patient.

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Harry frowned as he read the book titled Legal Guide to Proper Use of Magic. According to this book, using Legillemency was illegal unless you were a member of the Auror forces under the jurisdiction of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and using Legillemency on a minor could earn someone a ticket to Azkaban provided the minor could give solid proof that Legillemency was used on them.

This was both useful and useless information at the same time. He was pleased to discover that what Snape had done was illegal and could get him arrested. He was less than pleased to discover that he needed to have documented proof of Legillemency being used before Snape could even be brought to a trial.

What was he supposed to do? Convince Snape to sign a magically binding contract stating he had used Legillemency on a minor?

Not that it mattered anyway. Harry may have a lot of influence due to his status, but Dumbledore had more. Not to mention the man had been on the political scene for upwards of 100-years. Going up against a man like that was political suicide, even for him—especially for him since Harry was still learning the ins and outs of wizarding politics.

Even if he could theoretically humiliate Snape, or at least get him fired, it would take far too much time and effort, which could be better spent furthering his goals. He had no desire to fight with Professor Dumbledore trying to get the Head of the House of Slytherin kicked out, and Harry knew he would have to fight the man. There was no doubt in his mind that the Headmaster would defend the Potions professor should Harry try to charge Snape of committing a crime. He wouldn't have hired such a loathsome man if he wasn't willing to side with him when trouble came up.

That did leave him with a a problem on what to do about Snape. The man clearly had very little in the way of moral compunctions if he could delve into a student's minds without regard to their privacy. He needed to be dealt with somehow. At the very least, Harry needed to find some way to neutralize the man's power at Hogwarts.

With a sigh, Harry decided to shelve his thoughts on Snape for the moment. He snapped the book shut, shrunk it, then pocketed it, before standing up and making his way over to Neville, who had just entered the Gryffindor common room.

The two friends shared a greeting before walking down to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was around nine o'clock when they arrived. Today was Saturday, which meant they didn't have any classes and could sleep in. Even Harry had slept in, or at least, he had lain in bed for an extra hour while organizing his thoughts.

That was one of the many disadvantages to being so well versed in Occlumency, he figured. When someone slept, their mind was usually busy filing away everything that had happened and been learned that day while the body was recovering. That was the reason people generally needed around eight hours of sleep. One half involved resting the body, the other half involved the mind.

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