Grudge Against the Potters

"That has nothing to…" Mr Boet spoke up, but it was too late.

Harry had started answering the question. "It was a game my cousin invented. He and his gang would hunt me and if they found me they would beat the crap out of me. Once I was going to Hogwarts and wasn't around quite so much they started hunting the other smaller kids in the neighbourhood and beating up on them."

There was silence in the courtroom for several minutes, before Madame Bones said, "I think we've heard enough from this witness."

Harry returned silently to his seat. He wasn't pleased that he had mentioned the 'Harry Hunting' but it was a little late to worry about it now. It wasn't like those in the wizarding world would do anything about it. On the whole they were highly ineffectual at anything even remotely resembling true justice. He wasn't too worried about that. He would see justice done to Dudley. Even now he had a private detective following Dudley around and taking pictures of his activities.

Dudley wasn't back at Smeltings this year. He had been expelled at the end of the previous year for assaults on the younger boys. It had taken a sizable chunk of Vernon's money to cover it up, but he had managed to avoid his son going to jail.

Vernon and Petunia were still very blind to all of Dudley's faults and misdeeds. If the detectives he hired were efficient enough then he might have himself a wonderful Christmas present from the Dursleys for the first time in his life, when nothing Vernon could do would prevent his son from going to jail.

Harry had been so involved in his daydream of seeing Dudley get what was finally coming to him, that he missed seeing Snape take the witness seat and taking the oath and Veritaserum.

Boet was asking his first question. "Professor Snape, we have heard from Mr. Nighbert how he would teach a student who had no experience in the mind arts how to master Occlumency. And we have heard from Mr. Potter how his first lesson with you went. What I want to know is why you didn't use the method recommended by Mr. Nighbert on with Mr. Potter?"

"Because Mr. Potter should have already known how to clear his mind." Snape answered, managing to sound snide even under truth serum. "He is a wizard after all. He should know the proper meditation techniques to clear his mind. I shouldn't have to start him off at the beginning."

"Would you have taught say Miss Hermione Granger the same way?" Boet inquired.

"I wouldn't voluntarily teach that arrogant little know-it-all Occlumency, but if I was forced to by the Headmaster of course I wouldn't use the same method, I did with Potter. She's muggle-born, she wouldn't know the first thing about the proper meditation techniques." Snape responded.

"And Mr. Potter was raised in the Muggle world so how does that make him any different from her?" Boet sounded as if he were confused by the logic.

"Because he's a Potter of course." Snape answered as though that should have been obvious. "They are always different."

"That still doesn't explain why you expected him to know the proper meditation techniques to calm and clear his mind. Things that he would have learned only if he had grown up in the wizarding world and not the muggle one." Boet continued to sound puzzled. "You do remember that Mr. Harry Potter had no contact with the wizarding world, until he attended Hogwarts don't you?"

"Yes I of course I know that." Snape growled.

"I put it to you, Professor Snape that you really didn't want to teach Mr. Potter how to block Voldemort from his mind." Boet suggested. "That you took the chance of having unrestricted access to Mr. Harry Potter to pay his father back for what he did to you while you went to school. What I want to know is why you would attack a student who has never done you any harm?"

"So what if I did?" Snape countered. "The arrogant little brat deserved to be taken down a peg. Waited on hand and foot in the muggle world and then lording it around Hogwarts just like his father did when he was in the wizarding world. Acting so smug and superior, even when he was clearly in the wrong."

"So you admit to using the Occlumency sessions to deliberately attack Mr. Potter?" Madame Bones wanted clarification.

"No, I did not attack Mr. Potter." Snape told her. "I wanted to show him he wasn't special. It was up to him to find the information he needed to succeed in learning Occulmency on his own. If he couldn't, then it was his own fault if he suffered for it."

"Did you even tell him there were books or other things that needed to be done to succeed at Occlumency?" Madame Bones asked.

"I told him to clear his mind." Snape told her. "He should have been able to figure it out from there, after all he's a Potter ."

"And what teaching method would you have used if I had been there, Severus?" Dumbledore sounded disappointed. "Would you have used the same method or would you have changed it because there was a witness?"

"Of course I wouldn't have used the same method." Snape admitted. "You didn't want your precious golden boy hurt and that would have taken three times as long to teach."

"You've heard him, Madame Bones," Mr. Boet pointed out as Snape was given the antidote. "He doesn't even feel that he has done anything wrong. Professor Snape feels that he was perfectly justified in attacking Mr. Potter and why, because he is a Potter. Instead of burying the grudge he still feels for Mr. Potter's father, and doing what was necessary to help Mr. Potter protect his mind, Professor Snape admits to repeatedly attacking him."

As Snape returned to his seat at the table, the Wizengamot members conferred. Nothing was heard because of the silencing charms that had been put up by Madame Bones. They even spent some time reviewing evidence from a pensieve

It was nearly fifteen minutes before the silencing charms came down and the oldest wizard present on the panel, Martin Bellacote stood to give their judgement. "Professor Severus Snape has been found guilty of deliberately and repeatedly attacking Mr. Harry Potter. It is this panel's belief, that Professor Snape should have been able to put aside his grudge against James Potter long enough to teach his son what he needed to keep He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named out of his mind.

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