Chapter 101

[ Dumbledore Betrays Allies For Clemency! ]

Chad couldn't help but laugh out loud when he read the Daily Prophet the next morning. After Dumbledore's minions retreated, peace and order were quickly restored to the chaos that had spread through Hogwarts.

Children were sent to bed after being reassured they were now safe, and Aurors appeared to patrol the school's grounds just to make sure. All in all, the students of Hogwarts were quick to fall back into their usual routine and perceived safe space.

Hogwarts was the safest place in the world, after all...

Which was weird for Chad, but considering that in canon this happened many times, he was not exactly surprised. How a mass attack of Dementors at a Quiddich game was so quickly forgotten showed just how different magicals were from muggles.

While Chad had been writing to Rita with the details of what had transpired, he suddenly had an ingenious idea. A way to isolate Dumbledore from even his most staunch supporters. Well, at least all those not under some sort of mind control.

One man against the world was not as big of a threat than if he has supporters. And what better way to isolate Dumbledore than for everyone to think he exposed the names of the 'Death Eaters' that had viciously attacked the place that held everyone's heirs.

How else would the Aurors know the identities of the masked men, unless Dumbledore himself had given them up! No one was going to trust or work for someone that would betray them so easily.

A couple of people might say this was surely evidence that Dumbledore was not evil, but their opinion would be nearly as effective as a fart in the wind. The majority would see only betrayal or guilt. Chad was gaining a few queer looks for laughing so hard while reading the news, so he settled down and finished eating his breakfast.

The public opinion of Dumbledore was so low that no matter what Chad did, it would never influence it positively. Especially since that would only be a problem if people connected the dots that Chad was involved in the man's downfall.

Which, to be honest, would not be too hard to figure out considering Chad's relationship to Rita Skeeter and his past interactions with Dumbledore. Still, Chad looking like a crazy person was not ideal even if it didn't affect his plans.

With Dumbledore's reputation in tatters, the only course of action left to take was to put him out of his misery. This was to prevent any extreme reactions that could endanger Chad or the Statute of Secrecy.

Just like a crazy Voldemort doing something stupid to alert the muggles, Dumbledore may decide he had nothing to lose by taking the entire magical population down with him.

The only problem was how to draw out Dumbles and then kill him without taking the blame.

While he was thoughtfully chewing on the last piece of his bacon (Lilith the bacon addicted owl having eaten the rest), Chad was drawn out of his reverie by a group of Slytherins heading for the Gryffindor table. This was going to be interesting.

"I had always thought you nothing more than an idiot with no sense of restraint, Weasley. Just a loudmouth with eating habits like that of an animal, you seemed to have no self-control. How wrong I was. To imagine that your idiot persona was just a front to hide the fact that you are 'Dark' and your dad's a Death Eater!" Crowed Draco Malfoy with unrestrained glee while waving the morning Prophet at the boy.

That Draco was entirely too happy about the situation took most of the believability from the statement; still, the damage was already done.

Arthur Weasley had already been arrested by Aurors according to the Daily Prophet, and every student in the Dining Hall held a massive grudge against the family for frightening the sh*t out of them last night.

Even though the article made no mention of a confession of guilt, the Weasley name was now viewed with hostility, as were the others involved. Wizard mentality may have overridden their judgment of security once the situation was over, but nobody forgot the humiliation from the experience of running scared.

Especially when they now had a convenient scapegoat to release their anger and frustration on. Those that had been injured in the event even more so.

Though luckily no one had died, there had been a historical consumption of Skele-Gro with all the broken bones from being trampled. Mediwitches had been called in to help treat the many injured children, further exacerbating the negative opinion of the fake Death Eaters.

Without Dumbledore coming forward and denying that he didn't betray his minions, they would think he was responsible for their capture. And Dumbledore sure as sh*t was not going to publically admit he was the one that ordered them to attack Hogwarts.

Even if it was to force Voldemort into the open.

In everyone's mind, the only way Dumbledore could clear his name is if he went to an official hearing and made a magical oath on his innocence. Unless Dumbledore publically swore on his magic, no one would believe anything he said.

Even Veritaserum would not be enough to assure people anymore, as Rita Skeeter had cut that path off with mention on how masters of mind magic could cheat the truth serum.

He was damned if he did, and damned if he didn't.

Ronald Weasley did not take Draco's accusation well, being called the very thing he was so radically against had short-circuited anything resembling logic in his brain.

Instead of a calm measure reply, the red-headed boy launched himself off of the table he had just been sitting at and tackled Malfoy to the ground. Chad's mouth dropped open in surprise at the overreaction, he had thought Ron would at most resort to schoolyard taunts and insults.

To see him maul a shrieking Malfoy like a rabid animal was epic in its scale of drama compared to what Chad was expecting! Unfortunately for Ronald, his initial momentum was quickly spent as the crowd of Slytherins backing Draco pulled him off and beat him like a red-headed stepchild.

By the time the Gryffindor students grudgingly stepped in to help one of their own against Slytherin, Ron had many times the injuries of what he had managed to inflict on Malfoy. Only his brothers had been quick to jump in, but they were severely outnumbered.

The teachers had also rushed over to intervene, but even though the scuffle had been relatively short, the damage inflicted was immense. The fact that pure-bloods had lowered themselves to fight like muggles was not lost on Chad.

Draco looked like he was attacked by a cat, with significant bleeding scratches covering his face. But what drew Chad's morbid fascination, was that Ron had managed to bite a chunk of Draco's cheek off in the fight!

For all the times Chad had either publically or silently belittled the boy for his eating habits, he had never thought Ron would turn to cannibalism!

Once the teachers had finally separated the Slytherins and few Gryffindors that had stepped in, the broken body of a crying Weasley was revealed. They had really kicked the sh*t out of Ron without holding back.

By the way his limbs were jutting out at odd angles, it was probably safe to say they were broken. The bone sticking out in some cases was also a bit of a giveaway.

'Hope they didn't use up all the Skele-Gro,' Chad thought to himself with a bit of gallows humour.

The savagery had made him feel quite uncomfortable, the ruthlessness of everyone involved reminding him of the extremes people could go to when provoked.

Even though Chad had overseen a war and experimented on criminals, he was never really engaged in a life or death situation up close. His mindset of striking from the shadows with overwhelming force had not prepared him for the brutality of getting up close and personal.

Although he had been in a few punch ups in his first life, they never left people with compound fractures.

Still, while McGonagall was losing her sh*t at everyone involved, Chad quickly overcame any mental discomfort. He had seen thugs explode in a meaty shower of blood, a brawl that had gotten out of hand was not going to bother him for long.

It was just a reminder that he was not the only person that was willing to cross the line to accomplish his goals. The number of eggs broken for his world domination omelette was going to be way more than the collateral damage of Draco and Ron.

It did not escape him that he was mostly responsible for the current political climate. While not emotionally fragile enough to blame the entirety of the wizarding world's problems on himself, he was still adequately self-aware to realise he had amplified the consequences of the conflict with Dumbledore.

But when it came down to suffering silently by himself while Dumbledore's schemes made the entire wizarding community take a massive sh*t on his chest, or making them share in the fallout from the old man's quest for fame and power, he was always going to pick the latter.

He was no hero to suffer for everyone else's sins like Harry Potter. Chad was a selfish arsehole that took the world by its hair while he f*cked it for every opportunity that benefitted him. The only thing that made him believe he was not evil was that he would cuddle it after he was finished!

When the world was under his control, it would be a better place for the majority of people living in it with the changes he had already built the foundations for. Actually, maybe he was a bit more evil than he would like to admit...

'Oh well, not like I'm going to change. The world is full of tyrants, it might as well be me in charge instead of them!' Chad thought to himself.

The whole world domination and slavery thing had already made him scrutinise his beliefs and values closely. In the end, borderline evil or downright evil did not matter if he accepted himself and the choices he made.

Slight moral dilemma over, Chad finished his breakfast and went about his day. When the school year ended, he had a lot to do.