Before anyone could even attempt to reach out to stop him, Harry was up off the bench, jumped up onto it while turning about, and jumping off the other side while his left fist swung down from on high to crack solidly against Malfoy's right cheekbone.
Landing on his feet, Harry stepped forward as Malfoy staggered back, and rabbit punched him as hard as he could with an uppercut to the solar plexus.
With an 'uurrgghh!' sound Malfoy rocked further back and bent at the waist with both hands coming around to cross and grip his abdomen.
A final step through and between the two bullyboys, who were standing there flat-footed, and Harry finished him up with an uppercut to the bent over face, breaking the boy's nose and sending him sprawling back onto the floor.
Before the shock passed everyone else, Harry barked at Malfoy where he was writhing on the floor trying to hold his nose and abdomen at the same time, "If you ever use that filthy, disgusting word in relation to my Protectee, Lady Hermione, again, you and I will cross wands in a Class Three wizard's duel!"
"Potter!" barked Snape as he was hurrying from the head table, followed by Professors Flitwick and, lastly, McGonagall. "One hundred points from Ravenclaw for that disgusting display of fisticuffs; and detention, with me, for the rest of the school year!"
"No!" snarled back Harry. "I refuse to recognise any form of punishment meted out by you, or anyone else, until a proper and full investigation is carried out by the Deputy Head as per the Charter of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Section 9, Subsection 16!"
"How dare you!" snarled Snape after a few moments of incoherence due to anger. "I dare, Potions Master Snape, because I am in the right!" snarled Harry. "As is any student who makes the same claim when met with the overtly biased nonsense you laughingly call discipline."
"I'll handle this, Severus," barked Professor McGonagall coming forward, at last. "Mister Potter is correct in who deals with this sort of incident."
Snape, though he looked fit to blow a gasket, just glared at Harry before he levitated Malfoy and headed off with him to the infirmary.
The two bullyboys looked set to follow when Harry said, "Freeze right where you are, you two. You're witnesses and I won't have you heading off to collaborate on your stories." "Mister Crabbe, Mister Goyle, stay right here," ordered Professor McGonagall. Turning back to Harry she demanded, "Alright, Mister Potter. Explain to me why you felt it necessary to strike Mister Malfoy repeatedly like that."
"Certainly, Professor," replied Harry in a calmer voice. "When you hear it, please note, I'm also willing to provide a pensieve memory of the entire event."
McGonagall nodded once in acknowledgement. And Harry relayed the entire event with the dialogue included verbatim.
Looking around, she asked, "Is there anyone here that has a different view of what happened?"
No one disagreed, not even either bullyboy. Then Harry said, "I remind you, Professor, that Miss Granger has worn the Potter crest on her left shoulder since the 31st of October 1991, thus signifying she is a Protectee of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter. Mister Malfoy is fully aware of what that means. He is also, no doubt, fully aware of what action I could have taken, and may have to take yet, and did not."
Professor McGonagall grimly nodded back and said, "I certainly hope that will not become necessary."
"As do I," said Harry. "However, I will not flinch in carrying out my sworn duty to my Protectee."
With a resigned nod, she said, "Right now I must interview Mister Malfoy. I trust I will be able to find you in the Ravenclaw common room if I need to speak with you again on this matter tonight?" "Yes, Professor," he replied. He had wanted to go and visit Daphne and the other girls for the rest of the night, but knew he couldn't go there now that Malfoy was in there."
As she and Professor Flitwick left to go to the infirmary, Harry turned to his friends and said, "If you three have the chance to visit the infirmary tonight, can you - you know."
"Yeah, Harry," said Neville. "We can."
"I'd best hie off to the Ravenclaw common room, then," he said. "Good night."
"Good night," said the other three, plus a few others, especially Gryffindors.
In the common room, one of his housemates was just starting on getting into bollixing him out for losing them one hundred points as he walked in through the door, when Harry flared his magic and glared back at the Fourth Year. Parchment and other loose objects in about a twenty foot radius of him leapt into the suddenly swirling air as his magic poured out of him.
The Fourth Year rapidly dove out of the way in fear and intelligently kept his mouth firmly shut.
Harry continued to glare at the older boy as he allowed his magic to quickly subside. "Do not allow yourself to continue thinking you are permitted to speak to me that way," he quietly said.
Harry continued to glare at the boy for another few moments before he walked off down the passageway to his dorm room.
Behind him, he heard a Sixth Year Prefect say, "Wilson? You're an idiot. We had no chance of winning the House Cup, so the loss of points was irrelevant. And, for what the student body - this House included - has put that boy through for the past eight months; I think we can allow him to lose his temper about it, don't you?"
Harry quickly collected a reasonably long roll of parchment, usually used for long assignments, ink and a couple of quills, and brought them back to the common room. Finding himself a vacant study carousel - a rare commodity this time of year - he took seat and placed his stationary on the desk before him.
Getting comfortable, he closed his eyes and set about laying out in his mind what he wanted to write. A great way to not waste parchment, ink and quills.
When he was ready, he took care and began to write in as legible a hand as he could. This would not be about speed in getting the information down. This was about making the information easy to read. And he was taking his time with it. The Truth About the Published Works of the Fraud Known as Gilderoy Lockhart
He included it all. He gave page references in each of the books Lockhart forced them to purchase through the school booklists, plus Magical Me!, where the information conflicted. Using the House library he looked up each method of defeating the 'evil' Lockhart was supposed to have used and, where the result was not possible, identified why.
Then he started on how 'Roy E Gild' was 'Gilderoy'. And how Gild was the author of the so-called factual stories of the life of Harry Potter. Of course, the House library had more than one full set of those books donated by previous students, from which he could reference.
With room to spare, he moved on to the life of Lockhart, including his Hogwarts OWL results. Lockhart did not sit his NEWTS, as he did not receive a single Outstanding and only two Exceeds Expectations in Muggle Studies and Divination.
Harry grinned when he remembered Cygnus's note with that information within it. And what Cygnus wrote in his own words. His disgust was quite clear.
He wrote about how no record existed for the man's claimed Order of Merlin, Third Class. And that the Dark Force Defence League only existed on parchment. Parchment which stated Lockhart had set the organisation up, himself.
Another piece of information Cygnus sent him, by way of Sirius, was that the records of competitors of the Dunstable Duelling Championship did not show the name 'Gilderoy Lockhart', 'Roy E. Gild' or even 'Roy Gild' in their past twenty-five years; since Lockhart left Hogwarts. So, he included that. While he had been writing he was visited by Professor Flitwick, who informed him the punishment assigned by Professor Snape for him had been overturned and no further punishment would be levelled against him. Also, that Malfoy had received a stern lecture from Professor McGonagall complete with the warning that he, Harry, was well within his right to just kill him; and that was precisely what he, Harry, had promised to do if it happened again. And, that Malfoy was having the one hundred points taken off Slytherin House, together with the detention with Filch for the remainder of the school year, since that is what Professor Snape considered a valid punishment.
The fact Professor Flitwick said she said it in front of Professor Snape, without even glancing at the man, amused Harry as much as it seemed to amuse Professor Flitwick.
Returning to his written rant, he questioned why Dumbledore would hire such a man for the important post of Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts, when he was clearly unsuited for the role. And that Dumbledore had clearly failed in his duty of care to the school by vetting Lockhart's application for the post.
And, finally, he recommended everyone keep their Lockhart and Gild books instead of burning them - return them by handto the bookshops from which they purchased them, and demand an unconditional refund.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you enjoy reading? Visit my site on Tiendup! There you will find the advanced chapter in PDF format, ready for your convenience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://fictiontopia.tiendup.com/