It turned out that giving full access to a few students and forgetting about it had made them angry. He would never say it out loud, but he would admit that he messed up with that one. Giving the children full access to the wards meant that they had full access to their professors' private rooms, and that was just a breach of privacy. Albus had done it before many times to test a few students that he later invited into his Order of the Phoenix when they graduated. The only problem was that a few of them accidentally used that connection to build a real map of the castle with all the people registered in the wards inside and see their movements in real-time. These Marauders really could be accidentally brilliant sometimes.
He didn't say that to Severus, of course, the man was already furious at him risking his charges' privacy, and the younger man had to speak with the Slytherin court to reassure them that they weren't at risk anymore. It didn't help that Albus practically forced the potion master to stay in the school in his stead during the winter holidays to investigate the opening of the chamber, instead of going home.
Still, Albus was so preoccupied in the last few days that he only just had time to satisfy his curiosity about the Potter boy. The young Slytherin knew too much but didn't seem intent to share that knowledge, except for when young Neville and his friends asked him about it.
The fact that the boy so readily gave out information that he intentionally didn't spread before, one that would have given him a lot of prestige in his house, led to a single conclusion. Harry Potter knew that the Crabbe, Goyle, and Bulstrode scions were imposters, and more specifically, that they were young Neville and his friends. And even then, he had revealed just enough to make the Longbottom scion think that he had gotten one over the Potter boy, only to only have the information that his 'rival' had allowed him to have, a facet of the truth orchestrated by the boy in seconds.
Honestly, the thought of just obliviating the boy did come across Albus' mind, but the damage to a young mind, especially one that was defended enough that he would need to overpower, could be irreparable. Oh, Albus would do it in a heartbeat, but Harry Potter was an asset in the making, one that he wouldn't throw away needlessly. After all, Albus is many things, but he is not wasteful. The boy was intelligent and his position in Slytherin could be leveraged to act as a spy when Lord Voldemort inevitably returns.
And here he was, the child with Lily Potter's eyes, and James Potter's face, staring at him with an intelligent glint in his eyes, "So, Professor Snape didn't say why you summoned me, Headmaster. I assume it has to do with Longbottom's, how do I say it, indiscrete actions…"
"That would be correct, Harry. Young Neville told me that he fooled you into revealing dangerous information…"
"Ah yes, Polyjuice is quite the potion, isn't it? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that he didn't use Polyjuice. The Daily Prophet said that it was an illusion spell, right? I have to say that whatever it was, I was completely fooled, Longbottom would make a great Auror one day," the boy answered with a small smile on his face.
"For some reason, I have a hard time believing you, my boy. But the question was, why did you reveal such important information without thinking twice about it," the headmaster asked.
"They simply asked, and I find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it," the boy responded with the same infuriating smile on his face.
Albus did his best to not visibly grit his teeth; the boy was directly quoting him, now, "But certain information is dangerous to be shared, like the nature of Slytherin's monster. Out of curiosity, how did you come to figure it out?"
"Mostly through deduction. With enough information, one could understand the world, and maybe even predict the future. I only needed to find any mention of the chamber of secrets in past Daily Prophet articles, and I had an accurate list of the attacks that happened fifty years ago, adding in that Longbottom was a Parselmouth and had been following a voice during the first attack, it's easy to figure out what it was."
"And what do you plan to do with that information," Albus asked.
"Nothing. Revealing it would cause mass panic. Hogwarts would close but the main issue is that whoever is responsible could start acting rashly, and other mistakes could start happening, like young Myrtle Warren, for example. So, I'm leaving it to you to do your job."
Yes, the boy figured out that the beast was probably a Basilisk, "And how do you know that figure out the identity of the beast?"
"If a student with less than two years of magical education, no matter how brilliant, figured out in a couple of months what you couldn't do in decades, then I would have a lot of questions about your competence and your general intelligence. And you are many things, Albus Dumbledore, but unintelligence is not one of them."
"And, if the information was so dangerous, why did you give it away so readily?" The headmaster asked.
"I had a good feeling about it…"
No, you little brat. You knew exactly that Neville was there and told him about him purposefully, while making sure not to reveal the identity of the beast, just enough clues for the boy to figure out on his own.
Alas, Dumbledore didn't think confronting the Potter scion about it would achieve much. He was too guarded and the boy's occlumency was competent enough to stop a passive Legilimency probe, so he couldn't find out more about his motivations, only his results.
"And you said that Hagrid was framed. What's your proof?" the champion of light asked, deciding the change the subject.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle," the boy simply replied.
Dumbledore stiffened, "How do you know that name?"
.....
Want to read ahead by more than 60 chapters. Then join my p@treon Right Now.
Link: p*atreon.com/BookReaderBoy (Remove the *)
Also Free members get 2 advanced chapters for Free as well.