From that day onward, Snape, Quirrel and Mcgonagall would regularly turn in for the staff meeting and complain about one Harry Potter who refused to come to their classes.

It went on a some time before Headmaster got tired of it and sent for Mcgonagall to call for the boy. But as it was, she was not able to find him anywhere in the whole school. No student of his house knew where he usually spent his time and when she asked Hermione about it, the little girl bit her lip but refused to tell Mcgonagall about his location as well. Claiming that she didn't know and even Minerva was not cruel enough to interrogate the poor child so she simply dropped the matter and accepted her defeat.

In truth, the only thing that Mcgonagall needed to do was call one of the house elves and ask them for Harry's location but wizards had the tendency of ignoring those little guys and their usefulness. Thinking of them as nothing more than mere servants who only knew how to cook or clean.

But even though Harry spent most of his time in the Room of Requirement or some other abandoned room which no one ever visited aside from him and Hermione, he did spend some time in the Charms class and Minerva finally caught up with him in that class. And as soon as she gave him the invitation, the whole school came to know that he held absolutely no respect for the Headmaster whatsoever.

"Tell the old man that if he wants to meet me so badly then he can come here and meet me himself. I've no interest in wasting my time with the likes of you." He said with a dismissive gesture which angered Mcgonagall to no end but she was able to hold her temper.

"I'm afraid that I must insist Mr Potter." She said through gritted teeth while he looked as unconcerned as ever.

"You can insist all you want but my answer will remain the same Minerva."

"Mr Potter. You'll call me Professor Minerva or Professor Mcgonagal and treat me with the respect deserving of a Hogwarts staff member." She said icily and he snorted at that.

"Oh I'm treating you with the respect that you deserve. I think you and me both know that. And if you don't like how I treat you and Headmaster then just give me an expulsion letter and be done with this farce." He said and heard the whole room gasp at his words.

Even Professor Flitwick who was looking at the proceedings with some concern looked quite worried now.

"What is this about Minerva?" Professor Flitwick asked as the whole class now descended in murmurs. Especially the girls who looked quite interested at this latest gossip. The gossips turned up a notch when they realized that Harry was sitting in the class with them and they never even knew.

But instead of answering Flitwick, Minerva saw this situation as the disaster it was and just shook her head and apologized for disturbing his class before leaving.

—————

"But Harry. This is the greatest magical school in the whole world." Hermione argued and he held the urge to frown at her.

Over the few weeks that they'd been friends, he had come to know that Hermione had a really fragile ego and read into his actions far more than he usually intended to convey.

Meaning if he would frown at his words, then she would take it as a sign that her words had somehow displeased him greatly. Which would make her feel concerned for her one and only friendship and then she would go back in her own shell and refuse to be straightforward with him.

So he knew that he had to walk on eggshells around her until he either proved her that he won't break their friendship for something small like this. Or until she gained sufficient self confidence in herself.

She was the most brillient witch of their generation, true. But she was also a work of art.

And he did not meant that as a compliment.

So instead of frowning at her words like how he wanted to, he instead smiled and sat her down the chair beside him and then maneuvered his own chair so that they were face to face once again.

"Hermione." He said "You're a smart person so let me ask you something. Do you really think that Snape…"

"Professor Snape Harry." She interrupted him and he just stared at him for a while before she blushed under his gaze and ducked her head "Sorry. I won't interrupt again."

"Very well." He said with a smile "Now tell me. Do you really think that Snape, Quirrel and Binns are acceptable teachers?" he asked.

She bit her lips in that adorable way and looked at the ground in thought for a long moment before she slowly raised her head in order to meet his eyes and shook her head.

For all her worship of the authority figures, even Hermione was not blind enough to not realize who was a good teacher and who was not.

Especially after Snape deducted points from her for being an insufferable-know-it-all and after he pointed out how she was the only person who ever bothered to stay awake in Binns class.

Over the past few days, Harry had been showing her all the reasons for why Hogwarts was not the Greatest School in the world anymore.

The constant bullying of the students. The constant discrimination of the purebloods against the muggleborns and the halfbloods.

With students like Draco Malfoy and teachers like Snape, his job of destroying her love and respect for authority was not as hard a job as he had originally thought. Though he had come to realize that this project would take a bit longer than he had first thought.

His job was made even easier when he showed her the true extent of his talent and showed her the method of learning about magic that was far better than the method that was used to teach students in Hogwarts.

All in all, Project Destroy-Hermione's-blind-worship-of-authority-figures was coming along quite nicely.

"But still Harry. If you don't go to all you classes then how will you pass your classes. In fact, I'm not sure if they'll even allow you to sit in the exams considering how you never submit your assignments and have very low attendance." She said worriedly and he smiled at how she wore her emotions on her sleeves.

It was so good to talk with someone innocent like her after talking with a master manipulator like Albus.

"Hermione." He said and held her cheeks in his hands. Her soft and round cheeks "I never meant to pass the exams. In fact, I don't really care about them in the first place."

Hermione looked horrified at his proclamation but managed to stop herself from saying the first words that came to her mind. Instead she took a deep breath and then looked at him with concern that melted his heart.

He knew that the both of them didn't see eye to eye in a lot of things but it felt good to know that there was somewhere in the world that cared so much about him so much.

She did not care about him because he was the boy-who-lived. Oh there were plenty of people out there would would claim that they care about the savior of wizarding world even though they don't even know what he even looked like. But she was the only one who truly knew and cared about real him.

"Harry. How can you not care about the exams." She almost shouted before he gave her the look and she realized her mistake and then started talking calmly.

"Harry. If you don't take the yearly exams then you'll never be able to take the OWLs and the NEWTs. And without those you'll never get a proper job in the ministry or anywhere else."

"And you think that you can get any job that you desire simply based on your high marks or hard work?"

It must have been the way in which he asked the question because she blushed instantly and shook her head at once "Of course not. I know that I can't become the Minister or one of the Head of Departments in the Ministry simply based on my marks. But I know that I can become one if I just work hard enough for it."

She said it with such enthusiasm and such determination that he almost pitied her for a moment.

Then he realized that his pity won't be of any help to her. And that he must open her eyes right now otherwise the longer she held onto those beliefs, the worse she'll feel when she fails later in her life.

So as gently as he could, he held her hands and asked "Hermione. You know that the Ministry of Magic has been in existence for a long time right?"

She nodded her head, looking a bit apprehensive and he continued.

"In all these years that the ministry has been in power, can you name one instance in which a muggleborn became a Minister of the Magical Britain."

She scrunched up her nose at that "Well, I can't be expected to remember the names of all the ministers in the history of magical Britain but I'm sure there must have been a few." She said and he let out a sigh once again.

She truly didn't know how far the Purebloods in the magical society had oppressed others whom they thought were below them didn't she.

"Very well then Hermione. I'm giving you a task right now." He said and she perked up at that.

"Go to the library and search for the names of all the Ministers of the Ministry of magic and how many of them were Purebloods, Halfbloods and Muggleborns."

"Also, search for the names of all the different department heads in the ministry right now and then find out how many of them were Purebloods and how many were not."

He might have given her the task but he already knew the answer to that.

There were only two Minister in the last three centuries who were Halfbloods and that was only because they came from ancients houses. The rest had been been Purebloods.

Similarly, all the department heads in the Ministry were Purebloods.

It didn't matter to them whether those department heads were competent or not.

For a prime example, Arthur himself knew little about muggles but they made him the Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office instead of giving that post to a muggleborn who would have done a far better job in that position.

And Arthur was one of the good Pureblooded Wizard. So you can only guess what the bad ones were like.

The Ministry truly was biased and totally corrupt.

"While you're at it. Also research a few things about Wizengamot and then tell me how many votes are held by Muggleborns and Halfbloods."

He knew the answer to that as well. Only a few were held by the Halfbloods and the rest were all held by Purebloods.

When Hermione research these things, it'll open her eyes to the discrimination going on in the Ministry and how she'll have to fight tooth and nail for a decent job in that organization if she ever wanted to work there.

And considering how she was going to be a beauty in the future, there would definitely be people in the ministry would try to take advantage of her weak position.

No, joining in the ministry will ruin her.

In fact, trying to work under the Laws of Magical Britain will frustrate her to no end and she would never be able to reach her true potential here.

So it was essential that he opened her eyes as early as possible and brought her under his protection.

Both for himself and her.

He knew that he was selfish in trying to manipulate the girl in such a way that she would come to overly rely on him in the future but at the same time, he also liked the girl and would make sure that she was treated as best as he could possibly treat her.

"Go." He said "I'll see you later in room 713 of the West wing as usual at 6 in the evening."

"Very well Harry." She said and raised her from her seat and turned around to pack her bag. He smirked at her and smacked her butt playfully and she turned to glare at him.

"Harry! That's not very gentlemanly of you." She cried out though the pink on her cheeks made him wish he could do that again.

"Who ever said that I was a gentleman." He said and crossed the distance between them and pecked her in the cheeks.

Her cheeks became beet red in a moment and he held the urge to laugh at her shocked expression.

"You look very cute when you're angry." He chuckled playfully and she glared at him, though the glare once again lost it's edge because of her embarrassed expression as she turned and practically ran out of the room.

"You like teasing her." Selena commented from under his sleeves after the girl had left and he smiled at that.

"Yep. Guilty as charged."