The fallout from Ron and Draco's fight gave the students of Hogwarts much to talk about until school ended. Even though the injuries suffered by the two boys were somewhat severe, because they were able to be quickly healed with magic, their punishment was not very harsh.
Detention for a month or two when school resumed was a small price to pay for Ron biting a chunk of flesh from his hated rivals face. Draco pretty much got off scot-free, but his minions had detention until they left on the Hogwarts express.
Honestly, with lame arse punishments like that for serious bodily harm, it was probably the reason why bullying was quite prominent within the halls of Hogwarts. What was the harm of giving children a slap on the wrist if injuries were easily fixed?
Just a generation of spoilt bullies with reality-warping abilities to further their selfishness...
With the focus on the upcoming trial for Dedalus Diggle, Elphias Doge, Sturgis Podmore and Arthur Weasley, the wizarding community was rife with chatter. Unfortunately for those that the Aurors managed to capture, this was not a good thing.
By drawing out the time before the trial, it gave the public the opportunity to whip themselves up into a frenzy and call for the death of those that dared to try and harm their children. With everyone asking for the death penalty, the members of the Wizengamot would be only too happy to comply for a boost in public opinion.
The trial would be short, sweet, and rid them of Dumbledore's most loyal supporters anyway, as far as they were concerned, it was a win-win. Many were hoping that Dumbledore would show up to plead for lenience, but with the Daily Prophet slandering him as the one who betrayed them in the first place, they didn't hold their breath since they also believed it.
Chad was still trying to think of a way to draw out Dumbledore and kill him. He supposed he could just throw caution to the wind an order the elves to attack him now that the old man was separated from any allies, but it wouldn't feel nearly as satisfying.
He wanted Dumbledore to make a fool of himself and go down in history as a joke. If Chad was just a random wizard and unaffected by Dumbledore's schemes, he would grant the man a quiet death.
But wasting his childhood at the Dursleys and making things hard for him at every turn demanded punishment!
That was why he came up with an elaborate plan to kill Dumbledore publically. Sure, it would be unnecessarily complicated, risky and probably not work, but it would be hilarious to watch and satisfying if by some miracle it actually worked.
Chad could almost hear the collective sigh of frustration from the followers of the Evil Overlord List, he was surely breaking a few rules. But they just didn't understand the joy of humiliating your opponent before killing them.
Of course, even though Chad was going to do something as stupid as playing with his prey, he was not retarded enough to do so by putting himself in the spotlight.
It was time for Tom Marvolo Riddle to make an appearance at the Ministry of Magic and ally with them against Dumbledore. Poor Tom had been in hiding since the famed 'Leader of the Light' used him as a scapegoat to start a war.
Now that Dumbledore was exposed, it was only right that he come forward and help fight the Dark Lord!
The sheep would eat it up, especially with Rita Skeeter pushing the narrative. The wizarding world was the poster child for the success of propaganda, the magical world equivalent for CNN.
Hell, Magical Britain was so used to believing everything they read in the Daily Prophet, that they would probably vote for Biden if they printed he was not actually brain-damaged!
Creating a controllable Voldemort would not be too hard to set up. Luckily, even though Chad purged all of Voldemort's useless memories from his mind, he had left a backup holodisk for occasions such as this.
But it would not really matter if he didn't since there was still the Hufflepuff Cup in Gringotts to pilfer for unfiltered memories of Riddle's life.
All Chad had to do was pick a random Australian wizard that he didn't like, wipe his mind, make him look like an aged Tom Riddle before becoming a snake/human hybrid, and then fill his head with carefully edited memories.
The man would think he was Tom Riddle that was on the run after Dumbledore framed him as a Dark Lord. With no other memories to contradict his story, both magical oaths and Veritserum would make it seem like he was telling the truth.
Because, to the new Tom Riddle, he would be.
Of course, this would not stand up to anyone that knew Legilimency, but since everyone was on a witch hunt for Dumbledore, no one would really look too closely when supplied with more proof of the man's guilt.
Even if they did suspect 'Tom Riddle' of something and checked his mind, Chad wouldn't care if the man was imprisoned or killed. He was just a throw-away pawn in the first place.
The hard part would be persuading the Ministry to allow the new Tom, a poor orphan muggle-born, to challenge Dumbledore to a public duel and have them not interfere.
Though Chad thought they would change their minds with a healthy bribe of Galleons and a chance to kill off their main problem. It wasn't like Dumbledore would show up for anything else, and they had already exhausted all other methods to find him.
With Sirius giving Chad free reign to move about as he wished when home from school, it took him less than a week to create his very own Riddle minion.
Sirius was a laid back kind of guy with a need to please his godson, the only thing left of what he considered family. How canon Harry Potter was okay with being locked up at the Dursleys, Chad would never know.
'Oh, wait, Dumbledore was manipulating everyone. How was Harry fine with living like a slave once he had magic?' Chad corrected his inner monologue.
As he gazed at the finished product of magical cosmetic surgery and brainwashing, he couldn't imagine a situation where he couldn't experiment with magic as he pleased.
But now was the time to set his plans in motion, not imagine how things might have been if he was raised in captivity to be a sacrifice for the 'greater good' by Dumbledore.
"Boppy!" Chad called.
"Yes, Master?" Said his most trusty head-elf once he popped into existence.
"I need you to dress this man in green robes fit for a pure-blood Nobel, give him a pouch of Galleons enough to bribe the Ministry of Magic, and then awaken him in Diagon Alley. Also, don't be seen, we don't want anyone to trace him back to us."
"Of course, Master." The dutiful elf replied before disappearing with the new Tom Riddle.
Now Chad just had to sit back and watch the fireworks happen. He had plenty of faith in Boppy to do as asked, the little bugger had been running all of Chad's house-elf related tasks for a few years now. No, he was worried about everything else that might go wrong.
Once 'Tom' woke up in Diagon Alley, he would wake up with but a single objective. To draw Dumbledore into a public duel and try to kill him. If Dumbles refused, then it would be just another insult to destroy whatever remained of his legacy.
Being called a coward when he was supposedly this ages Merlin equivalent would do him no favours. Chad was also hoping the bait would be enough to draw the old man out. While minion Tom would need to practice to 'work out the kinks' of his new body, this could easily be explained by training for the duel.
Chad had made sure he was capable of peak level Voldemort's skills, but Tom would need to be limited to borderline 'Dark' spells if he didn't want everyone to side with the 'Leader of the Light'. Killing Dumbledore was only half of the goal.
It was a slight gamble to equip his minion with a deadly arsenal of magic and fighting abilities, but when you had complete control of someone's mind, little was left to chance.
Chad had literally built up minion Tom's mind from scratch, after all, a code phrase or command was child's play. Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to teach his new killer mind arts, that would be incredibly dangerous for everyone involved.
An unleashed, new and improved Voldemort was not what Chad wanted running around destroying his plans! He only needed a single-use weapon that he could dispose of after it had done what it was created for.
Later that night, Rita came home to 12 Grimmauld Place in barely restrained excitement, and Chad did his best to appear interested and shocked at all the right places.
"You will never believe what happened today! A man went to the Ministry of Magic and challenged Dumbledore to a public duel! And they allowed it!" Rita burst out, unable to wait for a guess at her rhetorical question.
"Really, what's his name?" Sirius asked his fiancé, intrigued about the man that had big enough balls to challenge such a powerful wizard.
"Tom Riddle."
"Never heard of him. Where's he from?" Sirius questioned further.
"You wouldn't have since he is a muggle-born that went to school in the forties. Apparently..."
While Rita once again gushed about her latest scoop, Chad thought about how he was going to make the most of situation. He doubted Dumbledore would actually be killed, but just seeing him fight would be extremely beneficial.
He would just have to make sure he was not caught up in the danger and excitement when things inevitably went awry.