Chapter - 16 Regrets ( first year to present time )

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Dumbledore...... Enough said hehe

ᕙ⁠(⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠ᕗᕙ⁠(⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠ᕗᕙ⁠(⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠ᕗᕙ⁠(⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠ᕗ

~Dumbledore~

He was sure that his troubles started the moment he was informed that Harry Potter had acquired a new guardian. The side-trip to Gringotts hadn’t even been planned, but he stepped out of Gringotts in a very different state than he’d first imagined.

In fact, he’d merely been trying to draw some money to stock up on his yearly stock of lemon drops when the Goblins glaringly informed him that he had been locked out of the accounts and his access had been completely revoked.

Of course, he believed that it was merely a mistake, but without the brat with him, he wouldn’t be able to fix the misunderstanding. Casting a tempus, he realized that he was running late for the feast and he rushed back to Hogwarts, just barely making it in time for the sorting.

He felt a familiar power and discreetly glanced toward Quirrel. He knew who the man truly was, and after all these years he was still instrumental in helping him keep his fame.

The people had quickly forgotten about him a few years after he defeated Grindewald, true they had still respected him, but they’d lost their dependence on him. And the chance to change that had practically fallen into his lap in the form of the orphaned Tom Marvolo Riddle.

No one would notice if he nurtured the darkness that clearly lurked at the bottom of the boy’s being, in fact, the boy was probably going to end up dark anyway. He was the Heir of Slytherin after all.

The hints here and there while alternating between ignoring and pushing the boy had worked wonders, but somehow he’d held onto his whole “Keeping all witches and wizards safe” campaign. So Dumbledore resorted to more drastic measures…to find something that the teen wanted, but without revealing the side effects. Horcruxes.

But it had taken too long for the deterioration to occur, and Riddle stubbornly refused to kill the Potters even after he was informed of the threat. So Dumbledore did the only thing he could, he forcefully corrupted the man’s mind a few nights before that Halloween night.

It hadn’t been easy, as Riddle had way too many barriers protecting him, but with a slight compulsion the rat easily got over his fear of Lord Voldemort and he attached a rather obscure spell to Voldemort’s throne just before one of their meetings.

The results had been almost instantaneous as that was the first time that Riddle started casting the Cruciatus curse indiscriminately according to his spy. Dumbledore had been in high spirits in the days that followed and even more so when the same spelled rat led the Dark Lord directly to his ‘prophesized’ enemy.

He hadn’t expected that night to go down as it had, but it had been perfect. To top it all off, he gained access to the Potter brat’s accounts when he volunteered himself as the boy’s magical guardian before the Aurors could arrive.

The minister had gladly accepted, both owing him a favor and thinking that he could keep both the Wizarding World’s strongest wizard happy as well as the press…seeing as the Daily Prophet had been in a slump at that time and Dumbledore was all too happy to repeatedly explain that little Harry Potter had defeated the Dark Lord and that he, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, would be the one to guide him in the future.

He didn’t have time to raise the boy though so he simply made up the story of the wards and left the boy with his aunt. Though he’d been quite pleased with the way they treated the boy and even helped it on a little now and again when the boy tried to reveal his circumstances to someone.

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