If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
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21 June 1995, Stonehenge
Albus Dumbledore stared at Harry Potter, unable to comprehend just where everything had gone wrong. This wasn't supposed to happen, and yet the undeniable truth lay in the gigantic golden tree glowing with such warmth and prosperity that he had no idea what to do or say. It was a living testament that he had lost, that all his sacrifices, all the horrors that he'd ever done for the sake of his dream, of the greater good, were all meaningless.
He had achieved Gellert's dream, handled the future threats of the Muggles, without compromise. He had ensured that the magical world would thrive completely on its own, separated from the muggles, a protection that went both ways.
He had lost everything.
Gellert was dead. The Light was gone. His strength was barely more than a candle to the small sun it used to be. His reputation and legacy were gone now, destroyed at the hands of the boy before him. They wouldn't remember him as the defeater of Grindelwald, the man who had brought peace and prosperity to magical Britain, but as the monster who tried to destroy it.
There was no coming back from this. He knew that. Normally, his power as the Champion of Light would have helped, would have given him a safety net, but there was no Light anymore, was there? Albus hadn't realised how much he relied on his lost power during politics. The implied threat that he posed by just his presence had helped speed things along. But they all now knew that he wasn't the Champion of the Light anymore, and soon, his leverage on the ICW would fracture and disappear.
Even his dream of a magical Britain without war, without pain or death, was now completely beyond his reach, having relied on his power and reputation to even take hold. It had died a miserable death with no possibility of return, just like Gellert.
And yet, Albus couldn't help but stare at the gigantic golden tree, the monument of his downfall, of his failure, a twisted mixture of his own dream and Gellert's.
He heard Harry Potter speak up, "This is what trust looks like. This is what real protection feels like. Something built not to control, but to shelter. Not perfect, but honest. And in the end, it will outlive us both. But that's not important, not now, at least. What matters… is what I'm going to do with you, Albus Dumbledore."
He had prepared to die for his dream, for humanity. No, it was even worse; he had prepared to be erased, undone, and yet it was all for nothing. There was no possibility of ever achieving his dream, not anymore. He didn't have anything left or anyone, for that matter. His last blood relation, Aberforth, had all but disowned him.
After all, he had lost everything. What more could he lose now? "Do you think I fear death, Harry Potter. I don't. I have made my peace to die today for my mistakes, for my commitment to humanity's survival. You have saved them from my hubris, from my foolishness, and for that I thank you."
The boy's eyes widened, and the former headmaster continued, "I wish you could have worked with me, used that brilliance of yours and my power, to make a better world, forge a better future. But it seems that it wasn't to be. Fate had its hands on you, my boy, and it did not like to share, not at all. Perhaps, it was always my destiny to fail, so that another could rise. Younger, stronger, untainted by either the Light or the Dark, to guide magical Britain in these tumultuous times."
Harry Potter looked at him, with disbelief in his eyes, "You think that this is all some obscure destiny, that you, losing, wasn't about how wrong you were, how terrible your actions were. That you were meant to fail, to lose at my hands."
"Great men are forged in fire," Albus replied, "It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flames. How else would you justify your drive at opposing me, your entire crusade against what I was building, if not as some predestined counterweight to my own existence?" he finished, voice quiet but resolute."
Everything started to fit together like a brilliant puzzle. He was never meant to achieve his dream, was he? But Harry Potter, the man who had saved the world, who everyone would see as their saviour, well, he could do anything. That kind of power, that kind of ingenuity, and cunning would make him the perfect leader, the man who could achieve anything. He had already changed the world in a way that would affect people for millennia.
Perhaps, Albus' legacy wasn't as the greatest mage of all time, as the hero who brought peace and stability to the magical world, but as the enemy who forged the man who could.
Harry blinked once, slowly. "You really don't get it."
He stepped forward, the World Tree's golden light casting long shadows across the stones, his voice low but unwavering. "This wasn't destiny. This wasn't some pre-written balance in the stars. You want to know what drove me so, and why you lost everything. It was you."
Albus was struck silent at that, and the boy continued, "I was a scholar, a very talented wizard, yet, but a scholar, nonetheless. I never wanted to fight wars. I never wanted to lead an army or massacre the vampires. I wanted to enjoy my childhood and learn as much magic as possible. But you changed that. You tried to take me from my home. You tried to intervene in my personal life, not because of some grave insult, but because you wished to control me. You tried to kill me time and time again, and every time you did, I learned something new, something more. I am here now, victorious, because of you. You created me, your worst enemy, because of your arrogance, because of your need for control. Your fall is not due to some quirk of destiny. The world did not choose you as some sort of sacrifice. You lost everything all on your own."
No. He refused. This was fate's doing, not his own. Destiny itself had used him to carve a path for the boy. It had set him up to fall so another might rise, hadn't it? It had to be. It had to be.
"No," Dumbledore whispered, then louder, firmer, "No. You don't understand. This isn't how it was meant to end. You think I was driven by control? By arrogance? It was always to forge a better, kinder world. But I was mistaken. I thought that Destiny chose me. I thought that I was the one who could bear the burden, who could make the hard choices, who could sacrifice everything. No one else could. No one else would. But I was mistaken."
The boy gave him a pitying look, but Albus didn't care. It was all so clear now. All his failures, all his mistakes, they weren't for nothing. Harry Potter had saved the world. He would have everything he would need to thrive, to turn the magical world into a utopia. He chuckled at the realisation, "My plans would have never worked because I wasn't destiny chosen. I was meant to lose to pave the way for you. You will take my place, achieve my dreams. Where I will fall, you will rise. You will achieve my purpose for me. All this time, I thought I was meant to save our world, to make it rise, but it was always you. Destiny chose you, Hero of Ragnarök. It was even in the prophecy: 'For from the ashes, a truer world may grow'. I thought it was my purpose, my destiny, but no, it was yours. You were chosen to defeat me and achieve my dreams for me. I didn't fail because I was wrong. I failed because fate chose you over me."
The last Potter, the legacy of the Peverells, shook his head, "Fate didn't choose me. You did. You were the architect of your own destruction. I was never meant to be your enemy; you turned me into one, and you forced me to learn with every encounter. It was in the Gardens of Avalon that I mastered my manipulation of space and time, in a way that no one had ever achieved before me. For it was the only way I could have survived your torture chamber. This mastery of this magic is what made me fight you on equal ground. It is the foundation of the magic that allowed me to stop you."
Albus had wondered how the boy had escaped. It made sense, in hindsight, that the boy would use space-time to escape the pocket dimension, but he had no idea that it was there that he mastered his magic.
The boy didn't wait for his answer and continued, "It was in the Quidditch World Cup, where I learned how to injure souls, in my desperation fighting a Vampire Elder, a creature that you sent to kill me. It was how I was able to kill Grindelwald's army so easily. Hell, it was your meddling in my guardianship that threatened me enough to ask Arcturus Black for help, which eventually led to him hiring the army that I used to fight off Grindelwald."
Albus had almost forgotten that little fact. It wasn't the main plan, as he wanted to force the ICW to turn the European tournament into an international event, and the signs of instability in Britain achieved this, but he had asked a few of his forces to attack the boy, hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle fell, and he started to pale.
He continued, "It was in Beauxbatons and Rome that I learned the power of prophecies, because of your actions. And it is, and it was this understanding that was a cornerstone of my plan to fight you and Grindelwald. It was during the mess in Durmstrang that I learned how to breach the walls of Midgard and access the void between worlds, a power that as you noticed, not only allowed me to fight you both at a standstill today but was the cornerstone of my attack on the Light and Dark, which destroyed them all. Hell, it was your ambush that allowed me to get the allegiance of the Elder Wand."
Dumbledore shook his head, ready to protest, but the boy interrupted him, "That's barely scratching the surface. Every single encounter with me slowly paved the way to this resolution. Fate didn't choose me. You did. You created me, Albus Dumbledore, your greatest enemy."
Everything being out in the open so suddenly made everything look clearer, and Dumbledore wanted to deny it, but he couldn't. Not now. Not with the Tree behind the boy, not with the truth laid bare like a corpse under its golden light.
The words stabbed deeper than any spell ever could. It wasn't prophecy. It wasn't fate. It wasn't some divine balancing act that had chosen Harry Potter as his downfall.
It had been him. Every decision, every manipulation, every quiet cruelty done for the "greater good" had led to this. He had forged his own end, hammering each nail into the coffin with certainty and pride.
He staggered back a step, breath caught in his throat. No, his actions weren't meaningless, weren't they? There was one upside to all of this.
"I see it now," Albus whispered. "All of it. And perhaps… perhaps you are right. Perhaps I shaped you not through design, but by my failings. By my desperation. But if my mistakes birthed the man who could truly protect our world, then I can live with that."
He looked at Harry then, something like peace flickering in his tired eyes.
"You'll lead them," he said softly. "You already are. Not as I would have done. Not with order or control. But perhaps… that's why it will work. Perhaps that is why it must be you. And maybe, one day, you'll understand why I did what I did. Even if it was wrong."
Weirdly enough, the boy gave him a pitying look instead of a victorious one, "I have no plans on leading the magical world, Dumbledore."
"That's a nice sentiment," the former headmaster replied while snorting in amusement, "I have been where you are. They will hound you, drape you in honour that will act more like chains than anything else. They will never leave you alone, try to use your name to gain leverage even if you hadn't agreed to anything. Your friends will dwindle, either trying to use you or become intimidated by you. It is inevitable."
"You're right. It is. Or at least, it would be, if the world didn't think that I was dead."
Albus chortled, almost choking on his spit out of surprise, and the boy burst into laughter, "I stopped letting scrying through after Grindelwald's death. All they'll find is a gigantic crater where we used to be, looking as if we were vaporised by the magical release, which I tried to contain. Even the World Tree will release a small compulsion as its influence grows. For the next couple of years, everyone will just know that Harry Potter is dead. Sure, it might have been a bit selfish of me, but I just saved the world. I deserve a bit of time off. You know, I thought to myself about what would happen after this, and when I tried to see how my life would be if I survived this and realised that I wouldn't like it. I wouldn't like being shackled like you were, trying to steer the magical world."
"But you must," Albus retorted, begging.
"I gave them a shield, Albus. A future. That was my part. Let the rest be theirs. Let them stumble, and struggle, and rise without being steered from above. Let them make their own choices, for once. Their future will be their own. You have to accept that I will never follow in your footsteps or become the leader you wish I could be. The leader you wish you could have been."
Albus staggered as if struck.
The words fell like blades, carving through the last tether of his purpose, severing it with a cruel finality. It wasn't just rejection—it was erasure. A lifetime of sacrifice, of manipulation, of clawing toward a dream that had consumed everything he once was, now reduced to dust beneath the roots of a golden tree.
He had nothing left. Not the Light. Not Grindelwald. Not his legacy. Not even the illusion that his mistakes had meaning.
Tears welled in his eyes, but he did not let them fall. No, he refused. This couldn't be the end. It couldn't.
"I gave up everything!" he hissed, stepping forward, his voice cracking under the weight of it. "My sister. My brother. My friends. My soul. I broke myself for this world, and now you stand there, mocking me with my dream, telling me it's yours now, telling me to let go? I won't!"
Harry didn't move, didn't flinch, just watched, and the neutrality of the boy's gaze just broke something in Albus. He wanted to say something, but his magic surged before the words did, wild and desperate, a burst of incandescent blue flames roaring from his wand. He hadn't even thought about it. It was pure instinct, pure hate and rage.
Harry didn't even flinch.
A lazy pulse of shimmering light rippled from his palm, dissolving the blast like it never existed. He didn't even look surprised.
"Oh, finally," he said, voice sharp with satisfaction. "There you are. Not the Champion of Light. Not the martyr. Under all the self-delusion, all the influence of the Light, all the talk of saving the world, I see you now."
He stepped forward, slowly, deliberately, like a hunter drawing out the inevitable.
"I wanted this, you know. I wanted to see what was left after I tore your legacy down. I wanted to see the man beneath all the sermons and speeches, and now I have. You're not a saviour. You're not a guardian."
He leaned in slightly, tone venomous, "At the end of the day, you're just an empty man who couldn't stand losing, and who turned himself into a monster to see his twisted vision of the world through."
Yet, the boy's eyes gleamed, ready in a fighting stance, "No Light. No prophecy. Just you and me. One final duel. Fitting, isn't it?" He spread his arms, mockingly. "You created me. And today, you will die at the hands of your greatest mistake."
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AN: I'm really not sure about this chapter. I was tempted to just start the fighting immediately, but it didn't feel right to kill Dumbledore without having this conversation, at least. This should have been essentially Harry breaking Dumbledore down to pieces, tearing away all the masks and delusions that some higher power is what made him lose.
I know that some of you will be disappointed with my decision to not just kill Dumbledore immediately. Don't worry, I'm not going to spare his life or anything like that. There's a reason for this decision, which you'll see in the next chapter (also why I made this one a Dumbledore POV), but let's just say that Harry has something planned for him (Sorry, no more spoilers), and it will be extremely vindicating. The payoff will be in the next chapter. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.