Chapter 286: Chapter 286: Glowing Petals
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22 November 1994, Rome, Italy
Albus Dumbledore sat in the room awarded to him by the Accademia Arcana Italia… Like the rest of the school, it was as spartan as it was empty. There weren't any luxuries or any enchanted amenities. As unusual as this was, Albus actually preferred this. The fact that there weren't many objects in the room meant that there were fewer opportunities to sneak in any curses to hit him. Normally, he would either vanish or temporarily store each item in one of his many caches all over the continent and conjure new ones during his stay.
The straight approach saved him a lot of time and effort when he arrived. All in all, he had enjoyed his stay in Rome. Everything was going according to plan… The second seal was removed without any issues. The only small thing was the fact that the enchanted forest had been contaminated by the ritual, but it would right itself in time. Everything did one day…
Other than that, the task had been surprisingly entertaining to watch, far better than the first one at Beauxbatons, which was extremely boring after the Potter boy finished… People obviously liked fast-paced events better than long and drawn-out ones…
The ending was also fascinating. He realized immediately what had happened… The Potter boy, again. At least it didn't really impact Albus in any way. The Diggory boy and the Chang girl cast spells that had hidden components imbibed in them, which then activated just as the last Hogwarts Champion was about to be eliminated.
This was confirmed when he had personally examined the spell thanks to their wands, alongside a few ICW specialists. They had been quite perplexed with the spell, but the former headmaster could see the Potter boy's fingerprint all over it…
The boy had tricked them into winning… Albus didn't know if he should have been impressed or not. He probably should since he showed that the rumours of the school's decline during his tenure as headmaster being nothing more than that, rumours.
His former worries looked so small, now that he looked back at everything. With his grand plan destroyed and Gellert's information about Ragnarök, Albus had a wild shift in perspective, so much so that he agreed to work with Gellert of all people.
Oh, he still hated the Potter boy with a passion, but there was something more important than satisfying the urge to kill the brat… Gellert was strangely opposed to the idea, something about the brat being important. Albus agreed not to do anything drastic, which was very tempting when he realized that Nicholas' Diary was destroyed and that the Philosopher's Stone was out of his reach once more.
Perhaps after the boy fulfilled his purpose…
He smiled slightly at the image. Of course, his pleasant daydream was interrupted when he sensed a presence materialize behind him, "Hello, Lily."
Yes, Lily Potter, or Evans as she preferred, was another complication that he wished would just go away. Her death had been the only positive point in the fiasco that was the attack on Godric's Hollow, and the fact that she was still alive meant that thousands of wizards, witches, and muggles had died for nothing. He wished her could just kill her and be done with it, but the woman's ruthlessness and intelligence meant that she had so many contingencies for her death that he would end up losing more than he would gain if he killed her at any time, she was expecting it.
If it had been anyone else, he would have tried to use her son against her… She seemed to like him in some weird way… Or she just wanted to use him. Albus wasn't actually sure which one it was, and he didn't care to know about it. Harry Potter was a headache by himself, let alone the combination of him and his mother.
"Albus…" the redhead simply retorted.
"I suppose I should congratulate you and your son. I believe he achieved a massive victory over the infamous Black Widow… And Arcturus Black's winnings were nothing to scoff at… Such a precise bet with such great odds being won. Some might call it a wonderful coincidence."
The witch snorted, "Let's just dispense of the pleasantries… You tried to play the kid and he took advantage of the situation like he always did…"
"Whatever do you mean? I haven't really done anything to the boy…"
"So, you didn't tell the Black Widow to go after Harry?"
Albus snorted, "No. It's true that I contacted Isabella Zabini and asked her to distract the boy in exchange for me ensuring that her political opposition wouldn't vote in a way that would jeopardize her wealth and power. I even specifically stated that he was not to be harmed. I'm unsure of what she did, and I did not care for it as long as the boy was distracted enough not to be a nuisance…"
To be perfectly honest, he also wished that the boy would be taken by the Black Widow. Considering his considerable resources, the boy was the exact target that the seductress preferred… She could have strung him along until his majority, married him, then killed him. It was distasteful, but it was an easy way of gaining revenge without really doing anything.
Lily gave him an amused look, "You thought he was just some hormonal teenager… Did you seriously think that he'd just turn stupid when he talked with an attractive woman?"
"Not really, I asked her to keep him occupied without him being injured. How she did so wasn't any of my concern."
Albus really hadn't cared about the method the woman used as long as she kept her side of the bargain and that she wouldn't involve him in any way.
Still, he didn't know why the woman had chosen to use him to win the task and overreached by betting too much on Hogwarts' victory. Did the boy pretend to be seduced to counter her ploys? The former headmaster didn't particularly care about the outcome. Even if it was just because of some greedy woman's scheme, the boy was distracted during the second task…
It seemed like the best way to manipulate the boy was through challenges… Giving him puzzles to solve. The former headmaster labelled that for a later date.
The redhead though, didn't look amused, "Well, that also didn't work. Harry investigated the magical release and came to a fascinating little scene in a forest not far from here."
And that made Albus freeze. He had thought that the boy would have been too distracted with the task to investigate Albus' plans… This was a problem, "What did he see?"
"Enough. Wiped out the vampires guarding your little ritual and saw someone slaughter a little girl. He was really shaken by this… He showed me what she looked like. It took me a whole day tracking her down…"
"Oh," he simply retorted.
"What do you mean, Oh? You fucking killed a child, Albus. Some orphan girl living with catholic nuns… I know you've always been ruthless. What you did to me, my son, Voldemort, and half our country… I know that you're perfectly capable of killing a child without losing any sleep over it. But you only ever do it as a last resort, using pure cold math, if it would make a benefit in the long run… But this! This isn't like you. I know I'm not the most ethical person out there, and that we don't see eye to eye. But using a child in a sacrificial ritual is wrong, no matter what you're trying to achieve."
"The situation is more complex than you could ever imagine. Young Maria's death, while tragic, was necessary."
The redhead snarled at him, "Necessary? Since when is killing children for rituals necessary? And since you did this, what would be the end of it? Will genocide be necessary as well? Where does this stop?"
That brought Albus short. As much as people liked to paint him as a manipulative monster, he never considered himself to be one. Everything he had done was for the greater good, for his grand plan of creating a magical Utopia. People might have suffered on the journey, but the destination would have made up for it.
He would admit that if it hadn't been for what they were facing, he wouldn't have gone through with the ritual and sacrificed the child. Unfortunately, he didn't have the luxury of morality. Ragnarök was coming and they needed to be ready, "It's necessary when the outcome is far more terrible than the life of a single child."
"What could possibly justify this, Dumbledore?"
"The end."
The witch seemed confused, "The end of what exactly?"
"The end of everything… Something is coming, a very old prophecy was activated, and we are now facing something that could cause the end of everything. Every human being, mage or muggle, every magical creature... Everything! So, tell me, Lily Evans, how does the life of a single girl matter in front of this? Do you think I like this, working with vampires and killing children? Do you think I would have done any of it if I had any other choice? As for the girl, do not mourn her… It was better that she died as an innocent child, anyway, considering the alternative..."
The moment he spoke that last sentence, he knew he had made a mistake. The truth was that Lily had poked in right in a sensitive spot. He had been doubtful when Gellert had told him about the plan for this particular seal. It had made him feel like a monster until he was reminded just what they were trying to prevent… Of course, then Gellert told him what the girl's fate would have been, and in a way, what they had given her was a mercy.
"And what role does the girl play? Why would sacrificing this random orphan cause anything…. Oh… A prophecy, that's what it was all about. The girl was the subject of a prophecy, one that was probably negative. You decided to play God, as you always do and decided not only to stop her prophecy but to use it for your ritual… That's why you needed the task, you used the large amount of energy to power get past Fate's protection for a fraction of a second, enough to use the magical released from the prophecy… You didn't just want to kill her, you wanted to do it in a way to benefit as much as possible."
This… This was why he hated dealing with Lily Potter and her infernal son. There really was such a thing as being too smart for their own good. Her guess was quite close. There really was a prophecy about young Maria… Well, not her specifically, but about a new conqueror from the bloodline of emperor Nero. She was the only remaining descendant of the tyrant… Even if she wouldn't have been responsible, how many lives had he saved by simply sacrificing the girl?
Even if the whole thing left a bad taste in his mouth, allowing something like this, even in the far future to come to fruition was just as evil as killing the girl, perhaps even more so. It was the exact definition of the greater good, of making difficult decisions when no one else could.
Of course, the witch had to continue, "My question is, what could you possibly do with seven prophecies? What are you planning?"
"I am not going to answer that. This isn't about you or about your child. This isn't some fight between good and evil, but preparations for humanity's survival. Yes, what I did was wrong, but it was the right decision. I have no time or energy for your games considering what's at stake."
"And yet you went after Harry again."
Albus corrected, "I kept him distracted… But you're right… I will not do so again, as long as you leave us be. I will not be tolerant… Not when it concerns humanity's survival."
"Do you remember the promise I made you weeks ago?"
The former headmaster shivered at the memory, "You would destroy the world, just for him?"
"Yes…"
The madness in her eyes was enough for him to believe her. He really needed to speak to Gellert. They needed to make a few amendments to their plans.
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