Disclaimer: I don't own it. Any of it.
Warnings: Albus Dumbledore's view on his meddling. Nothing really.
Revising Reality
Albus Dumbledore liked to think of himself as a good honest man.
He never purposely harmed someone if he could help it. He gave candy and house points out to the deserving kind children and he made sure punishment came quickly to the wicked ones. He gave former Death Eaters redemption and allowed some people a second chance at life. He might tinker with fate, but it was always for the best.
He did what he had to in order to make the world a better place. He did things that others might find slightly unscrupulous, but he did them anyway. He had to do them, if only to better the world for one person. The Light side would have their perfect world and he would achieve his goal, by any means necessary. It was for the best.
He was in the position to encourage change and his methods of persuasion never failed him.
The headmaster was the master of manipulating any situation to his advantage. An unbiased playing field could always be altered to slightly slant in his direction. Nothing too drastic, people might get suspicious, but a tiny inclination in his favor may make all the difference, especially in a war like this.
Albus never did anything too earth shattering. He only edited some moments, changed a few emotions, and modified some events, nothing that would completely alter time. No, he only changed people's perception of things, the way they viewed their reality. It wasn't like he was lying, he was simply revising. It's what had to be done to win this war, people would understand in time.
His grandfatherly appearance only increased his edge in the competition. Who would want to serve some garrulous snake monster when they could be protected by The-Boy-Who-Lived and his mentor? No one worthy of the Light side he was sure.
So, when Albus Dumbledore tinkers with reality he finds nothing wrong with that. It's not like he's not telling the truth.
After all reality and truth are not the same things. Reality is an intangible force that varies from one person to another. It's a fickle thing. It changes form and evolves as the viewer changes. No one views the world the same. Everyone sees events transpire a certain way. Everyone sees different moments a certain way. No person is exactly the same, so no reality is the same.
What might be reality to one soul doesn't make it the reality for another soul, which is very unlike the truth.
The truth is an inflexible and unalterable force. It cannot be changed no matter what lies are told. Even if no one knows the truth it's still the truth. No amount of lies and no amount of ignorance can ever hinder the raw fact of a situation. The truth may never come out, but it's still there, unaltered by time. The truth doesn't change no matter how much Albus, or anyone else, wants it to.
However, reality can be altered, if only slightly. Albus always liked reality much better than the truth.
Reality is what people build their lives on. People believe in certain things that to them are inalterable; but realities can be distorted, mangled, and morphed into something entirely false.
Take Muggles for example, they know that magic isn't real. It's the kind of fantastical force in a fairytale. They think that it's something some imaginative soul dreamt up. They full heartedly believe that magic doesn't exist and it is, therefore, their reality. There are those special few Muggles that wish beyond anything that magic was real, but even they know better. It's the stuff that their dreams are made up of, not their reality.
So, just because that isn't the truth does that make their world any less of their reality?
Of course not, that's their world, it is their reality.
Just like Cornelius Fudge's adamant stance against the Dark Lord's second rise, he believed his claims. He truly believed that there was no way that he had gained power once again. He encased himself in his own world. It was by no means the truth, but it was his reality. Only when he saw the Dark Lord up close did his world shatter and he was forced to face the truth.
Harry Potter has had many reality breaking events in his life. Albus has seen and meddled in them personally. Starting with the first time Hagrid burst through that shack door, pink umbrella and all. He had been taught that magic didn't exist. His reality for the last eleven years had been shattered.
Then again in his first year he honestly believed that Severus was the one that was aiding the Dark Lord in trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone. He believed that Sirius Black was a Death Eater and trying to kill him. He believed that Moody was Moody and not some Azkaban escapee in disguise. Those beliefs were his reality, but they were not the truth.
Albus Dumbledore knows that he isn't a martyr by any definition; he has already adorned that title once and it never felt right. No, he represented an ideal. White beard and obnoxious colored robes only helped to aid his cause. He was a slightly eccentric man that had a subtle brilliance about him. He had played the young hero, and now he was the aging mentor. He was a shining light in the oncoming darkness. Once in a while, he tinkered with fate, but it was always with good intentions. It was always for the best.
When he put Harry Potter with his Muggle relatives it was for the best. When he ignored Harry in his fifth year it was for the best. When he let Sirius Black go into Azkaban without a trial it was for the best. When he put Tom Riddle into that orphanage it was for the best.
Albus knows that he is a good honest man, but even honest men evade the truth. He knows that the worst punishment imaginable is dealt to those whom redesign the world. The punishment of having to watch your failures; failures that slowly fester into society and into the people that he loved, slowly destroying the perfect reality that he'd worked so hard to create for himself and the world.
In his last moments, Albus thought that maybe, his death, was for the best.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review it will only take a second. : )