Title:

House Character

Disclaimer:
I don't own Harry Potter and co.

Character:
Dumbledore, Tom, Voldemort, Moody, others mentioned.

Genre:
Angst/General/Dark/etc.

Timeline:
Post Ootp, but AU majorly.

Warnings:
Angst, and slight Dumbles bashing.

Summary:
Everyone looked up to Dumbledore and relied on Harry to save them. But everyone has their pitfalls.Atiny look at the time during the war andhow things might have been.Oneshot.

After the fifth year of Harry Potter, things had changed. He had gone back to his relative's home and made a plan. His seconds in command, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, had recently been joined by Ginevra Weasley, Luna Lovegood, and Neville Longbottom. After five years, three children had turned into the Golden Trio which had become the Ministry Six after the DOM incident in which escaped convict Sirius Black had died, falling three the veil thanks to a spell from his insane cousin Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black.

He hadn't stayed more than a week despite the pleadings and frank manipulations of his headmaster who frankly had no business in his caretaking. Frowning at him, not even listening to his repetitive reasoning, the Potter Lord wondered why he couldn't have just been raised in an orphanage or a with Snape or the Malfoys. At least then he would have been either killed immediately, allowed to grow, and told why he was hated.

Harry ended up at one of his mansions from his mother's side, thanks to some findings from Gringotts. His friends had met him there, ready to learn. The protests of Molly Weasley were largely ignored, though they winced at many of the Howlers. She couldn't understand that they had to grow. Neville had given some of his backbone to his speechless grandmother and broke out of his parents' shadows. He was his own man and not a little child to be babied. The almost BWL wondered if she even loved him.

Their sixth year had started and the split from the headmaster had been largely commented on, though they gave no answers. They respected Albus in the spotlight, but personally found him faulty for the war. By the age of sixteen Harry felt like a battle weary warrior that should have had wrinkles and grandchildren on his knee, listening to the pranking times of Hogwarts they were famous for.

Everything began down-spiraling quickly. Voldemort kept himself under wraps but he attacked towns and cities. The dark lord did not leave his mark until the attack on Hogsmaede during the Halloween feast, a testament to his anger for the day he had been banished for ten years. And Dumbledore wasn't really doing anything but shamming the world that he was.

Hogwarts was now not only a school but a housing haven as the four founders had always intentioned it to become in times of strife. The Hogwarts elves were as buys as ever and not disappointed with the work. The Great Hall was four times as large as it had been originally, and still growing. The four tables that separated the tables was no longer useful; instead, there were just numerous smaller circular tables that could fit anywhere from four to fourteen.

And instead of being split by their houses on their school robe crests, they were separated by obvious factions: Muggles, Squibs, Families, Darker supporters, Dumbledore supporters, BWL supporters, and more. The war was going bad and really, all Harry could blame was the old man for not seeing Tom Riddle's soul that had gone so dark so young as he had peaked in without a by-your-leave or polite askance at his own.

Harry knew that Dumbledore was significant for keeping up the morale of the sheeple in the castle. But he did not like or respect him any longer as he had when he was being led by the nose.

The Ministry had all started a relationship, Harry with Ginny, and Neville with Luna. Hermione's status with Ron had finally been altered to "Lover" when the red headed man got his nerve up to ask her out instead of yelling at her. Now they bet constantly on the fights as the two let out their furry off the battle field.

Harry's scar had disappeared when they severed that particular bond with a mate-bond with Ginny. Instead, he had a scar on his chin that was half way to his ear. It was striking and made his menacing figure look quite dangerous. Ginny liked it. Harry appreciated her for it, but he hated it. The scars on his body had long become just another scratch though and he did his best to ignore it. When mostly strangers looked at him, they looked for the scar and their eyes fell to his chin. Then they would ask where his lightning bold from You-Know-Who's Avada Kedavra went, not caring that it was personal. They were a public so they believed they had a right to know about anything and everything about him.

Hogwarts was more open now, able to talk with him along the growing currents of magic. She told them the secrets of the normal magic workers and threw out any and every spy against them. She was his ears and eyes and arms in a castle where he was another onlooker on his side of things.

The common rooms were no longer there either. There were just webs of housing rooms far grander then Harry thought they should have been. A large section of the place had been renovated to fit him and his. They were separated largely from those they were protecting. No longer how often he tried, Dumbledore couldn't locate or watch them. All the old wizard knew was that they were still in the castle.

Harry had taken over most of the wards now. Dumbledore was getting older, and the control over the wards was many years long. Harry had taken them knowing he could add on and change them. They would now be spell the Death Eaters of their magic, and Tom of his life if he were to come near.

The twins were still there though, but not nearly as happy. Their pranking spread to the brilliance of Harry's own ways of watching, and with the help of those in his trust, they made muggle type bugs that worked on magic in different ways to capture what was done in the other rooms around the castle, the common room and the Great Hall alike. In the stacks of the library that Hermione knew by heart, she had lain her own to make sure no one was there, sensors to pick up heartbeats and thoughts. Her own were recorded as well, only to be heard by them at her leisure.

It was in bed with his love that he felt it though. Things were coming to a head. Moody came in then, escorted by Neville and Seamus. He wasn't one of their trusted though. "Moody. Can I help you?"

"'Got information for you."

"And why haven't you taken it to Albus as usual?" he asked blandly.

The man's eye spun wildly, wooden peg still on the floor, "you know as well as I that the old man wouldn't do anything. He'll manipulate," he said, glancing meaningfully at the man who felt far older than his actual eighteen years.

Ron snarked off at his side. His arms had been broken and his good right arm had only healed seventy three percent back, his left arm sixty four percent. Hermione had a long scar on her stomach that rose to her chest. It had almost killed her then. An irritated glare was halfheartedly sent at the man from the couch of her reading circle before the Mrs. Weasley of Ron's went back to her books, leaving the information to her bubby.

Harry snapped his face towards his long time friend. "That's enough Ron."

Ron shrunk away, knowing he went too far, but in these times his emotions were even more volatile. The brains had really done him in. Any control he had had earlier had been whipped up and he was emotionally insecure. Hermione had fixed that but words still clipped out of his mouth without his own meaning to.

"But you know he manipulates where he shouldn't."

Harry couldn't ignore it and didn't deny it. "Albus Dumbledore is a great and powerful man, but he is still human." He spoke this aloud, bringing the reminders to those who followed him with trust and honesty instead of Dumbledore who used lies and manipulations and then sacrificed others for the 'greater good' that in the end had no real purpose but hurting the heart. "Albus is a great man but he spent too much time in the spot light that he began believing his own lies."

The headmasters of past had all had their identifying house hidden as to not provide favorites. It had been widely believed that Dumbledore favored Gryffindor, and then instilled when Harry had gotten in to the house of the red lions. "Albus Dumbledore was a Ravenclaw. He can find as much information out as he can," he peaked to his old bushy haired friend for a moment, "but unlike some," his gaze went to his love and he knew she felt what he was saying, their inner selves that had learned to be sneaky out of necessity that the hat would call as green as a snake if her were to sort them now, "Albus doesn't know how to use it in the long run."

Looking at the old ex-Auror with little white hairs on the top of his knarled head, the Boy-Who-Lived gave him a look, and the man's vision of their center hidden in Hogwarts disappeared. "He relied on manipulations for too long, but never mistake that once, he was a great man."

As he left, Ginny followed, but as Neville lead the old man out, she said something to them. "Everyone has their failings. Albus just happened to fail Harry and not Tom or Severus who was a traitor to him in the end anyways." The words were said again and in their hearts they hoped that the once-Great Albus Dumbledore was humbled off of his cherry white throne that ran their chess war.

A boy was born who was made a pawn. But in a time that the current kings didn't register, he changed the board to three sides, but mostly still with the cherry white. He was a light grey now, swirls running through his own pieces sides. If one were to look at the chess board it would look like a Y, two organizations facing off against one militia, but not really trusting or counting on the other-but instead relying in those that surrounded them in the heat of battle and the pressure of life.

The boy-turned-pawn-turned-king was majesty and all of his people were not pawns, but significant actual breathing, living people, whether human or goblin, or fae, or vampire, or elf, or snake, or spider, or human-faced horse.

Instead there was a queen where Ginevra stood, a knight where his friends Ron and Neville stood, and horses for Hermione and Luna. There were two large connected castles, standing one for Hogwarts and one for the dead that were killed in war. There were no pawns, instead there were people and animals and different races standing by his side.

Was it really any question why he won in the end?...

END