Price of Greed

InverseDesire

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't get money or any advantages from this work.

I am not a native speaker.

Warning: This story is rated M for a reason. This story will have a lot of people doing evil things and some of those people might be characters giving their point of view. If you think Death Eaters just made muggle-borns pay bigger taxes during the war it is not a story for you. The story will be very dark.

Thank you, Hans (ThEldeRS), for helping me with grammar in this chapter.

Chapter 3: Education

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office. He was thinking about the events of the past years. He knew putting Harry with the Dursleys was a very bad idea, but there was not a better one. Death Eaters were out there for vengeance and he and his allies did not know the identities of all of them. They could not be sure. Especially not after Sirius Black's betrayal. The only solution that made sure Harry would remain alive was implemented, but not even the greatest wizard alive could predict how badly it would turn out. He had his friends monitor the situation. Lily's sacrifice decimated the Death Eater trying to break into the house. Talented wizards could sense danger, but only a handful was that powerful. Seeing the danger, Dumbledore decided to not change Harry's location since many Death Eaters had escaped Azkaban.

Everything was decent until Harry turned seven. Dumbledore was horrified when he learned about the Dursleys' death. That complicated matters. He had his most trusted friends looking after Harry. He contacted the most knowledgeable and experienced wizards and witches from the entire world to put their best protection charms around the reformatory. He did much more himself to ensure Harry's protection, but fortunately, after the death of one of the Death Eaters years before, it looked like they got the message that Harry Potter is protected with deadly traps.

Still, he was very careful. Mad-Eye Moody was spending a lot of time watching over Harry. With every day that had passed he was more and more concerned about him. He had to obliviate many muggles in a very discrete manner in order to not alert the Ministry. As reports grew worse with each day, Dumbledore was spending more and more time monitoring the situation himself. Harry was using magic to survive at this cruel place. However, he lacked control. His magic was wild. Control over magic was very complicated, it was not just overpowered spells. Students in Hogwarts were learning for seven years how to control magic, often not realizing it. Of course, almost none of them truly achieved it. Only very few wizards and witches in history managed to manipulate magic, but rudimentary illusion was enough for a vast majority of wizards and witches. Harry was powerful and was progressing fast, but was blindly experimenting with magic, making him very dangerous to other young boys. Dumbledore knew he had to intervene. Years before young Tom Riddle started just like Harry, and Dumbledore would not allow Harry to continue his reigns of terror. He decided to meet with him.

Harry was sitting in his room. He levitated a book about mathematics. With each day that passed, he was getting better and better at using his power. He wanted to push himself. With his abilities, he could easily rob a bank and become rich. He would become king of this world without almost any issues. He just needed to practice hard. Good thing that the other boys were such good testing subjects.

His practice was interrupted by a knock on the door. Irritated, he opened it to see some grandpa. He made a move to close the door but it was stopped by the old man. He tried to use his power to make the old man leave and wanted to close the door with his power so that no one would interrupt him again. He was shocked when nothing happened. Never before did his powers failed him. The mysterious grandpa smiled and said:

"Can I enter, please?"

Harry let the man in. The man sat on a chair and started talking:

"It's very rude to use magic on other people. I will let this one slip. Do not try this again, Harry."

Harry was shocked. He was thinking furiously. What was this magic he was talking about? Was it his power? How did he know about it and countered it? How did he know his name? And who was he to give him orders?! Until that day Harry had thought that he was the only person in the world, who by some weird miracle, had power. Looks like he was mistaken. This was both a good and a bad thing. Certainly, it complicated his plans, but maybe he would learn from this man. Harry decided to play nice and keep his head down until he obtained more information from the stranger.

And obtain he did. The old man, who introduced himself as Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, told fantastic stories about the Wizarding World, where people like Harry live. Many of Harry's questions were answered. He hated the man who killed his parents, as soon as he got to know about him. He hated the fact that he had lived years being unaware of Wizarding World. However, he needed to be very careful.

Dumbledore was very angry about Harry's actions in the reformatory and made him promise to no longer use magic in a violent manner. Harry hated to do so but understood it was Dumbledore who was in power here. Or rather for now, as Harry vowed. Not like any promises really mattered to Harry, but it was clear that Dumbledore was watching him and knew much more about power, or rather, magic, than the young boy did.

The old wizard wanted to leave Harry and come back in two years to take him to Hogwarts, but Harry demanded things go more rapidly. He wanted to study magic, to be more connected to this new world, and to get to know it. According to Dumbledore, there were many children who were growing up knowing about the Wizarding World, and Harry did not want to be left behind. Dumbledore was thinking about this demand for two days, after which he had returned with an answer. He figured out that he needs to build a good relationship with Harry, considering the prophecy. Children started to learn magic at age of eleven, but Harry already proved himself to be very talented.

After all was said and done, Dumbledore decided to introduce Harry to more theoretical courses which should help him understand the new and exciting world of magic, whilst keeping in mind that he came from a muggle background. Harry seemed to be excited to learn the subject of "History of Magic", but not so much about "Muggle Studies". Eventually, Harry cooperated because it would mean that he gets course passed and more time for learning actual magic in the future. Harry obviously wanted to learn actual magic as well, but it was harder to do. With "History of Magic", Dumbledore just bought Harry all of the textbooks from year one to year five and occasionally shared with him some interesting books from the Hogwarts library on the subject. Their study plan for "Muggle Studies" was no different, but it required fewer textbooks since this subject was taught only three years to reach OWL levels. For practical courses, Dumbledore needed to take Harry to Diagon Alley to buy a wand. They did not explore it further, because Dumbledore said that followers of Harry's parents' murderer might notice them. Dumbledore even camouflaged Harry's hair to be brown and hid his scar. Harry did not mind because he was so excited about getting his first wand. He got a wand made from a fir tree, fourteen inches in length. He liked the description that the wandmaker gave about fir tree wands. They were wands of survivors. Harry was definitely one of them. Dumbledore decided that Harry may learn "Defence Against the Dark Arts" and "Charms".

Over the next two years, things were less stressful for Dumbledore when it came to Harry. The boy stopped his violence and fully dedicated himself to learning. His grades in muggle school dropped significantly, but when it came to the four subjects he let Harry study before Hogwarts, Harry was excellent. He and Professor Flitwick were tutoring Harry in "Defence Against the Dark Arts" and "Charms" respectively. The reason for this was very simple. Dumbledore still wanted to have a close eye on Harry and having a second opinion from Flitwick was reducing the chance of him missing something. Harry was very respectful to him and the other teacher and was very hungry for knowledge. He performed tremendously and after those two years had passed by, he already passed the first two years' worth of exams in those two subjects at Hogwarts. Harry was very hardworking and talented, so he could probably do even more, but Dumbledore did not want to expose someone below age eleven to more advanced practical magic. It was believed that young children should not learn magic too quickly, because they still lacked control over it. However, those limitations did not exist in theoretical courses. Harry was learning at a frighteningly fast pace. His young and eager mind was soaking things up like a sponge. He very quickly demanded to be examined to pass the first and second years exams. His homework, graded by Professor Binns and Professor Quirrell, was of very high quality, so the boy was allowed to try. He got very good grades and, motivated by it, started passing year after year. Dumbledore was eventually facing a very unusual situation. A young boy, before he even started at Hogwarts, wanted to pass two of his OWLs already. He was very good, so Dumbledore used his connections in the ministry to organize his exams. He wanted to hide Harry from the press and the Death Eaters. Fortunately, Griselda Marchbanks was his old friend, so the exams were organized without people getting to know about it, but were still considered valid. Harry got the grade of "Outstanding" in both subjects. Dumbledore was extremely proud of the young boy for abandoning violence and fully dedicating himself to learning.

Finally, the time came for Harry to attend Hogwarts. The young boy was very ambitious and wanted to attend Ancient Runes and Numerology outside of his regular curriculum. Dumbledore helped Harry with buying all of his necessary school supplies. It was a very boring trip for Harry, but he discovered that his parents left him a small fortune, for which he was grateful.

Harry's dream had finally come true and the young sorcerer was finally going to Hogwarts. Learning theoretical courses and the tutoring from Flitwick and Dumbledore was fun, but Harry wanted to learn more and he hoped for many opportunities at Hogwarts without being controlled by Dumbledore. He wanted to learn and maybe find other interesting wizards and witches like him. He felt he finally was starting his journey to greatness.

InverseDesire