Title: The Path of Least Resistance;

Part One of the Silent Song Series.

Author: PLS

Date: May 15, 2003

Rating: G

Summery: Response to a challenge on HarryXSnapeML- Alternate Timeline/ Albus didn't stop Grindelwald, he joined him. How has that impacted the Wizarding world and how does he feel about it.

Quote: More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
-Woody Allen (Born 1935)

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My name is Albus Dumbledore and I am the commander of the Legion of Fire. As you know, I am pegged as a traitor by most of Britain. I am not ignorant of my crimes as the Ministry of Magic sees them, I knew what I was getting into when I made my loyalties public over fifty years ago. I am now one hundred twenty six years of age and no where near my death bed. As I told young Thomas, one is as old as one lets one get. I try not to let myself go over the age of thirty or thirteen, I can never tell which. Fawkes is much like myself in that way. He does so hate to get old. Ulrich never understood how I was able to find myself such a wonderful familiar like Fawkes. All Ulrich has is that always bickering runespore, Axel, Sven, and Helmut. Those poor souls all trapped in one body like that. It must be absolute torture for Sven especially, he is always trying to find the best way to go, but his words always come out all wrong. Ulrich of course, tells me all about the counseling he must do for them; he fears that Axel and Helmut may revert to their base instincts and kill poor Sven. He is really a very nice snake, just a little too critical of Axel's dreaming and Helmut's planning. I can sympathize with Sven greatly. I only wish I had the gift of parseltounge so I and Sven could commiserate.

I'm not one to complain, I fully knew what I was going to be getting into when I was thirty-two. I still know all my position entails, I am very aware of Ulrich's corruption and I am very aware of the truth of the prophesy that Sybill made almost eighty-seven years ago. Almost all of my generation is aware of it and how Ulrich tried to prevent it twenty-two years ago. His methods are less than honorable and since I was made aware of how far he had fallen, I have been more than active in activities aimed to stop his practices. This is a fact that I have kept scrupulously hidden from all that are not in my confidence. Only one person knows in fact; that person is my former student and my supposed nemesis, Thomas Marvalo Riddle.

I have trusted him time and time again to very crucial and endangering information. He is the one watching over the one who will end this war, and I placed that hope in his care. If Ulrich ever found out my roll in his soon to come about end he would laugh and call you insane. He knows I have been nothing but loyal to him and trust in his ideal completely. Ulrich and his Giftschlange Amree have changed motives, they used to peacefully fight for a cause I supported. We used to all want the union of the Wizarding and Muggle worlds, but now he wants the world. I still believe in my cause but not the ways that Ulrich wants to go about achieving them. My Legion of Fire seems to fight side by side with the Giftschlange Armee, but they all follow me and work towards my goals. We want Ulrich to stop at any cost. I fear what that may entail soon.

Ulrich used to be my friend, he was always intrigued by the Dark as I was by the Light, we studied far away from each other but kept in touch and after the Muggle's World War Two we worked to unify Wizarding Europe again and help those wizards and witches trapped by the Iron Curtain. Our efforts made us realize why we needed to unify with the Muggles and have some say in the way the world was going. I returned to Britain and taught at Hogwarts for five years and then Ulrich contacted me, he said he had a following and they were working towards the unification of the two worlds. He needed my help, and I was glad to go to his side. A small contingent of my fellows followed me to Munich and we worked with the followers of Ulrich. It was nice while it lasted.

The war started with two mistakes, one was a small protest that turned into a riot which spurred on other riots, and the other was my trusting in Ulrich's integrity. He fueled the movement to arms and all too soon it was out of my ability to control. He was being called Grindelwald by his loyalists and his enemies by then. I fear that I was to close to see what was going on until it was too late that time. I have not made that mistake again.

Thomas, the kind soul he has informed me of some interesting events. Ulrich's war is growing larger, now fighting is going on in Columbia, Venezuela, and Brazil. The United States Wizarding government is trying to quench the flames before the spread and take over all of the Americas and the whole of the world. The Americans are working very hard on peace conferences, brokering deals, and other diplomatic chores. My good friend, Cynthia Whitehall, is heading that effort. She is just so good about things like that. She has always been the one looking for the peaceful way out, Ulrich was always the hot head, and I am still stuck in the middle trying to find a way to bridge the two opposites. If they could only find a common goal like they did after World War Two I'm certain the world would be almost utopian and my life would be almost heaven. As it is the two haven't agreed on anything since the American Diplomatic Magical Contingency or the ADMC pulled out of Europe in 1959. I'm sure that they never will agree on anything again. I wonder if I should have tried harder to get them to marry. They would have been wonderful together, but life goes on.

But it is the future I should be focused on and not the past. The future is in one heart, one person who I have never laid eyes on. One boy named Harold James Potter, one boy who the whole world thinks is dead, even the boy himself. He has no idea who he is. That was my idea, and I am certain he will hate me for it. What rational person wouldn't? I had to do it for his protection Sybill Trelawney has foretold that he was the only one who had the potential to stop Ulrich and stop this insane war. That doesn't mean I and the rest of the world won't try, it means that Harold is always going to be in great danger. Thomas assures me that he is fine, in fact he will be teaching Defense classes at Hogwarts this year. Thomas is also hiring a new Potions teacher, Adrian Grey went on to a nice retirement last summer. Thomas assures me his choice is someone he once taught himself. A mister Severus Snape. The man's resume is very impressive; a master potion maker in the Potion Makers' Guild, inventor of the Twenty Untraceable Poisons, and the mercenary with the second highest body count last year. Goodness, I hope the man can focus on something other than teaching his students how to kill each other! I'm sure Minerva can keep anyone in line, especially if he is indeed a former student.

I should have stayed at Hogwarts and I should have worked harder to control Ulrich. I honestly wonder how different the world would have been if I had actively stopped the monster my friend has become. I have so many regrets.