~Chapter 15~ Regrets… – First year to present time~

Notes: I managed to find some time to write this Chapter tonight. Thank you for all the reviews, I love reading them and they inspired me. Just a warning, if you find any spelling mistakes or logic problems...forgive me I was half-asleep already as I typed this.

~Dumbledore~

He was sure that his troubles started the moment he was informed that Harry Potter had acquired a new guardian. The side-trip to Gringotts hadn't even been planned, but he stepped out of Gringotts in a very different state than he'd first imagined.

In fact, he'd merely been trying to draw some money to stock up on his yearly stock of lemon drops when the Goblins glaringly informed him that he had been locked out of the accounts and his access had been completely revoked.

Of course, he believed that it was merely a mistake, but without the brat with him, he wouldn't be able to fix the misunderstanding. Casting a tempus, he realized that he was running late for the feast and he rushed back to Hogwarts, just barely making it in time for the sorting.

He felt a familiar power and discreetly glanced toward Quirrel. He knew who the man truly was, and after all these years he was still instrumental in helping him keep his fame.

The people had quickly forgotten about him a few years after he defeated Grindewald, true they had still respected him, but they'd lost their dependence on him. And the chance to change that had practically fallen into his lap in the form of the orphaned Thomas Marvolo Riddle.

No one would notice if he nurtured the darkness that clearly lurked at the bottom of the boy's being, in fact, the boy was probably going to end up dark anyway. He was the Heir of Slytherin after all.

The hints here and there while alternating between ignoring and pushing the boy had worked wonders, but somehow he'd held onto his whole "Keeping all witches and wizards safe" campaign. So Dumbledore resorted to more drastic measures…to find something that the teen wanted, but without revealing the side effects. Horcruxes.

But it had taken too long for the deterioration to occur, and Riddle stubbornly refused to kill the Potters even after he was informed of the threat. So Dumbledore did the only thing he could, he forcefully corrupted the man's mind a few nights before that Halloween night.

It hadn't been easy, as Riddle had way too many barriers protecting him, but with a slight compulsion the rat easily got over his fear of Lord Voldemort and he attached a rather obscure spell to Voldemort's throne just before one of their meetings.

The results had been almost instantaneous as that was the first time that Riddle started casting the Cruciatus curse indiscriminately according to his spy. Dumbledore had been in high spirits in the days that followed and even more so when the same spelled rat led the Dark Lord directly to his 'prophesized' enemy.

He hadn't expected that night to go down as it had, but it had been perfect. To top it all off, he gained access to the Potter brat's accounts when he volunteered himself as the boy's magical guardian before the Aurors could arrive.

The minister had gladly accepted, both owing him a favor and thinking that he could keep both the Wizarding World's strongest wizard happy as well as the press…seeing as the Daily Prophet had been in a slump at that time and Dumbledore was all too happy to repeatedly explain that little Harry Potter had defeated the Dark Lord and that he, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, would be the one to guide him in the future.

He didn't have time to raise the boy though so he simply made up the story of the wards and left the boy with his aunt. Though he'd been quite pleased with the way they treated the boy and even helped it on a little now and again when the boy tried to reveal his circumstances to someone.

But now the boy was at Hogwarts and Dumbledore could see that he had been significantly 'humbled'.

He watched as the students were sorted, though he wasn't very pleased to see how close Harry was standing with what looked to be Lucius Malfoy's whelp. That just wouldn't do.

The sorting progressed and he was hard-pressed not to sit at the edge of his seat. The boy would go to Gryffindor just like his parents and then…"SLYTHERIN!"

He was going to KILL THE BRAT!

He just barely held onto the grandfatherly façade as he followed the boy with his eyes. Something had to be done about this. He wasn't going to allow this to stand.

He watched the interactions that the boy had with the rest of the houses. He didn't seem corrupted, merely confused, and he was sure that he would be able to sway the boy into his line of thinking if he spoke to the brat about how he knew his parents. The boy would immediately agree to a resort if he also told him about how evil Slytherins were and that his parents would be disappointed if he stayed in that house.

He acted the moment the feast ended and the students filed out, but once again it didn't go as he's hoped it would as the boy's guardian had somehow managed to find out that he'd been dipping into the boy's vaults.

Luckily the boy seemed to be quite naïve and clueless, but unfortunately, the Dursleys' abuse hadn't worked in his favor this time. Instead, it seemed to make him more loyal to whoever this mysterious guardian was and Dumbledore had been forced to make a quick exit once the brat started asking why Dumbledore would talk to him about bank stuff. He needed to track down the boy's guardian, yet the bank refused to give him a name.

Any subsequent attempts to get close to the boy ended in failures since then. It was as if the entire school was against him, but he knew he was just being paranoid…no one sided with the Slytherins after all.

Then Quirrel disappeared without taking the stone and he returned it to his friend, having no more need for it at the moment. Come to think of it, he hadn't heard back from Nicolas yet.

~~~Time Skip~~~

The boy's second year became a bit more promising once he was able to persuade Gilderoy Lockhart to join their school by taking the DADA post…surely the boy would want to talk to someone that was almost just as famous as he was?

The plan went down surprisingly well, with the boy spending quite some time in the author's company. But quite a few weird things happened and he still couldn't find the masterminds behind the glue incident.

Now they were at the start of the boy's fourth year and Dumbledore's patience had run out. Somehow Sirius had been released from Azkaban in the boy's third year, and he'd thought to use him to get closer to the brat, but even the mutt wasn't properly fitting into his plans so he decided to take care of all of it himself.

He waited until Halloween night, just for irony's sake, and found the boy sitting with the mutt next to him near the Black Lake. He patiently waited to see what they planned to do but after a while, Sirius came walking towards him and Dumbledore realized that this was his chance.

He stunned then Impereo'd the mutt and made him turn back into a man before ordering him to stun his godson.

Seeing the surprise on the boy's face had Dumbledore almost gloating, but still, he kept his façade of just trying to help. The boy didn't need to know that he had plans for him yet.

He then started his long-practiced speech about the evil Slytherins and how he would break their compulsions on him when in actuality he was just going to add a lot of compulsions of his own. He almost believed that the thought had given him goosebumps, but then he heard the frantic splashing as the Grindylows disappeared and the shadows around the boy suddenly looked like they'd come alive.

The outline of black wings could be seen and Dumbledore could swear that the boy looked older as he stood. How had he thrown off the stunner?

He didn't get his answer as he tried to persuade the boy…man once more, but then heard the snap of fingers and his body collapsed.

The last words he heard were Voldemort and birthday and he tried not to panic, but it was no use as the world went dark around him. For a while, he floated in the depths of darkness with only a shield as his protection from the monsters on the outside, fear thick in his throat, then a strong force removed him from the space and he was shocked to learn that he'd been shrunk down, and Harry James Potter was glaring down at him.

He finally noticed that he was as tall as a doll, but he couldn't find his wand so that he could turn back. His conscious state didn't last long though as another spell hit him and the next time he woke up, he found himself somewhere else.

It wasn't hard to notice the box he was in, but it took him a while to make out the image of the man that was about to open the box…Tom Marvolo Riddle A.K.A. Voldemort…how in Merlin's name was he back already?

A cold feeling traveled up his spine…he would die…he would die at the hands of the Dark Lord that he created without knowing why and how a fourteen-year-old had beaten him at his own game, unless…