a/n: i apologize in advance for all the tense changes. i didn't have the willpower to go back and fix them lol

The thing is—Albus knows he's not a good person. Oh, sure, when he was still in Hogwarts he'd thought the world of himself and then the summer after he graduated pumped his ego so large he couldn't see past his own inflated head, but then Ariana died and Gellert became a Dark Lord and everything was an endless downward spiral from there.

So. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore freely admits that he's a bad person, but—and this is not an excuse! But it is an explanation!—he doesn't really see many options. The fact is that Voldemort is going to return and Harry Potter is their only hope at killing him but the boy is a child and children cannot defeat accomplished Dark Lords without a great deal of help.

Albus placed him with his maternal relatives so that, no matter how many Neo-Death Eater wannabes decided to try and take revenge for the death of their idol, none of them ever managed to get him. During his first year, he assessed just how much intervention would be necessary for the boy to accomplish his goals by placing the Philosopher's Stone in the school. After that, he gathered the chess pieces and started hunting Horcruxes and contacted his old Order of the Phoenix associates, all to prepare to help the boy when the time came.

And then he realized that Harry Potter was a Horcrux. It was possibly one of the most horrifying realizations of his life—and it was only compounded with the further realization that Harry Potter had to die.

This was alarming for many reasons. Most practically, it could potentially lose him Severus's loyalty. The man had a vicious temper and was rarely forthcoming but still, he was possibly the most valuable asset Albus had possession of so even the mere possibility of losing access to him was incredibly worrisome. Furthermore, the logistics of actually allowing Harry to die in the necessary manner was confounding—either the boy had to be subjected to some method that would destroy his body entirely (Fiendfyre, basilisk venom, etc, all of which would be horrific to subject anyone to), or he had to be killed by Voldemort himself which, considering the number of protections Albus had personally layered on him, was somewhat improbable.

Most importantly, though: Harry Potter shouldn't have to die. He was a mere boy who had done nothing wrong, simply having been dealt a rotten hand by fate. His life should not have to be cut short. It made Albus feel awful.

…He'd still make sure that the boy died, though.

Again: Albus Dumbledore is not a good man, but he is a good strategist.

Despite his determination, Albus's old heart couldn't rest with such knowledge. Compelled by some force that he could not identify, he began searching for loopholes.

He'd figured that it would be a doomed endeavor. History, after all, was full of people who searched for ways to cheat death only to be unsuccessful. His quest was destined for failure and the only reason he was pursuing it was so that he could put his conscience at ease. He expected nothing to come of it.

And now here he is, staring down at an actual loophole to death.

…Fuck.

A million people have searched in vain for ways to gain immortality.

But there has only ever been one Albus Dumbledore.

The logistics are…questionable. Somewhat outlandish. The rituals involved make his head swim from the time and resources required but—it's possible.

Harry Potter could die and live again.

Albus should burn the formula sheet. He should Obliviate himself. He should never think of this again. It's an abomination of nature, a mockery of the balance of the universe, but it's so unbelievably achievable. And Harry won't have to die.

Albus clenches the parchment. Who's he kidding? Of course he's going to do it. It was foolish of him to even consider otherwise.

The next ethical dilemma is whether or not he should tell others. He scraps the idea immediately. Giving the general public the tools to avoid death entirely is such a plainly awful idea. At the very least, the world is not ready for it yet. Maybe one day, in the far flung future, there will be a time when it is necessary…but in a day and age where monsters like Voldemort walk the Earth, the secret to true immortality cannot be released.

…But who is Albus to decide who lives and dies? Why is Harry more deserving of life than, say, an ill child? They've both done nothing to deserve their fates. They're both innocent and pure. Does Albus have the right to doom one child while saving another?

No, he decides. He doesn't have the right, but he'll do it, anyway. Harry is someone he can save, and whose continued lease on life would not raise too many eyebrows—the vast majority of wizards know nothing about Horcruxes so the entire situation can be explained away.

Albus's conscience screams at him but he locks it away.

He takes the boy in the night. Harry Potter—fifteen and afraid—listens to Albus's explanation. He persuades the boy, he admits, and a mere teenager would never have been able to think his way out of the maze Albus sets up for him, so his agreement is all but guaranteed. The rituals are arduous and uncomfortable and even slightly painful but Harry endures it all admirably.

At the end, Albus says, "Are you ready for the final part?"

Harry chews his bottom lip and, for a moment, Albus fears that the boy may refuse, may surrender to fear at the last moment, but then he straightens and clenches his jaw in determination. "Yes. Do it."

Albus nods, presses his wand to Harry's forehead, and whispers, "Obliviate."

Harry Potter wakes up in his dorms the next morning, oddly tired and sore but otherwise fine. He remembers nothing that happened the previous night.

Albus carries on.

He cannot tell Severus the truth. If the Dark Lord were to find out about Severus's true loyalties, if Severus's Occlumency shields were to fail for whatever reason, him harboring such knowledge would be catastrophic. Thus, Albus makes a gamble—he tells Severus that Harry Potter must die.

This is the moment of truth: is Severus still following Albus because of an old schoolboy obsession or has he come to realize how abhorrent Voldemort is, decrying his bigoted ideals?

There is agony clear on Severus's face, but he does not waver.

Perhaps Severus Snape first betrayed Voldemort for Lily Evans but he stayed loyal to Albus because he, too, had realized the horrors of pureblood supremacy.

Albus's gamble has paid off.

Once the ring curses him and slowly begins eating away at his magic, he wonders if he should perform the ritual on himself. It would be so easy, so attainable. Perhaps he'd spend the rest of his days crippled by the curse but he would be alive.

…Honestly, the idea is not appealing. Besides, his death offers Severus the option of fully gaining Voldemort's trust.

Albus Dumbledore is a master strategist, always capable of achieving his goals.

It's just that staying alive isn't one of them.

Albus dies by Severus's hand.

Albus dies, but Harry Potter will live.

On the other side, Albus does not leave the In Between Place. For him, it's the main atrium of the Ministry of Magic. He sits in the In Between Place and he waits for Harry to come.

He has a few visitors before that.

There is Alastor, who died protecting Harry, and Elphias, who died in a Death Eater attack. There are others—old colleagues, old friends, old lovers.

And then there is Gellert.

The two of them sit in silence for a while. Then, Gellert says, "I told him you didn't have the Elder Wand but he'll find it eventually."

"It's buried with me," says Albus. "He will definitely find it."

Gellert nods. After another bout of silence: "Why are you still here?"

"I'm waiting on someone."

"Not me?"

Albus says, "I've lived half my life without you in it. Of course it wasn't you."

Gellert looks away. He says, "The carriage is coming."

Albus wonders what Gellert sees the In Between Place as. He doesn't ask. "You best be going, then."

Quietly, Gellert whispers, "Albus, I'm scared."

Albus smiles. It does not reach his eyes. "You should be."

Gellert climbs into a carriage that Albus cannot see and gets dragged to the great beyond.

Severus's arrival breaks his heart. He's walking sedately, back straight and lips pursed. When he spots Albus, he immediately says, "I gave Potter my memories. He'll know what he needs to do. Are you sure he'll go through with it? What if—"

"Severus," Albus says kindly, "you did everything you were supposed to. The deed will get done." Then, "I'm sorry, my boy. This was not supposed to happen."

Severus's face twists. "You had to have known that Voldemort would think ownership of your wand would pass to me."

"Is that what he thought?" Albus demands, perplexed. "That's—that's not how it works at all. It's about disarming, not death. He should have disarmed you."

"He didn't," whispers Severus. "He—he set that bloody snake of his on me and it—he—" Severus is visibly blinking away tears. "The boy found me dying. I couldn't speak so I gave him my memories. He stayed with me until I passed." Quieter, "I've doomed him."

"Harry Potter will live," Albus says, relieved to be able to soothe at least this concern.

"What?" demands Severus. "He's marching to his death as we speak!"

"I've made it so he will return to life following his death."

"How?" asks Severus, aghast.

Albus smiles. "I don't mean to offend, Severus, but I suspect you may not be able to grasp the theory behind the rituals I used and I cannot even begin to think of how to explain it."

"When did you do it?"

"A year before I told you that Harry had to die."

Severus's lips pull back in a snarl. "And why didn't you tell me?"

"I told no one. I even Obliviated Harry following the completion of the ritual. I could not risk even a whisper of it getting to Voldemort, Severus."

And Severus must understand because his shoulders slump and he stares off. There is a companionable silence before, "Why are you still here? Why haven't you crossed the bridge?"

Curious, Albus asks, "A bridge? Is that what you see this place as?"

"I take it that it's not actually what I perceive it to be?"

"Indeed. Everyone sees it differently. I see the Ministry of Magic."

Severus considers this. Then, he says, "I see a bridge from Cokeworth. It passes over a river that divides the town in two. I lived on one side and Lily lived on the other. I think I need to pass over to Lily's side."

Albus smiles at him. "You can take as long as you need. I am waiting on Harry."

Severus purses his lips. "I think I better go so that I don't have to meet him again," he eventually decides.

"All right," Albus says amiably. "Until then, Severus."

"Until then, Albus."

Harry is confused. It's understandable. Albus explains that the soul fragment left in Voldemort has now died and Harry nods. Apparently, he sees the In Between Place as King's Cross.

He tells Harry he can go back.

He is not prepared for how long Harry ruminates on it.

The boy does eventually go back, but Albus suspects it was more to ensure Voldemort's defeat than out of an actual desire to be alive.

He has failed Harry Potter. He just hopes the boy's friends will be able to pick up the pieces.

Eventually, Voldemort dies and the soul fragment that Harry had left behind morphs into a full person. It's not the ugly, serpentine form that Voldemort had sported before his death, but rather the form of Tom Riddle. The body is haggard, though. Tom's hair is limp and his cheeks are sunken, arms skeletal. There's an emptiness in his gaze.

It takes a while before Tom's eyes are able to focus on Albus. "You," he rasps, as if he's trying to summon the willpower to be angry but can't quite manage it.

Albus looks at the pitiful man and says, "Was it worth it?"

Tom frowns. "Of course not," he says. "I'm dead, aren't I?"

"Is that your only regret?"

"What? Did you think that I would repent for my sins? That death would bring me clarity and grant me a conscience? No, you wretched old man. The only thing I regret is that I didn't manage to achieve my goals." The words should be frightening but Tom says them dispassionately, as if reading dialogue he does not care for off of a script he has just laid eyes on. There's something eerily unsettling about him this way.

He's not a monster. Not a tyrant. Just a man with no empathy, fractured at the seams due to his own hubris.

Albus says, "I used to think that I should have helped you, that I could have led you down a better path. Do you think I could have?"

Tom says, "No. I'd resent you more if you tried." Then, looking around, "Why are you here, anyway? What is this place? Surely it's not the afterlife…"

Albus asks, "What do you see?"

"What is there to see? There's nothing. It's just pure white in every direction."

Ah. Souls torn by the making of a Horcrux will never be able to move on. For Albus and Harry and all the others who arrived, there was always an exit, a way to enter the great beyond. For Tom, there is none. He tells Tom, "This is the afterlife—or, rather, your afterlife. I'll be taking my leave soon."

"How do I leave?"

"You can't. This was your destiny the moment you made your first Horcrux."

Finally, an actual emotion emerges onto Tom's face: terror. "That's not fair," he says. "I was sixteen. I couldn't have known."

"You knew later," Albus says. "If you fused your Horcruxes back into yourself then you could have escaped." All it would have required was for Voldemort to truly regret his actions.

"That's—this is outrageous. I won't stay here for the rest of eternity. I'll find my way out."

Albus eyes him critically. He's quite sure that there is no way to get out of the In Between Place but, then again, he'd also been sure that immortality was impossible. There is only one Albus Dumbledore but there is also only one Tom Riddle.

And eternity is a long time.

Maybe Tom will get out. Probably not.

Either way, Albus says, "Sure." And then he starts walking toward the front entrance of the Ministry, the door to the great beyond.

"What are you doing?" demands Tom. "You can't just leave me here! What kind of man are you?" Albus doesn't respond. "So much for the kind and compassionate Albus Dumbledore. You're vile. Vile, you hear me?" Albus keeps walking and Tom keeps talking but he gets more and more desperate the farther away Albus gets.

Finally, just before Albus is about to cross over, Tom calls, "Please! Please, Dumbledore—don't leave me here. Don't leave me alone." He looks well and truly frightened.

For a moment, Albus nearly relents in the face of that haggard face twisted in agony, but then he meets that red gaze and he remembers the people who'd died, the lives that had been ruined, the foul prejudice that stank up wizarding Britain. Tom doesn't regret any of it.

Albus says, "You should have a good, long think about your actions, Tom—you'll certainly have the time."

Tom, resigned, says, "My name is Voldemort."

Albus cracks a smile. "All right then. Goodbye, Lord Voldemort."

And Albus walks into the great beyond.

a/n: don't question the mechanics of the immortality thing too much. the implication is that harry can still die but he will always have the option of either coming back to life or moving on. idk how it would work lmao but that's not really the important part. this was just me going "what would dumbledore do if he figured out how to achieve immortality?" and running with it

anyway i hope you liked it! and if you did, please FAVORITE, FOLLOW, and REVIEW!