Since I last updated this story, A Different Path has surpassed 350000 views. It currently has 350816 views! That's totally awesome baby!
Meanwhile, while Arthur Weasley was accepting the promotion to Minister of Magic, Albus Dumbledore was still in his Ministry holding cell and he was feeling like there was nothing left for him anywhere in the world.
All of his crimes and manipulations had not only been exposed, but they were all now well known.
Everyone in the Wizarding World now knew that Dumbledore had sealed the Pottters' wills, sent Harry Potter to live with the Dursleys against his parents wishes, framed Sirius Black through his deliberate silence and withholding of known evidence, child manipulation, especially with regard to Harry Potter, and keeping dangerous spaces, things, and especially at Hogwarts while he was Headmaster.
There could be no turning back. The cat had completely gotten out of the bag with regard to everything Dumbledore had done.
Dumbledore couldn't believe it had come to this. He couldn't believe word had gotten out about everything he'd ever done.
Even if he somehow managed to get off lighter than life in Azkaban, there was still nothing for him in the world anymore.
He had no friends, no allies, and no support in any corner. It was him against the world and he was old, tired, and weak.
His seeing, hearing, walking, talking, breathing, and magic were also all naturally on the decline from old age.
And no one would ever hire or trust him again now that his deeds were as well known as the alphabet.
It was now as well known in the Wizarding World that Dumbledore had framed Sirius Black and manipulated Harry Potter as it was that Lord Voldemort had attempted and failed to kill Harry Potter when Harry Potter was only a year and a third old.
And Dumbledore had been stuck in this Ministry holding cell for months. Months that felt like millenniums with the combination of the boring and miserable conditions of Ministry holding cells. And there was nothing he could do. He knew escape was impossible and he had come to realize that his sentencing wouldn't exactly be done in a hurry.
Dumbledore correctly suspected that getting around to his sentencing was not a major priority of Madam Bones.
Madam Bones had had a lot on her plate recently and she really didn't mind Dumbledore suffering in boredom and waiting in the holding cell.
Dumbledore thought Madam Bones WANTED to make him wait and suffer, but this wasn't really true. Madam Bones had had other things on her plate and she didn't mind Dumbledore having to wait and suffer, but it wasn't a proactive decision.
Either way, Dumbledore would now prefer to receive the length of his sentence and start serving it, especially if he could somehow avoid a life sentence.
"Does it really matter either way though?" thought Dumbledore to himself on this morning, "Either I'm in this holding cell, or I'm in Azkaban, or I'm free but with nothing out there in the world for me and no one in the world supporting me."
Dumbledore had been thinking like this quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, feeling slowly but surely more lonely and depressed each time.
It wasn't quite the effect of the dementors of Azkaban, but lengthy stays in Ministry holding cells could very much slowly but surely eat away at a person.
As this natural feeling of hopelessness set in further and further, Dumbledore made a decision.
"I can't go on, " said Dumbledore, "My time needs to end. Let's just end it now."
He did still have his wand, so Dumbledore retrieved his wand from his right hand pocket with his right hand.
Dumbledore pointed his wand directly at himself and cried, "Avada Kedavra!"
A flash of blinding green light emitted from Dumbledore's wand and hit him squarely in the chest.
Dumbledore crumpled to the floor, unmarked, but instantly dead. Dead of his own hand and wand.
And so it was. Dumbledore, long believed to have been the white champion of the light, died as a disgraced man whose crimes and manipulations had been the buzz of the Wizarding World when they had first been revealed.
It had become clearer and clearer as the months since Dumbledore's right nasty pieces of work had been revealed that the Wizarding World was already starting to go down a better road as people who were more humble and less power hungry had gained more influence.
Albus Dumbledore, who for so long had believed he would become the most powerful wizard in the world, was gone, dead at his own hands and of his own wand.
It would be awhile before anyone would know about Dumbledore's fate though. Madam Bones wasn't exactly checking his holding cell every day.
But this was indeed the end of the line. Albus Dumbledore was dead.
A shout to the following members who are currently favoring and/or following A Different Path: Unfortunately, some (but not all) of you with periods in your usernames had formatting issues so I had to remove them. Shout out to the following for favoring and/or following A Diffrent Path.
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Thank you to everyone is traveling this path with me! Much love from Arizona to all of you! -Michael :)