Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling and not to some woke crowd.
I make no money out of writing and also I won't spend any money in fiction.
I write just to get things out my head and see if my demons might let me catch some sleep.
Let us see where this story is taking me.
Knowing pain beyond one´s years was something mortals took lightly. Ancient lore painted heroes and gods as superiors to mortals. But rarely it told about how they envied them. Sometimes, glimpses of that envy could be seen with the atrocious results from such Gods encountering a mortal they didn't have qualms about harming.
Ask Medusa, for a change. Mortals, be advised it was NOT on your best interests not to draw attention of supernatural entities to yourself.
Long ago, he happened to be a mortal. At first, he longed to go back to how things were.
Humans, short lived as they were, had something more precious than gold on their hands.
Things couldn't go back to how they were. As it was he had to conform with things as they were.
People didn't really get it, to be frank they didn't even try.
It was as if his pain didn't matter at all. Well, it mattered alright: to him.
Before, when he wasn't so done and utterly exhausted of life, he might have tried to make them understand.
Now he just didn't care.
If they could leave him alone, that would be wonderful.
But that was just wishful thinking talking and not common sense.
Really, it seemed other people felt too entitled to interfere in his business as to share one too many pieces of "good nature" advice leaning towards forceful persuasion really quickly:
Someone with such capabilities, so smart and gifted couldn't really want this, they saw it with horror: that he just wanted to "waste away in an old shack out in the boondocks". Oh right, they sounded so outraged voicing this in the sea of objections and censor for his actions or lack of them. You see, according to a good lot of people of all creeds and positions, he had to do something!
He was the only one who stood a chance to face Grindelwald and win!
Everyone who showed at his doorstep after he didn't answer their letters had said some variation of that bullshit and that got old really quickly. So old, in fact that he had retired from his current affairs and sequestered himself in his childhood home after warding it to hell and back, like a fortress.
Being driven to this point made him realize he didn't really have "friends".
How could they demand so much of someone who lost everything?
Hell, they just had to take a stroll down the old church in town or read the damn Prophet to know it. First his mother and then his sister dying within a year of each other.
And if that wasn't bad enough: his only living relative hating him to the point of breaking his nose in the graveyard while they buried their fourteen year old sister.
Yes, what a field day.
Those who knew him or claimed to do so… well, they certainly wouldn't be capable to do what they demanded of him if they were in his shoes. Not right now at least.
Hell, some people wanted him doing something yesterday.
They didn't make any sense.
Perhaps they saw him as beyond human, unfeeling and perfect. Unhindered by something as trivial as emotions. Bunch of imbeciles, really. That their expectations of him aligned more with Gellert´s personality than his was something not lost on Albus, sometimes he laughed himself silly and ended up a breathless, sobbing heap wherever he was.
After this rough awakening he was forced to have, his world divided in people wanting something of him and people who were envious or resentful of him for some reason or another. The second category kept growing by leaps and bounds. Not that he cared much.
Nowadays offending people was too easy, they got incensed for the silliest things.
Wizards were too entitled, Albus certainly did not owe the world anything.
Frankly he didn't give a flying fuck and it was high time people realized it.
Doing whatever he wanted that happened to align with what was asked or expected of him: that had ended up badly and no amount of begging, cajoling, coercion or criticism will make him change his gods be damned mind. No way in hell.
He wanted to stay here, and that was about it. Whenever he wasn't teaching, he just wanted to be left alone and the world could try and fix problems without him for a chance. It got to a point where they didn't even let him teach in peace anymore, that certainly didn't endear them to him.
He had to give up teaching with a heavy heart and looming depression on the horizon; for the sake of the kids. He wasn't that much older than them and already people thrice his age felt with a right to try and burden him with things that weren't his to solve or deal with.
Why on Merlin's name did they have a government if they couldn't do sh*t for themselves?
For someone who had nothing worth fighting for… these increasing demands were overboard, it could be called outright abuse. They should really thank their lucky stars that Albus was past the point of fighting. Otherwise they might end up cursed to within an inch of their lives.
That's what they didn't want to understand, how someone like him didn't want power or wasn't interested in playing games of any sort to control people or to achieve goals, he just didn't have it in him to try.
As a former victim of such manipulation that cost dearly, he didn't want to play a part in destructing someone else like that.
Let others do it. He had helped, even if he wasn't exactly involved in the war, at least not as much as the Ministry thought he should be. It was all he was willing to do. They had to settle for advice and nothing else. Since they didn't and were used to demand things and coerce others instead of asking, Albus had to lock his house under layers upon layers of wards and the strongest Fidelius he could cast, that living precisely here was killing him daily, well. He couldn't really afford another place yet.
He had enough as it was with his thoughts alone, with his ghosts and heartbreak as company. They wouldn't understand even if he wanted to explain it to them (he really was past the point of caring) He was unable to go up against Grindelwald. He couldn't face Gellert. His love (the one he at least loved dearly) had made sure of that efficiently and ruthlessly.
That's what finally drove home the message. Gellert didn't love Albus as much as Albus loved him, despite everything.
Maybe Gellert did have some affection for him.
Just as much as Albus Dumbledore couldn't face Gellert Grindelwald, likewise, Gellert wasn't able to face Albus.
And he, Albus Dumbledore, the biggest fool... he doubted Gellert ever loved him at this point. Evidence pointed to that.
Even if he numbed his mind all he could, it was glaringly obvious and won't be quieted, a fact stated coldly and repeatedly by a voice in his head that sounded remarkably like his remaining sibling. "Gellert Grindelwald never loved you".- it tainted him mercilessly, again and again without him being able to make it stop. Sometimes it felt as if Abe was still home.
The only other human that could step into the house was his younger brother. If Abe wanted, this house was his too.
Aberforth could come home whenever he wanted, if he ever cared enough to try...
Even if he came back to break something else, Albus would let him.
Merlin, his thoughts were all over the place.
Those of regret, dreaming about what could have been that now will never come to be.
Those promises and duties he failed to fulfill, those the world didn't consider important enough.
How his agreeing with them had cost him, dearly.
Ariana was dead, Abe hated him and Gellert was gone, taking what remained of his heart in the process along with their mixed blood and their ambitions with him.
To say he wasn't a happy camper was an understatement. Hell. It figures the backlash will eventually splash him, and it had exceeded his expectation. Really, whoever was in charge of the campaign to ruin him needed some supplement for creativity. He couldn't settle for who was worse, the one that came up with the idea or the Ministry who decided to prosecute him for performing "inappropriate activities with goats". For all he cared they could go to hell and meet the old devil, he surely must be rejoicing in their dunderheads lack of grey matter from the pits of hell.
That his bastard of a brother still could ruin his life without moving a finger was something he hadn't factored in. The imbeciles at the Ministry thought- in their minuscule wisdom and lack of imagination- that Albus cared enough or might go out of his way to help Abe; as if he'd let him after what the bastard caused. He didn't want anything to do with his bastard of a brother.
Abe had Albus measure down to a T, alright: The bastard hadn't been thrilled to come back home and "take care" of them after mother died. How he resented to be "wasting away" in Godric's Hollow instead of being wherever he wanted tinkering with who knows what to get another award or some galleons… not that taking care of Ariana was so demanding. He could have managed if he really wanted to. Abe had been able to and he wasn't adored and heralded like a gifted prodigy everyone and their cat loved to bits.
Merlin how he had argued his case. He was more than capable of taking care of Ariana on his own! He wanted to. But Albus-f*cking Dumbledore had insisted on his going to Hogwarts. For all Aberforth cared. He hadn't even finished with his gods be damned education. A good load of horseshit.
He wouldn't kill Albus, if just for Mom and Ariana who wouldn't want that to happen. But man, was he tented to do so. At the end, he settled for feigning he didn't have a brother.
The Ministry couldn't do more than investigate him, but they certainly could turn a blind eye or even encourage people to spread vicious rumors and in such a secluded community, that was enough to make ones life difficult, that is if he cared enough to do something about it, he didn't.
He only cared about someone and thanks to his thrice-be-damned brother and his creepy as fuck boyfriend, she was gone.
He knew. He saw that German creep fire the curse and how Ariana had dropped afterwards. Even if technically it never touched her, maybe the backlash of their fight or... she had done something and it cost her life. They'd never know.
Breaking Albus nose wasn't enough in his books but he couldn't do anything else. That it has not landed him in Azkaban yet could be counted as a miracle. Now, doing something else might actually land him in Azkaban and no one would take care of his goats or his bar.
Everything he had couldn't be lost just for some petty revenge on the world's rotten golden boy.
None of this would make any difference. Abe couldn't very well stay holed up at home under the Fidelius and ward his home against everything, he and his goats had to eat. And he wasn't exactly loaded or a genius like Albus.
It was rare but deities ran out of options sometimes. Specially those who used to be human, they cared too much.
Even if he wasn't to be born in quite some time in this reality, he'd lived his life enough times as to be somewhat detached while he watched elements unfold time and time again. He knew everything there was to know of it…
But in none of those realities had he faced one key individual just going up in arms and deciding to do nothing. Maybe, when he was a mortal he could empathize with that, but now it had become his problem since he had to sort it out to save a lot of poor souls unrelated to the mess.
Surely the king of time was having a blast at his expense, when wasn't he? Really.
A demon doing something wicked that ultimately led to a good deed. Good grief he'd never live it down.
It figures a devil that had been a wizard ended up having to sort it out.
This was such a time in which the fabric of reality had to be deconstructed and altered to fit their need that is, if this world was to be saved.
Individuals had power, really they had set roles that had to be fulfilled and if one of those key individuals didn't want to cooperate… unless something was done this whole world could collapse. They had lost enough keys in the last thousand years; the precious few that still existed had to be kept at all costs.
Even if it involved doing something he wasn't too keen on.
The green light came out and struck like thunder on earth. A great light flash was seeing the surrounding area. He could contain his powers whenever he felt like it, but this time he wanted witnesses.
This had to reach everyone it was intended too and some gossipers too.
It was the first, but definitely won't be the last.