warning; mention of cruel scenes

CHAPTER FIVE

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Once upon a time, there was a man who wanted to hold all the power of the world in his hands. A boy whose misfortune chased him like a predator from the moment his cry echoed on the stone thresholds of the picturesque village of Mould-on-the-Wold.

When he was born on that hot August day, despite the unbearable heat, his family was happy to bring their first child into the world. After him, two more children followed, a boy and a girl.

Albus Dumbledore lived a peaceful life with his family, practicing magic from a young age secretly in his home away from the eyes of the world. He read books and was the family's rationalist. His brother Aberforth was the opposite of Albus. He grew up in the shadow of his brother and their parents constantly urged him to follow in his footsteps. Their younger sister Ariana, until the age of six, was a normal child who was the most beloved in the family. Being the youngest, she had all the love and no one would deny her anything.

Of course, that changed when little Ariana was playing outside in the garden, doing the magic that every young child does at that age. The world had always been harsh and heartless.

The autumn sun didn't burn as much as the summer one, but the small village was always warm. Barefoot, she ran on the grass of the courtyard with her hands outstretched, enjoying the simple pleasures of childhood.

Three boys watched her from the fence in astonishment as they saw something so strange happening in front of them. They casually entered the yard and little Ariana jumped as she saw them approaching menacingly. She was wearing a red sweater and a long black skirt. Her hair was tangled, brown like the color of a tree trunk.

"How did you do that?" one boy wearing a cap grabbed her tightly by her sweater. They were slightly older than her, around eleven years old.

"I... I do not know," she stammered fearfully as the other two boys circled her.

A blond boy with contempt in his eyes pushed her. "Show us how you did it, you wretch," he snarled. "Or else we will show you no mercy,"

Poor Ariana simply whimpered in terror. She started moving her hands, hoping that whatever she did unconsciously before would happen again now. Unfortunately for her, the pile of leaves did not budge even an inch, and that is when panic seized her body.

"I can not do it now," she said anxiously, stepping back as all three boys looked at each other. They were muggles and lived in her neighborhood. They had stalked her many times when she tried to do magic, and now they had found the courage to approach her.

"You witch, devil's spawn. Grab her, Marcus," the boy named Marcus said, fearfully grabbing her by the hair and pulling her towards them.

"What are you doing, let me go!" she cried with tears in her eyes, but the boy closed her mouth to silence her. They punched her, but she couldn't make a sound. If she did not resist so much, they would have torn her skirt. The boy pulled out a lighter from his pocket, something like a small torch, and lit it in front of her terrified eyes.

"You know, in the old days, girls like you were burned because they were the Devil's lovers. But what are you, I wonder?" She shook her head as she saw the flame approaching her leg. The flame touched her thigh, and she let out a scream that filled the sky with crows cawing loudly.

Since then, she was never been the same. But neither was anyone else in the family. She became unstable, unable to perform magic, and worst of all, she became an obscurial. She couldn't control her power, which resulted in her accidentally killing her mother one day. Her father sought revenge against those muggles and punished them, but paid the price with the rest of his life in Azkaban. Her siblings took care of her a lot when eventually none of their parents were there to do so.

Albus had also changed over time. He became more irritable and more hyperactive, and he hated anything related to muggles. Despite that, he was very adaptable and had an incredible insight.

Unfortunately, his arrogant attitude and teenage carelessness were obstacles to many things he should have done. A talented wizard with dreams and ambitions could not stay behind.

To his misfortune, when he met Gellert Grindelwald, he did not expect that even for the name of love he would go to such extremes. They were planning together the destruction of muggles, the acquisition of unmatched power, and above all, a world they would carve out together. Not as companions, but as lovers.

Of course, fate had different plans and a different path for these two individuals. You could not change fate no matter how hard you tried. People were lost, words were spoken in vain, and relationships were shattered over teenage foolishness.

Occasionally, the now-aged Dumbledore reflected on how foolishly he had behaved back then, how his weakness for power and blindness from love had led him to this point. A dangerous combination, of those two. In front of the mirror of Erised, he saw the same scene come to life over and over again.

His old self had shared with the dark wizard more than just empty words and promises. Their hands touched the crystalline crimson blood that ran from Gallert's hand, and he did the same. Blood Pack was a powerful enchantment used by wizards as a sign of eternal trust and bond with the person they committed it with.

A bitter melancholic smile appeared on his face as he cursed the hour and the moment he fell in love with this person. The heart, unfortunately, or fortunately, did not have the concept of right and wrong in its dictionary like the mind. It functioned like a compass with passion and charm being the only factors that determined its direction. Every time he entered this room, the mirror commanded him to come closer to it like a punisher, to see his sins over and over again. Divine Justice had already started for Albus Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

The Divination classroom was empty, as Dumbledore had visited to leave some papers for his colleague Margaret Graves. On the table, there were tarot cards, upside-down cups with coffee, and a crystal sphere.

Footsteps were heard behind him, and the Divination professor appeared, disheveled with her blue robe fluttering from her haste.

"Professor Dumbledore, you must see this," her voice was hoarse, and the wizard followed her into a small room within the Divination classroom. Graves sat in an armchair, with another crystal sphere and tarot cards around her. The magic in the air was stronger, and Dumbledore felt his fingers go numb in front of the seer whose gaze was dark.

"What I saw was terrible, dark, macabre," she monologued her curly black hair fell in front of her, and she paused to fix it. "Whatever I show you, I want you to remain calm."

The seer was acting differently for the first time. Usually, she made predictions about trivial matters, but now her demeanor seemed quite serious.

"My dear, what is it?" he asked anxiously about the state his colleague and friend were in.

"Place your hand on the sphere, and I will tell you," Dumbledore said hesitantly as she instructed. As soon as he placed his hand on it, the magic of the sphere passed through his body, and then Margeret Graves touched his hand with hers.

The atmosphere darkened, the air grew colder, and her eyes rolled back into her skull, just like Dumbledore. In front of them, images of a creature with a snake-like green hue and aged skin appeared, approaching another unknown man with a snake by his side.

The man had long black hair and was wearing a black cloak as dark as the color of the night sky. He was inside a house, and when Dumbledore turned to face them, the man's terrifying appearance caught his attention. He looked like a snake personified in human form.

"I am sure that old Dumbledore has already regretted taking me from that miserable orphanage," the man said hoarsely, only uttering those words before the scene changed in front of him.

Murder.

Chaos and misery.

Darkness.

This was genocide. No world war had brought such darkness. So this is what Tom Riddle was capable of. The boy had coexisted with death since the beginning of his life, living in the scent of metallic blood and nourishing himself with the idea of destruction. How could Dumbledore have made such a mistake? Another sin for which he would have to pay for eternity.

Margaret Graves appeared in front of him through smoke and spoke with a booming voice, her words echoing around him, "The boy has taken the wrong path, and only a girl can guide him back on the right track. But the girl is not from here, she does not belong to us, she belongs to another world. Find her if you truly want to be saved from his wrath."

The vision stopped, and the two professors turned back to reality, looking at each other with fear.

The woman raised her hand to her mouth, her glasses askew, and her steps unsteady. "Albus, who is this boy?"

The wizard looked at her imploringly and swallowed the saliva he had been holding back from anxiety. Should he betray Riddle and accept help from Graves, or should he try to handle it all by himself? After all, it was his fault for bringing him into the warmth of the building so generously, only for Riddle to now exploit it to bring about the end of humanity. "I have no idea," he finally said. "Margaret, do not talk about this to anyone. I will take care of it myself, and if there is salvation, I believe we will find it."

Margaret stood up to leave, nodding her head. She looked at him, and before she departed, she said, "I know who that girl is, I saw her in the cards."

"And who is she?" he asked.

"The stars showed me that this girl from Hufflepuff, Y/n Greengrass, is our savior. She traveled here through the world of dreams, the stars do not make mistakes," she pulled a card from the table that had millions of planets aligned in the same row. "Have you heard of the theory of the multiverse? We are part of a larger creation of the universe. Think of us as bubbles, we may be similar or different, it doesn't matter. What's important is that we interact with each other. The girl came to us and has very little time ahead of her," she explained to him.

"How much time exactly?" asked the puzzled professor.

"Not less than a year," assured the seer.

"Margaret, this is insane. Are you sure it is exactly as you are telling me? Could it be that what the prophecy means is that she is a different kind of creature? A mermaid, a fairy, or a hybrid," the seer interrupted him and looked at her sternly.

"Find her Albus before it is too late," she warned.

Another love story that would be pinned on thorns.

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When Dumbledore called Y/n into his office, it was Sunday and there were no classes, and the girl was puzzled by something so unexpected.

She sat on a sofa, and Dumbledore was in front of her with a cup of hot mountain tea which he offered to her. She observed him closely and noticed that he was nervous, as he was fidgeting before sitting down with her, looking pensive.

Finally, he sat down and took a deep breath. "Are you alright, Professor?" she asked. It was an honor for her to be sitting in front of Albus Dumbledore, the greatest and most powerful wizard of all existence. He was younger than in the movies and wiser.

"Yes, of course. I just wanted to discuss something with you," he said, looking at her. If the seer was wrong, the girl would think he was crazy. But it was worth the risk.

"Is it about my academic performance?" the girl said, and he shook his head negatively.

"Y/n, what is your real name?" His voice was soft, and he looked at her kindly. Of course, how could someone fool Albus Dumbledore with something like that? Her professor was cunning.

But she preferred to mislead him. "Pardon?" her eyes held fear, and Dumbledore realized that the seer was not mistaken "I can not understand,"

"Do not be afraid, I won't harm you. I just want to discuss this matter," he said to her with an air that invited trust.

She looked down at her hands as she peeled the skin from the edges of her nails. "My name is Y/n L/n, I'm from another world," she said, and then looked back at Dumbledore, who urged her to continue. "I come from Maine, USA. In my world, your universe is a work of fiction by an author. Lately, there has been a craze about how to change realities through sleep, so I tried coming here for fun."

Dumbledore was trying to digest what he was hearing and found himself in awkwardness as he realized that she knew him from long before she became a student at Hogwarts. She knew about him and the secret he had.

"Why now? Why in this period?"

She simply smiled. "I told you, it was a joke. This period is considered the Tom Riddle era."

"Will Tom become a dark wizard in the future?" he asked, hoping to hear something different from her.

Y/n looked at him with narrowed eyes. "That is not in the script. How do you know?"

He cleared his throat and looked at her again. "That is why I wanted to talk to you," he paused. "There is a prophecy and it involves you and Tom."

Y/n had seen this story somewhere before, and she knew that prophecy and love didn't go together. How could she get involved with Riddle? She remembered the hundreds of stories she had read about a girl and a prophecy that was supposed to change Tom Riddle. All these stories had a bad ending, nothing worked. She wanted to tell him that it was a waste of time, but she would have to include the fact that there were people writing stories about a psychopath, which would be embarrassing to explain.

"Are you telling me I can change him?" she said to him again.

"You can influence him to some extent so that he does not become what he is destined to be," he told her and stood up. "I believe you know him better than me, for being here."

The girl stood up too and approached him. "He is heartless, ruthless, and wicked. He has threatened me many times already. Are you sure I can do it?"

"It is your destiny, and as you know, with me as a living example, no one can escape fate."

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my fav chapter so far, things are going downhill from now on lol