Chapter Text
The Sorting Hat is mocking him.
Albus sits in the cushioned throne behind his desk and stares upwards at the tattered hat sitting serenely on a shelf. It won’t give up any of its secrets, any of what it saw inside the students’ heads. He learned that long ago – a security feature installed by one of the Founders. In his less than charitable moments he has laid the blame at Salazar Slytherin’s feet but when his head is clear of emotions that might confound him in the moment, he can admit that it had probably been Helga’s work. To keep everything fair.
He sighs and taps at the list in front of him. It is the notes of this evening’s sorting: a recording of every incoming student and their Hat assigned house. He will file a copy with the school records and send another along to the Prophet for them to include in their morning edition. That, he knows, is going to cause an unfortunate stir.
It already is.
Perhaps, he reflects, he should have taken more of an active part in Harry’s upbringing.
He likes to tell himself that he wanted the boy to have a normal childhood, to grow up without the fawning adoration of the Wizarding World surrounding him at every turn. And it is true. A child brought up in the spotlight, receiving adulation and adoration at every quarter would have made for a poor foil to Tom. It would have been a terrible blow for all of them if the child of prophecy had grown up under the universal misassumption that Tom had already been vanquished for good.
He had hoped, of course, just like everyone but a day spent looking over the child had disabused him of that hope. That Tom had vanished had been indisputable but so also was the fact that there exists some kind of bond between Harry Potter and Tom Riddle. A link. What type of link, Albus is still not quite sure but he does know that no matter what it turns out to be it is not possible to be linked to a dead man.
He had considered, very briefly, killing the child himself and destroying the connection between them but to kill an infant, even for a good cause, is a terrible thing. It also would be hasty and irresponsible. After all, while Harry might possess a link to Tom it is unlikely that the link is the sole thing keeping Tom from passing on. No, he had decided, it is better to wait and see.
So, yes, he perhaps had possessed qualms about leaving Harry on the doorstep of Number Four Privet Drive and in the care of Petunia Dursley but in the end it had been his only choice. Sirius had turned out to be a Death Eater, succumbing, perhaps inevitably, to the wishes of the family he had once eschewed so fiercely. Remus was a good boy, but a werewolf and not a fit guardian for “The Boy Who Lived”. The Longbottoms were as good as dead and if Harry had been placed with them he would be dead, so Albus counts it a blessing that he had refrained from taking the boy to his godmother.
There are others, of course, that could have taken the boy. Half of the wizarding world would have opened their homes at the slightest hint that such a thing were needed and that is the problem. Because Albus is not naïve enough to think that every applicant would have been well intentioned. Indeed, gaining custody of the boy who defeated Voldemort seems like a frankly easy way to do away with a rival or to culture him into something that would be just as terrible as Tom. By simple legalities, Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy have equal right to guardianship of the boy but the Malfoys have – as much as it galls him to admit – a great deal more wealth and influence to spend on gaining legal control over Harry Potter.
So, really, it had been the best for everyone involved that Harry go to the Dursleys.
Not the happiest of results for Harry, given what Arabella has told him over the years, but a great deal better than being raised by the likes of Lucius Malfoy. Or dying in a tragic accident and not being raised at all.
And if the lack of warmth from his aunt and uncle made Harry latch more tightly to those that showed him kindness, to the world that he would need to protect… well, Albus will make use of whatever weapons he can in this war, gods forgive him.
Though, when Harry’s first letter had been delivered – and replied to! – without any issue Albus had rather decided that Arabella was being over sensitive and that obviously the Dursleys had turned out to be slightly better caretakers than he had given them credit for. It had meant that he hadn’t needed to send in Hagrid, which had been both a loss and a relief. A loss because the boisterous man would have made it quite clear to Harry that Tom likely still alive and that there are definitely people that should be avoided but a relief because it got the Stone he is borrowing from Nicholas out of Gringotts before someone could get wind of it.
He wonders now if Hagrid’s presence would have made a difference. He wonders if the big-hearted half-giant’s words would have made a difference, would have nudged Harry into following his parents’ footsteps or if the stain of Lord Voldemort is too dark for Harry to overcome. For the sake of them all, he hopes this is not so. He had hoped that Harry would form a bond with the Weasley’s youngest boy. He had asked Molly to enter from muggle London just so that Harry would have the chance to meet someone his own age before the chaos of Hogwarts struck but from what Minerva had said the two boys seemed off to a rocky start and instead Harry is left with a less favorable companion in Draco Malfoy.
He’s sure there is nothing inherently wrong with the boy. He is, after all, a child and children very, very rarely have the capacity to be evil all on their own. Even Tom might have had a chance at… well, probably not at turning out good – it had been clear from the start that the boy was cold and rotten to the core – but if things had turned out differently he might have at least turned out to be a benign tumor instead of a malignant cancer upon wizarding society.
Albus sighs.
Like in so many other things this evening had not gone as expected and, as before, he is left with no other option but to wait and see.
At least Severus will be able to keep a close eye on the boy.
Perhaps, if they are lucky, they can nip any questionable behavior in the bud before it sets the Boy Who Lived on a path that will spell a dark ending for the wizarding world.