The Hidden Snake of the Lions (Harry Potter SI): Chapter 11

I said it once, and I’ll say it again.

Bureaucracy is hell, and whoever came up with it needs to be incarcerated in the Azkaban for his entire life, maybe even receiving the Dementor’s kiss.

“Alright. Everything seems to be in order, Mr. Potter. That will be 2000 Gallions.”

I suppressed the pain I felt when I heard that cost and silently handed over the money. I don’t know if it was my imagination or not, but I think the woman at the desk smirked at me as she handed over the documents to me.

Fucking Hogwarts and its fucking rules for allowing animals other than the standard three into the castle.

Back in my day, we had no such stupid rules and could bring any animal, even magical creatures, into the castle as long as we could control their behavior.

I guess I have that old coot Dumbledore to thank for all these asinine rules, given what I found from my research.

Old records say that Albus Dumbledore became the Headmaster of Hogwarts after the previous Headmaster, Armando Dippet, that idiotic old man who is too old to do anything, retired.

Seriously, Armando was considered ancient even when I was alive back then; he was born in the late 1600s, for goodness' sake!

Black was a very incompetent headmaster, there is no arguing about that since he had served as the Headmaster until the day I graduated, giving me personal experience on his incompetence, but there must have been other choices aside from that senile old man to succeed him. Why they still chose Armando as the successor is something I’ll never understand.

Anyways, after Dumbledore succeeded Armando as the Headmaster, records show that there have been countless subtle, momentous changes to Wizard culture throughout his tenure till today.

Some of these changes are very, very beneficial for the people at large, those that I support wholeheartedly. Such as helping abolish the discrimination faced by people like Hagrid and establishing a firm set of rules that stops a Headmaster of Hogwarts from having too much power in the Wizarding world as a whole. God knows I don’t want to see another case of people like Black going on a power trip and making things difficult for those not born of pure-blood families.

On the flip side, there are also changes that he made that make me question his sanity and make me firmly oppose his actions.

The biggest of these is banning students from having any proper practical experience by travelling to the Forbidden Forest, subtly abolishing many of the ancient magical practices and rituals, and removing the Floo network from the Hogwarts castle and Hogsmeade.

Most importantly, He made things difficult for me to take Vritra with me to school!

The noise of snoring from my side annoyed me, so I nudged him rather harshly, which he might not have felt at all, given his stature.

With a start, Hagrid woke up from his sleep while still standing next to me.

If I was not annoyed at him right now, I would have been impressed by his mastery of the art and asked him to teach me his ways.

“Who? What-“

“We are done here, Hagrid. Let’s go.”

“Oh! Done already? That was quick!”

The flat look that the woman at the desk and I gave him made the giant blush in embarrassment as his slow mind finally caught on to the fact that he dozed off on his feet while I was stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare.

Now, all that is left is for me to scout out my new home in Hogsmeade and prepare the documents for my takeover of the property.

Which means I have to come back to the Ministry another day! Again!!

Once again, fuck Dumbledore and fuck bureaucracy!

With a shake of my head, I sullenly left the damned building that is starting to become my nemesis in this life while I watched the peppy half-giant and my snake enviously, knowing that they don’t have to deal with the bullshit that I have to.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Chief Warlock of Wizengamot, drank heavily from the fire whisky that he kept in his desk, going over the documents that had arrived just now from the ministry.

There were many things that the old wizard regretted in his life.

His misplaced love and trust in his best friend turned lover, who later became the first dark lord of Britain. His misplaced optimism and hope in Tom Marvolo Riddle, who became the second dark lord. His trust in Sirius Black despite knowing the history of the black family, which led to the death of three of his closest students, his trust in the Ministry in general, which they always betray regularly.

But recently, the biggest regret that the old man is feeling is none other than his misjudgment in handling the placement of the Young Potter boy.

Granted, his judgment proved to be somewhat justified when Fleamont and Euphemia Potter died just a few months after their son and daughter, succumbing to Dragon Pox, which might have either orphaned the boy once again or worse yet, killed him as well with the disease. And yet, Albus was not blind to the problems that his actions caused.

If he wanted to defend himself, Albus could have claimed that grief had clouded his eyes and made it so that he made a stupid decision, but he knew better than anyone that it was not grief that clouded his eyes back then.

No, it was paranoia.

He was terrified of any more traitors amongst his order who might bring harm to the child simply because he was born to his most prized wizards and just happened to have been born on a certain day of the year like it was said in that accursed prophecy.

Albus did not want to be suspicious of his friends or his students, but the actions of Sirius Black had seriously broken his trust in others, making him so paranoid that he made the decisions that he did back then.

Taking another swing from his bottle, he sighed heavily before signing off on the papers sent to him through the Floo network and stamped them with his personal seal before throwing them into the flames of the Floo network.

The same documents that gave Harry Potter complete autonomy from him and the Ministry, allowing the boy to finally inherit that Potter cottage in Hogsmeade and live there from now on, along with giving him permission to bring his pet snake with him to Hogwarts.

Yes, there were many things Albus Dumbledore regretted in his life, but the biggest of them was not heeding Minerva’s words when she said that the Dursleys were the worst kind of Muggles in the world.

When the documents had arrived nearly an hour ago, Dumbledore had been spooked. He had believed that someone in the ministry was trying to take advantage of his inaction to target the boy.

However, it only took a single trip to the Privet Drive and a single look into the minds of the Dursleys with his Legilimency to know the full truth of what had transpired during the past decade within that house.

Disgust and fear. That was all he felt when he learned of what kind of ordeal young Harry had gone through at the hands of these mortals.

Disgusted at their actions and pettiness towards a child!

Fear, at how young Harry had retaliated against them.

It reminded him too much of how Tom was during his childhood. Although Harry did use a lot of restraint in his actions and only used common and relatively harmless spells on them, and only ever used them one time, using that fear as leverage to keep them in control from then on.

From that action alone, Dumbledore understood what kind of mindset Young Harry had.

Terrifyingly cunning for his age, wise beyond any child had the right to be. Worse yet, he had the power to back up his actions.

A terrifying combination that guaranteed that he grew up to be a very powerful wizard.

That being said, the similarities with Tom was something that rubbed the old man the wrong way.

Yet, he will not allow that paranoia to consume him once again and make a wrong decision like he did back then.

No, he will simply observe for now. Do his duty as the Headmaster of Hogwarts and guide him as is required of his position, but do not interfere with his activities too much, trying to be too controlling as he was with Tom back in the day.

‘Hopefully, I will not have to help put down another one of my students with my own hands in the future.’

With a sigh, the old man continued drinking his whisky, hoping for a brighter future but still planning for the worst-case scenario.