Chapter 78 Talks

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"But don't worry about that Headmaster. I have it all under control, you just need to be patient and let me do what needs to be done" Harry assured him.

"You have proven yourself to be a powerful wizard Harry. Certainly not someone I wish to face as a foe but I still want to warn you. You need to be cautious and not rely on knowledge from the last timeline, you have changed quite a lot, so things are going to be a lot different this time" Dumbledore advised.

Harry shook his head "if there is one thing I learned from being thrown back in time is that our choices are the thing that matters the most in our life. While fate and cause and effect still play their part but mostly it all comes down to us and what we do with our lives"

If Harry had let his circumstances define who he is then he wouldn't even have survived the Dursleys let alone all the shit Voldemort put him through. And Voldemort is the same he won't let the world interfere with his goals and ambitions no matter what.

"While the world has drastically changed from the last time, Voldemort is still the same. He is still stuck as a wraith, and he can't ask for help from his followers because his pride won't allow him to show any weakness. And he is right because the death eaters only follow him for his power so what Voldemort can accomplish is very limited" Harry explained.

"Don't underestimate Tom, Harry. I have made that mistake my times and whole wizarding Britain paid the price for it" Dumbledore warned.

Harry nodded "I would never do that Headmaster. Believe me, I know what he is capable of. Ever since I came back I have been working tirelessly to put an end to him. The gem can tell me if he makes any more Horcruxes and even leads me to them"

Albus still looks like he has doubts but accepted anyway.

"Did I die trying to destroy one of these Horcruxes?" Albus suddenly asked.

"Yes, but it wasn't all your fault. I also unknowingly played a part in your death as well"

"How so?" The old wizard asked.

"I drank a vial of Felix Felicis and at first things were going great but then everything went to hell"

Hearing this Dumbledore's face became twisted for just a moment "Terrible! A truly terrible concoction that one. You can never know what kind of mess you can end up with that potion"

Harry couldn't help but agree. While the potion sounds great at first, what it is, is just a blind deal with fate. Once you drink the potion, you basically sacrifice some of the good fortune you would have experienced later in life in exchange for being really lucky for just a short amount of time.

The whole concept is flawed because there is no way to measure how much luck or good fortune a person has. If you use the potion and spend more luck than you actually have then you are fucked for the rest of your life. So there is no good way to use the potion without risking being really unlucky for the rest of your life. There is also no way to measure just how much of your luck the potion uses up.

But Harry being someone who is the subject of a prophecy is what made drinking Felix Felicis truly horrible. Harry's luck has always been all over the place because he would always get very lucky whenever he faced Voldemort due to the prophecy but to compensate for that he had really terrible luck with everything else in his life.

When is drank the potion he screwed himself and the entire wizarding Britain without even knowing it. While Harry did get the memory from Slughorn but the price he had to pay was huge. Dumbledore died after trying to get a Horcrux which turned out to be a fake one anyway. Which led to really bad times just not for Harry but also for the entire wizarding Britain.

While Dumbledore was truly suffering from the withering curse due to the ring but he wasn't really dying. He is a mage for Merlin's sake, he cuts off his own hand as soon as he realised what was happening. He kept the curse trapped in his own hand and attached it back. While he had to constantly keep using some of his magic to keep the curse at bay but he wasn't dying.

Dumbledore did all of this just to bait Voldemort into attacking him. That's why he went to Snape his spy and a death eater to look for a cure instead of Madam Pomfrey who is a world-renowned healer. This was just one of his fail-safes in case Snape betrayed him.

There is a reason why Voldemort as arrogant as he is still tried to avoid facing Dumbledore as much as could. While the old wizard might not be the master manipulator as some stories make him out to be but he is still wise and experienced beyond measure.

When Dumbledore cuts his hand in the cave it was not just a simple cut. From that moment on all the wards in that cave started sucking his magic to power all of its defences. It's just the first barrier, if the wizard or witch trying to enter the cave didn't have enough magical power then that person would drop right there as the cave sucks every last bit of magic out of their body.

Even as the cave was constantly leaching his magic and then he drank a basin full of the most torturous and debilitating potion that exists in the wizarding world. A few drops of Draught of Despair would have even the most experienced and veteran Aurors bawling their eyes out on the floor like a baby. Even after that he still had the ability the cast that elemental firestorm that destroyed every last one of those thousands of inferi.

When Dumbledore and Harry returned to Hogwarts, Albus was experiencing severe magical exhaustion, still under the effects of that draught and even after going through all that when faced with death eaters he still was able to save Harry.

Even in such a weakened state Albus still could have fought all of them with a decent chance of winning. It's because he wanted to save Harry and there was a chance he might lose the allegiance of the Elder Wand to Death Eater that made him stand down. He let Draco disarm knowing how the elder wand works.