Chapter 24: Plans For the Future
After finishing his evening class, Edward finally had some free time for his own. So, he headed to the Restricted Area of the library to read; as this was one of the main reasons that he came back to Hogwarts.
On his way there, he started thinking about his plans. According to Edward, he planned to use his knowledge of the future to his benefit; and as such, he needs to interfere with the plot as little as possible. And if he does intervene, then, he must ensure that things proceed similarly, with only a few minor details changed.
This is one of the reasons that he forbade Snape from taking the Resurrection Stone or telling anyone about it. According to the canon timeline, this stone was one of the main reasons that led to Dumbledore's death, and Edward is not about to change that.
Personally, Edward has no real problem with Dumbledore. On the contrary, he admires him greatly.
He admires the fact that Dumbledore always refuses to use his power to his advantage. In the canon timeline, he let people like Fudge and Rita Skeeter walk all over him and his legacy, yet he did nothing to defend himself.
As one of the most powerful wizards of modern time, he did not have to let his dignity being trampled on like this; and yet, it still happened. Edward himself knew that he could never be like Dumbledore.
A perfect example of this was the fact that after his rise, Rita Skeeter once wrote an article about him insinuating that he was a dark wizard that killed women and children. The next day after this article was released, Edward visited her and instilled the fear of Merlin into her.
That same day, that article was removed and she issued a personal apology in the Daily Prophet for lying and writing fake news about Edward to draw more attention. Many people guessed that there was something shady behind Rita's sudden change of attitude, but there was no evidence and Rita herself refused to say anything more about the entire situation.
Edward is very grateful for Dumbledore as the headmaster can be considered his teacher.
After Dumbledore discovered that Edward was studying dark magic and that he could not stop him, he tried to divert his attention to something else. As such, he would secretly give him a bunch of precious books about Alchemy.
Some of them were even Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel's notes containing their understandings, ideas, and experiments. One of the reasons that Edward was able to become a Grand Alchemist so quickly was due a lot to Dumbledore.
Unfortunately, the headmaster underestimated Edward's learning ability, so not only did he learn all the Alchemy knowledge he received, he still made rapid progress in his study of the dark arts.
Despite the teacher-student relationship that he has with Dumbledore, Edward still has no plans to save the headmaster.
Edward can foresee that it is only a matter of time before he becomes the most powerful wizard of this world. By then, he did not want someone else to challenge his power or decision at every turn. As such, Dumbledore must die.
As for Edward, even if he believed that most of the wizards in the Wizarding World are not worth anything when combined, they are still a powerful force to reckon with. And maybe, in his future travel throughout dimensions, he might need their help.
Not to mention that he might still need to recruit some talented people--even if the number is small in scale.
Throughout the seven years, Harry Potter is in school, many interesting things happen and many rare things of the wizarding world suddenly appear; rare objects that Edward desires.
For example, the Philosopher's Stone, the Basilisk, the Goblet of Fire, and so on. Not to mention that Edward planned to use certain situations to his advantage and acquire other forms of benefits.
Especially the events that occur in Harry Potter's Fifth Year. Edward has grand plans for it as he believes that this might be the final thing he needs to finish his Gate of World; so he cannot wait.
At the same time, he must ensure that the general outline of the plot also remains the same.
After thinking about all these things, a happy mood enveloped Edward as he headed to the library for a long session of reading.