Disclaimer:

I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Mischief Managed Damn It!

Uploaded On: 3rd June 2018

Updated On: 24th June 2018

Story Type: Short crack story to be read with as much seriousness as the Weasley Twins on crack.

=(Chapter 1)=

'How can this be?!'

One Albus Dumbledore thought loudly to himself as he limped through the wrecked corridors of the Ministry, too spent to attempt Apparation and having lost his connection to Fawkes. Each of his emergency Portkeys have been destroyed, and the loss of his Elder Wand crippled him dearly. What was worse was the fact that much of this was his own fault, despite how he tried to rationalize in his mind that it was the Potter brat that got him into this shit. If only he did not push the 'power the Dark Lord knows not' too far, he would not be in this mess. This was unacceptable!

It was not just that; all of his plans for a Great Magical Britain under his secret rule were ruined. Dumbledore was supposed to defeat Voldemort with Harry Potter as his secret weapon, making sure that the dark lord was mortal once more after killing the boy before taking over and killing him, paving the way for his greatness. And then, after serving the nation and ensuring the compliance of the people, with the implanting of his puppets at both the Ministry and Hogwarts, he would be known as the greatest wizard since Merlin. He would be immortalized forever as the man who trained the Boy-Who-Lived and gotten rid of little old Tom Riddle.

But this was not to be. All of his schemes were destroyed; his supporters either removed, fled, or disillusioned with him; Harry Potter not only surviving his confrontation with Tom Riddle but attaining his Lordship and the truth of his parents' death; the public now knowing of his plans and crying for his blood; the Aurors out to arrest him and put him on trial for all to crucify.

All of this was going out of control, but he could fix this. He was Albus Dumbledore, he can get back into the game and make the public see the light.

It was all… For the Greater Good!

"Oh Dumbledore~"

'No, it cannot be!' The old man panicked at the voice that called out and forced more energy into his legs to get him further from his captors. With a quick squeeze through some cracks in the wall and a illusion charm to hide his body, he waited for the sounds of running feet go away before he could relax. He slumped against the wall to regain his breath and strength as he thought back to the day where it all began.

To the day he thought his plans would begin to flourish instead of getting destroyed beyond repair.

=(Year 1)=

It all started during the first year Harry Potter arrived to Hogwarts. He was quite honestly one of the smallest in his age group, looking really hopeless, malnourished and insecure as he stood waiting for his turn to be sorted. Just ripe for Dumbledore to begin Harry's training for his final destiny with Voldemort. He had it all planned out to have the young Potter sorted into Gryffindor and he ensured that the young Weasley boy would stick to him to ensure that he would always be loyal to the house while alienating him from the rest by spreading rumors of him not caring of others. Over the next few days, he could see how he has interacted with the rest of the house members, notably with the young ladies of the Quidditch Team before and after his induction to the team. They seemed to take quite a shine to the young boy by occasionally doting on him and pinching his cheeks playfully. Katie Bell for one had an odd habit of tucking young Harry into her arms and squeezing him tightly with her hugs while teasing him heavily, particularly when they were alone or at the Great Hall during their meal times. At that time, Dumbledore considered it was due to their close age gap and thought that she was viewing him as a little brother.

Then came the Troll that Voldemort used as a distraction to get the Philosopher stone.

Dumbledore wanted to make sure that Harry had the heart to sacrifice himself for the greater good, and it did not need much on his part to get Ronald Weasley disparaging Hermione Granger for her work ethics, ensuring her ignorance to the incoming danger. He was also pleased to see how quick and willing Harry was to jump to the defense of the girl and take on the troll.

What he did not anticipate was the presence of Daphne Greengrass being in the same area as the muggleborn. Evidently she was experiencing problems of her own by Draco Malfoy and the others in her house targeting her for both her sprouting beauty and her family being Neutral in the political side of the world. She was with Granger when the troll appeared in the toilet and attacked them. Her added presence meant the two had some time to defend themselves before Harry Potter appeared to aid them. Even with the reluctant help of Ronald Weasley, it was clear that to the eyes of the two young ladies, Harry was the main force that helped them, just as Dumbledore had planned with some fixing to his plans.

And so with that, Harry Potter became friends with Hermione Granger, Daphne Greengrass, and by extension one Tracey Davis after she found out from her friend about the Troll and his saving. The first girl Dumbledore was fine with, after all it would be easy to gain control with the use of potions and compulsion charms, but the other two he was deeply wary. Notwithstanding the Greengrass girl being introduced so early to Harry Potter, Tracey Davis was also part of the same Neutral Faction who do not agree with his views for the Greater Good, not to mention both were from Slytherin, the infamously (through his own manipulations) dark house and rival to Gryffindor. The 'Golden Boy' must not be fraternizing with them at all, so he got Ronald Weasley to try and fix that.

Sadly, the Weasley boy had a rather restrictive mindset that went one way at full speed with no brakes and without a talent for more 'fine tuning'. The boy was unable to think complex thoughts or plans to execute and he could not stop himself from saying certain words in public that could be construed differently, and with Minerva in the area, the boy set the record for the fastest and most number of detentions given to a first year by his own Head of House in the first month alone. While he was serving that set, young Harry got along well with the two girls of Slytherin and the muggleborn Granger, thus showing the rest of the students that something was different from the rumors spread by Weasley or Malfoy, and so they started trying to make contact with the boy again.

When Ronald Weasley tried to break them up again after his detention, it was in the Great Hall with the other houses and staff present. Young Harry Potter had enough at that point and proceeded to tear into the redhead about the behavior and much to a few people's amusement or indignation, compared him to Draco Malfoy and how at some points, made Draco slightly more open to others than him. This was arguably the one that broke the camel's back as Weasley proceeded to berate Harry Potter, calling him a brat who seek attention and calling out the witches who were supposedly placing him under a spell and that they should be reported for trying to seduce him, all while proceeding to call the other houses other names that were making a few of the older students looked at him with narrowed eyes and twitchy fingers around their wands, and the professors themselves looking like they might turn the other cheek to give them that chance, with Snape almost salivating at the opportunity.

It got the Weasley boy into more trouble and more detentions to his belt, making him the first ever student in the first year to get consecutive detentions with the first few months, something his twin elder brothers failed to do even in their lifetime. And because of that idiotic move, the houses with the exception of the Slytherin senior majority now started to mingle with one another, with Harry gaining a few more friends, including one Su Li, a Ravenclaw from China that was mysterious and quiet enough to slip past Albus's radar a few times, and one that helped Hermione Granger with the Quidditch issue when Harry's broomstick was under a curse by Quirrel. Hermione bumped into Su Li on the way to the teacher's stand, and evidently she saw the opposite of the bookworm's idea of Snape cursing with her own opinion regarding Quirrel, so they decided to attack both with their own methods.

It was honestly a little disturbing seeing both men pinned to their benches by the robes with small daggers and set ablaze, thus breaking Quirrel's attention and letting Harry get back on his broom to win the match. And that action also got them closer much to the wizard's chagrin. It was a bit of a sight for the other students to see Harry getting startled every so often by the Asian girl who seemed to enjoy his reactions and teased him by getting up close and personal, much to the ire of Miss Granger, Miss Greengrass and Miss Davis.

It was also Harry's selfless behavior cultivated from his abuse that seemed to attract the other girls of his generation a lot, particularly one Susan Bones that made Dumbledore extremely worried due to her relations with Amelia Bones whose distrust towards the elderly wizard was rather damaging to his plans. He could not afford to have her interact with him too much and so tried to split them apart with whatever means necessary, but it did not work as well as he hoped.

That proved to be one of his many undoings to come.

That started when Harry was on the staircase to his dormitory and the headmaster made sure to move it to the forbidden corridor to attract his attention, but he did not anticipate Susan Bones appearing around another set of staircase with her friend at the same time. This coincidence led the two groups to the third floor where they encountered the Cereberus guarding the trap door leading to the traps and the ultimate prize, the Philosopher Stone. Dumbledore had hoped to use that to grab Harry's attention and to make him go through the trials to test him and to have him confront Voldemort at the end, but with Susan Bones mixed up in this mess, this was going in a different direction.

He tried to place a gag on all possible routes to stop her and the others from sending out the information to Amelia and even got Ronald Weasley to persuade them to hold off on it by claiming they should be the ones to solve it, but he did not count on one Hannah Abbot who was writing a letter to her parents earlier and so placed that information inside and sent it to them, thus alerting Amelia by extension.

It made for one very pissed off Head of DMLE and a group of similarly angry Aurors who made quite an entrance coming into the Great Hall two days later and proceeded to tear a new one into Dumbledore for his lack of security and other choices. The team of Aurors, much to his displeasure, seemed almost gleeful in using the opportunity given to them to check the entire school for Dark objects and particular individuals, both due to his constant refusals to let them into the castle to make arrests, and more likely due to their closeness to Susan Bones whom they see as a surrogate sibling and were worried sick at the thought of her getting hurt.

If his contact at the ministry was correct, hearing that Susan encountered a Cereberus sent the entire Auror Corps to an angry frenzy to get to the castle, scaring a fair number of Ministry personnel on their way.

That investigation led to the discovery of a few Dark Objects brought in by the older Slytherin students alongside others from other houses, and a few arrests that Dumbledore took a while to get them out. They should be set free, it was not their fault and he needed their meekness for his plans.

For it was all… For the Greater Good!

At least there was one good thing that came from that debacle. Quirrel had attempted to use the distraction to sneak past the Cerberus and the other traps to steal the Philosopher's Stone, and while he did managed it, he had failed in getting out quietly as the guard dog made its displeasure known by taking a bite at him, leaving him open to the others. With a discreet use of the wards of Hogwarts, Dumbledore was able to isolate young Harry from Amelia Bones and her Aurors, forcing him to take on Quirrel alone and reveal Voldemort's spirit to everyone, then as to his plan, Harry was able to both defeat Quirrel and send Voldemort screaming to the hills, while confirming his suspicions that Harry had a power that Voldemort did not have. It was something glorious and to much of his secret glee, he was able to portray Harry as the hero he was meant to be in front of DMLE and the students. This would be the first step to his plan for his grandness.

Dumbledore was feeling generous after that incident, so he let the young boy carry on some form of childhood, taking a fair amount of amusement at the sight of the first-year girls playing tug-of-war with Harry as the rope, with the occasional rescue by Katie Bell who proceeded to take him back to her female teammates and keep him there with a smug smile on her face as she looked to the other girls.

If only Albus understood what that meant at that time.