A Different Perspective

Arriving at Hogsmeade station, the half-giant Hagrid appeared towering over everyone as he yelled for first-years to gather around and follow him.

Taking to boats, Hermione, Neville, and Trenton found one all to themselves since Rocky took the room of a 4th. Coming around the bend when the castle was finally in view, Trenton was awed by its grandeur.

Trenton- "Wow, now that's a castle, I can't wait to explore it."

Hermione and Neville agreed as they all soaked it in before coming to the first year's entrance to the castle after docking their boats.

Hagrid- "Alright now, get your familiars to follow me, I'll be taking them to where they'll be staying, not to worry I'll personally be taking care of each and every one of them, they're not allowed on school grounds during learning hours and bedtimes so as not to disturb anyone."

Trenton looked down at a sad-looking Rocky who seemed to understand, he bent down giving him a hug.- "I'm sorry, I don't like this anymore then you do, don't worry, I'll be sure to come to play with you every chance I get."

For the first time in Rocky's life he started to whine, he was never apart from Trenton even once since he was first picked up.

Trenton couldn't help but tear up a little, then he clenched his hands and gritted his teeth as he thought about doing something he didn't want to. This wasn't how things were supposed to be this time around, this time was suppose to be filled with happiness.

He leaned closer and whispered into his dog's ears- "Rocky you have to be a big boy and stay strong, there will be moments in life that we may be separated, think of this as a test, find a time to sneak you're way back to me, but make sure you don't get caught."

He leaned back to see if his dog understood, and he felt like he did as the whining soon stopped.

Trenton didn't hold up much hope for Rocky turning into anything special when he first got him hearing he had no magic, but he felt as time went on, Rocky was becoming better and better. This would be Rocky's first mission in determining how far he could go with Trenton in the future, his life was only going to get more dangerous as time went on.

Rocky needed to be prepared for the worst and learn to adapt and overcome any situation he may come across.

Trenton- "Good boy, you understand yes, this will be your first mission, don't let me down, we'll have to grow stronger together if we want to make it far in this world."

Rocky feeling his determination started wagging his tail as he gave a bark of acceptance.

Trenton then nudged the still reluctant dog towards Hagrid who was still waiting for the last of them to make their way over while he was dealing with all the caged birds.

Rocky sorrowfully looked back as it slowly headed towards the other animals, not even in the mood to sniff any of them.

Hermione also waved goodbye as she gave Trenton and Rocky room knowing how close they were. She didn't hear anything that was said otherwise she would have complained about the rules.

Trenton ended up being the last one up the stairs, right behind Hermione, just missing the confrontation with Malfoy, Harry, and Ron.

Professor McGonagall showed up before things got out of hand, quieting the students- "You will line up and enter the great hall, then wait for your name to be called before going up to sit on the stool and wait to be sorted."

Hermione couldn't help but give a wave to the Professor who happened to see giving a grin and nod in response before leading everyone into the hall.

Hermione was excitedly talking to those around her that would listen about the history of the Hogwarts and the enchantment above until the stool and the hat was brought out.

Hermione leaned over to Trenton- "I hope we get sorted into the same house."

Trenton reassured her- "Even if we don't, we'll still see each other loads, I'm sure we can make new friends while we're here."

Hermione quietly nodded hoping it was true.

Trenton then saw Dumbledore and recalled how he would need to work on his Occlumency. He wasn't too worried about it though, he didn't believe in privacy as strongly as others. He was of the belief if you're doing nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide, of course, excluding the need for secrecy when it came to things like if you were protecting a life, which he wasn't at the moment.

He couldn't remember for certain but it shouldn't be possible for even the great Dumbledore to discover anything relating to his past life thanks to death.

_____________________________________________________________________

Dumbledore -

Trenton remembered the incompetent teachers he read about in his past life. No one figured out why Dumbledore did what he did.

What people never figured out is how damaged he was.

Grindelwald may have hurt him, but Voldemort scarred him.

Others may have missed the connection or thought little of it due to it not being reported on heavily as to not piss off the strongest wizard, but Dumbledore never forgot how he was responsible for the rise of both dark lords.

Voldemort being one he raised and taught far more closely then he did his old friend Grindelwald, he felt doubly shamed when he turned dark.

This left a permanent shadow over his heart as he grew fearful of being responsible for yet another one, so inevitably Hogwart's teaching standards fell thanks to a mixture of his fear and allowing the ministry to meddle as a form of punishment as they cut funding.

He personally made sure the dark arts classes were filled with incompetent teachers to limit the effectiveness of any following future dark lord.

This was also the reason he had Harry sent away outside of magical society, not wishing someone who was prophesied to defeat the dark lord, to grow his talent and potentially become powerful enough to grow into another dark lord, after sensing the darkness Voldemort left in him.

It wasn't until the end of the second year with the discovery of Tom's diary that he realized how truly dark and vile Voldemort was compared to his old friend.

With the discovery of the Horcrux, he realized that he was too old and wasn't certain he would be around long enough to hunt them all down. Not to mention he didn't know how many there were so he went about hiring more competent teachers (3rd year) realizing his mistake in keeping the future wizards and witches too weak to fight back against the dark lord who will inevitably return time and time again.

But in his depressed state, feeling alone, he falls prey to a trap in the hopes of acquiring the resurrection stone to bring back his sister, his biggest regret of all.

'I put it on, and for a second I imagined that I was about to see Ariana, and my mother, and my father, and to tell them how very, very sorry I was…'

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows