~31st of August 1986.~

~Flamel Manor, Northeast Pyrénées, France.~

'Guess this is goodbye….No, more like see you later….'

Adrien thought nostalgically as he stood in front of the Flamel Manor and gazed upon it.

The previous night, he had gathered all his belongings and put them into the briefcase he received as a Christmas present from Newt Scamander and his wife, Porpentina Goldstein.

He had packed all the important Arithmancy, Numerology, Ancient Runes, and Alchemy books he read within the past 9 years, Aella and her egg shells, The Magic Series Codex, and Irwin.

He had also instructed Filley, the house of Flamel's house elf, to take care of the house while he was away.

Technically, Adrien could have lived in the Flamel Manor alone and remained in France, but his parents had specifically instructed Dumbledore to raise him until he was old enough to live on his own.

They didn't want him to grow up alone, with only the deathly silence of the grandiose Manor and Filley keeping him company. In their eyes, such a life was not normal for a child.

Actually, Adrien preferred the arrangement over staying in France. He wasn't as naive to think that he could remain safe if he continued to reside in his childhood home.

As he hailed from a political family back on Earth, Adrien was pretty well versed in the art of politics. He knew for a fact that the political situation in France would drastically change due to his parents death and that he would most likely get caught up in the storm that would ensue.

In fact, Adrien was sure that if he stayed, he wouldn't live past 11.

After all, he was merely a 9 year old child who possessed a ridiculous amount of wealth. As the son of two legendary wizards, who held considerable global influence, he was famous and now that news of his parents death has spread, Adrien was sure that there would be a lot of wizards and witches coming for his head.

He simply had too much value and there were many ways to make use of him – be it as a political bargaining chip, a subject of experiment, or plainly as a source of money.

It was all too easy to take advantage of him as he was now and Adrien knew this fact very well.

Honestly, it irked him to no end but alas, there was not much he could do about it currently. He just resolved to gain power as quickly as possible so he could guarantee his freedom, as well as protect his parents legacy.

"Adrien, are you prepared?" Beside him, Dumbledore appeared and asked.

Adrien turned to face the man, "Yeah, more or less…"

"Excellent, shall we set off then?" Dumbledore replied, smiling faintly.

"How bad is it?" Adrien asked all of a sudden.

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore was slightly taken aback.

Adrien chuckled, "You should know what I mean. Just give it to me straight…"

Dumbledore was about to reply but Adrien casually added,

"And for the record, you should stop treating me like a child. What nine year old have you seen reading books on Advanced Arithmancy and Numerology?"

Dumbledore chuckled, "You have a point.."

His expression changed to a slightly more serious one before he continued, "Let's just say France is about to become…turbulent." he said cryptically.

Adrien raised his eyebrows, "Care to elaborate?"

Dumbledore looked at Adrien intently before continuing, "As you know, your father's power and influence was immense and served as a deterrent to certain….extremist factions."

"Headed by the Lestranges I presume?" Adrien replied casually.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows and smiled faintly, "I see you're quite observant…"

Adrien chuckled, "Honestly, it wasn't that hard to find out. You should take a look at the Le Cri de la Gargouille sometime. Anyone with the slightest understanding of politics could easily infer such."

"I see." Dumbledore said softly, "I'm assuming you know of Lord Voldemort then?" he asked, as if knowing the answer already.

"Naturally…"

Dumbledore hummed "The Lestranges are one of Voldemort's staunchest supporters. With your parents out of the picture, France will fall into their hands, and once it does, France will become messy….Though, I'm sure you've already inferred that as well." he said and smiled faintly.

"Indeed, though I'm surprised you actually told me yourself. I was certain that you would continue to treat me like a child."  Adrien responded, surprised that Dumbledore actually told him straight up.

The only reason he asked was to see whether he would do so, and frankly, he never expected him to. Dumbledore was cryptic by nature.

Thus, Adrien added, "Why did you tell me?"

Dumbledore smiled, " It's not for any complex reason really. I did so for simply two reasons.."

'Touché, old man. I see what you did there' Adrien chuckled inwardly as he heard what Dumbledore said.

"Firstly, because with your intellect, keeping this information from you would be counterproductive if anything. Your father entrusted me to you and It is my job to raise and protect you." Dumbledore continued, his hands behind his back.

"I see." Adrien nodded, "and the second reason?"

Dumbledore looked at Adrien and smiled, "Trust, Adrien…Trust is the second reason."

Adrien was not expecting that answer, "Trust?"

Dumbledore continued to smile, "As your godfather, I would prefer for our relationship to be affable, like that of an Uncle and his nephew, or even better…a foster father. Therefore, I have to make exceptions in my way of handling things for a boy with intellect as sharp as yours. Trust is the foundation for the relationship I envision."

'That's fair.' Adrien thought in agreement. Honestly, he was extremely surprised. He even started to wonder whether he had been misunderstanding the old man all this time. Though currently, this thought was fleeting.

He had always seen the man to be cold, calculative and manipulative. He expected Dumbledore to keep him in the dark and concoct a scheme to counter the Lestranges rise to power using him as a pawn.

However, that had proven to not be the case.

"I see." Adrien responded to Dumbledore's statement.

Then, he asked curiously, "How are you planning to counter the Lestranges? Surely you're not going to just watch."

Dumbledore smiled, as if expecting the question. He responded by asking another question, "What do you think of being able to attend both Beauxbatons and Hogwarts as part of a new joint education initiative?"

Adrien was not following. He frowned and said "How does that counter the Lestr–"

However, his eyes widened before he could finish his statement as if realizing what Dumbledore's ploy. Once Dumbledore saw this, he smiled brightly.

'Even though I still have my reservations about you. I can't deny that you are probably the most intelligent wizard in this wizarding world...after me, of course.'

Adrien thought, enlightened at what Dumbledore was trying to achieve by introducing a student exchange program between Beauxbatons and Hogwarts.

For the Lestranges to take over Magical France completely, they must be able to control all of its sectors, especially its school, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. Controlling the school was crucial for a lot of reasons, one of which being propagating the blood supremacy ideology.

Realistically, the process was a long one and would take at least 5 years to enact so Dumbledore's ploy was a direct long term counter towards the Lestranges rise. 

Taking control of the school would allow the Lestranges to influence the minds of the future generation of wizards and witches and help them recruit more death eaters into Lord Voldemort's ranks so it was a really crucial sector to control for the long term stability of the blood supremacy faction's conservative government.

Dumbledore making this move would make it significantly harder to control the educational sector by allying Hogwarts and Beauxbatons.

Even more, he would be fostering international co-operation between France and Great Britain, something that was currently non-existent due to the crimes the tyrant, Gellert Grindelwald, committed back in 1927.

This alliance would be even more pronounced should Dumbledore send children who have parents working in the two countries ministries for magic, which in turn would raise the difficulty in taking France significantly higher.

As Adrien thought about this, he couldn't help but smile. Things were certainly going to be interesting.

He looked at Dumbledore, and finally gave his response, "That would be excellent…."

~.~.~

A/N: Chapter is a little bit on the shorter side…Haven't posted in a few days because I fell ill and had exams. Thanks for reading.

Would post extra chapters this weekend as compensation.

Also, there was no student exchange program between Beauxbatons and Hogwarts in the canon. The only exchange program Beauxbatons had was with Ilvermony and that was in 1927.