Hard drive erased, cannot install system!

Hello y'all,
I wanted to install Leopard on my old Macbook. While in the installer, I went to disc utilities and erased my hard drive. Then I started installing the system just as planned.
Here's the problem: my laptop doesn't have a battery, so when my thigh yanked the cord off the thing died and the installation was zoot. When I restarted and tried to install again, I got the message saying that I needed to upgrade my system to v10.5 or later! Because I erased the disc image! So, I tried to install the other disc I have: v10.4.10, but it tells me that it "can't be installed on my computer". WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? What is a woman to do now?!
I am pretty sure that I already had 10.5 installed on my computer in the first place... I know... I wasn't trying to uprgade it ok? I was trying to reset my laptop.
Any help, condolences, or life stories are welcome and much appreciated.
Thank you!

Drive Preparation and Installation
1. Boot from your Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. After formatting has finished quit DU and return to the installer. Install Leopard.
Be more careful of the power cord and get a replacement battery. Running the computer without a battery installed will result in the CPU throttling down in speed, thus making the computer run slower than it would with the battery.

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OS X Yosemite: Erase and reinstall OS X
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18869
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https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202294
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I plan on buying a used iMac with a Core 2 Duo so that I can run Lion. Since Lion can only be purchased at the Mac App store what if I needed to erase my hard drive and re-install the system software. How can I do this without a DVD with the OS on it like I have for Snow Leapard. I suppose that I could boot from my Snow Leapard DVD and do the erase. Then, I supposed I would be able to download Lion again from the Mac App Store without paying for it again. But, how would you erase a hard drive and reinstall the system software when purchasing a new Mac with Lion already installed and no DVD at all with the OS on it?
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halp.
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Hard drive erased, cannot install system!

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