Title: The Road Not Taken (title subject to change)

Author: Morianna Phoenix

Summary: As far as Dumbledore knew, Harry was the heir to nothing more than Lily and James, but Dumbledore didn't know everything. In a race against time, Harry must piece together the dangerous puzzle of mysteries and secrets to learn the truth about his heritage and his history. Just as Harry begins his journey into this unknown future, his dreams take him back to a not so unfamiliar past that Harry wishes he didn't have to remember, where old emotions and well known internal conflicts resurface with all their former intensity. The strange thing: That past wasn't his. Orwas it?Forced to deal with his own emotions and struggles as well as those of the troubled boy who would one day become Lord Voldemort, Harry must learn from his enemy's mistakes before his own life leads him down a frighteningly similar road.

Chapter One: Sunlight Is Just A Lie

"Go away!" The boy yelled, apparently at no one. He was about nine years old and had wavy dark brown hair and his emerald green eyes were currently glaring at the portion of space about two feet in front of him at eye level.

"Talking to garden hedges now, Riddle?" The green eyed boy jumped a little in surprise when he heard the familiar drawl behind him. He turned to see a blond haired boy aboutten years of age lounging against the brick wall that separated the orphanage's tiny back yard from the neighboring estate.

"I wasn't talking to the garden hedge," Riddle declared indigantly.

"Oh, were you talking to an imaginary friend then?" The blond haired boy teased him further. His steel grey eyes were cruelly amused.

"No, I was talking to-" Suddenly he stopped, realizing that he didn't know what the thing he had been talking to was. "I don't know what it's called," he confessed. The blond haired boy sighed exasperatedly and rolled his eyes.

"Well what does it look like," he asked, humoring the younger boy for the moment.

"It was maybe two feet tall and had huge brown eyes the size of tennis balls. Its ears looked kind of like a bat's wings and it had long fingers and a long nose." For a moment, the older boy stared at the orphan unbelieving. He was about to say something, but hesitated. Should he really do it? He knew he could get in huge trouble, but if Riddle had already seen it…

Making up his mind, he said, "Dorry, come here," and snapped his fingers. There was a loud crack and suddenly the very creature Riddle had described materialized on the top of the wall.

"What is Master Marius wanting Dorry to do?" The strange creature looked respectfully down at the blond boy and waited for his reply.

"I just wanted to ask you a few questions. Were you following that boy around?" He pointed to the green eyes boy on the other side of the wall.

"Yes Master Marius, sir," Dorry replied. Marius frowned. That was unusual. Why would his house elf be following a nine year old orphan around, let alone a nine year old orphan who was a muggle?

"Why were you following him?" Both Marius and Riddle waited eagerly for this answer. For a long moment, the house elf was silent, as if thinking about her answer. Then she said,

"Dorry was following him because I is seeing him do magic and I is thinking that he shouldn't be left alone with all those muggles. I knows that I isn't supposed to be going into a muggle house, and Dorry will punish herself for being bad. Dorry will put her ears in the oven." The house elf ended her answer with a very solemn and apologetic tone. Riddle stared at the creature in a mixture of wonder and horror at what it had said. He was horrified that someone, even if it were only this creature, had caught him doong magic. On the other hand, the statement that what he had been doing was magic filled him with wonder. He had never thought of it as being magic, just of it being unusual.

"You can do magic Riddle," demanded Marius in a shocked voice, "You mean you're not just a-" Before he could finish, there was another crack and a second house elf appeared on the wall.

"Excuse me Young Master Marius, but your father is wishing to see you in the dinning room for lunch and says for you to come right away."

"Alright, I'll be right there," he told the second house elf. Then he once again addressed the younger boy, "Will you be able to come outside tomorrow morning at, say, ten?" The green eyed boy nodded. Just then, a bell rang on the other side of the orphanage.

"I have to go to lunch too, but I can meet you here at ten," he said, "See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow Riddle," Marius said in return as the apparently not muggle boy headed for the orphanage. "Hey Riddle," the blond suddenly called out, "What's your first name?" Pausing with his hand on the door knob, Riddle turned around and look back at Marius, who was still leaning on the wall.

"It's Tom," he answered.

"It's nice to meet you Tom." Surprised, Tom didn't reply for a moment. Nobody had ever been pleased to meet him before. Even though he had talked to Marius many times, the other boy had never done anything but bother him before today. But now he was actually being nice to him. By saying that, it was like they were staring all over again.

"It's nice to meet you too, Marius," Tom replied, giving the other boy one of his rare true smiles. Then he opened the door and went in for lunch, thinking as he closed the door behind him, that perhaps he had just made his first friend.

'That was an odd dream,' Harry Potter thought to himself as he opened his eyes and blinked several times to clear the fog of sleep from his vision. For several minutes, he stared at the canopy of his bed, waiting for his mind to wake up completely. When it did, everything that had happened in the passed two days came rushing back to him and he almost selfishly wished that he had remained sleeping.

Two facts above all seemed to burn a hole in his heart: Dumbledore was dead and Harry would have no one to guide him. Only the promise of Ron, Hermione, and Ginny accompanying him on his journey saved him from falling into a depression. Sitting up and pushing back the red blankets, Harry swung his legs over the edge of the bed and let his feet rest on the cool hardwood floor. He stood slowly and made his way to the window seat next to his bed. Brilliant golden sunlight poured into the room, bathing everything in a soft glow. For a moment, Harry stared at it in disbelief. It seemed impossible that such a thing could still happen, that nature could go on pretending that there had been no tradgedy. It seemed that such sunlight must be a lie, for how could anything so evocative of peace be present in the world when there was death and suffering everywhere. Sitting down, he gazed out the window and his mind drifted to the memory of another time when he had sat at this same window and gazed out at the same landscape, a time where he had felt, just as he felt now, that one era of his life had come to an end and that he was about to cross the threshold into a completely unknown and mysterious world.

It had been night then, his first night at Hogwarts. He remembered staring out at the starry sky and thinking that perhaps his life was going to take a better turn, that perhaps he would finally be able to live normally and happily. At eleven years old, he had never dreamed that only six years later, he would be sitting there contemplating how he was going to fight a war against the most powerful dark lord of all time. Sighing, he turned and gazed around the room. All the other boys were still asleep. Ron was snoring loudly. Seamus was muttering something about dungbombs in his sleep. Dean was sprawled dead to the world on his bed, face down with his face completely covered by a pillow and his left arm dangling off the edge of the bed. Neville was sleeping propped up on his pillows with a book still in his hands. Looking at them all, he felt a shock, like a knife, stab his heart as he realized he might never see Neville and Seamus and Dean again. He would never wake up to the sunlight shining on the dormitory floor again. He would never hear Seamus mutter all sorts of ridiculous things in his sleep which would send Dean into hysterics. Neville would never ask him for help with his transfiguration homework again. He would never go to classes again or play on the Gryffindor Quidditch team again. He would never eat another start of term feast in the great hall. He would never see another sorting. He would never take another train ride to Hogwarts. He would never ever come home again.

When he at last realized this last fact he felt a part of him rebel. He felt a prickling sensation in his eyes and a tightening in his throat. At first he didn't recognize the feelings, but then he realized what was going on. For only the second time that he could remember in more than six years, Harry Potter was crying.

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Author's Note: Don't be fooled. This starts out likeyour average seventh year cannonfic, but after the first two chapters, the plot picks up and things get alot more interesting.

Please PLEASE review and tell me what you think. I'mgoing to try to keep this asin characteras possible with the exception of one person, who I am tweaking slightly. If you notice any mistakes in dates, names, or other factual information, please point it out to me. Also, if any one would like to volunteer to beta this story it would be greatly appreciated. That's pretty much it and the next post should be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.