Fearless Survival

"How is it a mere boy may look me in the eye without the slightest glimmer of fear within his own eyes? Hmmm, remarkable, like your mother and father but, so very different. They lived lives in the shadow of my presence, although when I came to kill you they had real terror within the depths of their eyes. They say that the eyes are the gateway to ones soul. Theirs were broken, defeated, fearful souls. Your soul shows no fear; you are of a superior stock despite your lineage and weak parents. Join me now, or join them in death."

"I would never join a murderer, I would rather die. You can't do anything anyways. You are just a shadow. Shadows can't hurt you."

"A normal shadow perhaps, but me I am quite different. I am the shadow of the greatest sorcerer that ever lived, I defy even death. That is why you will lose our struggle."

"You're a liar."

"Yes about a great many things, but I will kill you Harry Potter, it is our destiny after all."

"We have no destiny, I am alive and you are a shade of yourself never to return to your body."

"Oh but I will Harry, and then you die as is foretold. I can tell by the look on your face the old fool has told you nothing of your fate. Allow me to enlighten you Mr. Potter. There is a prophecy between you and I. Neither may live while the other survives. Do keep it mind. I will be back for you when I return to my body make no mistake. Perhaps next year or many down the path, but I will kill you. You cannot hope to defeat I have power, age, and experience on my side. You have nothing. I will kill you."

Harry Potter of number four Privet Drive awakes from his nightmare with an ear splitting scream wretched from the depths of vocal cords. The memories of Lord Voldemort at the end of the previous school year has pulled such a desperate sound from his mouth that he knows there will be blood as there is every other night through the month of July.

"Damnit Hedwig. The Dursleys will be angry about this again."

Sure enough the room shakes as Vernon Dursley stomps down the hall to his room, with his not so inconsiderable mass, roused from his sleep and angry he slams the door into the opposing wall.

"In the name of all that is holy and normal, what the hell is wrong with you boy? Your freakiness has never, never not once before woke me from my beauty sleep thirty god forsaken nights in a row. Now tell me what your bloody problem is?"

Looking back upon this night Harry was never able to say why he did it. He can't recall. Perhaps the combination of sleepless nights, too little food, the threat of Voldemort hanging above him, and concern for his sanity and vocal cords was what finally broke him. He wept and sobbed in front of his whale of an uncle in a manner he had done since the tender age of three when all it earned him was a week in the cupboard that use to serve as his room.

"Uncle I don't know what to do. He's going to win; he's going to kill me. I can't fight him he's too strong, too powerful. I'm going to die. It's all I dream about, all I think about. I can't sleep, I can't eat, and I can't even bring myself to do my homework. What's the fucking point when he is going to kill me anyways?"

Like Harry, Vernon would never be able to say what made him do it, if you ever could get him to admit that he had indeed done it. He enveloped Harry in his first ever hug and felt enormous guilt when the boy tensed.

"Hush Harry calm down. Who is going to kill you?"

"The same man who murdered my parents. He isn't dead like he is supposed to be. I met him and he told me that neither one of can live while the other survives."

Vernon continued to hold Harry for the better part of an hour until he fell asleep. Then he laid him in the too small and shabby bed and returned to his own room to find his wife waiting for him.

"Pet dear why you are still awake?"

"You were gone for a long time, have you finally gotten rid of the boy? Like I wanted to when we got stuck with him?"

"No, I haven't and I won't. That madman you told me about is still out there. He wants to take another shot at Harry."

"Then we will throw him out on the street straight away I won't let danger near my precious Dudley."

"We will not."

"What Vernon! Of course we will he is a freak and threat to the safety of this family."

"He is a part of this family always was in my mind always will be. We've raised him wrong at your suggestion because of your hate for your own family. No more. I'm going to help him. He will go to martial arts class with Dudley, and a new bed that shabby thing you gave him is disgusting. Full meals too. Perhaps I will take him into London to see if his kind has anything to help him learn to defend this family. You don't realise it but a madman like that would kill us too for taking him in no matter the way we treated him."

"I will no..."

Vernon voice then for the first time ever rose against his wife. "ENOUGH, you don't have to help him if you don't want to. I will do it myself. I won't let anyone say that Vernon Dursley raised a coward that couldn't help himself and got killed by some bleeding nutter in a bathrobe."

"I'll take care of everything tomorrow you sleep and don't worry you're pretty little head about it."