N/A: okay, so it's my very first post on this site. And I'm French, so I did several re-read to be sure that - at my level of english knowledge - I did not do some stupid grammar mistake or anything but if you saw something that isn't right please tell me. Thank you and er... enjoy? Maybe review too. Pretty please. And the disclaimer, yeah, well nothing is owned by me. I'd know if that were the case.
Did someone even saw the child?
It was a legend. Someone survived the Killing Curse! From a Dark Lord, no less. It was unbelievable. Nonetheless, when Albus Dumbledore spread the rumours no one stood up to protest or even see the famous child. Everyone, from the commoner civilian to the Lord of a Noble and Ancient House believed it. Even from the two sides of the civil war it was believed.
The Dark side did not heard from its leader and had no choice but to believe the rumours. Some reacted by attacking the enemy while some went silent. Others were arrested or bought their way out of prison. Not one was there, saw the child, or tried to find their leader in order to know the truth about what happened, yet they believed the leader of the opposition.
The Light side, well... it was their leader that began the rumour so why should they distrust their leader?
Those that were neither on the Dark or the Light side were all too happy that the attacks had stopped and so did not care how it happened. They heard from some acquaintance or read from The Daily Prophet that somebody vanquished the Dark Lord surviving in the process the Killing Curse and that was it. It was an infant who survived? Extraordinary! His parents died? Poor child! His name? Harry Potter? The Survivor, the Boy Who Lived! Hail him!
Everything else – where was the child now? was he well after the attacks? who would raise him? was he in security? how could he have defeated the Dark Lord?- went over their heads, never to be thought at a later date. By anyone.
Obviously, there were some exceptions. There always are exceptions.
The first was a group of people. They were four loyal soldiers of the Dark Lord and could not believe that a mere child defeated their powerful leader. Without any clues as to where the rumoured Potter cottage was, they went to the second target the Dark Lord should have struck, were he not defeated: the Longbottom Mansion. Inside this building, the Longbottom family, and more particularly the son of Auror Frank and Healer Alice, Neville.
It was not subtle, it was not sensible, and it clearly was not prepared enough. The attack was sudden, brutal, and it left a child without parents once more. Bellatrix, her husband Rodolphus, his brother Rabastan Lestrange, and Bartemious Crouch Junior were cruel in their grief of losing their leader. It was the only thing their Torture Curses proved. And if their arrests proved that the Longbottom did not know anything about the supposed defeat of the Dark Lord then their imprisonments proved their loyalty to the cause and their Lord.
No one knew with certainty the Lord was dead? Then the Lord was not dead. The Lord would rise again. Their loyalty would be rewarded. They would take their revenge on the disloyals, the non-believers, the enemies, and all that opposed them. And this rumoured child hero defeater of Dark Lord would die. Because, then, what was a dead hero, if not a useless corpse?
The second and last exception was Minerva McGonagall who was there when the powerful Light Lord made another mistake. She questioned her leader, questioned the truthfulness of the rumours, and questioned about her favourite student, his wife, and child. She asked about the insensible placement, about the destiny, and about the well-being of the child. She worried, but she was not listened, and in the end she could only be silent. And in between the long ten years of waiting, she forgot her worries, her questions.
Thus the legend of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, Vanquisher of Dark Lord, the Saviour of the Light. A legend told in every home with children – and without. Many children would dream about the legendary child. Many would have expectation when the time came. Some fell in love with his image, others wanted to be his most precious friend, or being famous next to him.
And while many dreamt about him, spoke about him, made rumours about him, wrote about him, no one sought him.
That is how the famous legendary child of the Wizarding Britain grew up with insults, low self-esteem, under-graded at school, bullied by his own family, doing adults chores, and living with spiders and others bugs in his little cupboard under the stairs.