Disclaimer: Harry Potter, etc, belongs to J.K. Rowling. Not me. Sue someone else, I'm not worth your time. I do own certain aspects of this. Everything unfamiliar, that's mine. Get the picture?
Summary: AU What if Harry Potter was never sent to the Dursleys? What if, instead, he went somewhere more...interesting? This is the story of a rather different Harry Potter. *Slash in later chapters.*
A/N: I have nothing really to say, blame the plot bunnies. Not sure who will be paired with who yet. I'll figure it out.
Release Thyself From Earthly Cares
Chapter One
"It is a terrible thing we do, but it must be done. You know it must be done."
"I know, gods do I know,"
"Haven't you ever contemplated just going away? Going away and never returning?" a third had joined the conversation.
"Of course, haven't we all?"
"Then why has no one ever gone?"
"Where would we go? We are the shunned, the unwelcome, the despised."
"I don't know..."
"Besides, the jihad would only continue in our names. Even if we disapeared tomorrow, all of this would go on."
"You're right, of course, you're always right." the tone was sullen.
"Don't act like that, please,"
"We waste our lives here, trying to do the impossible, I have a right to act however I fucking please!" the newcomer was angry, it was evident from the sharp tone.
"What lives? We haven't got lives. In case you have failed to notice, we never age, never change, never...nothing! How long have you been here? Twenty years? Fifty? A hundred? Do you even know?"
"Stop, both of you!" the one who had not been shouting sounded more weary then upset.
"All you do is argue," a fourth entered, followed by several more.
"That was a friendly disagreement."
"It was a shouting match, now stop, all of you. We are here, in case you have forgotten, to discuss the future of the young one."
"But..."
"I know the child means a great deal to you, but the young one is not yet too old to slip into their societ without difficulty. It may be best."
"That young one is as much a part of my family as any of my own. You can't send a mere child topside alone. It's unthinkable. I won't alllow it."
"I think it's best," another one put in, "Do we really want that child to live here, forever, when there could be a fantastic life out there?"
"It could also be a hideous life, we don't know!"
"But it is best,"
At that instant, I, the child they'd been speaking of, fell out of bed, breaking my mental link to their meeting.
They're sending me away. I thought, ill at the very thought.
"Are you all right?" a soft voice with a rolling accent spoke from my right.
"Yes, I'm fine," my accent was very different, lilting, with long vowels and hissed 's's. I am one of the serpent people of the far east, unlike my dorm companion, who was a, well, we called them mud people, because their cities were in deep caverns, far below the rest of the world. We were so much more sensible, building our cities of marble, marble is a good way to keep out the heat, you know.
"Well... if you're sure, Ophion," he rolled over and went back to sleep.
I was called Ophion, a very traditional name among my people. However, I had another name, a name I wasn't supposed to know. That name was Harry Potter.