The Second Brother
Chapter I: Prologue
It was Halloween. Halloween 1981, mere months since his faithful servant had informed him of the prophecy, to be precise. A tall man in a dark black cloak stood watching as dozens of children ran around in costumes trying to get candy from their neighbors; it was disgustingly muggle, foul, he mused as he walked down the road, coming up to a space between two houses; he smirked. It was almost like he found the empty space amusing.
'Pathetic,' he thought, putting a long, pale hand into his robes, 'It's as if they did not think to put up anymore wards than that pathetic fidelius charm.'
He withdrew a hand from a pocket in his robe and pulled out a piece of paper. Looking at it, he smiled; by magic, the house appeared slowly in the space in front of him, expanding gradually until a two story house was visible.
He walked up to the front door, put a hand in a different pocket and withdrew his wand. He flicked it once and the door blew in.
Inside the house, five minutes prior, the occupants of the tiny cottage were unaware of events to come.
"Lily, come look at this!" a young man with messy black hair, round wire framed glasses, and light hazel eyes, called.
He was looking at one of his young sons levitating his blocks around him. The little boy looked like him, but he had that rounder face that came with being a baby, and black hair with natural dark red highlights that were inherited from his mother. The young boy was a bit chubbier than most babies his age, but his parents were sure that it was just baby fat and that he would grow out of it eventually.
"What is it, James?" a young woman's voice called back.
"Charles is doing magic again!" the young man known as James called back; within seconds, a young woman with long, lustrous fiery red hair was by his side.
" Again?" she questioned, looking at her son who was clapping his hands gleefully, "Well, I'm not surprised at all; after all you know what Professor Dumbledore told us about the prophecy and how powerful he is supposed to be."
"Yes, Lily, I was there too, you know." James answered cheekily. Lily slapped him on the arm and told him to "shut up," but he just smiled at her.
Suddenly, James felt a tremor in his connections to the wards and jumped up, "Someone just entered the wards, It's probably Padfoot."
Seconds later, with an ear splintering crunch and a large bang, the door flew into the wall behind James. He was on his feel in seconds; "Lily!" he yelled, "Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"
There was a clatter; Lily picked up Charles and disappeared up the stairs.
Meanwhile, James was holding off the man that had broken into the house he and Lily were living in. He did not wait for him to act, but immediately stared firing curses. Soon, the room was filled with rainbow colored curses, hexes and the occasional roar of a transfigured lion from James and large snake summoned by the other man.
After what seemed like hours of fighting - but was actually only minutes - James got a stinging hex through the other man's guard and hit him.
The other man's eyes flashed red with fury; then, he did something James never expected. The epitome of evil, the most feared dark lord of the past century, screamed, "STUPEFY!"
James stopped; the other man had just fired the stunning spell, when he would usually just use the killing curse instead. James saw red, then nothing but blackness. The other man - the most feared wizard of the last century - stood there in surprise; this man, this pitiful Potter, had actually managed to harm him, something he had long thought impossible. He regained his composure and made his way up the stairs to where Lily had fled.
Lily Potter had only just reached the nursery when she heard her husband be stunned. Eyes wide and knowing she had only a little time before the man down stairs came for her, she entered the nursery and set Charles down next to her eldest son, Harry.
Harry was almost the complete opposite of his brother; he had raven black hair and eyes like the purest emerald. He had a very aristocratic face with high cheekbones and small, thin lips. He looked almost exotic, as though he was not of this world. He was already asleep as his mother had only just put him down when his father had called for her. Charles, who had been frightened by the loud bellow from the other man, was now crying despite his mothers attempts to quite him.
As a consequence, the other boy awoke, but unlike most children he just stared at his brother as though he was used to this and could not care less. He saw his mother start to wave her wand and lights struck the door. It seemed to disappear, but the boy cold still see the outline of it. He looked at his brother again; Charles's screams had reached a crescendo. His mother looked over and was about to silence him, when the door flew open and there stood the other man. Like her husband, she did not wait and immediately started to fire curses at him.
Once again the room seemed to contain every color of the rainbow all at once, plus many extras. However, this time, there were no roars or hisses. A stray spell hit the ceiling and landed on Lily; she crumpled to the floor with a cry of pain. Believing her to be dead, the other man walked past her, to the crib containing the two babies and looked at them. As he looked into the deep green eyes of the elder one - and for the first time in his life - he felt like he was being judged, and not found worthy by someone who's opinion might actually matter.
As he continued to stare into the eyes of the boy, he could almost see the restrained power in the young child. He was slightly awed by the child before him and knew that this was the child that was fated to kill him unless he could kill it first. He raised his wand slowly; this was not a time for dramatics, but concentration. This child had to die... there could be no mistakes. Not this time.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
He laughed, watching, as he cast the spell; it flew towards the baby, reached him, then rebounded with twice the force.
And then, he was pain, nothing but pain, as his body crumpled; he writhed and wriggled, as mangled and broken soul left destroyed body. Moments later, he saw a small black orb leave his body and fly into the boy he had attempted to kill. The pain ended; he looked down and saw he was floating above his body. He smirked; his Horcruxes had worked and, one day, he, Lord Voldemort, the greatest wizard of all time, the most powerful man to have ever existed, would be back. Now, though, he must flee.
One hour later, an old man with long grey hair that could be tucked into his belt and a crooked nose, appeared at the door step. Walking inside, he saw James on the floor, but a quick spell revealed that he was not was not dead but only stunned. With another spell James was awake and frantic. "Albus, Albus, Voldemort was here! Peter must have told him where we were."
Then, he looked as if someone had clubbed him over the head; "Albus," he said, "Lily is still here somewhere!"
The men rushed up stairs and immediately raced to the nursery; both saw Lily on the floor under some debris. Dumbledore levitated it away and woke her up to. After she had calmed down, they checked on the two boys. Albus Dumbledore picked up both boys and used an old spell to sense the magic inside the younger boy first; seeing his magical potential was above average in magical talent he completely passed over the older one. From this he came to the conclusion that the younger one, Charles, was the one to have defeated Voldemort.
He set down Harry, raised Charles up and said, "Lily, James, our prediction was right. May I present to you... The-Boy-Who-Lived."
Lily and James grabbed their son from Dumbledore's arms and hugged him tightly. Lily started to make faces at him trying to make him laugh while James boasted about how amazing his son was going to be and how powerful he would be when he grew up. Dumbledore smiled at the young family and started to walk away when he heard Lily call to him: "Albus what about Harry? What should we do with him?
Albus turned around, walked back to them and picked up Harry from where he lay on the ground. He stared into the boy's eyes and, under his breath, whispered the same rare spell that he had used on the boy's brother, "Divinum Potestasis."
In his mind's eye, he saw the young boy's magic and was definitely unimpressed; it was so weak that the boy would, most likely, be a squib when he grew up. He looked at the Potter parents and said, "Do not worry about it. The boy's magic is very weak and he will probably amount to not much more than a squib. We will, however, have to train his brother, so it is probably best if you keep Harry at an arms distance; this way he will not become too jealous of Charles."
James and Lily nodded. That made sense in their minds; besides they would always make sure Harry had what he needed, so he would be fine. All thoughts about the well being of their first child were driven out of their minds when Dumbledore set him back down and turned to face them once again.
"Now onto other things," he said, "The people of the wizarding world are going to need to know what has happened here, and the best way they can get the truth will be for us to hold a press conference. I will set everything up with Minister Millicent Bagnold and contact you with when and where. Now, I believe it would be best if you went to Potter manor to stay there. I will make sure that Sirius Black is sent there as soon as I can find him. Goodnight to all of you." Albus turned with a large grin on his face; already he was plotting on how to influence Charles's future. 'Hmm' he thought 'Grandpa Albus has a nice ring to it, don't you think?'
Two weeks later, the Potters received a floo call from Dumbledore saying that the press conference was the following day in the Ministry Atrium at one o'clock, that they would only need to bring themselves and Charles, and that they could leave Harry with the house elves. The Potters quickly agreed, and the next afternoon saw Harry spending time with Mickey, Minnie, and Donald, the Potters' house elves, while the rest of the Potters went to the Ministry to talk to the press and answer the questions of the Wizarding World. And so started the neglect - and even occasional abuse - that would create the most powerful and kind Grey Lord of Magic.
