Title: A Different Way

Author: Cmon

Synopsis: Harry is Lord Voldemort's son. Dark!Harry. No Slash.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. If you are a fellow author and recognize something as yours I'm sorry, I don't mean to steal it, promise!

"Talking"

"Parseltongue"

Chapter 1: Beginnings

"Good luck Harry Potter." The man whispered and then vanished into the night, the streetlights blinking on instantly.

JUNE 15, 1982

"I have followed you across 4 counties and over 100 km, Nagini. Are you sure you remember which way you came from? And why am I talking to a snake?" a man with shoulder length blonde hair and an aristocratic face sighed as he continued walking. The man stood just over two meters tall, weighing about 20 stones.

sss$$$ssss. Said snake turned in annoyance and glared at the complaining man with another threatening hiss turned back to its task of retracing her scent trail. The snake was a five foot python who would have sent any of the local inhabitants scurrying for animal control, if they could have seen her. However, she was no ordinary snake with extraordinary intelligence and some very unique protections.

Just as it seemed the man would tire of following the snake, Nagini turned off the street and slithered up to a house marked Number Four. Looking around, the man raised a single eyebrow in the utter mundane surroundings and the identical houses with similar looking gardens. He glanced at the still invisible snake for confirmation before, with a deep sight, raising his hand to knock on the door.

His knock was quickly answered by the largest man he had ever seen "We don't want what your selling! Get off my door!" and as quickly as it had opened, it was slammed in his face. Now the man was rather annoyed, after all, he wasn't selling. So he knocked again and this time when the door opened he slid his foot into the entryway and just as the larger man started to turn an interesting shade of red and begin ranting, he spoke "Sir, I am not here to sell anything I simple wish to inquire after the health of one Harry Potter."

The man's face turned from bright red to sickly white in less then a second, before the being before him gathered his courage "You're, you're one of them! You're not welcome here! Leave before I call the constable!"

"I'm sorry sir, my name is Frederick Allen. I am not 'one of them', though I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that. You see, I was named as the boys secondary godfather and simply wished to check up on the boy, make sure that he was truly being cared for. If this is an inconvenient time..." Frederick Allen slowly turned to leave.

"Wait, wait. Why don't, you come in and... chat with my wife. She takes care of the children you see..." he gave a nervous little laugh. "I'm Vernon Dursley." Vernon led his guest into the living room "Pet, this is Mr. Allen, Mr. Allen this is my wife, Petunia. The boys are just resting now. Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself as we wait for the tykes to wake up?"

"Certainly, but please call my Fred. You see I've been out of the country on business the last year and only just recently heard about poor James and Lily. As soon as I heard I contacted the family estate to find the location of my godson, but they said he had been safely placed with his relatives. That was enough for me to finish my work overseas, but once I got the chance to come back I decided I really must see him. I'm so sorry for dropping in unexpectedly and all, but the boy was initially going to come and live with me if his primary godparents didn't work out. They died in a car accident about a week before James and Lilly, so unexpected, so sad. I'm sure that the estate lawyers were doing what they thought best as I was out of touch. I just wanted to confirm that you were not unduly burdened by little Harry." Fred talked very softly and sorrowfully, almost as if he were afraid to speak louder. The Dursley's glanced at each other, here was their chance. They really didn't want the little freak.

"Fred, my wife and I were wondering if you wanted to take the fr- boy. We really are having trouble with two boys in the house. If he was supposed to go to you anyway, well we don't see how we could keep him," simpered Vernon.

"Really? But, but what about the legal paperwork and everything, I couldn't."

"Oh, he was never registered. He's so healthy we have not taken him in to the doctors yet. We don't even have his birth certificate so we were wondering how to take care of all those fees and feed the boys. It really has been rather tight."

"Well, ok then. I'll gladly take him. I was already planning on shifting my work back to London, so this would be the perfect excuse. Would I be able to see him today do you think?"

"Why don't you take him now? I'll just grab a few of his things, enough for a couple days maybe? Would that be alright? And I'll bring it all down with him." Petunia all but ran out of the room as she talked. Finally, finally she'd be able to get rid of the freak!

Fredrick kept his face a mask of polite agreement as he absentmindedly nodded at Petunia's questions and then made small talk with Vernon. Inside he was dancing with joy! The boy-who-lived, just like that he would walk out of this house with no one the wiser. And not even ten minutes had passed before he was doing just that. He walked out the front door and around the corner, ducking into a small alley where he leaned against the wall, the perfect picture of patience.

Moments later, another man appeared in the alley and seeing the blonde held out a pencil, as soon as he was touching the two men and the baby disappeared.

Two Years Later

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off –" The sounds of someone stumbling from a room – a door bursting open – a cackle of high-pitched laughter—

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"
"Stand aside, you silly girl...stand aside, now...foolish woman..."
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead –" A women with bright red hair, standing in front of crib, crying to an unheeding figure draped in black. "Noth Harry! Please...have mercy...have mercy..."
"Like your husband and the old fool Dumbledore had mercy on my wife and childe, I think not!" The figure sneered coldly. Then he raised a stick in his right hand and with a flash of green light the women fell. "Ssoo, little one, the last Potter shall fall...Avada Ke..."

"ssssssss"

A flash of light and then... "Noooo! I'm ssorry, sso ssorry"

With a start, four-year-old Harry Potter woke. Struggling to remember his dream, it had never been this long before. All he could remember was red hair, a cold voice, a flash of green light, but this time there was something more...silently he tried to remember...

"Aha!" the boy whispered triumphantly to himself, "The cold voice had said he was sorry. Why was he sorry? What did the dream mean?" The little boy quickly scrambled out of bed and ran down the hall, he jumped into bed with a blonde man. The man just made room and holding the dark haired boy, drifted back to sleep.

Several hours later both man and boy were woken up to the hiss of a snake.

"Greetingss young master."

"Greetings Nagini. Guess what, guess what! My dream was even longer today. I hear James and I saw momma Lilly and then the man, he spoke. He said he was sorry. Why was he sorry Nagini? Had he been bad?"

"Maybe you should as the blonde one young master. He seems to want to talk anyway."