Title: The Boy Who Was King
Author: SM Productions
Rating: PG
Character(s): Harry, Dumbledore, Snape, the Dursleys, others
Disclaimer: We don't own anything. Well, okay, there is that one pair of socks... but that's still between the two of us.
Summary: A fusion with the King Arthur legends; particularly The Once and Future King by T.H. White and the Disney movie, 'The Sword in the Stone'.
Chapter the First: Merlindore
The fairies in the Knotsoshore-Wood Forest are the prettiest fairies. They dance and sing, and have nothing to do with wicked tricks like their other fairy brothers and sisters. But our story has nothing to do with the fairies, but rather the forest, in which I met our young hero for the first time.
No wait! That wasn't where the story began. Now where was it…
Ah, yes, somewhere far from Knotsoshore-Wood Forest, along a shore. As I remember it, there weren't good skipping stones on that shore. And the water matched the sky in bleak grayness until they merged into one blur of gloom in the distance. It was a boring shore, but it's not the shore we care about, nor the boats that came. Our tale begins when the invaders step off those boats and throw England into years of turmoil and chaos.
In this part of the story my hair was not quite white yet. The land was dotted with kingdoms from the Scottish north to the Gaul controlled south. Only a few good men could be found among the greedy kings. Most notably James Pendragon, who unlike his chunky gluttonous foes, stood as tall and thin as the most valiant broom stick.
Now, now, look at me, giving you the wrong idea about Old King James already. For one thing, he was much stronger than any broom stick I knew. But I supposed that is a given, isn't it?
Well, as the tale goes, I became friends with James, who wanted to become friends with Maid Lillian. Or rather, more than friends. The problem was that back then kings could do whatever they wanted, as long as they had an army to back them up. So Voldemort, a terrible dark wizard king, saw Maid Lillian and decided to whisk her away with him. Only it was less of a whisking and more of a kidnapping. Promptly following the kidnapping was imprisonment.
Poor James, it broke his heart. He had the army and force to unite all of Britain under him, but he still did not have what he wanted most, his beautiful Maid Lillian. When I could no longer bare his mournful sighs and childish pouting, I gave him my word I would bring him Lillian. It was one of the best, and worst, things I have ever done.
I thought the Dark Lord Voldemort was no match for my magic. But alas, I was still considered young and reckless then. I left his evil fortress with Maid Lillian, believing that Voldemort was dead. Through the happiness of the wedding, and the peaceful ruling of England, and finally the birth of a son, no one had any idea what evil was brewing in that forgotten fortress.
Now this, this is the part of the tale I hate to tell. Voldemort came back, and in one battle ended everything King James brought to the land. Peace and justice was slain on the battle field with my old friend. I could not save him in the same way I could not save Queen Lillian. I don't even have the credit for saving their only child, Harold. Lillian protected him until her last breathe. Voldemort must have entered the chamber just before me, for his blade was still in her back, sparking with white lightning. The child was crying, held in the arms and stench of his burnt mother.
A white rage filled me, and I can not tell you what happened for I was not my self. My magic controlled me as I tried to avenge my dear friends. I remember the child crying in the background as the spells spilled from my wand and his weight on my chest as we escaped from the castle.
Harold could not be left defenseless in a castle with an empty throne. The throne of all England, no less. Fearing the worst, I took the child to a knight of James, Sir Vernon. Enough though I was entrusting him with the child, I did not trust him enough to tell him who exactly Harold was. So the plump knight took the orphan in his castle, and promised he would raise him with his son Dudley. For eleven years I had the mistake to leave the child there, under what I thought was ample protection. My wits were finally cleared when the Dark Lord Voldemort remade his appearance into society, which a whole new army ready to clain the already ransacked Britain as his own.
Sir Vernon's castle was near Knotsoshore-Wood Forest, but you wouldn't find any fairies near it. The sounds of knightly training scared them off long ago. I did, however, find a young lad, so skinny and gangly he would make any broomstick proud.
Now, this folks, this was when I met our hero in that forest of Knotsoshore-Wood.