"Are you sure this is the right thing to do, Vernon?" Petunia whispered to her husband as they watched the approaching black car.
Beside them was a very young boy of about four or five. He was terribly frail, and dressed in rags, but his brilliant, bright green eyes betrayed a youthful, naïve innocence.
And on their other side, was their son – extremely pudgy, he already began to resemble his father in many ways.
As the car stopped to a halt beside them, a woman stepped out, dressed in a comfortable, silk red shirt and gray pants. Her dark hair was cropped short, and her eyes, although cool and formal, were hard and only faintly represented her status in the world.
"Of course it is, dear," Vernon replied in a hushed tone. "This way, we will get rid of the freak and won't have to worry about him for the majority of the year."
"But the freak is good at doing the chores," Petunia whispered. "Think of how much time we'll save…"
The lady cleared her throat briefly, making Vernon and Petunia jump. Unknowing to them, her eyes had narrowed slightly at hearing what they had to say in whispered conversation. "So which boy do you want me to take?"
Petunia nudged forward the frail boy. "This one – his name is fre…Harry. Harry Potter. We were assigned to take care of him."
"Very well, then." She nodded briefly at him. "Come with me then, Harry."
"Where am I going, Aunt Petunia?" Harry asked with wide, curious eyes.
"Don't speak unless spoken to!" Petunia snapped before realizing the relevance of his question. What if….his kind came looking for him? "But our details are sketchy at best…exactly what does your school do?"
The lady smiled coolly. "Oh, it's a school to keep boys…disciplined, shall we say. At the moment we have only a few, but our numbers are steadily growing." That of course was a lie – there was no school.
"Then you can take him – how long does the course last?"
"He'll be back by the time he's ten or eleven – and don't worry, he'll be much different."
Harry took the lady's hand unsteadily as they walked to her car.
As the lady started driving, with Harry in the front seat, he asked curiously, "Excuse me, miss, but I don't know your name?"
"I am Lady Shiva," the martial arts grandmaster replied curtly. "But for the time we spend together, you are to call me master or teacher."
--
"Incompetent fools!" Antonin Dolohov snapped at the fearful Death Eaters. "The Dark Lord will have my head for this!"
They were standing in the middle of what they thought was a safe house for an important Ministry official attempting to push forth the notion that their Lord was back – one that the Dark Lord himself had ordered to be killed on sight – he could not afford any chance of him escaping.
Instead of a safe house, it was merely a vacant shack.
He growled again in anger before finally snapping, pointing his wand at a pitiful-looking follower. "Crucio!"
The rookie Death Eater fell on the floor, screaming in pain for a full minute before Antonin released it, his blood still boiling but not getting the best of him.
Suddenly the lights flickered out.
He frowned before raising his wand and casting the lumos charm.
It didn't work.
The rest of the Death Eaters were also shocked as the light charm was ineffective.
There was a muffled sound as a Death Eater screamed before it became silent once more.
Antonin spun around, wand at the ready before another muffled thud signaled the fall of another Death Eater.
The Death Eaters looked around wildly in confusion – they were like a bunch of idiotic ducks.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Antonin shouted. "Spread out and find them!"
A dark shape leapt out of the shadows.
"Batman!" Antonin gasped, pointing his wand.
The group of Death Eaters screamed as they wildly sent about dark curses, hitting each other more frequently than they were missing Batman as he leapt in and out, his form a black blur.
Several Death Eaters screamed as they went flying back from a powerful mid-air spinning kick, followed by an elbow to the stomach of another and another roundhouse kick that knocked some more Death Eaters off their feet.
Antonin pointed his wand, giving off a low growl as he attempted to aim at the dark knight, but finding only the wild crowd of incompetents. "Reducto!"
The spell flew completely through the crowd, actually taking out quite a large portion of Death Eaters.
As Batman finished off the last one, he turned around, white lidless eyes seemingly able to bore into the cold soul of the Inner Circle Death Eater.
An aura of icy air seemed to surround him as he walked across, the shadows obscuring his shape.
Antonin had heard of him before, of course, but never believed that he would have the sheer dumb luck to actually get attacked by him!
Well it did make sense – most of the high-ranking Death Eaters had been taken into custody by him after all.
Raising his wand, Antonin growled. "Avada…"
He gasped in shock as Batman twisted his hand out, a cable snatching onto his wand and wrenching it out of his grip.
Batman scrutinized it for a moment before gripping it tightly and snapping it.
Rage coursed through him as he screamed. "My wand! How dare…"
"Antonin Dolohov," Batman recited from memory, shutting the Death Eater up with his gravelly, harsh voice. "63 years old. One of Lord Voldemort's first followers – tortured many non-magical beings and opponents of Voldemort's reign during the First war. Captured and sentenced to Azkaban but escaped in a mass breakout." His white eyes narrowed.
"Shut up!" Antonin snarled as he charged forward with a fist raised.
Batman raised his hand as he caught the Death Eater's fist easily, bending it back as it snapped like a matchstick before twisting him around and forcing him to the ground.
"And now under Lord Voldemort's active service roster," Batman finished. "Give me a good reason why I shouldn't gut your stomach right now?"
"Freak!" Antonin spat angrily. "The Dark Lord will find you and kill you! He will make you beg to die!"
Batman pulled him up and rushed forward, slamming him into the wall with a heavy shudder.
The Death Eater looked in horror at the face of the Batman in the moonlight.
He had no mouth – the only thing that suggested his face was even vaguely humanoid was the slight upturning of the shape of a nose. His eyes glowed a dim, pale white, and at the top of his head, two elongated spikes like the ears of a bat were on each side.
"I want you to tell your half-blood master this," Batman growled, his dark face pressing into Antonin's. "He's not getting his own way anymore. Everybody's sitting by and doing nothing, so that's where I come in. The Batman's going to take him down."
With that, he smashed his head into him, knocking him unconscious.
--
"We found all these Death Eaters unconscious," Remus confessed as Dumbledore arrived on the scene. "I can't believe it – all of them are just babbling on and on about 'the Batman' or whimpering like little children. Some of them are quite important to Voldemort in some ways or another."
Dumbledore adjusted his glasses. "I see. Then if there is nothing else, I believe, then we should leave this to the Aurors."
The Order had arrived nearly a few minutes ago, and they were securing the site and rounding up all the Death Eaters. This was a considerably easy task, especially as they were all unconscious.
"And there's something else," Remus added wearily, pointing to around the house. "Follow me."
As they came around, Dumbledore looked on in genuine shock.
Antonin Dolohov was mounted to the wall of the house via thick metal binders, unconscious. Large, leathery cloths cut into the shape of wings were strapped to the full lengths of his arms.
The old Headmaster looked up, gazing intently at the glowing, ghostly bat-shaped symbol in the sky, before turning to the werewolf. "Leave him to the Aurors – I believe that our task here has been completed for us."
"But Albus, who is this Batman?" Remus implored. "Is he here to help us? Is he even on our side?"
"I believe the evidence is all before us, Remus," Albus replied. "This 'Batman' does not kill and is attacking Death Eaters – is that clear enough?"
"Yes sir, but still…" Lupin trailed off, not exactly knowing what he could say to make his thoughts clear.
"I understand, Remus that an unknown force that has entered the fray is potentially dangerous, but for the time being he appears to be on our side. That does not mean we should let our guard down. I will call an emergency Order meeting tomorrow night, then we can discuss the appearance of our new vigilante." Dumbledore turned around, and disappeared with a pop.
--
"…And then Batman swoops in, and bang! Knocks out all the Death Eaters, saves the Aurors' lives and flies off!" Ron exclaimed to Seamus and Neville as they listened intently.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, come off it Ron – for all we know, the Batman could very well be just a vampire or an illusion!"
"Yeah, Ron," Harry added with a wry smile. "Who really goes around dressed like a giant bat, beating up Death Eaters and saving people? We've already got one major nutcase on the loose." As he swallowed his toast, he hastily added, "Not that it matters. The more Death Eaters we capture the better."
Ron shot him a poisonous look while Hermione merely gave him one of those 'I-told-you-so' ones.
Neville shook his head. "It does seem hard to believe, but it's not like Death Eaters are catching themselves, right?"
"And the Daily Prophet's not calling Harry or Professor Dumbledore a liar anymore," Seamus added.
"Yeah, Harry!" Ron said. "You should be thanking Batman because he saved you from a year of everybody calling you a liar."
As the Gryffindors finished up breakfast, Hermione glanced at her watch. "We've wasted enough time – we're going to be late for Defense against the Dark Arts!"
"And it's time to see whether 'Professor Umbridge' really is all that she put herself up to be in that little speech of hers," Harry murmured under his breath as they walked back to the Common Room.
--
"Greetings, class!" Umbridge acknowledged with a high-pitched, falsely sweet voice as they filed in. "Put your wands away – we'll be doing theory today."
Several students groaned as they put their robes into their bags, pockets or a variety of different places.
"This is your OWL years, and the Ministry places great importance on your OWLs," Umbridge flicked her wand as papers and books flew onto her students' desks. "Those are parchments outlining the course that we shall cover, and also this book is the one we will be using. Now, I'd like you all to turn to the first chapter and begin reading."
As the first few minutes passed Hermione immediately raised her hand.
"Have you finished the first chapter, Miss Granger?"
"Professor Umbridge – in the course sheet you gave us…aren't we going to be doing any practical magic at all?" Hermione asked with a frown.
"Of course not, Miss Granger. Once you know the theory, the practical will be fine. You'll do perfectly alright in your OWL examinations."
Harry gave off a strangled cough, which suspiciously sounded like restrained laughter – thankfully Umbridge didn't notice it.
"Then what about Voldemort?" Ron asked with a frown.
Several students gave off shudders or gasps at the utterance of that name.
"Ten points from Gryffindor from not raising your hand, Mr.…ah…Weasley!" the teacher scolded. "And those rumours concerning the resurrection of You-Know-Who are false." She then looked pointedly at Harry, who seemed to be blissfully in his own little world. "They are lies!"
"But that's ridiculous!" Seamus Finnegan burst out. "Even the Daily Prophet acknowledges that there's strong evidence to support You-Know-Who's back! Especially with Batman…"
"Thirty points from Gryffindor!" Umbridge snapped. "And detention, for both of you! You-Know-Who returning is a lie! Batman is a fabrication of the media! Death Eaters are not on the move! Now return to your books, before I remove a hundred points from any student who dares disrupt again!"
With that every student's head snapped back to appearing to read the useless textbook.
--
Harry sat silently in his temporary headquarters, contemplating his day's lessons.
The other lessons were as normal, but the DADA lesson was surprising, even if he expected nothing more from Fudge's personal undersecretary. If Voldemort ever went to open war, Hogwarts' students wouldn't have a chance, especially with all the teaching they had over the years.
The bat symbol started flashing on his laptop, which was wired up to a boxy external hard-drive for extra power and storage space. Harry frowned as he typed in a few keys.
A window popped up, with information coming in at a rapid rate.
Harry stood up with a sigh, glancing to the laptop's digital clock – it would be another late night after all.
The Harry Potter who had been in Hogwarts all these years was a fake.
Not truly a fake, but a mask for the true personality underneath.
Some would call it sheer dumb luck that he survived so many attempts on his life. It would appear that way, but if you ever looked closer, everything seemed too…perfectly orchestrated to be true.
Harry Potter was a mask for the warrior who was born a dark night as he was beaten and called worthless in his relatives' house.
No one ever noticed his growing muscles, mostly because nobody ever looked closely. Even at Hogwarts, Harry frequently wore his school robes, and outside, long-sleeved shirts.
Only Madam Pomfrey, really, and she kept her mouth shut – 'patient confidentiality' and all that like.
The first year – he had secretly practised his magic in whatever classrooms were empty. Harry moved around frequently, sparingly using his invisibility cloak. Those times he had been caught out of curfew, he could do nothing as Ron and Hermione were with him.
The second year – it was a relatively easy matter to escape those window bars, although he did it rarely, only twice in fact. Replacing them was even easier, and Ron or the twins never bothered to look closely to see the flimsy nails in place. His training became even more intense when he realised that something else was attacking the school, but it was even more difficult to sneak out at curfew, do physical training in the morning or find a quiet place to study up on his muggle books. It wouldn't do for his 'average housebroken male student' look.
The third year was considerably better, especially as all the others were at Hogsmeade. The marauders' map was a blessing, making it even easier to sneak around after curfew, albeit sneaking around with a supposed maniacal murderer on the loose.
And the fourth year was a complete shamble – what with everything happening. Cedric's death and his own slowness in acting caused him to disappear completely for the summer with his relatives' bribed to act like he was still there, returning just in time for the Weasleys to pick him up.
And now the Dark Knight had risen – his master would be proud.
He pressed his finger on his watch's digital screen for a few moments before it blinked and flashed green briefly.
Across from him, his bat-cycle's camouflage system disengaged as it reappeared out of thin air, the powerful engine roaring to life.
He ran across to the black machine, opening up a hidden compartment in the rear end and pulling out his suit.
The suit felt extremely heavy even though it seemed relatively thin and flexible. As he donned the mask, the whole thing dragged on his body until he pressed a button on his utility belt.
Instantly there was a quiet hiss as the suit molded itself to his body. His optical lenses came to life as they glowed a dim white, filled with computer readouts and information, and the suit seemed to expand slightly as it hardened to become vastly stronger to steel.
His cape drew out to its full length behind him – but it didn't seem like cloth or any material. It almost seemed like a pair of leathery, folded wings…
Batman gracefully mounted the bat-cycle, lowering his body down so his head was inches away from the computer display.
The powerful lights illuminated his exit as he powered the bat-cycle down the Chamber of Secrets, a two hundred metre stretch of tunnels and corridors before exiting out through another secret entrance that lead into a clearing in the Forbidden Forest.
As soon as he saw the moonlit sky, he accelerated the magically-charged engines to their maximum velocity as the bat-cycle lifted up, flying through the clouds and disappearing completely from sight.
--