Category: Book
Sub Category: Harry Potter
Series Title: Corvine
Title: White is Just Another Shade of Grey
Genres: General - cause I can't think what else it would go under, really
Language: English
Author: Zephyr5
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Companion to 'Serpentine': Dumbledore's scheming has backfired in a big way - Harry Potter is Missing, Presumed Dead. Without a saviour, without a backup, and without a clue, the wizarding world is completely unaware of the repercussions of Dumbledore's meddling - but for how long?
Warnings: mention of male/male relationship later, dark!Harry, confused!Snape, Slytherin-like!Dumbledore, eventual character death. Oh, and everyone's probably horribly OOC…
Spoiler Warnings: none - this is AU through and through (obviously, since he gets abandoned before the books really get started)
Disclaimers: I do not own the canon Harry Potter characters who make an appearance, I do, however, own the idea of Nye, shadow vipers, and the plot.
AN: Companion fic to my challenge answer 'Serpentine' - cause I really didn't like the 'optional epilogue' (that I've now removed). I was stunned by the number of reviews I got for 'Serpentine', and, inspired in a large part by Sylvanus Snape's wondering of what the 'light' side thought of it all, this (hopefully) is a much better and more complete conclusion/companion piece to 'Serpentine'
Everyone who reviewed 'Serpentine' - your replies and acknowledgements all await at the end :) (this includes those who reviewed/had their reviews responded to in chpt 4 of 'Serpentine')
White is Just Another Shade of GreyOctober 31st, 1981. The wizarding world reeled in shock as Voldemort, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, was defeated by a one-year-old Harry Potter. That he had lost his parents in the attack was lamented, but easily glossed over, after all, what were the final two casualties of Voldemort's reign of terror when compared to all those who had gone before? If anything Lily and James were considered lucky, for they had simply been killed, not tortured until death was a mercy.
But some lamented. Some of those even truly felt sorrow. Others merely lamented the sacrifice of pawns in a far larger game...
-
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...
Dumbledore knew Voldemort hadn't been defeated. Not really, not completely. Oh, certainly the dark wizard had been discorporated, but that would only set him back a few years, maybe a decade depending on how many of his followers remained true. No, all that had been achieved was a little space, a little time in which to breathe - and plan.
Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...
The prophecy's coming had left him with precious little time in which to prepare. Fortunately fate had been kind - not its usual fickle self - and he had barely needed to nudge Lily and James into marrying sooner than they had planned. All it had taken was a carefully crafted anti-protection spell interwoven with the emergency portkey that all Order members carried, and then a comment to the Auror medi-witch that Lily seemed to be looking a little peaky.
Whether either James or Lily had realised what had been done - and by whom - there was nothing in their faces or actions that betrayed any shock or mistrust. Maybe they had assumed he knew best, and that they would be told when it was time. Maybe they had assumed that they had simply cast the protection spell incorrectly. He would never know, and, quite frankly, as it didn't have any import on current or future events, he didn't care.
The boy had been born.
And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...
The boy had been born, and Voldemort had managed to botch his casting of the killing curse so spectacularly that it had rebounded and discorporated him. Dumbledore suppressed his snort of amusement. Grindelwald had been at least a challenging opponent, if somewhat predictable. The former Dark Lord had never lost control, although his intelligence and sheer power were less than Voldemort's.
With Grindelwald out of the way, and Voldemort a negligable threat at best - although, he had to admit, the boy did have his moments - Albus Dumbledore had patiently pulled strings and offered sweets until all his plans were set. Short term plans - such as Voldemort's blanket wishes to 'purify wizard-kind' - were all very well, but change only really happened with long term plans.
Dumbledore's plans couldn't be called anything other than long term. In fact, his plans weren't due to come to fruition for another...16 years. Unless, of course, Voldemort did something abysmally stupid in the mean time. He had liked Grindelwald's predictability.
And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...
Still, there was always the possibility of something going wrong, whether it be some outside agency or some other factor not included - or underestimated. Not that he believed any such thing could put a serious wrinkle into his plans. No, minor glitches maybe - for instance, a mild compelling charm might be needed to ensure that the boy's muggle relatives weren't quite as...welcoming...as they might be.
Hogwarts had to seem like heaven - which meant the boy's home had to seem like hell. Only then would the boy truly be open and ready to be moulded into his weapon. With Harry Potter to defeat Voldemort - tragically dying in the process, or as a result of the process - Dumbledore would be able to settle the inevitable chaos into order once more. An order more resembling his idea of order, with more of his ideals than currently existed.
And after that, well, there was always a new Dark Lord waiting in the wings to take over, and prophecies were such fickle things...
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...
-
AN: whew… -wipes away sweat- that really didn't want to be written -falls over- I just hope the rest goes better... should be longer at any rate :)
And now, to respond to all my reviewers from 'Serpentine'…please don't kill me if this AN ends up larger than the fic - it's why this is at the end not the beginning :)
Chapter 1 reviews:
Ceris Malfoy: Glad you like it - hope you enjoy the rest (and the sequel!)
Sylvanus Snape: I'm glad you liked the beginning - took me long enough to find one I liked! Alas, whilst the idea is indeed original, much of it is not mine, so credit there to PxW for the original challenge :)
DuShuZhi: Thanks for your review - hope you like the rest of it :)
HoshiHikari: Yes, only the beginning - or at least chapter one was -grins- This, alas, is the end -wipes away tear-
Slash despiser: LOL - maybe I am 'sick freaks' (and yes, I mean the plural), but I like your, um, review(?) simply because it gives me a chance to explain some of my reasoning behind the story -smirks- Let's dissect your review section by section shall we?
'would be a good story if not for the fact that harry mate is a 65 year old fart…' Actually I think your sentiments may be more along the lines that it would be a good story if not for the fact that you don't like the pairing. Harry should also be capitalised (since it's a name), and have an 's at the end to indicate the 'mate' is 'Harry's'. I'll let the '65 year old fart' comment pass (mainly because I'm tired - be grateful for small mercies).
'why cant you people see that that is even more discutting than incest relationships?' Well…I'll start simply with two words, spelling, and punctuation. But if you mean that the age difference is more disgusting than an incest relationship…then it is, if you'll excuse the pun, all relative. We poor muggles, alas, live for (on average) around 80 years, so an age difference of some 50 years is pretty big and pretty rare - not entirely unheard of though. Wizards on the other hand, live for (I believe) around 200 years, which makes an age difference of 50 years fairly insignificant. What makes it seem greater is that Harry is still very much at one end of the scale, when you get to the point where one person is saying 'I'm 150, you're only 100' the ridiculousness of the situation becomes apparent. As for the whole incest thing…I've heard an interesting theory (although I've not investigated deliberately), that incest is only 'applicable' when issue might result - i.e. between male and female. However, I'm not going to speculate further because it has absolutely no bearing on this particular piece of work.
'i he might aswell go back i time and f-ck his father..atleast they are the same age…' Again, I's should be capitalised - and watch your spacing. And what is the point of f-ck - are the reviews on censored-shrugs- Right, well I'm assuming the point of this mangled sentiment is to emphasise how much more disgusting you find an HxV relationship to an incestuous one. Did you even read the summary for the fic? I mean, how many Dark Lords are there?
'people are always going on about how sick a relationship with harrys own mother would be(shezzas future remaped) but i think it normal complared to a relationgshit with an 65 YEAR old MALE…you sick freaks' Oh where to start - right, same place as usual -grins- Spelling, grammar, punctuation! Please - flames without those three are just ineffective and plain funny (thanks on that count, I was laughing all day with this - I think my housemates are scared now). That said, I see we're still on the 'incest over age-gap' rant. Personally I worry that you find either type of relationship normal. And no, I'm not contradicting myself. Normal implies that you find it everyday, that it's 'common' - it's not common in our society, for the reasons I stated earlier, we don't live long enough. That said, where, if such a relationship wasn't, at some point, normal, and between males, where do you think the term 'catamite' comes from?
Wow, you got nearly a page - greedy person. Next time (if there is a next time), leave your e-mail as a gesture of sincerity, because either you don't have the guts to take a response, or you don't really believe what you're saying.
Chapter 2 reviews:
Dahlias: I also am stunned - at the number of reviews I've had -grins- and the one flame -smirks- toasty… Ahem, well Hermione died because Voldemort needed the blood of an enemy (originally he would have used Cedric, except Harry went along with him), but she didn't have the protection that Harry's wand gave him in the book, so she died and, as canon (one assumes), Peter cast the morsmorde (probably using Hermione's wand). As for Harry blushing…well, it struck me that no, normally he wouldn't blush because he wouldn't be embarrassed by it, however! (dun dun duuun) He blushes because he has professed disgust for anything 'human' - well masturbating certainly isn't a snake thing, so he's blushing because he's getting pleasure out of something 'human' and keeps expecting Nye to comment on his hypocrisy.
Chapter 3 reviews:
pimpnnpink420: glad you liked it, thanks for reviewing.
Bohemian-cackles with you, scaring housemates even more- I do indeed like snakes, I have plans to get a tattoo of one (if I can find a nice Slytherin one), but don't tell anyone -realises the internet is not a good place to keep things secret- eh -shrugs- Horror or comedy…hmm…completely your choice :) As for Dumbledore…lets just say that I think the shock contributed to his death - certainly he didn't have much chance to defend himself.
Yes, credit for Nye's sense there goes to Twig's 'A Long Hard Road' - a Final Fantasy VII fic over on noire sensus, lets just say that mako can have a similar effect as that which I imagined for the result of a human/snake liaison. Magical breeds of snake, I believe, would come about naturally as a result of the snakes absorbing magic from their surroundings. I think non-magical snakes would then be the equivalent of human squibs - sometimes the squib side will breed true and, voila, a new species of non-magical snake.
Dahlias: Yes, this is now done, it is official, no more shall I be begged, pleaded, cajoled, bribed or threatened into writing -glares at muses- however, if (as was originally intended) you wish to ignore this (imho) crappy ending (I'm nowhere near as happy with this as I am with the rest, and the style feels wrong in places as well), I shall not be offended - in fact I'll sympathise. I personally am going to do just that once this thing is posted.
Um...as you may have gathered, Corvine is a good example of my muses making me eat crow (pun intended) - meh, I should be doing work dammit -glares at muses-
Bakura: Thank you - this alas, is all the continuation anyone is getting. I have other things in the works though -grins-
Again, I'll eat the words, since the muses have decided that a companion fic is one of those 'things' in the works -glares at muses-
HoshiHikari: Yes, it was meant to end at chapter 3 -hits self for forgetting to add 'fin' to the end of the previous chapter- but this provided a few answers for various things that I'd raised earlier, such as what, exactly, Nye was and why it was so conveniently there.
indus: Yes, mushy Voldemort is fun -grins- He's only like that around Hades/Harry though, and mainly because he's just at such a loss for what to do - he knows being his usual Dark Lord self isn't going to work, and so he just goes reeling in completely the opposite direction -smirks- I just love Sev's reaction in the other room though - had me giggling for hours! Harry's transformations, on the other hand, are always going to be few and far between. He's always preferred his snake form, and feels safer and more confident in it - people (who he really doesn't like much) are much less likely to approach him as a snake. About the only times he'll change into Harry are if it's warranted in defence of Voldemort, or if they're having sex -smirks-
Virginia Riddle-Malfoy: Yes they do don't they, especially when Harry is quite happily Dark!Harry -smirks- He does look good as a 'sadistic snake animagus' -licks lips- Alas for this is all you get - continuation will have to rely on your own imagination (just think lots of hot Harry/Hades x Voldemort action - plus background Severus x Lucius action)
Keep the above thoughts -smirks-
kiayea: Thank you. Here is the companion fic, if you were wondering what everyone else was doing/thinking.
dancingdragonfire: Not so much a conclusion as an alternate view to the fic's events (which will include a slightly more obvious ending)
LittelWolf: Thank you. You are a wonderful example to everyone who reads and doesn't review - it's not a painful process at all, and if two words is a stretch, well, 'great' would do. It's even one syllable. ;)
The-13th-To-Fall: No, no sequel. I'm afraid the blueberry creamcheese pie has been snatched away and will not be returned (Voldemort's not the sharing type ;). I very rarely write proper lemons, especially given policies. Maybe, one day, I will jump archives - but not today.
Still not a sequel per-se, sorry.
SheWolfe7: This, I am afraid, is all the more you're getting - I hope it's enough. Thanks for the review.
Grr - damn muses are making me alter all my review responses - enjoy the companion fic.
Sylvanus Snape: Well, there's not much light resistance to think, but I hope this view of things from the other side met with your approval, it was, after all, your review that sparked it :) As for Hades learning more about his parents…he doesn't really care/think about them. He's been brought up by a serpent - snakes aren't the most nurturing parents - and lives for the present and the future, not the past. -shrugs- maybe if he came across a dementor and remembered their deaths he might wonder briefly, but as no one's likely to mention it around him in parseltongue (doesn't speak or understand anything else remember), I'd say he's not going to enquire.
A slightly more complete alternate POV - there still won't be much light resistance in the end, but this is a slightly more coherent view of events.
CrawBrad: Thank you, I love Hades too -ducks killing curse- but I'd hastily add that he's definitely Voldemort's and pleasedon'tbitemeHades-runs and hides from shadow viper-
Chapter 4 (removed) reviews:
twilightshadow: Heh, flames are always entertaining to respond to -grins- Thank you, and you too.
Ceris Malfoy: I agree, chapter four is now gone - hope the Corvine fic meets with your approval :)
Virginia Riddle-Malfoy: I would probably be more upset with a nasty review that actually had a point, I had a review for another fic pointing out (coherently) that I'd forgotten to put a slash warning in the summary - that quite embarrassed me -hides- I believe I've seen your fic (on one or more of the many archives I visit now and then), I will indeed check it out -grins- Dumbledore really is a manipulative old git.
DuShuZhi: Doesn't necessarily make the story much longer, but Corvine should provide another POV for Serpentine.
Eruvande Snape-preens- why thank you, I'm glad you liked Serpentine, and I hope (if you read this) that you're similarly enjoying Corvine. :)
Whew - not doing that number of responses again -falls over in exhaustion- Again, I apologise for the fact that this fic is 2/7 fic and 5/7 other stuff - it should be fairly obvious that other chapters will not suffer this issue though :)