Home is where you can go back.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot.
Pairings: Severus/Harry (slash but not the main plot of the story)
Rating: M
Summary: AU. Tom Riddle adopted by Harry and later by Severus when they are bonded; Tom has lost his memories and become a baby again instead of being dead after the war.
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AN: I've not read the seventh book and it's been a while since I've gone over the other six books so the story is definitely AU. I read enough fanfics to be spoilers over the ending so I have a gist of it. It's not that I don't have books, I got all here, the last was given by a friend but Severus' death really suck so in my head I denied his death or resurrected him somehow.
Thank you very much Metzy78 for beta the story. She added ideas onto the story that amaze me.
Please forgive any small errors or discrepancies that may have resulted from miscommunication between myself and my beta Metzy (who helps me around the edges when my English needs a little tweaking). Sometimes my vision and her edits don't quite meet in the middle.
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Prologue
Tom was so, so cold and his body would not stopped shaking. His small fingers clutched the sweater closer, cramping the fabric in front of his chest hoping it could somehow help to reduce the cold. He had copied it from one of the warm looking people that he had spied on hurriedly passing his hiding place, but it had given only a small amount of relief.
A grating noise started to irritate him. It was even worse than the machines noises that came from the factory across the street, a small tear creeping into the corner of his eyes when he remembered that first blissful hour it had ceased and he had managed to finally get some sleep before the noises had resumed louder than before. Tom listened carefully trying figure out where it was coming from and was shocked to realise it was his own clenching and chattering teeth.
Tom was scared. He had thought he could survive without his caretakers when he magically disappeared from the orphanage. Out here he could get away from the bullies and the whispers from the other kids. It was such a happy time for him at first. No curfew, no harassment and he had bought as many lollies and all that he wanted just from the begging he made on the street. He learned to copy from the street entertainers and even sang a few songs that he picked up here and there.
Best of all, he found this hiding place to stay, an abandoned warehouse in a run down, and he had found particularly noisy, estate. Tom sighed when he thought back to that first day of winter. He had left the orphanage without any clear plans or thoughts of the future. He had forgotten to bring silly things like his diary and his favourite socks, but he had also forgotten the important things such as blankets and his one worn jumper. It would start to snow soon, growing heavier and heavier over the next month. He was so cold now and the future began to dull from the initial bright sparks he had lit. He began to fear for his life.
He wanted to live. He did not understand why such a thing was so strongly impressed in his mind. His thirst for freedom and comfort, had diminished, and even his sweet tooth had failed him some weeks back, but life was the one desire that had yet to diminish and he would not relinquish it without a fight.
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Harry Potter's fingers ran roughly through his hair, the nervous gesture finally settling to needing his scalp at the base of his neck. Fate just seemed to love playing with him. After all, what else could explain the fact that every time his life seemed to settle into some pattern of contentment and normalcy, the carpet would be ripped, or at least pulled a little out from under him.
An hour ago…….
Harry was leaving work early today, eager for the outing he had planned with Teddy and James, his godson and son. Unfortunately an inevitable emergency had made him delay his departure for an hour while he checked up for dark art activity in lower London. "Just great", he thought. He knew that Ginny would not appreciate waiting around for him in an unfamiliar part of town so squarely in the middle of Muggle territory.
After their reunion after the war, her constant nagging and questioning of everything got on his nerves and had been a one of the contributing factors in their break up. It had happened just a few months before their planned spring wedding. He had resigned himself to the fact that it was finally over and begun making tentative steps to moving on when three months later, Ginny had attempted to get back together with him when she found out she was pregnant. They had tried at the relationship again, but nothing had really changed, and it had not worked out. When she finally accepted it was over, they had made the decision to keep the baby. Children were the most precious thing in the Wizarding world, and in an attempt to promote the repopulation of the Wizarding World, abortion under any but the most except extreme of circumstances was declared a "kiss worthy" crime. James had been the only good thing that came out of their relationship.
From the first day he was born, Harry had shared James' upbringing. He never did ask Ginny outright, but he knew she had somehow used magic to impregnate herself with his child as they had given up on any sort of physical relationship months before even the original break up. At least, they still remain friends but Ginny often gave him a hard time and he accepted it with grace. He could never shake the small amount of guilt that he carried after their breakup. They had been gone through so much together, and there was no reason why it shouldn't have worked out, but somehow being with her had never quite felt right. He had spent a few nights over Firewhiskey contemplating the feeling and kept coming back to a few lines of poetry almost forgotten. 'The heart can be fooled, and the mind subverted but the Soul... The soul cannot be quietened. It Roars, It ages, It Demands.'
Ginny's red hair stood out in stark relief against the crowd in this dreary weather. She sat at the table outside the café with the hot cup of liquid still steaming, completely at odds with the almost non-existent remains of a pastry. A slight snarl of annoyance fleeted across Harry's features. Such a blatant, if not large, display of magic in an obviously Muggle area demanded he make an immediate arrest. He shook his head to clear away his final thoughts of the inevitable words Ron would have for him if he followed his instinct.
He composed his face in a somewhat forced calm and strode to Ginny's side and greeted her with a light kiss on the cheek.
"How are you Ginny?"
She smiled and folded her paper, "Good Harry and I see you're well too". They had been seeing each other every week since they had started sharing James's care, and tried to maintain a friendly, if not sometimes uncomfortable friendship for James' sake.
"Where have you been? I've been here waiting for an hour", her voice now a little clipped.
"Sorry, another emergency at work. Thanks for waiting; I owe you one. Where are the children?" He was scanning around the area for them.
"They're around somewhere. I told them they could look around as long as they stayed close"
"How long since you last saw them?" Harry frowned. He had a bad feeling about this.
"About forty minutes give and take. Why?" she looked up innocently at him. Harry was not particularly good at controlling his temper at the best of times, but when it came to his family and from her experience, the look on his face showed had well and truly reached that point and was about to erupt.
"Merlin help us" Harry spun around scrambling to find a somewhere discreet he could perform the Point-me spell to locate the children.
"Harry, Harry!", "What's going on?" Ginny caught up with him at the nearly corner.
"Merlins balls Ginny, this is Muggle London not Diagon Alley. You're can't let them out of your sight for 2 seconds let alone 45 minute to wander about alone" He screamed,
"I…"
"I'm not interested Ginny, just leave off and let me perform the damn tracking spell". He took off at a dead run and finally found a nearby alley reaching for his wand.
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TBC………………
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