The Perks of Being a Horcrux
Summary: Featuring a not-so-dormant Tom Riddle, badass Horcruxes and lots of bashing. Abused!Harry, Manipulative!Dumbledore, Undecided pairings
Warnings: Swearing, child abuse, violence, may contain character death.
Disclaimer: Why would someone deem disclaimers necessary in a site called "Fanfiction. net " is beyond me.
Author's Note: This is my first attempt at writting fanfiction and it is heavily "influenced" by other fanfictions on this site. I'm still a student and English is not my first language so there might be some grammar errors as well as typos. I will try to respond to all reviews (if I get any that is). Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated but flamers can kindly fuck off... No one is forcing you to read my works. ^.^ (unless they are, in which case you should probably tell me)
CHAPTERS 2 & 3 WERE DELETED AND ARE NOW BEING REWRITTEN. I WILL POST THE DATE IN WHICH EACH CHAPTER WAS LAST UPDATED TO AVOID CONFUSION. I'M TERRIBLY SORRY FOR THIS MESS. THIS CHAPTER WAS UPDATED IN 25/07/2016.
"Normal speech"
'Thoughts'
'Incantations'
Spells, potions etc.
'Parseltongue'
Prologue
Godric's Hollow, 1981
A lone cloaked figure made its way to the Potter's house, an imposing yet simple building near Godric Hollow's cemetery and stopped to linger in front of the front door. Long pale spidery fingers reached up and lowered the hood revealing the face of the strongest dark wizard of this generation, Lord Voldemort. His head was completely bald, he had snake-like features with red slitted eyes that glowed menacingly in the dark and he was exuding a terrifying but at the same time alluring aura. The same hand then reached forward and with a dismissive flick of his wrist dissolved the wards surrounding the building. The door flung open and the man entered the house.
Meanwhile, James and Lily Potter, the residents of this place, upon realising that the wards had crumbled woke up from their slumber and sprang into action.
"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off..."
The intruder watched amused as the redhead stormed upstairs and turned to face James Potter, renounced auror and loyal follower of the Light. Maniacal laughter echoed around the place as he casually deflected the curses thrown at him and upon mere seconds the auror lay dead on the floor, Voldemort already climbing the stairs that separrated him from his goal. There he found Lily standing in front of a crib, desperately trying to shield his target from him.
"Stand aside, foolish woman." He did not want to kill her, for her death could be a crippling blow to a certain Potion Master's loyalty.
"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" She pleaded.
"I said stand aside!" he hissed, hardly amused at her antics.
'Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead...' She screamed desperately.
The Dark Lord took a warning step forwards, granting her a last chance at survival. Did she really think that there was any hope for the boy?
"Not Harry! Please … have mercy … have mercy…" She said inbetween broken sobs.
The man's eyes narrowed as he drew his wand.
Green eyes stared up at him pleadingly, yet they still shined passionatelly, still contained that fierce determination and bravery and motherly protectiveness. And that was when it struck him; Lily Evans was willing to sacrifice her own life for the boy, and suddenly he felt overwhelmed, unable to find any logical reasoning behind such behavior. Why would she seek death when his lifelong goal was the exact opposite? Why would anyone want to die, why choose death when granted the option to live? Suddenly Voldemort felt the strangest of desires to spare the girl, to let her and her son live. But no, he had waited too long for this, he told himself as he recovered from the shock...
Why should he spare her when he had never done so before? But still, he felt his resolve weakening when their eyes met once again, emerald clashing with red, and he was faced with foreign emotions that tried to reach his almost non- existant heart, but the effort was futile; he was far too gone by now, and he slowly gathered his resolve, pushed them away and stared at her, his face once again an emotionless mask, his eyes buring red with fury and hate and everything he, Lord Voldemort, should be. Straightening his posture he pointed his wand at her.
...Too long to let a mere Mudblood ruin it. A flash of green light later and the woman was dead. He then turned his head around to face the reason he had come here in the first place. There, watching silently from a crib was a baby who could be no older than one. His head was adorned with jet black tufts of hair and his eyes were a deep emerald green. Carved on the wood was what he assumed to be the boy's name; "Harry". A pity he would have to kill him, as the amount of power he could sense from him for a boy his age was surprising to say the least, and while that amount of power on the wrong hands could be potentially dangerous to him and his cause, he couldn't help but wonder if there was any way he could've possibly turned the boy against the Light side in the future; but that trail of thought was soon abandoned as he reminded himself of the boy's parentage. There was no doubt that he would grow up just like them. We couldn't have that, now could we? And let's not forget that damned prophecy... He could recall every single word of the thing, the words still echoing in his mind from when his loyal servant relayed them to him.
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches …
Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies …
He knew that what he got was not the complete version and the he might be missing some vital points, but Voldemort had already given up on his rationality -among other things that he had deemed unnecessary and obnoxious for a rising Dark Lord.
All possible threats had to be eliminated, and so Voldemort took one step forward and raised his wand until it rested between the boys eyes, while said boy continued to stare at him curiously.
'Avada Kedavra' he hissed. A blinding green light shot out from the tip of his wand and the Dark Lord was no more.
Now when faced with the Killing Curse, no one could tell of what would happen should you survive it, simply because it was a feat previously thought to be impossible. So when the wizarding world found their savior bearing no visible traces or marks from the encounter they just asumed that the boy had somehow defeated the Dark Lord and survived the whole ordeal. Of course there were many different theories as to how that could have happened, but none of them, except Dumbledore and a few others even came close to figuring the mystery that was The Boy Who Lived. Not one of them thought to check the boy for lasting side effects or injuries caused by the curse, assured that the old Headmaster would take care of him and set everything on its right path.
But he now was an orphaned newborn, and a magical one at that. That alone should have led to investigation from the Wizarding Child Welfare department of the Minstry until a suitable replacement willing to adopt the child was found, even though his parents' will had made that considerably easier for them, seeing as they boy was already legally assigned his godfather Sirius Black as his guardian, with Remus Lupin the next candidate in the rare case that Black was not available.
However, none of these things were important to one Albus Dubledore. To him, the only thing that trully mattered was to find a way to keep the child on his side, and prevent him from realising his potential to become a wizard far more powerful than Voldemort or even the old man himself. What this world did not need right now was a new Dark Lord, and he wasn't going to repeat past mistakes. And the only way to do that was to make it impossible for him to discover his true power by leaving him with his Muggle relatives who would surely do anything to prevent him from using magic and hope that his magical ones never realised what he had done with the Potters' child (something that became a lot easier when Black oh so conveniently got out of the way; Lupin was easily deemed unsuitable due to his creature status).
Dumbledore was no fool. He knew perfectly well just how much the boy's relatives despised everything that did not fit their definition of normal. He also knew that young Harry could never hope to win their approval, let alone the love and warmth that were required for a proper upbringing. But he also knew that by condemning him to his fate he would later on be able to come in and "save" the boy, guaranting his absolute trust and making sure that he would come to despise everything that could be assosiated with anything even remotely Dark. Only then would he be ready to sacrifice himself for their world. And when he did Dumbledore would be the only trully prominent Light figure left and he would be able to finally mold this world to what it should be.
So, when he left the Saviour of the Wizarding World on the doorstep of Noumber Four Privet Drive he was quite confident that everything had gone as planned. The letter that he had tucked in the baby's bundle explained whatever he thought would be neccessary and it would ensure the boy's continued existence. Then, when little Harry became of age he would send someone who was sure to introduce him to the right ideals to accompany him to Hogwarts. Everything was perfect, really. And so he left, ignorant as he was to some critical facts that would eventually change the fate of their world. One of them being a not-so-friendless Harry Potter and another a restless Horcrux whose existence he couldn't have possibly predicted at the time.
Vernon Dursley was not having a good day. It all started when he found a cat sitting on his fence that for a moment appeared to be reading a map. But surely he was imagining things, for the map had disappeared from view in the time span it took him to blink. That, however, did not explain why the cat, instead of fleeing as it should have, simply stared, no, glared back at him after he tried to shoo it away from his house. Nor did it explain the groups of strange men that were flooding the streets, all dressed in long robes; some of them even wearing pointed hats, that were excitedly whispering to one another. Sure, he could've just dismissed it as a new trend, even if a horrible one at that, but they bore too many similarities with them. And then, when he decided to travel to the nearest bakery to grab something to eat, a small man dressed like them, bumped into him and starting spewing nonsense. And surely the hushed whispers about that Harry Potter kid were nonsense as well.. There was no way they could be talking about them, right?
And so Mr. Dursley could be seen getting off his car and into the house, where he was intantly assaulted by his son, Dudley, who demanded that he gave him sweets. Chuckling at his Ickle Dudleykins' antics Vernon reached inside his bag and gave the boy a big doughnut he had bought for him from the bakery and then greeted his wife, Petunia, with a chaste kiss on her cheek. The ideal family moment was soon interrupted though from the spokesman on the TV, who could be heard talking about strange events taking place in the country. An alarm went off in his head when he heard about flocks of owls in broad daylight and shooting stars all over the country. Those things, combined with the strange encounter had today and those cloaked folks talking about a Potter, were more than enough to alert anyone, even with such a limited intelligence as his.
Fortunatelly, when he voiced his worries to his beloved wife, she was quick to reassure him that even if something had indeed happened to the Potters, it couldn't affect their lives, as they had made not wanting to do anything with them quite clear over the years. Even so, Vernon remained up till late, thinking over the events of this most unusual day. He had a bad feeling that he couldn't quite shake off, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself to have faith in the words of his wife. No, that was not good day at all.
Petunia Dursley nee Evans was the first one to wake up in the Dursley's residence and was instantly hit with a foreboding feeling. Suppresing a shiver she quickly dismissed it and after she was done with her morning routine she went downstairs to prepare breakfast for her Dudders and a warm cup of coffee for her husband.
However her content mood was squashed when she opened the front door, and instead of the post she had anticipated she came face to face with a wailing baby boy that was wrapped up and placed in a basket on her doorstep. Maternal insticts kicking in she hastily scooped up the child and shut the door behind her so as to avoid unwanted attention from the neighbours.
A few soothing words and a gentle rocking later the boy had finally calmed down and was now gazing at her direction with glazed, pale green eyes. It was then that she noticed two things; one of them that the being a letter clutched tightly on his hand, and the other the fact that the boy seemed to be nearly blind. Curiosity getting the best of her she set the child on the couch and opened the letter.
Dear Mrs. Dursley,
I have to tell you by this letter that Lily and James Potter were killed in a wizarding duel by Lord Voldemort, the darkest of all wizards. I understand that you may be devastated from these news, as we all are.
But not all is lost. Harry here has survived. We don't know why but that doesn't matter. We have a theory that Voldemort's deadly curse somehow was bounced back by Harry himself. How that happened we cannot tell for sure, though we are pretty sure that Harry will some day turn out to be an outstanding wizard.
And this is where you and your family come in. I chose you for a very important you are his closest living relatives, I, Albus Dumbledore, entrust him into your care. You are the only people who can offer him the protection that he will no doubt need. By accepting Harry into your family, you will activate protecting spells that will shield him from harm as long as he can call this place home. Said wards wil fade when he comes of the wizarding age of seventeen, but it is crucial that he doesn't leave the house until said date. The Dark Lord may be dead, but his followers are not. It is very important for both our worlds that Harry grows up safe and protected, since he is of a much greater importance than you might think.
I hope that you will tell Harry about the fate of his parents and about his being a wizard. When the time is right Harry will get an acceptance letter from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy (owled by me) which will entail a list of all the necessary equipment for his schooling. Until then you will receive monthly financial support; which is the least we could do after what transpired this night.
Yours sincerely,
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
PS: Magical children are the same yet at the same time so different from your own. If there are any questions that you may want to ask please feel free to do so. Judging from past experience, you will know what to do.
Petunia Dursley looked thoughtfully at the the baby in front of her. Although she would never admit it, Lily was her sister after all, and now she would never be able to say goodbye. Fighting back her tears and swallowing her guilt she came to a decision. She would take the boy, but she would make sure that when the time came he would be clean of all the freakishness that surrounded her sister. And, truth be told, the monthly stipend that was offered as a bonus was quite convincing to say the least.
So... That was the first chapter! A review would mean the world to me as I want to see if this story is worth continuing and whether you guys liked it ^.^ This is an idea I just came up with and I haven't planned on what could happen in the future nor written any more chapters in advance, so do tell me if you want to see something in particular. Should be fun to see how this story turns out in the end. I will try to upload at least once a week but I'm a proffesional at procrastination so I don't know how long I'll be able to keep it up...