Phoenix Core
Harry Potter was running down a back road in the heart of Diagon Alley. His breath was coming in short, quick breaths. His glasses were steamed because of the sweat pouring from his face. His black hair was being whipped around his face as he ran. Catching his foot on uneven pavement he fell. He tried to catch himself but all he achieved was bloody hands and a torn leg.
Crying out in pain he stood up. Looking down at his leg he saw blood running freely down leg. He tried to limp away, but he could not. Soon Harry saw a tall figure cast a shadow against the dimly lit brick wall. He moved to the middle of the street wand ready in his right hand. Harry soon heard footsteps echoing faintly. "This is it." He thought.
An ominous figure moved into the dim lantern light facing Harry. "Harry Potter, today I repay all of my debts."
Harry looked straight into Voldemort's eyes and said, "What is that supposed to mean Tom?"
Voldemort winced at hearing his Muggle name, but was not fazed. "It means what I said you fool. If I kill you then my debts are repaid."
Harry was not about to exchange pleasantries with this evil wretch. "Aveda Kadevra!"
Voldemort moved out of the way the bright green jet missing him. Voldemort looked at Harry and sighed, "You can't kill me boy. No one can."
"I am not just a 'nobody' Tom. And I will kill you."
"You are seventeen...you aren't even a real wizard...not even out of school yet. What makes you think that only you can kill me?"
"Tom, you killed my parents, my best friend, and so many others, and I am not going to let you get away with it. I will kill you even if I die in the process."
Voldemort smiled and looked at Harry, "You can not kill me, because you can not kill your future."
Harry lowered his right hand. "What the hell do you mean by that Tom?"
Voldemort inched closer and closer to Harry, "It means that you are me, and I am you. We are one and the same. There was never a Tom Riddle, there was only Harry Potter."
"NO!" Harry screamed lifting his wand. Voldemort smacked Harry's hand sending his wand skidding across the cobble stone.
Voldemort curled his lips in a menacing grin, "I knew that I would deny it. That is why I tried to kill myself as a child."
Harry's emerald eyes flashed dangerously, "I am not you."
"Oh, but you are. You are."
"How?" Harry asked evilly.
"Quite easy. I was born Harry James Potter, on July 31, 1980."
"No."
"Yes. I was raised by my mother's muggle sister and her husband. I was treated like a slave. I was not wanted until I went to Hogwarts."
"That is impossible." Harry said interrupting.
Harry started swaying on the spot because of the loss of blood, and weakness in his leg. "Sit down boy. I will not hurt you."
Harry reluctantly sat down on a garbage can never losing eye contact with the Dark Lord. "As I was saying boy, before you interrupted me. I was loved at Hogwarts. I was the best. But I always wanted more. You know what I am talking about."
Harry cast down his eyes, because in fact he did know what Tom was talking about. He has always wanted to be something other than the Boy-Who- Lived.
"In my sixth year the Dark Lord killed my best friend, Ron Weasley. It was too much for me to handle. I was intent on killing the man who killed my friend. I was here my dear boy, much as you are now. The only difference was the Dark Lord did not hunt me as I hunted him. So I went back to Hogwarts."
"You lie!" Harry yelled trying to stand. Voldemort just pushed him back down. Harry winched in pain.
"No Harry. I went back to Hogwarts and went through my classes excelling in all of them save for Potions where I knew the Professor hated me with a passion and yet he was one of my protectors."
"You know about Snape?" Harry asked.
"Yes. I know because I lived through it, but I could not destroy him lest change the balance of history. In the end of my seventh year I found a way to go back in time. I was only going to go back as far to save Ron, but I accidentally went back almost 50 years. I did not know how to go back so I created a new person to live as. I became Tom Riddle."
"You know that this is all very interesting, a wonderful piece of fiction...but can I please have my wand so that I can kill you."
"No. As Tom I was everything that I wanted. No one knew me. I was not famous, and above all I found my passion for the Dark Arts."
"How would the Headmaster not know you were new?"
"Oh, he knew of my predicament but he also knew that he could do nothing about it. Only I am the Headmaster knew of my secret. He posed me as an exchange student. When my power grew I erased his memory of knowing I was never really there."
"If I am you...why did I do all of those terrible things?"
"I wanted power. Little did I realize I would be the cause of my parent's death but to me it did not matter. I was feared. I began to create followers and dark creatures in my company and I was adored. I grew older wanting more and more power, and yet I realized that what I was doing was wrong."
"You have a conscious? I am amazed." Harry said with fiend with emotion.
"When you get old boy you tend to see the error in your ways. I saw all the pain I had inflicted on people. I was beginning to hate myself."
"Amazing, but what made you go after my parents?"
"I wanted to stop them from having me. So I thought that if I killed them my problem would be solved. But they learned of my plans and got a Secret Keeper. I thought that it was useless, but then I remembered Peter, so I sought him out. He compromised you and your parents."
By this time Harry was listening intently to Voldemort's every word, wincing every so often with physical pain, but that was nothing compared to what he was feeling now. The mental and emotion pain he was going through was excruciating. Voldemort continued, "I did not mean to kill my parents, they were just in the way, so I had to. Then I saw the one year old me sitting on the floor. You know the rest."
"But why didn't I die?"
"In my blind ambition of setting things right I forgot one thing. I still existed in that world before I left to go and save Ron. So I could not kill something that was obviously and alive me."
"Why would it work now?"
"Easy. Harry Potter ceased to exist after I went back in time. I had to wait for the day of my disappearance to kill myself. If I kill you know, there will no Voldemort or Tom Riddle, history will erase itself start all over."
"How do I know that this is not a false trick to kill me?"
"Our wands. They do not share two different cores, because they are the same feather. Ollivander knew this when he told you/me when I bought this wand."
"You are a lying bastard." Yelled Harry through clenched teeth. Voldemort handed Harry his wand.
"Look at it Harry." Harry looked down at the wand in his hand. He turned it this way and that until he found what he was looking for, small initials carved into the side. Exactly as his. Harry scrambled over to his thrown wand and found the same mark. Everything about their wands was identical.
"It's impossible."
"No. I have never asked for help in my life Harry. Help me right these wrongs."
Harry looked up at the man. His skin was scaly and his eyes mere slits. "Show me who you truly are."
Voldemort took his wand and allowed Harry to perform a spell that shows a person for who they truly are. When the spell was complete there stood a skinny man in very baggy clothes, he had jet black hair with silver running through it that was always untidy, emerald green eyes, and a thin scar on his forehead. The only difference between the two men was one was obviously older. His eyes were sunken, and he seemed to carry a heavy load on his back.
"It's impossible." Harry repeated.
"No Harry, it is anything from impossible. We are wizards after all. Help me." Harry looked into himself and noticed the tears filling in his eyes.
"How can I trust you?"
"You can't, but you are going to have to."
Harry looked at Tom and sighed, "What do I have to do?"
"Say this spell." Tom said pulling out and ancient folded piece of parchment.
Harry looked down and read, "Fire and ashes, blood and bone, love enduring, eternal rest, rewrite history, for the best. Destroy what was not meant to be, and forever change history." He looked at Tom and said, "This is it."
"No. We have to say it in perfect unison, and at the end we say the opposite persons name. I would say 'Harry Potter' and you would say 'Tom Riddle'."
Harry looked at the piece of paper in his hand. If Voldemort was telling the truth then he didn't have much longer to stay here anyway. Looking at his older self he said, "Alright...lets get this over with."
Voldemort took another slip of paper with the same spell on it and said, "On the count of three. One..." Harry looked down, "Two..." Tom looked down, "Three."
Both began;
"Fire and ashes, blood and bone,
Love enduring, eternal rest,
Rewrite history, for the best.
Destroy what was not meant to be,
And forever change history.
Harry Potter
Tom Riddle"
July 31, 1980
"Come on Lily! You can do it!"
"I am going to kill you when this is over with! Do you hear me! Kill you!" Lily screamed as another contraction took control. She twisted her husbands arm. James moved his body with the way she was turning but he still was in pain.
"Come on Lily! One more push...just one more." The nurse said.
"James Potter you are going to die!" She screamed with one final push and then she relaxed, because there in the arms of the doctor was her tiny baby. "Oh. Oh, my little baby." Lily said starting to cry.
James walked to the bottom of the bed and started to cry and smile at the same time. "It's a boy. I have a son." He looked at the doctor and said, "This is Harr..."
"No."
"What?"
"I do not want that name anymore. I don't like it."
"Why?" pressed James.
"Call it mother's intuition." Lily said holding out her arms for her son. Holding her baby tight in her arms she saw his jet black hair. He opened his eyes and looked at his mother.
"Look Lily, he has your eyes."
This is just a short fic that I thought of this afternoon. For some reason it makes sense to me, but hey I am sorta crazy.
I know that both Harry and Voldemort are out of character...but then I also wanted to convey the weakness that Voldemort had, and his weakness was evil, whilst Harry's was good. Together they erased Voldemort/Tom Riddle. There never was an evil time caused by him and the Potter's survived. In the end Lily doesn't name her son Harry because for some reason she feels that something horrible could come from it, and thus Harry Potter never came to be.
Like I said this story is kind of strange, but I hope that you liked it
Laurie
(by the way this story was published earlier but for some reason deleted it. So thanks to my reviewers the first time - GoddessMoonLady, Bellatrix Riddle, gialian, leggaly4me, Isis, and otakuprincess)