4/7/14. This is the cliche Harry-is-the-BWL's-brother fic, with some twists. Powerful!Harry, Slytherin!Harry, Grey/Dark!Harry
Disclaimer- JK. Rowling is not on the dark side, or Voldemort would've won. So, I do not own Harry Potter. Or any canon characters. I just own Alius, for now.
Summary: Harry has always been choosy. When Voldemort struck him with the killing curse and left the lightning scar when he was one, he vanished it. When the Sorting hat tried to place him with his Boy-who-lived twin, he chose Slytherin. 'Cos Harry isn't a 'Potter' anymore. He's regaining his heritage as the last in the ancient line of Slytherin!
Rating: KPlus
Genre: Angst, Family, Maybe some Romance...
"I remember tears streaming down your face
When I said, I'll never let you go
When all those shadows almost killed your light
I remember you said, don't leave me here alone
But all that's dead and gone has passed tonight
Just close your eyes
The sun is going down
You'll be alright
No one can hurt you now
Come morning light
You and I'll be safe and sound
Don't you dare look out your window
Darling everything's on fire
The war outside our door keeps raging on
Hold on to this lullaby
Even when the music's gone, gone"
Safe and Sound, T. Swift.
Choosy, A Prologue.
Two boys say in the cot that night. Alius Remus Potter, and his brother, Harry James Potter. Both were named for their parents' friends. Alius, for Albus Dumbledore and Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin. Harry for his mother's childhood friend, and his father.
Alius was the expected 'smart' one. He, at one year of age, was able to say 'Moo-ma'. Harry resented this. There was something in Harry that understood his parents and brother. His parents thought that just because Harry had nothing to say meant he was slow, and that as his brother could mimic a cow, Alius was bright.
Harry was very intelligent for a baby. He didn't talk because he accepted things for what they were, and he didn't cry because his brother did. So this made him different. But his parents still loved him.
The last words his mother, Lily, had said to the twins were- "Stay safe, my children."
Godric's Hallow was empty, excluding Charlus and Dorea Potter, the two's grandparents. Charlus had held Harry, talking in a low voice, while Dorea cooed at the Alius giggled.
"I'm not senile, Harry," muttered Charlus Potter, smiling slightly at the curious child. "Your parents both believe Alius is the child of the prophecy. That he's powerful and smart. I don't. I won't deny the kid's smart, but you're wiser, kid. And powerful? I could feel your magical core when I reached the gate, Harry. Couldn't feel Al's till I was beside the cot. But Dumbeldore thinks it's Al, and I'm none the wiser. But even Albus can make mistakes, kid."
Harry gave a near-toothless grin at his grandfather, and Charlus Potter had a feeling the baby had listened and hung to every word he'd spoken.
"Charlie?" Came Doria's shaking voice. "What was that?"
"What was what?"
"That creaking noise, Charlie! I swear it sounded like that old gate!"
Charlus sighed. "It's probably Black, or Lupin. Or that no-good Pettigrew. You can even sound the 'petty' in it."
"Charlie!"
"Sorry, Dorey. But that boy's as brave as a spineless rat."
Dorea smiled a little, and Alius gave a sharp tug at her greying hair. She cringed, and gently pulled his little fist away. "Now, now, Alius. That isn't very nice, now, is it?"
Alius gave out a large wail.
Dorea exhaled, slightly irked, but she let the child grab at her hair.
Charlus tut-tutted. "That boy's a beast." But he had an amused expression on his face as he said it.
Dorea gasped again. "I'd give an unbreakable vow on it this time, Charlie! I swear I heard the front door open!"
Charlus flinched, knowing the severity of the unbreakable vow, and stood. He placed Harry into the crib, and Dorea did likewise with Al. "Alright, dear, I'll check it out. You stay with the boys."
His eyes flashed back to Harry when he heard the faintest sound. A small sob. The boy was crying. Harry had never cried, from the moment of his birth until now, the Charlus hadn't heard of the boy ever releasing a single tear.
"S'okay, kid," he said unsurely.
"No, I don't think it is," came a low voice. "Not when you're dead- Avada Kedavra!"
Alius let out another cry as Charlus Potter fell back, lifeless.
Harry just stared, silent now. The tears stopped.
The man with the snake-like red eyes stared back. He smirked. "Ah, Harry Potter. Known for your Killing-Curse green eyes," he eerily pushed some of Harry mop of jet black hair away from the boy's eyes. Dorea cried out.
The man hissed, serpent-like. He stumbled back in surprise.
"Those eyes..."
As those eyes stared up at him in vague interest, the Dark lord came to a near-remorseful conclusion.
"You must die, child." He said, almost softly. Something flashed in his eyes. A boy, eleven years of age, raven black hair and snake green eyes, different from those around him. Misunderstood. "It's one heir, or another."
He rose his wand, yelling the cursed words. Dorea began caterwauling, and she flung herself in front of the green curse.
When the light died down, Voldemort looked down at the dead body in front of the cot. He looked back up at Harry, and the boy smiled at him. The most odd smile from a baby. Almost as if Harry knew something the Dark Lord did not.
"Avada Kedavara!" He yelled, for the third time that night. The spell hurled itself towards the baby's forhead... and bounced off it. The baby kept on grinning, as the curse zapped back, and, in turn, hit the Dark Lord.
He screamed, a throaty, angry sound that made Alius bawl even louder.
And vanished with a hiss.
Harry was beaming. Touching his forhead with a little finger, he felt the lightning shaped scar.
No. He didn't like that. It felt... odd. Evil. He didn't like it at all.
He offered it to his brother, but the other boy said no. Harry frowned. What could he do with the scar? Nothing. It was no map of the London underground, and Harry decided it was gaudy and not at all nice. And so he rubbed at it, irritated. It slowly began to disappear, like he was washing off a stain. Harry, satisfied, uncaring of where and on whom the scar ended up, lay back down and fell to sleep.
Alice was a terribly nice person, and she and Lily had been friends since Hogwarts. Lily had always had a place in heart for the sweet Gryffindor girl.
And now she was staring at that woman's body. She had been only twenty-one, Lily thought weakly. The same could be said for Frank Longbottom, Alice's beloved husband. Now the loving couple lay, side by side, strewn across the carpet. There was no blood. The Cruciatus curse didn't leave traces.
Bellatrix Black had gone mad years before this. But even she should have known that holding the Torture curse for over half an hour or so ended disastrously. Performing it for longer could kill.
Unlike the Killing curse victims, overdone Cruiciatus curse victims die in pain.
Alice was too good a person to have deserved this, and Lily held back a sob.
"Alli?"
"Yeah, Lils?"
"If... If You-Know-Who comes after us, you know, 'cos we're not pureblood..."
"Y-yeah?"
"How would you prefer it to end?"
"A simple Killing curse. No pain. It's fast. I might not even know it's coming!"
"What about... what about Frank?"
"Frank would fight. But he'd lose. He's a great dueller, but He-who-must-not-be-named is a murderer. And I'd rather die fast, unaware, and happy, then live slow, aware and sad."
A tear ran down her face, leaving an translucent blue line.
She felt an arm around her.
"It'll be okay, Lils." Said her husband, James. "Their kid survived. They saved their kid, Lils. Sent him away to his Gran's for the last month, under Dumbledore's warning. They knew he was coming."
"B-b-but Alice didn't want to know!" Lily cried. I'd rather die, fast, unaware, and happy.
By the time they'd reached an apparition zone, the first screams had already gone off in Godric's Hallow.
Appearing before their hidden house, Lily noted that the gate was open. They never left the gate open.
"The front door's wide open," James said, slight worry in his tone.
"It's nothing," Lily said with equal anxiety, her voice betraying that she felt the opposite. I hope.
In the end, nothing was Dark Magick seeping out from the house. Nothing was two dead grandparents, horror captured in their still expressions. Nothing was a smiling baby, sleeping happily- while his brother poked the tingling pink lightning scar on his forhead. Nothing was the Boy-Who-Lived, Alius Potter.
No one thought to check. No one noticed the lightning had no darkness within. No one noticed that dark magick protruded from Harry's forhead.
And that was the biggest Nothing of them all.
(And so 'Stay Safe My Children' became 'Stay Safe My Child').
... This is the prologue, so it's sorta short. I hope to make all chapter's over 3k words.