Author: Molly

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling who happens to not be me, clearly.

Summary: The war isn't going well for the Order, and they aren't pleased to learn that Voldemort has a powerful son he's been keeping secret. They get the surprise of their lives when they capture this mysterious stranger and he turns out to be not a stranger at all but Harry Potter, the boy who went missing eighteen years ago when he was only a baby. But Harry has changed. He's Dark and unruly and it seems there's nothing he's incapable of doing. But what is it about Ginny Weasley that's caught his attention?

"But he's so beautiful; he's such a beautiful disaster.

And if I could hold on through the tears and laughter

Would it be beautiful or just a beautiful disaster?"

—Kelly Clarkson, Beautiful Disaster

Prologue

Halloween, 1981

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off—"

The door burst open and James Potter found himself staring into the deformed eyes of Lord Voldemort. He immediately sent a Stunner at the Dark wizard but it was easily deflected.

"Is that all you've got, Potter?" Voldemort cried gleefully. "I haven't the time for this."

With a quick flick of his wand, he sent the Auror crashing towards the living room wall, unconscious.

Now for the boy.

He soundlessly Apparated to the top of the stairs, where he caught sight of Lily Potter in the nursery, the boy in her arms and ready to Disapparate.

No, she wasn't going anywhere. He quickly brought up his own anti-Apparition charm and watched gleefully as the girl realized she was trapped. She slammed the nursery door shut in desperation but he blew it off its hinges with another wave of his wand.

Voldemort let out a cackle of high-pitched laughter as he saw the fear in Lily Potter's eyes as she placed her small child back in his crib and used her own body as a shield. She brought up her wand but he quickly pulled it out of her grasp with a silent Accio.

Lily began to weep; she was weaponless, and Lord Voldemort was preparing to murder her only son.

Voldemort raised his wand.

"Not Harry!" she screamed, tears rolling down her face. "Not Harry! Please—I'll do anything—"

"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl," Voldemort commanded. "Stand aside, now…"

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead—"

"Stand aside!" Voldemort hissed.

"Not Harry! Please…have mercy…have mercy…"

Voldemort laughed. "Lord Voldemort shows no mercy. Crucio!"

Lily screamed in pain, but still she held on tight to the boy's crib. Voldemort sent her flying to the opposite wall like he had her husband, and like her husband she lay unconscious.

The Dark wizard took a step forward and glanced down at the boy. The one Albus Dumbledore believed would someday overpower him. He laughed again.

The child's eyes were open now—his mother's screams had no doubt awakened him. The young emerald eyes looked into the red, catlike ones, waiting, as if they knew what was coming for them.

Voldemort brought up his wand again and pointed it at the boy. "Goodbye, Harry Potter," he said heartlessly. "Avada Kadavra!"

A flash of green light, the sound of rushing water. Voldemort watched in terror as the curse connected with the boy and did nothing but create a cut on his forehead, thin and shaped curiously like a lightning bolt. And then the green light came back to the Dark Lord, so quickly he had no time to move.

He screamed as his soul was ripped from his body.

Hundreds of miles away, Bellatrix Lestrange fell to the ground in pain. The Dark Mark on her left arm was scorching.

Something was terribly wrong. Before he left the Dark Lord had created a personal connection with Bella. If anything were to go wrong, she would know. She had been proud and honored to have been the one he chose. Not Lucius or Avery or even Severus. No, she had been the chosen one.

But now the pain was unbearable. Something horrible—unthinkable—was causing it.

Bella battled through the pain and focused on Apparating, concentrating on the address the Wormtail had revealed. She would show her master her loyalty and courage. She would save him, become legendary, his number one…

With a loud crack she disappeared out of thin air. She reappeared outside the Potters' house, which appeared to be heavily damaged. She briefly wondered how she was able to bypass the anti-Apparition wards Dumbledore had no doubt placed around its proximity, but her thoughts we interrupted as she felt that excruciating pain again. She rushed into the house and saw James Potter sprawled on the floor by the far wall. Her feet carried her past the form of the unconscious Auror and up the stairs, where she immediately saw the door of the nursery had been blown to smithereens.

It was then that she heard the Potter brat crying. So he was still alive. But that meant her master…he wasn't…dead?

No, he wasn't there at all.

But then Bella noticed the pile of black robes lying on the floor by the boy's crib. And worse—the Dark Lord's wand.

"Master!" Bella cried desperately. "My lord, where are you—"

'Take the boy.'

Without a second thought, Bella obeyed the familiar voice in her head and reached for Harry Potter, who was now screaming and clutching his little hands to his forehead, seemingly in pain. But when she touched the boy, her skin started to blister painfully.

"My lord!" she cried, releasing her grip on Potter. "What's happening to me?"

'Take the boy!' commanded the Dark Lord again. 'Take my wand as well and leave. Quickly!'

Bellatrix wrapped the crying boy in her Master's discarded robes, careful not to touch his bare skin. She picked up the wand that was lying beneath the robes and prepared to Disapparate.

Before she left she heard distinct cracks of Apparition and then—

"Oh no, the Potters!"

"Dumbledore was right—he's been here!"

The Aurors had come. Without a second of hesitation, Bella, the Potter boy held carefully but firmly in her arms, Disapparated away, leaving nothing behind but a loud crack, which the Aurors would later decide had been Lord Voldemort leaving Godric's Hollow after murdering Harry Potter.

A Few Months Later…

"Bellatrix."

Bella stopped pacing the dungeons of Riddle Manor at the sound of her fellow Death Eater's voice.

"Is it ready?" she cried anxiously.

"Why would I be here if it weren't?" Snape replied coldly.

"How is it that such a renowned Potions Master such as yourself takes three months to prepare a simple potion, Severus?" Bella retorted.

"It was hardly simple—"

"Yeah, yeah. Just give me it."

Snape scowled. "How is it that you feel like you can demand anything you want? I've used three months out of my life to make this bloody potion, so I had better know why."

Bellatrix sneered in anger. "I'm under orders from the Dark Lord himself, Snape," she said. "Why don't you take it up with him? Besides, how can you call your pathetic existence of pining after that Mudblood Potter a life?"

Bella could see that Snape wanted to retort, but he kept his anger in check and led her out of the dungeons, simply saying, "I have the cauldron by Riddle's grave, as the Dark Lord requested."

In truth, Bella wanted this whole thing over with so she wouldn't have to care for the Potter brat any longer. The Dark Lord had commanded she keep him a secret from all the other Death Eaters, even the ones from the innermost circle. At first Bella had been honored to have been chosen by her master for a special task again, but now she detested the days she spent feeding the boy and having to hear him cry for his Mudblood mother.

But today it would all be over. The Dark Lord would regain his body and kill Potter once and for all. And as for the matter of his body, Bella considered herself lucky that her master had rarely made appearances in front of all his followers so she was free from having to explain his extended absence.

"Here it is," Snape said, snapping her out of her reverie.

They were on the grounds now, in a graveyard. A cauldron of mass proportions sat boiling over a large fire, the potion inside sending out fiery sparks.

"Leave," Bellatrix commanded.

After Snape grudgingly obeyed, Bella hurried back inside the Manor, finding her way to a secret room.

"It is ready, Master!" Bella cried to the back of an armchair.

"Take us both to it."

Bella retrieved Harry Potter, who was crying again and clutching his hands to his lightning bolt scar, and then took the bundled form of her master in the other hand. She made her way back to the cauldron, where she promptly placed Potter on the ground.

"Do it now."

She gingerly placed the small, skeletal being in the cauldron.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son… Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master… Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe."

Bella went through the motions as she chanted the spell. She found it hardest when had to cut a finger off, but didn't flinch at all as she made a gash on Potter's arm to take his blood.

And finally…

Lord Voldemort rose from within the cauldron.

"Robe me."

Bella did as commanded and then showed the Dark Lord the stub where her little finger had been. "My lord, please, my hand…"

"Ah, yes, Bella. You have been very loyal to me."

He raised his wand and then a silver finger replaced the bloody stump.

"Thank you, Master! You are so very kind. What would you have me do?" she asked eagerly. "Kill the boy?"

"No, Bella," the Dark Lord said. "I have new plans for Harry Potter. I will raise him as my own."

For the first time in her life, Bella had nothing to say to the Dark Lord. She stood rooted to the spot as she contemplated his words.

"Ra—raise him, Master?" she finally managed.

"Yes."

Normally Bella would have never questioned the Dark Lord, but today they were not under normal circumstances. Her lips moved as if by their own accord. "But why?"

Instead of casting the Cruciatus on her like she'd expected, Voldemort simply laughed.

"I can feel the raw power radiating off of him," he said, glancing down at Harry, who was no longer crying. "Such power cannot be wasted. He will be taught of need to purge the world of Mudbloods and Muggles, and he will become the strongest of my followers. He will cease to be Harry Potter and one day the world will fear him as they fear me."

Voldemort laughed again.

"Lord Voldemort's heir—and one of their own."

AN: Umm... so yeah. Here I go again. Fans of Confessions, know that I have not abandoned that story. I've just had no time to write anything these last few weeks because school has started once again. I wrote this chapter a month ago, but I wasn't sure if I'd publish it. Now I just couldn't resist. This was a bad move because I won't be able to update for a while, in which time you readers will no doubt be cursing my very existence for working on so many stories at one time. So I am sorry.

On a second note, this fic will be immensely H/G. Unlike other Dark!Harry stories where Ginny is a minor character Harry falls in love with, this one will function because of his love for her.

On a third note (Will these notes ever stop, you ask?), the quote at the beginning has nothing to do with this chapter. You will find out about it later.