Harry woke in the most uncomfortable way he had experienced in many years. The suffocating smell of mothballs and dust in the air had his lungs irritated in just a few breaths. Not only was the air stale but his pillow was missing and his blanket had suddenly become the scratchiest, most stiff thing on the planet. He was so going to kill Kreacher when he got his hands on him.
After a few minutes of absolute misery Harry sat up quickly, huffing with anger, only smash his head into something hard. Wincing, Harry collapsed back into his uncomfortable bed and clutched at his head. His fingers went to explore, searching for a bump he would undoubtedly have, only to find his hair short and untamable as it had been years and years ago.
Emerald eyes shot open, expecting to see his bedroom back at Grimmauld Place. However, Harry only saw black. It was as if he hadn't opened his eyes at all. Grunting in even more anger Harry raised his hand and conjured a ball of light in his hand.
Blurry shapes and weird placed shadows were not what he expected to see. He hadn't seen like this since he had repaired his vision almost six years ago. Did he even still have his glasses anymore? It couldn't hurt to try. He would use them until he could hunt down the OptiWitch and demand her fix them again, she had promised they would last a life time.
'Accio Glasses' Harry thought and was prepared to wait as his magic found them and brought them to him. But he didn't wait; in under a second the familiar metal frames were in his hand and Harry wrinkled his brow in confusion. It should have taken at least a minute. Shrugging it off as a fluke Harry slipped his glasses on and conjured the ball of light again.
Momentary panic hit Harry like a bludger to the gut. He took in the underneath of the stairs and the cleaning supplies and old odds and ends in the corner, trying hard not cry out in rage. Why was he back in this god forsaken shit hole? Who on earth would have known exactly how to place the muggle's things just as it had been? How did they even find them? He himself had tried, hoping to take vengeance on the way they had raised him, but was unable to locate them. Why-
And then it came back. All of last night's memories came rushing back, bombarding him so fast he could barely keep up. Harry grinned widely when he realized it had worked! He was eleven again! He had dorky glasses and a malnourished frame with bruises still fresh from a beating he'd gotten…and he'd never been happier.
Harry laid back and stretched like a cat, searching his mind for the one thing he had missed almost as much as Voldemort himself. Sighing contentedly, Harry closed his eyes and poked around his mind until he found the soul bond. It was so prominent, so easy to access, but right now it was giving off vibes of complete and utter insanity. He felt it react to his mental prod and Harry tried to send all the wonderful feelings he felt through the bond. He would not make Tom suffer ever again, even if he didn't know how keen he was on the idea of Voldemort being his soul mate he had lived the other path and it was definitely not something he was going to experience twice. If Voldemort was destined for him then maybe, just maybe things would work out.
Harry was brought out of his brilliant mood by the muggles. That was something he hadn't thought about, the Dursleys. He was supposed to live with them for the next seven YEARS? The bile that rose in his throat was more than enough to know he couldn't do it, he'd be a known murderer before people "found out" about his parseltounge ability.
"UP! Get up, now!" Petunia's shrill voice came from the other side of the door. She rapped on the door a few more times and screeched, "Up!"
Harry bit back a curse and raised his hand to find the string that turned on the light when another ball of light, even brighter than the first shot from his fingers and hovered in mid air. It was blindingly bright, even with his glasses off, and Harry frantically waved his hand, trying to get rid of the ball before the muggles saw it. The last thing he needed was for them to find out he was doing magic; it was already going to take a trip to the Alley to heal the injuries that plagued this body.
With another wave it was gone and Harry frowned, his magic had never been so volatile before. "Arae?" Harry hissed quietly, knowing she would be in this small shit hole somewhere.
He felt something move by his foot and he fought the urge to kick whatever it was. It was long and skinny and he felt it curl up beside his hip. ~Yessss, mortal?~
Any bubbling anger was quickly cooled by the quiet hissing. How long had it been? Tears stung Harry's eyes, catching him off guard, and he fought to keep them back. Nine years...nine years since he had heard the beauty of the snake tongue. He hadn't realized how much he had missed the ability until he realized he no longer had it, but even then he hadn't truly understood the magnitude of how much he had missed it.
~Did you by chance do more than just sssend me back?~ The hisses fell off his tongue like honey, as only an experienced parseltongue could do.
~I may have accidentally broken a block when I attached your soul to this body.~
~Thank you,~ Harry ground out, his blood beginning to boil when the full weight of what that meant hit him. Dumbledore had blocked some of his magic.
Dumbledore, the Weasley's, Granger, everyone he had considered family had betrayed him…and now he was back. He was back in his ten year old body, able to get revenge on those who had manipulated him and lied to him. They had taken everything he had ever wanted from him and now he was going to show them exactly how ruthless the soul mate to Lord Voldemort could be.
-o-
"Don't you dare let the food burn, boy. Duddy's birthday must be special." Petunia sneered at him, but barely glanced at him as she was arranging 'Duddy's' presents.
The sneer that threatened to curl his lips was hidden as he ducked his head and turned away from the stacks of presents that were taller than he was. It had been years since he had had to make his own food, let alone anyone else's. This was elves work, he had more important things to do with his time than play servant to muggles.
'You are the soul mate to the most powerful wizard in centuries,' a really vicious part of himself whispered, 'they should be making you food and obeying your demands.'
Harry's lips quirked into a smirk at the thought, maybe he would be able to enslave them one day, but not now. He didn't have the time to dedicate to completely changing the social structure, it was less about a month till his letter came and he had to get control of his magic again as well as rebuild his occlumancy walls.
Everything Harry cooked he added extra butter, salt, and cheese; he hoping to kill the muggles without becoming a wanted murderer before he made his debut into the wizarding world. While one hand skillfully cracked eggs the other held up the hideous clothes that was Dudley's hand-me-downs. It had been five years since he had been forced to wear these ridiculous rags and it was doing nothing to assuage his growing anger.
After what felt like years, breakfast was over and as was custom in this house Harry had been stripped of his right to eat for dropping an eggshell on the pristine tile floor. His anger hit another peak, he had forgotten how awful muggles were. Some time ago he had pushed those memories into a dark corner of his mind and never touched them. Now that he was not only remembering them but reliving them as well, his urge to slaughter his only remaining family was pulsing through his veins, especially when Petunia had discovered Miss Figg's broken leg.
The same conversation of whether or not to take him along to the zoo occurred and Harry stayed silent not really sure if he wanted to go or not and fuming at their words. Part of him wished they would leave him at the house so that he could make an impromptu trip to Diagon and the other part wanted to go, if nothing more than to escape this prison.
Eventually the decision was the same and he was shoved into the back seat after a speech about funny business. He had nodded acceptingly and pursed his lips so that he wouldn't retort, it would only end with the belt and if the muggle tried to lay a finger on him he knew he would lose it. Next summer though, he would be damned sure that he wasn't here unless it was to inconspicuously kill the wale.
The ride to the Zoo was long and infuriating; Vernon complained about menial things that had Harry grinding his teeth. He would kill to have his only problem be that of a new boss or a business dinner he needed to attend. If Vernon knew half of what Harry had to do the man would probably keel over in fear. As it was Harry distracted himself with torturing Dudley subtly in attempts to ignore Vernon as his topic of whining switched to Harry.
Dudley was entertaining himself with kicking Harry's legs. For every kick that Dudley landed on him, Harry flicked his finger, causing the seatbelt to get tighter and tighter. It took way longer than for a normal person to catch on, but when Dudley did his eyes went wide. He was squirming uncomfortably and frantically trying to release the buckle. By the time they made it to the zoo Dudley was silently crying and purple. Harry slid out of the car whilst he released the magic on the buckle and listened to Petunia fret over her Duddykins by the front of the car.
With only a quick glare Dudley lied and said the seatbelt had done it on its own, and Harry escaped any "punishment". The rest of the trip Harry trailed behind the muggles, hardly paying attention to the mundane animals. They were no longer fascinating after having ridden Hypogriffs and Dragons, raised Blast-Ended Skrewts, seen Nagini, and faced Acromantulas, although Arae had gotten a kick out of the penguins.
-o-
~Mortal,~ Harry grit his teeth but otherwise ignored the bored snake.
~Mortal,~
~MORTAL~ This time Arae's hiss was deadly, laced with fury. Harry sighed and pulled out of his mind before looking at Arae.
~What do you want?~ Harry asked, exasperated.
~Put me in the tree, I cannot grow in muggle view.~ Harry sighed and shook his head before standing up and lifting Arae. He reached up on his tip toes and held her out as far as he could. Arae coiled tightly before launching herself at the nearest limb.
~There, now may I go back to occluding my mind?~
~Yesss.~
With another eye roll Harry sat back down and leaned back against the trunk. He hadn't really been occluding his mind, that was already done, finished and fortified last week. But Arae had been teasing him about how much time he spent sitting under the tree trying to repair the soul bond.
Along with small doses of positive emotions that he was sure was making Voldemort sick, he sent portioned out doses of magic. Since the block had been removed accessing his core was as simple as breathing and sending the excess through the bond helped him gain control of it little by little. It also helped Voldemort, strengthening him little by little.
Harry hoped to have his mate totally reliant on the magic by the time Hogwarts rolled around so that no unicorn blood would be spilt. The last thing Harry needed was Voldemort dooming himself to a half-life; they'd tried that once before already.
But sending emotions and magic through the bond was as far as Harry got. Whenever he tried to access Voldemort's emotions it was crippling. The first time he had succeeded he had been near incapacitated for days, much to the horror of the muggles.
He had been lying in bed in the middle of the night when he first accessed them. Harry was used to feeling Voldemort's anger, hell he had been feeling it for years, but this was so much more intense. This utter madness made his head spin and his jaw clench hard enough to break through Hagrid's rock cakes. Immediately he had flooded his end of the bond with all his happiness, all of his acceptance and hope for the future. He kept at it, flooding out all the negative with every gooey, positive emotion he could muster.
When the rage became underlined anger and the hostility was replaced with curiosity Harry focused on his magical core. It took more effort than he had imagined to send a wave of magic through, but even as he collapsed back breathing heavily, the shock, confusion, and reluctant thankfulness Harry felt more than made up for any discomfort on his part. However when Voldemort gave into his greed and tried to take more Harry felt a wave of pain and dizziness, before he could barely feel anything at all aside from a sucking feeling that vaguely reminded him of Dementors.
Voldemort must have felt it too because the sucking feeling stopped and Harry was overcome with slight worry and an enormous amount of curiosity before his eyes drooped closed and he gave way to unconsciousness.
-o-
Harry sat at the wards edge in the back yard behind the tool shed. Once again he was feeding power through the bond. It had only been two weeks since he had started this but he was diligent about it every day, twice a day. He rose before Petunia, and practiced sending as much as he could without harming himself only to repeat the process right before bed. At night was when he gathered the most power and sent it in huge tidal waves, when he could afford to pass out.
Voldemort's curiosity was at an all time high but the hostility was almost completely gone, as was the rage. The soul bond no longer held the mind spinning animosity, but was instead replaced with a wary, grudging acceptance. Harry made sure to send sporadic feelings deliberately throughout the day, most of them gooey crap when he needed a laugh, Voldemort's annoyance was utterly hilarious. He had no doubt Voldemort wanted to kill someone when he did that.
However he also accidentally sent emotions when they were in the extreme. Yesterday Dudley had gathered his gang to play Harry Hunting, a game Harry hadn't thought about in years. While he was running his anger built until it peaked into homicidal levels. He had been running from a muggle! Dudley was on borrowed time as far as Harry was concerned. If he hadn't decided to wait to kill the Dursleys, Dudley would have been dead yesterday as well as his little 'gang.'
He hadn't meant to send his utter hatred and fury to Voldemort but was shocked stupid for several long minutes when he had felt a warm calm wave wash over him.
-o-
Finally the day of the arrival of the first letter had come and Harry was trying very hard not to fidget in his seat, going so far as to sit on his hands. This was it, the beginning of the end for Dumbledore's plans. In one month and one day he would be on a train to Hogwarts, on his way to Voldemort. This was the day that started it all, the day the wizarding world's history took a another direction.
Harry made sure to make a phenomenal full English breakfast with as much fat and grease as he could, making Vernon's mouth water. He wanted them fully sated for what would happen soon, as he had no intentions of being drug all over England again. So he sat, almost vibrating with anticipation and excitement, annoying Voldemort to no end. He didn't touch anything on the table, he didn't ask for any food and he didn't give in to the temptation to sneer at the disgusting sight the two whales made as they inhaled their breakfast that was second in its grotesqueness only to one Ronald Weasley. At least these two chewed with their mouth shut.
The flap of the mail slot sent Harry's heart racing faster than any broom he'd ever ridden; his breaths were coming in irregular silent gasps as he waited.
"Go get the mail Dudley," Vernon didn't even look up as he piled more cheesy eggs on his plate, eyeing the greasy and artery clogging food with greed. Dudley though dropped his fork, horrified that he would be deemed such a task when Harry was sitting not two feet away doing nothing. Petunia looked equally as shocked as she laid her hand on her husband's arm.
"Dear, Dudley is eating."
Vernon's eyes snapped up and his cheeks tinted red, "Go get the mail boy." There was no doubt to whom he was speaking to now and Harry restrained himself from jumping out of his seat. Instead he bowed his head, hiding his smirk, and left the table. Once the swinging door into the hallway closed he ran so fast he nearly ran into the front door.
'Vernon, Vernon, Petunia, AH! Mr. H. Potter, Cupboard under the stairs, Little Whingy, Surrey.'
His excitement faded into nothing only to be replaced by a bout of homicidal rage that rivaled Voldemort's. Cupboard Under The Stairs…Dumbledore had known. He had known Harry slept in a fucking cupboard and he did nothing! That son of corner bred whore! When Harry saw him again he would-
A warm calm enveloped Harry like a warm blanket, relaxing him to his very bones. His eyes rolled back and he struggled to keep himself upright. His anger melted away, allowing Harry to focus on the present. He would deal with Dumbledore later, for now he had the muggles to deal with. The heavy calm receded and Harry picked up the rest of the mail, noticing the crack in the wooden front door. Had he done that?
"Come on boy, hurry up! What are you doing, checking the letters for bombs?" While Vernon laughed at his unfunny joke Harry repaired the door with a wave of his hand. Harry hadn't been focused on it and his magic went overboard, repairing it so much the eye hole disappeared. He could only hope they wouldn't notice that.
With the letter open and in his hand he strolled back into the kitchen, letting his magic wrap around him just enough for the muggles to feel it. All eyes snapped to him, Vernon in mid bite, dropped his fork and turned an ugly shade of green. A devious smirk curled Harry's lips while he dropped the rest of the mail on the table. The Hogwarts letter still firmly in hand Harry spoke.
"I'm a wizard? Why didn't you tell me?"
While Vernon went a splendid shade of purple, Petunia shrieked loudly and covered her mouth with her hand.
"V-Vernon! Th-that's…"
His uncle stood, knocking over his chair and slammed his fists on the table. "NO! YOU LISTEN HERE BOY-" he was cut off by the light fixture above the table falling on the table and shattering into hundreds of pieces. Harry copied the muggle, leaning over the table and glaring at their shocked faces.
"No you listen, fat ass. I will be going to Hogwarts and you will not say a damned word about it." Either Vernon was ridiculously stupid or had more courage than all of Gryffindor combined. It actually would have been frightening if Harry were actually eleven. Vernon seized the edge of the table and flipped it across the room, shattering the back sliding glass door. He was panting heavily, spit and grease flying as he took one step forward, fist rising.
'Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you boy? You need to mean them Potter! You need to really want to cause pain…to enjoy it…righteous anger won't hurt me for long!"
Harry took a deep breath and locked eyes with Vernon, letting all his hate and animosity build up inside. He wanted Vernon to hurt, needed him to feel every ounce of pain he had caused Harry in this life and the last. And then he felt it.
It felt glorious, the velvety feel of magic that wrapped around him. He watched Vernon wail and collapse, but was more focused on the taste that lingered on his tongue. All track of time was lost as Harry began to giggle, listening to the screams of all three of the muggles. Vernon in pain and the other two in horror, pleading him to stop.
It was almost as if he was possessed, he couldn't stop. While he knew more dark curses than most Death Eaters he had never really had the chance to use them. Now though, he was reveling in the feel of Vernon under his magic; watching the three in a demented glee. It didn't last long enough but when he felt Voldemort trying to break through his haze he knew he needed to release Vernon from the Cruciatus; he couldn't have another Frank and Alice Longbottom so soon.
The screams stopped though Vernon still twitched violently and Petunia was still shrieking and sobbing loudly while Dudley was in the corner balling. Harry simply smiled at them, feeling much better now that he had taken some of his anger out.
"Tomorrow, Petunia, you will take me to Diagon Alley." When she nodded fearfully Harry turned and left the kitchen, he had a reply to write.
