Note: Some reviewers have been asking me when exactly this deviates from canon and I honestly don't know because I haven't really thought about it. I can't tell you if there are horcruxes because I haven't even decided upon that yet and any other piece of information yet.

If I've written something in the story that is not canon, that means I'm deciding to disallow that fact from this story. It doesn't mean I'm not aware of it. I've read all the books and I do remember most of it. I'm not following canon in those instances because it suits my story better or because I simply don't want to. That's the beauty of fanfiction! I'm allowed to create and manipulate these little characters and the back story to my deviant mind!

THE HAND OF FATE
by Yih

The cottage at the edge of Hogsmeade/1936

Harry was lucky he always carried emergency galleons in the trunk he kept with him. It wasn't much money, but it was enough money. He had enough galleons to rent a rundown cottage at the outskirts of Hogmeade and enough leftover to get them settled for a month while he went looking for a job. It had been hard finding a job when he didn't have much skills to speak of other than an excellent knowledge of curses. He didn't want to take the job he finally found at Knockturn Alley, but he didn't have much of a choice. He was running out of money and it was the only job he was qualified for – a curse breaker for dark artifacts.

The pay was ridiculously inconsistent. It had nothing to do with the difficulty of removing a curse, but rather how much the shady wizard he worked for could profit from the reselling of the now desirable object. Everything was about money or power in the world. Harry understood this very well, having seen how it didn't matter if you had a good heart as long as you had the most power.

Voldemort had more magical power than any wizard Harry had ever met and even in child form, he could do things that were amazing without the benefit of a wand. Harry's lips slid into an unwilling smile when he remember how every single book on the shelf had fallen on the floor when he had refused to teach Tom a dark curse he had seen Harry reading one night.

Harry had remembered being furious at the boy for using so much raw power without any control until he realized nothing beside the books had been moved in Tom's fury. The boy had excellent control that it was almost eerie, except that the raging emotion in his eyes was so much better than the cold, detached look in them that Harry had seen on far too many occasions, like the other day…

"You promised me," Tom said softly, his eyes looking so distrustful. "You promised me."

Harry remembered all too well those careless words promising he would teach Tom anything he wanted. He wished he could eat those words. He wished he could take them back. But what was done was done. Why did Tom have to be so curious? Why had he been foolish enough to leave the dark magic books he'd gotten from work lying around to tempt the boy? And yet, Harry knew, learning dark magic didn't necessarily make you evil – still, he also knew, it tainted the soul, warped it, forever leaving a stain. He didn't want that for Tom, not at this age, but he was bloody fool for making such an idiotic promise. And he was going to pay for it.

"I did promise you," he said.

Tom said nothing as he kept on staring at Harry.

"I don't break my promises." He knew from this point onward, he would have to be careful with every word spoken. "I'm too tired to teach you tonight, but tomorrow maybe I won't be so tired."

"Do you promise?" Tom finally said.

Harry nodded. "I promise."

He was not surprised to find Tom waiting outside, sitting on the steps, staring at the road leading up to the cottage. Tom leapt to his feet the moment he saw Harry and quickly ran in without looking back. He probably thought he could get away with it, watching for Harry to come home without getting caught. After all, Tom already knew Harry had terribly bad vision and in the dim light of dusk, it was even worse, but Tom didn't know Harry didn't rely on his vision to see Tom. He didn't need to. Tom was too young to cloak the magic inside of him and it flooded the nearby area so thoroughly that Harry always felt Tom before he saw the boy.

Of course, Harry would never tell the boy that he had seen him. Harry didn't know for sure why Tom always waited for him to come home, although he could make a good guess. Tom was waiting for him to not show up one day, for him to be abandoned again. Once Tom could see him, he would go back into the cottage, not wanting to caught worrying. Tom never liked to show a hint of weakness.

Harry climbed up the stairs and knocked on the door, waiting for Tom to come open it. Harry was certain Tom had been waiting at the door for him because he opened it far too quickly. Seemingly knowing he had betrayed himself, Tom looked away and started heading toward his room when Harry said, "I bought you a book."

Tom stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around.

Harry carefully kept his face a blank mask. It wouldn't do to smile now and ruin his carefully concocted plan. He had been trying to think of a way to delay Tom from dipping into the Dark Arts, at least for now. He had decided there was only one thing that could possibly work.

Tom stood there, not coming forward but waiting.

Harry pulled the book he'd gotten at Flourish & Blotts. It was a book on magical theory. The book was thick and was richly bound in a handsome brown leather and honestly far too expensive on his wages, but this book looked like something Tom would like to read. Harry had flipped through it on his lunch break and read through some of the pages. It was a very good book on magical theory and it wasn't too difficult or too easy to read. Even as Tom got older, this book would still prove useful. And so Harry had taken out his last emergency galleon and paid for it.

"I thought you'd like it," Harry said, running his fingers over the engraved cover. "If you're not interested, I'll return it to the book shop tomorrow—"

Tom had crossed the room before Harry could finish what he was saying and had grabbed the book from his hands, holding it closely to his chest. It was more than a little bit childish and cute of him. It was relieving to see Tom act like this. It was comforting to know Tom wasn't a miniature adult.

"Do you know what you want for dinner?" Harry asked, walking by Tom on his way to the kitchen. "What about pot roast?"

Harry looked out from the corner of his eye and he saw Tom had already opened the book up and was perusing it. He could see Tom touching the finely wrought drawing on the first page. It was a compilation picture of several magical beasts, both of light and dark. What Harry liked especially about this book was that it explained magic without bias. It was concept; it was theory; it was just magic.

"Well?" Harry said, turning around this time. "I'll just cook some broccoli and carrots if you don't tell me what you want."

Tom reluctantly looked up from the book. "I'd like… pot roast."

Harry tilted his head. "Anything else you'd like?"

"Pudding," Tom said.

"Pudding," Harry repeated and smiled. "I can make you some pudding."

Tom didn't say he was grateful or anything of that sort. Instead he just looked down at the book again, walking slowly to a chair and sitting down without pausing from his reading. Harry shook his head, watching how engrossed Tom was by the book. He was going to have to rip that book out of Tom's hands tonight to get the boy to go to sleep.

Harry leaned against the wall, thinking of how Tom reminded Harry a little bit of Hermione. They both had such a thirst for knowledge. Now if only he could steer Tom in the direction of the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge and not to use it for destructive, obsessive purposes, but how? Already he could see a little of Voldemort in Tom and it concerned him.

Tom very much wanted what he wanted. He knew how to give in just enough to get it too. Harry didn't pretend Tom liked him. Tom needed him; Tom could use him; Tom was using him. Tom threw him a bone when it suited his purposes. Harry needed to make himself something more than a necessary tool.

He had to be more than someone to manipulate.

Harry needed Tom to love him.

But was love possible?

He didn't know.

He didn't.

Released on May 6, 2010.