Author's Note: Sorry this took so long I had a twenty minute foreign language speech to give. Peter/Spiderman isn't I this chapter. I have also just included his first year in this chapter that way everyone has a new chapter while I try to figure out the best way to tell the other years.
Chapter 10: Of Halloween and Origins Told
The Avengers were all at Harry's house in his back yard for a Halloween campfire. Tony, of course, tried to throw an extravagant party like usual but immediately backed down when he got Harry's invitation. Usually Harry worked insane hours around Halloween and gave off an aura of sadness and grief. That's why Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Tony, Steve, and Thor all came without complaint to Harry's bonfire that night. They ate and played Exploding Snap and were merry until they retired to the campfire outside. Staring up at the sparks floating out of the fire and glowing like lightning bugs in the dark of the night, Harry found his lips moving without his consent.
"Once there was a woman. A witch. Maybe she was a good person, maybe not, but she was selfish, unbeliveably selfish. You see she fell in love with a muggle or at the very least fell into lust with him. He had no magic and did not love the woman in any form. So she committed a taboo, something that could get you a one way trip to Azkaban, the wearing prison. Protected and guarded by the darkest creatures known to man: Dementors." Thor wrinkled his nose in disgust. He knew what those were and they were disgusting.
"She made a love potion."
Natasha drew in a sharp breath.
"And so he fell into a forced love and forced lust with her and they got married and when she got pregnant she stopped giving him the love potion, thinking rather foolishly, that he wouldn't leave her if she was pregnant. She was wrong. She had the child, christened him Tom Marvolo Riddle after his father and abandoned him at an orphanage. Teased for his power he became violent, killing two other children for teasing him as well as small animals. He eventually went to Hogwarts where he released a monster to pray upon muggle borns at the school and blamed it on another child. In Hogwarts Tom fell in love with power and wanted to make a new image to fit the power he felt he deserved so he changed his name. He renamed himself Lord Voldemort."
"He named himself Flight of Death?" Tony asked incredulously.
"Yes, he really was a stereotypical villain. Sometimes I pity him because to be conceived under a love potion means you can never love." Harry sighed. "I pity him but I can never forgive him because as he learned he chose to study The Dark."
"The Dark?" Steve asked skeptically.
"Yes, there is a category of Magic called The Dark, that contains blood scarifies, and torture, and murder. It's evil and horrible but Tom still studied it, still wanted to use it. And God did he learn." Harry let out a bitter, bitter laugh. His eyes reflecting the horror of his memories. "Terrorized Britain, slaughtered muggleborns and some half blood's…and then there was a prophecy."The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not …" One of his followers overheard it in a bar and told him and of course he wasn't going to take a chance, but there were two boys who fit the description. Neville Longbottom, son of Frank and Alice Longbottom, a pureblood. So on Halloween Tom sent Death Eater's after the Longbottom's and they tortured Frank and Alice to insanity, they were sent to St. Mungo's permently but he did not have that child killed. Instead, Voldemort himself went to a house called Godric's Hollow that night. James sent his wife Lily upstairs with the baby, told her to run, run now while he tried to hold Voldemort off but he met his end at Voldemort's wand and followed Lily and the babe upstairs where she begged him to take her and not her baby even as he told her to step aside. She did not step aside and so he killed her and turned his wand on the boy but his mother's love casted a protection on him that night so when Voldemort casted the killing curse it rebounded, killing him- for a while at least. Leaving the babe in a half destroyed house with his dead parents and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Those parents were James and Lilly Potter." Green haunted eyes- eyes infinitely timeless and aged on a face so young. "The baby was me." And his voice was so resigned and so, so tired.
Clint heard the resignation and so he told Harry "Tell it like a story, like it happened to someone else. It'd be easier." And Harry looked so grateful.
"Harry became known as the Boy-Who-Lived and hailed a hero. Hagrid, the groundskeeper at Hogwarts, came to save him from the rubble and ruins of his once home. Took him to Surrey, England, to the Headmaster of Hogwarts, who left the Savior of the Wizarding World on his Aunt's doorstep convinced she'd get over her hate for her sister in the face of taking care of an innocent child." He stopped his throat sore. Wordlessly Steve passed Harry some water. No one wanted to interrupt this story, too afraid he would end it. They were curious about his past and worried he'd keep it all bottled up inside of him. They hadn't known this had happened to him on Halloween, never even guessed at this.
"He was wrong. Very, very wrong." Six pairs of horrified eyes looked back at him. "And so the boy grew up in a cupboard under the stairs, doing all the chores, cooking all the meals. While his cousin gained more and more weight because he did nothing but bully Harry. Harry grew up thinking his name was 'Boy' or 'Freak' until he entered school and the teacher called out for Harry Potter during attendance. Harry ate scraps when he could and had no friends." Natasha was horrified; she had seen horrible things- done horrible things but Harry, her friend and little brother, despite his true age, should never have been hurt. Never. She had to push the Widow down for she wanted revenge for her little spiderling.
"That changed when he turned eleven though. Owls were being sent with letters addressed to him and it annoyed his relatives enough that they stayed in a little building on an island in the middle of a storm just to try to get the letters to stop coming. Hagrid came with Harry's Hogwarts letter and a birthday cake- his first birthday cake to tell him he was a wizard. After telling him Hagrid whisked Harry off for school supplies and before he knew it he was on the train bound for Hogwarts with his new school things and his owl, Hedwig. At the entrance ceremony Harry was sorted into Gryffindor like his parents and his best mate Ron Weasley, whom he met on the train. Ron was a lanky redhead who was always ready with a joke, sarcastic, had a bit of an inferiority complex due to his five older brothers, and a large fear of spiders. Hermione was also sorted into Gryffindor and became the last third of the 'Golden Trio' after they saved her from a troll. 'Mione was smart, bookish, and unflinchingly loyal. Headmaster Dumbledore announced a corridor on the third floor being forbidden. Hermione found out it was because they were protecting a philosopher stone there. Someone, they thought Professor Snape- the Potion's Master who hated Harry, was after it. So they tried to go to protect it. They were nearly strangled by Devil's Snare, had to fly to find the right flying key to open a locked door, get pass a giant Wizard's Chess Set where Ron had to sacrifice himself, a riddle about potions and poisons set by Snape which Hermione solved- but only one could move on and so Harry went on alone. When he did he saw Professor Quirrell, a man who always wore a turban around his head standing in front of the Mirror of Erised. Voldemort had possessed Quirrell and was on the back of his head. Due to the protection in Harry's veins Quirrell burned when he touched Harry but it hurt Harry too. He eventually passed out from the pain but Voldemort was gone and he hadn't gotten the stone. And so ended Voldemort's first real encounter with the person who destroyed him- the Boy-Who-Lived." Harry stood suddenly.
"I think I'm done for tonight. Maybe I'll tell you more tomorrow but I'm going to go to bed now." And he walked off.
The Avengers were left staring into the flames, hearts full of anger and rage and grief so profound they felt they would drown in it- for the boy who was never a boy.
For the child who had no childhood.
Author's Note- Hope you liked it! Please Review!