I give to you the first chapter of the second and final rewrite of this story. This is an older version of the plot I had played around with before and decided I liked better than the direction I was going in, so I'm going in that direction. As a result, you'll find some similarities between the old and new versions, but they will diverge quite quickly. I will go for weekly updates, so expect a new chapter next week. Until then, I hope you enjoy!
A gentle breeze flowed through the night, waving the tree branches to and fro. The only sounds of the forest were that of the night creatures moving around through the forest living their lives in peace. This place, out in the middle of nowhere, deep in the forest, was a good place to hide things that wanted to be hidden. And for two individuals, this would mean life changing events.
The first individual was a strange creature. Taller than a man, the creature had two large batlike wings extending from his shoulders. His face was vampire like, with two circles where horns used to be, now shaven off. His hands had sharp claws, and his feet were hooves silently stepping through the forest undergrowth. His skin was white, his armor gold, and an aura of radiant light, though dimmed, came off of his being. His name was Lothraxion, and he was on a mission.
Lothraxion was here to scout and survey this world in the name of the Grand Army of the Light, an organization of warriors and mages of various races that was dedicated to fighting against the forces of evil and terror throughout the universe. Lothraxion himself had served one of those forces, the demonic Burning Legion, but long ago he had turned against them and joined the Army of the Light. It had taken time to earn their trust, but now Lothraxion served as the High Commander of the Army. He had been tasked to scout this world, Earth, so that he could determine if there was any threat to the world that the Army needed to handle. There was none, and now he was returning to his personal scout ship in order to return to the Army and report in.
As Lothraxion moved to his ship, he suddenly heard a noise. It was a familiar noise: The sound of a car, but it confused Lothraxion; why was a human out here. Curious and concerned, he followed the noise to its source, pushing his way through the undergrowth and startling a number of animals. Finally, he arrived at a dirt road cut through the middle of the forest and saw the headlights of a car driving up. The car came to a stop and after a moment a door opened and a fat man came out of the car. Lothraxion watched as the man, muttering angrily to himself, walked over and opened another door. Lothraxion's enhanced hearing allowed him to hear the man's angry mutterings.
"Stupid unnatural freaks. Think they can just drop one of their own on us with only a note? Well, I'll show them, I'll show them all." The man then pulled something out of the car. Lothraxion's eyes widened as he saw what the man had pulled out. It was a baby. Lothraxion watched horrified as the man walked into the forest and placed the bundle holding the sleeping baby onto the forest floor. Horror turned to anger as he saw the man's satisfied look.
"Let's see what they think of this." The man said as the turned to leave. Lothraxion, losing control to his anger, came out of the bushes, not even bothering to change his form like he normally would.
"What do you think you are doing?" He yelled, the anger in his voice thundering out. The man stopped and turned around, already looking afraid. When he saw what was in front of him, he freaked out even more.
"Wha... What are you?" He asked in horror. Lothraxion stepped forward. He cast a spell to read his surface thoughts and saw everything. He saw that the baby's parents had died and something, not prevalent in the surface thoughts, had driven him and his wife to abandon the baby out here to die. This enraged Lothraxion more.
"I am a Nathrezim. And I want to know what you are thinking of, leaving this infant." He gestured to the baby. "Here in the middle of nowhere. Do you intend of him to die?" Vernon sputtered in fear and indignation for a moment before finally gaining an angry look on his own face. Lothraxion would have admired his bravery if he wasn't so angry.
"I'm getting rid of this freak of a boy." The man said. "And you devilish creature have no right to judge me."
"And you have no right to abandon him like that. I don't care what you call me, but leaving a baby? What makes him a freak anyway, he looks normal to me?" Lothraxion replied.
"As if you don't already know. He's like you. He can use that freakish magic." Vernon replied. Lothraxion's eyes narrowed. He could clearly see that this man was a bigot, and he had no patience for bigots.
"The only freak I see here is you, leaving a baby to die out in the middle of nowhere. I don't want to think about the kind of hell you'll end up in." Lothraxion said.
"And you are already in hell, devil. But if you care so much about the freak, why don't you take him yourself?" Lothraxion looked at the baby, who had been sleeping but now woken up by all the noise. Rather than crying, the baby simply looked at Lothraxion, curiosity apparent in his green eyes. Lothraxion nodded to himself.
"You know what, I think I will. And I cannot wait until we are both dead and gone and we can see just who ends up in hell, freak." Lothraxion decided, approaching the baby and picking him up. The man sputtered at his words.
"Fine then. Take him, for all I care." Vernon turned to leave, but Lothraxion called to him.
"And, one more thing?" The man turned back only to see Lothraxion's light glowing out in a ferocious display, his eyes narrowed and his sharp teeth bared. "Tell anyone of this, and you will know the fury of the Light." The man's brave look shattered at the sight, and he could only nod fearfully. Lothraxion suddenly realized something. "Oh, and what is his name?"
"H... Harry Potter." The man replied.
"Good to know. Farewell, Vernon Dursley." Deciding to freak out the bigot just that little more, Lothraxion used his name and then turned away to go back to his ship.
Once there, he looked at Harry Potter. The boy looked back at him with only curiosity on his face. Lothraxion examined the child, finding only one thing unusual about him: The lighting bolt shaped scar on his forehead.
"Curious." Lothraxion said. On a whim, he reached out with his magic and touched Harry's scar. What he felt horrified him. There was a darkness inside the scar, a fragment of a soul. Only the darkest of magic was required to use this kind of technique. The fact that anyone had done so at all shocked and horrified Lothraxion, but that the fragment was in a baby, that sickened him. But Lothraxion couldn't do anything about this. He had no idea how to remove a soul fragment from a living container, not without killing them. His only solace was that some kind of protection magic was protecting the scar from influencing the child. Lothraxion could feel Harry's pure soul burning brightly. As he pondered the situation and what to do, a realization came to him.
'I may not be able to remove the fragment, but I know who could.' Filled with hope, he conjured a crib to place Harry in and went over to the control console and began to plot his course.
Within hours, Lothraxion had arrived at his destination. It was a grand ship, appearing to be made of metal and golden crystals glowing in the void of space. Other smaller ships came in and out of it conducting the business of the Army of the Light. It was the Xenedar, the flagship of the Army, and Lothraxion's home when not on missions. He guided his ship into the Xenedar and landed. Then he grabbed Harry and cast a teleportation spell teleporting him to the bridge of the Xenedar. There beings of various races were running the ship and the Army, not even reacting to Lothraxion's presence at first, being used to people teleporting in and out. The first two to notice were in fact two beings overlooking everything else.
One was a female, and resembled a human but with spider features all over her body, like spider like legs and an exoskeleton. She was an aranasi named Gyron. The aranasi were one of the many races attacked and absorbed by the Burning Legion. Any who didn't join, like her, were rescued by the Army of the Light. The being with her, a scarlet colored humanoid crocodilian creature, was also from was race attacked by the Legion. Unlike them, however, by the time the Army got to their world there were only a few of them left, of which he, Crotonar, was the leader. These two were friends of Lothraxion, and had been awaiting his return.
"Lothraxion, you're back!" Gyron exclaimed happily. Crotonar was more reserved, but he was clearly happy as well.
"Yes, it is good to see you as... what is that? Is that a baby?" Crotonar had noticed Harry. Gyron noticed it as well. Only the discipline of the other soldiers prevented them from looking as well.
"Yes, it is." Lothraxion replied looking down at Harry for a moment before looking back at his friends. "I'll explain later, but right now, I have to talk to Xe'ra."
"About the baby, Lothraxion?" Chimed a melodic, soothing voice. The three turned to see a being that looked to be made of glowing crystals and runic symbols. She was a Naaru, the race that created and led the Army of the Light.
"Yes. There's a soul fragment inside of him It hasn't taken over him yet, but I fear for the worse. Please Xe'ra, you have to help him." He pleaded.
"Of course I'll help him. Bring him here." Lothraxion stepped forward and showed Harry to Xe'ra. A beam of light gently came out of Xe'ra and flowed over Harry, the magic investigating him. Xe'ra did this for a few moments before finally speaking.
"Yes, I can feel both the fragment and the protection magic. I believe I can work with the protection magic to remove the fragment. Hold on." The beam glowed and went into the scar itself. Within a moment, it came out, pulling a black mass of magic and... something... trapped tightly in a coil. The light magic intensified, the coil tightening, the mass straining against it. Light magic spread across the mass, creating cracks in it. Finally, it shattered into a million pieces which faded as quickly as they formed. Everyone heard an unearthly scream as the mass shattered and faded away, clearly from the owner of the soul. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the scream faded away.
"It is done." Xe'ra said simply, relieved the process was over and the baby saved. Lothraxion looked down at Harry, who had been unfazed by any of this. Lothraxion held out a finger and Harry gripped it tightly. He smiled at the sight.
"Xe'ra, I've thought about it over the journey, and I would like to raise Harry as my own son. He was abandoned on his home world for having magic by his uncle. He has no one." Gyron looked concerned, more for Harry's situation than anything else while Crotonar was thinking.
"Lothraxion, are you certain about this?" He asked. "I know we have children here on the Xenedar and on our other ships, but raising a child is a big commitment. You already have the Army to worry about as it is." Gyron nodded.
"He's right. And are you certain that there's no one back on his world for him?"
"I read his uncle's mind. His parents are dead and he was left on their doorstep. There is no one." Lothraxion said with certainty. The others simply nodded at Lothraxion's look of determination and the three turned to Xe'ra, whose blessing was needed. She was glimmering in thought.
"If you are certain about this?" She asked firmly, yet gently. Unlike the others, she could feel the threads of destiny through the Light, source of all light magic, and she could feel Lothraxion's and Harry's intertwined.
"Yes, I am." Lothraxion replied.
"Then so be it. We shall be there for him. We shall be his family. And Lothraxion will be his father." Crotonar and Gyron turned to a happy Lothraxion.
"Well, congratulations are in order then." Crotonar said.
"Yes they are. And if you need any help at all, just ask and we'll help you." Gyron added. Lothraxion nodded. He turned to Xe'ra.
"Would you like the rest of the report now, or later?" He asked Xe'ra.
"Is there an immediate threat to the world right now?" She asked.
"None that requires our attention. And you know how the governments feel about us contacting pre-spacefaring civilizations." Lothraxion commented. Crotonar and Gyron nodded as Xe'ra shimmered in agreement.
"In that case, I can take the rest later. Why don't you get settled with young Harry here." Lothraxion nodded and departed with his newly adopted son. Life had changed for the both of them.