NOTE: I do not own Harry Potter or related intellectual properties. That happy privilege belongs to J. K. Rowling.

Deliria

Part 0

The Birth of Deliria

Chapter 1

Happy Birthday Alice

Alice Lily Potter thought that she had never had a more miserable birthday in her entire life. This was quite the achievement, since she had never actually had a pleasant birthday experience, as far as she could remember. She vaguely held the belief that her first birthday must have been good, but that might have had more to do with her working out that such a birthday would have been before she came to live with her aunt and uncle. Despite the drunken freaks her parents must have been, she always wanted to imagine they had at least thrown her a fun birthday, even if she couldn't remember it.

Her second birthday she couldn't recall either. She vaguely recalled her third birthday, but at the time it had simply been any other day to her, and it was much the same for the fourth. It was only when she neared five that she learned she had a birthday. When she so much as mentioned overhearing that, she received her first and so far only present in her life: one of her uncle's old socks. She had refrained from mentioning her own birthday with her family since then.

Her sixth birthday had been only full of chores, chores and more chores, not that she was not used to doing chores by then. But today was her seventh birthday, and it was the worst one so far. Her cousin Dudley was usually enough trouble on his own, but the summer had seen the worst of his bullying in her memory. Every day, his friends seemed to come over, and every day they would engage in Alice Hunting. Most days, she was fast enough to get away, or was able to avoid trouble by being forced to do chores, but not today.

Today she had been caught, and found her arms pulled behind her back by Piers Polkiss behind the house. She had been terrified, of course, but it was not the first time, and she knew it probably wouldn't be the last, closing her eyes and bracing herself as Dudley's fat fist was pulled back. She usually got hit in the face, because Dudley liked targeting her glasses, but today he decided to start differently.

The hit to the gut knocked the wind out of her, and her eyes snapped open from the shock of the blow. Dudley's pleased grin at her look of pain quickly turned to surprise too as he went flying backwards and landed on his backside over two meters away. Alice blinked in surprise, an odd tingling sensation in her chest as the other boys stared confused. The distraction allowed her to pull out of Piers' grasp and make a run for it. She wondered if she had reflexively kicked him or something, and was elated.

That feeling of elation would not last on this, the worst of birthdays, for when she returned home it was to very angry guardians. Aunt Petunia had slapped her silly on her return before returning to holding a possibly really this time crying Dudley and holding him as though protecting him from some vicious monster that broke in the house. Uncle Vernon had brought out a cane.

But the time she was locked in the cupboard under the stairs that, she would have been grateful if she could think of anything but pain and crying. Of course, she had to cry as quietly as possible, as too much noise would make them punish her more, and she could not risk further wrath. She knew now it must not have been a kick, but another of her freakish events, because she recalled hearing Uncle Vernon shout it was so with every smack.

Alice knew, deep down, her treatment was unfair. It had always been unfair. It was unfair she was the only child in class who didn't know what a hug felt like, or that she had never so much as received a smile for her good grades. She knew something was wrong every time her Aunt Petunia seemed so furious with her every time their eyes met, even when she wasn't doing anything wrong. She knew it was unfair she didn't have friends just because Dudley's Gang scared anyone from even trying to be nice to her.

But she had heard it often enough that her freakishness was her own fault, and so had come to believe that all the horrible things that came with it were her fault too. If she were not a freak, no one would hit her, her family would like her at least second best to Dudley, and she would have friends. "Must be nice to be normal," she whispered to herself sadly.

"Ha!" came a cold, high laugh that sounded distant yet somehow right in her ears. Surprised enough by the voice itself, Alice almost didn't notice the tingling feeling that seemed to pulse at her forehead. "There's nothing nice about those 'normal', worthless muggles, dear."

Alice did not jump at the voice, but craned her head around to the door. Was someone outside talking to her? That seemed rather odd, but they had responded to what she said. Deciding to chance the possibilities, she spoke up. "Hello?" She cringed slightly at the question in her voice, knowing it was never good to ask questions. The Dursley's had always told her not to.

The was a quiet pause, and she started to think she had imagined it. This was also bad, because the Dursley's also told her to never imagine any-

"You can hear me?" The voice was softer this time, but just as clear as before.

Alice found herself nodding, despite knowing there was no one around to see her. When she realized this, she answered. "Yes." She began to realize the man, she was sure it was a man, sounded like an adult, and thus had to be some friend or customer of her Uncle Vernon. She had not remembered him preparing for any sort of dinner party, but now that she had spoken she knew she was in trouble. When guests were over, she was supposed to be quiet and pretend she didn't exist.

The voice was silent for a few moments, and she thought the man might have decided to ignore her, or had missed her reply. Then, suddenly, he spoke again, this time with a kinder tone of voice. "Well, my dear, it a pleasure to meet you." Alice was stunned, as no one had ever told her anything like that before. Pleasure did not go together with meeting Alice Potter, who if she was ever noticed was nothing but a freak and hooligan according to everyone else. "This is traditionally where you would return the greeting in kind."

"O-oh," murmured Alice, still too shocked to quite get her head together. "H-hello, it's… It's nice to meet you, Sir."

There was a chuckle, and it almost sounded like the voice was becoming a bit closer, or perhaps it was more just louder? "I tend to prefer 'My Lord' to 'Sir'. But then, you would have no way to know that, with how you were raised."

She most certainly wouldn't have, considering she had never met a Lord before. She knew what they were, of course, but had never even so much as seen one. "Sorry, my lord."

"That's perfectly fine, Alice, now that you have been corrected." Yes, the voice was definitely much more pronounced now, as though the man was right in front of her in the cupboard.

"You know my name, my lord?" Alice seemed to be in for a lot of surprises.

"Yes, I know just about everything there is to know about you, Alice," said the voice, and despite the high pitch, she could almost see in her mind's eye the image of a charming smile of a gentle man looking down at her. "And I suppose you should know mine as well. I am Lord Voldemort, and think it is best to address it now that I am speaking to you within your mind."

Alice did not know exactly how to take that, and started to get the feeling she might have gone a little mad from the pain or something. "In my head?"

"Yes, and before you think it, I don't mean that I am a figment of your imagination. You see, I am actively trapped in your head, and have been since you were just a baby left on your aunt's doorstep."

Alice was still not sure if this was just her going crazy or not, but something about the man's voice made her want to listen anyways and let herself get dragged into that flow. "How did you get there, my lord?"

"Well, I suppose that story will need me to establish a couple of details. First, I am a wizard." Alice's eyes went wide despite not really being able to see much in the darkness of the cupboard. "And you are a very young witch. This means we can do magic."

"But…" Alice hesitated, not wanting to contradict the friendly lord, but unable to ignore years of her uncle's words being beaten into her head. "Uncle Vernon says there's no such thing as magic."

"Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia say a lot of stupid things," said Lord Voldemort coldly, and despite his harsh tone that made Alice laugh. She had also always thought her Aunt and Uncle could be stupid about things, but never had the courage to say so out loud. The Lord's tone seemed to soften at that. "They decry magic but claim you have freakish abilities that they so fear that they would try to beat them out of you. Those muggles are very much beneath you, no matter how much they try to convince you otherwise. There is no reason for you to accept their words anymore."

Alice thought on that. Yes, she thought, that would explain her freakishness. She had only just today sent Dudley flying when he hit her, after all, and one could easily describe several of her little incidents as magic. "I suppose that could be true," she conceded. "Oh, what is a muggle, my lord?" He had said it a lot, especially when referring to her aunt and uncle, so Alice thought it might be some sort of dirty word she hadn't heard before. At least, Lord Voldemort used it like it was a dirty word.

"Muggles are what those two would consider 'normal' people. People without magic. That of course makes them quite inferior to us who have magic." Alice nodded at that. "Now, as to how I got in here… Well, I was doing a bit of magic near you and it pulled me out of my body and into yours. Not quite sure how exactly it happened, but there it is."

"Oh, that sounds terrible," said Alice, sure that if she was to be stuck in anyone's body that any other body would be better than her own. "Is there any way to free you?"

"There might be," said the Lord. "But only with your help, my dear."

"Oh, I don't know if I could be really helpful," she said, modestly, though such modesty had only really come from being constantly looked down upon.

"Oh, but you can. In fact, you, Alice Potter, are the only one who can help me. And I am the only one who can help you, in return."

Alice paused thoughtfully. "… Help me how?"

"The same way you can help me. I can teach you magic, and with the magic I teach you, you can help me." He paused, allowing her a moment to take that in. "You of course have done some accidental magic, but I can teach you control. I know life has been hard on you, thanks to those worthless muggles that make up your family. I can show you how to defend yourself. I can help you never go hungry again. I can help you never get hurt again. And in exchange, you can help set me free."

Never before had Alice been given so tempting an offer, and it did not take her very long to decide. "Yes, please," she whispered like a desperate wish to the stars above.

There was a cool chuckle in her mind. "Very good, then I think it's time for a first lesson," said the Lord Voldemort. "We should start with unlocking doors so you can get yourself something to eat, I think. But before we begin… Happy Birthday, Alice."

Suddenly her birthday wasn't looking so bad after all.