A Quiet Revenge

The Houses Competition (THC) Y8, Round 2

House: Gryffindor

Class: Transfiguration

Category: Standard

Prompt(s) chosen: [Action] Sneaking around, [Location] Woods (small forest)

Word count: 2,485

Disclaimers/Triggers: Light swearing, mentions of death

AU: Harry has a twin brother who is hailed as the boy-who-lived. Harry's parents are alive.

Beta(s): secretfanficlover (Crissie), Butterflies765 (Sab)

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)

House: Slytherin

Assignment 6

Hagiology

Task #3: St. Clare of Assisi

Prompt: Write about someone running away from home (restriction: not Sirius Black)

WARNING- Angst, Mentions of death

Harry creeped out from his bedroom under the invisibility cloak which he had stolen from his brother—Alexander. The adults—his parents and Dumbledore—were having some kind of a meeting and he wanted to listen.

It must be something big, if even precious Alexander cannot listen to it, Harry mused to himself. After all, Alexander was the boy-who-lived. He was given anything—which, apparently, included top-secret Order information. So him not being told anything was quite surprising indeed. Harry, meanwhile, was sneaking around the vast Potter Manor, checking all of the doors, because he didn't know in which room they were having the meeting.

Harry tried one more room which did not have anyone in it either. He was getting frustrated. And you did not want to be around him when he got frustrated.

In hindsight, sneaking around in the Potter Manor, which, by the way, he had been expressly told not to do, with the invisibility cloak he was not allowed to have was highly risky. But Harry was curious. And on a mission. No one was able to stop Harry Potter on a mission.

Harry came across another room. There was something distinctly familiar about it… After a few minutes of feeling his surroundings, Harry came to a satisfying conclusion—he had felt his parents' magic.

Here goes nothing, Harry thought while he used the eavesdropping charm Alexander's godfather, Sirius, had taught them.

"Yes. I vote yes," said his mother, "I never wanted him anyway—"

"Nor did I," it was his father's voice, of that he was sure.

His mother gave an exasperated breath as she continued.

"As I was saying, we do not want him. Why we didn't put him in an orphanage is beyond me. He was, is and will always be a distraction from and for his brother. Always. Alex is better than him in every possible way. I am glad that we will finally have the chance to get rid of him."

No! This is fake. Yes it is fake, Harry thought, understanding they were talking about him. Sure, they give more time to Alexander because he is the hero and all but they love me! They said so themselves!

Then it must be a ploy. A way to get you at your weakest, the Slytherin part of his mind whispered to him. Harry just wanted to tell that voice to fuck off. Though he couldn't say that the voice was completely off the mark. How many times had he noticed his mother, no, Lily staring at him disgustedly as he was the worst piece of scum to be born on earth? How many times had his simplistic needs been ignored for Alexander's extravagant, pointless needs?

"I have a question, Professor," his father, no, not his father. James Potter said.

"Fire away, m'boy," that was undoubtedly Dumbledore's voice. Their parents' and Alexander's and...okay, literally everyone's (except those on the dark side) favorite. But not Harry's. To Harry, Dumbledore was a manipulative old man who would stop at nothing to accomplish his motives. Harry could easily see through his fabricated masks, so Dumbledore didn't like him.

Harry was surprised by his parents' stupidity. How could they not notice? Dumbledore would have easily stopped the rise of Voldemort. But he didn't. He had let him become a corrupted wizard with a desire to maim and kill. Dumbledore could have stopped the hundreds of deaths that the first Wizarding War brought. Let's not get into the fact that Dumbledore was Grindelwald's lover at one point of time if Bathilda Bagshot is to be believed.

"Why don't we just dump him with the Dursleys?"

Ouch. That hurt. Harry had met the Dursleys only once, but once had been enough. They were the most horrible people one could ever have the misfortune of meeting. So it was saying a lot. And Harry wasn't just a piece of furniture in an attic ready to be sent to the dump at any moment.

A sigh. He assumed it was from Dumbledore.

"My boy. We can certainly do that but we also need the Weasley family firmly on our side. Most of them are but some of them like William, Charles, Frederick and George are hesitant in joining our cause. If we marry Harry off to Ginevra, then it would be...what do the muggles say? Killing two birds with one stone. That way, you wouldn't have to worry about either of them. Family always fights on the same side.."

Harry was disgusted. There was no other word for it. They were literally going to force him into marriage with none other than that Weasley girl! The one who has slept with literally the whole of Hogwarts—bar him, gay people and the Slytherins—by her fourth year! Besides, he was just sixteen. And while pre-arranged engagements were a thing for Purebloods, wasn't it a bit too early for him? He couldn't believe that his parents would agree to this, just so they could get rid of him.

With a made-up mind and eyes prickling with angry tears, Harry whispered to himself, "None of you will need to resort to such drastic decisions to get rid of me. I will do that myself."

So, with that being said, Harry quietly slipped into his room and grabbed a few of his necessities like his wand, dagger, bow and arrow, water to last him three days, a plastic bag and a sleeping bag which he had nicked from the camping trip a couple years ago.

Harry would go to the woods near the Potter Manor. It was a small forest really. It had various types of plants—both magical and non-magical. There were animals such as unicorns, pegasi, thestrals, horses, various types of poisonous snakes and other creatures lurking in its shadowy depths.

Once or twice he had snuck into the woods to talk to the snakes. As a Parselmouth, he often enjoyed their company.. He knew which fruits were poisonous so he could avoid them. He could also shoot rabbits and squirrels which he found in the forest.

Harry quietly walked through the main entrance hall devouring each and every nook and cranny with his eyes. Harry stood outside the gates of the Potter Manor and saw it for the last time. The huge garden filled with lilies, roses, wild-flowers, sunflowers. The spectacular Potter Manor made by his ancestors. The orange and pink sky. Sunset.

Harry took a deep breath and plunged into the dark woods.

The canopy of the huge trees made it impossible for any light to enter the woods. It was silent, dark but also comforting. Just the way he remembered it from his previous visits. He moved silently through the woods, his bow and arrow in his hand searching for prey. After scourging through the forest for prey, Harry shot a fine rabbit. In no time, he had cleaned and gutted the animal leaving the head, feet, tail and innards under a pile of leaves. He then lit a small fire and cooked the rabbit—eating raw rabbit could give you rabbit fever, a lesson he had learnt the hard way.

After he ate a rabbit leg and stored away the rest in the plastic bag, he decided to roam around a little bit. After all, if this was to be his home from now on, he might as well know everything in it.

Harry met a thestral, a pegasus and two snakes in his quest to roam about in the forest. The snakes were of the Eastern Green Mamba breed. Very poisonous and very intelligent so Harry could hold a conversation with them.

When Harry heard the howl of a wolf and the hoot of an owl, he decided it was high time for him to set up his sleeping bag. After all, it wouldn't do good if he got killed on the first night. He climbed up a tree to questionable heights and set up the sleeping bag in such a way so that even if he moved while sleeping, he wouldn't be in danger of falling down.

As he lay inside his sleeping bag, watching the constellations, Harry carefully rethinked all the memories he had of his parents. He realized that he was always the forgotten one. The one that no one cared about. They wouldn't care less if he died. Whenever he started to notice their behavior, he would be showered with pointless and meaningless gifts and told that "Alexander is more important than you are since he is the savior. But, don't worry, we love both of you."

Always "both of you". Never had he heard "I love you" from either of his parents which was directed towards him.

After a couple of hours, just before Harry was sucked in the abyss of darkness, he whispered to himself, "They got what they deserved."

The days continued on like this. Harry had found a pond with the guidance of one of the Eastern Green Mamba who he had named Aleithia. From when he woke up, he would go to the pond and fill up his water bottle. Then, he would hunt. Not necessarily rabbits, though. He also scavenged for fruits, nuts and other mammals which he could eat. When he would start to get hungry, he would go back to the pond, bathe or swim and eat whatever he had gathered for that day. He was careful not to eat everything since it was supposed to last him the night and next morning. After lunch, he would just roam about in the forest—seeing the unicorns, riding the horses and talking with the snakes. As he heard the howl of wolves and hoot of the owls, he would immediately retreat to the tree.

Aleithia always warned him the previous day if rain or thunderstorms would be coming on. On those days, Harry hunted in abundance to last him a fair few days and retreated to a cave he had found while roaming around in the forest.

Harry also practiced his magic regularly. A few days before running away, he had found a nifty little spell in the Potter Library to remove the Trace from his wand. Who knew there were that many illegal tomes in the respectable Potters home?. Without the restriction of the Ministry, Harry was free to practice all the Dark Curses he had read over the years but had never got to try. He now knew why people got so addicted to the Dark Arts—the feeling you got while using a Dark spell was very seductive. It hummed in his veins for days, making him do a higher level Dark Art. The higher the level, the more the seduction. Most of the Light Wizards would've gone mad by now but Harry had a grey core which made him compatible with both Light and Dark Magic so he didn't have to worry about going mad.

Harry loved this kind of life. He didn't have to wonder whether his grades would please his parents or not. He didn't have to worry about being targeted by Voldemort or his minions since he was the brother of the boy-who-lived. However, he had some genuine friends like Luna and Neville. So, one day, he transfigured some parchment and a quill from a fallen tree bark and wrote to Luna and Neville in blueberry juice. He then sent the letters by an owl who was more than willing to assist him.

Neville and Luna were very supportive of him and congratulated him on finding out about the true nature of the Potters—something that they had known, or at least suspected, for years. They sent letters back and forth and, through them, he was updated about the wizarding world as well. He couldn't have asked for better friends.

It seemed that the Potters had found out that he had gone missing. To keep their happy-family image intact and to betroth him away to Weaselette, they had ordered several search parties to find Harry. Of course, no one had entered the forest. So, Harry was safe from being found.

It was roughly a year after he ran away from home. He had gotten comfortable in the forest and now it was his home even more than Potter Manor. Sure, there were a few life-and-death instances but all was well. That was, until he received a letter from Neville and Luna when he was eating his lunch.

It said:

Lightning,

Lemondrop, Arrogant and the Light have fallen. Dark has taken control. All is well.

Amber

Yes, they had decided to send letters in code just in case someone intercepted the letters. Dumbledore and Alexander were dead. It was about time with all the blunders they had done. The Potters would be dead soon, if they weren't already.

A few days later, Harry read the wonderful news of Neville proposing to Luna, who obviously agreed and was very happy. He also received the news of the Potters' trial. He was required as a witness.

Of course he went.

After the court got over the shock of seeing Harry Potter alive, he gave his testimony. Needless to say that forcing a minor into a marriage and neglecting said minor was not something that the Dark Lord tolerated. The Potters were sent to Azkaban for life.

When the idea of letting someone adopt Harry came up, he was very adamant in not being adopted and supported his argument by the fact that he was of age in the wizarding world. However, no one wanted Harry Potter—a boy clearly neglected of any parental affection throughout his life, to go on living in the woods. The Dark Lord himself passed a law which stated that wizards are considered to be minors till the age of 18 just so Harry could have a proper home. Harry, of course, had to accept.

Since his uncle Sirius was dead and his godfather, Remus, Lupin was a werewolf, there was no question of letting Harry live with Remus Lupin—no matter how kind or gentle he could be, at the end of the day, he was still a werewolf—a decision Harry agreed with wholeheartedly. Finally, after a custody battle involving spells and a spatula, Harry was adopted by the Malfoys.

They were nice, really. Narcissa took to Harry the moment he set foot in the Malfoy Manor. Draco, who Harry saw as his partner-in-crime for serious pranks when Neville was absent, always wanted a brother so he liked Harry. Lucius took the hardest time to crack. However, it was not impossible. When Lucius saw Harry sneaking around the Malfoy Manor to read books on politics—Harry's most hated subject—just to make him proud, Lucius was very happy.

Harry didn't marry though Draco went on to marry his childhood sweetheart, Astoria Greengrass and had two kids—Scorpius Draconis and Callisto Astoria.

Neville and Luna roamed around the world with their one girl—Alice Pandora Longbottom-Lovegood.

All was well.

A/N- Please read and review.