Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter in anyway. It is the property of Joanne Kathleen Rowling and her affiliates Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros., etc.

WARNING: This chapter is very important as it tells what has happened, what with the fic being AU, and whatnot.

Eternal Suffering

Chapter 1 Hunting

Harry Potter walked around the wood, eyes taking in every detail. The leaves on the ground left a minute trail of where they had fallen. He was trained ever since he was young to recognize things of that sort. His feet always left almost no prints in the grass, and his body made no noise as he stalked through the bush. Harry was ready for anything; he could bring his wand out at the slightest disturbance. It was because of this, his unique powers, that he was feared... well at least at school anyway. No one dare try to attack him, not even from behind. That is, unless they were a certain Dark Lord and his posse of human vermin.

The very thought of them made Harry feel sick, his mouth now having the taste of mud. It was these people who had taken away his life as it should have been, just as they did to just about everyone else. The Dark Lord Voldemort had been around for twenty years already.

In Harry's first year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Voldemort had infiltrated the school with the help of the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Quirrel. He had sought the Sorcerer's Stone, a unique blood red stone no bigger than an apple. It was the powers of the stone that Voldemort wanted. With the stone, Voldemort would be even more powerful than he already was. Not only would he become rich beyond contemplation, but he would be near immortal.

But luckily, Harry and his two friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger kept the Stone from Voldemort. Though it did turn out they didn't even have to risk their lives. The stone had already been destroyed. That had certainly pissed Harry off. But defying Voldemort even to the point of not giving in to the Cruciatus Curse had earned him the title of The Boy-Who-Lived. He had become famous, as did Ron and Hermione, though not nearly as much as him. Harry had temporarily weakened Voldemort after the Dark Lord had tried to strangle him. Trying to hold Harry still by grabbing at the throat had cause them both a great deal of pain. Harry thanked the protection his mother had given him, else he would have been violated by the darkest and ugliest being ever to live (Voldemort was planning on raping him...).

Second Year was rather uneventful in Harry's eyes. Basically all that happened was that a basilisk was set loose inside the school, and the school in turn... turned on Harry, thinking him the Heir of Slytherin. Quite ironic when Harry thought about it, having slayed the basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor and saved Ginny Weasley's life. Much to Harry's discontent, that only added to his fame.

Third Year was quite a surprise to Harry, what with him learning that his godfather was not the traitor that Dumbledore had told him he was. Of course, he couldn't blame the old man, his surrogate grandfather who he had grown up with. Peter Pettigrew had betrayed his parent's location to Lord Voldemort. Faced with the choice to let Sirius and Remus kill the rat or leave him to the dementors, Harry chose neither. Rather, he kneed Pettigrew in the groin and snapped his neck. It was a pleasant way to go, thought Harry, which the bastard did not deserve after betraying his best and only friends. Happily, Sirius was pardoned and Harry was sent to live with him at a cottage (where Dumbledore would visit frequently) in the Scotland highlands, probably near Hogwarts, though Harry never cared to find out. In Sirius, Harry found a brother and father he never had.

Fourth Year he was plagued by his scar hurting. Sirius had taken him to the Quidditch World Cup where the Death Eaters had become brave enough to attack. Luckily no one was seriously hurt. Back in Hogwarts he uncovered a plot and took part in the Triwizard Tournament. The Defence Against the Dark Arts professor was Barty Crouch Jr. and aided in getting Harry away from the safety of Hogwarts to a graveyard where Voldemort killed Cedric Diggory. He then initiated a ritual using Harry's blood, Lucius Malfoy's hand, and his father's bones to become stronger and to make Harry's blood protection useless. Harry escaped with Cedric's body after the rare, magical event, Priori Incantatem, took place.

In his Fifth Year, Harry was attacked by a dementor while wandering the streets of the village near his godfather's cottage. After a minor trial for underage magic, Harry easily got away with it, the judges barely even caring that a dementor attacked him. They had left Azkaban just two weeks before hand.

Once again, his scar was hurting like an asshole and he kept having dreams of some corridor. He used occlumency which Dumbledore had taught him when he was younger to block out those visions. But just before Christmas break he had a vision of Arthur Weasley being attacked. Somehow the vision had passed through his occlumency shields. Dumbledore said it was because it was real, so quite basically, Harry's occlumency training was useless.

Harry's friends, George and Fred Weasley thanked him for saving their father by giving him an enormous amount of their Weasley Wizarding Weezes. Later in the year they left Hogwarts after a number of prank wars against the teachers. All in good spirit actually, since the professors indeed did like the challenge of catching the twins red handed and having to dispense of their portable swamps and fireworks and the like. They then left the school early, impatient to start their new business at Diagon Alley. The twins made quite a scene, dive bombing Snape with dungbombs before flying off. But not before telling Peeves to give Snape and Filch hell from them.

The highpoint of the year was at their OWL examinations. During the History of Magic tests, Harry had a vision of Voldemort torturing Sirius. Needless to say, he checked to see if it was indeed true. He flooed to the cottage and checked on the animagus. He was gone. As were all the other order members at Hogwarts. He got together wtih Ron and Hermione and left for the Department of Mysteries.

He was tricked. In the veil room he held off a dozen Death Eaters by himself until help arrived in the form of Remus Lupin, the real Alastor Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley Shacklebolt, all whom he had met at an earlier age at one point or another. Along with them came Sirius. All the Death Aaters and Order members were unconscious except for Bellatrix Lestrange who dueled Sirius. She shot an Disarming Spell at Sirius, sending him flying toward the veil. Harry dropped the Prophecy sphere and drew his wand and shot a Banishing Hex at Sirius right before he entered the veil, sending him flying to the side, but knocking him unconscious at the same time.

Not wanting to let the Death Eater scum get away, Harry followed her to the Atrium and began a duel with her. Eventually once he had the upper hand, Voldemort showed up, angry about losing the Prophecy. Then in enter Dumbledore. He dueled Voldemort until the Ministry arrived.

That was how the fiasco ended. But then, that was only just the beginning of a newer Harry.

Harry sat behind Dumbledore's desk, his eyes wandering to the various instruments and objects littered about the room. An odd assortment of socks lay on the Headmaster's desk. Hearing mumbling, Harry looked up and noticed the portraits all staring at him. With a barely concealed smile, he nodded at Headmaster Dippet. The old man in the portrait raised his eyebrows at Harry, never having seen him before. Harry shrugged. It was not a good idea to get the suspicions of others.

As Harry sat contemplating the night's events, he sighed. He had almost gotten people killed. Ron and Hermione. Hermione had been hit by a violet curse and lay unconscious while Ron was being suffocated by a brain. Harry had left them both in a closet after trying to relieve the pressure of the tentacles from Ron's throat.

"I hope this means," said the corpulent, red-nosed wizard who hung on the wall behind the Headmaster's desk, "that Dumbledore will soon be back among us?"

Harry absentmindedly nodded before he returned to his thoughts.

Sirius. He had seen his godfather fall back into within an inch of the veil. He had seen it as if the world had slowed down. He had automatically pulled his wand and banished the animagus back into the wall just before he would have... well, Harry didn't know exactly what happened behind the veil, but he guessed it couldn't be anything good.

Indeed, the duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore had amazed him. The level at which they fought was one that Harry could never attain. To be able to duel like that... it was like magic--figuratively speaking, that is. How could Harry ever hope to be able to defeat the Dark Lord when not even Dumbledore could? Wait a tick, since when was it his duty to defeat the half-blooded hypocrite bastard? Never, yet... Harry felt a sense of obligation to kill Voldemort.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by the appearance of the headmaster. Harry nodded at him in greeting. "Albus."

"Harry," he nodded back. "You will be glad to know that none of your friends, nor any Order members were injured during this ordeal."

Harry glanced up at the old man. Was Dumbledore blaming him?

"I will get straight to the point. You were not able to contact Sirius because he was on Order business along with most of the other members. It seems Voldemort pulled a double attack. He personally went to Ohoagg, a magical village, and terrorized it with a good size of his army. He sent his better units to the Department of Mysteries as a trap to trick you into getting the Prophecy for him, then they would dispose of you.

"I must apologize for not forewarning you that I, along with Minerva, Hagrid, and Severus would not be here."

"No need," said Harry, though he did wish he was let in on some of the happenings of the Order.

Dumbledore nodded. "However, I must say that you shouldn't have fallen for the ploy-"

"Sirius was being tortured!" said Harry, defending his actions.

"You thought he was being tortured," corrected Dumbledore, softly. "I understand Harry. But you should have waited for an Order member to arrive."

Harry sighed, his head in his hands. "You expect me to just leave Sirius to Voldemort and his cronies? What would you have done, Albus?"

Dumbledore steeped his fingers and answered, "I wouldn't have gone rushing off into a sure death."

"I fought them off! I was doing fine."

"And if the Order hadn't arrived?" asked Dumbledore.

"I would have been worn down until they eventually killed me," Harry admitted.

"I do not criticize you for going to help Sirius, but you need to start thinking tactically. You are too important to be lost in this war. You know your skills. You have more magical capacity then even I. I hate saying this Harry, but you are a weapon we cannot lose. Without you, the wizarding world would likely dissolve. I have told you this before."

"Yeah," said Harry, "but that doesn't make it any easier to bear. God knows I want to kill that fucker, Voldemort-" Dumbledore winced at the language, "but it would take me forever to get to the level of magic that you and Voldemort are at, even with the extra training you've given me."

"Alas," said Dumbledore, "that is another reason you are here right now."

"Aside from fighting a dozen Death Eaters and being attacked by Voldemort?" asked Harry, sarcastically.

"Yes," said Dumbledore, not minding Harry's tone. "I must do now what I have put off for too long. Harry, I must tell you of the Prophecy."

"Prophecy?" asked Harry. "You mean the one that I dropped?"

"Yes, but it is not lost. One person retains the information that was in that sphere."

"Who?" asked Harry quizzically.

"Me of course," answered Dumbledore.

Harry growled impatiently when Dumbledore didn't continue. "Well?"

Dumbledore jumped as if he just noticed Harry was there. In answer, he got up and took a stone basin from his glass case. A pensieve. He carefully put it down on his desk. Before he used it, he looked at Harry.

"First, I must explain something to you before I reveal the Prophecy to you.

"One day I met a woman named Sybil Trelawney who was applying for the post of Divination. Against my better judgment, for I knew of the extreme unreliability in the subject, I interviewed her, but only because some of her ancestors were seers and I was curious to see if she contained the same power. I was rather surprised when she went into a sort of fit. I noticed the signs as that of her seeing something in the future.

"Now I must reveal to you what she told me, that night."

With that, the Headmaster prodded his temples and a wisp of silver came out. He swirled it in the pensieve and waited. The same woman from the Prophecy sphere arose from the silver mist. She said this:

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 . and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives . the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies .'

"Crap," Harry muttered. "So that's why the asshole is always after me."

Dumbledore gazed over the desk at Harry. "Yes," he said slowly, "it would seem so. The curious thing is that it couldn't have been you."

"What do you mean?" questioned Harry.

"There was another boy who was born just as July ends."

"Who?"

"Neville," answered Dumbledore.


"So, you mean it's not talking about me?"

"I'm afraid," began Dumbledore, "that there is no doubt that the prophecy is referring to you."

"But you just said-"

"You were born on July 31st. Your parents have escaped Voldemort's clutches three times. But the thing that distinguishes you from Neville is that Voldemort marked you as his equal."

"But... why?" asked Harry.

"You are half-blooded as he is. He saw himself in you and therefore sought to kill you."

Nothing had pissed Harry off more. He hardly even paid attention to the rest. All he knew was that he would train even harder than before. And now that he thought of it, he finally realized why Dumbledore had personally trained him during the summers. Harry was going to become the strongest wizard, or at least he would need to to defeat the likes of Voldemort and his crew of murdering scum.

His fifth year at Hogwarts had come and gone, but, in Harry's eyes, the best part of the year was when he lost his virginity to Cho Chang. He was no longer an innocent little boy. And even though he dumped the Asian witch, he knew he'd still have some fun in the near future. Indeed, he already had a girlfriend from the village nearby, though he seldom saw her as it was. Working out, gaining height, getting contacts, and lengthening his hair to jaw length had helped him woo the girl. But Harry was a gentleman at heart, so even though he could have multiple girls on the side, he did not. Besides, he actually enjoyed spending quality time with his girlfriend. That did not happen so often because he stayed at the cottage training or else at the Burrow hanging out with his friends.

His training usually consisted of Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration. When he wasn't doing that, he was perfecting his occlumency and legilimency. Both were basically mastered already, Harry having practiced at them for two years already. After all that, he would usually just hang around with his godfather, Sirius, or just hang out with his friends.

But Harry was interrupted from his thoughts as he saw a cloaked figure crouching by a rock. In a swift motion, Harry had his wand out just as the man whipped around, wand in his had already. They gazed at each other, looking for weaknesses. When neither showed fear, Harry took the initiative and sent a Stunner the man's way. Of course the man dodged No one was ever taken down by the first spell.

"Avikus," Harry whispered, wand moving quickly in a small arc, sending a blue colored beam of light at the man.

Moving behind a tree, the man seemingly disappeared, before Harry dove to the ground just as a he heard sharp crack to his side with a curse following.

From the ground, Harry apparated to the top of the tree above the man. When he reappeared, he dropped off the branch, attempting to surprise his enemy. But the man pointed his wand up and shot a Bludgeoning Hex, sending Harry higher into the air. As Harry was about to collide into the ground, he pumped his fist forward before apparating right on top of the enemy, his fist colliding with the man's jaw. Harry took the advantage and raised his wand, about to send the man into a deep, painful sleep... before he was sent flying sideways into a tree.

"What the..." muttered Harry, before he saw a flashing beam of white flying straight at him. He flicked his wand at the second man who had just arrived and sent him flying into the spell. Apparated again, Harry could swear he saw the other man smiling.

Right when he appeared in back of the man, he fell on his knees in pain. Being kicked in the groin did that to you. Trying his best to ignore the extreme pain, Harry rolled over just as a curse hit where he had been. He pointed his wand at the man's leg and mumbled an incantation. The man grunted as a sharp knife flew into his shin. He too dropped on his knee, and he took out the blade with a whimper of pain.

Harry got back onto his feet, ready for more. But seeing a strip of light heading his way, he put up his shields and waited for the light to pass away before letting his shields go. Looking around, his eyebrows rose. The two men were no where to be found. When he lowered his wand, a hex came his way. With a sigh, he disapparated. This time he appeared in the bushes.

His eyes strained as he tried to make out any unnatural colors. Hearing a twig snap, he turned to face the area where the noise had come from. Nobody there. Time to play their game and get this over with as quickly as he could, Harry decided. He took his boot off and tossed it into the clearing. It exploded with a loud bang, and debris flew everywhere. But Harry had seen where the spell had come from. Working quickly, he fired off as many stunners as he could at the trees where the flash had come from. He heard a distant thud before he was knocked in the head from behind. As he fell on his back, he looked up and saw the same man smiling.

"Sorry mate..."

A/N: Well there you are guys! Another chapter for the home team. Just note that I am doing this in the mean while until HBP comes out, so do not be surprised if I update less often when I start my new fic.

Now this chapter was very important as it informs you of the happenings of Harry's AU life. Yes he will be a bit OOC, but that's to be expected with an AU. I will try to keep him in character, but he will change in terms of being a wussy when it comes to girls and he will be more calm and cool.

I know there were some complaints about the size of the prologue, but I hope this makes up for it. I will try to keep a standard of at least 3000 words per chapter, but if that does not happen once in awhile... well life sucks, don't it. In fact, this chapter has 3764 words. So top whining:)

I hope my writing has gotten better. If not, well, I'll keep on keeping on as the incredibly lame saying goes. But seriously, I will try to write every once in a while as I got a bit lazy with Call of War. Then again, part of that reason was that I was not proud of the story. It was too SuperPower!Harry. He's not as bad as some other fics where he can tear the universe in half but somehow can't destroy Voldemort from a distance, but I still was not proud of it. I'm sorry to all the fans I disappointed, but I'd rather have finished the fic then leave it hanging. In fact, I worked on Chapter 13 since about November.

Some more notes on the prologue. I tried to find all my misspelling and I fixed an error that potterfanforever reported about naming Lily, Lily Evans. I switched that to Lily Marie Potter.

In general, I'd like to thank everyone, and I was pleasantly surprised when I got twenty-five reviews just for the prologue. The last fic I wrote, I would only get ten-fifteen reviews tops. I'm not complaining though, so once again thanks for reviewing.

I guess that's about it for my rambling, so as always, READ AND REVIEW!