I would like to start this off with a thank you to everyone who followed, favorited, and/or read the story so far. I really appreciate it. Along with this chapter, I have also revised the prologue some, and whenever I release chapter 3 I will try to do so alongside a revision to this chapter. This chapter is around 1,000 words longer than the prologue, and I think around 2300 to 3300 words will be my consistent goal though some will be shorter and some longer. I've decided that this story is just going to be updated when I get the chance. So I may update it two times a week or once every two. Anyways, thank you and enjoy :)
Also, fair warning. I will not be afraid to kill off characters. That being said, I will not kill them off consistently, but I hate super unexpected deaths in stories, so I wanted to give a warning.
Chapter 1: Aftermath and a New Life
On the other side of the country, a surprised and seething Lord Voldemort stood studying his surroundings. The ground and trees around the Dark Lord were covered with scorch marks. What happened, the Dark Lord thought to himself. He had just been moments from securing victory, and now he was in the middle of nowhere. "Gah!" he yelled, slashing wand through the air, bringing down a few of the charred trees. He knew he'd never get another chance like that, it had taken months to bring down the wards around Potter Manor even with Peter's help. Albus would surely strengthen the wards, and Peter's days as the Potter's secret keeper were over.At least one of the Potter babies is gone. A small smile wormed its way onto his face as he thought about his spell connecting with baby Harry. He apparated back home, prepared to let his anger out on the first Death Eater he saw.
Unbeknownst to both sides of the war, little Harry had appeared unconscious in a large field filled with all kinds of flowers outside a small wizarding village. Not far from the field sat a large, dark manor. Luckily for Harry, the field and manor belong to the estate of a prominent wizarding family. Lord Voldemort's spell had sent Harry through their wards, setting off several alarms. It didn't take long for a two wizards to find to find Harry.
Henry and Alice Wakes quickly jumped out of bed when they heard the wards sound an alarm. Frightened that the war had finally made it to their little slice of the country, they were prepared to fight knowing there was nowhere they could run too. However, when they actually checked the estate's wards, they only saw one intruder in the the field South of the manor. Cautiously, the couple apparated to the field. Both were shocked to find a baby alone in their field. In fact, both were confident that this child was a trap of some kind. The Wakes family wasn't popular with many families from both sides of the war. Traditionally a Slytherin family, most fighting Voldemort wrote them off as Death Eaters, but just last year, Henry's mother, father, and brother had been tortured and killed by Death Eaters, leaving Henry and Alice as the only surviving members of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Wakes. Henry stared at the child for a minute while Alice had her wand out checking for any spells. After a few minutes, when she was sure it was safe, she knelt down to check on the child. "I think he's going to be alright," relief obvious in her voice.
"What are we going to do with him?" Henry asked, worried. "We have no idea who this child is."
"Does it matter?" Alice was staring at her husband. "If you're that worried, we'll check his name back at the manor, but I will not leave the baby out in this field.
"I would never suggest that, but any number of families could be targeting us." He would do anything to protect his family, but he picked the child up, and along with Alice, apparated back to their home. Both of them already knew that regardless of who the child belongs to, giving the baby back would be hard due to the war.
Henry laid young Harry down on the couple's bed. Alice pulled out her wand "Nomine revelare." The couple both took a step back, as a name appeared in green fire above the young child's head. "Of course it'd be a Potter." Henry mumbled to himself.
The next morning, Henry sat at a dining room table reading the headline the story on the front page of the Daily Prophet.
Potter Manor Attacked, Young Jason Potter Only Surviving Twin:
Last night around midnight, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named attacked Potter Manor.
With the help of Peter Pettigrew, the Dark Lord dismantled the wards and entered the residence.
Sources say the Dark Lord then cast the killing curse at the babies, but the spell backfired.
Teleporting the Dark Lord and Peter away from the residence.
Young Harry Potter was tragically killed in the backfire. More details can be found on Page 3.
Henry and Alice had spent the remainder of the night watching over Harry. As they began to inspect him for injuries, they noticed a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. Not long after they found the scar, Harry woke up. Much to the couple's surprise, his bright green eyes lit up and he smiled as he looked at Henry and Alice. Even now, Alice was upstairs playing with Harry. Henry silently cursed as he thought about their situation. Giving Harry back would make them a target of the Dark Lord himself, but if someone found out they kept Harry it would draw the ire of the light. "What to do…" he whispered to himself, and as much as he wished he didn't, he cared about the well being of little Harry.
Henry was so engrossed in his thoughts he didn't even notice his wife had come down until she laid her hand on his shoulder. He reached up, taking her hand. "I know what I, I mean we, need to do." He paused, knowing that if his father could hear him now, he would aggressively disapprove. "We need to adopt Harry."
Alice stiffened. "That's a lengthy process, and we're likely to get caught."
"I know, but regardless of if we get caught or just give him back, we'll be a target. And besides, he's just a baby. If he goes back to the Potters he's likely to be targeted again, but here we can raise him out of the spotlight, do our best to give him the best chance of surviving this war. " She didn't say anything, instead she lightly rubbed his shoulder as she stared into the distance. "This isn't just my choice to make, but I really think this is the right choice."
"Then let's do it. You're right. He has a chance to not be at the forefront of this war, at least for awhile, and we shouldn't be the ones to ruin that." She said with a smile that Henry quickly matched. In reality, she had felt an almost motherly connection to Harry as soon as she saw him. Their mind made up, the next several months were spent falsifying records to keep Harry's real identity a secret. They also changed the color of Harry's eyes to a more mellow brown, and did their best to hide Harry's scar. It wasn't much, but hopefully the lack of bright green eyes would throw off any suspicions. After a year the couple were certain no one would find out Harry's identity without searching records with the finest of combs. So they made it official by giving Harry a potion that would make him the heir to the Wake family.
10 years later
Wakes Manor
Harry Wake was sitting at the dining table with his parents, enjoying eggs and bacon. "So Harry, are you ready for training?" Henry asked with a smile. For the last year, he'd been using a few days a week to give Harry some magical training. Using a not-so-legal training wand, he'd been walking Harry through the basics of spell-casting. He wasn't going to send his heir to Hogwarts without some sort of training, he was well aware that tensions were high between the houses. The animosity brought out by the war had trickled its way into the younger generations.
"Yes, dad." Harry said, hopping up from the table. Harry was generally a mellow child, but one of the few things Harry truly got excited about was training, even though he did his best not to show it. Henry, being a Slytherin, always told Harry to keep up a mask. "Emotions can be used against you, so keep them to yourself as best you can." That phrase had been drilled into Harry from an early age. Henry never expected Harry to keep it up all the time, but Harry was incredibly good at it. He kept things bottled up like a professional. Henry thought Harry probably had a natural affinity for Occlumency, but he had no wait to confirm that at the moment. But even outside of potential Occlumency abilities, Harry was obviously going to be a talented wizard. So far, he has had the ability to learn most spells in one try, something unheard of even in the most experienced adults. In fact, Harry was almost through all the first year spells. After a few hours practicing, Henry sat Harry down.
"I've got something for you," Henry told Harry with a smile on his face, but before he could tell him Alice walked in.
"You better not be planning to tell him before I showed up." Alice was smiling as she sat next to her son.
"Oh, oops." Henry had a sheepish grin. "Anyways, here you go Harry." Henry pulled out a letter, handing it to Harry. Immediately Harry recognized the Hogwarts seal on it, and he forgot all about his mask. With a huge smile, Harry ripped the letter open.
"Does this mean I finally get to go get a wand?" The training wand served it's purpose, but it was awkward to use and was incredibly limited.
"We were actually planning on going to Diagon Alley today." Alice said, "That is if you're interested." She smiled as Harry jumped to give Henry and her a hug.
"I'm going to go get ready!" Harry yelled running off.
Diagon Alley
For the first time in a while, Harry was struggling to keep his mask up. He was finally going to get his own wand. Diagon Alley was filled with families shopping for Hogwarts supplies and Harry was trying to distract himself from his excitement by studying all his surroundings. That was something his mother always talked to him about. Suddenly he sensed his parents began to tense up. Glancing around, his eyes fell on another family of three, a family he recognized. "Mom, isn't that the boy-who-lived?" Of course, Harry knew it was and he also knew that's why his parents tensed up. They always acted a bit strange when the topic of the Potters came up, and it came up often. Jason was a celebrity, and the Potters had embraced it over the years. In fact, he'd grown to dislike them just because of how open they were. Why would anyone want to let the world know that much about their life, Harry wondered to himself.
"You know it is, so why ask?" Alice responded, maintaining her plain expression.
"I dunno, I was just trying to make conversation." He lied, knowing his plan to get information out of his parents wouldn't work. Henry and Alice knew he was lying, but they couldn't call him out on it without revealing information they were not prepared to reveal, at least not yet. In an attempt to prevent any more queries from their heir, they picked up their pace. The faster they get done at Ollivander's, the faster they could leave Diagon Alley. It wasn't smart to hang around with the war waging anyways.
Inside Ollivander's, Harry's masked slipped a little as he saw the walls lined with wands. "Well, who do we have here?" Ollivander asked from behind the counter, a large smile on his face.
Henry nudged Harry with his arm, pulling him back into reality. Harry quickly re-established his mask and offered a greeting. "I'm Harry Wakes, pleased to meet you."
"Likewise, young Harry." Ollivander nodded his head some. Then he looked up to Henry and Alice, giving them a smile and a nod. "So which arm is your dominant arm Harry?"
"I think both?" Harry was unsure, he'd never favored either arm. He looked at his parents, but they said nothing. They were confident in their son and felt that this was something he could handle.
"Interesting, hmm. Try this wand. 11 1/2'' Aspen with a dragon heartstring core." Harry took the offered wand and gave it a wave, but nothing happened. "Huh, never seen that happen before. How about this one, 10'' Cypress with a Phoenix feather core." Again Harry waved it, and nothing happened. This cycle repeated for around an hour before Ollivander made a weird face. "There is one wand I would like you to try. My father made it, but over the years it's refused to work for anyone." Quietly Ollivander went to the back of the shop only to return moments later with a dusty box. "10'' Ebony with a Rougarou hair core." Harry cautiously reached for the wand, but as soon as his hands touched the wand he immediately felt a connection. Giving it a wave, green sparks flew from the tip. Ollivander clapped his hands, "After all these years, this wand has chosen someone." Ollivander look astounded. "I must warn you, this wand's core has an affinity for the dark arts. Do be careful."
"Thank you Mr. Ollivander for all your help." Harry said formally, and with that Harry and his family walked out of the store. Despite growing up in a magical family and learning about it for years, now that he finally had a wand, Harry truly felt as if his time as a wizard could begin.
A/N: This will be the last chapter, at least for awhile focusing on Harry's younger life. The next chapter will start either the 5th or 6th year. I really, only have the base plot planned, so some details will be written as I go. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and favorites, follows, and reviews are greatly appreciated :)
