Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J. K. Rowling. No money is being made.

Warnings: This story will have Slash, violence and torture. Mentions of Rape.

Chapter 2 – A different kind of animal

Harry saw only darkness for a few moments, then he felt like he was falling. It was like diving with his broom and Harry felt excited, flying had always been his passion. The one thing he could do when he was trying to leave his problems behind.

However the sensation stopped abruptly and light blinded him. It took a few moments for him to come to his senses, but he knew what must have happened. He was in his younger body.

He opened his eyes, he had closed them automatically because of the sudden brightness. Even so it hadn't been as bright as it could have been, he noticed that the Great Hall was darker than what he remembered. He was trying to remember when this was, but it was more difficult than he had thought. He just couldn't focus.

He was at Hogwarts! Hogwarts! He hadn't seen Hogwarts whole in almost fifteen years. He remembered as if it was yesterday the last time that he had seen Hogwarts. The castle had been in ruins, the muggles had launched an areal attack destroying a castle that had given a home to children for more than a thousand years. They didn't care that it was a school. On the contrary, the fact that it was a school had been the main reason why they had done it. After all if they destroyed the place where they were taught their freakish ways then the freaks wouldn't have a place to teach their children those abnormalities. At least that had been the reasoning from the muggles. They said they were saving the children. If they stopped the children from being abominations than maybe they could be saved, not in this life of course, they had to be killed for being born to freaks, but in the afterlife. Harry contained a snort. They were nothing more than fucking hypocrites. He hated them all.

He could still see the coffins that had filled the Hogwarts grounds, including the one of his daughter, Lily. His little girl had been so happy to go to Hogwarts with her brothers. They had thought that at Hogwarts at least they would be safe. How could they have known what the muggles would do. At least his sons had still been alive than. Their family still had hope, even if it was becoming bleaker by the second.

Only years of experience stopped him from showing any reaction when he saw who was sitting beside him. Hermione and Ron. The last time he had seen Hermione had been about ten years ago. Not even ten years of war made her stop believing and fighting for equality of all beings. She had been killed in an ambush. They said they wanted peace, that they were tired of fighting, that they wanted to find a solution, that they wanted to sign a peace treaty between the two races. They lied.

They send her body back to her family. One piece at a time.

Ron would have been better of if he had died with her. Ron stopped living. He joined all the raids he could find against the muggles. The more violent the better. Three years later he joined Hermione. He had been trapped in a muggle base, however before the muggles got him he was able to destroy the base, taking over three hundred muggles with him. Harry knew that was the way he had wanted to go. By the time that Ron died their family was reduced to Teddy, Fleur, Arthur, Fred II, George, Al, Rose and James. Everyone else had already died. Harry still believed that Ron went on that raid knowing that he wouldn't make it out alive. Not that Harry blamed him, he had buried his son the previous day.

In that moment, that instant in time that took for him to take everything in, he swore that he wouldn't let it happen again. No matter the cost. No matter how many innocent, as if there was such a thing, muggles would suffer for something that hadn't yet and wouldn't happen. They would die and his kind would live. He would make sure of it.

Only seconds had passed since he opened his eyes, but to him it seemed like an eternity. Fortunately the whole Great Hall was focused on the professors table and they hadn't noticed his odd behavior. However before he could focus and try and remember why the hall was so quite, Harry heard Dumbledore's voice proclaim.

"The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!"

Harry heard Ron exclaim "No!", but he paid it no mind. Now he knew when he was. Now he remembered the reason for the silence in the Great Hall. It was the night that the Goblet chose the champions. Harry hardly heard the applause, he didn't even notice when Dumbledore addressed the students again. Harry's eyes were fixed on the Goblet and just as Harry knew it would happen the fire burned red again and another slip of parchment was spat out. And just like Harry remembered it Dumbledore snatched it up and stared at the name on it for a few moments. There was a long pause, Dumbledore doing nothing but looking at the name on the parchment and everyone in the hall looking at Dumbledore. And then, what seemed like an eternity later, Dumbledore read the name that Harry knew would be on the parchment.

"Harry Potter."

Just like last time everyone turned to look at him, there was no applause and the students started whispering. However that is where the similarities ended. Instead of sitting there in shock he got up and went towards the professors' table. He walked with confidence, sure of himself in a way he hadn't been when he was fourteen. He had a feline grace, something that he also lacked in his younger years. He was a completely different animal now and he had no intentions of hiding it. And since he was going to participate in the tournament he may as well take advantage of it.

It took less time than he remembered to reach the table and before he knew it he was in front of Dumbledore.

"Well... Go inside Harry." Dumbledore told him without the usual twinkle in his eyes.

Harry, just like he did the first time, went through the door and found himself in a smaller room, full of paintings and a lit fireplace.

Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory and Fleur Delacour were in a group near the fireplace and as soon as they heard him the turned to look at him.

"What is it?" Fleur asked, "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"

Harry almost smiled when he remembered how flustered he was the first time.

"No." he replied, he didn't miss the inquisitive look the other three threw him, however he said nothing else and a few moments later he heard noise behind him and Ludo Bagman appeared through the door. He took Harry by the arm and pulled him forward, not noticing or completely ignoring Harry's scowl.

"Extraordinary!" he exclaimed, squeezing Harry's arm, "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen, Lady," he added approaching the other three, "May I introduce, incredible though it may seem, the fourth Triwizard champion!"

The three champions had the exact same reactions that Harry remembered.

Cedric looked between him and Bagman appearing rather confused.

Viktor looked at him suspiciously and seemed to be evaluating him to see if he posed any threat.

Fleur looked at him with contempt and threw a tantrum that would have made a three year old proud.

It was hard seeing that reaction. Fleur had been on of the last to die. One of the last to leave him. Seeing this girl, looking so much like her yet not, was almost as hard as seeing Ron and Hermione. Fleur hadn't looked so innocent and young in a long time. Not since the muggles took Victoire. Not since they found her body in the streets. Raped, bloodied and broken.

She had been so young, almost twenty-two, he was the only one that knew that her and Teddy had been talking about marriage. He was the only one that they had told. Victoire was the first of all of their children to fall to the muggles. She was the one that made all of their children hate muggles with a passion that rivaled that of the Death Eaters.

She was the beginning of their war, even though by that time the war had already been declared for going on two years. They were so fucking naïve back then. They still thought that they could solve things peacefully. By that time there hadn't been a lot of deaths yet. There had only been a few attacks, they still had hope. Losing Victoire was a catalyst for all of them.

The word muggle was spoken with hate, they stopped venturing to the muggle world, they didn't even go to visit the Grangers, two people that all the children had always seen as their own grand-parents. It had broken Hermione's heart, but she understood, Victoire's death had pained her just as much.

Fortunately the door opened again and brought him out of his thoughts, now wasn't the time to drown in his memories. Dumbledore, followed by Crouch, Karkaroff, Maxime, McGonagall and Snape stepped inside.

"Madame Maxime!" said Fleur once she saw her Headmistress, "Zey are saying zat zis little boy is to compete also!"

Harry felt anger wash over him, he had forgotten that remark. He had to stop himself from telling her what the little boy thought about her behavior. For a moment or two he had been worried that he wouldn't be able to stop associating the people that were here now from the people he knew in the future that wasn't the future, at least not in the current time-line. However he was relieved to see that it would be rather easy. These people weren't like the ones that had lost everything, even themselves, to the horrors of war. It would be best if he just stayed away from them. If things turned out like the first time around then everyone would turn on him, he was quite sure that they would do the same this time. It would probably be more of a blessing if they did. He could stay away from them and at the same time do everything he could to keep them safe. Either way he doubted that they would want to have anything to do with him after they realize just what he became and what he was prepared to do to keep his people safe. He would be no better than Voldemort to them. He didn't care though. He would rather be reviled and know that he had done everything he could to keep them safe, than adored and see them die. Besides it would be far less painful for him to stay away from them. He had a family, he lost them, he couldn't save them. It would be unfair to them and to himself to stay with them. He would always expect to see the ones he had lost and he knew that these people no matter how similar weren't them. Ginny wasn't his wife and would never be. Ron wasn't his second in command and he wouldn't ask it of him. Hermione wasn't their healer. They were just children. Innocent, naïve children. Not broken, bitter adults.

Maxime's arrogance didn't help him in dealing with his temper. Something that was always so close to the surface the last few years. If there was one thing he hated it were pretentious people. They reminded him to much of the muggles that hunted them. That killed their children because they were an affront to God. He couldn't help but remember two muggles killing their own child because he was one of the abominations, all the while preaching that they were doing God's will in that same arrogant tone, so full of conviction. It made him want to kill them all over again. If only they had arrived just a few seconds earlier they would have been able to save the child. He lost count of the number of muggle-borns that suffered the same fate. Far more than those they were able to save. But in the end it didn't really matter, did it? Everyone had died.

He closed his eyes for a second, trying to not let the memories overwhelm him then looked around the room. He had missed most of Maxime's ranting but Karkaroff was all to happy to continue where she had stopped. He must have been trying to scare Harry in to submission whit that look. Not that it was having much of an effect, he had seen far worse.

However his luck couldn't last and Snape had always known how to push his buttons. He had completely forgotten what he had said all those years ago, till that moment.

"It is no one's fault but Potter's, Karkaroff," said Snape softly, his black eyes alight with malice, "Don't go blaming Dumbledore for Potter's determination to break rules. He has been crossing lines ever since he arrived here..."

It wasn't even the worst that Snape had said to him or about him, but something just broke. The first time it had been Dumbledore who stopped him but not this time. The temperature in the room dropped drastically, not even the fire in the fireplace was able to heat the room, and the shadows around the room seemed to grow and almost looked like they gained a life of their own.

Those in the room looked around, trying to see what was wrong. It didn't surprise Harry in the least that Dumbledore was the first to identify him as the source of the disturbance. The others seeing where Dumbledore was looking at followed his gaze. Seeing more than one pair of eyes open wide brought him some satisfaction, even though he had no idea why they were looking at him like that.

Harry couldn't see himself, but if he could he would understand their reaction. The floor where he was standing was frozen, forming a strange snowflake pattern that had his body as the center. The shadows seemed to dance around him, clinging to his body like a second skin. His eyes almost shined in the dimly lit room. Harry would never know that the first thing that Dumbledore, Snape and Karkaroff thought was: Voldemort.

True, aside from the dark hair they didn't look alike, but their stance was almost identical. Harry had that same air of confidence around him, that same feel of power. That same cruel, insane edge that Voldemort had. He looked far darker than they had ever seen him and for just a second Dumbledore and Snape wondered if Harry had finally been pushed to far.

With deliberate slow and smooth movements Harry took out his wand. He didn't miss the fact that several hands twitched towards their wands. He almost smiled when he saw it. They feared him. He was sure that in the future they would fear him even more.

"I, Hadrian James Potter, swear on my magic that I did not put, nor did I ask anyone else to put my name in the Goblet of Fire. So mote it be."

A soft golden light wrapped around him for a few moments, when it dissipated Harry murmured, "Lumos." and light shone out of his wand.

Locking eyes with the potions Master he inquired in a deliberate emotionless voice.

"Now that it is all cleared up, may I go? I have better things to do than to see children fighting over their new toy."

Maxime, Karkaroff and Fleur blushed slightly, though their glare didn't lessen. However before they could say anything an inhuman scream filled the room and they all turned around in time to see Snape fall over. It didn't last longer than five seconds and none of them saw the smirk that appeared on Harry's face before it was replaced by a confused and apprehensive look.

Harry knew that the temptation to look into his mind would be overwhelming for Snape and as soon as Harry felt the legilimency prob he grabbed Snape's conscious and doubling the sensation of the Cruciatus curse flung it into Snape's mind. And what made him want to cackle was the fact that Snape could do nothing about it. If he did he would have to admit that he had been using legilimency on a minor, which would get him a one way ticket to Azkaban.

Even after so many years he couldn't stand the man. Sure he had named his son after him, but it hadn't been his idea. However everyone in the family was in one way or another named after someone or something related to the war and his children were no exception. He had named his firstborn James Sirius, in honor of his father and godfather. Ginny had wanted to name the second child and knowing what she did about the war she choose Albus and Severus, two of the greatest war heroes. He will never understand why she did it. Albus, the man that was supposed to be his mentor but used him as a weapon, sometimes he couldn't help but wonder if Albus had truly every seen him as anything but the end of Voldemort. He didn't really hate the man, but he didn't know if he could ever see the man as anything other than the one who would kill him for the 'Greater Good'. Severus, the man that despised him for simply existing. Sure he may have loved his mother, but he would never fool himself in to thinking that Snape held anything but contempt for him. He could understand if tit was because of something he had done but he knew that it was purely because he was James' son. At least at the beginning. He could admit that as the years went by Snape's hate could have changed from hating him because he was James's son, to hating him because of everything he had done over the years. He had wondered if Snape was jealous of him. They were rather similar, but while Snape had been bullied and hated for being who he was, Harry had been pitied, adored and worshiped. It would be reason enough for the man to become even more bitter towards anything named Potter. Even so he couldn't really say no, both men were heroes and everyone assumed that he had made peace with what had happened. Really it could have been worse, she could have named him Tom. Though knowing what he knew now, maybe it would have been better.

However, the fact remained that he did not like the man and he didn't think that he ever would. Even after the memories that Snape showed him he didn't really know which side Snape had been on. Harry wouldn't be surprised if Snape was only loyal to himself. Becoming useful to both sides was an easy way to make sure that whichever side won he came out on top. He admitted that it was clever but it didn't make him like Snape any more than he did.

He had far more respect for certain Death Eaters than he did for Snape. The Death Eaters at least fought for what they believed in. Sure, some were so far gone that they didn't really care about what they killed for, but he wasn't talking about those.

He knew that some of his disdain came from the years of war that he had gone through. But it was impossible to look back at Snape's role and not see the similarities to some wizards and witches that betrayed their own kind to the muggles, so that they could live. They had played both sides, giving a little here, a little there. They were useful enough to both sides that they stayed alive and when it became clear that there was no chance of the magical beings surviving they showed their true colors. He hated them even more than the muggles and took great pleasure in getting all the information about the muggles that they had out of them, most were in worst state than the Longbottoms when he was done with them.

"Severus! Severus, what happened?" Dumbledore's voice brought him out of his thoughts and he could see that they were all looking at Snape apprehensively.

"Severus!" Dumbledore's voice was once again heard throughout the room.

"I'm fine!" Snape almost snarled, getting up with some difficulty and even though he tried to hide it it was impossible to not notice the trembling in his hands.

"What happened?" Dumbledore inquired gravely and Harry could see the interest in the others. They didn't care about Snape, they weren't worried, they just wanted a show. McGonagall was the only one who looked truly concerned about Snape. This time he didn't have to feign the curiosity, he wondered what Snape would do.

Snape's eyes landed on him for a fraction of second and he wasn't able to suppress the slightly sadistic smirk that appeared on his lips. Snape's eyes opened a little wider and he became even paler. Snape tore his eyes away from him and looked at Dumbledore. The whole interaction didn't last longer than a second and no one noticed anything.

"It was nothing!" snarled Snape, trying to sound intimidating. Harry thought that if he wasn't so pale and shaking it would have worked far better.

Dumbledore didn't seemed satisfied with that answer, however he didn't push his Potions Master. Apparently he knew that he wouldn't get anything else out of him, at least not with so many people around. Harry had the feeling that Dumbledore would ambush Snape with offers of lemon drops sometime soon and try to weasel information out of him. That almost made him pity the Potions Master, almost.

Seeing that nothing more was going to happen Harry broke the somewhat uncomfortable silence.

"Can I go know? Since I already proved that I didn't enter myself."

Harry knew that he couldn't, he knew that he had to participate but he had a role to play. They all turned around to look at him and Harry almost sighed. Karkaroff and Maxime were looking at him with rage in their eyes, as if it was all his fault. Even though he had proved that it hadn't been him. Apparently they were determined to blame him no matter what, not that it bothered him all that much. Human stupidity had ceased to surprise him several years back. He did however want to get all of it over with, did they think he had nothing better to do? He did in fact have better things to do. Killing around five or six billion muggles being one of those things.

He ignored everyone around him and focused on Bagman, waiting for him to answer his question. Bagman cleaned his childlike face with a handkerchief and looked at Crouch, who was lurking in the shadows. He had forgotten how creepy the man looked. He vaguely wondered if Barty Jr. looked like his mother, he looked far cuter than his father at least. Even when he was being a little crazy psychopath he managed to look rather cute and much less creepy than his dear old dad.

"We have to follow the rules," Crouch stated in a monotone, "And they clearly state that all the people who's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire have to compete in the tournament."

"Well, Barty knows the rules back and forth." Bagman said, smiling openly and turning around to Maxime and Karkaroff as if that was everything there was to say about the matter.

"I insist on adding the names of my students to the Goblet again," he looked a little demented in Harry's opinion, though he kind of understood where he came from. Karkaroff wanted to win against Dumbledore. Both he and Maxime wanted to prove that Hogwarts wasn't the best school, they wanted to prove that they were better than Dumbledore. Though he supposed that Karkaroff's intentions were far more malicious than Maxime's, with him being an ex-Death Eater and all. Maybe ex-Death Eater wasn't the correct term, dead Death Eater sounded much better. "We will continue to put our students' names in the Goblet till all the schools have two Champions, it's only fair Dumbledore."

"But, Karkaroff, the Goblet doesn't work like that," Bagman tried to explain, "The Goblet of Fire has just gone out, it won't reignite until the start of the next tournament."

"In which Durmstrang won't be participating!" exclaimed Karkaroff, "After all our meetings and negotiations and compromises, I did not expect something of this nature to occur! I have half a mind to leave now!"

"Empty threat, Karkaroff," growled a voice from near the door. "You can't leave your champion now. He's got to compete. They've all got to compete. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said. Convenient, eh?"

Moody had just entered the room. He limped toward the fire, and with every right step he took, there was a loud clunk.

Harry almost cackled. Barty was back. He didn't really know how, but he would have to take advantage of having one of Voldemort's loyal Death Eaters so close at hand. He would have so much fun tormenting Barty a little. Still Barty could be a valuable resource. Maybe he could use him to contact Voldemort. If there was one thing he knew for sure it was that he needed to contact Voldemort, preferably before he performed the ritual. From what he had learned that ritual was one of the reason why Voldemort lost so much of his sanity. But now he could make Voldemort a body, which wouldn't drive him more insane the longer he had it. However he would have to talk with him first. He didn't want to fight Voldemort, they wanted the same thing this time around. He just had to convince him that it would be better for Voldemort not to try and kill him, who knew maybe they could bond over some muggle torture. There was nothing like a good old fashioned torture session to bring people together, or at least to bring two powerful bloodthirsty dark wizards together. They could be good allies, as long as Voldemort didn't expect him to grovel at his feet.

"Convenient?" said Karkaroff. "I'm afraid I don't understand you, Moody."

Harry vaguely recalled the conversation that followed and he had to admit that Barty was an excellent actor and had far more self-control than Harry. If it were him he would have killed Karkaroff the moment he saw him, specially if he had been responsible for sending a fellow Death Eater to Azkaban.

When Fleur started to go on and on about fame and glory. That there was no reason for Harry to complain since he was going to get both and there was a thousand galleon price if he won, he wasn't able to contain the laugh that he had been holding back. It wasn't overly loud but it echoed in the room, giving it a slightly eery feeling and gained everyone's attention. His smile didn't reach his eyes and his expression clearly showed the disdain he had for most people in the room.

"Eternal fame and glory?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow, "Tell me Fleur, what are the names of the last three Champions to have participated in this little tournament? Or just the winner really?"

There were several moments that no one said anything and Harry's eyes never left Fleur's. When a minute went by and Fleur still hadn't said anything a somewhat cruel smirk appeared on Harry's face.

"Hmm, apparently eternity doesn't last as long as I thought." his voice was the perfect mixture of pure innocence and sarcasm. Harry caught Barty containing a smirk and he almost chuckled. It looked like Barty was finding the situation as amusing as Harry.

Unfortunately Fleur wasn't finding the situation half as funny as them. She actually stomped her foot on the ground and almost shouted, "You could still win the thousand galleon prize money."

Harry chuckled and looked at her as if she was nothing more than a troublesome child.

"I am Hadrian James Potter, Heir to the Potter House and last living Potter. My inheritance makes the Malfoys look poor. A thousand galleons are nothing but pocket change to me. As you can see I have absolutely no interest in this tournament. Besides, I already proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that I did not enter the tournament. Now, could we get this done with? I have better things to do than standing here and see people throwing temper tantrums." he asked, looking at Bagman, the one supposedly responsible about all things tournament related.

"We do not know how this situation came to be," Dumbledore said, talking to everyone in the room, "It seems to me that he have no other choice but to accept it. Both Cedric and Harry have been chosen to compete in this tournament, so that is what they will do."

"Ah, but Dumbly-dorr..."

"My dear Madame Maxime, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it."

Dumbledore waited, but Madame Maxime did not speak, she merely glared. She wasn't the only one either. Snape looked furious; Karkaroff livid; Bagman, however, looked rather excited. Harry didn't really care one way or the other, what mattered to him was that they were finally progressing with the whole thing.

The rest of the conversation went by just as he remembered and only a few minutes later he was alone with Cedric, heading towards their common rooms. Harry was pondering what he would do next when Cedric broke the comfortable silence.

"I will tell the rest of the Hufflepuffs that you didn't enter the tournament, I'll tell them that you toke an Oath."

Harry glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. Last time Cedric hadn't believed him, no matter how much he told him that he hadn't entered. He supposed that the Oath made it rather obvious that he hadn't done it. What he wouldn't have given to have known that the first time around, it would have saved him a lot of trouble.

"You don't have to." Harry assured him. He was rather curious in seeing how things would differ this time around.

"I know that I don't have to, but you will have one less problem to deal with this way. I think that not everyone will believe that you didn't enter the tournament, but at least this way you won't have any trouble with the Puffs. Some may not like it, but they won't blame you."

Harry smiled, "Thank you. I'll see you later, yeah?" he said, walking towards the stairs, "Oh, by the way, congratulations." he added turning around to smile at Cedric.

"Thanks Potter." he replied, a boyish smile on his face and Harry vowed that he would make sure that Cedric survived the damn thing. If things went as he wanted then there wouldn't even be a graveyard involved this time around.

He wasn't surprised when he saw that the Gryffindors' reaction was the same as the first time. On one hand he thought that maybe it would be best like this, maybe it was best that they drifted apart, he didn't think that his friends would agree with his plans, no matter how vague they were at the moment. He would miss them. But he knew that they wouldn't condone what he wanted to do. Specially Hermione.

If he kept repeating it, then maybe he would actually believe it. He knew that a part of him was still grieving. That bit of him didn't want to be near them. He didn't want to see them and see the people he had known. But he had always been a Gryffindor no matter how much Slytherin he had in him, so he didn't want to take the cowards route and avoid them. However nothing stopped him from employing his Slytherin side and finding ways to make them avoid him.

On another hand a part of him was bursting with joy, his friends, his family, they were alive! Alive and whole and he would make damn sure that they continued to stay that way.

He went to bed with a small, satisfied smile. He may not know what the future held but it couldn't be worse than the present he had left. He knew that there were a number of things that could go wrong. He knew that he still had the whole situation with Voldemort to deal with. And he couldn't forget about Dumbledore either, no matter what he didn't think that Dumbledore would just sit by and watch the muggles being killed. But that didn't matter at the moment. He didn't think that he would find a solution to all of it right at that moment. Besides it had been years since he had slept in a bed. He could go to sleep knowing that the world would still be there in the morning. It was a thought that he hadn't had for quite some time.

A.N.: Hey, hope you all like this chapter as well. I wasn't expecting the huge response for just that first chapter. You are all great.

The chapter there will be more Daddy!Death and Voldemort will make his first appearance :)