AN: Hey Blubber-Ducks! I think this nickname for my readers is starting to catch on in my mind! Follow, Favorite, and Review if you agree! And if you disagree, give a recommendation! To stop any confusion about Harry's name, Praet is a name he goes by, but magic doesn't know he changed his name and influences him and others to think of him by that name, I know Praeteritis translates to past (Or so google translate says) but I'm using it as forgotten. And because I'm on a strict no-editing basis, I can tell you quite honestly I'm pretty sure the chapter will end with something happening… but I'm not certain. To the the story then! Wait, also, I know nothing about official paper signing and stuff for orphanages so don't hold me credible for anything I say!
Harry groaned, it was nearing his third month at the orphanage and he had started going to school, muggle school. He jumped out of bed when he remembered that supposedly a married couple were coming to look for a kid to adopt, a kid that was five or six years old. It made him excited, to say the least, not that he didn't enjoy the orphanage, it was just so boring. Quickly switching his pajamas out for jeans and a call T-shirt, he jumped out of bed and tumbled down the stairs. He glanced at the huge clock, 7:30, breakfast should just have been served. The couple would be coming at 8:00.
The mess hall already had around half the orphans in it, although that consisted mainly of the eight through twelve year olds. Harry was before the majority of the five and six year olds. He deftly weaved between the other orphans so that he could get to eat. Then, after grabbing a tray he waited in line like everyone else. After ten long, drawn out minutes, Harry was sitting down at an empty table. He wasn't lonely though, he just didn't want any friends, no one here was magical like he was. He looked down at his plate distastefully, on it was a very dark piece of toast that was covered in black seeds as long as the width of Harry's pinky. There was also a plastic butter knife, a container of butter, a carton of milk, and a pile of scrambled eggs that taste like scrambled rubber. Opening the milk carton, Harry jugged it down and then proceeded to throw away the rest of his food.
After sitting back down, Harry glanced at the clock, 7:50. Might as well just go to where they would be meeting the grown-ups. With that thought, Harry stood up again and headed slowly towards the front entrance. Only a moment after getting there, a young looking couple opened the doors. The woman had light brown soft looking hair and dull-colored blue-green eyes, her clothes consisted of jeans and a plain skyblue shirt. The man was slightly chubby with extremely flat black hair that was short strands that reached about an inch bellow his ear. He had lightish brown eyes and a business suit which made him seem super serious and slightly scary. Harry perked up at the sight of them, putting on a fake smile and attempting to flatten his hair. Only a few of the others had turned up, including Aidan, ugh.
The couple seemed to be particularly interested in Aidan. Seeing this, Harry sneakily pushed nearer to the front, and near Aidan. He knew that Aidan hated him and wouldn't be able to handle it. So, as predicted, Aidan proceeded to scowl and pushed him onto the floor. The couple saw this, then gasped and glared at Aidan before the woman launched forward to help Harry up. Harry immediately acted weak, and shivered, looking at Aidan with falsified fear in his eyes. Aidan was confused for a second until he realized the attention wasn't on him anymore. When the couple wasn't looking, Harry flashed him a smirk, Mrs. Caren saw it and gasped at the cold glee in his eyes. Then, finally, Harry looked at the woman in the couple, making sure to let his false emotions reach his eyes.
"A-are you here to save me?" he asked, stuttering slightly.
The woman paused for a second, then decided, "Yes, yes we are, come on, we'll let you out of here," she then glared at Mrs. Caren, "Papers please?" she asked, and Mrs. Caren handed her the papers. Mrs. Caren opened her mouth to speak, but the woman was already leading Harry out the door, "What's your name? I'm Mrs. Heron, but you can call me mom."
"I'm Praet," Harry sniffed, "Thanks, by the way. They aren't the nicest," he told her, before swallowing. He internally gave himself a point for completely fooling her.
"Don't worry, you won't ever have to go back to that place, me and my husband will make sure of that," she smiled, wrapping an arm around him as she opened the back door of their gray car.
He got in, then she went in the front, her husband was driving. Harry already had his trunk with him, so he simply unlocked it and pulled out a book that was for wizards who were around muggles a lot. It was a storybook, but the story had mythical creatures that it described in great detail. Harry had absolutely no idea why his brother had gotten this book since he rarely was around anyone except his birth mother, birth father, stepfather, Harry, and Remus. He shrugged, his parents were always a bit obsessed with muggles and simply loved them. Harry didn't really love them, he read plenty of books about them, and most of their wars were about stupid things like land. Wizards usually had wars in which each and every wizard was free to choose their side, while muggles usually determined which side of a war on where they lived! Really, Harry didn't know why he'd tried to get adopted. He only really had one path he knew he could follow, Dark Arts.
He was too upset with how unjust his birth parents were, and they were supposedly the lightest you could get. Harry could never be a muggle, and Light seemed not to be the way for him. There wasn't a good and evil, not that Harry could see. All that really mattered was the power one had, over others and himself. What should he expect from these muggles then? A home? Privacy? Did he want to get them to drop him off in Diagon Alley? Sighing, Harry went back to reading his book. Suddenly the car he was riding in came to a jarring stop, ugh, what is it with these muggle carriages, they were annoying and pathetic. He leaned forward, only to be slammed back into his seat as the car started moving forward again. ARRRGGHHH, Harry mentally screamed, he was honestly going to kill these stupid muggles first chance he got. Now he also felt like he was going to throw up.
After what felt like days but was really like half an hour, they arrived at a tall apartment building. Mr. Heron grabbed Harry's trunk, the feather light charm canceling immediately, making it feel at least moderately heavy. Then they headed into the building, Harry was moderately surprised they held it up without magic. He wasn't too impressed though, any decent wizard could make a building like it easily enough, even if they were extremely weak, as long as they had enough money. The inside was extremely white, with marble walls, a sort of bumpy looking painted white ceiling, and a light cream carpet. Harry blinked repeatedly, following Mrs. Heron and Mr. Heron. The elevator reminded Harry of the entrance to the Ministry of Magic, which he got to go to once when James got an urgent Auror call and decided to take an alternate way down with Harry. He scowled, remembering how James had forgotten him there until finally someone at the office flooed him at midnight, having left Harry there for almost 14 hours.
The Heron apartment was actually pretty nice. It had two bathrooms, each with showers, one connected to the master bedroom. There was a room already prepared for Harry, it was extremely childish though. He supposed it was for a normal five year old, but Harry knew he wasn't normal, not for a wizard nor a muggle. He'd talk with his new 'parents' about it. Harry chuckled at the word. He'd changed a lot over the last three months, and really over the course of that day. He'd realized that his parents hadn't treated him fairly, and that if he ever wanted something, he had to take it and guard it, because no one was ever really just what they said they were. No one had ever been honest to Harry, so he wouldn't be honest to them, simple as that. Mr. Heron left for work, while Mrs. Heron stayed to help Harry settle in. She soon found Harry had nothing to unpack, so she left him to goof off in his room. Not that Harry really goofed off. He'd figured out recently that as long as the magic he casted was sparse, it would simply be thought of as accidental. He didn't do any yet, he was tempted to try a cutting curse, Lacero, on his adopted parents, and if he did any magic before then he'd have to wait.
Instead, Harry pulled out the only book he had that had any dark spells on it and read. It was a huge book, and went over a ton of curses, but it never really explained how to cast them, as much what they could do. how 'horrible' they were, and how to defend against them. Of course, Harry was reading the book to learn about how to cast them, not defend against them. He always memorized spells by casting them silently, it was a good habit and added extra challenge. He always did spells for a reason though, and because he needed results and also didn't want to cast any more spells than he could he sticked to spell areas he was good at. This was another reason Harry liked to practice the dark arts, he was naturally very talented at them, usually getting beginners curses on the first or second try, and moderate ones after three to five tries. Lacero was moderate, but Harry doubted Mr. or Mrs. Heron would expect anything even if they caught him waving his wand under the table. After all, magic wasn't real, right?
Harry closely examined his room, his bed was barely long enough for him to lay straight, but he was quite a bit tall for his age, standing at roughly four feet tall. It had covers that were a baby-blue color, and the walls were dark blue with star-shapes on them, fake planets, some muggle machine looking things, and some sort of green goblin or something. Lastly, the floor was the same cream color as the carpet outside. The only things in the room other than the bed were the ceiling light and the dresser. The room as a whole reminded Harry of a room for a one or two year old. It was disgusting.
After Harry was done with his assessment of the room, he thought over some of the things that happened at the orphanage. He'd learned that he could talk to snakes, which was a very interesting talent. He believed it was called parseltongue, although none of the books he had mentioned it at all. What use was being able to talk to snakes really? Well, other than the fact he could also talk to basilisks. Talking to a basilisk was doomed to end badly though, as merely looking into its eyes through a reflection could paralyze you, while looking directly into them killed you. Harry did have his doubts as to if he would be affected by a basilisk's eyes, but he was reluctant to test it out.
Eventually, Mrs. Heron knocked on his door and told him it was time for lunch. Finally! Harry thought, he was getting really bored. As he walked into the dining area (Which was near the front entrance) he made sure to have his wand, he wasn't planning on casting the curse yet, but better safe than sorry. On the table various snacks were stacked, peanut butter, crackers, jam, bread, chips, milk, juice, water, apples, oranges, and more. It seemed that his adopted mother had really overdone herself. Internally smirking, Harry smiled at her, thanked her for the food, then dug in.
First, he grabbed a graham cracker, cracked it in half perfectly, then started to put peanut butter on it. Being the perfectionist he was, he first made it so that the peanut butter covered the entirety of the cracker slightly leaking over the sides. Then he carefully held the butterknife he had spread it with vertically so that only the the blade was along the side of the cracker. Sliding the knife along the edge, the cracker now had roughly a half a centimeter of peanut butter exactly over the whole cracker.
Suddenly, Harry heard a loud crash somewhere down the hall, and a shout, of anger or shock, Harry couldn't tell. Shrugging, he passed it off as some kid or adult crashing into a wall because muggles were idiots. He then bit into his cracker, relishing the sweet and salty taste. There was a knock at the door. Harry tensed a bit more, reaching for his wand. There was another knock, Mrs. Heron got up to answer the door. By now, Harry had his wand firmly grasped in his hand and he was ready to jump up at a moments notice. Mrs. Heron reached for the doorknob, Harry slightly lifted himself from his seat. His mind was telling him he was being irrational, but his body wouldn't listen.
The door opened, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a madly grinning man, if he even was a man. His eyes were the color of blood, and his skin a pale almost blue color. If he didn't know better, Harry would have thought he was a vampire. Harry knew though, he knew that this mix between man and monster, with dark brown hair that seemed to hint he was handsome once, this man was none other than the Dark Lord Voldemort.
Harry took a fraction of a second to fly out of his chair to face Voldemort, wand raised, "Lacero!" Harry shouted, watching as the decently dark spell flew directly towards Voldemort's chest. Sadly, Voldemort simply stepped aside.
Harry looked into Voldemort's eyes and found a flicker of surprise in the, before it was covered, "Harry Potter?" the Dark Lord sneered, "Might I ask why you are here instead of with your pathetic light parents?"
Mrs. Heron looked between the Dark Lord and Harry, then simply fainted, "Well that was pathetic," Harry commented, looking at her. Really he was just trying to find something to focus on other than the extremely powerful and possibly life-threatening Dark Lord in front of him.
"Crucio" The Dark Lord said, obviously annoyed how Harry had refused to answer his question.
Immediately, Harry crumbled to the floor. The torturing curse made it feel like every muscle in his body was being strained, every nerve pushed to the extreme. Harry knew he was biting his lip, but it didn't hurt, so he didn't really notice the salty tang of blood leaking into his mouth. After what felt like eons to Harry, he finally let out an ear-piercing scream, unleashing a wave of accidental magic that was impossible for any average wizard child his age. The table flipped so that it slammed into the wall. The door snapped off its hinges, and a few floorboards close to Harry were ripped apart. Though the Dark Lord was fine, the accidental magic cancelled the curse.
"I… I left them," Harry gasped, responding to Voldemort's earlier question, "They didn't care about me… They didn't even notice me!" Harry snarled at the last bit, regaining his composure.
"Hmph, not a very light thing for those 'followers of light' to do hm?" Voldemort said speculatively, "What a waste, the idiots couldn't see potential if it turned into a Basilisk and killed their entire family," he snorted.
Harry looked up, "Potential?" he asked.
"Yes, potential, brat, ever heard of the word? As I was saying, you do have potential to be a rather good wizard," the Dark Lord told him, 'how would I go about recruiting this boy without raising suspicion?'
"I have potential? Potential to be better than my brother? To prove to him and my parents I'm better than he could ever be?" Harry asked, imagining the looks of horror on his family's faces if they saw him, clad in dark robes.
"Yes, but that is only potential. Brat, if you were to come with me, you could reach the limits of your potential, turning it into something much better, power," the Dark Lord informed him, 'Step one, complete. This boy is young, young enough to be manipulated, enough to become the perfect heir, initiate step two.' He thought, smiling a devil's smile in his mind.
Harry's eyes brightened, reminding the Dark Lord of his second favorite curse, the killing curse, in action, "Can I? Power would allow me to get revenge on my brother and family," he started.
"I suppose I could, but there would be conditions," Voldemort started, internally grinning as Harry nodded eagerly, "First, you would pose as my heir, which wouldn't be too hard because magic has already accepted me as your parent," Harry gasped in shock, at both the posing as his heir and Voldemort being magically accepted as his parent. "Second, you would pledge your loyalty to me, getting your own special version of the dark mark," Harry nodded, having overcome the shock from before. "Third, you wouldn't show any death eater of your existence until they figure it out themselves, this would add to you being my son incase anyone grew suspicious of your younger years. Lastly, you would magically accept me as your magical guardian, this combined with you being my magical son would be enough to alter your appearance enough so that no one would recognize you as Harry Potter. This also requires a change of name, although magic will recognize you as Harry James Riddle. Understood?" Voldemort demanded.
Harry nodded eagerly, 'watch out Griffith' he thought 'When I come for you, there won't be anything left over for anyone to bury.'
-= At Hogwarts =-
"Ah, Professor Trelawney, you said you wanted to see me about a student?" Albus Dumbledore asked as the Divination Professor stepped into the room.
"Yes, see this boy in my class well he wa-" Trelawney started, before suddenly her eyes rolled back, showing only their whites and she went rigid.
"The Dark Lord arises
Eyes of Death and
Soul of black,
he seeks revenge from those who wronged him,
The Dark Lord arises" She ended in a whisper, before suddenly relaxing, "Sorry about that Headmaster, I think I've been a bit short on sleep lately," she paused for a moment, "I seem to have forgotten what I was going to say, well I guess I better be going then."
AN Yeah! Yes, I know I went to Harry meeting Voldie pretty quickly, but the next few chapters are really more of an outline of the beginning of Harry's life, I'm going to slow down as I get farther in. Also, that reasoning for Harry's fake name is that he wanted to basically cut all ties with his family, and the name choice was because he always felt forgotten by his parents. Anyways, now that I know at least one person reads my story, and a lot more people than I expected followed/favorited it, I won't be requiring anything before I update. I will try to update as often as possible with 3k+ chapters.