AN Hello! Back with chapter three, once again, thanks for all the support, I'm absolutely shocked at how many Follows/Favorites I have already! To answer the two questions I got, first, yes and no, Voldemort only magically adopts Harry, that means that Voldemort is his parent hence Harry being Harry Riddle. Harry just doesn't go by the name Harry anymore, but, on say the Marauders Map, Harry would appear as Harry Riddle or Harry James Riddle even though he goes by Praet Riddle. That's another thing, any recommendations for a middle name? Now for the second question, length. Honestly I have no idea, I'm aiming for being around 20k or so in when Harry starts Hogwarts but other than that I'm not really sure…. And that brings me to that last thing I'm going to talk about, the way I'm going through Harry's life up until Hogwarts is likely to be the longer major events, although the timeline won't go anywhere except forwards. Anyways, to the story now!
A soft knock was heard at the door over the loud thundering of the rain. 'I wonder who would be out in weather like this?' Alice thought as she walked toward the door. Frank and Neville had already gone to sleep and she was reading on runes by the fire. Gripping the handle, she pulled the door open, immediately getting a gush of rain and wind in her face. Squinting, she didn't see anyone until she looked down. In front of her stood a little boy who could be no older than six, right about her son's age. He was extremely skinny, had a cut on his face, and was wearing a robe many sizes too big for him with holes.
"Oh my! Come in, come in," She said, grabbing him gently as she pulled him indoors and shut the door, seeing the boy was shivering, she let him sit down by the fire.
'This is too easy' Harry thought as his target, Alice Longbottom, pulled him inside and ran off, likely to make him a warm drink and hopefully alert her husband. It'd been around five months since Harry started learning from Voldemort. None of the Death Eaters knew Harry existed, and there was no dark mark on his arm. Instead, Harry had a huge animated dark mark covering the majority of his chest. This was Harry's first task, his job was to hopefully get both, or at least one, of the Longbottom adults to touch his cloak as he said the activation words for the portkey. Then he would be transported back to Riddle Manor where he could either kill them himself or give them to the Dark Lord.
Moments later, Alice entered the room with a steaming cup of tea, "There dear, I'll go get my husband and we'll get you home, that sound good?" She asked sweetly. Harry nodded meekly, as though he didn't have a voice to speak with.
Then she exited the room walking rather quickly. Harry sighed, looking into the flames and resisting the urge to fidget. Who knew that trying to fool someone into trusting you was so boring! Ugh, if he'd known how boring it would have been, he would have asked to go on a raid disguised as a Death Eater. His training had gone rather well, he wasn't allowed to practice the unforgivables yet because apparently they made the caster become crazy and keep using them to the point of magical exhaustion or something. He had learned more curses though, such as Incendio and Sectumsempra. Also, he'd learned he was extremely good at silently casting, to the point his spells were the same strength no matter if he said the incantation out loud or not. He glanced at the clock, it was 9pm, so Harry had been a tad shocked when he found out both Mr. Longbottom and his son had already gone to bed.
"Yeah, I'm not sure if this kid is abused or if he's been lost for awhile, but the poor dear looked miserable so I just had to let him in," Harry heard Mrs. Longbottom say to Mr. Longbottom as the walked into the room.
Quickly, Harry plastered a somewhat cold and mainly frightened look on his face. He shivered a little and waited for them to sit down. He wiped his cheek, which was still soaked with water and cupped the warm tea in his hands. Taking a sip, he looked at Mrs. Longbottom with wide scared eyes.
"I-I should probably go home," Harry said with a gulp added. "M-mum is gonna be m-mad enough that I didn't get her those a-ashwinder eggs," He added, listing the dangerous snake. Then he looked down at the floor, somewhat hunching his shoulders.
"Ashwinder eggs? We could help take you down to Diagon Alley before we get you home," Mr. Longbottom told Harry.
"N-no! I-I was supposed to f-find them," Harry said, fidgeting a little, "I-in the woods, but I g-got lost," Harry glanced up into Mr. and Mrs. Longbottoms shocked faces. The Dark Lord told him that stuttering always made acting seem less suspicious, paranoia also helped.
"Oh-oh my! My name's Alice and this is my husband Frank, what's your name?" Mrs. Longbottom asked.
"I'm J-James" Harry looked, letting a little spark of his pleasure at fooling them escape through his eyes. Hopefully they assumed Harry was hoping to stay with them.
"That's a beautiful name, now who're you're parents?" Alice asked him, right then, a thump was heard on the stairs.
"Mum, who is that?" a boy asked, half walking half tumbling down that stairs. The boy had wide eyes, somewhat fluffy but otherwise tame brown hair, a chubby face, and a few freckles.
"I-I'm James," Harry told him, smiling a tad.
Mrs. Longbottom kneeled in front of Harry, "How about you stay here for the night James? Then we can take you home in the morning," she asked him.
Harry grinned as wide as he could fake a sincere smile, "Y-yeah! That would be great!" He exclaimed, bouncing on his feet. Now everyone was smiling. Inwardly smirking, Harry ran over to the boy, "W-what's your name?" he asked.
"I'm Neville!" Neville told him, puffing out his chest. Harry sighed inwardly, what kind of person was proud of their NAME of all things? Ugh, he better just get going.
"O-okay Neville, want to see a m-magic trick?" Harry asked softly so only Neville could hear him. Neville nodded excitedly, Harry looked over at Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom, they were standing close enough for him to touch both of them.
He ran over to them, pulling them into a big hug, "Gone!" Harry hissed in parseltongue, the portkey activating at the words, pulling him and the Longbottoms to Riddle Manor.
Immediately they both fell down, involuntary portkeying was always worse for those pulled along. Instants later, they were standing up, wands out, looking around crazily. Mr. Longbottom's gaze fell on the location where the Dark Lord was standing.
"What happened?" Mrs. Longbottom asked.
"Simple, I brought you to my father, Alice, meet Voldemort," Harry smirked. Mr. Longbottom, being a little less trusting, turned and pointed his wand at Harry. Harry raised his wand and cast a silent expelliarmus, ripping Mr. Longbottom's wand out of his hands and onto the floor near Voldemort.
Mrs. Longbottom was still in a bit of a shock, "Wait, Voldemort is alive and James is his son?" She asks, eyes wide.
Mr. Longbottom was glaring at Voldemort as he picked up his wand, snapping it with his hands, "Alice, watch out, Dark Lord jr. casts silent spells," he growled.
"Crucio" the Dark Lord said, point at Alice Longbottom, immediately she crashed onto the floor, screaming.
Harry looked in interest, this was the first time he'd ever done a job for the Dark Lord, and it was extremely pleasing to see it had gone so well. Leaning down, he pulled her wand out of her hands, snapping it as well. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mr. Longbottom charging towards him in a very muggle-level stupid way. Harry flicked his wand, blasting Mr. Longbottom into the wall. Not hard enough to permanently damage him, but hard enough that he'd have a nasty bruise later, if he lived that long. Harry cast a weak Incendio at , just enough that his upper robes caught fire, giving him something between first and second degree burns. Watching with pleasure, Harry saw as the power he had over Mr. Longbottom came into effect.
"You're going to hell devil spawn," Mr. Longbottom growled, obviously in pain, "Stupefy"
he wandlessly cast a weak and slow stunner at Harry.
Harry easily sidestepped the spell, Mrs. Longbottom's screams had lessened to more of a rasping silent cry as her voice died. The Dark Lord canceled the Cruciatus. Mrs. Longbottom stayed on the ground for a moment, then crawled/slided towards the reddened burnt form of Mr. Longbottom. Looking at her, Harry cast a Lacero at her right leg, watching as the flesh ripped itself in half in a jagged-looking cut. Then he cast a sectumsempra at Mr. Longbottom, drawing a single deep slash across his chest. Mr. Longbottom gasped for a few moments, then died.
"Woops," Harry said, torture wasn't really his thing.
"Frank…" Alice rasped, reaching out to her husband, hand soaking with blood, she turned and glared at Harry, "You, you killed him!" she somehow managed to scream.
Rolling his eyes, Harry turned and looked at the Dark Lord, he nodded. Smirking, Harry sent a sectumsempra at Mrs. Longbottom, carving a Dark Mark into her chest. Then she died too. Harry sighed, that took way too little time. He definitely would like battle more than that. Maybe assassination would be more fun too. Laughing inwardly at himself, Harry thought about how a few months ago he never would've dreamed hurting people could cause much pleasure. He'd been working on his apparation, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Luckily though, Harry never half-apparated, it was always all or nothing.
Harry turned to the Dark Lord, "Should we give them to the Order?" he asked, tilting his head towards the Longbottoms dead forms, "Or maybe the ministry?"
"Order, if they go to the Ministry it might become well known that I'm still alive, the Order already suspects," the Dark Lord told him.
Harry nodded, successfully apparating to the outside of the Potter household. Then he carefully levitated their bodies to the door, then lastly he sent a small but direct blasting curse at the door, not strong enough to break it, but making a loud bang. Then, mission done, Harry apparated away.
-=Later, OotF Headquarters=-
"So you found them this way?" Alastor Moody asked as he looked over Alice and Frank's bodies.
"Y-yeah, they were laying out by the door, someone cast a soft blasting curse at the door and we came there and saw them laying there. Their bodies weren't completely cold yet, although Frank was burning hot from some burning curse on him," Lily told him, James had an arm over her shoulder, knowing how close Alice and Lily had been.
"Curious, Remus told Neville right?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, and you won't believe what I found out," Remus exclaimed, obviously a tad shocked at whatever he'd learned from Neville.
"What is it?" James asked.
"Well apparently a boy named James visited their house right before they disappeared. The boy had black hair and green eyes, and was extremely skinny, wearing loose robes, and had a cut on his face. This is where it gets strange, this boy, James, walked up to Neville, and asked if he wanted to see a trick. Then he ran up to Frank and Alice, hugged them, hissed something, then they all disappeared," Remus informed them.
"I don't know what that sounds like to you, but it seems like a portkey. This boy is not all he seems, I recommend we keep CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody exclaimed.
"What're you saying?" Lily asked.
"He's saying, that this boy is definitely dangerous and probably some Death Eater's son. Not to be trusted," Remus told them.
"This boy must be powerful, Severus, do you know of any missions lately going around killing the Longbottoms?" Dumbledore asked.
"No, the Dark Lord has said nothing of any missions, if I knew of this, I would have told you," Snape ground out.
"What does that mean then?" Lily asked.
"That means that this mission must've been done by the Dark Lord himself, and this boy, because as one of the inner circle, Severus would have heard about it otherwise. Why this boy though? Who's son is he?" Remus added.
"The bodies, there wa only one crucio cast, on Alice, for a long period of time, other than that, the only spells cast were easy or moderate level Dark Spells, as well as an expelliarmus. We all know that the Dark Lord would never not crucio both, so it's highly likely this boy, helped," Alastor told them.
"So that brings the question up again, who is this boy?" Dumbledore asked them.
"There is one idea that makes sense, although it is absurd. If the Dark Lord had a son, I doubt he'd trust even his inner circle with the knowledge," Severus growled.
"A son! That's crazy! Who would the mother be? It couldn't be Bellatrix, everyone knows she can't have children!" James exclaimed, "It's probably just some Death Eater's son Snivellus."
"Well do you have a better explanation?" Snape growled.
"I think we should keep Severus's idea in mind unless we find evidence proving otherwise," Dumbledore told them.
After a long silence James said, "So… a son."
"I'll tell the other Order Members to watch out for a green eyed black haired boy," Dumbledore added, "Meeting dismissed."
AN So what happened to me doing 3k chapters? I just didn't know what else to add to this chapter, it was mainly centered around Harry becoming known by the Order and getting his first kills. Next chapter is Christmas! Harry will be six years and four months-ish old. Yeah! Nothing else to really add to this note, so please follow, favorite, and review for more!
-Ariana Flynn Riddle