Harry Potter and the Terrifying Truth

Summary: In the final battle against Harry, Voldemort reveals a horrifying truth that all at once scares, fascinates, and awakens the child to the truth of his life. An interesting and very different view on how Voldemort came to be from Rowling's famous canon. Partly DH-compliant, partially series-compliant, semi-/mostly-AU (for Voldemort)

Notes on Timeline: Completely ignores the past of Voldemort except for what was revealed of it in the first five books. Some of the memories from book6 will still apply, but none from when Tom Riddle was young. Basically anything before his sixth year would be completely blank and moldable in order for this to work.

Prologue
"God help me.
I don't see
How I can live this way;
And I don't know why he's
Touching me—
Won't you shine in my direction and help me?!
Won't you lend me your protection and help me!?"
-God Help Me, written and performed by Emilie Autumn

They were circling each other silently in a field, two sets of eyes—one emerald green, one ruby red—locked on each other. There was no one around but themselves, as they had retreated into the Forbidden Forest to have this final showdown. It was a silent request from the emerald-eyed teen to protect his friends that, for a reason he could not fathom, the ruby-eyed man had silently agreed to.

Suddenly, the ruby-eyed man, none other than the Dark Lord Voldemort slashed forward with his wand in a sharp motion; without thinking, the emerald-eyed teen Harry Potter threw up a shield-

And to his shock, the curse rebounded.

Further causing conflict within the teen was the fact that Voldemort allowed it to hit.

Blood gushed from a vertical wound down Voldemort's chest, bisecting him from shoulder to hip, right to left, in a gruesome way. His gaze flickered and locked with Harry's before he collapsed in a heap, breathing heavily.

For reasons unknown to himself, Harry rushed forward to the Dark Lord's side, kneeling numbly next to the elder's head. Voldemort closed his eyes as soon as the student did such and, inexplicably, began to laugh a crazed laugh.

"And thus it begins," he muttered in his cold voice, eyes slowly opening and locking on Harry's. There was only a split second of hesitation before Harry asked what, exactly, was beginning. Voldemort didn't immediately answer, instead reaching up with one finger, ignoring Harry's tensing and instead gently resting the long and bony appendage on the boy's forehead.

Directly over his scar.

It didn't burn, but Harry felt like knowledge exploded into his head. He suddenly knew things he never would have before; about manipulations and trust and those who honestly cared and those who didn't; about Dumbledore's plan to put an innocent child in perpetual danger despite knowing the wizarding world would likely lynch such a child afterward; about abusive relationships and horrible disbelief and fear and guilt; and about the truth of Lord Voldemort.

Then, suddenly, the knowledge stopped. It took Harry a long, disoriented moment to realize Voldemort had pulled his hand away and was breathing a bit more heavily than before, yet more shallowly as well. Harry was unable to speak for a bit longer before letting out a hoarse noise of disbelief.

"You..." he whispered, before stopping, then saying, "I..." then pausing again and reaching up to rub at his forehead before finally muttering, "True...?"

"I would not lie about this, Potter, no matter how much you might wish I would," said Voldemort in a harsh whisper that somehow conveyed amusement as well as the man closed his eyes almost peacefully. "It was a long run. Worth it in the end. Run off and bother your friends now, Potter—and make sure you punch the Weasel and his Ministry-slug of a brother for me."

Harry stared for a long moment at what was once his enemy, but was now so completely different, then whirled on his heel and ran off at breakneck speeds.

"Godspeed," muttered Voldemort before falling silent. The trees rustled softly in the wind, and the birds began to speak again. A Thestral began inching its way into the clearing, and soon the blood was being licked up.

A completely different rustle followed shortly after, and with much effort, Voldemort cracked open his eyes...

-.-.-.-

Epilogue

Voldemort cracked open his eyes and found himself looking into part-amused and mostly exasperated grey orbs.

"You never change, do you, Lord?" Lucius Malfoy casually accused, smirking at his Master as his son chased off the Thestral.

"Hypocrite," Voldemort quietly responded, closing his eyes. "Shut up and fix it."

"As you wish, my Lord." Carefully, Lucius crouched next to his temporarily incapacitated Master and pulled out his wand, muttering a charm that soon removed most of the wound. Yet Voldemort could still feel how weakened he was, how little energy he had, how close to death he still hovered...Lucius huffing interrupted his thoughts and without a word, Lord Malfoy shoved a vial in Voldemort's face. "Don't complain and just take the stupid Elixir. You wouldn't believe the trouble I had to go through to procure it, my Lord."

Voldemort stared at the Elixir for a long moment before carefully taking it, giving Lucius a doubtful look. "This isn't—"

"It is. Now shut up and drink...if it pleases my Lord."

"Or not, he doesn't really care," Draco carelessly threw over his shoulder.

Smothering a smirk, Voldemort downed the Elixir of Life and closed his eyes as he felt more alive than he had in centuries, literally. Then he slowly climbed to his feet, and a chilling laugh escaped him.

Lord Voldemort, once Tom Marvolo Riddle, once none other than Harry James Potter, was ready for some revenge of his own...

-END-

MKL's Post-Production Notes (8-7-13): Yup, that's all I've got. Two bookends to a story. Hey, at least they're interesting bookends!

SPOILERS: Basically the way this story would go is that the first third would be Harry dealing with a crapload of out-of-context information Voldemort basically dumped into his head. During that time, it would be hinted that Draco was doing something big (Harry, of course, couldn't have the memories of what exactly was going on) but spending his free time becoming somewhat friendly with Harry. Harry would eventually be betrayed by Ron, whose feelings of jealousy would be easily manipulated by Percy (who was still brainwashed by the Ministry's teachings and believed Harry a threat to his newly recovered family), and as a result would throw himself back in time. He'd end up at the orphanage Tom Riddle was said to be dropped off at, deaged to about 7, and basically would live Voldemort's life from there, making alliances and steadily growing more crazed by his attempts to not turn out as Voldemort did while still making all the same mistakes. :END SPOILERS.

This story was meant to be, at its base, a character study. A sort of fate VS free will; nature VS nurture type of experiment. Maybe one day I'll pick the idea up again, but I doubt it. So here ya go! Hope to have intrigued you all~