This is my first attempt at a non-science-fiction fanfiction, so let's hope it's not exceptionally bad.

I would like to mention that I am entirely unqualified to make this fanfiction, as I have only read one of the books and I am halfway through the second (and from what I can tell from the philosophers stone, the amount of information you can get out of the books vs the movies is like comparing a rowboat to an aircraft carrier).

Godric's Hollow, October 31st, 1981

On a dark and cold Halloween night, a man walks up to a humble cottage known only to a select few. Voldemort smiles as he meets no resistance from wards, the Fidelius Charm is a powerful and useful charm, but it has two flaws: the secret keeper cannot spend more than a few hours within the hidden area consecutively, or the secret will begin to unravel from within their soul, and wards interfere with the charm, meaning they have to be deactivated when the charm is active, leaving the location undefended from anyone who knows the secret.

The first flaw lead to Peter Pettigrew being made the secret keeper, who then told Voldemort, and the second is the reason Voldemort meets no resistance on the outside of the cottage.

The monster, for he has splintered his soul so many times that there is not enough of it left within his body for him to be considered human, contemplates just using fiendfyre to burn the cottage down, before dismissing it. Within that small building two of his greatest opponents and the child prophesied to defeat him resides. It would do him no benefit to just claim to have defeated fate as he has death without the rotting corpse of his prophesied killer to prove it. And so, with great caution, the Dark Lord enters the cottage with the intent to add three more names to the seemingly unending list of people he has killed, unaware that he would only add two to that list, and those would be the final names for over a decade.

Upon entering the cottage, he is met by two lovers who have been some of his greatest opponents for the last few years, James and Lily Potter. The Dark Lord sends a pair of killing curses at the couple, only for them to be blocked by a pane of glass transfigured from a nearby coffee table by James, who tells Lily to get Harry while stalls for time.

The furniture shifts into animals and the floor moves like it is water as the full terrifying power of a transfiguration master is brought to bear on the Dark Lord. But, alas, while the younger man is a great warrior who has defeated countless death eaters, his capabilities pale in comparison to those of Voldemort, and soon after the battle begins, like hundreds of his ancestors before him, he greets death like an old friend, and begins his next great adventure, leaving his wife and child to finish the fight he began.

Lily runs up to Harry's nursery, but, knowing there is no escape, instead of taking him and attempting to flee, she begins preparation's for a act she never thought would be necessary, but prepared for nonetheless. She hardens her heart and accepts her fate, willing to sacrifice everything for her son.

The lady of the ancient and most noble house of Potter begins to weave a tapestry of powerful magic, forbidden and taboo by both the government she serves and the people she has fought alongside for so many years, but which she feels is necessary to ensure her sons safety. By the time Voldemort approaches, her creation is complete, and she faces the monster who plunged their native land into over a decade of Civil War. She does not resist, as that act would ruin the power of her creation and the protection she plans to form upon her son, and joins her lover in the next great adventure, sealing the fate of the Dark Lord if he continued on his path.

After Lily is killed, Voldemort's gaze turns to the child, his eyes falling on the brilliant green orbs which stare back at him. With not a moment hesitation, he sends a killing curse at the defenseless Harry Potter, and seals their fates, but not in the way the Dark Lord expected.

The spell reflects off of the child and hits Voldemort, ejecting his withered soul from his body. The husk, having gone through so many rituals and soul splittings and battles as to be only held together by the now vacating magic, crumbles into dust. The wraith that the Dark Lord has become, still reeling from the unprecedented event, escapes the cottage and flys out into the night, leaving the orphaned boy alone.

for over an hour Harry Potter is left alone with only the rotting corpse of his mother and the ashes of her murderer as company. Then a man comes rushing into the room, panicked by seeing the dead form of his brother in all but blood, and gazes upon the scene laid before him. After the man weeps for his fallen friends, he tries to take the child with him to a safer place, only to be stopped by a half giant many times his size.

"What are you doing here Hagrid?" Sirius asks the Goliath of a man before him, his voice filled with confusion and hostility.

"Dumbledore told me to take the kid to him in order to put him in a safe place, now hand him over." Hagrid replies in slightly butchered English, many times greater than what a pure blooded giant would be able to speak or even comprehend.[no I am not going to actually try and write the accented English, then I would have to do it for the rest of time and that sounds miserable]

After several minutes of debating, Sirius acquiesces to the man's unrelenting demand, and hands his godson over, trusting Dumbledore would find a safe place for him until Sirius can take his rightful place as Harry's guardian, leaving him to chase after the traitor who betrayed the Potters. Sirius gives Hagrid his motorcycle in order to ensure Harry could be given to Dumbledore safely, considering Hagrid's lack of ability to aperate and the dangerousness of the floo system considering the compromised nature of the ministry.

But, instead of taking him to his godmother, who is under Fidelius Charm and safe for the next few days, or the impenetrable walls of Hogwarts, or his closest living magical relative who doesn't associate with death eaters, Andromeda Tonks née black, he take him to a place Harry would know as hell on earth for years to come.

Number 4 pivot drive, October 31st, 1988,

Harry wipes a bead of sweat off his brow as he takes a few second break from working in the backyard garden. Harry hasn't had a chance to eat anything today as six hours earlier Petunia kicked Henry out of the house and ordered him to work on the garden in order to ensure he did not "disturb Marge with his freakish nature" and she has not let him in since. Before this he was locked in the cupboard from when he got back to school to 12 o'clock for turning a teachers hair blue, causing him to miss both dinner and breakfast. Not even school gave him respite as due to a fire in the main office it was closed today.

Six hours earlier he could hear Dudley, Vernon, Petunia, and Marge laughing and eating lunch inside the house, and now he can hear them doing the same with the beginnings of dinner.

Four hours earlier he had informed his aunt that he was finished with the front garden, leaving it magnificent as always, and asked if he could have some food. She slapped him for his insolence and told him to start on the back garden.

This had been Harry's life for the last few years, going to school, where he constantly outshined every other student, getting punished for outshining Dudley and "cheating" while being forced by Dudley to do all his homework, doing all the household chores, like cooking and gardening and sweeping, and being heavily punished for any acts of "freakishness". His usual punishments were being forced into the cupboard for a long time or being hit or yelled at. Actually being locked in the cupboard became less challenging when he managed to sneak several dozen books which Dudley had gotten for his birthday, and then never read, into the cupboard, but it became difficult again whenever he was forced to skip meals because of it. This lead to him being weak when he was doing his chores, leading to him being punished for not doing them quickly enough.

Life with the Dursley's was hell and he knew it was not normal, but each time he told another adult about it and asked for help, they either refused to believe him, or said they would help but then nothing came of it, sometimes they wouldn't even remember the conversation happened. So he was forced to endure all of the suffering.

From within the plants a small green snake appeared. Upon seeing the snake Harry said "I believe there is a small group of mice over there near the tulips, have a nice meal." Harry, spoke in the faintest of whispers, the punishments for freakishness in the house were severe, but those dealt out when his oddities were shown to others in the community were vicious.

"thank you speaker." The snake said, but as it was about to leave, it saw something and warned Harry "look out behind you"

Hairy turned his head and became rigid in terror. Marge's dog ripper was outside with him, and was charging right at him. He managed to pulled up his arms to block the foul dogs sharp teeth, it's fangs digging deep into him, drawing blood, and causing him excruciating pain.

Ripper was not supposed to be outside, perhaps Marge let him out for some fresh air, or to cause Harry more suffering, possibly kill him. The reason did not matter, what mattered is that ripper was attempting to rip out his throat with it's teeth.

In Harry's panicked state, something within him exploded. From Harry came a bout of accidental magic, but for the first time, it was lethal to another organism.

Ripper's head caved in upon itself and blood splattered all over Harry and the roses nearby. Harry began to panic as he imagined his punishment for this act. The most severe punishment he's ever gotten was when he first spoke to a snake in front of a pair of guests when he brought his favorite silver and green snake which he named Susie into the house and spoke to her at the dinner table. Later that afternoon, he was forced to watch as Vernon killed Susie and stuck him in the cupboard for five days, he almost didn't survive.

The fear and dread and adrenaline made him come to one conclusion, he could not stay at pivot drive, he had to leave. So, with only a moments hesitation, Harry began to run.

What first began as a haphazard jog turned into a full sprint at the fastest speed his malnourished body could manage. His body burned as it lacked the nutrients to keep this up long, but he managed to make it out of pivot drive and into the forest before he collapsed. After a few minutes he collected some fruit from a nearby tree, consumed his first sustenance all day, and began to aimlessly walk. He had no destination, but only one goal, get as far away from pivot drive as possible. The farther away from that wretched place he was, the more likely people wouldn't recognize him, and either leave him alone, or believe he had no guardians and drop him off at an orphanage, which would be infinitely better than that hell.

Harry potter began his journey, not knowing the effect it would have on his fate and the fate of Great Britain.

Forest around Potter keep, November 4th, 1988

It has been four days since Harry began his journey, and things are not going well. Apparently the Dursley's enjoyed having their slave more than they despised his freakish existence, and so put out a missing persons report on him. Since then he had been seen twice by random people, and once by a police officer who attempted to bring him back to the Dursleys before Harry managed to escape.

Since then, he has been walking through the forest, attempting to escape civilization to ensure he never had to go back to that hell. Suddenly, he felt an odd sensation come across him, a feeling of warmth and belonging that should not be possible in the middle of the night in November. He felt safe in this place, but something deeper into the forest was calling to him. So he began to walk in the direction that this feeling gained strength in, until he made it to a large clearing in the forest. In one second, he saw nothing, but in the next, a keep appeared to form right before his eyes, five sides of massive 20 m walls seemed to appear from thin air alongside a massive building that lay within. At each of the edges, a 30 m tower stood, at the top of each these towers a massive statue made of finally chiseled stone stood, three of women, and 2 of men.

Harry saw a colossal gate with a massive coat of arms above it, a crow with a pair of what appeared to be white sticks crossed and a golden shield behind it. As Harry approached the gate, it opened, showing the stone path leading to the building within, and a peculiar looking creature. This creature was even shorter than Harry, a incredible feet considering his malnourished state, and had massive black eyes which stared intently at Harry. Harry was still mesmerized by the site when the creature began to speak "Little master Harry! We not see you or master James for a long time, since even before master Charlus died, we must bring you to mistress immediately, come!" And with that, the small creature began to lead the still stunned harry to the large castle-like building.

Confused, Harry followed the small creature, and was amazed. Instead of the what appeared to be few dozen meters between the wall and the building, there was 2 kilometer of stone path between them and the building. The view of anything else besides the path was obscured by rows upon rows of colossal Yew trees.

The small creature continued leading him to the large building in the center of it all. After a long walk, they finally arrived at the stone building, its walls appearing ancient, but formidable and well-maintained. They were met by two more of the small creatures who clambered to get closer to Harry, and joined the first one in escorting him.

The first room within the building was just as spectacular as the area outside, a massive ballroom with a colossal glowing black crystal chandelier that probably weighed 10 times as much as Vernon's car. Lining the four walls were 48 suits of armor, 12 to a wall. Hairy believed it was his mind playing tricks on him when he believed he saw the helmets of the armors turn to him and follow him as he moved across the room.

As the small group moved towards the wall on the left from the entrance, a segment of the wall between the 6th and 7th suits of armor changed into a large bronze door, about 3 m tall. After the door opened, Harry could see a long brightly lit hallway filled with doors and paintings.

The people in the paintings begin whispering to each other when they saw Harry. Under each painting was a gold, silver, bronze, bronze with a gold rim, silver with a bronze rim, or bronze with a silver rim plaque with a name on it. Charlus Mercury Potter (gold), Dorea Elladora Potter nee Black (bronze with a golden rim), Penelope Miranda Bones nee Potter (silver with a bronze rim), the names and paintings were near endless. They all stared, one tried to talk to Harry but one of the strange creatures stopped her saying "no one be talking to young master until mistress sees him." The living paintings seemed discontented with this order, but obeyed.

Finally, they arrived at the fifth door down the hallway, and it opened for them. Harry was amazed by the colossal library, at least three stories tall, that lay behind that bronze door. But before he could explore the wonderful temple of knowledge, he saw one of the strangest sights he'd seen in his life.

Waiting for him and the three creatures was a woman whose body was mostly cloaked within, or was, black smoke, with only her head and her arms visible. She floated above the ground like a cloud floating above the Earth. What little of her he could see was partially transparent, but she looked like she was just entering middle age, not young, but still having many years or decades until she was truly old. Around her arm was a truly magnificent golden bracelet shaped like a crow, its wings folded around her arm and its beak resting just before her wrist.

Suddenly, the woman looked Harry in the eye, and spoke "Where have you been? Living Potters were missed in this keep for many years. Your father was kicked out of this keep and stripped of his status as heir to be given to you for giving to the old man something he had no right to give, but the keep would have opened for you, it's heir, and he knows that, so he should've brought you here many years ago, what has happened?"

Harry stared, shocked at the words of this person (ghost, spirit, wraith?) who seemed to know him and his father. He recovered from his shocked state enough to ask a simple question "who are you?"

The woman appeared shocked and confused at the question, as if the possibility of him not knowing should have been impossible. "How has my grandson spoken so little of our past that you do not even know me? I am Helena Aurora Potter, your great grandmother."

I hope you all enjoy the first chapter. I've altered some things to make the world work better in my opinion. I tied up the plot hole on why the Potters and Longbottoms didn't name themselves the secret keepers, the secret keeper couldn't be someone who would spend a large amount of time in the area because then the charm would be broken.

The plaques are supposed to designate the person's position in the family.

gold: Lord of the house

silver: blood member of the house either by birth or blood adoption

bronze: non-blood member of the house from marriage

bronze with a gold rim: consort (wife or husband) of the Lord of the House

silver with a bronze rim: blood member of the house who is married into another house

bronze with a silver rim: non-blood member of the house from non-blood adoption (usually for the heirs of near extinct allied house)