A Fool's Errand

Harry Potter was not a normal boy, that much was very, very clear to him and everyone around him. Harry didn't really know why he looked so different, he didn't even know why everyone treated him so different.

Harry's Uncle Vernon was a very large and rotund man with receding hair and a mustache that made him look like a walrus, though his stomach size made him look like he had actually eaten the walrus, either that or the Walrus was wearing him.

Harry's Aunt Petunia was a thin woman, almost sickly with how thin she was, yet she was still the only one in the house who willingly kept to a diet plan to lose weight despite being the least in need of it. She was also not a very attractive woman either, despite what she might claim. She had a long neck like a giraffe, her face looked like a horse and she wore so much make up that clowns would be jealous.

Harry's cousin, Dudley Dursley. He and Harry were nearly the same age, give or take a few months, but Dudley took after his father in body type. To Harry he looked like a pig in a wig, though Harry would never voice that thought out loud because it was known in the Dursley house that Dudley could do no wrong while Harry was evil for simply existing.

Harry, on the other hand, was a much more interesting looking boy. His clothes were not expensive looking like the Dursley's, mostly because he was given the choice between staying stark naked or wearing Dudley's old clothes that he didn't want or could no longer fit into. Harry had originally worn round and horrible looking glasses that his Aunt Petunia had gotten from a charity shop, even though the Dursley family were rich and could have brought Harry new clothes and glasses. In case it wasn't obvious, they didn't like him much.

Harry also had very bright green eyes, his eyes were a shade of emerald green. They were undoubtedly his best feature, though they were not the part of him that drew the most attention either. It wasn't his raven colored, messy hair either. It was in fact his lightning bolt scar. Harry had had his lightning bolt scar on the right side of his forehead for as long as he could remember.

Though... it wasn't always so big.

It was a small mark that he could hide under his hair, but now it was far more eye-catching. At first it was a single lightning bolt, but then one day it had grown.

One day when he was five years old, his Uncle Vernon had locked him outside of the house. Harry had walked over to the nearby park when it had started raining, the next thing Harry knew he could hear thunder and lightning. Then, there was the bird. Harry had found a small bird lying helplessly on the floor next to a tree. It was trying to fly but had clearly damaged its wing.

Harry, being the nice and innocent kid that he was, had picked it up and climbed up the tree to place the bird in its nest. He had placed the bird there and began trying to descend down when suddenly a lightning bolt had descended from the sky and hit him.


"Wh-where am I?" Harry asks he looks around.

All he saw was black, until he heard some children.

"Look at the asterbar(1)!" One kid said.

"I bet his father was a chiv-man(2) and his mum was a borarco(3)!" Another taunted.

"Nay, his mum must've been a nymph of the pave(4)!" Joked a third.

It was a trio of boys and picking on a younger kid. They were pushing him around.

"He's just like me…" Harry thought to himself.

He didn't know what possessed him, but he ran at the boys. Maybe seeing someone going through the same bullying as him sparked a need to finally speak up.

"Leave him alone!" He shouted, only to run right through them. "Wh-what?"

He watched as the boys continued taunting the kid before the event faded, and other started.

"Just what is going on?"


It's been six years since Harry has been a spectator. He has learned the person he was watching was named Tom Riddle. He was forced to watch the boy go through horrible bullying, then discovering he has powers. Using those powers, he tormented those who bullied him.

If Harry could vomit, he would after seeing what Tom did to Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson.

Harry knew he had the same powers as Tom, but he'd never use them to torture others.

Harry glad when Tom calmed down enough to just steal from other orphans and keeping their things as trophies.

Harry got a weird sense of déjà vu from the man who walked in and introduced himself as Albus Dumbledore.

He visited Wool's Orphanage under the guise of being a teacher for children with special abilities. When he's alone with Tom and the spectating Harry, Dumbledore reveals his true nature as a wizard and the Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The initially skeptical Tom, who earlier believed he was being sent to a juvenile institution, instantly accepts Dumbledore's offer to attend Hogwarts, revealing the knowledge of his powers but inadvertently exposes his hostile nature to Dumbledore in the process. Dumbledore forces Tom to return the stolen items to the children and gives him instructions to purchase materials needed for Hogwarts.

Harry was excited. Maybe he could learn how to control his powers too.

The same month, Tom goes to Diagon Alley where he receives the wand meant for him at Ollivander's. Made of yew wood with a phoenix feather core, the wand is extremely rare and powerful as its feather comes from Fawkes the Phoenix who belongs to Dumbledore.

Tom arrives at Hogwarts and is immediately sorted into Slytherin House by the Sorting Hat. As soon as he began his time as a student, Tom began looking into the history of the Riddle name but is dismayed to find that it has no links with the magical world.

Harry was very excited to learn magic, even though he couldn't really preform the spells, he could still practice the wand movements and the incantations.

In the same year, Tom learns of the legend of the Chamber of Secrets and begins to search for it. When he's forced to abandon the search for traces of the Riddle name at Hogwarts, Tom finds out that Marvolo was his grandfather and his ancestor from the magical line, along with uncovering the fact that he's descended from Salazar Slytherin.

Upon linking the connection between Slytherin and the Chamber of Secrets, Tom decides to honor his ancestor's wish of eradicating muggleborns from Hogwarts. In the process, he developed prejudicial views about non-magical people.

Harry was very confused about Tom's hatred. He read the same books as him so he knew that Slytherin did not have a hatred of muggleborns. He was wary of those without magic and welcomed all who had magic and wanted to learn.

This was just another instance where Harry and Tom disagreed.


Ten years since Harry became a spectator, during Tom's summer holidays, Tom tracks down his maternal family in Little Hangleton and learns his grandfather has died while his uncle Morfin lives in a disheveled state of poverty.

Tom is dismayed to find out that the only magical family member he has is a sorry excuse for a wizard and is angered when Morfin reveals that Tom Riddle Sr lives nearby. Tom attacks his uncle and modifies his memory after stealing the Gaunt family ring, following which he proceeds to visit his father and paternal grandparents whom he murders out of revenge.

Harry watched and was angered at the fact that he couldn't do anything.

In the same month, Morfin confesses to killing the Riddles due to Tom's memory charm and is sent to Azkaban where he dies. Around the same time, Tom uses the murder of his family to split his soul apart and turn the ring into a Horcrux.

Harry shouted angrily when Tom did this. Harry, reading the same book Tom did, knew that splitting your soul is the foulest and darkest magic that one could preform. It is a crime to magic itself.

With Tom sweet talking his Potions professor, Horace Slughorn, he found out he could split his soul seven times.

If Harry could vomit, he would.


Almost five years after beginning his search, Tom finally finds the Chamber of Secrets, whose entrance is hidden in a second floor girls' bathroom, and uses Parseltongue to tame the Basilisk within. Over the next few weeks, the Basilisk injures several students at the school.

Unfortunately, Tom was caught by an innocent student. Myrtle Warren hears Tom summoning the Basilisk, and, like any other person in her position, demanded that he leave the girls' restroom. Tom, without hesitation, orders the snake to kill her. Then he used her death to make another horcrux.

Harry was fascinated and enthralled by the beauty that was Slytherin's Basilisk. It was saddening to watch Tom warp and mangle the poor creature's mind into being a mindless slave.

Myrtle's death expedites the process of closing down Hogwarts, prompting Tom to abandon his plans for the Chamber of Secrets. He uses his knowledge of Rubeus Hagrid's harboring of an Acromantula to frame him as the Heir of Slytherin and the Acromantula as the monster.

Harry glared distastefully at Tom when he did this. He got Hagrid expelled, and a received a Special Award for Services to the School for it.


Tom begins his seventh and final year at Hogwarts and is made Head Boy of the school.

In the same year, he learns the existence of a diadem that belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw along with finding out that the Grey Lady is the ghost of Rowena's daughter Helena. Using his charismatic persona, Tom is able to charm the Grey Lady into revealing the location of the diadem that she had hidden.

While Harry hated Tom, he couldn't deny that he was charming. He made sure to learn how to emulate that charm.

Tom graduates from Hogwarts with honors and instantly asks Headmaster Dippet for a job at the school as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. However, owing to the age limit for a teaching position at Hogwarts, Professor Dippet rejects Tom's application and encourages him to apply again in a few years. Shortly after, he kills an Albanian peasant to turn Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem into a Horcrux.

It angered and disappointed Harry that another beauty has been defiled by this dark man.

In the same year, rather than entertain offers to work at the Ministry through Professor Slughorn's sources, Tom opts to work as an assistant at Borgin and Burkes shop at Knockturn Alley as a way to learn more about the Dark Arts and acquire powerful magical heirlooms.

Harry made sure to learn all he could of the Dark Arts so he could identify them and know how to reverse their effects.

While still working at Borgin and Burkes, Tom befriends Hepzibah Smith, a wealthy old witch who is a descendent of Helga Hufflepuff's. Hepzibah falls for Tom's charms as many others before her and decides to impress him by showing her possession of Helga Hufflepuff's goblet that had been passed down generations. She also reveals her purchase of Salazar Slytherin's locket that Merope had sold to Borgin and Burkes. Tom, convinced that the locket was his right as a descendent of Slytherin, and out of his own need for the goblet, poisons Hepzibah Smith to claim the artifacts.

Once again, Harry was forced to watch Tom desecrate more beautiful things, and turn them into horcruxes.

Around that time, Tom implants a false memory on Hepzibah's house-elf Hokey, who confesses to the Ministry that she committed the murder. Soon after, Tom quits his job at Borgin and Burkes.


Tom spends the next decade travelling the world to learn all kinds of dark magic, commit acts of terrible cruelty, and undergoes magical transformations, much to Harry's disgust. The creation of so many horcruxes also changed his appearance to the point where he becomes unrecognizable and loses all of his natural handsome features. By this point, he openly begins referring to himself as Lord Voldemort, signalling the end of Tom Riddle.

Harry was right there the whole, an unwilling spectator, learning everything he could.

Voldemort resurfaces to make a return to Hogwarts. At this time, he's garnered his own band of followers and has already created a feared reputation for himself. Upon his arrival at the school, he meets Albus Dumbledore, who is now in the role of Headmaster. Voldemort seeks to apply for the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts as he once had before but Dumbledore sees through his guise and confronts Voldemort on his intention to corrupt his would-be students for his sinister plans.

Harry applauded Dumbledore for his actions.

After being denied the position, a bitter Voldemort curses the teaching position so that no future teacher can fill the role for more than a year.

Before departing from Hogwarts, Voldemort seeks out the Room of Requirement and hides the Horcrux of Ravenclaw's diadem there, arrogantly convinced that no one apart from knows of the location of this room.


Voldemort's faction is public knowledge and they are branded as the Death Eaters. His rise to power begins with a number of strange disappearances of wizards in positions of power, which quickly grow to the point where tensions are high for Minister for Magic Eugenia Jenkins to curb the number of riots that break out.

Eugenia Jenkins is forced out of office by the public after it's clear she can do nothing to stop Voldemort's rise to power.

Albus Dumbledore has established the Order of the Phoenix to counter the Death Eaters but they have tasted little success. Voldemort has solidified his position as the next tyrant and there are a number of spies from either side who seek to pass information.

Severus Snape, a young Death Eater already in Voldemort's inner circle, manages to tail Dumbledore to the Hog's Head Inn where he interviews Sybill Trelawney for the position of Divination teacher. Trelawney ends up making a prophecy, one that predicts the birth of Voldemort's greatest enemy by the seventh month of next year to those who have defied him three times. The only ones who fit the description are Frank and Alice Longbottom and James and Lily Potter.

Harry almost had a panic attack when he heard that.

Snape only hears half of the prophecy before he is caught and ousted from the Hog's Head. Voldemort, feeling threatened, decides to target the child of the Potters due to his shared status as a half-blood he himself is.

Harry felt disgust at Snape. He begged to keep Lily alive, but didn't care about her husband and child? Did he think she would just fly into his arms when her love and her child dies?

Later that year, Dumbledore realizes there is a spy within the Order of the Phoenix itself and resolves to send the Potters into hiding. Their friend Sirius Black is named the Secret Keeper of their location.

What very little people knew was that Sirius Black decides to name Peter Pettigrew as the new Secret Keeper as he feels Voldemort's supporters are after him. However, Pettigrew turns out to be the spy for Voldemort and reveals the location of the Potters to his master.

Armed by this knowledge, Voldemort heads to Godric's Hollow and finds the house of the Potters.

Harry watched as James fought valiantly, but was struck down. After killing James, Voldemort heads toward baby Harry's room to find Lily pleading for his life.

Harry's heart felt like it was being torn directly from his chest when he saw this woman plead for the life of her child.

Having promised Severus Snape to spare Lily, Voldemort attempts to remove her by force but decides to kill her as well when she doesn't relent. Unfortunately for him, the moment he hits the baby with the killing curse, it rebounds on Voldemort himself due to the magical protection Lily made for her son through her sacrifice.

Harry looked at the floor and took notice of the runic circle on the floor. He realizes the ritual she used for that.

Tom glanced at it briefly before turning the page, but by then, Harry had learned he could pause the events he's been spectating. The ritual uses the life force of the caster to empower the protecting rune on the target.

Voldemort survives due to his horcruxes, but loses his body in the blast and is forced to flee, now little more than a ghost. Unbeknownst to him, the fragile nature of his soul rips apart a piece attaches itself to the baby, thereby turning him into another horcrux. Harry watched in shock as he saw this.

The child had a lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

When he heard the names of James and Lily Potter, he didn't dare assume that they were his parents, but looking down at the baby with the same scar as him, he know knew for sure that James and Lily were his parents, and they weren't drunks who died in an accident. They were powerful magicals who sacrificed their lives for him.

He was so entranced with that fact that he didn't notice his surroundings change. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He spent several decades without touching anything, so feeling someone place a hand on his shoulder was quite the shock.

He looked at the person who touched him and felt his heart leap to his throat.

"M-mum?" He managed to croak out.

"Hello, dear." Lily Potter said, her eyes teary.

"H-how?"

"The ritual I used. It takes my magic and life force and uses it to shield you. I haven't moved on, but stayed fighting off Voldemort's taint from harming you." She explained.

"Then what happened to me? Why did I spend all these years as a spectator? I watched his whole life unable to do anything." Harry asked.

"You were struck by lightning. Magical people assume they know just how powerful nature is, but they underestimate it nonetheless. When the bolt struck you, it destroyed the tainted soul piece, and merged it's purified magic with yours, bolstering it quite a bit. You watched Voldemort's life because I managed to rip that out before it completely vanished. That doesn't mean you'll grow into an evil Dark Lord murdering innocent people left and right, but you'll grow into the Grey Lord like the Potters of old." Lily expounded.

"Does… does this mean you're moving on?" Harry asked lowly. He is, for all intents and purposes, an adult, at least mentally. Standing in front of his mother has reverted him back into a small child yearning for a mother's love.

She gave him a small, sad smile. "I'm sorry dear. I've already stolen more time than I should've in the living world. I'm sorry that you were placed with my sister. Your father and I specifically stated in our will that you were better off in an orphanage before being with her."

"Do you know how I ended up there?"

"From what I saw, Dumbledore put you there, illegally I might add. Mcgonagall tried to tell him repeatedly that night not to leave you there, but in the end, like the loyal dog she is, she stood aside while he left you in the cold night." Lily frowned.

"This is just adding on my list of reasons not to trust him. He practically created the monster that was Voldemort. Hell, Riddle almost won the war because of Dumbledore's foolish stunners only rule." Harry shook his head.

"Keep him at arms length, Harry dear. You cannot trust him and his enabling ways. He is part of the reason British Wizarding Society is so behind the other countries. He wants to keep the status quo as is because, in his mind, he is the only one who can be trusted to lead. From my own research, I've found that he slowly began dumbing down the curriculum when he became headmaster." Lily explained.

"Really? I guess I'll see the difference for myself when I go."

Lily began to fade, and Harry held her as she did so. "I love you, Harry dear."

"I love you too, mum."

As she disappeared, Harry began to wake up.


1.) asterbar - a bastard

2.) chiv-man - a criminal apt to use a knife or razor as a weapon

3.) borarco - a drunkard

4.) nymph of the pave - a prostitute