Disclaimer: I do not own HP, all of this belongs to J.K. Rowling
AN: Hi everybody, i'm murph, a fanfiction writer (duh), and i've been reading fanfiction for a while now, and I feel that my understanding of how to write a story has improved to the point where I could trust myself to write one for myself.
Plot: So my idea for the plot of this fanfic is heavily influenced by A Cadmean Victory, Power Freedom and a French Flower, A Beautiful Lie and A Flower for the Soul.
If you haven't read any of the above, they all follow a fairly similar pattern, and while i'm not planning to copy any of the aforementioned stories, and if you haven't read any of them I definitely recommend them as they're nice long good quality reads, and NOT HAREM.
Anyways I will be taking inspiration from some of these fanfics, so if any parts of my fanfic look similar to those mentioned above, it's probably because it is. I will try my best to try to make my work as original as possible, but in case something does get through then as a second disclaimer a lot of my inspiration comes from these other incredible writers on this platform.
Pairings: The one confirmed pairing from the start is of course Harry/Fleur, if that wasn't abundantly clear already by the fics I mentioned as my inspiration already. All other pairings are still undecided, and will probably be decided later on into the fic as my plot and story starts to consolidate itself.
Updates: Honestly i'm not sure, i'm fairly new to all this, as well as fitting it into my regular schedule, but I would expect at least one new chapter absolute maximum in a month.
So without further ado, I present to you The Reaper!
Chapter 1
Harry woke up to a whine, akin to that of a microphone when fiddled with. Harry slowly opened his eyes in the darkness of the cupboard under the stairs which had been his home since he could remember. The stuffy air almost made him choke with revulsion, as did the prospect of another day in the nightmare the Dursleys called home.
The Dursleys were relatives of Harry's, horrible people who treated Harry like a servant, fit only to kiss the ground they walked upon. Harry wasn't sure why he had been placed with these horrible people, although his aunt Petunia let slip one night when she had indulged in too much wine that they had been forced to take him in after his parents had passed away in a car accident.
There was only one issue with this.
It was a lie.
Harry wasn't sure how or why he knew this to be the case, but something deep in his subconscious told him that it wasn't true.
As Harry pondered this trudging towards the kitchen his scar started to throb and hurt as the memory that tormented him daily came to the forefront of his thoughts.
Flashback
A loud bang sounds from down the hall, everything is blurry and Harry can't see what's happening.
'Stand aside foolish girl, you need not die.' A raspy voice sounded from ahead of Harry, he vaguely sees a black cloak before a wave of auburn obscures his vision.
'No!' A female voice shouts, pleading, 'Take me instead, not him!'
Harry doesn't know why but that voice is very familiar to him, and he felt as if he should know who it was, but no matter how much he concentrated he couldn't remember who this woman was.
'Then you leave me no choice.' The raspy voice responded.
'AVADA KEDAVRA!' The voice shouted, there was a bright flash of green, then a blinding white light.
End flashback
Harry shook his head as he was shaken out of his reverie by his piggish Uncle Vernon shouting at him from his room.
'Boy, bring us some food upstairs, I finally got that promotion I was looking forward to and I needed an excuse to open the good champagne!' He bellowed to Harry, who didn't respond and instead went to prepare breakfast for the oaf and his wife.
'If only I could find a way to leave this place' he mused to himself
After he had finished preparing the meals and brought them up on the breakfast tray, he carefully waited outside the door of their room and knocked on the door.
'Come in!' He heard Vernon respond from inside.
Harry tentatively opened the door and brought in the tray with the two trays of food for the piggish man and his wife. Harry then waited at the frame of the door to be dismissed, praying to whatever deity listening that the couple would ignore him so that he could find somewhere suitable to hide for the day.
At least that way I can find a nice spot to sleep and avoid Dudley, he's not too bright so the garden will probably do. Harry thought scathingly.
As Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia started digging into their meals, Vernon looked back up to see Harry standing there awkwardly waiting to be told what to do.
'Well boy, your 9th birthday is probably coming up soon, when is it again?' Vernon inquired offhandedly.
'It's the 31st of July sir.' Harry responded dutifully.
'Well boy you're becoming quite a nuisance with all that growing you've been doing, you barely fit in your room anymore, we're going to move you to the storage room upstairs down the hall from Dudley, you're to move in now and don't make any noise understood? Dudley needs his sleep if he wants to get big enough to join the rugby squad and I won't have you ruining his chances.' Vernon said as he started digging into his food again.
Harry nodded and turned around stiffly to leave the room, trying not to let his excitement show as he quickly made his way down the stairs to get his stuff from his cupboard under the stairs.
Harry couldn't believe his luck. An entire room! All to himself! Harry started fantasising about all of the things he could do in his new room, and the secrets that might be in there that he could spend time on.
I have to be careful, just one noise and they might change their minds. Harry's pulse quickened as he realised this and resolved tiptoed extra carefully to the room.
Harry took stock of what he had been provided with. The room was cramped, with a big wardrobe opposite of a small rusty bed with a mattress on it.
Still better than the cupboard. Harry mused to himself.
The room was completely bare apart from the two pieces of furniture, and Harry hurriedly moved his things from the cupboard under the stairs his new accommodations.
Harry relaxed in his bed, simply relaxing for what felt like the first time in his life, with enough space to stretch his legs. It was an incredible feeling.
The feeling of freedom. Harry thought to himself. I like it. He decided, the feeling of elation at not being boxed in like previously making him all the more nervous that this privilege could get revoked.
Over the next couple of weeks as his birthday got closer, Harry did everything he could to be on his best behaviour, he was not going to lose his newfound freedom just for forgetting uncle Vernon's morning coffee.
The night of Harry's birthday though, something strange happened.
Throughout the day his aunt Petunia had been looking at him in a way that Harry didn't know how to describe, he had never seen anybody look like that before.
His day had been unremarkable, nobody remembered it was his birthday, and Harry preferred it like that, it was a sacred day to him, one which would not be sullied by the inconsiderate and ignorant children at school, nor his horrible relatives who showed him no love.
It was 9:00 in the evening, and Harry was getting ready to go to bed, when he heard a soft knock on his door.
Slowly, making sure not to make the floorboards creak, Harry padded over to the door and opened it as silently as he could.
Harry blinked as he saw his aunt Petunia standing at the door, looking around furtively as if trying to avoid detection. She jumped slightly when she realised he had already opened the door.
'Erm, yes hello Harry, I have something for you here.' Petunia said with a sniff trying to regain her posture.
'I have something for you here, it belonged to your mother.' With that said, Petunia unceremoniously dropped a big trunk onto the ground and swiftly turned around and walked back to her room.
Harry stared at the trunk in wonder. After a few seconds he realised he shouldn't wait in the hall with the trunk out in case Dudley or Vernon saw it, and quickly dragged it in, almost tripping over himself in the process.
Harry fell to the ground with a loud 'Oof!', and looked at the trunk in wonder. It was as light as a feather, and as Harry tentatively picked it up, he saw a name engraved on metal next to the handle.
Property of Lily Evans
Harry looked at the name in shock. That's my mum's name. I never knew her surname. He thought to himself sadly. Just another mystery I'll have to figure out.
Harry figured that this couldn't be an ordinary suitcase, it had to be full of things, and even then it weighed too little to be an empty trunk.
Careful not to wake his relatives, Harry undid the clasps at the top of the trunk, slowly opening the lid.
Inside was an assortment of books, with names like advanced charms or potions for the practised potioneer, a big box which had potions supplies written on it.
But one special box called to Harry, as he looked at it, he saw it said Ollivander's finest wandmakers since 926AD.
It can't be, can it? Harry asked himself. No, this is too elaborate, this can't be just a prank.
As Harry slowly lifted the lid, he saw inside a beautiful wand, about the length of his forearm. It had beautiful swirling engravings all along it, and as Harry picked it up, he felt an unmistakable rush of power and warmth up his arm, as he felt it along all of his body.
Harry jumped back, Is this what I think it is? He thought to himself.
It made too much sense now, the memories, why Petunia lied to him, the trunk.
Harry chanced another quick glance into the trunk, and spotted a book titled A History of Wizarding Britain by Bathilda Bagshot.
Harry's face turned into one of grim determination. I will find out what I am. I owe it to my parents and myself to find out.
AN:
So, Chapter 1 is finished. I spent like 2 hrs just brainstorming and coming up with ideas and a general story and a couple of arks going forwards, just so I have a general idea and know what i'm doing.
If anybody has any recommendations or sees mistakes or things that needs to be better, I promise I will take a look, just send in a review.
I'll get the second chapter out as soon as possible, probably tomorrow or the day after, I have a lot of free time now but updates probably won't always be that frequent.
As for chapter length, I'm aiming for somewhere around 2000 to 4000 words per chapter, nothing crazy but still a substantial amount of text. This chapter specifically is a bit on the short side, but I wanted to get it done and the idea out there before seriously planning what happens next and how quickly I want to begin with the next two story arcs I have planned. Some of these arcs do overlap slightly, but for the most part this is a pretty linear story.
So yeah, until next time.
