Harry Potter and Yet another Tale of Misfortune

I've decided that it's better not to tell you a ton about the story upfront, but it will contain the following things: Powerful!Harry, a darkish!Harry (not essentially dark, but not really grey...), and a Harry and Voldemort mentor relationship. Lily and James are alive (This is a very What if?-y kind of fic)

Warnings: This is M by the FanFiction standards. There will be no sexually explicit content. Sorry? There will be lots innuendos, some harsher language, some violence, most of this in later chapters.

There aren't really any pairings, and if there are, they will probably be canon. Also, there may be references to homosexuality and homosexual relationships, so if that bothers you, do yourself a favor and don't read this. But this really isn't a romance.

Also, there really is no bashing of anyone in this story. Really, I know that at times it may seem like there is, but there really isn't. Every character has flaws and as the story is mostly seen through a rather cynical Harry's point of view, you see a lot more flaws then positive attributes, but everyone has good and bad days.

The first two years still revolve around the stone and the chamber, and there will be a Tri-Wizard tournament in year four, but otherwise this story is very much AU.

I also do appreciate reviews, so if you're the kind of person who likes to review, don't be shy.

Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters and concepts do not belong to me and for the most part belong to JK Rowling and company…

Chapter 1

"We'll see you over the holidays, dear. We'll miss you!" Lily Potter called to her son as she watched him hurry towards the train that would deliver him to Hogwarts for the first time.

"Don't forget to write us! I expect the results of all of the Quidditch matches and some reports of well earned detentions." James called after his son with a wink. Harry Potter looked back at his parents and gave a quick smile before stepping on to the train. Harry honestly couldn't care less about Quidditch and could not conceive himself ever pulling a marauder level prank as his father was envisioning. He hoped to avoid detentions. He hoped to avoid any sort of attention, good or bad, at all.

Harry walked down the train car looking for an empty compartment. It wasn't too difficult to find one, as he was actually one of the first students on the train. He had insisted that he arrive as early as possible in order to make sure that he didn't miss the train or couldn't find a seat. He hated to be late.

Harry had the worst of luck, and he knew that if they didn't leave an hour early there would be some sort of accident that would cause him to miss the train. But if he left and hour early there would be no problem and he'd have to awkwardly stand around with his parents for an hour while he waited for the train to show up. He had decided the second option would, although being miserable, would be less disruptive in the end.

Harry sat down against the window and stuck him head into a book. He wondered if anyone would try to join him. He hoped that no one would, but realized that it was impractical to expect to be able to hog an entire four seat compartment.

And as if answering his thoughts, sure enough a girl with bushy brown hair opened the compartment door and took a seat across from him in the compartment.

"Can I sit here?" She asked.

"You already are and the world hasn't yet ended." Harry sighed as he looked up from his book.

"Oh, what are you reading? Is it a book for school? I've already read all of my textbooks at least once; I've almost made it through all of them a second time." She said, clearly excited about finding a fellow bookworm. Harry thought about how he would inform her that he had no intentions of becoming her friend and spending afternoons in the library with her having clever debates over which fourth century wizard was most powerful.

"No, it's not for school." Harry said as he held to book back up to read it, hoping she would read the cover and drop the issue.

Harry was, however, notoriously unlucky, and should not have expected anything more than the chipper commentary on his reading selection that ensued.

"Warding the Wizard World," The girl read. "Oh, I've read about wards in Hogwarts: A History. Wards are really quite interesting. They're one of the older magic's, hard to master but almost every adult wizard can cast at least basic wards." The girl babbled. Harry nodded hoping the girl would decide to finish reading all of her school books for a second time instead of repeating what was virtually the first paragraph of the book he was reading. If was going to talk to anyone, he would at least request that they say something he didn't already know.

And then, with a rare stroke of luck, the girl thankfully did stop talking. But Harry realized that of course he was not as lucky as he had momentarily thought, because the only reason the girl had stopped talking was because the compartment door had been opened yet again.

"Have you seen a toad?" A boy asked standing at the compartment door.
"No, I haven't seen a toad in here? Have you lost one?" The girl asked.

Harry rolled his eyes. No, the boy just went around asking people if they had seen toads because he thought it was fun.

"Here he is, Neville." Harry said as he let the toad hop out of his hand and onto Neville's chest.

"Oh, Harry, I didn't see you there. Thanks for finding him." Neville carefully said before turning to leave.

"Wait," The girl said, grabbing Neville's arm. "Why don't you sit with us?" The girl commanded more than she asked. Neville glanced at Harry, who had returned to his book, skeptically, but nodded and sat down.

"My name's Hermione Granger." The girl stated not to either boy in particular.

"Neville Longbottom." Neville said with a shy smile.

Hermione turned to look at Harry expectantly. Harry felt her glare and sighed.

"Harry Potter." He offered without looking up.

"So how did you end up with Neville's toad, Harry? I didn't see it anywhere in the compartment."

Harry sighed and put down his book, realizing that any more effort to read it would be fruitless.

"I don't know. He must have hopped into the compartment behind Neville." Harry shrugged.

"But, I really think I would have noticed." Hermione stated, clearly not satisfied with the answer.

"Don't worry about it, Hermione." Neville said glancing at Harry. "All that matters is that I go him back." He reassured her, too afraid to tell the girl that if she wanted to know the answers to anything, Harry was probably not the person to ask. Harry always seemed to know everything, but didn't seem to like to share his knowledge.

"So, how do you know each other then?" Hermione asked as she looked from Harry to Neville.

"Family friends." Harry said quickly.

"Yeah." Neville agreed, not willing to elaborate any more than Harry was.

"Oh, I see. I wish I already knew some people at Hogwarts." Hermione said wistfully.

"Muggleborn?" Harry asked, looking for confirmation to his assumption so he could get back to his book.

"Yeah, my parents are dentists. They were terribly surprised to learn that I'm a witch. I used to just think I'd like to be a doctor or an English teacher when I grew up. I wanted to be princess once when I was five after reading a fairytale book, but I never dreamed of being a wizard."

Harry and Neville nodded and much to Harry's delight the compartment fell into silence. He picked up his book again and read all the way to Hogwarts, ignoring Hermione and Neville's eventually awkwardly picked up conversation about jobs in the wizard world.

Harry stood in the in before the entrance to the great hall. Hermione stood at his side babbling about the school as Neville scoured the floor for his toad, that he had once again lost. Harry had no interest in helping him find it this time. Neville must have found his toad, because he leaped forwards, nearly onto Professor McGonagall, who had just arrived to introduce the sorting process. McGonagall raised her eyebrows at Neville and he grabbed his toad and scurried backwards before she introduced herself to the first years and led them into the hall to be sorted.

Harry didn't care too much about what house he was sorted into. Gryffindor would be easiest because it was what was expected or him, as both his parents were Gryffindors. But being a Ravenclaw or a Hufflepuff would also be just fine. He honestly wouldn't mind Slytherin, but it might cause a bit of a stir with his parents. But he doubted that any house would truly have a profound effect on his Hogwarts career, so where ever seemed fine.

Harry patiently watched the sorting, noting that Hermione and Neville were both sorted into Gryffindor. Maybe Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw would be better after all.

"Potter, Harry." Was finally called and Harry took a seat on the stool and waited for the hat to make a decision.

"Hm," The hat hummed at him. "You don't like attention I see." The hat stated inside Harry's mind.

"No, I don't. " Harry thought back.

"Well, you can be invisible in any house if you so choose to be. But with your potential I can't see you not gaining notoriety."

Harry just sighed.

"Alright then, don't throw a fit." The hat huffed as well as a hat could. "Well, you don't seem to have an excess of any of the qualities for any of the houses, so I guess I'll just have to put you where you'll be able to most successfully grow, based on your ability and your desire for isolation, it better be—"

"Slytherin!" The hat yelled aloud.

Harry took in his sorting for a moment before jumping down from the stool and going to sit at the Slytherin table.

Yes, Slytherin would be best, he decided. His parents would be a bit concerned, but they would soon get over it. He would probably be shunned by most of the Slytherins for being too light, which would mean he wouldn't have to worry about rejecting any friendships. Plus, Snape wouldn't be able to give him detentions that he didn't deserve simply for being his father's son as he was in the man's own house. He had been worried that he would be subject to particularly exceptional levels of passive cruelty at the hand of Severus Snape once he got to Hogwarts, even since the first inexplicably vicious run in with the man in Diagon Alley many years ago.

Harry hadn't the faintest clue how the man had managed to get a post as a teacher at Hogwarts, none the less a head of house position, as a Death Eater. But somehow over the years Voldemort must have decided to allow for the use of glamour charms on the dark marks, because men like Snape and Lucius Malfoy managed to remain prominent and powerful in Wizard society.

It had taken a while to get the story out of his parents as to why Snape hated Harry so much, but eventually he learned that apparently he was subjected to the wrath of a Death Eater because his father and godfathers used to bully Snape. This made Harry a little angry, that neither man could ever manage to act respectable, with his father pulling childish pranks on Snape through his entire time at Hogwarts and with Snape continuing the game despite approaching middle age.

But now Snape would probably only grudgingly ignore him, instead of taking out years of name calling and pranks out on the son of his tormentors. Yes, Slytherin house would do just fine, Harry resolved as he loaded some food onto his plate. However, before he could even take a single bite, his isolation was interrupted by a blond haired boy.

"Harry Potter in Slytherin, I sooner thought I'd see Longbottom cast a basilisk patronus than see a Potter in Slytherin." Draco Malfoy spat.

"Well, I guess you aren't as omnipotent as you thought." Harry said dryly before placing a potato in his mouth and chewing slowly, eying the Malfoy. Harry had seen Malfoy on multiple occasions throughout his childhood and knew a fair amount about him, but he had never really actually talked to the boy before.

"Really though, I must know what was going through that hat's clearly confused enchanted mind when it decided to put you in Slytherin."

"Something about my potential." Harry said, deciding it would be best to defend his honor. He didn't need to make friends amongst the Slytherins, but he certainly didn't need to make enemies, at least not the kind that would seek him out to torment him often.

"Potential to do what? You're practically a squib!" Malfoy scoffed.

Harry was actually far from a squib, but didn't mind the rumors that his magic had developed late and barely. Just because he hadn't decided to show his parents that he could do magic until about a year ago, did not mean that that was his first bit of accidental magic.

Harry had never actually had any accidental magic incidents, as far as he could remember. He had always had control over his magic. Since he could read he had taken a basic spell book up to his room and had begun practicing. He didn't even realize that wandless magic, at least with intention, was not something children were supposed to be able to do. He had not seen a point at informing his parents of his magical ability until they reached their breaking point of worry that he was in fact a squib about a year ago. His parents knowing any sooner hadn't mattered to him though, as it would not have gotten him a wand and the right to use it any sooner. And since Harry had gotten a wand a few weeks ago, a twelve inch mahogany wand with a dragon heart string, he had not felt any more empowered.

But Harry decided that it would probably do him good to give Malfoy a taste of his power to get the other boy to leave him alone. Putting down his fork, a salt shaker flew across the table and into his hand. He began to salt his potatoes while Draco stared in awe at the same bit of magic that Harry had used to find Neville's toad earlier.

Malfoy opened his mouth to say something, but quickly realized that he couldn't summon things, none the less do so non verbally without a wand, and realized that it would be best to ignore Potter's skill rather than admit it. Harry gave a small grin in his victory as Draco turned away to talk to Blaise Zabini, and he stuck another potato in his mouth satisfied that his time at Hogwarts would be completely distraction free.

The next morning Harry discovered that it turned out that the first class of his first full day at Hogwarts would be potions. Harry cursed his luck. After some more thought on the situation last night, Harry had determined that just because he was one of Snape's 'snakes' did not mean that the man wouldn't still make life a little bit harder for Harry than it needed to be. And, although Harry had mastered most of the curriculum up through the third year in most subjects, Harry simply did not have much practice in potions. He had seen him mother make some more basic medicinal or household potions over the years, having a few opportunities to practicing dicing and mincing. He had also read several books on the art of potions. However, he had never before had he been given the opportunity to brew a potion on his own. Granted, neither had Hermione or any other Muggleborn in his potions class, and probably many students with magical families also, but with his luck, he would be naturally terrible at potions. And although Snape couldn't scream at him and show disloyalty to his house, he could quietly fail Harry.

Harry was disrupted from his musings as Snape charged into the classroom, robes billowing menacingly behind him. The man snarled some rehearsed threat disguised as an introduction, but Harry didn't really care to indulge in the man's games by actually listening. He opened the textbook to the page he was eventually instructed to turn to and began the reading.

It turned out that he did have a little bit of luck that day, as they spent the rest of the class reading in silence while Snape glared at them from his seat at his desk in the front of the room, instead of having to actually brew a potion or even as much as interact with anyone.

The second class that day was Defense against the Dark Arts. Harry was glad for this, as he was expecting it to be his favorite class. It would be nice to be able to have a reward after suffering through potions every day.

"I am professor Quirrell, your Defense against the Dark Arts teacher." The man said in a voice that was rather quiet for a professor. "Today we will begin work on the Knockback Jinx. We will start with some theory behind it in the lessons this week, but next week we will move on to practicing it." From that point Quirrell began his lecture. Harry jotted down a few dates and names, but didn't bother taking thorough notes. He had mastered that spell when he was seven, wandlessly none the less.

Harry was disappointed in the chosen professor and the curriculum of the class. If this class couldn't even keep him at least slightly interested, then there was no hope at any other class holding his attention.

In retrospect, he wasn't entirely sure what he had been expecting in a first year Defense class that would keep him entertained curriculum wise. But he had been at least hoping for a professor that was a little more passionate about the position, not some Muggle studies teacher how had been coerced by Dumbledore into taking the cursed position so he could easily get someone to take the much more popular position last year after there had been some sort of mysterious incident that no one seemed to be able to say anything about with the last professor.

But he really almost rather of had Snape in the position. Maybe he would at least be a brave enough dark wizard to sneak some darker magic into the curriculum for his snakes. The general consensus seemed to be that Quirrell also had ties to Voldemort, but upon meeting the man he doubted the man was inner circle like Snape was rumored to be. Quirrell was much too cowardly, and on top of, as Harry could tell, that the man was not very powerful.

But instead he was stuck skimming a page of theory of a knockback jinx.

The week went on and Harry quickly discovered that this was going to be a very boring year for him. He spent most of his time in the library, reading both books that he was allowed to and ones that he had taken from the restricted section, desperately trying to keep learning things. He found a classroom on the third floor that went completely unused and would practice nightly; using the invisibility cloak his father had sent with him to stay out later than he should have. The rest of the Slytherin's left Harry alone, thankfully it turned out Snape had very few reasons to fail him, thankfully, and Harry had remained virtually anonymous.

Nearly two weeks into the school year his parents finally sent him a letter responding to the news that he was in Slytherin. The letter said that they were proud of him and stated that they had always known that Harry would go on to do great things no matter which house he was put in. Harry knew that that meant that expected so little of him that they did not expect him to be powerful enough to be recruited by the Voldemort. He knew his parents were just trying to say the right thing, and their disappointment in him did bother him a little bit. But he was in Slytherin, and Slytherins don't care what non Slytherins think about them, so he decided that he should embrace his house in that sense.

But he had at least hoped that his parents would of remembered that powerful people were sorted into Slytherin. But his was sure that if they had made that connection, they had not been reassured that their son was not practically a squib for more than a moment, because they could only focus on the fact that powerful dark wizards came from Slytherin. Powerful light wizards came from Gryffindor. And apparently they didn't have enough faith in him to know that even if his magic did turn out to be dark, which he wasn't sure about to begin with, it was still how you used the power, not whether you had an easier time casting unforgivables or patronuses.

And didn't expect his parents to understand, and so he didn't actually mind everyone thinking that he was weak. It was easier that way.

He had pretended to struggle with the Knockback jinx in defense class until half the class had already gotten it. Of course, Malfoy then decided that the salt shaker summoning had been a fluke because of this and decided to pick back up on teasing Harry. However, before Draco had managed to get out his second mocking comment on afternoon in defense, he found his wand lying on the other side of the room. Draco gasped at the non verbal disarming charm and scurried away to pick up his wand. He didn't talk to Harry again after that point.

Everyone left him alone, and Harry couldn't be more pleased. No one knew that he could probably already pass his OWL's in a few subjects and was already beginning a couple NEWT's level defense spells in his free time in the third floor classroom that he had actually managed to ward so he could use it in peace. Granted, the ward would confuse students and send them the back down the hall to the stairs to the second floor and notify him of anyone that passed, but for anyone who knew how to recognize wards, it would only notify him as they took it down, which any adult wizard would have easily been able to do. But at least after a few tries and book from the restricted section he had managed to remove his magical signature from the ward, and he would have plenty of time to get under his invisibility cloak so no one would ever be able to trace Harry back to that classroom if he was discovered.

He had his own space and no one besides Malfoy, Neville, Granger, and unfortunately a few Weasley's even really knew who Harry Potter was. It was all Harry could have asked for, and he was beginning to believe his luck had changed.

But of course, it really would be silly to assume that Harry Potter would manage to remain an unknown for long.

A/N: No prophecy means that Snape probably would have never become a spy and joined the order since Lily was never threatened, and he would have never had a reason to feel remorse. So he's still a Death Eater. To elaborate on my reasoning as to why he, and also Quirrell, are teaching at Hogwarts then: Voldemort would love to have spies inside Hogwarts close to Dumbledore and Dumbledore would love to have death eaters under his thumb at Hogwarts. And plus with the state of the Wizarding world right now as I implied, although men like Snape's and Lucius' ties to Voldemort are well known, they are ignored by the ministry.

And also if you haven't guessed yet the war never really ended, as Voldemort was not defeated by trying to kill Harry. Something did happen that caused the war to become a little more of a cold war and decrease in violence and terror and other such atrocities, but you'll find out about that later.

Up Next: Brooms and trolls in the dungeons. I promise you this will pick up. I've already written all of first year and it's actually way more action packed than I expected it to be.