A/N: This is a rewrite of "The Brother I Always Wanted". Originally I was going to continue where I left off but I didn't quite like what I saw. So here it is. If you feel that there is any bashing, inconsistency or something that doesn't make sense, I did it on purpose. Do note the title of this story. This also is not an incest story. The focus is on the relationship that he has with his family. The next update will come in a few days, most likely weekend. Hopefully with this fresh start I can entertain you with a good story. Enjoy.

Deceiving Appearances

By: Leseras

Chapter One: Too Bad Dumbledore

"I've got to go back, haven't I?"

"That is up to you."

"I've got a choice?"

"Oh yes." Dumbledore smiled at him. "We are in King's Cross, you say? I think that if you decided not to go back, you would be able to … let's say board a train."

"And where would it take me?"

"On" said Dumbledore simply.

Harry took a moment to consider his choices, because throughout his life he never had much opportunities to choose. Much of his life was set for him before he could even breathe. The death of his parents, his placement at the Dursleys…even his death. And thus he relished in the moment, for he could, for the first time in his life, choose for himself.

His choice was made. But he was sure that Dumbledore wouldn't like it.

Steeling his resolve, Harry turned towards the kindly old wizard and spoke softly, "I want to see my parents again, Professor. Will the train take me there?" His words had a profound effect on the genial headmaster. The kind expression that once adorned his aged face was morphed into a hideous expression of rage. Dumbledore strode forward and grabbed Harry by the shirt and shook him hard.

"Do not be foolish boy! It is your destiny to face Voldermort and DIE! Be courageous for once in your life!"

The bespectacled boy was somewhat shocked by his sudden change in demeanour, but shook it off quickly. Mustering all the strength his body could, he shoved the professor off.

"No! I've got a choice for once! I'm tired. I don't want to fight anymore! I just want to see my parents…"

Harry was cut off when a haunting laughter permeated the air. Both wizards froze in fear at the terrifying quality the voice possessed. A creeping darkness crawled across the ground at a rapid pace, leaving behind nothing but darkened floors as it passed them by. The once white King's Cross was stained a black of the darkest darkness.

The darkness stopped right before the duo and morphed into a hooded figure. Dumbledore's eyes widened in shock and quickly made to cast a spell at the intruder but found that he could not move.

"Foolish old man… you cannot best me in my realm," he turned towards Harry and chuckled again.

"Truly you are an amusing child. While your choice is not exactly right it is…different then what I would have expected. So you want to see your parents? Very well! I shall grant your wish! You shall take the place of one of your selves in an alternate world."

Harry didn't very much understand what was going on at the moment. All he got was that this man…thing was going to give him what he wanted for most of his life. Without thinking through it fully, the boy nodded his ascent.

"Very well, I knew you would accept. Now the Harry you are replacing is in a world where your parents are alive. That's the point no? Not to worry, he's already dead… so you won't be killing any innocents, though he's hardly innocent!"

The figure barked out a hollow laughter. With a wave of his hand, Harry was winked from existence, leaving only him and Dumbledore.

"Why don't you stop deceiving me with your appearance…Tommy Boy?"

The figure of Dumbledore warped and all that was left was a pale ghost, an even uglier and horrendous imitation of Voldermort. With a snap of his fingers, the ghost of Voldermort was dragged into the pits of hell, screaming for mercy all the way.

"Hmph…pesky Horcruxes."

When he opened his eyes he came across a familiar sight; the ceiling of the dorm room he had stayed in for the past seven years of his life. But that was where the similarities ended. For one thing, the velvety quilt he was sprawled on seemed strangely damp. A putrid stench assaulted his nostrils, and made him suppress the urge to vomit.

Harry squirmed around in discomfort and realized a stunning truth; his body had shrunk into that of an eleven year old. "Seems to be a side effect of the transfer…"

As he got up and turned towards the bed, the sight that greeted him made him cringe in horror. The entirety of it was soaked in crimson red blood. Many holes riddled its surface, allowing him to see that even the innards of the bed were stained with the red life liquid. This was different. Throughout the war, he had not truly seen death at its worst. The killing curse was deadly, but it was clean and thorough. There was no mess or gore, only death. Sirius' death had been rather anti-climactic as well, simply fading into oblivion.

"I think I'm gonna hurl." Thought Harry as he scanned the room for any clues as to what was going on. And there he saw it, on the bedside was a long blood stained rapier. The edge of it was dulled to the point of uselessness, as if it had been mishandled by an amateur and used with brute force as opposed to finesse.

"Is this what caused the scene before me?" He pondered as he held the blade closer to inspect. "But where is the body…unless…" Of course he had not forgotten what the hooded figure had said.

He's already dead.

"Did I replace the dead me? But who killed me?" Feeling a sense of caution, Harry drew his wand from his holster and stood at the ready, awaiting any threat that could do away with him. As an extra measure, he held the rapier in his left hand as well. After all, a sword had saved his life before. "Whoever did this to me would do this again if they saw me alive…I should ready myself before walking out the door."

As quietly as he could manage, Harry crept towards the dorm room door and leaned against it. He placed his ear on the surface and tried to scope out any threat that was present. Hearing nothing, he opened the door slowly with his left hand while he pointed the wand at the opening with his right hand. As the door swung open, he was greeted by a dimly lit common room. From the angle the light was coming from, it seemed that only the fireplace was lit ablaze.

"So whoever did this just gave away their location…probably think I'm dead." Deciding to err on the side of caution, he took the blade that he was holding and threw it near the couch in front of the fireplace in order to get some visuals on the target. There was a startled cry of surprise, followed by the scuffling of feet. But what he saw was not what he expected. A small girl, probably a first-year by the looks of it, had scampered across the floor and paused at the rapier. Her hair was a thick, dark red- just like Mom's – and it went past her shoulders, almost as if she had never got it cut. The robes she wore were dreadfully shabby as well, and they almost reminded him of the clothes the Dursleys used to hand him. All in all, she was a sweet looking girl, but she also presented a rather pitiful sight, something Harry could empathise with. At this point, she looked frenzied and almost terrified, green eyes darting around the room looking for the intruder.

"Wh-who's there?! I'll…I'll…"

"What…how…who….no way….but nobody else is here." Deciding that appearances could be deceiving, he pointed his wand at her and muttered, "Incarcerous." Thin cords shot from his wand that wound around her thin frame leaving the girl writhing on the floor, bound and gagged. Striding forward, he crouched before the girl. When she saw him, her eyes widened in shock and her struggle started to increase two fold. Sighing in dismay at having to man-handle a girl so young, Harry used his hand to pluck out the clothe that was stuffed in her mouth, only to receive a large bite wound on the appendage.

"Ow!" exclaimed Harry as he quickly pulled back. The girl was still struggling and muttering incoherently. Deciding that enough was enough, he spoke up. "Now can you explain what's going on? Why was I in a bed full of blood and where is everyone else?"

She seemed to pause, staring at him with an incredulous expression on her face before screaming at the top of her lungs. "EXPLAIN?! EXPLAIN?! Why don't you explain how you're alive?! How you're alive even though…" her voice trailed off, "I killed you…"

That gave him some pause. "This little girl killed me? Seriously?" And now that he was looking at her closely, she resembled a younger, malnourished Lily Potter. He decided to give her a chance to explain, since she was immobilized anyway. It's not like she could hurt him as she was.

"Killed me?"

"You were doing the usual…"

FLASHBACK

"Levicorpus!"

A girl, no older then eleven was hung in the air by an invisible force grasping on her ankle. She tilted her head slightly to catch eyes full of mirth and cruelty. Those emerald eyes, oh how she hated them. How many times would she have to suffer through this torment? She wasn't safe in her home or school. What did she do in her past life to receive this kind of karma?

"So 'ickle Sylvie, tell me what I should do to you this time?" taunted Harry. He started to wave his wand around, causing her body to spin in mid-air.

"You won't get away with this!" grounded out Sylvia. Harry raised a finger and started to wiggle it back and forth.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong. I always get away with things, for I am the boy who lived. And you are always wrong." Sneered Harry, "And tonight I reckon those idiots living at home are going to get my owl about what 'ickle Sylvie has done to poor Harry."

"Why won't you leave me alone?" Sylvia pleaded, "Is it not enough that you already have everything?" At this point, her eyes started to get moist with tears.

"Of course it isn't! Why am I doing this? Because I can!" said Harry as he whipped his arm to the side, slamming her headfirst into the wall. Sylvia's body crumpled into a heap, unconscious.

FLASHBACK

Sylvia had started to tear up as she recounted her story. Harry reached out to comfort her but before he could make contact, she jolted back and hissed angrily.

"Don't touch me! Don't you ever fucking lay your hands on me!"

In his attempt to placate the girl, Harry made a motion to signal that he would acquiesce with her demand.

"Sorry…sorry…why don't you tell me the rest?"

FLASHBACK

The trains would be leaving soon. Now was her chance. Everyone was returning from morning breakfast to pack before leaving and the dorms were empty. With a treacle tart in hand, his favourite desert, loathe as she was to know it, she crept into the boy's dorm and left it on his bed.

She watched as the boys in her year slowly left one by one and counted in her head how many were left. When her mental calculations indicated that Harry was the only person left in the room, she peeked into the door that was left ajar and found him fast asleep on the bed.

The potion had worked it seemed. He was fast asleep. And vulnerable.

With a tinge of hesitation, she drew the rapier she had hidden and ambled towards the bedside. She didn't know how long she stood there, simply contemplating whether she should do it.

Well he didn't hesitate at all when he tormented her.

And so she plunged the blade into his chest, watching with morbid fascination as red liquid oozed forth from the wound, staining his crumpled Gryffindor robes even redder then it was before. As if the very act of murder had freed her from her constraints, she continued to stab at the lifeless body wildly, screaming like a mad woman.

"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!" she would shout each time she pushed the rapier in. With a final grunt of exertion, she impaled him on the bed with the rapier and fell to the floor on her knees, tears leaking out of her tear ducts.

Slowly, she stumbled down the stairs onto the couch in front of the fireplace and sat there, crying the day away…at least that was until…"

FLASHBACK

"Until I found you?" questioned Harry. It seemed a pretty redundant thing to ask, seeing as he already knew the answer. She simply nodded in reply.

"How are you alive? I made sure you were dead! WHY WON'T YOU STAY DEAD!?" demanded Sylvia. In spite of the fact that thin cords were binding her movement, she was making a valiant effort to attack him by…however a tied up person attacks.

"That's the thing…" Harry scratched his head sheepishly, "I don't know."

"Why do yo-"

"I mean I can't even remember doing all those things to you. In fact I don't even know who you are. Why would I do all those things to you? I know my name, but who am I really?" questioned Harry. He knew who he was, and that hooded figure had sent him here. But he couldn't jolly well go around telling people he was from another dimension.

The amnesia excuse it is.

Her eyes bugged out of her sockets.

"You what?"

See you all in a few days. Hopefully this rewrite is better then the original.