Harry Potter's life had been a living hell. He knew from early on that Ron was only interested in his fame, that Hermione was only interested in studying him as a survivor of the killing curse, that Albus Dumbledore was a manipulative man trying constantly testing him with his little schemes and plots and that Severus Snape decided that little Harry was the bane of his existence.

What all these schemers did not know was that the mild mannered and boy was hiding a calculating and patient schemer. No, he had avoided Slytherin not because of the obvious setup Dumbledore used, with the young Weasley, just happening to be his first anchor for information in the wizarding world, sprouting anti-Slytherin ideas just as fast as the Death Eaters sprouted anti-muggle propaganda. He had avoided Slytherin because that would have marked him as an even bigger target.

Every time Harry was beaten by Dudley when he was little, he had reminded himself that he would never resort to such feeble brutality, that he would always scheme in the shadows, acting with elegance and grace. For the moment he had broken free of the bindings that Dumbledore had put on him during the summer between his second and third year, he had saw to Vernon's next great adventure. It was also circumstantial that Dudley and Petunia suddenly gave the boy a wide berth with his magic unbound.

Harry Potter could have acted prior. He first discovered magic when after a particularly harsh beating he had recovered over the course of one night when any normal person would have had to go under months of intensive care to have a hope of recovery. When the Dursley didn't bat an eye at the fact he was able to cook breakfast for them next morning, little Harry knew he had special powers and that the Dursleys were scared of him.

The next time Dudley and his gang tried to corner him in the playground, he had outrun them before willing himself to be far away in his safe spot in the park, and behold, he had discovered apparition at the age of seven. He had willed his appearance to change after Petunia shaved his head for leaving school, and beatings ensued when it grew back the next day. From that moment on, Harry took on their punishment with bated breath, always carefully developing his powers in secret.

By the time he was introduced to the wizarding world at age eleven by Hagrid, Harry Potter was already a fierce combatant, unversed in the traditional magics but deadly with his own fighting style of self taught magics.

In the first year, he had reluctantly took the bait of Dumbledore and Quirrell, killing the latter and acquiring the philosopher's stone. However if one thought he would part ways with such a tool they were a fool, and the one he handed Dumbledore was nothing but a faux. When he received the invisibility cloak he quickly deduced that no ordinary invisibility cloak could have withstood the test of time in such a manner, and figured out that Dumbledore had the elder wand while he was unsure of the resurrection stone.

In the second year, he had dutifully slain the basilisk with the help of Fawkes, after Ron deliberately caused a cave in with Lockhart to separate the two. Of course after the deed was done Harry had obliviated Ginny and Ron, Lockhart helpfully having obliviated himself, such that no one would know the location of the chamber of secrets. Having learnt about Tom Marvolo Riddle and horcruxes had been a boon for Harry, not to mention the supply of potion ingredients he had been able to dissect the basilisk corpse into. He had further investigated the chamber and found that the study of Salazar Slytherin, reading into the man's journals and learning vastly about the history of Hogwarts as well as in magic. There being a portrait of Slytherin also helped immensely, provided some sarcastic snips and a second opinion.

In the third year, he had saved Buckbeat with Hermione. He had managed to get a time turner after all his efforts, giving Mcgonagall a fake after he convinced Hermione to show it to him right before she returned it to her. Sirius had been saved, and though Harry couldn't possibly care for a man who put his vengeance before the life of young Harry, he had played his part as the loving godson, managing to subtly convince Black to give Harry the considerable wealth of the Blacks seeing as he did not need it.

In the fourth year, Harry was surprised by his entry into the tournament, though unsurprised when the four houses provided a united front, making him a pariah in Hogwarts, and sealing his determination to get out of this time as soon as possible. He had been minimally saddened by the death of Cedric Diggory, having given the boy the cup after suspecting a trap by Voldemort. The boy had eagerly accepted, thinking Harry was crazy for surrendering the opportunity. Voldemort had returned the boy's mangled corpse the next day in an open coffin in Hogsmeade, though Harry scoffed when most of the wizarding world refused to believe that the dark lord had in fact returned. His entry into the tournament also made him an adult, giving him access to his family vaults. He had hastily withdrew all the artifacts within the vaults to a new, larger and more secure trunk along with the rest of his possessions. He had also withdrew several hundred thousand galleons, most of his family fortune, without the goblin's knowledge of course. He was thankful that the goblins did not check on the contents of the family vaults. The goblins offered no interest and actually charged a fee for using the vaults, so Harry had been tempted to close the account and move it all into muggle banks, but he didn't want to alert the others and instead left around ten thousand galleons worth of coins sitting idly in the vault.

In his fifth year, professor Umbridge had been relentless in targeting his 'friends', and he generally kept a low head, using the same bated breath he kept with the Dursleys. He had refused to lead Dumbledore's Army, but kept up to date with their progress after they were led by Hermione and stepped in to teach once in a while. He had a blinding vision of Sirius Black, but did not fall for the trap, not caring for Sirius anyways. Strangely, Harry found that he was assimilating additional knowledge, and realized that Voldemort had grown careless and his mind was unstable from the soul splitting, making it vulnerable and causing it to leak all his knowledge to Harry. Harry wondered through the immense dark arts intellect that the dark lord had, and immediately picking up on occlumency and legilimency, constructing formidable mind defences and practicing on his unsuspecting classmates.

In his sixth year, professor Dumbledore finally died at the hands of one Draco Malfoy. Having watched the ordeal, Harry then proceeded to kill Draco and his two friends before picking up the elder wand, realizing that he was now the master of two deathly hallows. Using his knowledge and magic, he searched high and low in the headmaster's office, coming a small golden snitch trinket which contained the resurrection stone. His plan complete, he was disappointed that there was no apparent benefit of being 'master of death', but regardless kept the three united hallows in his trunk alongside the philosopher's stone. Having researched into time travel spells and read many a journal purchased anonymously from Knockturn Alley, combined with the insights of Salazar Slytherin and much of his own hard work, he had managed to figure out a time travelling ritual. Of course Slytherin managed to convince him to go to the time of the founding of Hogwarts.

But this was all while he continued the elusive hunt for the horcruxes. Just because he disliked the light didn't mean that he would forgive Voldemort for leaving him an orphan. It was a shame having to destroy the locket and the diadem, even with Salazar's blessing, calling the items 'tainted and forever ruined'. When Voldemort was finally mortal, he had lured the fool to attack Hogwarts, and at the tender age of twenty five, having trained for years. While he had gone on his hunt his foolish 'friends' had gone on the back heel, allowing Voldemort to expand his death eater ranks into the thousands by recruiting in France, Germany, the Nordic countries, Italy, Spain, even into the middle east and Russia. He paid little attention to this, the extent of his concerns being the location of the death eater headquarters, which was not very inconspicuous, with knockturn alley being razed to make way for a palace of grand proportions. Breaking in had been the simple matter of killing a low level death eater and adorning the robes, their security was even worse than the ministry of magic they toppled.

The final duel had been easily dominated by Harry. It was not a romantic tale of the underdog fighting to the end and suddenly getting a lucky shot after all the resilience and pain endured. It was a simply a slaughter, of Harry, having gained all of Riddle's knowledge and plans, building on top and advancing even further, progressing to new heights while the dark lord remained complacent, having thought the chosen one had merely gone into hiding and scurried away. Harry had trained for years under Salazar's guidance, and Voldemort's age had shown, with him unable to continue casting the unforgivables after his magic was almost completely drained in mere minutes. Defeating Voldemort, magic had gifted him the magic from all of the marked death eaters, easily bolstering his magical core to unimaginable proportions. The size of his core compared to that of Albus Dumbledore would be like comparing a maggot to the size of the moon.

The prophecy fulfilled and standing triumphant in the ruins of the magical communities of Europe, American expeditionary mages kept order in the streets, the ministries of the various countries save for the resilient Germans having long fallen to Voldemort's power, be it through direct invasion or through the work of spies. He suspected that in the power vacuum another dark lord would rise, or perhaps they would fight themselves into oblivion. The unmarked, Voldemort's group of unmarked followers, would all be scrambling for power mere moments after their lord's defeat.

Among the ruins of Hogwarts, Harry cleared a path towards the second floor girls bathroom, still standing as a testament to the endurance of the castle. He restocked on food and went to the chamber one last time on the eve of his twentieth sixth birthday.

"Are you sure you want to do this, my heir? I cannot guarantee the sanity of myself. I made this portrait during the founding of Hogwarts, and I suspect I might have gone insane if my followers are making abominations such as horcruxes. Are you certain that I invented them?"

"You perfected them, no doubt. If it makes you feel any better the Egyptians did it nearly a millennium before you, though your journals leave little doubt that you did in fact create the first modern horcrux." The portrait signed lamentably.

"It seems that even a portrait can learn so much, for I have learnt just as much watching you grow. It breaks my heart that Hogwarts would become such a corrupted place, where we've moulded society into bigotry and division. It truly amazes me to learn that muggles have surpassed us in so many ways, I find myself in awe of them. Perhaps if you meet myself you could try and steer me in the right path. Do me one favor, and find my son. The lost journal you showed me makes me shudder. I am sorry I cannot tell you when I made the horcrux, but I pray you not to let me and my son get away with such horrors of nature."

"I will do my best, but you know that I for one do not manipulate my friends. Your path is your own, and I can only offer to guide you, just as you only ever guided me, never commanding me or forcing me to take a certain path, portrait or not."

The portrait smiled sadly as Ameon pulled out his prepared trunk, shrinking it until it was the size of a biscuit. He put it in his mouth, trying to ignore it as he laid back in a well prepared heptagonal ritual circle, laying down as he began a long incantation. Soon his world faded into black, and Harry Potter of his timeline ceased to be.