Summary: AU. Neglect can do many things to a person. It can decide what emotions they feel, and what ones they do not. Determine whether their choices will be the right ones, or the wrong ones. Decide whether they will have a bright future, or a dark one. Yes, neglect can do a lot to a person. And when Lily and James neglected to silence their youngest son's screams, the result was apocalyptic.
Warnings: This story will contain child abuse, violence and gore, coarse language, and homicidal and suicidal thoughts and actions. This story will also eventually contain Dark!Evil!Harry. More may be added later. Currently rated T. I may raise it later, and tell me if you think it should be raised.
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing.
/'Parseltongue'/
"Emphasized words and spells"
"Normal speech"
The Results of Our Choices
Chapter One
It's Just the Beginning
Dusk was setting upon the vast acres of Godrics Hollow, bringing with it a light haze that clung low to the earth. The setting sun off in the distance provided just enough light so that the tops of the trees in the nearby forest were luminous, and cast long shadows upon the impressive grounds.
The day was October 31st, 1983. A family of four sat in a well furnished living room located on the first floor of the large, two-story house. The room was mostly decorated in different tones of red and gold, with random pictures and portraits hung up on the walls. A woman with deep auburn hair and brilliantly green eyes sat curled up next to a man with wild raven locks and glasses on top of a plush couch. Their sparkling eyes watched as two small figures ran happily around the room as they burned off the sugar-induced energy caused by large amounts of candy. Their happy and innocent laughter filled the room, bringing joy to their parents' hearts.
The woman moved her head slightly off of the man's shoulder and smiled as she caught his eye. Her features softened slightly as he smiled back, and she mouthed the words 'I love you'. His smile broadened as he mouthed back 'I know' and leaned down for a gentle kiss. It was interrupted though when a wail was heard from the other side of the room, coming from the oldest of the small boys. Lily, whose motherly instincts kicked in right away, jumped off of the couch and hurried over to her fallen boy.
"Jake! What's wrong, honey? Did you fall? Come on, tell mummy." His small head nodded forward a bit and the four-year-old pointed to his knee where a small scrape had formed. "Oh dear! Well we better get that cleaned up!" She bent down and wrapped her arms around the hazel-eyed child and lifted him up. She walked over to an unoccupied couch and set the boy down on top of it before removing her wand from its holster on her leg. "This wont hurt at all, okay honey?" Unfortunately for Lily, the spell did hurt a bit, and Jake was well aware of it, having gotten a number of scratches and bruises due to clumsy accidents. Jake started crying and squirming, trying to get away from the wand. Lily tried to quiet him down and convince him that it wouldn't hurt, but Jake refused to listen and started crying some more. Lily let out an irritated sigh and looked over at her husband. "A little help here, James?"
"Oh, right," James scooted out of his seat at the sound of his wife's irritated request. Lily was quite scary when she was angry, and he definitely didn't want to make her any more uptight. James quickly walked over to one of the toys lying forgotten on the floor and picked it up, then walked over to where his son and wife were on the couch and started trying to distract the fussing child.
While all this was going on a small three-year-old boy stood off to the side of the room, watching his Mummy and Daddy bustle around his older brother. He wasn't too worried about his brother though, because he was used to seeing the raven haired boy hurt. He was a very clumsy child and received an accidental injury at least twice a week since he gained the ability to walk, and this 'argument', if you can call it that, between his parents and Jake was frequently had when it came to healing his injuries.
Harry was the complete opposite of this. For a three-year-old, he was very graceful on his feet, hardly ever tripping or slipping. He never hit his head on any of the tables or lamps and never fell out of the trees he would climb in the backyard. He was even able to ride a two-wheeler bicycle that Lily insisted the boys had. When the rare occasion arose where he did get hurt, he barely even cried and never fussed when his mother fixed the injury.
Harry was becoming bored with waiting for his brother to be okay again. He still had lots of sugar in him and standing there doing nothing was not a good way to dissipate his energy. Harry decided that he would just play by himself until Jake stopped crying and could join him. The green-eyed boy walked over to his favourite toy that was lying carelessly beside the coffee table. It was a red, plush dragon that he had had for as long as he could remember. The dragon went practically everywhere with him and there was never a night where Harry fell asleep without his lovable dragon cuddled up in his small arms.
Just as Harry was reaching down to pick up the plush toy, he stopped. His little head flung up at the sound of an unfamiliar noise, an unfamiliar voice echoing throughout the room. Harry looked around quizzically to see where the voice was coming from, but the only other people in the room was his family, and they were busy trying to calm Jake down after successfully healing his scrape. Harry was becoming slightly apprehensive and bent down to pick up his dragon for comfort. The voice, wherever it was coming from, seemed to be getting louder and Harry could now distinguish words/'It'sss time…time to kill…time to dessstroy him…and hisss family… make the mudblood lover'sss ssscream…and beg for their worthlessss livesss…'/ The voice stopped and was replaced with laughter that was unlike any he had heard from his brother, Mummy, or Daddy. It was filled with no mirth or happiness, and it made the tiny toddler shiver.
Harry started walking towards his family, thinking that he should tell someone about the voice and wanting to be comforted and held by his Mummy so he wouldn't be scared anymore. He had almost reached them when the loudest noise Harry had ever heard started screeching throughout the house.
James jumped slightly when the alarm started blaring. Once his surprised mind comprehended just what the loud sound meant was happening, his face became a shade lighter and he quickly turned to his wife. "Lily! He's here! Voldemort's here! Take the boys and run upstairs. Use the floo in the bedroom and go straight to Hogwarts. Now!"
Lily hesitated for a second, not wanting to leave her husband to face that creature by himself. Seeing her hesitation, James leaned over and laid his lips atop hers. The kiss lasted for barely two seconds, but it was enough to communicate all the care and love that they had for each other. James pulled away and looked her straight in the eye. "I love you, and I'll be all right. Now take the boys and go!"
Lily nodded. "I love you too. Please be careful." Lily ran over to Jake and Harry and picked them up. She was just about to run up the stairs with the boys cradled safely against her chest when the front door burst open. Standing in the doorframe was a tall cloaked figure, with what appeared to be no face, but when it tilted its head in a certain mocking manor, red eyes became visible. Jake gave a small whimper at the loud sound of the door, but other than that the room was silent from temporary shock. The silence didn't last long though.
"Lily, go!" This snapped Lily out of her stupor quick enough, and she started at a fast pace towards the stairs.
A chilling laugh filled the room. "You think you can escape me, mudblood?" Right as she reached the bottom of the stairs, the cloaked figure raised his wand and pointed it at the middle of her back. "Think again. Somnium Diabolus!" A deep blue beam shot out of the tip of the wand and hit Lily dead-on. She let out a gasp of surprise before falling backwards and landing on her back. A scream ripped itself from her throat as her arms and legs started flailing all over the place. As quickly as it started, her movements ceased and the screaming stopped. She lay still on the floor, chest rising and falling gently with every breathe she took. It appeared that the woman was sleeping.
Harry and Jake, who had been stunned and considerably frightened during their mother's episode, ran over to were she lay and started shaking her with their little hands.
"Mummy! Mummy wake up! Pwease wake up Mummy!" Their pitiful pleas were futile though, as their silent mother did not arouse from her deep sleep.
James watched all of this happen with wide eyes. He feared the worst for his beloved, and was deeply relieved when he saw the slight heaving of her chest. Remembering the cause of the fall, James quickly spun around to face the man who had brought forth so much pain and anguish upon innumerable people and families.
"What have you done to her!" James' voice was full of fury.
"Oh, don't worry about her, Potter. She'll wake up with not even a scratch on her. Although I can't say how long that will last." Voldemort smirked.
"The aurors will know you're here by now, Riddle. You won't…" James was cut off by a whispered 'Silencio!'
"Tsk, tsk, Potter. You underestimate me. How unfortunate for you. Catena!" Chains shot from the end of the deadly stick and wrapped themselves around the wrists and ankles of the raven-haired man before flying backwards, dragging the man with it, and binding itself against a wall. "There will be time for fun later. But right now, you need to sleep. Somnium Diabolus!" Just as Lily had, a painful scream erupted from James' throat and his limbs started struggling against the binds before he fell still, chest rising and falling gently in sleep.
Another emotionless laugh erupted from the throat of the cloaked man as he slowly turned and faced the two children who were still huddled together over their mother, trying to wake her up. Harry looked up at the man who had hurt his Mummy and Daddy as he approached him and his brother. Harry was very frightened at that moment in time and all he wanted was for his Mummy to hold him and tell him everything was okay. But he had a strong feeling that that wasn't going to happen any time soon. In fact, as the man continued to advance upon him and Jake, something in the three-year-olds mind told him it wasn't going to happen ever again. And this made the child angry. This bad man had hurt his Mummy and Daddy and was going to try and hurt his brother too! He was hurting his family! He was preventing him from being with his family when they needed each other the most! And this made the child really mad.
Harry felt something within him. It slowly spread throughout his veins, reaching from his finger tips to the end of each hair upon his body. The green-eyed boy imagined that if the fire that danced atop the many candles throughout their home were to fill his veins without burning him, it would feel similar to what he was experiencing now. Harry felt his messy locks of hair rise from his forehead and float lazily around his head. He could feel his eyes darkening from their normal emerald colour to liquid ink and the blackness spreading so no white remained. He could feel himself smirk as he looked into those deadly red eyes with his own eyes that promised agony and destruction.
Voldemort watched as the child transformed into what could only be described as a demon with a body of a three-year-old. His apprehension rose as he felt the power the boy possessed increase to an alarming rate. The Dark Lord had come here to destroy the Potter child with a great amount of confidence under his belt that it would be the simplest thing to kill the small child. But as his blood red eyes met those pools of darkness a flicker of panic flashed through his head. He had a feeling that if he waited much longer, he would miss his chance to kill the boy. So, with much determination and confidence, the Dark Lord lifted his wand and pointed it directly at the powerful child and spoke the most deadly of the unforgivable curses; "Avada Kedavra!"
A jet of green light flew from the tip of the deadly wand and hurled toward the raven-haired boy, hitting him in the forehead. The boy let out a gasp and a cry was heard echoing through the room as the small child fell backwards. No movement was seen from the small body and a victorious smirk formed on the lips of the Dark Lord. He had won. No one would be able to stop his reign of power. Not anyone. But what did you expect when the savior of the light was a small child.
The Dark Lord felt his smirk swiftly slip away when he looked upon the boy who was previously lying deathly still on the ground, only to see him become engulfed in a sphere of eerie green light and the lithe body lifted off of the ground. Black scriptures that appeared to be written in a foreign, lost language swirled around the globe of light for mere moments before the sphere exploded. A powerful wind started up and magic surged around the room as the green light gathered into a powerful ball of energy and rushed towards the cloaked man, hitting him in the middle of his chest. Green light spread to every inch of his body before there was another explosion and the light became blinding.
A howl of pain was heard and as the blinding light dulled, what appeared to be a melting Dark Lord became visible. His flesh was slipping, melting away, exposing the muscle under his skin, which was also quickly dissolving away. Within moments, the only thing left standing was a cloaked skeleton, which was quickly blown to dust by the powerful winds still going strongly throughout the room.
A loud screech was heard and a beam of black energy erupted from the fallen cloak and quickly manifested itself into the form of what vaguely resembled the Dark Lords head. The head of energy turned its red eyes towards the now frightened three-year-old, who had watched the destruction of the Dark Lord's body in a terrified stupor. The head let out another screech and flew at a fast pace towards the stunned child. It flew through the boy, knocking him all the way across the room and into a wall. The black energy let out one more screech before flying away swiftly, leaving behind the remains of its body.
The house began to shake violently. Pictures started falling of walls and lamps toppled off of tables. The roof itself started to cave in, pieces of plaster falling in random spots. One piece fell directly on top of Jake, carving a bloody zigzag design into his small chest before the piece was blown away by the strong winds.
Harry saw this happen, but only felt a minor pang of worry for his brother. His head was too foggy to comprehend anything, really. Harry found that he was getting really tired and it felt like he was sick. He raised one of his small hands to cover his forehead to see if it was warm and when he pulled it away it was covered in what he recognized as blood. Harry started to panic. He was injured! And his Mummy wasn't awake to fix him! Harry had always been told it was important to heal a cut as soon as possible so it wouldn't get infected. With this in mind, the toddler placed his hand over the cut and thought of healing it, thought of what the smooth skin usually felt like and what he usually saw in the mirror. Harry felt a tingling sensation run through his fingers and into the cut a moment before the pain stopped. He ran a finger over it and felt nothing there. Harry was relieved.
The wind started to die down and the house stopped shaking a few moments later. The few pieces of debris that had been floating around in the air settled back down onto the floor and the house slowly stopped shaking. Harry was still considerably frightened over the events that took place moments beforehand, and he could feel fatigue creeping up on him. Harry moved his body slightly so he was lying on the floor. Through half lidded eyes he watched as a man with a long white beard and oddly coloured robes appeared in the doorway of their house and rushed over to his parents to revive them. Through half lidded eyes he watched as his parents and the old man ran over to his fallen brother and the old man bend down to study his brother's chest and declare something that made his parents cheer. Through half lidded eyes he watched as his parents swept Jake up into their arms and held on to him tightly, whispering things into his ear that made him giggle.
Through half lidded eyes he watched and waited for his parents to run over to him and engulf him into a tight hug and tell him everything was going to be okay, that the bad man was just a dream, that it was all just a bad dream. But it never happened. They never came.
A single crystal tear fell from emerald eyes before the tugging on his consciousness became too much, and the little boy surrendered to the darkness.
TBC…
A/N: There's the first chapter. I hope it wasn't to confusing with all the switching of POVs. Please leave a review and I will try to answer any questions you may have. No flames! Constructive criticism only.
Catena: Latin for chain. What this spell does is pretty obvious.
Somnium Diabolus: Latin for 'Dream Devil'. Puts someone into a deep sleep where their worst nightmares replay themselves and they can feel physical pain, though when they wale up they are unharmed.