Title: A Darker Destiny

Author: Liz Skywalker

Author stats: See profile

Disclaimer: I wish I owned it.

Summery: What if Voldemort took Harry instead of trying to kill him?

A/N: I accept any and all comments. I have matches, I don't need the flames. Sorry it
took me so long to update. *kills Darth Real Life* On the other hand, I am insanely
happy that FF.N added "Voldemort" to its list of characters. Finally, I can have this story
under the right subcategories. :)

Comments:

Tara - no, and never. :)

gwendolyn-flight - not only did he need an heir, Harry is also a Parselmouth. The
significance of that fact will become apparent as the chapters go on.

Quoth the Raven and Bobcat Moran - I know absolutely nothing about Japanese. If either
of you could suggest new names for the Japanese school and for the Japanese exchange
student that are possible in the Japanese alphabet, I'd be grateful.

YouAgain - Thank you. Flattery will get you everywhere. :) (except maybe my watched users list) :Þ

Ariel - next chapter. :)



And, now, onto the continuing saga!

****

"What? Who said that?"


"He's a Death Eater!" The voice insisted. "I saw him!"


Harry shook his head. "Death Eaters wear hoods and masks. You can't see their
faces."


"I saw him! He came into my house, threatened my parents. A Death Eater on
watch called out his name in warning because we had called Aurors." A boy jumped on
his chair in anger and Harry finally saw who was challenging him. It looked like a first
year. Second year at the most. But he seemed adamant.


Harry's brow furrowed. Karkaroff was not usually sent on missions like that. "Are
we talking about the same Karkaroff? As far as I know, he's not a Death Eater. Of course,
the Death Eaters don't exactly hand out their membership lists."


"I'm talking about Ivan Karkaroff."


Harry smiled in relief. "My headmaster is Igor Karkaroff. Ivan is his cousin. He
used to teach Curses but he had to quit after he tried to administer Veritaserum to another
teacher. He's not quite all there in the head, if you know what I mean." The other teacher
had been named Alexandra Kolinsky and had been a spy for Dumbledore. Ivan Karkaroff
was one of Voldemort's agents. He had tried to force a confession. To avoid a scandal,
Voldemort had ordered Igor Karkaroff to pressure his cousin to quit. Both Karkaroffs
were Death Eaters. However, Igor was a bit of a coward. Harry was unable to see his old
Headmaster on a raid. Ivan, on the other hand, was a cunning leader. Harry had learned
much from him.


"Oh," the boy blushed scarlet and sat down. "Sorry," he mumbled.


"It's ok. Anyone can make that mistake. There are a lot of wizards with the same
name. I'm Harry Potter. And you are?"


"Dirk Appleson."


"Nice to meet you, Dirk. Although I would appreciate if you ask me first before
telling everyone that my Headmaster is a Death Eater."


Dirk blushed again and bobbed his head up and down. "Sorry."


"It's all right." Harry grinned at him. Dirk reminded him of the first years that
came into Durmstrang expecting to be the top guy without even trying. The little jerks
always had to be shot down. That pleasant duty had usually fallen to Harry. "Anyone else
you want to know if they're a Death Eater?"


"How about you, Mr. Potter?" An oily voice said from behind Harry.


Harry figured from his classmates' faces that there was a teacher standing behind
him. "I am not a Death Eater, sir."


"I'll be the judge of that." The teacher reached quickly and grabbed Harry's left
arm. Harry felt his robe sleeve being pushed back. The teacher hissed in surprise when he
saw Harry's bare arm. The teacher pressed what felt like the end of a wand and Harry
heard mumbling. He had to grit his teeth to keep from screaming. The teacher had
performed a Revealing Charm, a very powerful one at that. Powerful enough to dig down
to the bone to find a Dark Mark. One that Harry didn't sport. He could feel the tendrils of
the spell making their way through his arm. The only thing that kept him silent was the
knowledge that he didn't have the Dark Mark and that screaming would not help at all.
Finally the pain faded. Harry licked his lip tentatively and tasted blood.


"The Headmaster wants to see you, Mr. Potter." The teacher said, voice showing
his disappointment that the newest Gryffindor was not a Death Eater.


Harry stood and turned. To his complete lack of surprise, the teacher was Severus
Snape. "I'm no Death Eater," Harry hissed at him, eyes showing his anger. Snape was a
Death Eater. Why was he trying to reveal Harry as a Death Eater? What game was Snape
playing?


"I'll be the judge of that, boy. You have the aura of Voldemort about you."
Snape's long nose flared as if he could actually smell Voldemort on Harry.


"I'm not a Death Eater," Harry repeated, "and you're bluffing."


"The Headmaster is waiting." Snape semi-pushed Harry in the direction of the
office. Harry scowled and followed Snape out of the Great Hall and through the halls.


Before Snape gave the password to a large gargoyle, he turned to Harry.
"Remember. I'm watching you. Every move, every word, Potter," Snape spat the name
out in contempt.


Harry was tempted to tell Snape that the watching would be mutual, but
swallowed the impulse. "I am not guilty of anything."


"I wonder. If we found the brother of your wand and used it for force your wand
to regurgitate spells, how many life terms in Azkaban would you be sentenced to?"


"None," Harry hissed. The mention of his wand's brother put him ill at ease. His
wand shared cores with Voldemort's wand. What sort of game was this? Was Snape
under orders or was this on his own initiative? "I am not a Death Eater nor am I a
practitioner of the Dark Arts."


Snape snorted. "I doubt that. A Death Eater you may not be, but I don't doubt that
you are a spy."


"For whom?"


Snape gave him a look. "Don't be an idiot. That's one thing your father never
was." The way Snape said 'father' left Harry wondering if the teacher was talking about
Voldemort or James Potter.


"Then don't call me an idiot. I'd have to be one to walk into Hogwarts sporting
the Dark Mark."


"You may not be a Death Eater, but you are hiding something. Don't lie to me, I
saw your expression when you found out you were a Gryffindor."


Was that was this was all about? Did Snape know? Was he angry because he
thought that by being a Gryffindor, Harry was betraying their shared Lord? Better to
dissuade him now than later. "I was surprised. I didn't expect it. Durmstrang does not
exactly teach us to be goody-goodies."


"Durmstrang has produced more Dark wizards than any other school."


"Nice statistic. Know anymore?" Harry glared at Snape, his green eyes boring
into Snape's black ones. Snape finally yielded.


"Watch yourself, Potter." Snape turned, cloak flying. Harry spun out of the way
quickly. He wouldn't put it past Snape to put a hex on his cloak that would attack those
who touched it like some Durmstrang teachers did. Snape muttered something to the
gargoyle, which sprung open respectfully. Snape led Harry up a spiral staircase to the
opened door of the Headmaster's office.


"Thank you, Severus. That will be all." Snape glowered at Harry one last time
before exiting. Harry turned to the Headmaster. "Please sit down, Mr. Potter."


Harry glanced around the room before sitting down on a red cushioned chair
opposite the desk.


"I say, Mr. Potter, you gave us all a bit of a shock." Harry felt his anger growing.
How many people knew his identity? It was a carefully guarded secret, none at
Hogwarts, none at all, should know who he was. The only Hogwarts student who knew
was Draco and Draco was safe at Durmstrang. How did Dumbledore know? Harry
decided to play it slowly.


"How so, sir?"


"We had all thought that you were dead." Dead? Did something happen to the
Palace? That was impossible and besides, there would have been a public announcement
if the Aurors had succeeded in capturing Voldemort's Palace. So Dumbledore must be
talking about something else. Seeing Harry's confused look, no doubt, Dumbledore went
on, "The fire left no chances of survivors."


Oh. The Potters. He could have just said that straight out. Dumbledore didn't have
to scare Harry like that. He scowled and then changed his expression to one of
puzzlement. "I received a Hogwarts letter when I was eleven."


"Yes, until then we held some small hope that someone had sprinted you away
before Voldemort attacked. But when our best owl came back, letter gone, but with no
answer, we gave up hope and assumed that the owl was so tired from searching from you
that it had inadvertently dropped the letter. Your godfather went on a drunken binge, as I
recall."


This time the expression was sincere. "I have a godfather?" While Voldemort had
told Harry multiple times about how and why his parents had been killed, the Lord had
never mentioned any living relations. Harry had always assumed that he had none. "Do I
have any other relatives?"


"Yes. Your mother had a sister, who's married, with a child around your age."


His mother? "Muggles, sir?


Dumbledore's expression changed slightly but Harry could not decipher it. "Yes,
the Dursleys, your aunt Petunia, uncle Vernon, cousin Dudley are all Muggles." That
explained why Voldemort had never mentioned them. Muggles were non-persons,
beneath contempt, beneath notice. "Your godfather's name is Sirius Black. He works for
Aurors and Associates in their Dark Arts division."


Sirius Black. Harry tried to remember where he had heard that name before. Then
it clicked. Wormtail had mentioned it in passing as Padfoot's real name. Wormtail liked
to use his former-friends' nicknames when speaking of them. Lucius had commented
privately to Harry that it was a sign of weakness. Wormtail had joined Voldemort from
fear and was not to be trusted. But he was the only source of information on Harry's
parents and their lives so Harry used to talk to him for hours. He had stopped when he
grew older and lost interest in his real parents. Voldemort was the only father he needed.
"And no other relatives?" No one but an Auror and Muggles? No wonder Voldemort
hadn't mentioned them.


"None others. So we were very surprised when your name was listed as the
exchange student from Durmstrang."


Harry took that as a question as to why he had gone to Durmstrang instead of his
parents' alma mater. "I received two letters. I chose Durmstrang because it was closer."
Voldemort's Palace was hidden deep in Romania and Durmstrang lay on the
Romania/Bulgaria border, while Hogwarts was in England. Harry spoke English fluently
and without an accent, but Voldemort had always been careful that Harry could speak
both Romanian and Bulgarian as well. Bulgarian was spoken at Durmstrang among most
of the students while Romanian was useful in classes pertaining to the Dark Arts as many
of the ancient Dark Lords had been Romanian and had kept records only in that language.


"Who raised you, if you don't mind me asking?" Dumbledore had seemed to take
that as an invitation to pry. "And how did you get out in time?"


Harry took a deep breath and launched into his prepared explanation. "My parents
wanted to have a day for themselves, so they gave me to a Muggle neighbor for the day.
When she saw the house burning, she decided to raise me as her own. She lived a few
blocks over, so the Ministry must not have looked there. The woman went to live with
her sister some years later. An epidemic killed them both and I went to live with
woman's nephew, a Bulgarian wizard named Tom Appleby. When I got the two letters,
we decided on Durmstrang because it was closer. We never thought to reply to the
Hogwarts one that I was alive."


That seemed to amuse Dumbledore for some reason and he shuffled some papers
around on his desk. "Let's talk about your schedule. I spoke to Karkaroff and he
mentioned that you should not take Divination."


"I don't have the gift for it. He probably thought that it would be a waste of time."


"He suggested instead that you take Muggle Studies."


That son of a Banshee. Study about Muggles? Karkaroff would pay for that, pay
very dearly. "Sir?"


"I know, that course is not reciprocated at Durmstrang. That's what this exchange
program is all about: taking new and different classes, meeting new and different
people."


He was going to kill Karkaroff. "Yes, sir."


"The class meets twice a week during the time when the rest of your class will be
taking Divination. All but Hermione. She takes Arithmancy."


"Yes, sir."


"This year is a hands-on year in that class, you'll mostly be doing experiments. A
field trip might even be arranged."


Slowly. He was going to kill him slowly. By the Dark Arts, Karkaroff was going
to suffer. "That sounds great, sir."


"Your second elective is Care of Magical Creatures. You will be slightly ahead in
the class for the first semester as Karkaroff mentioned that Durmstrang's Care of Magical
Creatures class covers magical pets in First Year." Dumbledore shuffled some papers
around on his desk. "Other than that, your schedule is full. I understand that you've made
up the courses that are not reciprocated here."


"Yes, sir. I made them up over the summer."


"Your schedule will be given to you tomorrow. Your exchange at Durmstrang is a
Slytherin named Draco Malfoy. Karkaroff mentioned that the two of you were friends."


"Yes, sir. Draco and I exchanged letters when we found out that we would be
exchanging schools for the year. He told me about Hogwarts and I told him about
Durmstrang."


"That's all, really. But one thing, Harry," Dumbledore reached under his desk and
handed Harry a package. "This belonged to your father. He left it in my care before he
died. I'm sure he would have wanted you to have it."


Harry took the package. "What is it, sir?"


"Your father's Invisibility Cloak."


Dumbledore was giving him an invisibility cloak? How much misplaced trust did
Dumbledore have in his system? "Thank you, sir. I have so little that belonged to my
father." Did Dumbledore trust him because he was now a Gryffindor and not a dirty
Durmstrang student?


Dumbledore looked at him sadly. "Your father was a good friend. It was a terrible
tragedy that he was killed right before Voldemort ended his invasion into England. I trust
that you won't misuse it."


"No, sir."


****

End Notes: One of the reasons it took so long for me to update was that I'm trying to find
another story like this that I read the spring before GoF came out. An element that I want
to have in the next few chapters that has to do with Neville, I think I might be stealing it
from that story. So, I'm trying to find the story. It's about what if Voldemort took Harry.
The beginning of it, Voldemort kills the parents by saying "burn". A complete summery
of what I remember can be found at
http://www.fictionalley.org/fictionalleypark/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8411.

Anyone who can find me a link or remembers what the story was called, at least, has my
undying gratitude.



Also, if you want me to send to you when I have a new chapter up, please put your e-mail
address at the end of every new chapter. If not, I'll assume that you only want me to send
to you for the one time only.


As always, feedback is very appreciated. :)