Prologue
Disclaimer: Was Dumbledore discredited and killed by Harry? No? Well then it's likely that I don't own Harry Potter. Sad, isn't it...
Prologue
Harry James Potter. That name meant a lot to almost everyone in the wizarding world. He was to be their savior, their hero, and their sacrifice. There was only one thing that they didn't take into account when the young Potter child was left at his relatives by a manipulative old man: The after effects of the killing curse. The affect that it would leave on the young child's body that would change the way their entire world worked.
To put it into shorter terms: Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived, Defeater of the Dark Lord and son of Lily and James Potter, was mute.
For as long as Harry could remember he had been unable to form even the simplest of words and the smallest of sounds. At first his relatives had just thought him to be a well-mannered baby like all the other freaks. After all only a freak baby didn't make a sound when hungry or upset or even sad and hurt. Not like their precious Dudders! It wasn't until Harry turned five that they began to worry. They had been teaching Dudley a new word and the boy had been copying his cousin, following the form of his lips but not a sound came out. They wouldn't have paid it no never mind, however the boy had the most distressed look on his face that they had been forced to take him to the doctor.
Only to be told that his larynx was destroyed beyond repair with no obvious cause to the destruction.
In other words; the boy would never be able to speak as long as he lived. They hadn't been too distressed with the news until they had seen the doctors' bill for the boys' treatment. They were only glad that they had never given the man their names (having given fake ones just in case). This only gave them a few months to figure out if the cost for treatment was worth it. Finally, the Dursley's decided that they would pay it so that the 'freaks' couldn't accuse them of neglecting the boy's health.
Harry had been punished greatly for this. Oh, his Uncle never went too far, never so far as to nearly killing him but by age six, Harry had received a fair amount of broken bones and scars from his punishments.
It was during that time that Harry had met Tom. Tom Marvolo Riddle was his entire name and the madman who talked to him in his head claimed that he could do magic. Harry hadn't believed the odd voice until he realized that he had spoken to it. He could talk to the voice using his thoughts! The discovery had been miraculous! Never had six year old Harry been able to actually talk to a person. Nobody had thought to ever try.
It didn't take long to realize that this trick only worked with Tom. Tom himself was unhelpful in answering to why that was. He claimed that Harry would know in due time.
During his six years of life Harry had learned a lot of things on his own. Dudley had attended a pre-schooling program a year ago and Harry had used his school materials to teach himself how to read, write, draw, do maths and anything else a normal five year old did whenever he had the time to accomplish his lessons.
'You are a very bright boy, aren't you?'Tom mused. 'Now, if only you'd tell me your name.'
'What if I don't want you to know?'Harry narrowed his eyes. He may be only able to talk to Tom but that didn't mean the young six year old would tell him his name; or trusted the stranger in his head for that matter. From Tom's own stories Tom had every reason to abandon him and wish him dead. Harry did not want this. He did not want to lose his only source of human contact.
'Don't you trust me?' Tom almost sounded hurt but Harry wasn't going to be fooled. He knew for a fact that the older wizard didn't really care and was only curious. It was something that Harry had come to understand over his few years of life: nobody really cared, they were all only merely curious. It was a sad fact that even though Harry knew this he still wanted to believe that someone out there cared for him. That he could be loved and cherished just like Dudley.
A fools dream that he naively clung to with the desperation of an isolated child.
Tom chuckled. The little boy may have thought that Tom didn't know who he was, but he wasn't Lord Voldemort for his stupidity. No, Tom knew that the mute boy he spoke to was Harry Potter, the prophesized vanquisher of him. Yet, Tom wanted the boy to tell him himself. After all, Harry was a very interesting person...er, boy. It was sometimes hard to remember that he was talking to a six year old especially since the boy made a more interesting conversationalist than most of his followers; bested in intellect by a six year old. 'Oh the shame,' Tom snickered at the thought.
Harry absently wondered what was so funny that had caused Tom to lose his composure while he completed his chores. 'Oh well,' he thought. 'It can't be anything too important.'
There you have it! The Prologue revised! So the next chapter will be about Harry's Hogwarts years. I'm think about doing a separate story to go over Harry's childhood, how he met Tom and how he survived the Dursley's. Just that fun stuff.
Let me know if any of you would be interested in seeing this happen and I'll give it a go, yeah?
R&R please!
~MisteryMaiden~
