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Death was only the beginning.
His body fell to the ground and the rebounding curse tore him from his body, and placed him in a scar upon the child’s forehead. He could still feel the agony of his main soul, screaming without a voice, clawing in desperation without hands.
The Dark Lord’s existence had become less than nothing. All he could do as a fractured piece of his soul, was remain where he was until he regained enough strength to be found. It was a miserable way of life, if he could call it that.
He could not move, he could not speak, he could only watch through the toddler’s eyes as Albus Dumbledore placed him on the doorstep of the boy’s relatives home, starting at the lighting shaped scar in suspicion.
The almost life at the Dursley residence, made him sometimes believe that he was actually in a sort of purgatory, and this was his punishment for all of his sins. Never had the orphanage been this bad. The boy’s muggle relatives ignored him most of the time, leaving him alone for hours on end. Often, the would “forget” to feed him in favor of giving their own son more food until he looked like a carnival balloon.
He could feel the pain in the boy, every pang of hunger, the ache in his bones as they struggled to grow, and the emotional distress when he needed someone to hold him. It was then, that he did everything he could to communicate with the boy.
In his dreams, he would give him images of far away places. The mountains he had visited when he was younger, the endless stars at night, the beauty of a waterfall in the middle of a forest, all the wonderful things the horcrux had visited in his lifetime, he shared with the boy.
The images would at least help the small child sleep and dream of something pleasant, rather than the nightmare of his old body, and demonic versions of his relatives. To the horcrux’s delight, he could feel the laughter in the small child as he flew over the sea and climbed the tallest of trees with him.
As he got older, the treatment only got worse. The boy was not allowed to eat or go to school unless all of the chores were done in the house that they asked of him. Luckily, Tom had found a way to communicate with him long before.
They shared thoughts, and the horcrux would teach him about everything he knew about magic, and the world so he wasn’t lacking in anything when he was actually able to go to school. Because of these lessons, Harry was actually the smartest student in the class. They quickly found out that if Harry actually proved his fact, then he would not be given any food anyway. The Dursleys did not like it that their nephew was smarter than their son.
“Do you have a name?” Harry had asked him one night inside his cupboard.
“No. Remnants of broken souls do not have names,” the Horcrux replied.
The letter, once it came, had been hidden inside their little cupboard for safe keeping. Before school, the horcrux had guided Harry into the wizarding world to acquire all he needed for the year. He had Harry stay in the leaky cauldron the night before the train departed, and it had been one of the best nights of the young boy’s life.
He got to sleep on a bed that was larger than he could have ever imagined, and although it wasn’t much, he ate as much food as he wanted without anyone glaring at him or threatening to take it away.
At Hogwarts, Harry was finally able to gain some friends that were not just in his head, he gained some muscle and weight from all the nutritious food the school had to offer, and got to go to class every week without the threat of him being forced to go without just because he didn’t finish his chores.
Both thought that life was finally looking up for the two of them, until Voldemort tried to kill them of course. Dumbledore said some nonsense about a “Mother’s Love” saving them, when in fact it was the horcrux, using both it’s and Harry’s magic, to create a barrier around them that destroyed whatever dare touch them. Since it left them both in a coma for about a week, the horcrux decided that it would have been foolish to try it again.
At the very end of the year, Harry tried to beg the professors of the school to let him live somewhere, anywhere else other than the Dursleys.
Dumbledore put his foot down. “They are your family, my boy. Asking things like this of other people is highly disrespectful and I will not hear of it again. The protection they provide against the Dark Lord is crucial, and right now it is your strongest defense against them.” Harry never tried asking for help after that.
But who would protect Harry from the Dursleys?
Years passed, and each time Harry returned to the “protection” of his relatives, their treatment got worse. When Harry would flinch at a sudden movement at school or panic because someone was speaking to loudly at him, they thought it was because of his yearly adventures. They thought his lack of appetite was due to the stress of school, and the wizarding world constantly putting him in the spotlight.
The summer before sixth year was when it finally came to an end. Sirius was dead, the ministry finally admitted that Harry had been right all along, the order of the phoenix was working overtime trying to repair the damage that had been done so far.
Still, Harry remained with his relatives.
Even when it was too late.
His uncle had become too violent. The order had threatened them one to many times, the misery on Harry’s face at the mention of this relatives had not gone unnoticed. A swing of his fist and a bottle over his head, left him unconscious. His uncle’s anger only increased as Harry could not move to fight back, or clean up the mess once his uncle was done.
Blow after blow left bruises, broken bones, and a punctured lung.
He was mercilessly dragged upstairs by his uncle and thrown into his room. Unknown to him, his aunt would be loudly complaining about the mess she now had to clean up because of his uncle’s violence.
Unconscious, the only salvation from the pain that Harry had was in his own head. Tom tried his best to wake him up. “Stay determined, it’s not over yet. Your friends will be here soon, they’ll help. You’ll see everything will be okay.”
“Show me the sea again,” Harry said softly. He was laying on his back in the blank whiteness of his mind. “Show me the sea…” The horcrux did as he was asked and the empty whiteness turned into a clam and endless ocean. Not a cloud was in the sky, so the reflection of the wondrous milky way was almost perfectly reflected in the water. “It’s so beautiful.” Harry smiled.
“It is. When this is all over, you can see it one day. You can take your broom and fly until you reach the next continent.” The horcrux promised him. “There are records set for that kind of thing, but I’ll sure you can break them if you wanted to.”
“That sounds nice,” Harry sighed. “Someday…” His eyes started to close and he slowly became transparent. “I wanted to make the world like this you know; as beautiful and peaceful. There is so much that “the boy who lived” could have done, and once everyone found out the truth there would be no one who would have stopped me.”
“You make it sound so easy,” The Horcrux felt tears falling down its face.
“It would be. Almost as easy as falling asleep,” Harry’s breathing slowed down until it was slow and even. The stars continued to twinkle in the sky and Harry’s form twinkled with them. His body faded leaving nothing but twinkling lights that floated up towards the night sky.
When the horcrux woke up, he was alone and in control of Harry’s body.
Harry had taught him so much during their short time together. Before, when he was still the Dark Lord, he would have immediately taken advantage of the situation and tried to kill all who opposed them in their sleep. But, he was not the same soul as the day he was torn apart.
Voldemort fell by his horcrux’s own hand a year later. The wizarding world rejoiced over Harry Potter, The Conqueror of the Dark Lord. They never knew that he was already dead. The horcrux could still feel the pull of Voldemort’s soul against his and knew that he did not have long.
The horcrux did everything he could to fix the wizarding world. With his new title, he was able to change everything with ease just as Harry had envisioned. Laws were set in place so that no child would ever fear going home to their families, magical or muggle. Schools were set in place so that no magical child or their muggle parents had to fear the wizarding world or their customs.
The Muggle studies curriculum evolved so that it was taught by someone who has lived among the muggles and could accurately describe their history so that wizarding raised children wouldn’t be as ignorant as their forefathers. Pureblood and muggleborn statuses eventually became nothing but names as both sides learned and became interested in each other’s cultures. Orphan children did not have to fear for their future as their lives became more precious than all the gold in the world.
The Horcrux did everything it could to fix and prepare the wizarding world for the future. But, as all things, his time had to run out eventually. Voldemort fought him each and every day for control of his body. Where the Horcrux would save lives, Voldemort would control and dominate them.
A drop of basilisk venom was all it took to ensure that Lord Voldemort would never bother the wizarding world ever again.