Beginnings

In a dingy building, a raven-haired youth was sitting on a bed. Not a nice bed, no. More of a prison bed. In the boy's hands laid a book. One of fantasy and adventure. He smiled at times and nearly laughed at one point. When he started to laugh, he quickly clasped his hand over his mouth. Masking the noise. He was lucky, he kept quiet.

The boy lived in an orphanage, and not a nice one. The outside of the building looked modest and homely. And so did the entrance hall. But that was it. The rest was hidden from visitors to create a false facade of a loving home. It was anything but that. The owner of the orphanage was a cruel old man. On Fridays, he would bring his cronies around to beat the children. And if you were unlucky, and cursed with good looks, raped. Only one boy had been raped so far, it was mainly the older girls. The ones older than 11. Today was Friday.

From other rooms, you can hear the terrified screams of the victims chosen and the grunts of the evil pigs who laid hands upon them.

The boy recently got locked in the attic for fighting back, along with a beating. As he continued reading, he heard a noise creeping closer.

*Thump Thump Thump*

It was reaching closer.

*Thump Thump Thump*

It was outside the door now.

*Creeeak*

The door opened to reveal a revolting set of yellow teeth that laid inside lips, curved in a smile.

"Quite the pretty boy, ain'tcha"

The mouth said, causing the boy to shiver. The door creaked open to reveal the man. Fully naked creeping closer to him. The raven-haired boy froze. The man crept closer and closer, his disgusting liquid soaked penis stood ready. The boy couldn't move, why was he being chosen? Why couldn't he just read? The man was in front of him. The boy still couldn't move. The book he was reading was flung away by the man. The boy finally moved.

He flailed and screamed but nothing changed. The man pinned him to his bed and started to undress him.

Button by button, the boy lost hope. Why?

Why?

He wanted the man to stop. He wanted him to leave. He wanted him to die.

The man's hands reached his trousers.

"stop"

The raven-haired boy squeaked out, inaudibly.

The man didn't stop.

"Stop"

The boy said begging.

The man didn't stop.

The boy's eyes started to leak, the man's hands were slowly pulling his underwear down when

"STOP!"

The boy shouted, time seemed to have frozen. Windows shattered lightbulbs smashed. The room was plunged into darkness.

The boy wanted to kill. He wanted revenge. He screamed again and everything changed. All the shattered glass pointed towards the man, the man was frozen. Unable to move, in fear. The glass started heading towards the man, slowly. The boy didn't want to just kill him. He wanted him to suffer. He wanted everyone to suffer.

How come he didn't get parents?

How come no one liked him?

How come the only feelings he had felt were pain and fear?

It wasn't fair.

The glass was poking the man. The boy had a will and it was executed. The pressure the glass was exerting on the man's flesh increased slowly. Blood started to seep out the little holes that were formed on the mans skin. The man started to scream, no, started to howl. He begged and begged to be let go, but the boy didn't listen. He didn't understand why he wanted the pain to stop when this was nothing compared to the atrocities that he had done. The glass continued its march on the man's skin until his body stopped shaking. The man was dead. The man was dead and the boy felt nothing. Other than confusion at what just happened. He closes his eyes.

Once he opens his eyes, he realises that it wasn't a dream. It was real. He made glass float and killed a man.

{STOOOP!}

The boy heard a scream, the scream sounded like a girl he knew.

{Please stop, let me go.}

This time a different voice, an older one, similar to the owner of the orphanage. The boy looked around, trying to find the source. It was nowhere. The voices weren't stopping. Constantly screaming in his head. Begging to be freed. The boy winced, he couldn't concentrate. The voices scared him. They were begging and pleading and he didn't know why.

{I'M SORRRY!}

A voice screamed, it sounded identical to the man killed by glass earlier.

{ARRRGHH}

The boy screamed, trying to drown the noise in his head. It wouldn't stop.

He stood up, covered in dry blood and walked to his wall.

*BANG BANG*

He smashed his head on the wall. The voices didn't leave.

*BANG BANG BANG*

The boy didn't stop banging until he fell to the floor, unconscious.

As he was sleeping, a woman entered his room with a horrified look on her face. As she entered, she saw the man's mutilated corpse and a boy covered in blood, lying at the foot of a wall.

===Torment===

*Hermione POV*

Two days ago we detected a new wizard awakening, the amount of mana was quite honestly baffling.

Harry sent me to get the child as it seems it was under 11 and living alone. Harry said that it would be unsafe for the muggles if we left it there. So that's why I've been sent to go. Apparently Ron is too hot-blooded and Draco is a bit scary. So here I am.

I arrived at the location we sensed the magic and found an orphanage. It looked nice, but it was eerily quiet. I walked up to the door and knocked on the golden knocker. After a while of waiting there was no response. I was getting worried.

"Alohamora"

The dark blue door creaks open and reveals a dark entrance hall. It was strange that there was no light so I took my wand out.

"Shit!"

I yelped, I stepped on something sharp. It was glass...

Looking up, I see the remains of a shattered lightbulb. My gaze wanders to the other lightbulbs. They are all smashed too. This isn't good.

I creak one of the doors open and I'm greeted by more darkness.

"Lumos"

I cast the light spell, an orb of light glows at the end of my wand. The room is slowly brightened as I walk forwards. The darkness is pushed back bit by bit. To reveal a crimson-stained floor. Accompanied by a strong metallic smell. The light proceeds to march through the shadows.

"Oh...Oh no... Is that a hand?"

I walk forward, step by step. With every inch I move, an inch more is revealed. Soon the whole room is visible.

"Jesus Christ...."

Bodies were strewn about everywhere. Some in pieces. Most impaled with glass.

"Oh... I need to find the child..."

I continue exploring the orphanage, encountering an uncountable number of muggle bodies on the way. Once I reached the top floor and started looking in the rooms, I was horrified. Fat naked men, and little girls tied up. Both dead.

"What the fuck is happening here?!"

At the end of the upstairs corridor, there was a small thin set of stairs with what seemed like a lockable gate at the bottom. I climbed up and opened the door a the top. Once again, darkness and a vivid smell of metal.

"Lumos Maxima"

The entire attic is visible. Again a fat man, naked and dead. But in the corner of the room, a young boy. drenched in blood lying at the foot of a wall. Breathing heavily, and shaking.

===Torment===

*Third-person*

Hermione reaches out to the shaking boy and lightly strokes him, trying to calm him down. The contact wakes the boy up and instantly the voices flood his mind again

{I'm sorry!}

{It hurrttts...}

{Thank you.}

The boy listened in pain, his face scrunched up. But once he hears a little girls voice say thank you, the pain momentarily fluctuates. But once more, the voices came back.

"SHUUUTT UPP!!!"

The boy shouted, completely oblivious to the woman standing near him.

"It's ok."

said a soothing voice, the boy looked over. The woman was old, in her 60s maybe 70s. She had a smile on her face that said everything would be ok. But it wasn't, the boy couldn't focus.

"What's your name, boy?"

The woman said warmly.

"..."

He ignored her. Unable to make out her words. He looked towards her mouth but all he saw was movement.

"Come here."

She said, caring. Or at least pretending to. The boy didn't know. She reached out her hands but winced and retracted them upon contact.

She felt as if her happiness was disappearing. Like a dementor's kiss. She looked horrified and felt one of her favourite memories fade. Not quite gone... but the emotions vanished. From now on whenever she remembered getting her Hogwarts acceptance letter, she would feel nothing. She dropped a silent tear and avoided physical contact with the boy. Which didn't go unnoticed by him. But he seemed not to care.

In fact, all he seemed to care about was something incorporeal. Something she just couldn't quite grasp.

Suddenly the boy stood up, completely ignoring the bloodshed in the attic and headed towards the skinny stairs and proceeded to descend. Hermione followed wearily behind, she was mentally prepared to fire a Patronus but it seemed after the contact that she would have a bit of difficulty trying to be positive. After all, one of her favourite memories just became completely obsolete.

While she was thinking this, the boy had reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around.

Blood everywhere. Adults and children alike impaled with glass or just cleanly severed.

He headed to the bottom floor. It was too dark to make things out clearly. He squinted to try and see what was what and suddenly everything became brighter.

He ignored it and looked at the bodies. Children. Even some as young as 2. But he didn't feel guilty. No, he felt empty. Like whenever something happy came in contact with him, it would be sucked into an endless abyss of loneliness.

But after a while, he started to feel comfortable while staring at the bodies. Not the normal type of comfortable. No, it was as if they were his.

{You killed usss}

said a wispy voice.

"No."

{You slaughtered us all.}

"NO"

{You're enjoying looking at our bodies.}

"...no"

The boy's voice was trembling. He had no idea what was wrong. He missed fear. He missed pain. But now all he felt was empty and an unknown feeling he couldn't grasp. He knew he shouldn't be ok, but the voices seemed to be slowly digging, chipping away at his last sense of reasoning. His last sense of sanity.

{You killed us. Never will we leave you. Torment well deserved for a monster like you.}

He missed his adventure book.

===Torment===

Hermione was observing the boy for a while before he stood up and looked into her eyes. The boy focused on her eyes and was attempting to manipulate her memories. The boy had no idea how, but he felt he had the power to do so while shouting inwardly to 'Change her memory'.

The boy's eyes flashed white for a second before Hermione stood straight and unmoving. The boy felt as if he was inside her mind, but it was defended. By castles and traps.

Luckily though, the boy found her recent memories that hadn't been hidden or protected yet and had access to them. With a little bit of strain the boy changed her memory to the following:

1. When she entered the house, the children were already dead.

2. Out of rage and disgust at what she was seeing, she murdered all the men.

3. She found the boy in the attic about to be raped and killed the man.

After he changed her memory to this, his body slumped to the floor and Hermione's face regained its life.

She began looking around and remembered all the things she had 'done'. She was angry at herself for the lack of self-control and remembered about the boy. She saw him fainted on the floor. She picked him up and apparated to St. Mungo's.

===Torment===

2 days later.

The boy wakes up in a hospital bed.

{Rise and shine murderer.}

{haha no more peace for you.}

The boy once more proceeded to shake his head. He was finally coming to terms with having voices. Not that it was bearable. No, now he could hear and see. Concentrate if he tried really hard.

He looked around the room and saw the woman from earlier asleep by his bed.

"Hello?"

He said, trying to wake her up.

She started to stir and her eyes finally opened. When she saw the boy, her eyes started to water. She 'remembered' how she found him and what she had 'done' to the men. Despite knowing what happened, she felt something was wrong and couldn't quite grasp it. She finally realised that she didn't know his name.

"I'm Hermione Granger. What's your name?"

She asked calmly.

"Orpheus."

He said calmly.

"Do you have a last name?"

"Olsiren"

He said. Wondering if that was truly his last name.

"Orpheus Olsiren..."

Hermione put a finger to her chin. The name sounded strangely familiar to her.

"What happens now?"

Orpheus asked.

"I'm really sorry to say... You have to go back to an orphanage until you're 11."

She said with a bit of regret.

{Alone again... More time with us.}

"Ok..."

He said, standing up from his bed.

After a few check-ups from the healers, he was released with Hermione and she brought him to an orphanage.

"Someone I know runs this orphanage, so I can promise that it's safe. "

She said with a bit of guilt in her eyes. Orpheus said nothing and waited for Hermione to knock at the door.

She was greeted by a happy looking ginger elderly woman. When she saw Hermione she smiled happily.

"Hermione! It's so nice to see you. What brings you here though? Looking to adopt?"

Hermione shook her head and signalled towards Orpheus.

"No Ginny, I'm here to drop this boy off. His name is Orpheus Olsiren."

Ginny squinted her eyes.

"Olsiren... Where have I heard that before..? Ah... Nevermind, welcome to Potter orphanage. We get magical people who've lost their families and let them join ours."

She said with a smile, she reached an arm out to stroke the boy's raven hair. Hermione tried to stop her, but she was ignored. Ginny touched Orpheus' head and felt something wrong. She retracted her hand quickly but felt a sense of loss. She lost a happy memory. She lost the joy of her and Harry's first kiss. She looked at the boy.

{You've done it again. Take take take is all you do.}

{Theif!}

The boy winced at the volume of the voices but quickly regained his composure. Ginny looked at Hermione with silent tears in her eyes. Hermione nodded and they all proceeded inside. The house was massive, larger than it was outside. The floors were coated with a red carpet that stretched along the wide corridor, passing many closed doors, until it reached a set of spiral stairs. The stairs reached high upwards and at the top was a glass roof. Letting one gaze at the sky.

Ginny lead the two towards one of the doors and opened it. Inside the room was two sofas, a large fireplace and an arrangement of moving pictures on the wall. Ginny motioned for the two to sit.

"So... Tell me about yourself Orpheus."

Ginny said, still recouping from her loss.

"..."

Orpheus just stared at her. Only now had she noticed but the boy's eyes seemed to be changing colour. Fluctuating between pitch black and grey. The transition was slow, maybe 5 minutes per loop? She stared at him for a while and felt lost as she stared in his eyes.

"Ahem!"

Hermione coughed, bringing the attention to her.

"I found him in a horrible place. Ginny, it was absolutely terrible."

Hermione looked at Ginny for a moment and as time passed Ginny's face slowly contorted.

"My god..."

She said, looking at the boy with sympathy. She looked like she wanted to hug him but felt as if the sacrifice wasn't worth it.

{No one will touch you twice. No one cares enough to sacrifice their happiness for yours.}

"Shut up."

Orpheus whispered, bringing the attention of the women to him.

"You ok Orpheus? You look pale."

Hermione asked, extending her hand only to realise what the consequences would be and quickly retracted it.

{Forever alone. HAHAHAHA!!!}

{Serves you right!}

{No one will ever love you.}

A tear dropped down from the boy's eye. His eyes flickered white and suddenly the fire was extinguished. The room got colder, making everyone's but Orpheus' breath visible.

"Incendio"

Said Ginny, pointing her wand towards the extinguished fire. Shock was written on her face as the fire started to roar once more. The cold eventually dissipated before Hermione said

"Orpheus... Are you ok?"

He thought for a moment.

"I'm fine."

He said while thinking. He couldn't touch people or they would lose their favourite memories. But if he didn't touch anyone he might go insane.

{A cursed life you will have.}

A voice cracked, laughing slightly.

{Why don't you just let them touch you? Let them feel empty like you.}

'No'

{Why should you be the only one to suffer, right?}

'No?'

{Why is this happening to you?}

'Stop'

{This is happening BECAUSE OF YOU!!! We are stuck here, locked in your mind instead of being with our relatives. Shut the fuck up you monster and just die so we can leave.}

'No!'

{Yes, not like anyone would care anyway.}

'NO!'

{By living you are only going to bring suffering to others; might as well end it here. Kill yourself, Monster.}

"I AM NOT A MONSTER!!!"

He shouted out loud, startling the two others.

"Orpheus calm down! We know you're not a monster."

Ginny said. Orpheus began to cry and rock back and forth on the sofa. Threatening to fall at any moment, but none would help or catch him. He wasn't worth their own happiness.

No, he was worth nothing and it wasn't fair.

{It isn't fair, is it?}

said a voice.

{That you have to suffer like this, while everyone else is happy.}

The raven-haired boy stopped rocking.

'What?'

He questioned.

{Why don't you just make everyone feel like you? It's only fair, right?}

Orpheus hadn't heard this voice before. It wasn't from the orphanage.

'Who are you?'

{The first one you killed.}

The voice said, chuckling a bit.

{I've been here since you were created. Guess I'm a part of you... Ah, it's not really my place to tell. I'll keep quiet.}

'What are you talking about?'

{Nothing important, instead you should be focusing on the real world.}

Orpheus regained focus and was standing with an arm reached forwards to a disarmed Ginny.

"ORPHEUS!"

Hermione shouted.

"What are you doing?!"

She asked, visibly shook.

"..."

Orpheus stood still until he glanced at himself in a slightly cracked mirror. His eyes were pure white but slowly faded back to their usual black-grey colour cycle. That wasn't the thing that caught his attention. That would be the face splitting grin plastered on his face. It stayed for a moment before returning to its default position. Emotionless.

"...sorry."

He said, a bit shaken.

{Muhahaha}

The voice from before laughed evilly.

{Stay focused boy, or we'll take over.}

'What?!'

{haha... It isn't fair, is it?}

===Torment===

After Orpheus met with Ginny, he was ushered through the rather large orphanage, 'definitely an upgrade' he thought, lips curving ever so slightly at his comment.

{Why is he smiling? That wasn't even funny}

{Maybe he's an idiot?}

{Probably...}

...

The voices continued their attempts at taunting the boy. Despite a small frown, he continued. Unperturbed by the cruel words bouncing around his skull. Despite attempting to seem homely, Ginny kept a distance between her and Orpheus. At this point, many of the other residents of the orphanage were standing outside their room. Watching as he and Ginny passed by. Ginny attempted to send secret warning gazes at the children. Trying to shoo them away. Orpheus realised this. Uncaringly he followed behind Ginny.

After walking for a rather long time, Ginny halted while gesturing to an isolated room - compared to the others that is. 'Can't say I mind her blatant attempt to keep me away from the other kids.'

After showing him the room and how to lock it (which he promptly did) Ginny left. Leaving Orpheus alone to test the rooms facilities. Mainly the bed, which he immediately sat on.

"Comfortable..."

He said, bouncing up and down on the mattress. Finding comfort in the soft material. His peace, however, was interrupted by the howls of 'the ones he killed' as they called themselves. He still found it hard to comprehend his own miserable situation. He killed everyone in his orphanage yet felt no guilt. He supposedly took happy memories from both the brunette and the ginger, he had not cared enough to remember their names. While stuck in his thoughts once more, the grating, constant sound that the 'voices' in his head were making, showed no sign of stopping. Orpheus thought back to what one of the voices told him; that he should make others feel his pain. While, at first he was inclined to disagree, thinking about the fleeing joy he got when tasting the older women's joy was borderline addictive. Shaking his head, he sat in silence. Well, he was... silent. His head was far from it.

===Torment===

The next day, Ginny woke up and headed towards the new boys room. Despite being, quite frankly, terrified, she worked up the courage to knock on his door. She stood silently waiting for the door to open. Which it did not, even after knocking once more. Trying the door handle she noticed that it had been locked.

"Why am I not surprised..."

She said with a sigh.

"Alohamora"

She said, quickly followed by a clicking noise as the door opened. Ginny looked around the room before noticing the boy sitting motionlessly on the bed. She walked in while muttering a near-silent "excuse me". She circled around the boy and stood in front of him.

"Orpheus, breakfast is ready."

Ginny said, reaching a hand out to shake the unmoving boy. As her hand was inches away from the boy, she pulled it back. The strange, cold aura surrounding him reminding her of the consequences of touching the boy.

Orpheus was unresponsive. Ginny stood still, she didn't know how she was supposed to get the boys attention. She thought for a bit before pulling out her wand. With a slight wave and a quiet chant of "Aguamenti", a small stream of water appeared, directed towards Orpheus. The water made contact with the boy, wetting his clothes and skin. His eyes seemed to refocus and he glanced towards Ginny, clearly unhappy. Despite her age - and magical knowledge - she felt intimidated.

"I've made breakfast, it's on the table."

She said before hurrying off, leaving a wet and mildly infuriated Orpheus. He raised his hand above his head before slowly bringing it down over his body. After that, a completely dry Orpheus left his isolated room and retraced the steps he took the day before.

===Torment===

It took Orpheus a while to find the dining room. He wandered around aimlessly for a while before he heard a loud exasperated {It's on the left, you dimwit!} from one of the voices. Which one, he did not know. Nor did he know how they knew where it was. But he decided to follow what it said and soon found an empty room with a long table. The table was mahogany and was covered in gilded candles. Orpheus approached the table and sat down.

Once he was comfortable, he stayed still waiting for his breakfast. He didn't have to wait long though because as soon as he thought about breakfast, a large full-english breakfast appeared before him.

Orpheus found that he wasn't as hungry as someone who hadn't eaten in two days should've been. He nibbled on a few sausages before placing them back onto his plate. Placing his knife and fork centrally parallel. A sign that he had finished eating.

Orpheus found it strange that he had seen no one but the ginger-haired lady despite the obviously large population of the orphanage. He quickly got bored of this line of thought and made his way towards his room.

He grimaced every time he made a wrong turn as he was bombarded with insults from the voices. Eventually, he made it back. Locking his door and thinking about how Ginny had managed to enter despite this fact. He was thinking about how to enforce that Ginny couldn't do this again when he heard a rapping on his door.

"Hello Orpheus, it seems you are done with breakfast. I was thinking that we could go to Diagon Alley and buy you some skin protection. You know... to make sure that the kids don't get... hurt. "

Ginny said cautiously.

Orpheus' lips unconsciously curved upwards at the reminder to the pure ecstasy that was... whatever that was.

He stood up and walked towards the door before opening it gently. Ginny stood behind uncomfortably.

"We'll go by floo network, follow me."

She said with an obviously fake smile.

She lead him down the long corridor of rooms and stopped in front of a door that opened to reveal a large fireplace.

"Copy exactly what I do"

She said before grabbing a handful of powder and walking towards the fire. Once inside she slammed the powder down and shouted "Diagon Alley" before she disappeared.

Orpheus rolled his eyes at the obvious lack of care that the woman showed. He did as instructed and picked up the powder, moved to the fireplace and chanted "Diagon Alley".

his vision was overcome with a blur of green, he found him self in a dingy building surrounded by people drinking and discussing non-descript matters. He looked around apathetically, searching for the redhead. He found it slightly amusing that instead of waiting by the fireplace for him she was consumed in conversation with the bartender.

He slowly made his way through the crowd, heading towards the woman. Tapping people slightly as he walked past. The people who received his taps found them selves instantly unhappy and confused as to why. Obviously he did it discreetly but because the people were searching for a reason him being the only change in environment was the obvious choice for them. Ginny saw the sad looks of the customers and then diverted her gaze towards the unsettling child. She flinched and then proceeded to curse her own subconscious fear of the boy. Seeing the scene made by the other customers the untouched ones, still happy, made way for the boy, clearly aware – or subconsciously so – that he was the cause of the unrest.

Orpheus, with a slight smirk on his face, made his way through the ocean-like crowd, looking like he had split the sea. The irony of the scene did not go unnoticed by the muggle-borns of the crowd. Those that had experienced his touch and those that had seen the fear-ridden faces of the other patrons.

"Devil… "

Was the synonymous thought running through everyone's minds, and through one's mouth. The owner of the mouth instantly clasped their hand over it, before getting a slightly annoyed glance from the newly proclaimed devil.

Ginny shuffled through the gaggle of terrified Magicals, before stopping a good 3 feet away from the boy.

"Come along Orpheus."

Ginny said, flinching at the hateful gaze of the pub-goers.

Orpheus nodded, following Ginny into the back of the pub.

{They're right you know, Devil.}

{Murderer}

{Monster}

Orpheus momentarily stopped, before proceeding to hum a dreary tune. Effectively blocking out the moans of the voices residing within him. Unbeknownst to him, his humming seemed to temporarily quell the undying hate the voices had for him.

He followed Ginny through the pub, and entered the back where a mossy wall stood. she proceeded to tap the bricks of the wall in a seemingly random order. This strange ritual was followed closely by a guttural groaning sound. The wall began to shift, bricks splitting at the seams. It was as if they were folding in on themselves, making an archway for the two to pass through.

"Follow me"

Ginny muttered. She began to walk, briskly so, through the archway. Orpheus close behind.