1 Rota Fortunae

On November 1st, 1981, wizards and witches all across Britain and even Europe were celebrating the fall of the Dark Lord Voldemort the previous night. Though Europe had its fair share of Dark Lords, none could compare to the barbarity and cruelty of Lord Voldemort. His predecessor Gellert Grinderwalt had caused far more deaths of fellow witches and wizards, his campaigns had far reaching effects almost spreading across the whole magical community. But he was not as cruel as Lord Voldemort had been. People feared to even call his name. Everybody called him 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. His reign of terror was called by most historians as the darkest hour of magical Britain. If he was not stopped, destruction of magical was almost guaranteed. The news of his death, brought upon a wave of relief and comfort to all. Everywhere witches and wizards seem to be drown in joy and happiness and enjoying like there is no tomorrow.

As compared to his rise, which was a tale of its own, his fall was almost comical. Who would have ever thought that the most dangerous of known Dark Lords, Lord Voldemort died of his own Killing Curse being reflected upon him by a toddler. Not even his body was found in the remains of the Potter House in the Godric Hallows. As absurd as it sounds, the toddler was alive with only sign of being ever faced a Killing Curse head on and lived was a symbol of lightning bolt shaped scar on his right side of his forehead. The baby was none other than Harry James Potter, the last living scion of The Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter and to many those who don't know, The Most Ancient and Noble House of Peverell. Two houses whos history even predates the history of magical Britain.

Albus Dumbledore was one of the few who were not celebrating. He didn't believe that Voldemort would be so easily defeated, who was as strong as him. He had known Voldemort since the time he first came into contact with magic. He strongly suspected that Voldemort was not truly dead. Somehow he had cheated his own death. Such thoughts was not due to the fact that a toddler was impossible to defeat him, but due to the content of the prophecy. The prophecy had not been fulfilled completely. Harry Potter had to be kept safe from the retaliation of his former student's supporters. He also knew that Killing Curses did not get reflected on fits of whimsy. Indeed, they were not supposed to get reflected at all, though he didn't knew what actually happened yesterday.

The magical backlash of what happened had wiped away all traces of evidence that could be used to determine the truth of events, but he strongly suspected the machinations of Harry's parents to be the cause. Or at the very least, the machinations of Lily Potter. Alas, he would likely never know for certain what kind of protection had been invoked. Lily Potter, with the knowledge gained from the Potter library, could have come up with some insane rituals not even he would have knowledge of.

He had some inkling of what was the result of the ritual after a close inspection of young Harry. A strong protection magic could be felt from the blood of Harry which would protect him from any harm caused to him by others. He was currently in deep thoughts regarding the upbringing of Harry. He didn't want Harry to be grown with magical parents and be treated like a messiah. He didn't want Harry to be arrogant, he wanted for him to have a normal childhood before being introduced to the magical world. He had an idea for who would be the perfect family for Harry. Lily's sister Petunia Dursley nee Evans, the last remaining family member related by blood of young Harry Potter. He would set up wards around their house which would be powered by Lily's protection for Harry. This way, Harry would vanish from the magical world and grow away from his fame and enemies. When the time is right, he would guide him to achieve his destiny foretold by prophecy.

With such thoughts in mind he started working to carry out his plan. He went to the current address of Petunia and started working on the wards around her house. Though it pained him he drained Lily Potter's still cooling body forging a bond between Petunia and Harry. The wards were anchored to Harry which will slowly drain him of magic. He had known for quite some time that young Harry was going to be a very powerful wizard easily over-powering him in terms of raw magical power. He had seen for himself Harry unconsciously using magic to fly dolls around his crib and summon dolls as per his interest. He had no doubt that Harry was the 'Child of Prophecy'. So he didn't gave any more thought when he powered up the wards without any leyline or heart stone.

After completing all his preparation, he obliviated the Dursleys. Then he left the orphaned baby on their doorstep with only a note saying to keep him safe. Dumbledore had not thought that due to his unexplained way of dropping Harry on their front door, further cemented the idea of freaks in the minds of Vernom and Petunia. They were not happy of such sudden unexpected arrival of Harry. There hatred for magic kinds multiplied to another level altogether.

Though they had thoughts of abandoning Harry in an orphanage, fear of what would happen when Dumbledore would know of their action, drove that thought away. Grudgingly they decided to take care of him in their own way. Though they had no idea how to raise a magical child who was powerful enough to through objects flying when he started crying. Harry was often found crying loudly. His last memory of his mother protecting him from Voldemort and the red eyes which looked like a snake's, often terrified young Harry. Petunia was very tired of his acts. One day she had enough of his antics and left him in the cupboard under the stairs and locked him from the outside. Harry started crying more due to darkness but no one was their to help him or take care of him. Slowly he got tired and felt hungry. As his strength fade away, sleep overcame his senses and he fell asleep.

Thinking her plan had worked, Petunia started forcing Harry inside the cupboard whenever he started crying. As baby Harry started growing up, he was forced to do some house works. When he was just five year old, he was working in the kitchen regularly while Petunia slept or was busy watching some soap opera in the television.

By now Harry had understood not to complain or risk being beaten by his pig of an uncle Vernom. Besides listening to them calling him freak would surely cause him to unknowingly use his magic. Yes you heard him correctly. Why you would ask did Harry knew of magic? Well let just say when you have eidetic memory, you tend to remember most of his childhood. Which contains some memory of him performing magic unconsciously and his parents discussing how he was going to be a very powerful wizard when he grew up. The memories of his parents and their friends were the only thing that kept him from running away from the Dursleys. Though they hate him and anything related to magic to the bones, they tend to left him in the cupboard without any form of abusing if he didn't use his magic in front of them. He was very careful not to cause any damage if he use his magic hidden from their sight.

Harry had been called freak as far as he could remember. Before he would have thought of it as a normal thing in his life with his relatives. But discovering his powers, changed his thinking. He had stopped doing accidental magic when he first viewed his memories. It was never a challenge. He had a perfect memory. He could recall anything he had heard or seen before. He tried to recall why he had been called a freak. Thinking hard he started to dig deeper into his old memories. It had been a very frightening experience. The first memory had been the tragic night of Halloween. Suddenly he had flashes of a memory where he heard a woman's pleading and saw flashes of green light. Then the next thing he saw scared him greatly. He saw a face which he thought for certain it was that of a monster. It had piercing red eyes, skin which couldn't be any more pale, in place of nose were two holes. Its head was bald without any sign of hair. He could have sworn it's face look like the face of a snake in human form. In the memory, he saw the monster looking human pointed a stick at him and said 'Avada Kedavra'. A ray of green light formed at the end of the stick and hit him. Then it was completely black.

Suddenly he was out of his memory and started sweating. It was first time he remembered something about his childhood. The things that he saw in his memory confused him greatly. He was sure he had never seen the lady before. The amount of care and love she had in her voice showed she cared for her deeply. To the point that she sacrificed her life for him. Suddenly tears started to come out of his eyes unconsciously. Feeling the pain in his heart, he was sure he had known her at some point in his life. After some time organizing his thoughts and feelings, he came to a conclusion. Only one woman would sacrifice everything for a child, a mother. The lady was his mother. Realizing that he had just saw his mother, once again opened all the pent up feelings inside his heart. His mother loved her. He was not an abandoned child nor his parents were drunkard as he was told by Petunia. He started to feel guilty for thinking anything bad about his parents, especially his mother. He should have known anything that came out Petunia's mouth should not be believed. That horse faced woman had the nerve to tell him he was a worthless son of worthless parents. His anger towards the Dursleys reached another height. He vowed he would punish them for all their mistreatment towards him.

Power started to radiate from his body. His eyes started to shine in an unholy green light. All the things around him were thrown outwards. The house was vibrating as if it was an earthquake. The amount of magical power he was currently radiating formed a thick white cloak around him. As his anger rose higher, the power rose higher. But nobody could feel the power outside the house as if something was blocking it. Suddenly he felt something was draining his power quickly. After some time, a feeling of powerlessness spread throughout his body. His knees became week and he fell on the floor.

Not knowing what just happened, he tried to get up slowly. Thinking carefully about the turn of events, he guessed that something must have drained his powers when he was not thinking clearly due to his anger. He wanted to search for the room to see if anything was draining his power but he was so week that he couldn't walk properly. So he decided to slowly dig more memories from his childhood. Soon flashes of memories started to appear as if someone had opened the flood gate. He immediately felt as if his brain was being split opened. After the pain subdued, he started to carefully search his memories for answers. He was surprised when he found something that could explain some of his questions.

The power he had which he couldn't found any way to explain was called magic and he was a wizard. His parents James and Lily Potter were not some drunkard, they were powerful wizard and witch. He was born out of love not some mistake. He was very much loved and cared for. This thoughts had a very deep impact on young Harry back then. He vowed to become a very powerful wizard and make his parents proud. From then on he started to meditate to control his magic better. He had seen in some T.V. programs that his aunt sometimes watched that meditation help in controlling your emotion better. As for the reason why he felt the drain of his magic, he decided to investigate it latter.

From then he started to meditate regularly and did some exercise when nobody was in the house or in the night when everyone fell asleep. This gave him a refreshing feeling every time he did meditation. He could feel something was entering into him when he took breath while meditating after a hard workout. This peculiar force slowly start to recover his spent energy and fill him with a lot of vigor. He couldn't explain it clearly but it started to slowly change his skinny figure to a healthy one in just one month. He thought the force must be the magic present in the nature. He must have drawn it into his body forcefully unknowingly when he tried to meditate after exercising. He couldn't explain why it was entering his body or why it was changing his body, but he didn't complain. He was getting more powerful as he continued his routine. His previous malnourished body had become a well developed one. He was taller than Dudley, his whale of a cousin. This was not the only advantage, his fear of hunger had been decreased. Whenever he felt hungry, he would exercise hard till he couldn't lift his fingers and meditate after that trying to inhale magic from the air. When he felt he had inhaled some magic, he would feel a burning sensation all over his body. After enduring the pain for several minutes, he would feel great. He no longer felt any hunger. Rather he felt more powerful than other time. But he would not try it again anytime soon. He didn't want to endure the pain again.

Harry spent rest of the year according to his routines. Unknowingly he had achieved something that had been an obstacle for many wizards later on. Though this was not due to him being special, it was mainly due to the ritual his mother performed and a situation that had occurred which resulted in a worldwide phenomenon.

Lets rewind our time to the past just 10 days after the tragic night of Halloween, 1981.

Somewhere in the forest of Albania, a large snake could be seen slithering towards a cave slowly. It was hissing loudly. Intelligence could be seen in its eyes. Why you might ask? Well this particular snake was currently possessed by none other than Dark Lord Voldemort. Well he was not dead as the rest of the world population was currently thinking. How could the most dangerous of the Dark Lords, Voldemort could be so easily defeated by a mere toddler. Though his current state is miserable. To live he had to posses animals. Gone was the terrifying form of the Dark Lord. Now he was nothing more than a shade of his former self. How he was alive after taking the reflected killing curse? It was thanks to a very dark soul magic called Hocrux.

When the snake reached the cave, a ghostly figure flew out of the body of the snake. It was Voldemort. He was fuming of his failure to kill a 1 year old boy.

"Damn that prophecy. Damn you Severus. Why couldn't you listen to the full content of the prophecy? Why would you had escaped with just half of the prophecy? I wouldn't be such a state if you had not committed such a terrible mistake. If I had not made hocrux before, I would have truly be dead. Thankfully I had been careful. But I couldn't understand how the boy had reflected the killing curse. No one had before done such a feat. Even in the past, such a feat was considered impossible. Why he had done the impossible? There must be something special about the boy. I am sure he is boy mentioned in the prophecy." cursed Voldemort as he thought about his defeat in the hands of a baby. He started venting his anger by cursing loudly inside the cave. It continued for some minutes when it was abruptly ended by a voice.

"So pathetic." a voice echoed inside the cave. The language was unknown but the meaning of the words ringed inside Voldemort's head. It inflicted sudden pain to Voldemort. He started screaming in a shrill voice. After some time the pain subdued. He started to search for the source of the voice.

"Who's there?" asked Voldemort. He had searched the cave thoroughly before but didn't find any clue.

"Don't bother searching. You wouldn't be able to find me. You are too weak to even handle my voice through the seal." said the voice mockingly. Once again Voldemort's mind was attacked by pain. He was very angry by the voice's words. How could he Lord Voldemort be weak?

"Don't waste time thinking you are strong. You truly have no idea what are you dealing with. You foolish creature. How pathetic you must be to think that you could cheat death. Even we devils cannot escape from its clutches even with the abyss. You think you could escape it by just splitting your soul to form an anchor to the mortal plane? Your idiocy truly knows no bound. Even we are afraid to divide our souls." said the voice.

Hearing the voice, Voldemort felt anger rose inside of him. How could he be an idiot. Struggling to handle the pain due to the voice, Voldemort decided to find the source of the voice and punish it with the most cruelest torture. Just as the thoughts were formed, even more intense pain course throughout his ghostly body. He couldn't move an inch. His figure started to become more transparent. Suddenly he felt fear which he hadn't felt for quite some time. This fear came from the depth of his soul. He realized he would be dead even with his hocruxes.

"Don't even think to torture me. Remember this feeling before you think about it. Your puny soul and soul shards will disappear the moment you think anything against me." said the voice loudly. This time Voldemort had no courage left inside of him to go against the voice. He had never felt such pain even when he split his soul to create hocruxes. Cruciatus curse didn't even come close to it. He shuddered at the thought of his soul vanishing after he had taken so much precautions just to cheat death.

"Now I will give you an opportunity to live, you have to do something for me. Agree you live, refuse you die. No third option. You will be rewarded if you manage to complete the task." said the voice authoritatively. Their was not an ounce of mercy in those words. The only choice was to succeed in the task and get the rewards.

"I accept" replied Voldemort without any hesitation. He was not willing to die after reaching such a height. Even though he would have to listen to other's orders, there was no shame in it when the other was so much stronger. He would surely gain more power following the voice. As for revenge, he didn't even think about it, not wanting to go through the pain again.

"Very well. You are not as stupid as you seems to be. There is no shame in following someone powerful. You will learn that soon. As for gaining more strength, you have no idea what you can gain from the abyss." said the voice. Suddenly a terrifying power spread inside the cave. He had not even got a chance to look when all that power was forcefully loaded into his ghost like figure. Slowly his figure started to become more solid. A feeling of ecstasy spread throughout his soul.

"You are now given a temporary body which will last for a month. During this period you have to perform a certain ritual while sacrificing 1000 human lives. I will give you the details about it. Complete the task and you will gain a body that of a devil. You must complete within a month or your soul will vanish forever." said the voice. With the instruction transmitted directly to his soul on how to perform the ritual, the voice faded into nothingness.

Voldemort released a long breath which he didn't know was holding up until now. Though he couldn't see nor feel the presence of the voice, the power of that being still terrified him. Just through his voice he seemed to control his every action. None he had met or heard had so much power within their voice alone. He felt extremely tiny compared to it.

"It seems there are still many secrets out there which could certainly raise many waves in the magical world. Though I don't think the owner of the voice was from this world. It has mentioned something called Abyss several times. Maybe that is its world or someone powerful enough to rule it. I don't want to imagine what would have happened to me if I had refused him." thought Voldemort sighing for his current situation. Not everyday you got a reality check that there is always someone above you.

"Its not totally bad though. If someone can create a body out of nothing can definitely help me to achieve my goal. If what he had told me turns out to be truth then the reward at the end of the task must be something extraordinary. Though this task seems to pretty sketchy, who cares about the lives of 1000 humans. I have killed and tortured enough people to care about another 1000. Just you wait Harry Potter and magical world, your end is coming." Voldemort started laughing loudly at the thought taking revenge on the boy who had caused him failure.