The father of dragons
Harry Potter, this name held authority in almost any of the countless universes. In some he was the great savior of the magical world, slayer of Slytherins serpent, Defeater of dark lord Voldemort, Friend of half-breeds and Master of death. In others he was feared as the greatest dark lord of the 20th and 21st century, the killer of Albus Dumbledore, the man who could control dementors, the beast of Yule and Slayer of Unicorns. All of these have one fact in common, Harry Potter was born special. May he be the boy who lived or the lord who came back or even the man who was chosen but in this universe? In this universe he was not so lucky, he had been beaten down again and again and again, abandoned by his adoptive family, raised by himself, taught to read, write and do math by himself just to survive. And now again, Harry Potter was beaten up, literally this time, he laid in an alley, bones broken, skull cracked and only barely holding onto life…
“P- please... n- no… more”, the noises Harry brought out between his shaky breaths were only barely recognisable as words.
“Oh no, we will teach you some damn respect”, the first thug swung his baseball bat once again, earning another bloody scream from the young, raven haired boy before swinging again,”And”, again,”pain”,again,”will be”, again,”your lesson” and again. By now Harry could barely keep his eyes open but he dared not try to close them for he knew it would earn him more of the pain he so desperately tried to escape.
“I- I won’t… won’t do- do it… a- again”, it was becoming increasingly more difficult to speak through the blood flowing into his lungs.
“Oh you won’t”, said the second, snatching a nearby piece of scrap metal,”we will see to that”
He stepped closer, 2 meters away, 1,5 meters, 1 meter, harry tried to scream for help but his voice failed him, half a meter, his muscles didn’t listen to his minds command to run away, only one step away, harry feeled dread as the sharp metal closed in on his body, 3... 2 and it pierced his throat.
Harry felt dizzy, not in pain, not any more. He was dizzy and confused, he couldn’t hold on to any thoughts as darkness began overtaking his vision, no emotions, none except anger. Undying rage, he hated it all, those thugs, the people around not caring that a child was being dragged away by two adult man, the people who abandoned him not even a week after they took him from the orphanage, his parents for dying and most of all, whoever put him in that god forsaken orphanage in the first place. He hated them all, why could they be happy when he was not? Why was he the only one to suffer? He wanted them to feel the same pain he did, he wanted to be the powerful one.
“I might be able to help you with that”, a voice resonated through the endless abyss of death,”You are right, it isn’t fair. I could give you the power you need to level the playing field though”
“w- who… w- what are you? Why am I here?”confusion filled the boy,”where is here?”
Suddenly, amongst the endless sea of darkness a wall of flame erupted. Within the inferno there was a set of bright yellow eyes,”We are in my domain child”, the voice grew deeper,”you can call me Mor Bahl”
At the mention of the beings name, the flames flickered, allowing Harry to glance at a little bit of its pitch black skin. “What d- do you want with me?”
“Why my child”, a soft chuckle filled the void,”I want to give you what is rightfully yours… if! You get something of mine for me”
“A- and what is rightfully mine?” Harry was suspicious of this thing, life taught him to be, it was the only way to survive.
“The Arcane arts of course. The magic that is supposed to flow through your veins yet doesn’t”, the shadows moved, gaining color yet somehow being void of any light. A shattered orb of green and golden swirls laid in the void,”it was your birthright, your arcane center. It hasn’t formed properly and shattered beneath its own pressure. I could”, the orb now stitched itself with poison green strings, its swirls slowly reanimating, moving and even bringing the tiniest bit of light into the darkness,”fix it, allow you access to powers beyond science's reach...”, the construct faded again like the illusion it was,”if you help me in return”
The black haired boy eyed the being once again, not void of suspicion just yet,”And what do you want? My soul?” This sounded awfully like those devil's deals from churches.
“Your soul? No! I ask you of no such thing but it does indeed involve a soul, there was this man that… it is hard to find the right words, how about I show you”
Harry gasped as he felt air filling his lungs again and sensed solid ground beneath his feet. He stood in a… church? No, it was more like a castle. Solid stone pillars held up the impossibly high roof which he could barely see, not surprising as the only light came from two torches in the middle of the chamber, illuminating two figures, or rather one figure and a set of familiar eyes.
“... and what do you have to offer in exchange?” Bahl’s voice was smooth, not possessing as much pressure as before.
“I offer you my eternal soul once it has crossed to the realm of death”, the man’s voice was equally as smooth though much younger than his impressive height might suggest,”do we have a deal?”
Bahl chuckled darkly,”straight to the point I see. Very well, I, Mor Bahl, bane of spiders agree to this contract with Tom Marvolo Riddle, first of his name, under the divine authority of my realm”
“I, Tom Marvolo Riddle, first of my name agree to this contract with Mor Bahl, bane of spiders, under the Arcane authority of my Bloodline”, Tom exclaimed.
In sync, both spoke the last part,”so mote it be”
Right as the last syllable rang, he found himself back in Bahl’s abyss.
“I- I don’t understand, you have a contract, as soon as he dies-”
“That's the Problem!”, the sudden, uncharacteristic rage surprised Harry, he wasn’t really frightened oddly enough, just surprised,”he… our agreement requires his soul to pass to limbo but that godforsaken spawn of my brothers domain… that… mortal, he found a way to tether his soul to the material plane… he used… some kind of anchor to bind him there. And with those… things, he can’t die, not fully at least. As long as that mortal has at least one anchor left, his entire soul will remain out of my grasp”
Bahl took a deep breath, before looking directly into Harry’s eyes,”This is where you come in, I can’t touch him or his soul until he dies so I need you to somehow find a way to make him killable again. His anchors have to go, if that is dispelling them, destroying them or even making blood sacrifices, so be it...”
The darkness formed a grand castle,”If you accept this deal, you will receive a letter from Hogwarts, a school for mortal magic casters. They won’t be kind to you but I need you to go there and learn as much as possible, even if you don’t find anything about the anchors, you will need the lessons there in order to be able to destroy them. If you don’t accept then you will simply cross to limbo, whichever path comes for you after I don’t know”
“S- so I either accept or d- die?”, the following pause seemed merely for added drama but to be honest, Harry really just spaced out at the thought of death,”I- I’ll do it”
“Excellent, You will find that when you wake up quite some time will have passed, when you go shopping for school eventually, go to gringotts and ask for the vault four under, tell them, word for word ‘the father of dragons commands it’, get 9 golden coins and ask the goblins for a vault check ritual. Can you remember that?”
“uhhh… yeah I- I think so… vault four, the father of dragons commands it, 9 gold coins, test thing”, he could remember that… right?
“So be it, enjoy your new life my… champion”