The Fates (Maleficent AU)
"M–my Lord," a rat-faced man speaks, knees sinking to the floor. "I know where he is, I know where Harry Potter is."
The Lord on his throne laughs. A cold, hollow sound that could shake the fear out of the ground.
"It would seem," Voldemort smiles, "the Fates are on my side."
(As the Lord sits and prowls on his glory of grandeur, above the clouds, the Fates snicker with shaking heads for they are not, in fact, on his side)
They have done well to hide his location.
Kept in the deepest, most dangerous parts of the woods. Secured under a barrier of protective magic. It takes a while for Voldemort to pierce through the wall. That fool, Dumbledore did his homework.
Slowly, he lurks closer to the crib. He is disgusted to find the thing already staring on him.
With big eyes that shone the type of innocence only seen by youths, this thing, his would-be destroyer, looks nothing more than a common baby with an oversized head. Offended, he is, that the majority of townsfolk considers this to be their ungodly savior.
Either way, Voldemort would gladly crush their hopes once he encloses his claws around his neck and breaks.
His oversized head tilts to the side, curiously staring at the face of his soon-to-be killer.
Then, softly, he smiles. A wide grin showcasing gaps and small teeth that has yet to mature.
The oversized thing raises a hand, fingers twitching in a silent plead to come closer. Amused by the request, Voldemort reaches out a hand of his own.
His palm and fingers are significantly longer, both in length and width, dwarfing the oversized thing's own hand. With this, he could easily crush his wrist, and finally be rid of this thing.
"A–are you going to kill him yet my lord?" the rat asks, and for a blissful minute there, Voldemort nearly forgets his existence
He looks back at the oversized thing. His would-be killer. Then smiles wickedly, "Not yet."
What would the boy become? Does the prophecy hold any relevance? Is this boy just an oversized thing with an oversized head and oversized eyes?
To not be careless, he'd send Barty watch over the boy. In case the prophecy indeed holds some truth.
Perhaps some day he'd visit that cottage himself)
"My Lord," his servant bows his head. "I have returned, and came to report you per usual."
"Harry Potter will be turning eight next week. He does his morning routine as follows; fetching water on a well, baking or tidying the garden, rolling down grassy hills, speaking to faeries and sometimes disregarding his godfathers' warnings or commands." He clears his throat. "He is a curious boy, indeed. It seems he has no knowledge of what lurks outside the barrier, and I believe, some day, he would be killed by wild beasts lurking on those murky woods if he ever tries to indulge on his curiosity."
Of course. A sigh almost escapes Voldemort's lips. Every year, as he continues to live, his would-be destroyer becomes bolder and braver and perhaps losing braincells along the way. "Keep an eye out. That boy would die and seal his own fate before I could."
"My Lord, do you mean I simply observe... Or do I find a way to stop it?"
"Let no harm come to him. He must not perish." Not yet.
Voldemort decides to visit.
That oversized thing— is not oversized anymore. His head shrunk, his eyes no longer overtaking most of the space on his face, and the child-like innocence he's come to notice before is mostly gone.
He's taller now. The softer lines of his face disappears, emerging harsher features that showed his maturity.
"Is this a normal occurrence?" Voldemort asks, frowning at the obscured sight of a raven-haired boy sleeping beneath the thick, long grasses.
"Yes." Barty presses his mouth, biting an amused snort. "He usually sleeps here in this time of day. The friendlier creatures has deemed him Sleeping Beauty because of it."
(The boy slumbers, plays, runs and laughs. Unbeknownst to a crow and a Lord watching him beneath the shadows.)
Unbeknownst to a Lord who has taken too much interest in a way this boy smiles)
The boy left the barrier.
Voldemort seethes through his gritted fangs. Perhaps he'd finally get rid of his misfortunes and end him. One less stupid thing in this world filled of stupid things.
He encounters a galavanting grey-hound wolf, and decides to threaten question him.
The hound whines from his wrenching grip around its hairy neck. Voldemort has no time for this, for all he knows, that boy could be slaughtered and his organs are left dangling somewhere in the trees.
He tears through the hound's mind, ignoring its cry of protest, and peers in his earlier memories.
In his search, he finds a glimpse of memory, a boy going inside a house built in saccharine sweets, fooled by its false illusion of secutiy, and there, he is invited inside by a kind-looking witch.
That same witch, from what Voldemort knows, has a penchant for green-eyed boys who smelled of summer breeze and freshly rolled grass.
Voldemort arrives right in the moment that the witch is ready to stew herself a next meal, pushing a white-stricken Harry Potter into her blazing oven.
Behind her, she is unaware of the hellfire she brought on herself.
(I knew it, was the first words that left the boy's mouth once the gag on his mouth is released.
You're real, he breathes out, disbelief. The faeries warned me that a stranger watches me in secret. I had my suspicion... I remembered red eyes staring at me when I was a baby and for a while, I thought it was simply a weird dream. Was that you?
They stare. And the boy visibly swallows. What's your name?
I'm not sure you want to know.
He laughs like the hum of summer breeze. Why wouldn't I want to know the name of my protector?
When Voldemort provides no reply, the boy frowns. Oh. You really won't tell me? Fine, I'll just call you Fairy Godmother, that's what I call you to the faeries anyways.
"I was wondering when you'll appear again."
"I was unaware that you were waiting for me at all."
"It's my birthday," he says. "Is that why you came? Have you returned to me with a gift?"
Yes. "No, of course not."
Harry sits on his bed, legs crossed against the other. The snores of his godfathers hum behind thin, cracking walls. If Harry would scream, his guardians would wake instantly.
But Voldemort could easily lure Harry outside, far away where no one could hear him at all. He'd believe anything, this naive, stupid thing.
Harry blinks, moon-lit glasses glinting behind glittering green eyes. "Fairy Godmother?"
Voldemort scowls. "You insist on calling me that? I am neither a fairy nor a mother."
His lips quirk into a sly smirk. "I wouldn't have to if you simply gave me your name."
With a sudden prickle of annoyance, his hand itches to—
Already. Voldemort observes Harry and finds the image of a stupid, oversized thing inside balled up blanket too distant. "Come."
"Where are we going?" Harry whispers, hastily following Voldemort out the front door, and only then does he notice how the boy is barefoot, wearing nothing more than a billowing sleeping dress made of white cotton, his tanned legs underneath wore nothing.
When cold late morning wind blows, Harry shivers. Voldemort refrains to mention it. He continues to dart forward, and Harry struggles to move along his longer strides.
At some point, they reach the end of the barrier. Harry freezes.
"You doubt yourself now? This is not the first time you stepped out of boundary."
"Yeah, but that was before! I'm not stupid to risk it again. Who knows what's in there at this time of day..."
"I'm here," Voldemort claims. "No creature would dare cross us."
"And you're so sure of this because...?"
"I just am," Voldemort responds coolly. "Unless you want to go back—"
"No!" the boy cuts in. "Fine. I'll come with you."
How remarkably easy that Voldemort nearly laughs.
Voldemort watches Harry gape, stunned. His moon-lit glasses glinting behind star-struck eyes. "Indeed. It's a unicorn."
Harry laughs, and Voldemort steps back when the creature of light threads closer to the boy. Watching the young thing with intelligent eyes. Its head bows, and Harry's jaw hinges free. Then with a shaky hand, touches its forehead, his hand engulfing through pure, vivid brightness.
Harry looks to his side. Grinning at him with all of his teeth present.)
Without hesitation, he responds, "No."
"But you will, right?" Harry says, ignoring what he said. "You've been watching me for a long time. I know that crow who spies on me at a basis somehow involves you, I've been seeing it since I was a baby. Now, I can see you."
"Listen here, brat." He points a claw on the sharp edge of his jaw, an inch away from piercing the skin. "I have other matters to attend, more important than playing tea party with a kid like you."
Harry remains motionless. Then, softly, adds with a cheeky smile, "...but you will, right?"
(Every time he comes back, he thinks this time, I'll kill him this time.
Only to come back to his castle, annoyed at this boy who easily slept on his presence, who's moon-glasses hid the starlight of his eyes, who's scent of summer wind and sunlight follows him everywhere.
It repeats the next year.
How old is he? Somehow, Voldemort always forget. And each time, he asks—
"Fifteen. He's turning sixteen tonight," Barty answers. Staring at him intently. "Will this be the year, my Lord?"
The crow-animagus looks at him in question, withholding his breathes as if praying for something.
Voldemort knows Barty, throughout the years of being the boy's observer, has grown weak for him.
Barty isn't pleased at the vague response, but he smartly keeps it to himself.
( Harry brightens at the sight of Voldemort. "You're here," he says, a little shyly. "You said something about a party?"
"I did." Voldemort's scarlet eyes slides at the boy's form. "You're wearing that?"
"What?" Harry pouts. "Is there something wrong with it?"
It isn't, but it's rather... revealing.
His dress shirt hangs loosely on his frame, collar hanging free to expose cold collarbones and long expanse of Harry's neck. If Voldemort observes any close, he could see the vague silhouette of his nipples under the thin sheen material of his shirt.
"Nothing," Voldemort says a tinge too quickly. His voice drier than usual. "Let's just go.")
Voldemort disappears the moment they step into the festivity.
With lanterns hanging above twisty twigs, with people, vampires, ghosts, faeries and a few centaurs all gather together to dance. All gaudy lights and loud music, Voldemort hates it in the same amount as Harry loves it.
Harry drinks a variety of liquor, from cherries, pumpkin and carrots. He explores the food he hasn't eaten, and glances discreetly to the creatures he's never seen up close before.
A vampire even asks him to dance, his eyes, for a brief second, lingering to the wide space of Harry's neck.
Harry cocks his head, considering, then nods, letting an arm curve around his waist and taking him to a moving crowd.
Voldemort does not care. He does not care when anger licks his temper, and the flames rise out to burn the vestiges of control he has left. The burning desire coils in his bones and he wants to—
To lick the teasing skin of his neck
To explore his hands under his shirt and watch him writhe under his touch
What he wants does not matter.
That boy will die, he swears to it, he swears—
( "I'm returning you to your godfathers—"
And Harry pouts— pouts with fruity-scented lips, high off in the colour of his cheeks, and his dress shirt somehow draws looser. "But I'm still dancing."
Voldemort then shoots a glare at Harry's partner from behind. "Not anymore. He left."
His partner pales, and does, in fact, leaves before disappearing out of sight.
Harry is stubborn, and wretches away his arm, folding his arms like a brat. "You didn't dance with me."
Irritable, Voldemort answers back, "You never spoke interest for it."
"That's because you left before I could," Harry grumbles, bemused and annoyed.
The boy peers at his face, unconvinced. "You won't leave this time?"
And that seems enough to break Harry's dampened mood, he smiles, not to its usual cheerful extent, but its there, and it's still bright. Like his moon-lit glasses and starlight eyes. "Okay."
He grabs Voldemort's hand, tight and trustful.)
Apparate to the furthest parts of the woods and kill him
The boy is near-asleep, his fluttering eyelids and hazy irises, and gently, Voldemort places him to bed.
It never fails to surprise him of how his prophecy boy falls asleep lighter than a feather. And the boy is awake, only barely. "...will you ever tell me your name?"
He lets out a quiet chuckle. "You said yet. Does this mean you'll tell me one day?"
"You always seem to keep secrets from me. Will I never know or is that also a not yet?"
"Will you ever stop asking meaningless questions?
"And are they?" Harry whispers. "Are they really meaningless?"
Voldemort plucks the glasses out of the boy's face, ignoring how Harry's face seems softer without them. "For now, they are. Go to sleep."
He looks tired, his body sprawled in a position that could sing and lure a siren. And for a moment, he remembers Harry's earlier instance with the vampire. The beast inside of him bares its teeth, and so Voldemort bares his.
He sucks a small, pale mark on his neck.
Harry is fast asleep. And tomorrow he'd wake up with the sting of his fangs.
The boy, now aged sixteen at the stroke of midnight, lies asleep, neck claimed by a love bite and Voldemort watching him still, thinks next year, he will kill him, for sure.
(He is not aware the Fates above him shake their heads at the man who's not aware he has already fallen)
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