AN: Wrote 50 chapters before I ever thought to publish this. Didn't really care for having the track-record of not finishing a single story, but I finished his first school year and the summer following it, so I thought to publish it anyway as I gather my inner demons to continue writing my other stories.
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"Promise me you'll bring him to Amelia first thing if I don't make it through the night, headmaster," a weak voice demanded.
"*Humm* Selena, I'll do what I can," an aged voice answered in a non-comittal tone.
"I gave you enough information to hit them where it hurts! I demand it," the weak voice said without wavering. "I turned to you as the Lord of the Light side and leader of your little posse because you are supposed to stand for the good! Amelia is the only one I trust to raise him right, especially after what happened to her brother!"
"I do stand for the good, rest assured," the aged voice belonging to the supposed leader of the light promised in a soft voice - as though he wanted everyone, even himself to miss what he said. "What is his name?"
"Talion Macnair. Never let him know that it was Rabastan Lestrange who forced the poor boy to become a part of this world after the dark lord and my father sold me to him. His father is nothing but a cruel monster in human skin," the weak voice offered but started getting weaker.
"I will see to it, Selena. Sleep now, I will try to close your wounds to the best of my abilities," the 'headmaster' coaxed in but a whisper.
Once the weakened voice of a young woman no longer said anything and faint, uneven breathing instead came from the direction, the aged voice spoke once more as it came closer to the one listening in, unbeknownst to all others present.
"Another child born at the end of the seventh month just before midnight. Had she not come near the wards of Hogwarts, I would have never known... he even has a mark, but he received it before he was even born. Surely the boy cannot be marked as Tom's equal before breathing on his own," the voice monologued in contemplation as the owner of the voice picked up the quiet baby. "I'm sorry boy, for doing what is necessary. Just in case the prophecy has to fall to you, I cannot allow you to go to Miss Bones or stay with your mother..."
"Rest assured, Selena," the voice whispered even lower, low enough that it was a wonder the newborn in his arms could hear it. "It might not turn out as you wished, but this is for the greater good..."
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Thirteen years and eleven months later, Talion - named Tim at the orphanage he grew up in - found himself contemplating everything that he knew to be true about the world and learned during the first hours of his life just like every other day.
'Headmaster', 'Lord of Light', 'leader of the order' - Talion was sure his late mother Selena had talked to one 'Albus Dumbledore' the very first minute their conversation started. Despite not knowing this Selena Macnair, every other name in their back-and-forth was familiar to the soul inside the newborn Talion. A soul who grew up reading books and fanfiction on Harry Potter and watching the movies, too, in his last life.
He remembered little else from this prior life of his, but this reincarnation made him acutely aware of his first waking hours on this planet. Selena escaped the clutches of the death eaters and Voldemort the day of his birth and instead of going to the ministry, St Mungo or anywhere else, his mother chose to entrust him to Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts and holder of countless other titles and names.
Born on the same day as the protagonist of the original story Talion is familiar with, Voldemort for one reason or another cast lethal spells upon Selena and in turn hit her womb, marking Talion in the process and making him eligible to be a child of the original prophecy if his mother had defied Voldemort before.
Maybe she was a spy selling information to others? It certainly didn't sound like it was the first time, especially if she was familiar with Amelia Bones who would go on to become the head of the auror department and steadfast enemies of the death eater faction.
And it all led the mature soul to know one thing for certain. Albus Dumbledore ignored his mother's wishes and put him in a 'muggle' orphanage instead of bringing him to Amelia Bones as his mother pleaded.
Another thing he was quite sure about was that Dumbledore did not heal his mother. Either that or she was beyond healing, and she died after Dumbledore dropped him off at the orphanage because Selena must have arrived close to the headmaster badly hurt. He did remember the very first thing in his new body very clearly: Pain.
A wound was inflicted upon him before he left the warmth of his mother's body, and this pain woke him from the haze his consciousness was in upon his rebirth. A wound that turned out to be a permanent scar going perfectly horizontal over the bridge of his nose. It had the length that was almost exactly going from pupil to pupil no matter how much he grew and it was going in a perfect straight line.
It should have been a dark cutting curse his mother, and subsequently he, was hit with because it was only after his first accidental magic that this wound started to close, likely because his own magic willed it so. He wondered every day how Dumbledore could just leave such a scar on a newborn child. Because, despite healing on its own, it hurt every day for years.
No matter what the caretakers tried before that, the wound had blackened edges that just wouldn't close before his magic fixed it at the age of seven. Only after that did the familiar pain slowly fade to an uncomfortable sting and later into a barely perceptible itch.
Over thirteen years after his birth, the scar was a literal pale remnant of what it once was, but even with his fair complexion, it was still noticeable. It didn't mar his decently handsome appearance, though, because instead of drawing attention to his fairly tall nose, it drew attention to his deep blue eyes that sometimes reflected with bronze specks in the correct light.
"This shithole is in London. I have very, very faint control over wandless magic, but shit is hard. Definitive magical outbursts that started when that creep tried taking pictures of the girls in this orphanage. And I'm ninety-nine percent sure I'm a child of prophecy in the Harry Potter universe. Where in the world is my freaking Hogwarts letter?"
Talion stared blankly at the grey wall in front of him. He was sure by now that if this was the Harry Potter world, this was a world operated on different laws - more so because he was living in it, he was sure this was an Alternative Universe, or AU.
"One more month, and I'll escape no matter what. Stupid rule that those that run from the orphanage are not allowed to come back... as terrible as this place is, it beats dying in the streets with even less food than I get here," Talion muttered in deep thought before mocking himself. "If Hogwarts does exist after all, I'll definitely not be enrolled in Gryffindor, that's for sure."
"Well, try number eighty-six. Let's see if almost fourteen is old enough to call on house elves," Talion spoke to nobody with a sigh and suddenly gained a solemn air. "I, Talion Macnair, call on any house elf loyal to House Macnair and House Lestrange."
With a defeated expression, the young boy slumped in his chair when nothing happened.
"Ugh, is it because I'm not dignified enough sitting here in this toilet? At least I don't have my pants down. I guess the fanfics must be wrong or something."
With a shake of his head and an empty look in his eyes, he once more spoke up, "I, Talion Macnair, call upon any free house e-"
A pop was heard from the other side of the door. Talion immediately ripped open the door of the stall to see what was on the other side and saw a beaten down one-meter high humanoid with bat-ears and tennis-ball sized eyes staring at him warily dressed in a flimsy blanket littered with holes.
"You be new master Macnair?" The house elf asked in a cautious, defeated tone. "Will you be needing the services of Patrick?"
"You are Patrick?" The raven-haired boy asked in return, and the house elf nodded, barely meeting his eyes, flinching at every hand movement of Talion.
'Definitely abused, and quite heavily too. Well, that is if house elves behave like they did in the original work - entirely loyal no matter the abuse, unless their name is Dobby,' Talion thought and spoke out. "That depends then, Patrick. Why have you answered my call now and not before? And how many Macnairs beside me are still alive?"
"You be Mistress Selena's son?" The elf asked in return, and Talion narrowed his eyes.
'He responded with a question despite flinching non-stop. Definitely a little different from the original. Or it's because we're not yet bonded, and he isn't entirely sure of my claim of being a Macnair?'
"As far as I am aware, Selena Macnair is my mother. She gave birth to me in the presence of Albus Dumbledore, and to my knowledge, I have been here ever since," Talion answered, though he immediately scolded himself for sharing so many details. He was too excited to finally have contact with the magical world and forgot to be cautious first and to only give out information when asked.
"Mistress Selena was good to Patrick. You be good to Patrick?"
"I don't see why I wouldn't be, if you just answered my questions..." Talion responded, though a little heatedly. One, because he was annoyed at himself, and two, because he was annoyed at this Patrick elf that wouldn't answer his damn questions already.
"Then Patrick will answer. Old master Walden was alive and would have killed young master Talion or worse if he knew of you's existence. So Patrick stayed at old master's side whenever yous called."
Talion narrowed his eyes. The name 'Walden Macnair' faintly meant something to him, but other than him being a death eater, Talion couldn't place any importance to the character. He definitely wasn't as instrumental to the story as Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, or even 'just' the Carrows were among the death eaters.
'Wait, wasn't he that dude the ministry sent to kill Hagrid's hippogriff after it attacked Draco Malfoy?'
"How did Walden Macnair die? And what was his relationship with my mother?"
"Old master was tortured by the dark lord because his daughter defected and was in pain for over a decade before dying eleven days and fourteen hours ago. He was Mistress Selena's father," the elf replied in fond reminiscence that gave Talion the chills.
'Huh, either he really liked Selena or he liked the fact that this alleged grandfather of mine was tortured and died because of the wounds,' Talion calmly observed.
"So I am the last Macnair, and you would bond yourself to me? Is my understanding correct that you can or even must bond to a wizard to receive magic?"
The elf looked around with slightly narrowed eyes before regarding Talion for a moment.
"You be treating Patrick good?"
"Are you asking me if I want to torture you once we're bonded or something? Then the answer to your question is yes, I will treat you good. There's only two people on this planet that I wish to inflict pain onto. And neither of them are you," Talion replied, though smartly whispering the last part in his mind: 'Unless you were somehow involved in my mother getting attacked just before my birth.'
"In that case, Patrick will be happy to bond to you Master Talion," the elf finally relented, though the apprehension was clear in his voice.
A short touch of their hands and a weird sensation running down the top of Talion's spine later, the bond between the two beings in the orphanage's toilet was created.
"Now Patrick, can you answer me a few more questions?"
This time, the house elf gladly complied and straightforwardly answered any question Talion might have.
He was indeed the last Macnair meaning his mother had either died or vanished from the face of the earth, and he was one of two last Lestranges alive who were not imprisoned together with a raving mad great aunt that married into the family. Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom existed, the former being hailed as the boy-who-lived and 'defeater of the dark lord' just like in the original story.
So the scar over the ridge of Talion's nose had no chance of being a horcrux like canon Harry's lightning bolt scar. It was just a barely treated cursed scar, healed by his own magic. One of the many things Dumbledore would pay for at a later date in the boy's mind.
Harry's whereabouts were unknown, and his parents were dead, Neville lived with his grandmother and his famously bed-ridden mother. Frank Longbottom, as opposed to the story, died at the hands of Talion's father and uncle, all the while Bellatrix and Barty Crouch Jr tortured Alice Longbottom but not enough to make her go insane as in the stories.
Instead, Alice lost the use of her legs and was, no - is too weak to leave the house - or so the story in this world goes.
Oh, and most importantly, Hogwarts starts at fourteen in this world. So, his letter would likely come in a few weeks at most. It was early July already, and the new year would start at the first of September. That had not changed. And what a timing it was.
No matter what plans Dumbledore had for him, Talion wouldn't want to alert him of any unwanted changes, so the boy decided to remain in the orphanage for this year at the very least. His grandfather did leave him a house near Glasgow in the south of Scotland that he could live in with Patrick - well, unbeknown to the dead man. His family's wealth was mostly squandered according to the elf, but it would suffice for the near future while he was undergoing his magical education in style.
Talion instructed the house elf to bring him any books in his grandfather's possession that he thought would aid him in knowing more about magical society and introductions to magic, so that was what the boy did for the next few weeks. Walden's library was apparently not very broad, so before his Hogwarts letter arrived, the boy had actually read every book Patrick was willing to give him. There were a few more books on 'banned magic' that he couldn't get just yet, but Talion didn't mind that too much. It was best to read such books when he had solid foundations.
'Every book' might sound like a lot, but the texts in magic books had so little substance that Talion at some point started barely glancing at the pages to judge whether they held any information or if they were just tales of how the author used the spell to get one over on a rival or some such drivel.
He already knew plenty of sadistic curses and 'prank spells' even without reading the banned texts. Even Patrick thought they were too much anyway, but his foundations on actually spell-casting were obviously lacking. There was very little in terms of introductory books in Walden's possession, apparently.
When his letter finally did arrive, the owl had a letter addressed to the very numbered bed he had in the big room for the boys of the orphanage that Talion shared with nineteen others.
Nineteen forgettable nobodies that left no impression on Talion other than being weak-willed bullies that blamed the world for their circumstances and were taught no other way of thinking in the years he stayed here. He had once attempted to offer the kids in the orphanage a different outlook in life, but this place just had a way of dragging everything down with it.
The Hogwarts letter in the meantime read the exact same thing it read in canon, except that it simply strongly advised parents not to let their kids bring any brooms of their own if they were first years instead of banning them. There was also a little note that told Talion a professor would come to him two days from now on the second of August.