Into the Light.

Chapter 1- An Unexpected Realization

The boy trembled, huddling in the corner of his cell. His eyes were wide like saucers and so incredibly dead. Lucius could feel the fear and terror coming off him in waves.
"It's alright little one. I won't harm you. You are safe." His voice, though calm and gentle, only served to terrify the child further. The boy backed up into a corner. Trembling violently, soft whimpers escaping his throat. Lucius ducked into the cell. It was tiny, barely able for a person stand comfortably in without being pressed against the wall. The child however made the tiny room seem like a ballroom whilst he crouched alone inside. Just more proof to the child's abuse and torture in the hands of the Light.

Three years ago, the light had fallen and Wizarding Britain was taken over by the Dark Lord. Though allowed to live peace fully and.. Well... Normally, people who rebelled were executed immediately. The Potters were full time rebels, living in hiding and training their son against the dark. James had been captured only two nights ago and in his torture he had revealed a very disturbing fact. He had kept a child imprisoned in the basements of Potter Manor since it was a baby.
Twelve years ago the Dark Lords wife had been kidnapped when she was seven months pregnant. Three months after her body had been found dead in a gutter. The child had been placed with a family and The Dark Lord had never set his eyes on the baby. Now a child had been found, nearing its twelfth birthday. A child not even Lilly Potter knew existed. If that was not coincidence then Lucius Malfoy would turn himself in for Death Eater activity.

"Severus. In here. I found the child." He kept his voice low, but Severus had keener senses from working with potions for days on end. Severus watched the boy as he squeezed himself in behind Lucius. Severus gasped at the sight before him 'Merlin! He looks like a skeleton.' The boy was far too thin, every rib was visible through his skin and the skin itself was so pale it was near translucent. Scars covered every inch of the child's skinny frame and his wrists were rubbed raw where shackles had ones bound him. His ankles were still bound in irons and his feet were red and blistered from the cold stone beneath his bare feet. His face was hollow and gaunt, the look of a longtime Azkaban inmate. His brown hair was matted and lice infested. It's greasy locks were long, reaching to the boys thighs and would have been magnificent had it been cared for. When the boy turned his hollow face towards the Potions Master he nearly screamed. Looking into the face of Severus Snape was the Dark Lord's red eyes.
These eyes however didn't sparkle with cold malice or light humour when around friends. What should have been a majestic (and Condescending) gaze was empty, emotionless, and lifeless. Years of pain, neglect and torture had seeped into a child's gaze and killed the light that should have been there. This child had seen and experienced horrors that even a Death Eater wouldn't be able to survive.
"Is it him Severus? Have we found him?" Severus could only nod numbly.

The child was trembling in his corner. The terrifying yet heart wrenching whimpers had stopped and left the boy unnervingly quiet. After moments of motionless silence the child reached out to Severus, his grubby hands gripping the fabric of the cloak like a lifeline. Then his life was flashing before his eyes. Every beating and torture he had ever experienced was being unloaded into the body of the boy at his feet. Then as quickly as it had occurred, it was over and the boy lay panting and shivering at Severus's feet.
"He's clairvoyant..." Severus whispered, his disbelief colouring his voice. Every question as to why Potter had kept the boy instead of killing him was answered.
"That was how Potter kept finding our minor bases. He kept the clothes of the captured men and gave them to him. The boy was tortured if he didn't tell what he saw. Hell, he was probably tortured anyway." Lucius growled at the new information. The Dark Lords son had been forced to betray them. Then again it wasn't really betrayal if he didn't understand what was going on or what the information was used for.
"Do you remember your name child?" The boy only stared blankly back at Lucius, then answered with the most heartbreaking answer a child could utter.
"Creature."

~~~~A Light is Born~~~~~~~

The emaciated child crouched in the corner, his long hair falling in pools on the filthy, blood covered concrete floor. Severus wanted nothing more that to pick him up and comfort him but knew what would happen if he came within touching distance.
"We have come to take you away from here child. To take you somewhere safe." Severus almost smacked Lucius as the boy cried out, his fear nearly palpable. Tears coursed down the child's grubby little face.
"We won't hurt you, we have have come to help you dear child. Not harm you." The boy just shook his head and curled farther into himself, trembling harder. Lucius drew his wand to stupefy the boy, but the motion caused the boy to shriek in fear and remembered pain. His mouth worked, trying to beg for mercy, or death, anything, but the sound escaped him. The wand that trembled before his face brought back the images of the sneering man with cruel eyes.
Lucius quickly cast the spell and knocked out the boy before he passed out in his panic.
"I think that James potter wishes he were dead right now. If not, then he soon will." Severus growled in pure hatred, "the Dark Lord will not forgive him, he will never forgive him. I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM! HE TOOK MY DALEN! MY GODSON!" Severus raged his hatred and anger taking over his mind. Lucius winced, James Potter was never going to be given mercy for his crimes, and death was one of those mercies. Even if he escaped, his sanity would never be intact.
It took a few hours, but the shackles that Dalen had worn were removed and destroyed. Carefully picking up the emaciated child Lucius carried him to the front entrance of the Potter Manor alone, understanding that Severus needed to see what had been done to his precious godson. He nodded curtly to the Death Eaters that had stood guard outside the wards.
"Severus will need help searching the house, take nothing that he doesn't tell you to take. We are not on a raid. This was a rescue mission. Tell him I have gone back to the Dark Lord, and he is to join me when you are finished, bring the evidence." With that Lucius activated the portkey and vanished with a pop.

~~~~~~A Light is Born~~~~~~~
"Death Eaters! At Potter Manor! I saw 'em with me own eyes I did!" The many people around the table gasped, Lilly Potter stood abruptly,
"So, they have taken and most likely killed my husband, and now, the bastards raid my home and all our belongings? Haven't they taken enough?" She raged, tears dripping down her cheeks.
"Now now everyone. We will get nowhere panicking and running around like headless chickens. I have no doubt that the Death Eaters were raiding the house, but I have yet to see a reason why they have." Aberforth Dumbledore said, his face serious.
"Come now Ms Potter, nothing to distress about. They had orders to take nothin' without permission. The only thing that I saw removed was a child. Poor thing at that. Looked like nothin' more than a livin' skeleton. Poor thing was mostly naked and looked like he had been tortured to near death. Also heard Lucius Malfoy saying that they were on no raid, but a rescue mission." Daedalus Diggle informed them.
"A rescue mission?" Albus Dumbledore stood in front of the gathering, his pink robes falling to the floor but his ice blue eyes were void of the usual twinkling. "Death Eaters rescued a child from Potter Manor?" At a slight nod from Diggle, Albus collapsed boneless into a chair.
"What have you done James Potter? What in the name of merlin have you done?"
TBC.

A.N: So, there you go. This has been sitting in my book for quite some time now, and I finally got the first part done. Yay. So in this Voldemort discarded the prophecy and took over Wizarding Britain. Hogwarts is under his control but he left it as it was. Voldemort is still very much Tom Riddle and not insane. More on Dalen and Severus later all will be explained.