Chapter One: The Enchanted Tree
"Hathnasssah Saythuissyua" The little snake hissed as Harry Potter's 3 year old sister continued prodding it with a sharp stick.
"He doesn't like that, Emerald." Harry said. Harry was 4 years old, just a year older than Emerald, his sister. Emerald Potter had been talked about - at length - in a number of prophecies, the most prominent one which stated that she would defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort.
Just two years ago, that prophecy had come true, however, it was not - as many people now believed - Emerald that destroyed Voldemort.
You see, while Emerald 'defeated' Voldemort (and was now called the 'Girl Who Lived'), it had been Harry who had rid the world of the shadowy being just 8 months ago, in the dark forest at the edge of the grounds at Godric's Hollow. Nobody but he knew this, however, or about the depths of Harry's Intelligence.
Harry Potter could even talk to snakes, one that many knew was a dark trait. But nobody but Harry had ever studied parseltongue, since there were so few who could speak it.
Which brings us back to the present, and the snake hissing angrily at Emerald. She stuck her tongue out in Harry's direction, and waved the stick in her hand. Harry was thrown forcibly against the outer wall of Godric's Hollow, the power flowing from the phoenix feather embedded in the stick.
The feather came from a phoenix that seemed always to hang around the house. Ithad allowed Harry to pluck a feather from it's tail, but as soon as Harrys father saw that he had a phoenix feather, he created a makeshift wand for Emerald with it.
Harry had apologized to the phoenix, but it hadn't seemed too concerned. It had also taken to following Harry around the place - to the endless bafflement of his family.
Ah, and I know I've gone off on another tangent...just bear with me as I explain what 'everyone' knows (I know, if 'everyone' knows it, why do I have to explain it?). A phoenix is usually a blueish color, until it 'chooses' a wizard (or witch). When chosen, a phoenix either turns red and gold, or if the wizard is exceptionally powerful, it turns that wizard's favorite color (In Albus Dumbledore's case, his favorite colors are red and gold).
And back to the story (all this could have gone in one line if I didn't love tangents that much...oh, where was I at again? Oh, yes, Harry getting slammed into a wall).
"Harry! What have you done now?" Lily's voice penetrated through the loud ringing in Harry's ears.
"Hawwy inewwupted my fun!" Emerald yelled, bursting into a bout of fake tears.
Lily narrowed her eyes, glaring at the offending boy. "What have you done?" She asked, her voice going dangerously low. "You know how important she is. I'll not have you bothering your sister. Get in the house."
Harry nodded his head, watching as his view seemed to lag quite a bit. Being as dizzy as he was, he did not notice as he caused accidental magic to form animated stars whirling around his head.
"Stop that! It's not funny." Lily growled, waving her hand through the illusions to try forcing them away. Grabbing Harrys shirt collar, Lily forcibly dragged the 4 year old into the house, not noticing that Emerald had stopped crying and was now watching with glee.
Suddenly, before Harry had been completely dragged into the house, Emeralds eyes lit up, as if she had a great idea. Pointing to said snake, which she was glad to see had been stuck to the ground by the makeshift wand. "Hawwy was tawking with the snake! Bad Hawwy!" She shouted after her mother.
Lily froze in her tracks. Through the open window in the wall Harry had been slammed into, Harry heard a glass break, and a loud yell of pain. "What!?" James' yell was heard after he had finished cursing the broken glass into it's base elements. A few seconds later James was seen running through the back door, and Emerald was watching in glee.
"Is this true!?" James and Lily demanded at the same time, as if they had been rehearsing it for months. Harry fearfully shook his head, flinching away from his parents (one of which had released him in shock).
"Liar!" Emerald yelled, bursting into fake tears again, "I saw him! He was tawking with the snake!"
"Don't lie to me, boy!" James hissed. "Did you, or did you not talk to that snake!" It was clear to Harry that he was going to get punished either way, although he had no idea why his father was so prejudiced against parselmouths. Through his secret studies, he had discovered that snakes were one of the most honorable and loyal non-magical animals there were. And many of the magic snakes were even more loyal than phoenixes!
And therefore, if one snake decided to let you understand them, you would therefore understand ALL snakes - same with phoenixes, but there had never been a recorded person to ever speak to a phoenix.
If Harry had been the Boy Who Lived, niether of his parents would have thought him dark. But he wasn't - and to add to that, there had been a prophecy about a black-haired man with emerald-green eyes being the next dark lord. Putting two and two together (as there was a shortage of emerald-green-eyed people in their part of the world), and as Harry had apparently just shown himself to be a dark wizard by tormenting his sister, Lily immediately began crying ("My son is a dark lord!" Lily mumbled between sobs).
Harry knew this wasn't true, but he also knew that one who was guilty usually began shouting about his innocence. ("I'm Innocent!" A faceless voice yelled in Harry's mind). "But I'm not..." Harry mumbled, knowing they wouldn't believe him.
Emerald, being forgotten in her corner of the admittedly small playground behind Godric's Hollow, watched in glee, trying to find anything else to pin on Harry. However, the one thing she forgot about was the phoenix. The phoenix would ruin all her fun! If the phoenix knew what was happening, she would put a stop to it - she always had ('she' being the phoenix) stopped anything bad from happening to Harry. But luck was on Emerald's side, and she didn't need to worry about said phoenix ruining her fun.
James had just kicked Harry (using a banishing charm, not his own feet) far into the dark forest, and hung his head, mumbling, "Why did he have to turn dark?" and turned back to go clean up the mess he hadn't bothered to fix when rushing outside. Lily quickly cought up to him to heal his badly cut - and bleeding - hand with which he crushed said glass.
Once they were out of sight, Emerald cracked up laughing, hoping that was the last she would ever have to see that greedy brother of hers.
-.-
Harry Potter found himself waking up 2 hours later, floating in a slow-moving stream in a really dark forest. Having been in the forest numerous times to do his study on snakes, phoenixes, and other magical animals (sometimes it even baffled himself how he was so intelligent), he wasn't all that worried about getting lost, or being mauled by some creature.
The first thing he noticed, however, was that he didn't recognize where he was. And that was a daunting thought. Imagine being a 4 year old lost in a dark forest without any food, or ways to get food. Not a good thought.
Quickly swimming (Harry didn't know where he learned how to swim, because his parents never let him swim in the over-large swimming pool near the playground behind the house) to the shore, (which wasn't too far away, but he IS pretty tiny) Harry climbed out and tried to shate the water off him like he had seen some dogs doing in the rain a few weeks ago.
Deciding that he had nowhere to go, Harry followed the path, hoping it would take him somewhere that had some food, at least. After walking at most 50 metres, Harry came to a dead end, the trees surrounding him so closely, even his small form couldn't squeeze past them. In front of him, however, was the most peculiar thing he had ever seen (and since he was only 4 years old, AND living with a magical family, there wasn't much of anything he found peculiar). There was a silver tree standing right in front of him, shining brightly as a source of light. But what was stranger than that was that it was reflecting a warped image of himself.
It wasn't reflecting any images of anything else around here, so Harry knew it didn't have a Mirror charm on it. Harry decided to have a better look at his reflection. It looked exactly like himself, except he was taller, and he looked older - like 21 or something. Continueing to study the tree in fascination, Harry was surprized when the reflection began to talk.
"Harry Potter." The reflection spoke, it's eyes not moving, as if it couldn't see anything. "If you are here, listening to this, then I know I have done my job correctly. Even though I know your answer already, I am compelled to ask before I drag you into something as serious as this."
The reflection paused, waiting for Harry to think this over. After a while, it started talking again. "Would you like to hear what I have to say?"
Harry didn't have to think about this. "Yes." He replied with certainty.
"Good. I will ask you a question, however it is not meant to be a riddle: You have arrived at the Tree of Time. This tree had been standing here for many thousands of years, yet has only just appeared mere seconds before you arrived - how can this be?"
Harry thought this over. He knew the answer to this question, but he didn't know what would happen once he answered correctly. "I'm sure you're going to tell me." Harry replied.
"Correct answer. You have passed the first test."
'Test? What test!?' Harry thought, bewildered.
"To be tested further, you must be one of us. We will tell you what we are once you join, however I will tell you this:" The reflection's eyes turned toward Harry for the first time, "It will be the most dangerous thing anyone besides you and those with us have ever done."
Harry took a step back at this, not exactly sure he wanted to know what this man was talking about. Curiosity won at the end, though. "I want to join." Harry replied, stepping forward back to the spot he had been at.
The man smiled at Harry. "Very good, I can finally have some rest...do what you need to do. Step into the tree, and you will have your answers." With that, the man's image dissappeared from the bark of the tree. Without thinking, Harry stepped toward the tree, and touched it. In a whirl of colors, Harry and the tree dissappeared from the dark forest.
-.-
"Ah, Harry. Welcome." Harry heard someone say as he woke up. Harry was lying on a bed of some sort, Harry knew. But he couldn't see anything, as all he COULD see was a bright white light, which was beginning to hurt his eyes. "Don't worry about that light, you'll get used to it...soon enough."
"Who are you?" Harry groaned, covering his eyes with his hands.
"Oh, very silly of me. My name is Padfoot." The voice replied.
"PADFOOT!?" Harry yelled, sitting up and scooting as far away from the voice as he could. In some dim corner of his mind, Harry wondered why the bed was so big, as he hadn't fallen off of it yet.
"Don't worry, young Harry." Padfoot said in a calm voice. "I see James has been talking about me, then? Well, whatever lies he told you, they're not true."
Everyone knew Padfoot - also known as Sirius Black - had tried to betray the Potter family, and had killed the only person who could have told the Potters about his change of colors - Peter Pettigrew.
"You're in Azkaban!" Harry whispered, fearfully. If this man could break out of Azkaban without anyone knowing, he had to be on a warpath.
"I was..." Padfoot said slowly. "But you broke me out, Harry."
End Chapter
A/N: Hello All, this is my first attempt at writing a story. If Harry seems WAY too intelligent for a 4 year old, he's supposed to. If Emerald seems intelligent, she's NOT supposed to be. Oh well.
Oh, and if you're wondering about that riddle type thing thats not supposed to be a riddle, then know this - I don't know any answer to it other than what it means to the story. Which is why Harry didn't give the answer.
No, what the snake said in the beginning is NOT important to the storyline, I just like making up words. Like Guidhleah. It's mine, all mine!
(No, Guidhleah is not used in the story, I just made it up.) I love cliffies as well, I guess I'll just leave you hanging.
I hope you guys like it!
-Dragon Tyrion.