Chapter 1 – On my way

The raven haired boy was sitting alone in the train compartment, looking at the passing scenery, culled by the rhythmic motion of the Hogwarts Express. It was his first day to Hogwarts, his first day away from his parents, his first day away from his brother.

He should have felt a little homesick, perhaps excited but a little scared of being by himself. Useless to say he wasn't. Although he felt excited to finally being sent to the fabled school of wonders, the dominating feeling was elation and a newfound sense of freedom.

Who could blame him? Being the eldest brother to the Boy-Who-Lived wasn't only a big responsibility and a burden at times , but it came with the curse of being overshadowed on a principle.

He didn't hate his brother Alex, how could he? The events of that accursed Halloween weren't his choice and he actually pitied him for his hyphenated title.

He didn't hate his parents either. He understood that having a celebrity for a son was no small task, especially if you tried, and succeeded, in raising said child like a decent human being instead of a ego-inflated brat with delusions of grandeur. No, no, their parents did their very best to provide a loving family for the both of them, but the fact remained that having the Boy-Who-Lived as a relative was an handful, and as such, the youngest boy had always been the center of the attention whether inside their home or in the rest of the world.

It wasn't a big thing. The few instances where his parents had… failed is too much of a big word… stumbled where he was concerned were completely justifiable and not such a big deal to begin with. A few missed birthdays, for which their parents apologized profusely afterwards, were the most noticeable instances of his situation. The last time it had happened, the previous year, his mother actually broke down crying calling herself a failure for forgetting his son's birthday again. It took him almost half an hour to calm her down. Half an hour she spent hugging him and being hugged back. In the boy's opinion those thirty minutes dedicated to him alone were the greatest gift ever. Afterwards he felt ashamed that his mother's tears made him feel good, but he couldn't avoid the warm feeling that spread through his chest when she hugged him fiercely and told him she loved him.

His father wasn't much different even if he showed less hurt at his forgetfulness it was clear in his eyes that he actually felt sorry for failing his son.

The boy accepted their apologies and dismissed their fear of being awful parents telling them he understood completely the burden they carried between their jobs and the media circus rotating around his brother.

Even if the Potter were an Ancient and Noble House, which meant they had vaults full of gold, neither James nor Lily were the kind of persons to sit back and enjoy their lives, not when the world that had produced Voldemort and his Death Eaters was still ruled by the same people as before, but that only meant that they had less and less time for their eldest son, and while the boy's precocious brain understood all the reasons behind his plight, his heart still yearned for love and attention.

He had been the greatest big brother a child could hope to have and that was exactly the crux of the matter. He was the Boy-Who-Lived's brother and just that in the eye of the world. His fate was to live in his shadow, unmentioned in the pages of history, forgotten to the sands of time; at best he was to be a secondary character, someone that everybody would forget as soon as the page was turned.

Harry James Potter had only one opinion on the matter, that could be resumed dryly as 'Fuck that.'

The door was suddenly pulled open and a witch with red curly hair entered dragging a trunk behind her.

"Hi. Can I sit here?" the girls asked. "I'm trying to hide from an annoying friend of mine. To you mind sharing your compartment with me?"

"Not at all. Make yourself comfortable. Need an hand with your luggage?"

Without waiting for an answer Harry helped the girl putting her trunk in the space above her seat.

"Thank you. I'm Stephanie Chambers by the way," the girls said offering her hand.

"Harry Potter, pleased to meet you Stephanie," he shook her hand.

"Likewise. Harry Potter you said. Any relation to the Boy-Who-Lived?"

Harry held back a sigh . "I'm his older brother if you really want to know," he said without letting the annoyance drip in his voice.

"Oh. I didn't know he had a brother." The girl said surprised.

"It's not common knowledge these days. Not all the Potters managed to reach the spotlight in one single night. I'm still working on my own fame," he said good-naturedly. The girl laughed in response.

"I suppose that's true. Not everybody gets famous at fifteen months for vanquishing a Dark Lord." A moment o silence passed between them as the girl thought that asking him about his famous brother wasn't something the boy would want to talk about. "So, Hogwarts," she exclaimed. "What House do you think you'll be in?"

Glad for the considerate and obvious change of topic Harry was more than happy to engage in meaningless and frivolous conversation.

"I don't have anything against any House since I think I have some traits from all. I'm somewhat a bookworm though so I think Ravenclaw is the most probable outcome," he explained with a smile.

"I think I'll be in Slytherin," Stephanie said, "just like mom was. Dad was a Hufflepuff but everybody said I've taken everything from mom, and I agree."

"So… ambitious and cunning with a taste for politics?"

"You forgot evil and with a plan to rule Britain from the shadows, or you don't endorse the belief that all Slytherins are Dark?" she asked. Harry scoffed at the idea.

"Like I'll believe any of that nonsense. Granted most Dark Wizards and Witches came from the House of Snakes but that's a given since ambition is the most common trait among them. However Dark Wizards are a minority of the population and there have been Death Eaters from every House in the past war. Barty Couch Jr. for instance came from Hufflepuff and Peter Pettigrew was from Gryffindor."

"Yes, that's true. It's good to finally meet someone so open-minded. I was starting to fear that I wouldn't have any friend outside my House," she said honestly.

"Aren't you worrying a little too soon?" Harry asked. "You still have to be sorted. There is no guarantee that you'll end up in Slytherin before the sorting."

"Nah. I know myself well enough. I always think how I can get an advantage out of any situation, even if don't do anything to actually get something from it. It's just the way I'm wired, you know?"

"And honest too, I'd say," Harry answered, noticing how she just used a Muggle expression. So, either one of her parents was a Muggleborn or they meddled with the other side often enough to pick up a few traits. He didn't tell her but he too had the same analytical mindset. "Definitely no Death Eater material. Let me guess… Pureblood mother and Muggleborn or Half-blood father."

"H-how do you know?" the girl asked befuddled.

"Told ya I've got traits from all Houses. You just said wired. We don't wire anything in the Wizarding World. It's a Muggle expression," he explained.

"Wow. But I could have been that we have connection with the Muggle World and I picked up the line somewhere there," she pointed out. Harry shrugged in response.

"Hmm. Hufflepuff has the high ratio of Muggleborns in Hogwarts since ever and magical children are rarely brought outside of the Wizarding World before they get a wand in case a burst of accidental magic breaks the Stature of Secrecy. It seems difficult that your parents might have passed that particular word to you in that context if none of them was from the Muggle side."

"And you know all of this, how?"

"Bookworm, remember? Information is power and it serves my ambitions well to know about everything."

"Oh? And what are your ambitions Mr. Potter?" she asked playfully. She actually liked the exchange, the boy wasn't as thick as the other males in her age group and he hadn't mentioned Quidditch yet. Merlin forbid, had she actually met a male worth befriending?

"Telling would only ruin the surprise. You'll have to find out when everybody else does."

"Awww? Pretty please?" she asked making the biggest puppy expression she could muster. Harry just laughed at that.

"I'm sorry, that's not going to work."

She moved to the seat beside him and locked her arms with his trying the womanly approach.

"Pleeease?" she cooed in his ears . Again Harry just laughed at her antics. The girl had some guts if she pulled that kind of move on someone she had just met.

"Sorry again, I haven't hit that stage yet, so womanly vile won't work on me either. You might want to try that again in a couple of years."

She was about to make a witty remark when the door was opened again this time by a blond haired boy. The awkwardness of the situation they have been found into granted five seconds of undisturbed silence among them, exactly the time it took for the newcomer's jaw to slowly open to its full extension while his brown eyes filled themselves with unshed tears. Said tears burst from their container as the boy fell to his knees, holding his crying face, wailing desperately.

"NO-OOOOOOHHH," he cried at the top of his lungs. "STEPHIE HAS BEEN SNATCHED AWAY AND WE AREN'T EVEN AT HOGWARTS YET. NOOOO-OOHH!"

"Archibald," Stephanie tried calling the boy as she untangled herself from Harry's arm. "Archibald!" She tried again to no avail. The boy just kept crying his heart out while the other students began looking out of their compartments to see who was crying and why. "ARCHIE!" she finally screamed getting a reaction out of him. The boy head snapped up to meet her gaze with a dazed expression. Suddenly he jumped back on his feet and rushed to embrace the girl.

"OOOOH! STEPHIE, YOU RETURN TO ME. YOU FINALLY REALIZE THE DEPTHS OF MY LOVE FOR YOU AND CAME BACK Ghrrkkkk…" Archibald's tirade died in his throat with a strangled sound. It took Harry a second to realize that Stephanie had kneed the other boy in the groin with enough strength to make his eyes roll in the back of his head. Reflexively Harry closed his legs trying to suppress the sudden shiver of emphatic pain that most males feel when witnessing someone of the same gender suffer that kind of injury.

Archibald fell to the ground, stiff as a board, in the same exact position as he was while he hugged Stephanie. He could have passed for petrified if not for the foam forming at the corner of his mouth. To Harry the scene was both horrific and amusing at the same time. Such emotions, so far apart from each other, left him dumbfounded and without any idea of how to react. In his youthful mind staying out of their business and watch the situation unfold was the best course of action he could imagine at the time. Little did he know that he had just spared himself a world of pain.

"I'm getting tired of your antics Archie," the girl said rubbing her temple. "Why won't you understand and just give up?"

"My love… argh… My love for you won't falter just because of a little pain," the boy declared in a suspiciously falsetto voice as he stood up.

"I know," Stephanie sighed exasperated. "We wouldn't be here talking about it if that was the case. Now come inside and close the door. We have given enough of a show already."

"Yes, my darling~" Archibald singsonged seemingly unfazed by his previous injuries. Harry thought that perhaps the boy was used to that kind of treatment seeing how familiar he was with the girl.

"Harry, I have the displeasure of introducing you my childhood friend and nightmare Archibald Rowles . Archibald, this is Harry Potter."

"Pleased to meet you," Harry said as he shook his hand.

"Likewise, " Archie replied with a smile, "I'm going to kill you if you make a move on Stephanie, got it?" He added in a whisper as he began to squeeze Harry's hand tighter to enforce his threat.

Not one to step back from a challenge, Harry smiled back while he reciprocated the gesture with more force than his skinny frame suggested he could muster. Soon enough Archibald's expression faltered in a strained mockery of his previous smile and a thick sweat drop formed on his forehead. His hand made a suspiciously cracking sound as he tried to wriggle his appendage out of Harry's death grip.

"Boys… behave," Stephanie admonished. Harry released his grips feigning ignorance.

"I don't know what you're talking about Stephanie. Archie and me were just introducing each other."

"Riiiight," she drawled as she watched Archie massaging his abused hand, not that she felt any sympathy for him.

"So is this the annoying friend you were hiding from?"

"What gave it away?" She asked ironically.

"The vicious kneeing you delivered was quite the hint. Not that I wouldn't have done the same in your place. Some people seem to understand only through pain. It's such a bother."

"You know, I'm standing right here," Archibald replied.

"Like you'd let us forget about it," Stephanie said with sarcasm. Archibald let the tears run freely from his eyes but said nothing more. There is just so much pain a guy can take in a certain amount of time before he just shuts up and starts sulking.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and Archibald joined the conversation once his brain managed to put aside the pain of rejection. It turned out that his father owned a renown Potion laboratory that employed several potioneers while Stephanie parents worked both for the Ministry. She didn't say exactly what they did but Harry got the impression that they were somewhat important in the high circles even if their names were not know to him. Either Stephanie exaggerated with her parents' work description or they worked for a branch of the Ministry that didn't advertise his members, namely the Unspeakables. In Harry's opinion she was too direct and honest to embellish her words without having anything to gain out of it.

Soon it was time to change in her uniform and both boys left the compartment to leave Stephanie enough privacy to undress.

"So," began Harry, "you're in love with Stephanie or you are just trying to annoy her?"

"Hm? Oh yeah. I've liked her since before I knew what it meant to like somebody. We have been together since we were in diapers and I honestly couldn't picture myself being with anybody else."

"That kind of commitment sounds odd coming from an eleven year old," Harry said flatly. Archibald simply shrugged.

"It's not like I'm trying to fit any given standard. I'm an oddball. Always been, always will be. Got a problem with that?"

Harry chuckled. "Not at all Archie. I think I like that. In fact it's quite the same for me."

"What do you mean?" The other boy asked, his curiosity piqued.

"I'm the brother of the Boy-Who-Lived, Archie. I don't hate or envy my brother or anything like that, but I'm not going to let that be all I'll ever amount to. I don't know what people expect of me besides the obvious and I don't care. I'm going to write my own legend with these hands and show everyone that I'm not just a secondary character in someone else's story."

Archie whistled appreciatively. "Wow. That kind of commitment sound strange coming from an eleven year old," Archie said mocking his previous statement.

"What can I say? I'm an oddball. Got a problem with that?" Harry paid back in kind. They both broke down laughing and they were still holding their stomach when Stephanie opened the door.

"Great. You're bonding. Now you are going to stalk me like he does," she commented.

"Nah. Doesn't look he'd enjoy the competition and I have no interest in a girl so talented in crushing a man's private. I do have some sense of preservation."

"Thank Merlin for small mercies. Come on you two, get changed. We are going to arrive in a few minutes."

"Gotcha boss," They said in unison. Stephanie rolled her eyes at their antics but smiled nonetheless.

And just like the first threads of a friendship that would withstand legendary challenges began forming. Neither Archibald nor Stephanie knew what they had signed for when they had first spoken to Harry that day and neither of them would come to regret it in the following years.

It was the beginning a new story. A story about those not chosen by fate, the story of those who would shake the foundation of the Wizarding World and show that there is no destiny greater than one made by one's own hands. It was the story of the Unchosen.

Author Notes:

A response to CombatWars challenge. Please note that everything related to Harry Potter doesn't belong to me but to J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros Picture if I'm not mistaken. Let it be know that I accepted this challenge for the pleasure of writing and not for CombatWars' "prize"

I originally intended to publish this story on October 31 as per CombatWars challenge but it nagged me to be published so… Anyway I will update with two weeks from today as per issued challenge. From them onward is all fair game. I'm working steadily to my Rise of the Forgotten and I don't plan to let it get old. I'm trying to keep up the pace with around 5K words per week with that story and I have no intention to fall behind.

So… even if already have other Fics running I stumbled into a challenge I couldn't ignore and here we are. I always wanted to write a Harry x Fleur fic and while I don't yet know if this is going to be strictly a HarryxFleur of a HarryxFleurxHermionexDaphne I'm happy anyway. In this fic Harry is around 2 years older than canon. His birthday is somewhere around the middle of September (so that he will be of age in time to put his name in the Goblet of Fire).

The only difference from the challenge is that Harry is two year older than canon and will (maybe) hook up with both Hermione and Daphne at the same time (even if they are younger).

This story is mildly inspired by the legendary and and abandoned "Knowledge is Power" but only in the characters of Archibald and Stephanie. Theor background story is not the same, just so you know.

That's all for now.

Till next time.