FIC: Playing Favourites - PG-13 - ADHP

[batsutousai]

Title: Playing Favourites
Chapter Title: Golden Green
Author: batsutousai
Rating: PG-13/T
Pairings: Albus/Tom Riddle, Albus/Harry
Warnings: superpower!Harry, not-human!Harry, superpower!Dumbledore, not-human!Dumbledore, AU, crazed author
Summary: 'Power attracts power,' at least, that was his excuse.

Disclaim Her: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A/N: Wrote this a while ago. Don't have anything better to do than type this out - it's in a notebook - and post it, 'specially since I'm still out of ideas for everything else. Yell at me at your leisure.

Wrote this one time when wondering if I could write an Albus/Harry that others would read and not kill me for. Give it a chance.



Golden Green

He'd always had favourites, but he'd never acted on them before Tom Riddle. He shouldn't have acted, of course. Tom had viewed his favour the wrong way. He'd been used by young Tom to gain power and authority.

After the mistake with Tom Riddle, he did much thinking and took care not to act on his favourites - took care not to make that mistake a second time. He managed three centuries until he found a favourite he couldn't resist; a young man who would never abuse his power.

§¤§

Harry Potter was like any other boy his age….

Well, okay, he wasn't.

Harry Potter was a wizard and he went to a magical school called Hogwarts. He lived with his very unmagical aunt and uncle in their very unmagical home in Little Whinging, Surrey, England. Harry's parents and godfather had died when a portkey had failed while Harry was only two. Harry had been visiting his parents' best friend, Remus Lupin, at the time and so had survived. Only to be thrust upon his aunt and uncle - who wanted nothing to do with him and 'his kind' - by the Ministry of Magic.

Harry had spent the last six years of his schooling at Hogwarts and was finally coming of age - seventeen - in all of two minutes. In two minutes, he could curse his relatives and not get dragged in to the Ministry for under-age use of magic. Not that he would actually curse them, much as he might dream of it.

Harry had two great friends at Hogwarts - Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger. The three had been slow to make friends, but once the friendship had been formed, it had been impossible to destroy. Harry was grateful for that friendship, too. He doubted that he could have survived Snape without their help.

Harry heard a faint beep - the sound of his watch reaching the hour - and a sudden heat came over him. It wasn't a particularly comfortable sort of heat, but nor was it one that he couldn't handle. With a grumble, Harry checked that his door was locked - his only safety against his cousin's nasty sense of humour - then stripped and opened his window farther.

Nothing helped. In fact, the heat was starting to become unbearable. It was especially bad in his upper back, near is shoulder blades.

So distracted by the heat that was consuming him, Harry didn't see the man who formed before him out of glittering light. This man had auburn hair and kindly blue eyes. He had a beard that was tucked into the pure white belt of his pure white robes. The thing that proved he wasn't human - beyond the unearthly glow that still seemed to surround him - were his pure white wings, which arched through the air above and behind him.

The new man stepped forward and drew the distracted Harry against his chest. 'Do not fight it, my child. Allow it to do it's work.'

Harry let out a whimper and grasped at the white robes. 'It hurts,' he gasped. 'Make it stop.'

The man gently turned Harry's face up and brushed his lips against those of the boy. 'Don't fight the pain.'

Another whimper slipped from Harry's lips and his grip on the robes tightened. 'I can't.'

'You can, dear Harry,' the man whispered before caringly claiming the boy's lips.

Harry gasped and found himself paying attention to the soothing tongue that entered his mouth. The tongue that stroked against his own and cajoled him into a playful dance. It was a dance that pulled his attention away from the pain of his back.

Suddenly, Harry screamed in pain as golden wings burst from his back, flaring out behind him like a flag in a sudden wind.

The man just held the boy, his own wings caressing the newly-formed golden ones. The only sound he made was a soothing hum.

Heat and pain disappeared and Harry found himself naked in the embrace of a man he didn't know. A man with wings, no less. He tugged away and gave the man a suspicious look. 'Who are you?'

'Albus Dumbledore,' the man replied with a touch of a smile.

'What are you doing in my room?'

'I'm here to help you come into your destiny.'

'And what might that be?'

'To ascend to Heaven as an Angel, of course.'

Harry's new wings, which had been laying peacefully against his back, flared out behind him as expressive green eyes filled with anger. 'No.'

Albus blinked in confusion. 'No?'

'No,' Harry agreed. 'I'm not leaving. Get rid of these - these things and go away!' he ended in a slightly panicked voice.

Albus shook his head, beginning to wonder if he'd picked the wrong human to change. 'Once your body accepts the wings, they cannot be taken back.'

'They have to! If people see them, they'll know I'm a-!' Harry slammed a hand over his mouth to cut off what his relatives called him.

Albus' eyes flashed. 'You're not a freak, Harry. You are an extremely gifted individual, but that doesn't make you a freak.'

Harry hugged himself protectively, his wings moving on their own to overlap his arms and hide more of his exposed body. 'Get rid of them. Please?' Harry whispered, eyes wide and hopeless.

Albus sighed. 'You can will them away.'

Harry blinked, then closed his eyes and imagined the wings not being there. It was much easier than he expected.

When Harry opened his eyes again, he found Albus watching him with sad eyes, his wings drooping. 'Are you certain you don't wish to come to Heaven?'

Harry looked away uncomfortably. 'Can Hermione and Neville come too?'

'I'm afraid not,' Albus replied with a sigh. Had he known the two humans would hold Harry back, he would have kept the three apart.

'Then I'm staying here. With them.'

'Very well,' Albus agreed, knowing better than to press. 'Know that you will always retain a home in Heaven, when you wish to claim it.'

'Fine.'

'Before I leave, I should give you a few warnings.'

'Warnings?!' Panic filled Harry's eyes.

'It's nothing to lose sleep over, child.' Albus chuckled.

'Just tell me.'

Albus nodded and turned serious. 'Angels are magically stronger than humans, so you'll probably find that you can perform spells easier than before and even master things that you could only dream of before. You'll also find that you've gained various gifts. Use the rest of the summer to explore and learn to control them.'

Harry nodded in understanding. 'Is that all?'

Albus shrugged. 'Basically. If you need any help, call me and I will come. Good night, Harry.'

'Good night,' Harry whispered, then watched as the man faded into twinkling lights, which faded from sight.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

A/N: So. Harry's an Angel. Albus is.... something. XD
Harry's not big on Albus right now - what would you think if you grew up being called a freak all the time for natural gifts and then this guy pops up and makes you even more of a freak? XD Tom's kinda on the other end of the spectrum - he might show up later.

As you can see, we don't have Voldemort in this, so a lot of things are different. Harry's not the famous Boy-Who-Lived, and Neville never lost his parents. Lots of things are different. For your reference, here's a list of the main teachers at Hogwarts and what they teach, etc:
- Minerva McGonagall - Headmistress
- Horus Slughorn - Potions, Head of Slytherin
- Severus Snape - Defense Against the Dark Arts
- Remus Lupin - Transfiguration, Head of Gryffindor
- Filius Flitwick - Charms, Head of Ravenclaw, Deputy Headmaster
- Pomona Sprout - Herbology, Head of Hufflepuff
- Rubeus Hagrid - Care of Magical Creatures, Keeper of Grounds and Keys (DID complete his education)
Consider everyone else to be the same. These are the classes that Harry's still taking, which is the only reason I - at the very least - care.

I've got the next chapter written in my notebook and I'll type that up directly. There's not much of three written, but I'll see what I can do.
Alternately, if no one likes this, I won't continue it. Then it'll be a moot point, won't it? XD

~Bats

Chapters:
1 - Golden Green ||| 2 - Helpless
Discontinued

.

Comments

[hekelachan.livejournal.com]

Ya'know I love you right?

I really didn't like this. I didn't hate it, but it just didn't catch my attention. At least it wasn't Old-Man-Albus, that would have been yuck.

I did like the decription of the world you made without Tommy-boy and Albus. That universe could turn into something very interesting depending on what you do with it.

:runs and hides for giving a negative review:

[batsutousai]

*pets* Worry not, your icon makes up for all. XD

I knew I was going to get negative reviews, so concern yourself not. At least you're not flaming me. ^.~

[(Anonymous)]

I'll just be blunt, shall I? I don't like this. It's not hateful, but I wasn't very interested in it. I don't get the sense of anticipation to read the next chapter like I do the rest of your stories. Umm... sorry?

*goes to hide with hekelachan*

~Shadow Nashira~

[batsutousai]

*chuckles* That's fine. I'm still glad to hear your thoughts.

[ladyphoenixia.livejournal.com]

The concept of the story sounds interesting, but I'm still not at all into the idea of Harry/Albus. Still, I'm sure you can convert me eventually... though I think a bit of Harry/Tom could make for fun and cause much angst to Albus. ;)

[batsutousai]

*snickers* I dunno. I was kinda planning to keep Tom and Harry apart, but you might be able to talk me into it... XD

[raven-kerry.livejournal.com]

hmm...sounds interesting so far. Me like. Looking forward to the continuation. ^^

[batsutousai]

Hai, hai! ^.~

[raven-kerry.livejournal.com]

lol, cute ava ^^ in general though, your avatars are cute...and cool. maybe you'd think of making a new set and post an entry for them? *looks hopeful*

[batsutousai]

You mean the icon? Hardly. I get most of them from other people. I do tend to make posts when I make new ones - not so often, that.

[raven-kerry.livejournal.com]

aw, too bad ^^' the texts on the ones you make are fantastic as well ^^ (even though there's only one link to them in your memories and I haven't seen any other than those).

[batsutousai]

I think I only ever made one set for people in general. Ocassionally, I'll make a new one for myself....

[raven-kerry.livejournal.com]

yeah, well, I did devour the set that you posted - and pointed it out as being really cool and funny to everyone I know ^^

[(Anonymous)]

Nope, still squicks me. And I get that Albus isn't trying to be evil, I do, but he still scares me.

Which really makes me wonder why I don't have as much of a problem with Voldemort/Harry (the ones where Voldemort has almost complete power over Harry). Maybe that's the problem. To me, it reads like chan at the moment. Harry is too innocent, and Albus has too much power. And I can take a Voldemort who abuses his power, because he's evil, but Albus 'playing favourites' in the way implied by the pairing is actually worse because I think he's 'good'.

Still, thanks for writing, and for making me think. I might read the next chapter, just to see if I like it better, but...

cloe

[batsutousai]

I totally understand where you're coming from, though. I had second thoughts the first time I considered the idea of Albus/Harry - even Albus/Tom doesn't seem so wrong. Part of it's the 'good' corrupting the 'innocent', I suppose. The age difference is another factor - Albus is way older than Harry, more so than Tom, definately.

If it makes you feel any better, Harry doesn't quite let Albus take over his life in this fic. He kinda takes things into his own hands.