Dante's Inferno

AN: Hi anybody that still follows this story and has not given up hope plus any potentially new readers. I apologise for the loooong wait, but as I stated in the previous chapter RL has been really tough lately. Hopefully things will improve, but know that this story is not abandoned. mithrilandtj: It will be explained in this chapter why people have started to look for Harry only recently :p Elfwyn: You'll just have to wait and see what changes will be made, though I'll say that there will be MAJOR changes from the original. However I truly believe they will make the story better :) MizSworn11: Yes, this is that story :) I hope that people will continue to read this fic, even though the author is such a slow updater :p Please enjoy and R & R since that is what feeds the author :) I have no more school before christmas so it's only work and play, so I might be able to update a lot :O Fingers crossed :) MM


Chapter 3: Soul Mates

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Receiver of the Order of Merlin First Class, Grand Sorcerer; Founder and Secret Keeper of the Order of the Phoenix, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and defeater of Grindelwald sat in his office, he was desperately wracking his brain for good ideas. All his titles and achievements did not seem to help him one iota, nothing was going according to his plans. He had carefully planned out Harry Potter’s entire life, from the boy’s birth, first friends, first love and all the way up to the moment where he would defeat Voldemort in a clash of great powers destroying not only the Dark Lord but also himself in this epic battle. Dying as a martyr was the path that Dumbledore had chosen for the Boy Who Lived. However he had not predicted that the boy would not survive his childhood, the abuse was supposed to toughen up the boy not kill him. He must have miscalculated the degree of sickness in the boy’s muggle uncle, which puzzled him as he rarely miscalculated anything.

Dumbledore had been fully aware of the sickness that seeped through Vernon Dursley’s mind, he had even made sure that he would be the only man to win Petunia’s heart. He had carefully planned everything, he knew that Petunia was weak minded and that she would not step in to stop any abuse. However he had been mistaken, Petunia had stepped in and in her own way she had tried to save her nephew. Abandoning a child in a park was perhaps not the ideal way to do so, but this little action had completely destroyed the old man’s scheme. Dumbledore was of course totally unaware of the fact that the weak-minded woman had actually done a halfway attempt at a decent action, though she had abandoned her nephew, she had also consequently saved him from a paedophile. Had the world been free from Dumbledore and his manipulations Petunia might have been a totally different woman, independent and living in a happy marriage. Dumbledore’s manipulations had made sure that Petunia would never want to raise her nephew alongside her own son, though she might have done so without question had she been the woman she was actually meant to become.

Dumbledore had done her a great wrong, not only had he made sure that Petunia was not accepted to Hogwarts but he had also made sure that she married a man that was not her soul mate. If Dumbledore could have he would also have murdered the woman’s true soul mate, however that man had been to important to his schemes so he had instead merely made sure that he would never be able to meet Petunia under the right circumstances. Not only had he masked her scent as to throw of her intended, but he had also masked her true looks ever since puberty so that she would have as low self-confidence as humanly possible. Furthermore he had also bound her magic so that she would slowly turn mad, Dumbledore truly had little regard for his pawns.

Naturally Dumbledore had known about Harry’s disappearance since day one, after all he had wards around Privet Drive which would alert him to anything special happening to the boy. Thus Dumbledore had been secretly searching for the boy ever since he had learned of his disappearance. After all how hard could it be for a powerful wizard such as himself to find a mere wizard boy, it turned out to be extremely difficult...

Spell after spell gave no results, however Dumbledore knew the boy to be alive. After all no letters came from Gringotts to tell of Harry Potter’s death, his name was still in the book of students and his name was still on the family tree without a time of death. To say that Dumbledore found this entire situation confusing was an understatement, he had even turned to his subordinates for help with the search. He had of course played innocent and unknowing, explaining that Harry’s family had wanted him to receive his muggle education and private tutoring in magic and that Harry just suddenly ran away.

Part of Dumbledore’s plan was to make the wizarding population believe that the boy- who- lived, led a privileged life and that he would never know pain. Which was exactly the way most of the wizarding world claimed that Harry Potter deserved to and should live, after all the sheep of the magical community wouldn’t want to know it even if anything in Harry Potter’s life wasn’t up to snuff. He had been counting on Severus to hate the boy, making Harry hate Slytherins in general. The Malfoy brat was supposed to play an important role, since Harry would have been raised like a muggle he would also have no knowledge of the proper pureblood customs. This would ensure that no friendly feelings would ever develop between the Potter and Malfoy heir, since Harry would perceive Draco as rude and obnoxious maybe even pompous when they met.

Thus the youngest Weasley boy would be the perfect friend for Harry, since he also had little knowledge of proper wizarding customs and culture. A perfect match, Dumbledore had even made sure that Harry would meet a muggleborn witch to make friends with. However they were only to be friends, she would make a perfect love interest for the Weasley brat. The Weasley girl was to be Harry’s love interest, she would be perfect as she had practically been raised on Harry Potter stories. The wizarding world would just gobble up the tripe of Lily and James all over again, after all the Potter’s had been quite famous while still alive and even more so in death which would make it so utterly romantic to have a new carbon copy Potter couple.

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Though Severus had initially been extremely vexed by the fact that he would have to spend his summer searching for the Potter brat, he could not find it in himself to be glad about the boy’s demise. Not only had Severus been completely mistaken about the kind of life that Harry Potter had actually led, but this was also Lily’s son. He wondered what he would have looked like, and furthermore what the world would come to when Lily Evans Potter’s DNA was no longer in this world to be passed on. Severus was sure that this was truly a great loss for the wizarding community, such raw magical power lost for all eternity. It was truly a shame, though his greatest regret would always be that he was not able to protect Lily’s son. She had been at one time his only friend, and he had repaid her kindness with nothing but harsh words and even harsher actions. He had let his bruised pride and ego come in the way of their friendship, and he would always regret it.

Regardless of what people had thought, Severus had never harboured any romantic feelings for Lily. He had always known that women did not interest him, he could appreciate their beauty like anyone else but it was not soft mounds of flesh that filled his dreams. Severus dreamed of hard muscles and firm buttocks, unlike many others he had not felt the pull of his soul mate, thus leading him to believe that his other half had perished. Normally one would feel the pull of one’s mate during puberty, this had not happened to Severus of course this could also mean that the mate had yet to be born. However Severus had never felt anything later on either, he had taken it as a sign that his mate was long gone or even worse that he had been deemed unworthy of a soul mate. He had heard of it happening, people too immersed in dark magic and dark acts could be removed of their right to soul mate.

This was most probably what had happened to Voldemort, since he had spiralled more and more out of control and was mentally unstable to say the least. Being without a mate for a long time would cause very powerful witches and wizards to lose their mind and even worse to lose control of their magic. Before Voldemort was defeated he was extremely volatile, and you would never be prepared for when his magic would lash out. The reason why many death eaters were not that eager to punish Harry Potter for the death of the Dark Lord was because most of his followers were relieved to see him go.

Soul mates were extremely important in the magical world, and thus a series of complicated laws had been created to protect such matches. For example if a witch or wizard found their soul mate after they had already married the old marriage would be automatically annulled by magic, so that they would be free to bond with their intended. Furthermore it was also considered a criminal offense to hinder soul mates from meeting and bonding, since generally children from soul mate matches would be both more fertile and also stronger magically then children from ordinary matches. Many squibs were the results of rape or marriages between magical citizens that were not soul mates, when a witch or wizard became pregnant by rape and did not acknowledge the fetus in a way that indicated that they would love and cherish the child then the child’s magic would often turn against it and make it a squib. Thus squibs were generally pitied by the community, and this lead to the founding of the group S.S.S (Society for the Support of Squibs) sometime in the early 1900s. The group had actually been behind several laws pertaining to squibs, laws that would not only protect them but also help to stop the number of squibs from increasing. One of those new laws was the law that stated that upon the discovery of one’s soul mate, no arranged marriage contracts would be binding thus protecting young purebloods from being promised to a bad match since muggleborns and half bloods in general frowned upon arranged marriages.

However maybe, just maybe Severus still had a soul mate. At least Dante had awoken feelings in him, which he had never felt before and that were new to the surly Potions Master. Perhaps he would discover their connection later on when they were to meet again, though he had never heard of a wizard having a muggle as a soul mate. Nonetheless Severus could have sworn that he felt some magic spark between himself and Dante during their copulation, it couldn’t be, could it? Was Dante really a wizard?

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Dante was really worried about meeting Severus again, they had agreed to dine together at a muggle restaurant that an acquaintance of Dante had introduced him to. In fact Dante had enjoyed their food so much that he had eventually convinced his father to buy out one of the owners of the restaurant. Dante had known that it would be a good investment, to his father’s surprise Dante had always known what would be good investments. Though his father had never asked for more details on the matter and had merely chalked it up to his son’s gifts.

At the thought of his father it felt like a hand squeezed his heart, he had never really recovered that much from the death of his father. It was a fairly recent event, his father had been brutally killed during their rescue of Caspian. Needless to say Dante had repaid the favour in kind, the people behind the incident were no more and neither was their organization. Dante’s father had been his one safety net, the only person he trusted above everyone else. A man that had taken in a street rat and tried to raise him to become not only his own person, but also allowing him the freedom he was used to from his street years. His father had never treated him like a child, knowing that his son had been past the point of no return when it came to being a child. Dante had never had a traditional childhood, and thus being like a child had been extremely difficult. His adoptive father had understood this and had been able to find a successful balance when raising his son.

Antonio Pericolo, had by no means been an old man and yet his hair had been snow white. He had been Italian by birth, but had moved to America to make something grand of himself, and he had succeeded. Antonio, had moved to England wishing to expand his empire, Pericolo, had created one of the grandest financial empires in the entire world. Sadly his want for more power had cost him a great deal, he had once been married, with the love of his life, Julia. Together the Pericolo couple had three beautiful children, and everything was looking good for Antonio. However, his family had been killed during an attempt on Antonio's life, a rivalling crime lord wanted to get rid of the competition Antonio had dabbled in crime at that point something he had come to regret later on, though he still maintained his crime empire. Though his role as a crime lord had never been about doing acts of evil, it was merely a way of getting things done in a more effective way.

Antonio had been devastated and locked himself in his room for an entire day. The mournful howls of a devastated man, still haunted some of his men, the shrieks of pain had echoed through the house that entire day. And when Antonio came out of his room, his charcoal hair had turned into the purest of white, the sorrow had made his hair snow white and it had stayed that way ever since. His men swore that a different person exited those rooms, a cold and heartless man. The culprits behind the attack had of course been captured and tortured, before Antonio had ordered that the assassins be buried alive, in separate graves on the cemetery. He thought that it would be a fit punishment, since the assassins had condemned his family to be buried. Antonio had stayed by the graves until the shrieks of horror were no more, he had wanted to savour every scream, however even after vengeance had been achieved he still felt hollow and empty inside.

It had been shortly after the loss of his family, that Antonio met young Dante, and they had been like father and son ever since. He had been understanding when his son told him about his future grandchild, he had loved the child like no other grandfather could. When he had met Dante it had been four years since the death of his family and he had grown more ruthless and cold for every year, Dante had done a miracle that made his father’s men loyal to him even after his father’s demise. Dante had melted Antonio’s icy heart, shattering the walls that had surrounded the forgotten organ for four years. Thus Antonio had gladly given his life to save his grandson from unknown dangers, Dante truly missed him and to this day the memories still haunted him. He shook his head trying to clear out all the disturbing thoughts, he needed to focus on the future. His father would not have wanted him to waste his life on mourning like he himself had done until he found Dante. Dante knew that his father was in a better place, and that he was with his wife and children, and one day they would meet again.

For now Dante would take one day at a time, and focus on the possibility of a future with Severus, his soul mate...