Inell's Fanfiction Archive

When all one ever has is low expectations, it’s easy to exceed them. This is a lesson that Dedalus learns at an early age. His mum calls him worthless and says he’ll never amount to anything all throughout his childhood. After he goes to Hogwarts, he hears his classmates snickering about how useless he is and the words ‘stupid’ and ‘dumb as a hippogriff’ become common taunts. He knows he’s not very bright, not like those people who always know the answer or say things that he can’t even understand, but he manages to pass his NEWTs with a lot of hard work and hours of studying.

Being an adult isn’t much better than being a kid, though. He gets a job sweeping up in a broom factory in Kent, makes enough money to rent a tidy little room from a half-deaf witch who calls him a ‘sweet young boy’, and doesn’t mind the new taunts so much. When the war starts, he doesn’t hesitate to join the Order and do what he can to help. It’s not a lot, but it’s the best he can do, so he expects that makes it okay. By the time the war is over and little Harry Potter manages to defeat Voldemort, Dedalus is ready to go back to sweeping and try to forget the death and destruction that have filled the last few years.

It’s almost surreal to find himself standing in a field nearly twenty years later watching not-so-little-anymore Harry Potter face Voldemort again. It ends in a flash of light that makes him see spots before his vision clears. He looks around and sees the exhausted but triumphant faces of his friends, as these children don’t call him stupid or say he’s senseless in judgmental tones so they’ve earned the title, and smiles because he knows his mother is wrong.

End