Bokuboy

Another failed story attempt. Yep, I have lots. I lost a bunch, though. I might find more later.

Voldemort was going to win. The prophecy would be subverted as soon as he killed the child and he had easily corrupted and coerced that fool Wormtail to betray his friends. He went to the previously hidden Potter cottage that should have been protected by a Fidelius Charm that the rat had given him the secret to.

The Dark Lord blasted the front door off its hinges with a Bombarda and laughed when the door flew across the room and clipped the messy-haired man. He didn't get a chance to speak as Voldemort sent a killing curse at the body and the amused Dark Lord strode up the stairs to the nursery.

Another blast sent the door across that room as well and revealed a redheaded woman bent over a crib. Voldemort sent another killing curse at her back and she flopped to the floor and out of the way. The Dark Lord felt the emotion of satisfaction fill him as his victory was at hand. Soon, it would all be over and he would be forever unchallenged.

Voldemort smiled evilly and raised his wand to aim at the thing in the crib and paused. It wasn't a baby in the crib. It was a pile of dynamite sticks in a thick bundle with a short wick burning down. On the front of the bundle was a picture of Baby Harry with his hand raised in a rude gesture.

“Well, fuck.” Voldemort said as the wick disappeared and then the entire top floor of the house disappeared with him.

A laughing group of people were across the street and watched the huge fireball expand from the explosion. James Potter, his wife Lily Potter with Baby Harry in her arms, his best friend Sirius Black, their friend Remus Lupin, and a giggling Peter Pettigrew.

“Nice one, Peter!” Sirius said and held a hand up for the smaller man to slap in a high five.

Peter slapped it and grinned. “I took a page from your book, you dog.”

“Tricking him with transfigured copies of James and Lily and then blowing him up? How did you get that from me?” Sirius asked.

Peter laughed. “I meant when you switched the secret keeper from you to me to keep Harry safe. Why couldn't we switch the target he was going after, too?”

“That was really smart of you, Peter.” Lily praised him and he blushed.

James placed a hand on the short man's shoulder. “You've done a lot more for us and for the world than anyone will ever know.”

Peter felt both embarrassed and proud. His friends really did treasure him.

“Shouldn't we get out of here before Dumbledore shows up?” Sirius asked.

“That's a good point. The wards are down and he probably thinks we're dead.” James said.

“Are you sure we should let him keep thinking that?” Remus asked.

Lily nodded. “Peter told us he knows about him being Voldemort's spy. He could have easily protected us and he didn't. We could have hidden in Hogwarts and been safe and he told us to come here behind his simple aversion wards and a Fidelius. It's obviously bait for Voldemort.”

“He didn't even cast an anti-fire ward.” James groused and waved his wand at the burning house to douse the flames. “We're going into hiding and no one is going to know what really happened here tonight.”

“What about Harry?” Peter asked.

James and Lily exchanged glances and smiled as they spoke the lie they knew Dumbledore would propagate. “We have a plan in place that even the great Albus Wulfric Percival Brian Dumbledore won't see through.”

“What?” Sirius and Remus asked at the same time.

“Only you three are alive and know the real story. Peter has to hide from the Death Eaters, Sirius needs to stay on the run for a while, and Remus... well... we all know how everyone treat werewolves.” James said with a shrug.

“Our situations really are screwed up, aren't they?” Sirius asked.

“Yes, and I hope we can all stay in contact.” Lily said and held Harry with one arm as she reached out and cupped Peter's cheek. “I've already arranged a safehouse for you with the Weasleys. Make your way there and they'll take care of you.”

Peter put a hand on hers and he closed his eyes. “Lily, I... I'm sorry I couldn't do more.”

Lily leaned down to kiss his other cheek, which surprised him and made his face heat up even more than her praise did. “Like James said, you've done more for us than anyone will ever know.” She let his face go and hugged Harry close. “Please take care.” She looked at Sirius and Remus. “All of you.”

“We will.” Sirius, Remus, and Peter promised.

“Stay in touch.” James ordered and they nodded. “If anything happens...”

“You take care of your family and stay hidden. We've got this.” Sirius said with confidence.

They all huddled together to give each other one last hug, then each of them left before Hagrid and Dumbledore showed up.

*

Harry Potter was rescued from the wrecked cottage and checked over, then he was delivered to his only living relatives, the Durleys. As Minerva McGonagall stated, they were the worst sort of muggles and Albus knew that Harry was going to face ten dark years under their care until he received his Hogwarts letter.

What they didn't know was that it was all a ruse.

Over the next ten years, the legend of Harry Potter grew beyond all proportions. Albus had suspected a young hero would have been a beacon of light for the masses and he never realized just how big of a sensation he would become. Since Harry was an orphan, Albus appointed himself as the boy's guardian to control the Potter finances, which meant all of that money was technically his to use as he saw fit.

It was unfortunate that no one in the Wizengamut would pass the by-law to allow him access to dead vaults to get at the gold that would help him continue the fight against the forces of darkness. Albus knew that Voldemort's followers were still doing their nasty work behind the scenes and he was too old to hunt them down to deal with them, not that he would.

Albus spent many years allowing Grindelwald to have his fun before he reluctantly put aside his feelings for the man and ended his antics. It had been difficult to do, considering he still loved him, even decades after their teenage romance. People usually only had one great love of their lives and that's who they were for each other.

The old wizard looked over Quirrell's request to travel to Albania for a sabbatical and he smiled. Why the mousy man thought he could move from Muggle Studies to Defense of the Dark Arts without an appropriate mastery, was beyond him. He accepted the request, because he knew Voldemort's spirit was waiting for an appropriate host to retrieve him from his seclusion.

It would be a danger to give the Dark Lord a chance to return to the land of the living and to offer up the Philosopher's stone as obvious bait; but, it worked when he dangled the Potters in front of him and it would work again. On the plus side, it was a relief to know that Quirrell would be out of the castle by the end of the year.

*

Harry Potter had a great life at home and a fake life outside of it. He had two loving parents that doted on him, as long as there were no witnesses. In private, his mother was a gorgeous redhead with curves to die for, and in public she was a thin horse-faced shrew. His father was an older clone of him when in the house and a short and fat hateful man when outside of it.

It had taken Harry no time at all to understand that he was in hiding because of his fame as the boy-who-lived and that his parents and his uncles were doing their best to protect him, with his uncles staying away and taking the public's attention away from him. They still sent secret letters when they could, however.

Harry felt like a secret agent that was deep undercover, just like James Bond, only with magic. When he told his mother this, she laughed and said she would be fine being his commander M and his father would be his equipment manager, Q. The tiny tuxedo they transfigured for him made him very proud and he hammed it up with his spy routine every time he wore it to make them laugh.

Then his Hogwarts letter came. It was not the muggle raised one that explained things, either. His parents talked in whispers and gave Harry warm smiles as they tossed the letter into the fire. Before he could ask why they did that, they explained that it was expected for horrible muggles to stop him from reading it.

Lily took out her old letter and handed it to Harry to let him read it and James handed him his own. They told him that they had been preparing for this since his birth and they knew that whichever version of the letter he received, they would make sure he knew everything he needed to know about the wizarding world and he wouldn't have to rely on anyone else for information.

Harry immediately saw that his mother's letter was several pages thicker. It had information about how to access the wizarding world and had an appointment to meet a professor to talk about things, because she was a muggleborn. Since Harry was in hiding in the muggle world, she told him that was the letter he should have gotten.

When Harry read his father's letter, it was two sheets with the invitation and a list of things to buy, and that was it. Since the envelope with his own letter was fairly thin, they knew they had sent Harry the wrong version intentionally, just so he would be ignorant of everything.

Harry understood then that Albus Dumbledore really was the great manipulator that his parents had warned him about. He had controlled his life from the shadows ever since his parents 'died' and now he was manipulating how he entered the wizarding world. All he had to do was decide if he was going to continue to play the ignorant muggle role or be who he should have been.

After talking to his parents, they said that it was up to him. It was his life, because they were still in hiding, and wouldn't be allowed to return until the Death Eaters were dealt with. They had done what they could in secret, which wasn't much, because their ability to affect things was greatly reduced with their friends also in hiding.

Over the next two weeks as more letters arrived, many more than could be reasonably hidden from the muggles, because of the hundreds of owls perched around the property waiting for a response. That was when Harry made his decision and chose to send a simple note of acceptance. He didn't want to take the chance that they would send someone like Professor Snape to collect him.

James and Lily accepted his decision and Harry carried the note outside and went to the closest owl. It accepted it and then the entire parliament of owls took off as one and almost blotted out the sun. Harry stared at the sight and was amazed that no one else had noticed the massive flight of birds. He laughed at how easy it was to fool people and went back inside to get changed.

Mini James Bond had a mission in Diagon Alley to complete.

Bokuboy

That's where I faltered and wondered what to do with it. You see, it would still turn out the same as canon, because Harry can't let the secret out. With everyone else acting exactly the same way, nothing would change, so I dropped it.