A/N: So quick introduction since I'm new here. This story is about the possible changes to Harry's life if McGonagall had taken Harry from the Dursley's instead of leaving him on the doorstop. I'm not a big fan of Hermione and find her personality grates me, neither her nor Ron will be portrayed in a positive light though so if they're you favorites the tale is not going to be for you. My Dumbledore will be well meaning but so focused on the greater good and the overall picture he missed small details like people. Flawed but with the intent of being good. With that done I present my first fanfiction offering.

Disclaimer: all rights belong to JK Rowling, its her sandbox I'm playing in.

Chapter 1

Once More Unto The Breach

"Harry James Potter, Archer Titus Pittman what have you done now?" came the familiar roar through the house. The boys in question looked up from their lounging on opposite sofas in the main living room, Harry turned to his friend putting down his copy of some duelling journal covering western Europe and asked:

"what did we do this time?" Archer turned back to the notes he was taking from some large leather bound text and grunted out,

"what didn't we do?"

"true" replied Harry. Really it had been a great use of their time. Really though if Aunt Minnie wanted them to stop changing things around the house she should stop teaching them how or at least tell them not to practice their spell work.

"I think she found the pigs, we didn't bother to hide them," Archer suggested, "although it could well have been the squealing door handles, not our subtlest work to date." At this point Minerva McGonagall walked through the door, lips drawn into a fierce line.

"Fix it" she demanded and the boys exchanged looks wondering how far to push this.

"Fix what exactly my dear?" Archer opened with.

"Is something broken, everything worked fine this morning?" Harry followed up.

"you know exactly what you have done and I suggest you put it all back to normal before Sirius returns lest he sees this as a challenge" Minerva cut in before the boys could really get going "The last thing we need is you three going to war."

"Fine" the boys replied in unison expressing so much displeasure in a single syllable. They slowly got up and left the room wondering where all the animals and other objects they had unleashed had got to. Minerva sighed deeply in exasperation, sinking down in a straight backed chair a right-angles to sofas completing the least comfy side of the u-shaped arrangement. Just when she thought she might find some rare peace in this mad-house an owl flew in through the open window. Living in the same house as one of the original marauders with another as a regular guest, not to mention the two rascals who were permeant residents, she knew better than to touch the owl, she didn't even know if the owl was real at this point. It wouldn't be the first time that upon touching the letter the owl burst into a mass of confetti and the letter simply reading "ooops". Cutting the string holding the letter in place with a simple "diffindo" and levitating it towards her she read the front of the envelope. It was addressed to Professor M McGonagall, something she had rarely been called in the last decade. Wondering what the past was bringing up now she opened it up and began to read with increasing amounts of dread.

"Harry, Archer, living room please" Minerva called out. When the boys came in grumbling about fickle old woman and never having the time to do a job properly she fixed them with a severe glare to let them know she had heard them. "An issue has arisen at Hogwarts and I must attend to it. Having no adult supervision is a recipe for disaster for you two and so you shall accompany me." Pausing slightly "On your best behaviour." The boy's faces lit up having heard so many stories about the magnificent castle hidden somewhere in Scotland. "Gather what you need for a day trip." She knew she was tempting fate giving them some time to prepare for whatever mischief they could however, she also made sure they carried shrunken potions and first aid kits whenever they left the house as they did have a knack for getting themselves hurt in some way or another. Immediately they ran off to their rooms, bouncing off the walls with excitement.

Not five minutes later the three were assembled in the lounge with everything they needed for the trip. Looking at the two boys who were brothers in all but blood she could see that they had managed to neaten themselves up. Harry standing tall and proud with his wiry build a crooked smile that he had inherited from his father, eyes, emerald green that he had most definitely inherited from his mother shining with curiosity, deciding that the Potter hair was simply beyond taming she moved onto Archer. Raven hair dark enough he could have been a Potter were it not neatly arranged and combed to the side, shorter and more well-built than Harry he had an almost expressionless face with a slight sneer fixed to it. Minerva knew better than to be offended with that sneer it was the default Archer had whenever he was going out in public. "Wands?" she checked and Harry flicked his wrist and a bone white wand fell into his hand giving it a wave in Minerva's direction he replaced it and reached down to his ankle where a more normal looking wand was strapped. Lowering his trouser leg to hide the spare wand Minerva turned to Archer. He had simply held up his hands showing off the rings he was wearing. Ever since he had joined the magical family he had been obsessed with wand lore and was responsible for Harry's bone wand. The rings were his own creations wearing one on his right middle finger, made of the same bone as Harry's wand, on the left index finger was a silver snake with emerald eyes circling from knuckle to knuckle. All packed they gathered round a quill from the desk which would portkey them from the Black retreat in the south of France to the town of Hogsmeade.

With a sharp pull just behind the navel the three departed the house and the nice weather to be deposited in Scotland. Even in summer Scotland is Scotland, that is colder and more miserable than the south of France. With a few flicks of their wands and warming charms all round they headed up towards the castle. As they got close the two boys were in awe. They had seen enough grandeur in Black properties and on their travels they didn't stop and stare but it was still a sight. "We are here" McGonagall began "as they are in discussions to close the school due to a number of students being attacked and petrified. You are to wait where I leave you while I speak to the headmaster. You are not to run around nor are you to be careless. The school is possibly closing as none of them can stop the attacks therefore you must be vigilant and look after each other."

"Well Alpha we had best not do anything too silly" Archer said to Harry.

"Indeed my good friend, nothing too adventurous"

"I 'd say we have to be boring almost,"

"Never, we couldn't allow that"

"True we are creatures who detest boredom"

"Alright, that's enough you two fiends" Minerva interrupted, "you are to be boring and sensible the whole time we are here".

"Fine" groaned the boys as they waked through the gates of the school and headed towards the school, pointing out the lake, the whomping willow and other sights they had heard about over the years. Heading into the entrance Hall of the castle they were met by a grand old man with a waist length beard and some rather interestingly styled robes. This could only be the legendary Professor Dumbledore.

"Ah greetings, Minerva it's been too long" Supposedly the most powerful wizard in Europe started.

"yes, yes Albus let's get on with this," turning to the terrible twosome "you are to stay here until I return".

"Ah Harry my boy, it's good to see you" Professor Dumbledore said spotting Harry.

"Excuse me," interjected Archer, "but with all due respect" (in his mind that meant little to none due to the old codger) "Harry here is neither 'your boy' nor is has he given leave for you to use his first name, are you so forward with all those you meet Professor".

Looking slightly affronted for moment before the grandfatherly image settled back on his face "I was, a close friend of Mr Potter's late parents, I'm sure that gives me some leeway with the social norms."

"Oh I must wonder if you treat the children of all your 'close friends' with such overt closeness, no matter you have things to do, you may leave." Archer replied. Not quite sure how to deal with being dismissed by a twelve-year-old in his own castle the Head teacher turned to Professor McGonagall who couldn't decide to be outraged by the attitude of her charge or crack into a laugh as the young child in front of her coolly dealt with one of the most established figures in the world.

"I guess I'd best show you up to my office Minerva dear," Professor Dumbledore said not knowing how to deal with the youth nor young Mr Potter who was doing his best not to let a smile show but his eyes where shining with glee. As they headed up the main staircase they missed both boys lick their lips with excitement. Flying into the hall a poltergeist spotted two young unknown boys not wearing uniform.

"what has Peeves found here then" he cackled,

"Mr Peeves it is a pleasure to finally meet you" Harry lead off,

"indeed a great honour" Archer followed up with,

"May I introduce myself, I am Harry James Potter, son of Prongs and this my friend and brother Archer Titus Pittman, adopted son of Padfoot." Peeves clearly recognised the names and lit up with excitement. "may we be so bold as to enquire as to the possibility of an alliance similar to that our fathers had?"

"oh yes, much fun we will have Peeves and the new marauders." With that he whisked off with a relish that would scare the student for weeks were they not already scared of whatever Slytherin's monster may be.

"Well look at us Toxin, making friends already" Harry laughed to Archer.

"Well Alpha, my dear friend, we are delightful it is in fact an often thought to be an honour to be our friend. Even to breathe the same air as us is truly a privilege." Archer said with is sneer firmly in place. "Shall we at least find out what all the fuss is about, the reason why I was interrupted in my reading of 'a thousand and one curses and counter curses from the middle ages'?". With that the boys set of to find a student to tell them why they had been dragged away from France. When they eventually found a whelp not in class he was confused as to how they couldn't know. He then lead them to a corridor on the second floor where some haunting messages had been left. "The Chamber of Secrets? That does sound like our sort of thing my friend."

"What Minnie doesn't know can't hurt her" replied Harry as Archer shooed away the student. "The way I see it, we have a duty to save this 'her', rather grim to leave her body lying there."

"Saving people is more your area of expertise, I prefer that they suffer so one can consider their lesson learnt. However, I can assist you as is expected. Now to find this hidden chamber." With that the boys took some time to think. "If these messages where done by someone before fleeing into the chamber the entrance would likely be close?"

"That would make sense" Harry said looking round for what could disguise a secret chamber, "I doubt it's any of the torch fittings, they must have been tested in the thousand years of students, no paintings on this stretch either, that bathroom?"

"A girl's bathroom? You really think Salazar Slytherin would hide his personal retreat in a girl's bathroom?"

"can't hurt to investigate, can it?" Harry said as he strode towards it. Pausing to knock on the door, the last thing they needed was to be chased off by a girl scared out her wits by unknown boys wandering into the bathroom. After waiting an appropriate amount of time he opened the door and found himself facing a ghost, a ghost of a young girl. "errr, hello?" Harry squeaked out as he jumped, taking a moment to glare at Archer who he could hear chuckling behind him, he returned to the girl, "I don't suppose you have seen any entrances to secret chambers in here at all?"

The ghost giggled shrilly at him before saying "you're a funny one aren't you? Well, I have seen a girl looking over at those sinks before I checked the u-bend on my toilet then she was gone when I looked back, it's the same place I saw the big yellow eyes just before I died."

"Oh," was all Harry could say leading to more chuckling from Archer. He walked towards the aforementioned sinks investigating for clues. "over here" he called to Archer who was still a tad wary of the strange ghost. "there is a snake carved into the tap"

"Oh Slytherin, a snake really how cliché. Parseltounge?"

"Open" Harry hissed at the tap before standing back as the room started to rumble. Looking back at Archer, "last chance to back out"

"what and miss all the fun. You can go down there and save the girl I just want credit for the monster" he said as he walked towards the tunnel entrance, "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more" and with that he jumped. Quickly followed by Harry.

"Enough Shakespeare for you, so, yellow eyes?" Harry voiced as he picked himself off the ground and ran through what Slytherin's monster could be. "A cat of some kind?"

"Slytherin's too clichéd for that, it's some kind of snake for sure". Anyway she said she saw the eyes then died, nothing about being clawed."

"oh bloody hell it's a ruddy great basilisk isn't it" Harry groaned,

"balls, well it fits. So plan?"

"why do we do this to ourselves?"

"after floberworms in the garden when we were young to that griffin we held off last summer in those mountains don't you thinks it's just some kind of natural progression?"

"I guess, anyways its filthy down here" Harry said as they strolled through a Chamber not seen for a thousand years.

"So you can be all Gryffindor like your parents and run in and save the girl, I claim salvage rights on the corpse, can you imagine how much that thing is worth?"

"Let's focus on killing it first, so what do we know?"

"King of serpents, it's venom is one of the most destructive substances in the world, its bones are magical enough for us to use them in our wands and hide that's resistant to spell fire yet more flexible and light than dragon hide. You ever think one day we're gonna do something less stupid, like be normal twelve year olds?"

"Nah, that would be boring, aren't basilisks famous for having some dumb weakness which explains why they're so rare?"

Archer pondered this before stopping still and declaring "Roosters!" Harry lit up as he too remembered the crowing of a roster is fatal for a basilisk. "so you're the transfiguration guru, can you turn some of this junk into some roosters?"

"I reckon I could, so what will you be doing while I do the hard work?"

"By my reckoning there has to be someone controlling the basilisk who abducting the girl, the snake couldn't have done that itself." Harry pondered this as they approached a set of doors with metal snakes woven into the doors "open" Archer hissed as he too showed that rare ability to speak the language of snakes. The door swung away, "you know its lucky the two of us were here really, I haven't heard of any other parseltounges in Europe."

"Hadn't even thought of that" Harry said as the reached a large open chamber. Pausing for a moment to look around he took in the pillars and statue of who he assumed must be Salazar Slytherin, narcissistic prat really to have a statue of yourself. Then he noticed a little red-headed girl curled up on the ground, he ran towards her without looking around anymore. He missed the tall, thin, pale boy turn from gazing at the statue and walk towards him as Archer slipped into the shadows.

"She won't wake" a soft voice above him sounded as Harry chastised himself for not paying attention to his surroundings and rushing forwards.

"you did this?" Harry asked already suspecting the answer,

"not entirely, you see little Ginny Weasley poured her heart and more importantly her soul into a little diary, now who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

"Harry Potter" Harry spat thinking about the options, knowing Archer would be in the shadows angling for the best shot the moment it looked like things would turn hairy.

"Oh is that so, marvellous, I am Tom Marvolo Riddle" The boy said with a sneer that Archer would have been proud of.

"Am I expected to know who you are?" Harry asked as he thought about the boy, his robes suggested that he was a Slytherin but the styling was off compared to current styles.

"Oh I became quite famous, in fact I'm why you're so famous"

"Became?" Harry asked utterly confused

"I am a memory, though becoming more real than ever thanks to little Ginny."

"you said you're why I'm famous?"

"oh yes, let me explain" and with that he pulled a wand out of a pocket and wrote in fiery letters:

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

With a swish of his wand the letters rearranged to form four new words:

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

"oh bloody hell" Harry groaned "aren't you meant to be dead?"

"Not quite Harry Potter, however it is time you were, the greatest wizard of all time cannot be embarrassed by a child" Tom then turned to the statue of Slytherin and hissed "speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four" As the mouth of the statue stated to creak open Tom said "now Harry Potter, I the heir of Salazar Slytherin shall have my veng…" He never got to finish as from the shadows behind him came a series of hexes and curses.

"Ta mate" Harry called

"deal with the bloody snake you tit," Archer called back

Tom twitched slightly on the floor which only made Archer hex him more. Harry took out some of the rubbish he had stashed in his pocket from earlier and transfigured a group of roosters. Just as he finished a loud rumbling hiss echoed around the cavern

"master?" Not wanting anymore problems Harry cast a spell to illuminate the chamber like the dawn. The roosters crowed and Harry could hear thrashing behind him as he ran away from the statue not daring to look round. When the thrashing stopped he turned around and saw a gigantic corpse laying on the ground.

"sweet, great job" Archer called. They both looked around and Harry rushed back to the little red-head he suspected was Ginny Weasley. She still was still on the ground and was abnormally cold. Harry looked up to Archer hoping for a suggestion on how to save the girl but the boy in question was looking at something on the floor. "this diary doesn't have a good vibe about it, those senses I had to practice with for the wand crafting are going wild around this thing telling me it's all kinds of evil".

"Tom said something about Ginny pouring her heart and soul into a diary?" Harry said thinking quickly,

"when in doubt curse it for all its worth?" Archer suggested as both boys gathered over the diary. A moment later and several flashes of colour later nothing had happened, the diary was unblemished in frustration Archer hexed Tom a few more times.

"wait!" Harry shouted as he looked around, his eyes settling on, well not quite the elephant in the room, more the ruddy great serpent. "Basilisk venom!"

"Harry you genius" Archer said levitating the diary and impaling it onto a fang in the beast's mouth. Tom's unconscious body twitched violently as blood and ink gushed from the diary. "if anyone askes, you killed Tommy boy and I got the snake, not the other way round". Harry rushed back to Ginny just as she began to stir.

"Am I dead" came a little voice on the ground, Harry breathed a sigh of relief, "it's only you look like Harry Potter, I think I see your scar" Archer chuckled from behind where he was inspecting the basilisk cadaver.

"I am Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley?" Harry asked hoping they could skip the hero worship.

"Oh, Merlin" nope Harry could feel himself pegged as The-Boy-Who-Lived and now personal saviour to titchy red-heads everywhere. "I'm going to be in so much trouble, it wasn't my fault, it was Riddle" she gushed before pausing "Harry where's Riddle, the last thing I remember he was coming out the diary!"

"He's gone Ginny we dealt with him "

"I'm going to be expelled, and now I'm crying in front of Harry bloody Potter" she sobbed "I've been wanting to go to Hogwarts since Bill went and I've wanted to meet you since I can remember."

"err, right" Harry said having no idea how to comfort the girl who seemed torn between breaking out in full tears or swooning like a true fan girl. "let's get out of here its cold and filthy." As Ginny sat up she saw the Basilisk for the first time.

"oh, Merlin you killed that?"

"He had help" Archer interjected as he strolled over, "Archer Titus Pittman, at your service my dear, I'm the one who keeps him in one piece" as he gestured towards Harry. The boys then lead Ginny back the way they came leaving the giant corpse behind. Ginny gently sobbed into her hands as Archer turned once more to Harry "So Alpha, you reckon Aunt Minnie has noticed we're missing yet?"

"oh bloody hell we're in trouble aren't we?"