Disclaimer: Did Dumbledore have any good reasons to place Harry into the Dursleys' home aside from Lily's sacrificial protection? If so, all rights to Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. If not, then the rights still belong to them and I don't want a lawsuit….

"So, this is the plan that I have in mind." Dumbledore said. "Harry is going to be sent to the Dursleys and will live there for the next several years, a complete stranger in the Muggle world. If my calculations are correct, the Blood Ward should keep him safe until he's 17. He will rejoin the Wizarding World when he gets his acceptance letter at Hogwarts, so you can look forward to seeing him ten years from now."

Lily and James Potter looked at him with blank faces, Dumbledore assumed that they were simply processing his clever plan. He may not be a parent, but it wasn't easy for one to give up their child after all. The tea that Lily was holding started tilting until brown liquid began dripping onto the table. A small baby began whining a little, the bottle in James' hand forgotten. With Voldemort vanquished, or so it seemed, by some force that came from Harry that everyone in the know was still trying to make heads or tails out of, Dumbledore thought he had the perfect solution to the problem.

If only Lily and James could see it that way...

"I understand your reluctance to do so." Dumbledore said in a sympathetic tone, it did pain him to separate the family and put a child in that kind of environment. If things were different, then his heart wouldn't be that heavy. "But please know that this is for the Greater Good and if the Dark Lord is still alive, we need the Chosen One to be ready for him when he returns."

"Absolutely not." James said quickly, but firmly.

"Thank you for agreeing with this plan, James, I know I will not let you – could you please repeat that?"

"I said no." James repeated slowly. He held the bundle in his arms more tightly as if it would slip away into thin air. Lily looked at Dumbledore with an expression of bewilderment.

"You must understand." Dumbledore pleaded. He looked to Lily, becoming intimidated by James' glare and hoping she would be more reasonable. "Harry is not safe with you, he has to go with your sister. He must grow up away from all the fame and attention that he will receive."

"How is this," Lily gestured to their new and undamaged home in Ottery St. Catchpole, "not safe?! Peter isn't the Secret Keeper, no one knows what happened on Halloween except for us and Sirius, and what the bloody hell is a blood ward?"

The look on her face was etched with confusion; from Dumbledore's sudden appearance and insistence that Harry be sent away, to the suggestion that the Wizarding World somehow knew that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was vanquished by an infant when the only people who knew this fact were in the room at the moment, and to the mention of a 'Blood Ward.'

"The protection you cast against Voldemort" – James shuddered at the name – "means that Harry will be safe from the Dark Lord as long as he remains with someone who shares the same blood as you."

"Albus…" Lily started slowly. "There are several things wrong with what you just said. First and most importantly, there is no such thing as a Blood Ward! Yes, there is blood protection, but a ward implies barrier. As in, something that doesn't move. Which means Harry wouldn't be safe outside of Petunia's home – or inside, for all I know. The only blood magic I heard of requires my death for the spell to work! A substitute. Someone else to fall in another's place. That is how blood protection works.

"Which brings me to my second point of why I would send my only son to live with my sister. She hates me and I think she would hate little Harry too."

"But she would take him in, regardless." Dumbledore insisted patiently, certain he could convince the two to part ways with the small baby mewling in James' arms, a small scar shaped like a lightning bolt on his forehead. James quickly started rocking his son back and forth slowly, humming what Dumbledore recognized as a Muggle lullaby. Slowly, the child quieted down and snored softly. James looked between his wife and Dumbledore before walking out of the living room, still humming the Muggle lullaby about purchasing a mockingbird in exchange for peace and quiet.

"Not if she knew I was alive, she wouldn't." Lily whispered, worried that she would wake Harry up with the noise. "That brings me to my third point –"

"Is this related to the Blood Ward?" Dumbledore sighed, feeling a little insulted that a twenty-year-old was claiming that something he knew for a long time didn't exist.

"Yes." Lily said dryly. "Since the blood protection – no, you old goat, there is no such thing as a Blood Ward – means that I would have to die in order for Harry to be sent off to Petunia and her family, then there really is no point in Harry going there in the first place since I'm clearly still alive and kicking. So…why?"

"Why?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Its for the Greater –"

"Finish that sentence and I'll hex you!"

Dumbledore stopped himself, feeling the Elder Wand hidden in his robes, ready to be pulled out in a moment's notice. Lily hadn't drawn her wand yet and he did not want any violence occurring. He had to convince her and James to part with Harry somehow and it had just occurred to him that constantly using the phrase 'the Greater Good' wasn't a good explanation at all. In fact, it seemed to aggravate anyone who had the misfortune of hearing it more than once, as Severus had the decency to remind him shortly after becoming a turncoat to the Death Eaters.

He took a deep breath, willing himself to speak of the other reason for splitting up the family – what did Lily know of Blood magic? His own mother used a Blood Ward to keep his dear sister safe from the families of the Muggle boys who had traumatized her so – and spoke again.

"People are asking questions about Voldemort's demise." He began. "Rumors are being spread, some say that he was annihilated by his own Death Eaters out of sheer amusement. The truth will somehow get out, and when it does, Harry will be known to every witch and wizard before he even utters his first word –"

"Actually, Harry said his first word two months before his first birthday." Lily interjected. Dumbledore just stared. "He's almost a year and a half old, Albus, it's practically expected of children under most circumstances. That's what Papa told me, at least."

Her green eyes looked downward, Dumbledore didn't need Occulumency to know where her thoughts were lingering at the moment.

He continued in a gentler tone. "If Harry already knows how to talk, then he'll certainly know more things as he grows older –"

"Your point?" Lily crossed her arms.

"He'll certainly have an inflated ego –"

"What?!" Lily's voice sounded almost acidic, her eyes furrowed in anger.

"He needs to grow up away from the fame –"

"And you think James and I are unable to do that?!" Lily raised her voice for a moment before catching herself on the fourth word. There was movement in the next room, James' footsteps were surprisingly loud. "We're his parents and you think we'll just ship him off to Surrey just because you think we wouldn't do an adequate job of raising a well-mannered child?!"

"It's not as simple as it sounds, Lily. One only has to look at James to –"

"YOU NAMED HIM HEAD BOY SEVENTH YEAR!"

"I understand, but an old man can make a mistake or two." Dumbledore continued patiently, ignoring the crying that began anew in the next room.

"I'm the one who can keep James in his place. I'm the one who wouldn't go out with him until he cleaned up his act. And if you think I can't accomplish the same with my son, then you can go!"

Dumbledore sighed. "I understand."

It wasn't until he had stood up, walked out of the house and heard the door slam shut with a WHAM! that something clicked inside of him. That, and the appearance of his phoenix, Fawkes, in a burst of flames, signing as he did so.

I know that if things were different, the Dursleys would be the only option, but why did I bother coming here?! He thought with bewilderment. As the song continued, he recollected the fuzzy memories of his saying or thinking "For The Greater Good" were becoming ever fuzzier before he saw the illusion break.

A moment later, his mind became clearer, as if blood pressure had decreased dramatically.

A Blood Ward?! Dumbledore's face went red. No wonder Lily thought I was crazy, where did that madness come from?!

Right before he took ahold of Fawkes and vanished in a dazzling display of fire, Dumbledore pondered why he would constantly say the Greater Good in his mind.

A short distance away, a young woman with indescribable beauty watched behind bushes that clearly weren't there two minutes ago. She cursed herself for the failed attempt at drama, believing that the young infant who was being cooed over by his loving – and very much alive – parents had just lost his chance at being given incredible abilities.

So what if she bewitched the Dursleys so that they would do indescribable torture the moment they set their eyes on him? They were going to be killed within a few years by someone's stupidity. But it wouldn't be satisfying since there would be no justice. And that Harry would be taken in by someone thereafter, so it wasn't like he wouldn't know happiness. What mattered was that her hopes of creating a Wizard God forged from pain and misery and then being introduced to a beautiful girl who would compliment him in all ways that didn't make sense. Maybe a harem, if she was able to manipulate reality to her bidding. And no friends that were redheads, either. They clearly had no souls. Oh, oh, and unimaginable wealth and constant mentions of sex –

It never occurred to her that Dumbledore would suddenly appear in front of her and fire a Stunning Jinx. It also never occurred to her that he would look through her memories and see what other kind of damage she had caused.

It also, also never occurred to her that the sister of Lily Potter would be arrested for attempted infanticide the next morning after a phone call from a Mrs. Figg to the police occurred because she didn't place a charm to make the neighborhood completely oblivious to the horrendous torture she had hoped would occur to the baby named Harry for some illogical reason.

The parents of the child who was attacked by the mad woman refused to settle, especially since she seemed determined to use a knife on their black-haired baby and called him a freak. Years of therapy would soon follow afterwards.

Vernon Dursley was institutionalized two months later after attacking someone with black hair and glasses for no reason, constantly muttering how he was "ungrateful" even though the two never met before. Dudley Dursley was sent to live with his Aunt Marge, growing up to believe that both of his parents were psychos and that dogs were the absolute worst to live with.

And on the same street that the Potters were living on, Molly Weasley had quickly overcome the same Confundus Charm that had befallen Dumbledore, wondering why she had the strange urge to make love potions for a boy she never met and steal all of his money even if he would offer half of it with her family.

When young Percy Weasley found her in the bathroom later, he attributed it to morning sickness. Moly attributed it to absolute disgust over those weird impulses that had taken ahold of her mind for a few moments.

Before the day was over, the girl who had attempted to rewrite the universe by just "changing" a few people was being grilled by the Aurors over her actions. They deemed her a lunatic and had her Kissed.

And the girl thought that it was certainly not kinky in her last moments.

Author's Note: My original idea was to have Harry confront his parents ala 'alive but still abandoned their son' cliché, but then I realized that it was already cliché. Princess of the Blacks does it (dark, but interesting tale by Silently Watches) and so do plenty of other fics. But no one ever seems to bother discussing one thing:

In the event that Lily and James (somehow) survived Halloween that tragic night, why would they give up their son when there was no insurance for his safety?

Or in the words of Kains from SAO: Abridged, Episode 6:

"WHYYYY?!"

It doesn't make sense because there would be no sacrificial magic that meant Harry had to live with the Dursleys. So why would Dumbledore expect two parents who were willing to give up their lives for their baby to give up said baby just because he said so? And with a Blood Ward that never really existed in canon, believe me, I checked. The only thing I got was Lily's sacrificial magic part. No mention of a ward at all.

Silently Watches thought my original idea of having Dumbledore attack when attempting to plead with them failed wouldn't make much sense. He said that the old goat was a charmer, but I had no way of getting him to convince the Potters otherwise without saying "Because I said so."

And thus, my answer was that some random girl tried to alter the universe and failed because she was trying to bewitch the Greatest Sorcerer of the time. Along with several others, but I digress. Molly making love potions and putting them in food that Harry would eat makes as much sense as the rest of the Wizardry World does.

How Voldemort was destroyed isn't really important. After all, from the fics I read regarding this cliche, they never really seem to explain it that above is inspired by Silently Watches' style of disclaiming. The only thing he wouldn't let anyone imitate are his storylines, which I can never pull off yet. Check out his work.

In the writing world, I will see you!