A/N: Just an idea. I doubt that I'll continue it. However, if I'll do, you'll get the New Chapter Alert :)

It has nothing to do with Andre Norton. Though it's similar idea and the title (Witch World), I didn't read the said book. I just made up the title and then googled for it and discovered that there is a book with the same title and partly idea :) Had to change title then, to avoid confusion. But then it became annoyingly similar to another title (Familiar of Zero). So, I said, "To hell with it!".

Summary: Harry Potter was born in the world where only women can do magic, while men serve as their familiars that have unique powers to protect their witches.

Completely AU. No Voldyshorts, No Horcruxes.

WITCH WORLD

by CreatorZorah

Chapter 1

A young raven-haired boy, whose face was hidden by a dark hood, looked through the window as the train departed from the King's Cross Station. There were women and men, seeing their children off to Hogwarts, but nobody had come with him and no one noticed him getting on the train. The boy was fifteen years young and his name was Harry Potter. He didn't look forward to attending the School of Witchcraft.

Aunt Petunia, his mother's sister, hated magic with passion, but knowing his fate, she had told him about the world he was going to be a part of. Either out of pity or to make him even more miserable. Neverless he was thankful, because he had had a chance to learn about the world before he was thrown into it.

The Potters had been an old family, they had been influential. His father was the only child and therefore had been in Harry's shoes at Hogwarts, because James' parents had died before they could sign a contract for James. Lily Evans had won him in the Tournament and being a muggle-born had taken over the Potter family instead of starting her own.

Harry would have a decent future had his parents lived through the war, his mother would have found a witch from a respectable family that would have treated him fairly well to straighten ties between the families. But his parents had died leaving him with no contract. He was a free male and would become a prize for one of the witches participating in the Tournament. At least those would be close or his age.

And he was a desirable prize. Apparently he had somehow defeated a Dark Witch, that had killed his parents. Nobody knew what had happened on that fateful Halloween, ten years ago. Harry had no idea how he had killed the most feared witch either. He didn't even know what kind of power he possessed.

The problem was the magical society decided that he was potentially the most powerful familiar and therefore he wouldn't be able to stay in the shadows and befriend some nice witch, who would claim him without a needless commotion. The first witch to claim him would immediately be challenged by others. And that would bring him to the Tournament, where he would have no choice but to sign a contract with the winner.

He could stay out of Hogwarts, but that would make his situation even worse than that. Instead of being a prize for a witch from Hogwarts, he would probably end up as a familiar of some influential old hag. Well, not really a hag, but a hundred years old witch didn't sound any better to him. At Hogwarts all attending witches had the same chance to win the Tournament.

The door of the compartment slid open and Harry saw a familiar redhead, he had seen at the platform.

"Do you mind if I join you?" the boy asked.

Harry shrugged. "I don't," he said.

The redhead nodded and sat across from him. "I'm Ron Weasley."

"Harry," he said.

"Harry Potter?" Ron asked with surprise.

"Yeah, but, please, don't make a fuss over it."

The redhead waved his hand. "Don't worry about it. I don't have a contract either and I'd hate to be you."

"Are you a muggle-born?" Harry asked raising his brow. The boy didn't look like one.

"No, it's just my family isn't that well off and I have five older brothers. It's just impossible to pay another dowry..."

Harry winced feeling sorry for Ron's mother. There was nothing uncommon with the situation. It was normal to have as many children as needed. There had to be at least one girl to continue the family.

"Do you have any sisters?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, thankfully the seventh child is a witch, much to mother's relief." He snickered. "She's a year younger than me, so she'll be there to claim you."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Every witch without a familiar will lay a claim on me this year. One more, one less, it doesn't really matter."

"You'd probably be lucky if it were my sister, she's kind and has got a major crush on you."

"Really? She didn't even see me!"

"Well, she read about you."

"Oh," he whispered with a sigh. "I'm in these bloody books. Does she know that almost everything written about me isn't true?"

Ron snorted. "She doesn't care."

Harry smiled wondering if his sister would have really been good to him. "What about your brothers?"

"My mother arranged the contracts for them," the redhead answered with a hint of jealousy in his voice. "The only chance I've got is to show that I'm completely useless and to find some muggle-born witch that would claim me unchallenged."

"I heard it doesn't always work. It's common enough tactics, they might get interested."

"Yes, but it's still a chance to avoid someone like Jeanne Zabini. Just think about it! She had seven familiars!"

"I heard about her. Thank Merlin, she is long out of Hogwarts!"

"Indeed," Ron agreed grimly.

Familiars didn't really have any rights. Though it was frowned upon, the witch could kill her familiar without any consequences unless the familiar was from an influential family. Then it would harm the witch's political ambitions and cost her amount of money written in the contract.

"Still, what are you going to do?" Ron asked.

"I don't know," Harry answered.

"I'd run away if I were in your shoes," the redhead said.

"And then I would end up being the eighth familiar of Jeanne Zabini." Harry snorted. "No, thanks."

"She's beautiful, you know? Maybe the eighth familiar would live through it," Ron said with a grin.

"She's at least fifty!" Harry exclaimed with disgust.

Ron laughed. "But seriously, you're deep in the hag's cauldron. My brothers gave me a list of the witches without a familiar. Want to take a look at it?" Ron asked, taking a piece of parchment out of his robes.

"Of course!" Harry agreed eagerly. "Thank you."

There were, obviously, no first years listed, and even though Harry knew that the most claims would come from them, he doubted that any first year would be able to win the Great Fight for Harry Potter. There was only one seventh year, Evelyn Sworn from Ravenclaw. According to Ron's brothers she was a muggle-born and quite nice one.

Considering that she hadn't participated in the annual Tournaments, she was probably waiting for Harry. To him it seemed to be a stupid decision There was no guarantee that she would win, but once she graduated, her choice as a muggle-born would be very limited. He could understand though. She would gain a potentially powerful familiar, wealth of his family, the seat in the Magic Council. A muggle-born couldn't dream of something more. On the other hand she could be opposed to the thought of having a familiar.

There were five sixth years. Amelia Rosier from Slytherin would probably kill him. Cho Chang from Ravenclaw and two muggle-borns from Hufflepuff seemed to be okay. It would however be nice to become Katie Bell's familiar. According to the list she was very kind to males.

The fifth years. An ideal choice would be Hermione Granger, a muggle-born Gryffindor, who was trying to fight for the rights of familiars. Harry smiled at her naivety. No one would listen to her and nothing would change. But at the same time she had a very good chance to win the Tournament. According to Ron's brothers, she was a very talented witch too. But, probably, she wouldn't participate in the Tournament at all because of her convictions that slavery was wrong. He had to befriend her, perhaps he would convince her to participate.

Susan Bones from Hufflepuff would be okay, he knew that even without Ron's help. Amelia Bones was one of the few who were demanding a law that would forbid the witches to kill their familiars. Harry doubted that Susan would do anything foolish to anger her Aunt.

Daphne Greengrass from the House of Slytherin wasn't a very kind, but quite safe witch to go with. Not that his opinion mattered, but he'd rather be hers than Pansy Parkinson's. The later was known for her sadistic inclination. But even she was better than Rosier. In the House of Ravenclaw was only one fifth year who would probably participate in the Tournament. Sue Li. "Got a major pole up her arse." That was Ron's brother's opinion of her.

The fourth years. Alice Lestrange from the House of Ravenclaw, not much known about her strangely. Lily Brown, a Hufflepuff, who would be a nightmare if Ron's brothers were right. And Nicaea Yaxley, a Slytherin that would be the worst possible witch to end up with. Once Nicaea would get her hands on the Potter's fortune, she would undoubtedly kill him. The last one was Luna Lovegood. The Weasleys thought that she was very weird and though she seemed to be kind enough, they were advising Ron to stay away from her. Ron's sister wasn't on the list, obviously.

The third years didn't matter, they weren't skilled enough.

"The problem is you never know if they're sincere," Harry pointed out.

"Yeah, but I doubt it would matter to you," the redhead said. "I'll have to be very careful to approach the right witch. Besides, they'll be focused on you."

"Right... Do you know your power?"

"I'm a boring shapeshifter, can shapeshift into various felines. I'm still learning to control the ability properly," Ron answered. "What about you?"

More than a half of all familiars were shapeshifters of some kind. Metamorphmagi, the shapeshifters, who could take an appearance of another human being were quite rare though. The later were useless as a protection, but very good for spying. Even though they couldn't use magic, they could morph into females.

"I've got no idea, didn't have a chance to get tested," Harry said. "But I'm sure that I'm not a shapeshifter."

"An elemental probably."

About every third familiar could control one of the elements. Such familiars were called the elementals. The last group consisted of various rare or unique abilities. But he doubted that he was an elemental. An elemental wouldn't be able to defeat Her-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He wasn't going to say that aloud though. Ron was trying to be friendly, but he knew that they could end up being enemies. Everything would depend on the outcome of the Tournament. Friends can get in the way. Moreover, the redhead could be misleading him. Harry couldn't imagine why, but it wouldn't harm to be suspicious.

Harry shrugged. "Maybe. Do you have someone in mind already?"

"No," Ron answered. "I'll probably find some first year muggle-born. She'll be a lot easier to convince. Besides, it's safer."

Harry sighed. "I wish it would be just as easy for me."
"Well, the witches on the list aren't that bad. Well, most of them. Could be much worse," the redhead said. "Do you play chess?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I have a chessboard with me. Want to play?"

"Sure," Harry agreed happily.

A/N: So who will get Harry Potter? Granger? Greengrass? Lovegood? Lestrange? Parkinson? Bell? Chang? Bones? Yaxley? Rosier, Li or Brown? And what kind of power does Harry possess? )