Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Update: I just combined the first two chapters.

Chapter 1

Beginnings

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." ~Winston Churchill

1998, May 2

Forbidden Forest

Voldemort began to count silently in his mind. Surely, the foolish boy will come to sacrifice himself. The Potter brat was as foolish as Dumbledore. That boy's sense of honor and chivalry would demand his presence for the sake of saving his precious friends and classmates. As his fingers gently stroke the Elder wand, reassuring the fact once again he was the Master of this wand, his eyes roamed around at his circle of followers. He could smell the fear from each one and he bathed in the emotion with pleasure.

At Nagini's hiss, he gazed at the outreach of his circle, making out the hunched bodies of Dolohov and Yaxley.

"No sign of him, my Lord."

He held back the Cruciatus Curse back. Stupid imbeciles. How dare they return empty-handed. He knew that the boy will come to him. He was certain. Lord Voldemort did not make mistakes.

He hissed out, "I though he would come. I expected him to come."

But as seconds ticked on with no sign of the boy, his uncertainty gnawed at him.

"I was, it seems…."

The next word was stuck in his throats. After all, he usually did not make mistakes. But he slowly opened his mouth and spoke, "mistaken."

But he heard a voice ring out.

"You weren't."

He slowly smiled to himself. He saw the boy's dark hair with his flashing green eyes appear.

Ahh… He must have been under that invisibility cloak again.

His hands once again fingered his wand. He slowly raised it up while looking curiously at the boy, the supposed hero of the wizarding world with the power to destroy him.

Did the boy truly want to die as a martyr? Did he have no fear while facing death?

He curiously looked into the green eyes, feeling his magic probing the boy for any hint of that delicious fear in his victims. But the green eyes reflected none.

Inside, his fury and anger increased. This boy should be cowering in fear in front of him.

"Harry Potter" he whispered. "The Boy Who Lived."

He quietly smiled at the irony at the boy who would soon become close friend with Death.

As he began to wonder how he should deliver Death to the boy, the boy began to mutter, "Neither can live while the other survives. "

He scoffed at the pitiful boy in front of him reciting the prophecy.

"One of us? You think it will be you, the boy who has survived by accident and pure luck?"

The boy's eyes began to shine brightly. But he look straight back, without flinching. Who was this boy to judge him when he was the most powerful wizard in the world?

"I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things you don't."

He flinched as he heard his former name, a reminder of his shameful half-blood due to that man who had betrayed his mother and him. The name of a past self who had looked too similar to that filth. The common name that he had discarded and recreated to Lord Voldemort. As his past crept into his mind, he began to wonder, if there was a faint possibility this boy had found a way, a crack into his immortality. Had Dumbledore taught him some unknown magic that even him, Lord Voldemort did not know? Was his immortality, his horocruxes not truly foolproof? But he quickly pushed those thoughts behind.

"Is it love again?" he asked.

"Dumbledore's favourite solution, love, which he claimed conquered death? So what will stop you dying now when I strike?"

Love was nothing but a passing fancy. He knew it would never last. Unfortunately, it has caused some trouble but it was only a pest in his way. Where was love when Dumbledore had fallen to his death? And when he had killed that boy's mother and kicked her lifeless body to the side like a piece of rag?

And when love had been present, it had only led to his mother's demise, into agony and pain over a filthy mudblood. Love had made her weak and vulnerable to death, despite her magic. Love had made him an orphan.

His eyes stared at the boy who had placed all his strength on love. Anger soared through him at the foolish boy with his ridiculous optimistic view of the world. How could this child know that the world was unfair and cruel? That to survive, one must cold-hearted and ruthless.

He raised his wand.

"Avada Kadava."

1998, May 2
King's Point Cross

Harry wondered how death felt like. For who truly knew what life on the other side looked like, if one will face eternal paradise or damnation?

Harry looked around and was startled by the all too familiar site of King's Point Cross. The place that had been the beginning of the new life of magic, adventure and camaraderie. Staring wistfully around, Harry began to wander through the empty station. Harry noticed a familiar figure standing in front.

"Dumbledore?"

Harry stared at the professor, with his sweeping robes of midnight blue, sparkling blue eyes with his half-moon spectacle.

Dumbledore smiled back. "I'm assuming Miss. Potter, you received Professor Snape's memories?"

She nodded back as she remembered looking into the pensieve.

1980, July 31

Headmaster's Office

Snape sighed with relief. Lily had given birth to a girl. Lily was safe. Thank Merlin above, her child was not the chosen one.

Dumbledore's fingers were drumming on his desk.

"Neville Longbottom is the child of the prophecy. We must protect him from the Dark Lord at any cost in order to win this war."

1891, June 22

Potion Master's Office

Snape looked at Lily's green eyes begging him.

"Severus, help my child be the chosen one."

He looked back incredulously at her. Did she want her daughter to have a death wish? Did she want to be killed? Did she know his life will become worthless especially with the knowledge that he had personally led her to death?

Lily continued, "Frank and Alice are gone. Neville has no one who would protect him. But Harry does. She still has James and me. And damn the Dark Lord because I will do anything to make sure she lives."

"Severus, the prophecy remains ambiguous, can be opened to many different interpretations. That is both their strength and their weakness. Let us use it to our advantage. Instead of having an orphan be burdened with the Dark Lord after his life, let him chase Harry."

She grinned weakly at Severus, "Let's not make it easy for the Dark Lord to ascend to power."

Severus gazed into her eyes, hardened with determination. He may have not gained her love but he had been still blessed with her presence, with the knowledge she was alive. He gnawed with the uncertainty, with the knowledge that she could die in this war.

"What do you want me to do?"

1891, June 23

Malfoy Mansion

Severus stood in front of Lord Voldemort. He bowed down and waited for his command.

"Rise, loyal spy. Have you discovered the answer to my question?"

He lifted his head but kept his eyes to the floor. Mentally going over his occlumency barriers, he began to speak. "My Lord, there are two children fulfilling the prophecy. One is the child of Potter and the other is the child of Longbottom."

He felt the silence continue. He decided to ask, "Who do you think the Chosen is, my Lord?"

"The Potter boy is a half-blood, isn't he?"

Snape stood silent, with fear growing inside.

1891, October 31

Godric's Hollow

Snape felt every footstep getting closer to the room heavier. Dumbledore had promised him, that she would be kept safe. The house had been placed under a fidelus charm with a Secret Keeper. She had to be alive. He saw the door to the room, already open, too late. Pushing aside the door, he entered the nursery room.

And he saw her. Dressed in her white nightgown, she was draped over the cradle, protecting it's content from the rest of the world. A fallen angel.

"Lily?"

He placed his hands on her face, searching for a flicker, a sign of warmth. Her empty eyes stared back at him. His legs gave out, as he fell to the floor. With trembling hands, he closed her eyes and held her. Not willing to accept, praying it was a dream, he held onto the only woman he had ever loved.

"No, Lily…."

She was gone…dead…

Severus walked over to the cradle, which laid the small child. He took in her appearance, the spitting image of her father. She would probably grow up mediocre, arrogant as her father, a determined rule-breaker… the child who caused Lily's death.

He closed his eyes and calmed himself down. Remembering his promise to her, he found the necklace with a fleur de lis charm, pulsing with Lily's magic, around Harry's neck. The same necklace he had given her for her eleventh birthday, before they had left for Hogwarts. As he became overwhelmed with memories of Lily, he felt the child stir and cry. Startled, he lifted the child into his arms. He looked up at the ceiling, trying to avoid the child's face when he heard a soft chortle. Glancing down, he drowned in her eyes. The same shape, the same color.

"Looks just like her father but has her mother's eyes" he whispered.

Fascinated, he stared as her eyes danced with joy, happiness, and love. Exactly like the way Lily's will look back as they play on the swings, top of the hills. He smiled back.

He gently touched the charm and whispered, "Adfectio Aspectus."

Harry became The-Boy-Who-Lived.

Harry began to realize the charm had been cast off. She fingered the necklace as she stared into her reflection. She noticed her shoulder-length hair, her more fuller lips, softer face.

"Since you have no reason to pretend to be a boy here, I believe this place revealed your true-self, Harry," said Dumbledore.

Harry wondered at the life she may have led, if she had grown up to be a girl, a witch with a normal family with no war. But that was over now. She looked down on herself and pondered. Surely, she existed. But how was that possible? She looked directly at Dumbledore, with questions swirling in her head.

"Professor, I'm sorry but you're... dead. Am I dead too? I mean I let him kill me!"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled back, "And that choice, precisely, made all the difference."

"His knowledge remains woefully incomplete, Harry! That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Of house-elves and children's tales, of love, loyalty and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped."

"Harry, the day your mother made the choice, she did something that changed the past and the future. Her decision opened a realms of magic hitherto unknown and unprecedented. You are the key to Voldemort and Tom Riddle, with your destiny closely joined together with his. Have you ever wonder if he understood love, who he could have been? He may not be Lord Voldemort, and might never have murdered at all."

Harry stared back at Dumbledore. "What are you trying to suggest, Professor? That I could change Voldemort?"

Dumbledore smiled back. "And if you did have the power, Miss. Potter? If you had the choice to go back?"

Harry pondered over this question. The man who had haunted her and killed her parents. The man who wreaked chaos and havoc to the people and the world she loved. Can she save him? And would she save him? But she knew her answer.

"If I could save him, I think I would."

"As expected from a courageous, selfless soul, Harry. Now all you have to do is return."

1998, May 2

Forbidden Forest

Voldemort looked at the lifeless body of the boy.

"You see? Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!"

Finally victory was in his hands. He moved in, to walk closer to the body, when he felt a burst of magic from the body. The body began to morph, into a smaller figure with feminine curves. The face became softer.

Voldemort began to panic. This was not Harry Potter. It was a girl! Had he been tricked with polyjuice? Was this girl a decoy? Who was this girl? And more importantly, where was the boy? As his thoughts became more fumbled, he failed to notice magic gathering into the body until it burst into white light.

Author Note.

One of my favorite characters have to be Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort. I know that he is this evil sociopath but you begin to wonder about his character. After all, not everything is so black and white. Also I had this conversation with my brother if Harry Potter had been a girl. His blunt answers was that the books would not have been as popular, which I am actually pained to admit that would have been correct. But the idea was in my head so I wanted to try a couple of Tom Riddle and a female Harry Potter. Also there were two really good fanfiction of this couple

Fire Born by wickedlfairy17

Behind the Veil by StycianLeo

They're both really well written.

Thank you for reading this chapter and hopefully look forward to reviews. I'm open to suggestions since I'm still figuring out the plot.

xoxo

Cgrocks