Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter or its associated franchises. All characters are property of J.K.R and Warner Bros and other concerned agencies.

Prologue

7 pm, July 31st 1981, Godric's Hollow.

A cacophony of merry laughter pierced through the stillness of the summer evening, unheard by anyone in the near vicinity. In a cottage indistinguishable from its neighbours, had gathered a small mix of people, their eyes trained on an infant with emerald green eyes and a shock of black hair on his tiny head. For you see, this was Harry James Potter's 1st birthday, even though he was not aware of it. He merely giggled and gurgled and waved his little hands in the air, much to the pleasure of his parents and others.

James and Lily Potter had everything they needed in their lives, but their most precious possession was the baby in their midst. A baby, whose destiny had been foretold even before he was born, by a batty, eccentric lady who spent her days isolated in a drifty castle in Northern Scotland. This foretelling, or prophecy if you wanted to get technical, was precisely the reason why this happy family had been spending a few past months of their lives hidden magically, detached from the rest of the world in fear. Though, all of this was forgotten as the mood in the house at the moment was pure joy, all centred on baby Harry.

Along with James and Lily were present a few of their closest friends and confidantes. A man with handsome and elegant features, which had charmed many a woman was playing, (or attempting to do so) with the baby in the crib while exclaiming, "Not to worry Harry, I'll be there to show you the ways of snagging pretty birds when you start Hogwarts and this Voldemort debacle ends!".

An exclamation, which was heard and responded to by the beautiful red headed-emerald eyed mother of the infant, or the Mrs Lily Potter nee Evans, motherly protectiveness coming to the fore in an instant. "Sirius Black, you'll do no such thing! No girl is good for my baby, especially the kinds you'll teach him to go after! Isn't that right, James?"

James Charlus Potter, who was watching with barely constrained glee, lost all traces of laughter from his face. He cringed at the glare Lily was levelling at him and as such, going with the need of the moment, he immediately agreed with his wife and to save face, promptly began to wipe his glasses in a hurry and unnecessarily, given that they were already cleaned to a shine.

Sirius pouted theatrically and turned to his other best friend, "Moony, can you believe it? The Legendary Prongs whipped into shape already! Oh woe is me, why did I agree with his choice of going after Lily?"

Moony, or as known to the world in general, Remus John Lupin snorted in amusement. This kind of banter had been a prominent feature in dialogue when it came to this group of friends. He replied though, "Leaving your woe aside for a moment though Padfoot, where is Wormtail these days? Come to think of it, I haven't seen or heard of him in a few weeks. You have any idea?"

Sirius' expression slipped for an instant and he looked uneasily at James for a few moments, not noticed by Remus, who at the moment was pulling faces at Harry to keep him amused. Lily noticed and frowned, knowing exactly what was troubling the two men. "Yeah, he has gone to his mother, she has not been keeping well for the last couple of weeks, you see? We received word yesterday", replied James. He and Sirius had been keeping things from Remus out of necessity and security, and had been feeling really guilty about it.

Lily, ever the observant one, came to their rescue immediately. "Forget that, Peter will back in a month if all goes well, we should open presents, shouldn't we ?" she replied, successfully pulling the attention of Sirius and Remus towards baby Harry. "I know we should trust Peter & Remus, but it's a good thing we made that package, isn't it?" whispered James to Lily. She nodded, looking at Harry and praying, that all would be right and this nightmare would be at an end. They continued the celebrations, unaware, that outside their little paradise, things were shaping up to be not what they wanted at all…

10:01 pm, October 31st 1981, Halloween, Godric's Hollow

Lily Potter was currently shielding her child from the fiend in front of her, while all the time tears streamed down her face. James lay dead downstairs, his eyes wide and glassy as he had spent his last moments trying to buy her and Harry time, all for naught. The fiend in question, Lord Voldemort had a kind of ghoulish glee shining out of his crimson eyes as he watched the mudblood in front of him grovel and plead for the life of the snivelling whelp in the crib behind her. Lily saw the snakelike lips move, and the world went a sickly green for an instant and she knew no more.

8:27 pm, November 1st 1981, Privet Drive

Privet Drive was a suburban locality of London and not the kind of place where you'd expect an eclectic mixture of people such as these to be meeting at. There stood outside number 4 in darkness, three people who could not have looked more out of place, even if they had tried specifically to do so. There was an extremely old man who looked as if he would drop dead at that moment, though his blue eyes belied his strength and wisdom, as they looked in grief at the little bundle in his arms over half-moon spectacles, this was Albus Dumbledore. Said bundle contained Harry Potter who was asleep at the moment, sucking his thumb and lost to the world. His forehead was marred by a lightning shaped scar which was raw and inflamed and certainly had not been there the last evening. The lady beside Dumbledore was a woman also getting on in years, though at the moment she looked at least two decades older that her actual age. Her features were lined with shock and anger warring against each other as she vehemently argued with Dumbledore. This was Dumbledore's deputy Minerva McGonagall, who looked anything but, as she lambasted the living daylights out of Dumbledore.

"You can't be serious Albus, this is a demented idea of the highest order! There is no reason good enough to leave Harry anywhere, let alone here, away from his heritage and the magical world!"

"Of course Minerva, this pains my heart a lot, but it is precisely the reason why this must be done", said Dumbledore. He handed Harry to the giant of a man alongside him as he tried to pacify McGonagall who was doing a remarkable impression of a lioness at the moment. Said man, Rubeus Hagrid was at least ten feet tall and was crying his eyes out as he took the infant in his arms.

"Minerva, while I definitely do respect your sentiments, and it tears my heart to do so, but Harry needs to live here for his own protection. Since Lily's last act was of sacrifice, my belief is that placing Harry at this place where he shares blood with an inhabitant will invoke powerful wards which can transcend any protection I can give by use of wand and runes."

Dumbledore wiped his tired and age lined face with a purple star spangled handkerchief as he continued, "Anyway, I have stationed an old acquaintance of mine here. She'll be keeping an eye out for little Harry and you have my solemn word that I'll be checking in with her and Harry every month. Besides, I also have with me a few odds and ends such as his birth certificate and legal documents as well as a package that James and Lily advised me to leave with Harry wherever he may go, in case this sort of thing happened".

Seemingly mollified by Dumbledore's explanation, McGonagall said, "Fine Albus, but do remember that I'll be also checking on him regularly. At the first sign of trouble he'll be out of here faster than you can say lemon sherbet!" Dumbledore smiled for a moment, and then turned to Hagrid and took Harry out of his hands, but not before Hagrid had laid a delicate kiss on Harry's forehead, and howled at the darkened sky in grief. He set Harry upon the doorstep in his crib, along with a box and letter, and cast a temperature regulation charm and a few keyed-in notice-me-not charms to protect Harry from the elements, both weather wise and human. "Good bye Harry, keep well and we'll be meeting soon", he whispered as stroked the infant's cheek. As Harry lay warm and snuggled in the bundle of blankets, the three people looked at him with the same loving expression and vanished, one turned into a cat and leapt away into the bushes, one sat astride a motorcycle that barely could hold his size and roared out of sight, and the last just plain disappeared in a swish of robes.

- End Prologue –

A.N : This is a humble attempt of mine to remake the Harry Potter Universe as per my ideas. Please read and review. Reviews will be appreciated, flames and flamers will be ignored. Thank you.