Dragon Pox: A fairly common disease, relatively harmless for the healthy.

But Harry had never been healthy, having been born three weeks premature. Lily could still see the mounting horror in James's eyes as the healer held up the deathly pale, stick thin baby. And she couldn't stop herself wondering what went wrong.

It had always been her dream to have children, even when she was very little. She had seen how happy her mother and father were when they were in her presence. And as soon as she was old enough to understand where babies came from, she had decided to have one of her own.

But her dreams were shattered with the accident, the accident that claimed the lives of her father and her little brother. Her family was never the same, fractured beyond repair. Her mother had gone into depression, slipping into a dark grey world full of what ifs and what may have been. Her only sister, Petunia had blamed her, and who could argue with the facts? She was the one who had distracted her father with her a simple show of magic whilst driving, who was the last one to see the oncoming lorry smashing into them. And when the doctor presented her with the fact that she was infertile, there was a period where she was close to committing suicide.

But she didn't. She struggled on and fell in love.

Harry was a miracle. Even the healers could not have helped her situation, for who could when her entire abdomen was ripped in half by the pieces of shrapnel. But they had not given up and finally, after many months of digging through the Potters' library, they found a temporary cure. It would allow them to have one child, the one thing Lily wanted above all. Therefore although they knew it would have been kinder for Harry and for them to let go of their little miracle, they decided to struggle on with what would be a short and difficult life.

Young Harry always caught a multitude of diseases with his poor immune system. From the flu to every stomach bug that was around. They were always on high alert, when every little cough could mean death if not rapidly treated.

The prophecy brought more and more trouble. With it they went into hiding, all time wondering how little Harry Potter could ever be a threat to Voldemort. It restricted their access to doctors and healers. Luckily there was a local doctor in the small village who was more than happy to look at Harry when he was taken ill. But the absence of healers would prove deadly. Although the Potter's were well versed in symptoms of magical diseases, dragon pox had next to no symptoms and when they at last found out, it was already too late to save Harry. So they watched as Harry slowly slipped away to a place they could not follow.

The funeral was a private event. They held it in their back yard and watched as the remaining ashes floated up through the air.

_-_-_

It was Lily who found the baby on the doorstep. She had wanted to see the village of Godric's Hollow one last time, to say goodbye to the kind muggle doctor who had helped out in their time of need. And it was pure chance that she had decided to walk there for at the last second, she decided she wanted to see the view from her front garden.

The shrill shriek she made could have rivalled her sister Petunia's two short weeks later making the same discovery but for very different reasons.

For the baby was the very image of their recently deceased Harry; the same emerald eyes that glowed when you looked at it, the same messy mop of black hair that resisted all attempts at taming it. Even its cry was similar, but when she carefully picked him up, she nearly dropped him when she realized that it was not her Harry, that it was a poor imitation. Perhaps as a practical joke from that elusive godfather Sirius. Although there were many similarities, she could at once see abnormal birthmarks upon his neck as though he had been wearing a circle of metal around his head. The baby also clutched a shiny golden watch in his left hand, and as she moved to inspect it, the baby stirred and started crying.

Although perhaps James could have dismissed the scream as perhaps wind, the sound of crying was unmistakeable. So he came running towards a most familiar sound.

They could do nothing but watch a child that looked remarkably like their own Harry cry. Even James was not hardhearted enough to leave such a child in the rain. So they brought him in. And they played pretend, for perhaps the child was another miracle, a chance to start again; a chance for a happier life, together as a family.

_-_-_

But it was too late for the Potters for two weeks later it was Halloween, the day that the Dark Lord Voldemort came to visit.

"Lily! Run! It's him."

"But…"

"There's no time! Take I… Take Harry and run!"

"James!"

And on that day, it came to pass that Voldemort killed the two Potters. And a curious event occurred when he tried to cast the death curse on little "Harry Potter". The tightly gripped watch started glowing in a maelstrom of gold and as silently as a leaf drifting towards the ground, the green light was absorbed. And the cloud expanded and expanded until it was full of energy. Voldemort, knowing at last, he was outmatched, started to run away. But it was already much too late as the cloud of pure energy exploded outwards, vaporizing Voldemort's mortal body. The dead bodies of the Potter's were vaporized too and it was only little "Harry Potter" that survived as the watch shielded him against the worst.

_-_-_

And little Harry Potter was once again left on his "aunt" Petunia's doorstep. On the coldest day of the year.