Reversed Fates
By Ciarrai Manning
"Neville's childhood had been blighted by Voldemort just as much as Harry's had, but Neville had no idea how close he had come to having Harry's destiny. The prophecy could have referred to either of them, yet, for his own inscrutable reasons, Voldemort had chosen to believe that Harry was the one meant.
"Had Voldemort chosen Neville, it would be Neville sitting opposite Harry bearing the lightning-shaped scar and the weight of the prophecy…Or would he? Would Neville's mother have died to save him, as Lily had died for Harry? Surely she would…But what if she had been unable to stand between her son and Voldemort? Would there then have been no 'Chosen One' at all? An empty seat where Neville sat and a scarless Harry who would have been kissed good-bye by his own mother, not Ron's?"
-Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
pages139-140
These were Harry's haunted thoughts as he was whisked away to his sixth year at Hogwarts. If Voldemort had chosen to kill Neville, would he have succeeded? Would Alice Longbottom have had the chance to die for her son? Would all that has happened to Harry have happened to Neville? And if so, would they have turned out the same? There was no way to know, and yet, for some reason, Harry couldn't keep his mind from wondering.
All through the start of term banquet, and even as he crawled under the covers of his four poster bed in Gryffindor tower, these and other similar thoughts swirled through Harry's troubled mind.
That first night, for the first time in a long time, Harry dreamt of the night his parents died. But this time was different.
The two frantic wizards were not James and Lily Potter, but Frank and Alice Longbottom. And baby Harry was nowhere in sight. In fact, no infant was in sight. Sixteen-year-old Harry, who felt oddly awake, stood unseen in the corner of the room and watched horrified as Voldemort effortlessly floated in, his red eyes excited. Those eyes scanned the room quickly, and narrowed menacingly as they found no trace of baby Neville.
Although Harry couldn't hear anything while witnessing the odd scene, he clearly understood the words that Voldemort seemed to bellow. Two words that sent a chill down the boy wizard's back. Two blinding flashes of green light later, Frank and Alice were lying dead on the ground, eyes wide in fear, and Voldemort had disappeared.
When Harry awoke the next morning he had no recollection of the strange dream that had haunted him during that night. He got out of bed and dressed like normal, all traces of the thoughts he had been obsessing over completely gone. Stumbling into a bathroom he stared sleepily and confusedly at his reflection, wondering what was wrong with it. Then his green eyes locked onto his forehead, and his breath caught in his chest. He labored to force air into his shocked lungs, while his mind struggled to accept what it didn't see under his bangs.
His scar was gone….