a/n- I don't own Harry Potter.

Hello, everyone!

It took massive effort for this first chapter to come about, as it took a lot of calculations, though eventually, book in hand, I made these connections.

Voldemort met his first downfall on October 31st, 1981. At this time, Harry was one year and 3 months old. James was 21 years , 6 months and 4 days old. Lily was 21 years, 8 months and 1 day old.

Harry was born on the 31st July, 1980, when James was 20 years and and 4 months old and Lily was 20 years and 6 months old. This means that when Lily fell pregnant with Harry, she was 19 years and 9 months old, and James was 19 years and 7 months old, if Harry was born at the exact due date.

I know what you're thinking – obsessive freak! But, I couldn't bear to make these dates up.

Come another war or a new democracy, Dumbledore would remain to be one of the most calm, caring headmasters that Hogwarts had ever seen. He would do anything for anyone who had made a difference, even a small one, to his life.

And that, my fellows, was precisely his problem.

You see, Dumbledore had always looked upon the case of Lily Evans and James Potter with particular interest – such interest, that one might even find it disturbing. But Dumbledore truly had their best interests at heart – he had them in his soul, his mind and in his actions.

But this came at a price. Dumbledore worried. When they were young, he worried that James would cross the line of being a typical show-off teenage boy to plain aggression.

This was partly the reason why Dumbledore had asked him to become Head Boy, even though this decision was frowned upon by many of his colleagues and supporters. He made it clear that he was sure he marauder would take the responsibility in, using it to really mature under the careful eye of the staff and Lily Evans.

And so, the end of July, 1978 loomed, and Albus Dumbledore breathed a sigh of relief. James Potter had not made the power-hungry mistakes he himself had made in his youth. Lily had grown to care for him once he had lost his conceitedness. His plan was complete – the doe and the stag would have the fairy tale ending that he had dreamed they would have – or so he thought.

Even when a new war raged in 1979, the marriage of the Potters lifted everyone's spirits as they fought for their lives against Lord Voldemort. There were prophecies, of course, Dumbledore knew that, but the chance of Lily and James bearing a son at the precise time, it was ludicrous to even think about. Furthermore, Lily would have to fall pregnant at the age of just 19 for the calculations to work out, and Lily had always struck Albus as the kind of person to have a 5 year career and then children.

But to his horror, he was wrong.

He remembered the conversation he had had with her, when she was just a month shy of her 20th birthday.

"Dumbledore! I just couldn't wait to tell you."

"Oh yes?" He had said, eyes twinkling.

"James and I…we've got some news. There's a new Potter on his or her way!

"Congratulations!"

Dumbledore had felt happy. Until –

"Yeah, thanks. I'm only 2 months along, not really showing much –

But her speech broke down as the smile slid off Dumbledore's face like Stinksap.

"Lily, tell me exactly how far you're along. You have a due date, I presume?"

"Yes, 31st July, and these new wizarding due dates are great, they're never wrong, so…"

This followed a serious conversation resulting in Lily being lost for words, and James whimpering and moaning in pain as though mourning the loss of a safe, happy family.

Charms were placed on the house; Sirius Black was made a Secret Keeper to the Potters, despite Dumbledore's offering, and after a quick, easy labour, Harry came into the world. Dumbledore finally felt at ease, as though it would be a long time before anything happened to little Harry.

That was, until Severus Snape cornered him one afternoon in mid-July, just a step away from Harry's first birthday, and told him of Voldemort's dreadful plans to break up the happy household of the Potters.

Dumbledore was devastated.

And from then on, I trust you know the story – Harry became the Boy Who Lived, after Lily and James' death, he fought Voldemort countless times – a story worthy of filling 7 books, in fact.

But not many know that Dumbledore had a back-up plan, a kind of plan B. Albus, you see, had a habit of playing the 'if' game. The Potters were a source for many of his ponderings – what if Harry wasn't the subject of one of Professor Trelawney's prophecies? What if Harry could live a normal wizard's life?

In conclusion, before he could stop himself, Dumbledore used such advanced magic – beyond Harry's wildest dreams – to create a parallel universe, where Lily and James were safe and happy and living with Harry, bringing him up. Where Voldemort died in childhood. He rationalized it in his mind with statements such as 'if one Harry can't be happy, at least one can.'

He should've known, though. He should've known that parallel universes don't stay parallel forever. He should've known that his actions could corrupt the real universe. He should've known that when you play The If Game, things have a tendency to go wrong.

a/n – Thanks for reading!

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