(minor corrections March 2013)
Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.
Note: The following is an experimental one-shot, set in an alternate universe where Albus Dumbledore left Harry Potter on the doorstep of an orphanage following the demise of James and Lily Potter in a battle at the home of the Longbottoms against an invasion by Death Eaters on Hallowe'en, 1981. Situations and some characters diverge considerably from canon.
"Albus. There's a problem."
"Really?" Albus Dumbledore looked at Minerva benevolently, adjusting his spectacles.
It was some nine and three quarter years since the headmaster of Hogwarts and his deputy had abandoned Harry James Potter on the doorstep of an orphanage somewhere in the English midlands.
"Harry Potter seems to have gone abroad somehow. The owls are refusing to deliver his letter."
She flourished that letter, under the headmaster's nose.
"Hold it still, Minerva, I can't read it with you waving it around like that." the headmaster said. "Hmm. 'Castell y Gwynt, Prospero's Isle, The Mediterranean'. You appear to be correct, unfortunately. Curious. I wonder what happened?"
"It gets better though." Minerva told him. "I checked the atlases, and the globe, and there is no Prospero's Isle in the Mediterranean. It's unplottable."
"Ah, well: Now that is a problem." Albus said thoughtfully. "I would recommend that you turn this one over to Filius to deliver. It sounds like the sort of challenge he would enjoy. And best to extend the reply date, too, to the middle of August."
Almost a month later, Professor Filius Flitwick would have cheerfully throttled his headmaster, had he dared to repeat those words in his presence about Filius enjoying challenges such as delivering a student letter to an unplottable location with no clues to go on beyond that it was somewhere in the Mediterranean.
Filius' first port of call had fortunately been to the orphanage where Albus and Minerva had said that they had left Harry. He had done so immediately after being handed the task of delivering the letter, having been intending to make a couple of initial inquiries there, and then to let the matter rest for a few days, whilst he got on with other things. He had learned there that the orphanage had brought Harry Potter in that November morning back in 1981, but that almost immediately a woman claiming to be his aunt had shown up, with multiple proofs of identity, and promptly taken Harry off their hands. The name she had given was Petunia Prince, née Petunia Evans.
A sense of foreboding shadowing him, Filius had promptly researched the sister of Lily Potter. He confirmed that Lily had indeed had a sister called Petunia and he had discovered that although Petunia had been born a muggle, not a witch, Petunia had ended up married to one of the most cunning and underhanded wizards of his generation Severus Prince (formerly Severus Snape), a man renowned for being elusive – which news did little to gladden the diminutive charms professor's heart. Severus Prince was a rogue potions dealer, who would brew almost anything for anyone if the price was high enough, with spies and criminal contacts across all seven continents. He was also difficult to outthink and valued his privacy, given that at any time the magical law enforcement officers of up to half a dozen countries might be looking for him in the hope of either acquiring his services or forcing him to divulge details of what he knew or suspected of illegal activities going on in their own respective patches.
Filius consequently did not enjoy the weeks which immediately followed, spent in a practically fruitless search through the seedier side of the magical and mundane worlds. He breached the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy three times but was able to cover things up on each occasion, and lost track of the number of near-misses with breaches which he had. He was pretty sure that he had left a trail it would have been impossible for Severus Prince to miss.
In the end it was a goblin at Gringotts' supply-depot in the Antarctic (where bother from giant penguins was high, but from muggles – or witches or wizards for that matter – was low) that finally arranged a portkey for Filius.
Filius stood blinking and suddenly horribly warm in the sunlight, having trouble immediately adjusting to environmental shock in the wake of having just gone from a barely habitable outpost in the polar night of an Antarctic winter to somewhere beneath the sun of a blazing Mediterranean summer. He found himself relieved of his wand by a dark-haired and dark-eyed sun-kissed girl, whilst he was still recovering. She tucked it through a loop in the leather belt around her waist. The belt was holding up a short skirt, in light colours, and she was wearing a matching t-shirt. She was shod in sensible sandals, but lacked tights or socks of any kind. Given that they were currently standing on an exposed stretch of limestone dappled with the rock-pools of a shoreline, the choice of footwear was probably eminently practical.
"Name?" she demanded covering him with a stave of twisted olive wood almost her own height. (She was speaking in English, Filius observed.)
She looked to be in her early teens – or perhaps she was a younger girl who was simply tall for her age.
It was a while since Filius had run into anyone who used a stave instead of a wand. Staves were much, much, fiddlier to work with when casting spells, not least because they usually required a two-handed grip to direct. They were useful in freeform duelling, though, because at close quarters one could always resort to cracking an opponent over the head with one, or poking them in the midriff, which was a little tricky to do effectively with most wands.
"Professor Filius Flitwick of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I come in peace, to deliver a letter to someone whom I hope is in the vicinity, if this is 'Prospero's Isle'?"
She snorted, and her lip curled in a manner that reminded Filius of a student who had been at Hogwarts a decade and a half ago.
"Nope. This isn't Prospero's Isle. We're twenty miles or so away, being remotely scryed, whilst father decides what to do about you. Your persistence has been noted and deemed annoying."
"Ah." Filius said. He supposed he should have expected further layers of deception and protection even now.
There was a shower of silvery sparks, and an ethereal bird appeared on a nearby boulder – a raven, Filius thought it might be.
"It's alright Diana. You can bring him to the third circle." the bird said in a voice that resembled that of the Severus whom Filius had taught at Hogwarts, back in the days when Severus had carried the surname of Snape.
The bird vanished with a pop.
"Third circle?" Filius enquired.
"Think of it as a geometric floo, keyed to operate in the presence of and be activated by specific items." Filius' companion said. "Obviously there are several around here, some for disposing of unwanted visitors. One of them will take anyone in it except the activator to the main deck of The Titanic. Since that's currently at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, it ought to finish off most who travel through it."
Severus apparently played to win, Filius mentally noted.
One short ten minute trek along the shore later, Filius and his companion entered a circle of runes and lines carved into a slab of smooth limestone, his companion tapped her staff on the rock, and then they were elsewhere, standing in the midst of a highly intricate geometric design inlaid into the polished marble floor of a high octagonal hall.
It was, Filius had to concede, comparable to travelling by floo, only without the bother of soot and ash, and slightly smoother in transit sensation.
In here the air was cool and refreshing. Illumination came from windows somewhere up near the roof.
Standing nearby, in dark robes, and with an apparently genuine, live, raven perched on his right shoulder was Severus Prince. He held a polished staff as tall as himself, of what looked to Filius like ebony.
"Good morning Filius." he drawled. "I gather you may have a letter for my nephew. I must admit that I was curious as to whom the school would send to deliver it, and as to how long they would persist in the attempt."
"Severus: Long time, no see." Filius said.
"I was disappointed by how little care Professor Dumbledore took of his former pupils, James and Lily." Severus continued. "I would have thought he would have been more careful of his favourites, and not squandered their lives on some sort of harebrained 'protection duty' under a fidelius with an unreliable secret keeper. Petunia and Lily may have had their differences, but Petunia was still quite upset to learn how that ended. It convinced her to forget her grievances, and well: here you are today as a result. I must say that I hadn't expected my former headmaster to sink so low as to leave Harry for an orphanage like that though, even if the old schemer may have lost track of and perhaps disapproved of Petunia and I. I would have thought there would have been plenty of wizarding families friendly to his cause on his own doorstep who would have taken Harry in, had the great Albus Dumbledore but asked. If nothing else, I would have thought Augusta would have been pleased to have him, given Harry's parent's sold their lives defending Augusta's own grandson."
"Is there a point to all this that you'd care to explain?" Filius asked as patiently as he could manage. He was Merlin-knew-where, wandless, and his errand was as yet incomplete, and it wouldn't do to get too impolite or to lose his temper.
"I'm curious as to whether you have a backbone, Professor Flitwick, or just tamely do and approve of what the headmaster tells you? I seem to recall that in my school days, all the teachers fell in behind the Dumbledore directives, whether those be to favour his pet Gryffindors – including overseeing detentions scarcely worthy of the name of 'punishment' – or lay the smack down upon half-blood Slytherins from discredited and poor families. Then again, those were war conditions, and perhaps I should make allowances. 'United we stand, divided we fall' and all that, and even if the pupils couldn't be united, at least the staff could. But there aren't any wars in magical Britain now, Filius. Would you play favourites again, if Dumbledore ordered you to do so?"
"Unless I could be certain that I would do a better job as headmaster." Filius responded.
"Hmm. Is that a rebuke or defence of him, or just an evasion?" Severus frowned. "No matter. It is an answer nonetheless. You may join us for mid-morning tea on the terrace, and attempt to execute your mission to my nephew. You may not have your wand back until I am certain that you're not going to try and grab him and attempt to force an exit. I haven't forgotten your reputation as a dueller."
Author Notes:
This is an idea I've been playing with, in between rewriting sections of the 'Welcome to Hogwarts' chapter for 'Saint Potter' (which is at least progressing for now) and staring blankly at the last scheduled chapter for 'Alternate Scene by the Lake 4' (which is still going nowhere). I'm not sure if the idea works or not, but there seemed to be sufficient to it to at least put this out.
This particular alternate universe splits from canon when at some point in his sixth year Severus Snape lost interest in the Death Eaters and started dating Petunia Evans (most likely to get back at Lily for cutting him off as she did). I'm unclear if in canon Vernon Dursley is on the scene by this point, but if he was, he couldn't hold a candle to a Slytherin in the sweet-talking stakes. (Especially since Severus has an advantage of having known the Evans family already for years.) Lily deciding to marry James Potter in canon seems to me to make a case that Evans girls are capable of marrying men whom they have professed (for years) to have disliked.
Although there was a prophecy made by Trelawney to Dumbledore in this universe, Voldemort (without a Severus listening in at the door) was completely unaware of it, but became increasingly obsessed with Frank and Alice Longbottom - pure-bloods whom were shining examples, he felt, of the kind of witches and wizards who (in his opinion) should be working alongside him instead of fighting him as enemies. He started targeting them, specifically. Dumbledore (without a spy in the Death Eater ranks) assumed that this meant that Voldemort knew about the prophecy and thought it meant he had chosen Neville Longbottom. He piled extra guards and protections into keeping the Longbottoms safe whilst at home. (The Longbottoms declined to go completely into hiding, feeling it would damage public morale, if Aurors were seen to be 'running' from Voldemort.) James and Lily Potter happened to be assigned to protection duty for the Longbottoms when Voldemort came calling (having left Harry with a babysitter).
If there is a Boy-Who-Lived in this universe, it's Neville Longbottom. Dumbledore left Harry at a muggle orphanage, since he wanted Harry out of sight of the wizarding world in case he was useful for the prophecy at some point, but Severus happened to have been remotely keeping an eye on events anyway...
Severus adopted his mother's maiden name as part of his wooing of Petunia. Diana is their oldest child, and if she were at Hogwarts would be in the year above Harry. (Petunia was probably a Lynda Carter fan...)
As far as I know, staves aren't a part of canon, but since they can be effectively long pieces of wood (which can presumably have a 'core' inserted) it would seem feasible to me that they might be used as wand-substitutes by witches and wizards. Given that they're bigger, longer, and much more unwieldy, I can see that as far as regular spell-casting goes, almost any witch or wizard would prefer to use a wand instead. Severus Prince, of course, isn't just 'any' wizard, though, and is experimenting to see if staves can be adapted for purposes beyond mere spellcasting...
As far as I know the runic circles ('geometric floo') aren't part of canon, either, but Severus is a bored genius...
This one is an experimental one-shot for now.