Disclaimer: I make no claim on Ms. Rowling's intellectual property rights. This story is written for fun, not for money. Read & enjoy. Be sure to review, or I may turn you into a newt.
Hogwarts, an Alternate History
by Runt Thunderbelch
The Boy Who Lived, Almost
Petty Pettigrew pointed his crooked finger and hissed through buck teeth, "They are there, Master! The Potter family is up there!"
The infamous snakelike eyes of the Dark Lord Voldemort looked up at the lit windows and sneered. "You have done well, Pettigrew, if what you say is true."
"True? Yes, yes, it is true! They are unsuspecting."
Voldemort turned to his Death Eaters. "Stay here. The Potters are mine." He turned his back on his evil minions and moved silently up the outside steps. He crossed the landing and paused at the front door as his wand silently unlocked it and severed the wards of protection. Then he reared back and kicked the door open.
Inside the living room, James Potter spun around. His face turned from surprise to horror, and he dove for his wand. The Dark Lord delighted in his prey's desperate attempt to stave of disaster. James snatched up the wand, shouted spell, and an eldritch blue shield charm appeared between him and Voldemort. "Lily!" he screamed. "Voldemort's here! Protect Harry!"
"Oh," said the Dark Lord. "A shield charm. Help, help, I am thwarted." Then he bellowed a curse, the charm vaporized, and an explosion ripped apart James Potter, throwing body parts everywhere.
Voldemort moved swiftly across the room to the bedroom door. He reached for the knob, when out of the swirling flames a black gloved hand seized his wrist. Startled, he looked up into his own face.
The second Voldemort said, "Careful. Lily has created a very unexpected charm around Harry. You can kill her easily enough, but if you go after the baby, you will be destroyed."
"And you are . . ?"
"I am the Voldemort who burst recklessly through this door. I am he who killed Lily and attempted to kill Harry, only to have my own spell rebound back upon me. And so I have come back to stop you from making my mistake."
The Dark Lord eyed the newcomer. "What do you suggest?"
"First, we kill Lily-"
"I kill Lily!" interrupted the snarled of the original Voldemort.
His newly arrived counterpart smiled. "Why of course. I have already had that pleasure once. You kill Lily. Then I will cast a vulnerability spell on Harry, neutralizing any charm his mother has placed on him, and you kill him as well."
The first Voldemort grinned. "Good plan." He again reached for the doorknob.
"Wait!" The second Voldemort lifted a small, silver hourglass-shaped talisman, which hung by a silver chain around his neck. He gave it a single turn. "Poor Lily. She'll never know what hit her." He reached passed his companion to open the door himself and went through first.
Lily was inside, hunched over her baby, with her wand out. She cast a spell, which flew with agonizing slowness across the room. Voldemort caught it on his own wand and stepped aside. The spelled danced up and down his wand like St. Elmo's fire.
Then the original Voldemort stepped through the door and sidestepped, placing distance between him and his duplicate. Lily's wand shifted to him, but she was moving so slowly. It would have been painful to see, if it hadn't been so funny.
"Take me!" she screamed slowly in a basso-profundo voice. "Take me, but leave my baby alone!"
He pointed his wand at her and cried, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" The spirit went out of her, and her lifeless body collapsed to the floor.
"Wait, Lily, just a moment please," he said to the confused ghost which now fluttered and flickered in the room. "I want you to watch us kill your son."
The ghost shuttered in horror, but she was powerless.
The second Voldemort shook his wand, and Lily's spell flicked off like so much water. Then he pointed his wand at Harry and said, "Vunerabilitas!"
The baby began giving off flecks of light, hundreds of them, then thousands of them. Whatever the charm was that Lily had placed on Harry, it was being peeled away.
"Ah!" murmured the first Voldemort. "Sweet victory at last! AVADA KEDAVRA!"
The room exploded. The second Voldemort was hurled back out through the doorway and into the gore-splattered room beyond. No! Not again! Not this again! Then he nearly laughed with relief. It had not happened again. He was still here, still whole. He clambered to his feet and stumbled back into the bedroom.
The original Voldemort was just getting up. "Amazing!" he gasped. "Lily Potter was a most ingenious and talented witch. It's good she's dead."
They both looked around for her ghost, but it has the blast had thrown her into the world beyond. Her lifeless body still lay crumpled on the floor.
"Where's the baby?"
They both looked around for it, but it had vanished. The two Dark Lords looked at each other in consternation.
Then, from somewhere quite nearby, a high-pitched keening began. A baby was crying.
They looked for it, but the sound seemed to be coming from nowhere and everywhere.
Suddenly, the second Voldemort began to laugh. "Oh, this is too sweet!" he gloated. "Too wonderfully, wonderful sweet!" He pirouetted into the middle of the room, laughing.
The original Voldemort was frowning. "I don't understand."
"Now, it is Harry Potter's turn," gloated his companion. "For years after my failed attempt to kill him, I was cursed with a limbo existence, always teetering on the brick of oblivion, with no body and just a few shreds left of my soul. And now, Harry Potter has suffered my fate! Oh, this is just too marvelous! I could not have planned a better revenge!" He suddenly grasped his companion. "But unlike me, Harry Potter has no Death Eaters to bring him back. He will suffer my fate for all eternity!"
