[I'm editing this story since the timeline was all wrong. There will be an extra chapter, and it'll all be up shortly.]

Short Summary:

Also known as The Earlier Drafts Story. In an earlier draft of SS, the Potters lived on an island in the ocean, while the Grangers lived nearby. When the house is destroyed, Mr. Granger rows out and retrieves Harry and (this is where MY plot twist comes in) Harry's twin sister, Alice. The two children are taken to the Dursleys, and that's where our story begins…

So in other words, this compounds most of the earlier Harry Potter draft ideas (the Potter island, and the idea that Flamel died long ago when the stone was stolen from him, and it was later found in the Potter vaults (see the HP Lexicon)). I went with the same surnames (you may know that Draco's surname was once Spinks and also used to be Spudgen, Neville's last name used to be Puff, and Hermione's was once Puckle) to avoid confusion, but kept all the the character's first name ideas (Katrina MacDougal (changed to Morag in the book), Gary Thomas rather than Dean, Queenie Greengrass rather than Daphne etc), just for experimentation purposes. Now, Alice is not at all intended to be a Mary-Sue, and if she seems that way, please tell me.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and please review if you can!


Chapter One: A Brave Rescue

After tucking his oldest daughter into bed and making certain that his wife didn't need anything, John Granger stepped out into the front garden to drink his last cup of tea for the evening and smoke his pipe.

It was a cool October night – unseasonably warm, in fact – and his daughters Hermione and Luciana were exceptionally tired from the Halloween festivities that day. Luciana, though only five months old, was still fighting to stay awake, which was why John's wife was rocking her now in the nursery.

The Granger's home was on the shore, which John loved as he was an avid fisherman during his time away from his dental practice. He even had a small boat docked just down the bank for weekend fishing excursions.

John watched the waves in a comfortable silence until all of the sudden –

BANG!

John was knocked onto his back as an explosion, seeming to come from the middle of the ocean, shook the entire street. Scrambling to his feet, John gazed out to the island there just a kilometer out from the shore. A small house stood there – it had been there since the Granger's moved in three years before. He knew that a family lived there, but had never really seen any of them.

Well, a house once stood there, at least. As John watched, the house exploded with a flash of green light.

"John?" called Helen from inside in a worried voice. "What was that? Oh…my goodness."

John turned to see Helen standing in the doorway, a whimpering Luciana in her arms and Hermione, now wide-awake, hanging onto her nightgown.

"Some type of explosion." John said, panting and gesturing to the island house. An image of his own family in the same type of situation pushed itself firmly into his mind, and suddenly John was running towards the shore.

"John! Where in the world are you going?" Helen called desperately.

"I'm going to row out there – see if I can help." He said. "Call someone, Helen. The police – anything."

Helen bit her lip, but nodded and took the girls back inside. John made certain his boat was ready, and began to row out.

The sea was eerily calm, the waves small and quiet. John wasn't quite sure how he rowed so fast to the small island – perhaps it was a fatherly superpower; he was reasonably sure the people who lived here had a least one child.

"Hello?" John called hesitantly as he pulled the boat up onto the shore. Making certain it was secured, he climbed over the rocks around the edge of the island and onto the sand, stepping over debris as he went. "Anyone here?"

He couldn't believe the destruction. Only around half of the two-story house remained. John couldn't see any sign of body parts, a fact which he was grateful for.

Stepping under what had once been a front door, John had to stifle a cry. On the ground lay a man around his age with messy black hair and glasses. He was obviously dead, though there weren't any marks on his body that John could see. John swiftly closed the man's eyes out of respect, then continued through the house, praying that he would find survivors.

He couldn't believe something this horrible had happen in their normal seaside neighbourhood. John had a moment to wonder if perhaps other occupants of the house had gotten out when he heard a sharp cry, followed by shuffling from upstairs and a whimper, then two separate sets of crying. John knew that sound; it was a young child's cry, two young children by the sounds of it.

As fast as he dared on the half-broken staircase, John raced upstairs and thanked everything he could think of that the room the cries came from was mostly intact.

On the floor between ruined cribs lay two small children huddled together. They were obviously the same age, which he guessed was around a year and a half – perhaps twins.

"Oh, you poor dears…" John said, immediately going to pick them up. Their cries quieted down a bit. John could tell that they weren't seriously injured – perhaps bruised a bit, and they both had small gashes on their pale foreheads, but other than that the children seemed fine.

"Mummy…" said the black-haired baby in between sobs.

"Daddy!" cried the red-haired child.

John grimaced. He realized that the man downstairs was probably their father – he and the little girl shared the same brown eyes, and the baby boy had the same messy hair – but John didn't know where their mother could be.

Thinking of his own eldest daughter, John decided to ask the children:

"Where is mummy?" he said gently, bouncing the children slightly. "Did she go to get help?"

The boy simply shivered a bit, pointing to John's left, where the floor ended in a ten-foot drop to the ground below. Cautiously, John peered over the edge and had to bit his lip to keep from crying out and scaring the children.

A beautiful young woman lay on the ground below, her neck tilted the wrong way, obviously broken. She had the little girl's red hair.

Clutching the children to his chest, John quickly made his way down the stairs, stepping off just as they cracked and began to crumble.

He never quite remembered rowing back to the shore; John had never seen death before, except family members who had died from sickness or old age, and even that he had never personally witnessed more than three times. His movements were robotic as he handed the two children to his wife so he could tie up the boat.

"Someone is on the way." Helen informed as they wrapped the still-whimpering children in blankets and made them warm bottles. "He should be here any–"

There was a knock on the door, and John went to get it while Helen held the children, singing them a quiet lullaby.

John's jaw dropped. The man standing before him had long white hair, a white beard just as long, and wore a dark purple cloak. He looked saddened and weary, but gave John a small smile.

"Hello, Mr. Granger. I believe I spoke to your wife on the phone?" John nodded slowly. "I'm with the Ministry."

"You are?" John couldn't help but saying.

The man's smile grew a bit. "Yes – I suppose I don't look the part, do I? Well in any case, I'm here to take the children to their closest relatives."

John nodded. "Could I – er – see some ID?" he wasn't about to release the two children to someone just because they said so.

"Of course." The man said pleasantly, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out an identification card, complete with his picture, ministry department name, and signatures of superiors.

It looked right to John, so he nodded and beckoned the man inside. John was still a bit in shock from all the events of that night; his arms and legs felt slightly tingly and his chest was tight.

The man gave a sigh of relief when he saw the children, and Helen smiled grimly, handing them over to him.

"A team from the Ministry will be here shortly to investigate." He explained. "They would greatly appreciate your testimonies, if you don't mind. "

"Of course." John said agreeably. Anything to help bring a madman like that to justice.

"Thank you very much for taking care of the children." The man added, starting towards the door.

"Wait!" John couldn't help but say. His eyes were fixed on the children, who were now sleeping peacefully in the bearded man's arms.

"Yes?" the man asked, his bushy eyebrows raised.

"What…" John paused for a minute, then forced himself to continue, "What are their names?"

The old man gave a small smile.

"Harry and Alice Potter." He said, then stepped out the door and disappeared in a whirl of purple cloak.