Chapter One: Painful Reactions
Albus Dumbledore crossed his Hogwarts office slowly to the Pensieve on his desk, his face troubled. Past the whirring silver instruments and snoozing portraits, past the bookshelves in the tall round room with big windows, past Fawkes the phoenix on his golden perch… And to the desk, where the Prophecy awaited within the Pensieve.
Candles were lit. A clear, starry night sky sparkled, cold and crisp and clear, just outside.
Dumbledore swirled his long-fingered hand within the silver liquid vapor of the Pensieve, and called the head of Seer Sybill Trelawney forward, floating above the stone, carved basin.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… And the Dark Lord shall mark the child as his equal, but the child shall have a power of separation that the Dark Lord knows not… What is separated shall be her greatest weapon… And one of the three must die… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"
Dumbledore let the memory collapse back into the Pensieve basin, frowning.
"I would think the power is love, Fawkes," he said conversationally to his pet phoenix. "It should logically be the only power Lord Voldemort doesn't have. But a power of separation… what does that mean…? What is separated shall be her greatest weapon… And there are three people in one line of the prophecy. But only two are mentioned."
He walked to the window, near a candelabra, and took up Hagrid's letter, reading it over. It said, in untidy scrawl:
Professor Dumbledore -
You were right, the girl's parents are dead. But him - he's gone too. Poor little thing was the only thing left alive in the ruins of that cottage. I got her out of the wreckage all right, but I'm writing you ahead of time as we're traveling.
The girl woke up once and she started wailing, clutching at the new scar on her forehead. Where the curse struck her. I think she was in pain. I think she was having a fit of pain. But he's weakened, isn't he? And he's not nearby.
He'd have attacked us if he were nearby, I'm sure of it.
What is this scar? Why would a tiny girl be having a fit of pain from it?
Worried and thought you should know,
Hagrid
Dumbledore sighed and put down the letter. "It's a Horcrux, you see," he explained to Fawkes. "If I'm right… Voldemort's soul is so fractured and broken he did not know he was creating a new Horcrux. A piece of his soul was left behind on impact of the curse. That piece went into the only opening available - the wound on the forehead of a tiny girl.
"But from here we go into speculation, uncharted territory. A human has never been a Horcrux before. But if I'm right… And to flatter myself, I usually am…
"The soul piece will repeatedly throughout the Potter girl's childhood try to reject its host. It tries to sync up with a human body, but it can't because of such a vast difference in gender and body structure. The soul piece is trying to become a human boy, like it used to be, and this the Potter girl is not. Since it cannot sync, it will try to reject - hence the scar pains.
"Since it is so often trying to reject, this soul piece will be constantly looking to at least partially complete itself - and make a new body. Constantly searching for a way out. It will not reattach itself to the original it broke off from. Rather, it will try to attach itself to another Voldemort soul piece, assuming one gets nearby. Theoretically, that much Dark concentrated magical energy, combined with the connection to the Potter girl's mind and soul and body, would be enough to create a new physical form. Perhaps even a new copy wand. This form would be tied to the Potter girl, in a way any incarnation of Voldemort's would at first despise.
"The bigger soul piece, in theory - the other soul piece - would decide age, memories, and body structure. The person would in other words become whoever that bigger soul piece was.
"This is all conjecture, of course. The odds of two Horcruxes of Lord Voldemort's meeting are astronomically low…
"But the prophecy." Dumbledore's eyes flew wide. "Power of separation. But that implies…" And here, he frowned. "That implies the Potter girl has actual power over this person. To make him… no longer the Dark Lord Voldemort. That this person… she could get him to agree to help her.
"Which makes no sense, considering the person would in all likelihood be Tom Riddle.
"And how on earth would she come into contact with another Horcrux in the first place…? It simply can't be how she wins…
"But what if…? What if I wasn't wrong?" he breathed. "What if the power she has that he doesn't…" Dumbledore smirked a sad little smile. "What if it really is love, Fawkes? Perhaps it's just me wishing foolishly, hoping that someone I knew could have another chance not to eventually become what he became… a foolish wish, surely, that Tom Riddle could have some second chance to find love and not become Lord Voldemort…
"It seems impossible… The odd thinking of someone who hears that a woman defeats a man with love and makes assumptions… And the Tom Riddle who emerged… would have to be one of the earliest Horcruxes, aged fifteen or sixteen, one of the hardest to find…
"It seems impossible… And yet… What better explanation is there, that fits this letter and the whole prophecy? That would explain the three people, though only two are mentioned - and if Tom Riddle eventually became his own soul and his own person, if he eventually healed himself over time.
"Then only one of them really would have to die.
"And oh, he would hate it, Voldemort. He would hate that answer, Fawkes. It would for him imply not a capability for noble nature, but rather for him it would imply the cardinal sin he always swore to himself he would never have:
"Weakness.
"But Severus Snape just left my quarters, now on our side. And if the Potter girl's mother could move him as a child, as a teenager… Severus Snape had as awful a childhood and was as Dark as they came…
"It's the height of irony," Dumbledore said softly to himself, staring down through the window at the Hogwarts grounds. "What if the key to defeating Lord Voldemort is the heart of Tom Riddle, the boy who created him, the boy he erased?
"And Bellatrix Lestrange is somewhere out there, assuming Lord Voldemort paid no notice to the Half-blood girl?
"The only pity… the only pity is that the girl will grow up with fits of curse scar pains..."
And so Albus Dumbledore, hands behind his back, stared down at the Hogwarts grounds. And he thought.
Only Fawkes the phoenix heard him, and Fawkes never told a soul.
Minerva McGonagall watched Albus Dumbledore leave the Potter girl on the doorstep of Number Four, Privet Drive in Surrey. She watched him climb back over the garden wall and walk back to herself and Hagrid.
"So we're really going to do it?" said Minerva, her lips a thin line. "We're really going to leave the girl in a wealthy, snobbish English Muggle suburb with her only aunt and uncle? People who will never understand her and know nothing about her?"
"I have outlined my reasons," said Dumbledore, still looking stoically down the street.
"Yes, of course… The name. Anne. It's old-fashioned and simple, but it's lovely," Minerva added softly, watching the tiny bundle on the doorstep.
"Yes. The… late Potter couple -" Dumbledore listened to the soft grass and tree sounds around them in the slight November breeze for a few seconds. Here, Minerva sharply cleared her throat. At last, Dumbledore continued, watching the end of the street determinedly: "I believe they named her after an ancient member of the Potter family. A regal, casual, old-fashioned name. Anne. Then they made her middle name Rose, thus naming her after the famous Queen Anne Rose - in her mother's family's fashion, also naming her after a flower.
"So. Anne Potter. It's as English a name as they come."
"Poor little thing…" Hagrid sniffled. "Poor little Anne… off to live with terrible, snotty Muggles who don't even like her…"
"I am not so sure I would feel pity for her, Hagrid." McGonagall and Hagrid both looked over in surprise. Dumbledore was watching the bundle, rather sharp. "Actually… I am interested to see how the Dursleys react to having to raise a little girl.
"Because I get the feeling that even gender roles aside, it won't be the same as how they would have reacted to raising a little boy who reminded them of James Potter.
"Will they be perfect? Far from it. Will it be a more emotionally fraught process…?
"Almost certainly. The Dursleys are close to caricature evil human beings, but they are not. They have a strong streak of greyness - and in this case, it intrigues me."
Author's Notes: This is part two of a six-fandom series called Gender Changes Six. Follow me for more.