Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Harry Potter or anything else in JK Rowling's world. I am merely borrowing them to play around with for the moment.

Author's Note: I don't have much to say before I start the story, but I will say something. This is my first attempt at a public Harry Potter fanfic. I've written quite a bit more, but I want to see if anyone will read this first. While I know there are a lot of Harry as a girl stories, I hope it is different enough from those other fanfics and the books to be enjoyable. Constructive reviews are very much appreciated.

Anyone who had met the Dursleys and spoken to them could tell you that they were as normal as you could get. They were so normal that Petunia and Vernon Dursley hated things that were different. Vernon worked in a company that made drills while Petunia was the perfect housewife who took care of their darling one-year-old son, Dudley. The Dursleys were complete opposites in looks but seemed to have similar attitudes.

There was one thing that nobody knew about them. Petunia had a sister named Lily. Lily and her husband James Potter were what the Dursleys could only describe as weird. When Lily had sent a letter merely a week or so after Petunia had given birth to Dudley, the tall woman had found out that her sister had also borne a child. This child, her sister had went on to explain in the letter, was a girl that they had agreed to name Holly Imogen Potter and who James had said would look just like her mother.

Petunia had read the letter through, though she hadn't written back. The Dursleys rarely talked about Petunia's sister and her family. Lily had written several letters throughout the year saying that she thought her daughter and Dudley should get together for some play dates, since they were cousins. In the weeks before Halloween after Dudley had turned one, Lily sent yet another letter. In this letter, Lily wrote that she and James were coming up the week after Halloween with little Holly, even if Petunia didn't write back, since Lily wanted to see her sister and nephew. Unfortunately, this was not to be.

Though Halloween went on normally enough for the Dursleys, they would find their world turned upside down soon. The day after Halloween, Vernon had gone to work like normal, though he had noticed several rather strange things happening during the day. There had been numerous people who had apparently forgotten that Halloween was the day before, wearing cloaks and seemingly overexcited for something. One of the weirdos had even given him a hug. Then there were all the owls that were flying around, even though it was daytime. Not to mention the fireworks that seemed to come out of nowhere. So many weird things were happening that Vernon was beginning to wonder if the world had gone mad. Of course, Petunia knew nothing about this since she had spent her day with Dudley.

Only one odd thing had happened to Petunia. She had seen a cat sitting on their wall and had tried to shoo it away. The gray and white tabby cat had looked at her reproachfully. Then, the cat had lifted its paw and waved it at Petunia as if it was trying to tell her to go away. This has caused Petunia to huff and threaten the cat with a broomstick, but the cat had just seemed to roll its eyes and moved to a spot where the housewife couldn't reach it. Once she had gotten back into the house, the cat had climbed back onto the wall, where it was apparently waiting for something.

What the cat was waiting for didn't come until late at night, when an old man with a long white beard appeared on the road and took out all of the lights on the street with some strange type of lighter. As soon as he reached the Dursley house, 4 Privet Drive, he sat down next to the cat, "Aha, Minerva, I'm so glad to see that you're here. I take it that you've been watching Miss Potter's family to see what they're like. What have you seen?"

The cat he was talking to had suddenly turned into an older woman with black hair pulled into a bun and wearing a green cloak, "Albus, that family is absolutely horrendous! The father is overbearing and lets his son get away with anything, the mother is nosy and self-righteous, and that dreadful boy is spoiled and coddled to the point where he's going to be selfish and a bully. You're telling me that we must leave the savior of the wizarding world here?"

Albus Dumbledore sighed as he adjusted his half-moon glasses and looked towards the house they were talking about, "This is the best place for young Potter to live. Any child who grows up in the wizarding world when every wizard will grow up knowing of her tale will be unfortunately altered and shall we say, conceited. It's better for her to grow up in a house where they do not know the name of Voldemort. Living with her muggle aunt and uncle will, I pray, give the young girl a level head."

Dumbledore ignored the flinching that Minerva McGonagall did when he spoke Voldemort's name. Seeing the truth in his words, she could only sigh and look around, "Where is young Holly anyways? You sent me an owl telling me to watch the Dursleys for you and that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has been killed by a child. Surely you must have been mistaken."

The older wizard shook his head, "First, I don't see why you can't call Voldemort by his name. Secondly, I don't know if he's dead but it does appear that he's gone. He killed both James and Lily Potter before he tried to use the killing curse on the girl, though it seems that it had backfired on him. With most of those involved dead and young Potter only a little over a year old, it's very unlikely that we'll be getting the whole story as to what has happened. Lastly, I had some things that I needed to do so I had Hagrid pick up the child and bring her here."

McGonagall looked incredulous, "Hagrid? Why, he might drop her and then where will we be? Surely you could have found a more suitable caretaker for the girl."

Dumbledore seemed strangely amused, "My dear Minerva, I trust Hagrid implicitly. While I admit that he does sometimes forget his own strength, he will treat Miss Potter with the greatest of care."

Professor McGonagall seemed to be ready to make another comment until a low rumbling sound seemed to be coming from somewhere above them, which successfully distracted her. Both professors looked up to see a huge motorcycle coming down towards them. Even though the motorcycle was big, the man on it seemed too large even for that vehicle. While Dumbledore was tall, this man seemed to make him look small. In the giant's arms was a tiny bundle of pink blankets which he was holding very carefully. Dumbledore looked from Hagrid to the motorcycle he had come in on, "I didn't know you had a motorcycle, Hagrid. You didn't have any problems, did you?"

Rubeus Hagrid shook his head, still looking at the bundle in his arms, "Sirius Black let me borrow his motorcycle. I managed to get her out easily enough, though she made quite a fuss until she fell asleep. I think she was wondering where her mum and dad were. As I was leaving, the muggle authorities seemed to be getting ready to swarm the place. Lucky they didn't see me."

Both Dumbledore and McGonagall came closer to examine the baby in all of the blankets that Hagrid was holding. They could just barely see the girl, who was indeed sleeping. She didn't have much hair but the hair that they could see was the same color as Lily's had been, dark red. They could tell it would be wavy or curly as well. McGonagall was the first one to notice the lightning-shaped cut on the girl's forehead. She looked to Dumbledore, "I suppose that's where the curse…"

Dumbledore nodded as he studied the baby, "Yes, it must be. I'm sure she's going to have a scar there for the rest of her life. While I'm sure that we could chat all evening, it's best not to dawdle. Shall we get this over with? There are celebrations that I am sure that you two would love to attend."

As he spoke, Dumbledore took the baby from Hagrid. Hagrid kissed her forehead as a good-bye, looking miserable. While the older wizard was placing Holly on the doorstep, Hagrid burst into tears. McGonagall patted his back, whispering to him. Then, Dumbledore took a letter out of his cloak and put it inside Holly's blankets. Once he came back to the others, they both noticed he seemed more subdued than usual. Dumbledore turned to look at Hagrid, "I do believe that Sirius would like his bike back…"

Hagrid didn't say anything, but he did give them a nod goodbye as he walked back to the motorcycle and started it up. They could still hear his sobs over the rumbling of the motorcycle while he flew away. Before McGonagall left, she wanted to ask Albus something, "What do you expect she'll be like when she gets to Hogwarts, Albus? I highly doubt that she'll be a squib, so she will most definitely be joining us at Hogwarts."

Dumbledore gave McGonagall a slight smile, "I am very sure that she will be studying at Hogwarts as well. I think that like many of the new students who come to us, she will be well-adjusted, curious, excited, and ready to learn. Of course, I do not know whether this will come true or not. We shall get to see in ten years, though that seems like a long time right now. One can only hope…"

Satisfied that the answer was the best one Dumbledore could have given her at the moment, McGonagall nodded and then seemed to disappear. Dumbledore clicked the lighter in his hand and all of the lights returned to Privet Drive. Before he disappeared as well, he took one last look at the bundle of blankets and spoke softly, "No matter how much one wants too, one can not see the future. I'm so very sorry, Holly."

A/N: So, that's the first chapter to the story. As I said before, I've written quite a bit of this already for my own amusement, so I'd be willing to continue if I get enough positive feedback on this. This is pretty much a fun distraction from other things I should be doing. I will state right now that many of the events in the first year book will happen, but Holly will make different choices than Harry and these choices will have a sort of snowball effect. While the first year is similar, the others will end up much different than the books.