This is just the prologue. Future chapters will be longer as Harry ages.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by our lord and savior JK Rowling. Not me, unfortunately.
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The tragedy on Halloween night, 1981, was greatly overshadowed by the celebration. Hooray, the dark lord is dead! But at what cost? An infant was traumatized and orphaned that night. His godfather convicted of murder. Both sets of grandparents where long since dead. The only remaining relative to the hero of the wizarding world, was his mother's sister, who wanted nothing to do with him.
And it was a good thing she didn't. Hell would have been raised if The Boy Who Lived had been left to muggles. Most thought he deserved to be raised as a king! Some thought he needed to be treated as a regular boy, allowing him to grow up with some semblance of normalcy.
A bidding war of sorts began. Wizards and witches from all walks of life came forward with their bid. Some offered a well stocked library where a growing boy might find his fill of knowledge, where others offered a loving family with children his age to grow up among peers. Goods and services were offered in exchange for the boy, and beautiful environments also made the list.
If a witch thought she was a fantastic cook, she would bid her culinary skill towards his upbringing. If a wizard was an expert in a new magical field, he would bid his knowledge, threatening to keep it to himself should the boy be placed elsewhere.
Money was the one things that would not be considered. Everyone knew of the Ministry's past corruption and Voldemort's infiltration, and were they to accept monetary bids for the life of a child, they would have had a revolt on their hands.
Well-off families therefore had no advantage over the lower class. Those who only bid possessions or other objects that could be broken down to a show of wealth were thrown out immediately. What mattered most, was the future welfare of the child, not what could be bought for him.
Another rule they enforced: any witch or wizard found to have had previous ties to Voldemort was disqualified from placing a bid. Whether the party in question had been imperiused during their actions, and pardoned of the penalties, was irrelevant. The ministry didn't want any chance of a Voldemort supporter gaining custody of the boy who brought about his downfall because of a fault in their justice system.
There was a committee created temporarily in the Ministry to filter through these bids and ultimately make this important decision. After discarding pointless bids and those that broke their only two stipulations, it became a very difficult task. How could one possibly weigh the importance of a nurturing family, against that of a safe, fun, beautiful, or exciting environment? That's what most of their remaining bids came down to, and the committee argued over this controversy for days.
Ultimately, they agreed upon a bid that offered a cultured upbringing. He would grow up among well-mannered and polite people that would teach him the ins and outs of wizarding society. As he was currently (and would likely continue to be) the most known wizard of the era, the committee thought it prudent he learn how to deal with their world in a proper manner.
This bid came from one of the sacred twenty-eight, the families that had retained their pure-blood status as far back as could easily be counted. There were other bids from these sacred families, but most of them had connections to Voldemort, and that just would not do. This specific family had nothing resembling those ties, and such an old family would surely be able to raise the child with little difficulty.
Finally, without much fanfare, Harry Potter was handed over to Edgar and Bonnie Macmillan.