I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to the franchise. Not that anyone should be surprised.

"Accident"

An incredibly loud series of sirens wailed throughout the intersection that had backed up traffic for several miles on the A10 and A1211 roads in London. A car with a family of four in it had collided with one heck of a big lorry, and the vehicle had tipped over in the accident, spilling its cargo all over the place and managing to dent a good few more cars before they could speed away desperately. The driver wasn't in great condition, but the family of four was all dead except for one small child, no older than two years of age, who somehow had managed to be in just the right place to avoid more than mild whiplash.

The black-haired toddler was still rushed to the hospital since they needed to be sure, as what looked like half of Scotland Yard descended on the intersection to take pictures and statements, start an investigation, and try to divert traffic out of the area before it backed up any worse than it already was. This is where our story begins, one May afternoon with one young child by the name of Harry Potter who had miraculously survived a second time in a situation where he shouldn't have, whose future would become very different than it may have been in another world.

Albus Dumbledore was just returning from a leisurely lunch to his office when he stepped within close enough range to hear it. A piercing shriek of noise coming from his office, one that he had never expected to actually hear in his lifetime. He broke into a run, a casual wave of his wand moving the gargoyle protecting the entrance to his office, and he burst into the room.

"Fawkes! That's... it can't be. Quick, my friend, we must go immediately to the Dursley residence to check what has happened!"

With a squawk of agreement, the phoenix jumped from his perch, made a single powerful flap of his wings to land on the Headmaster's shoulder, and both vanished in a burst of flames.

oOo

The day wasn't any better for Inspector Louis Marshall, who had been assigned to spend a good deal of time at the hospital in the immediate future as he would need to take the initial statements from the truck driver and his doctor, the surviving toddler's doctors, and the couple of other people who'd gotten caught up in the impressively large accident enough to suffer minor injuries. He had a couple of regular beat officers with him, but they were mostly there to keep reporters out and ensure limited access to the survivors being treated.

So far at least, it seemed that the story was shaping up fast to be about as expected. The dead father appeared to have run a red light, swerved when a car nearly clipped him, and slammed right into the truck in the process. Unfortunate, really, it made for a much cleaner investigation when the truck driver was at fault. Prosecuting a dead guy for negligence was rarely worth it even if the courts would permit it, and the poor orphaned kid would really be the loser in this whole mess.

Well, nothing in life seemed to ever be easy. The truck driver was still in surgery, so he couldn't talk with the guy for at least a couple of hours. The two people with minor injuries had already had their statements taken and were released, and he had faxed those over from the receptionist's desk. Lunchtime, then, and maybe the doctors would have a preliminary report for the toddler when he was done? It was the best plan he had for the time being.

oOo

Albus Dumbledore was well aware suddenly that his own plans had never quite been sufficient to deal with a true emergency. Arriving at the Dursley residence, he had found that while the wards had certainly come down, it wasn't the sort of catastrophic ward failure that would signify a purposeful breach. By all appearances, and then confirmed by a neighbor who seemed far too curious in his reasons for visiting, the Dursley family had left the house earlier in the day.

"Thank you, Madam, for the information. I'm very sorry I missed them. Have you any idea where they may have gone?"

The woman seemed more than happy to have a use for her gossip. "Oh, absolutely, it was just yesterday that Petunia was talking to me about a day trip to London so they could purchase some necessities for her dear Duddydums! It seems the boy just keeps growing and growing out of his outfits!" She seemed to be smirking at this a bit, but the Headmaster was just too concerned to take notice.

"To London, then... I must be off. Thank you very much again for allowing-" His thanks were interrupted by a loud male voice from inside.

"Honey, you need to come inside right away! Quickly! The news on the telly is saying that the Dursleys just got killed in a traffic accident!" The woman's eyes widened, and she beckoned him to come.

"If you're their friend, you'll obviously want to see this too! Quick, let's see what's going on!" Albus could do little but nod briskly in agreement, entering the house and staring at the electronic box that the woman and her husband had their full attention suddenly focused on.

"-and traffic has come to a complete halt on the A10 and A1211 intersection in London, at this time we advise all commuters to find alternate routes to their destinations as the traffic backups will likely still last for hours. As stated earlier, it appears a passenger car ran a red light and careened into this truck, seen here tipped on its side at the intersection. Some clearing has started, but the investigation is continuing at this time and we may have some time yet to wait before the officers complete it. We can now confirm that there are survivors of this horrendous crash, as well as at least three confirmed deaths. With the next of kin now notified, we can tell you that confirmed dead was one Vernon Dursley, an executive with Grunning's Drills, and his wife Petunia Dursley. Both were pronounced dead at the scene, along with an unidentified toddler. A second toddler is now recovering at London Bridge Hospital, along with the truck driver who also survived despite taking grievous injuries. We will have more information on this breaking story as it comes in, but early reports are stating that the car may have ran a red light-"

"Wow... that is just truly astounding! That Dursley fellow was a piece of work, but I never thought such a thing..." the housewife trailed off as she realized that the elderly gentleman who had joined her was now gone, her open front door the only proof that he had been there at all.

oOo

With Fawkes carefully flaming him to a secluded alley near the hospital, the wizened Headmaster spared a thought to what to do next. Obviously the first priority was to check whether the surviving toddler was Harry or the Dursley child, and to get him safely to Hogwarts to be checked before he decided on a new home for the boy. Death Eater attacks had died down once Voldemort was gone, and while the protection was important, there was no longer any way to re-erect blood wards that would function as the previous ones had. He would have to find a way to ensure the boy would still be loyal to him later, but that could come once he knew for sure that he didn't have even worse problems.

It was a matter of a few minutes to bustle through the common areas of the hospital, though the urgency in his voice alone seemed to encourage the receptionist to tell him where the toddler from the accident had been taken, and to jog there himself without signing in and before anyone could even stop him. Paying no attention at all to the nurse who was calling for him to stop and wait for her to come with, nor to the two conferring officers who suddenly broke away from their conversation to see what the commotion was about, he pulled the door wide open and continued inside.

There was an observation crib inside, and- sure enough, the boy had messy black hair and a familiar scar. "Harry Potter... thank Merlin you're still alive."

"Hey, what are you doing here? You can't be in here without an escort. Are you family of the Dursleys?" An officer who he hadn't noticed sitting on the other side of the room had risen from his chair and was walking towards him, even as the door opened and the other two officers burst in. One had a standard baton, and the other was wielding an unfamiliar metal and wood curved baton.

The old wizard regarded them with surprise. "Ah, not to worry, not to worry. I'll just be taking young Mr. Potter here and be going, there's no need for such dramatics."

The officer who had spoken first repeated his question. "Are you family?"

"Alas, I am a friend of Harry's parents, and will be his future Headmaster. It's not a problem, I assure you-"

The officer interrupted him. "Only family can be in here at this time. You'll have to wait for someone to give you permission before you can visit-"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he reached into his robe for his wand. "My dear boy, I'm afraid I have no choice-"

The following several seconds seemed to go in incredibly slow motion. "STOP!" "FREEZE!" "but to-" "DON'T MOVE!" "obliv-"

As the polished wood grain of his wand started to clear his robe, the Headmaster suddenly heard a pair of loud "BANG!"s and his hand would no longer obey his thoughts. Looking down, his hand was soaked with blood, his wand- the coveted Elder Wand- was a mess of splinters and cracked wood, and there was a burning feeling both there and in his arm. "H-Harry..." He sunk to his knees as the full implications of his mistake hit him, before he was... just so tired... he needed to rest. That was surely it. He would rest, and things would be easy to fix in the morning...

"...Get a doctor in here, NOW!" Inspector Marshall shouted, as his one armed officer lowered his gun and flicked the safety back on, holstering it carefully. The other dropped to his knees, grabbing a nearby cloth and pressing it to the bloody wound on the old man's arm. Then the emergency medics came in, getting the man onto a stretcher and carting him off with some urgency. The officer administering first aid went with them, both to help and to keep an eye on the old man who'd been about to do... something. He might have wondered what if he wasn't so busy making sure the guy didn't lose too much blood.

"I'm... sorry, sir, it really did appear as if-" the armed officer started, worry evident on his face. For good reason, too; there were few armed police officers on the force, and a discharge of his weapon would be closely looked at in the near future. He had at least a couple days of paid leave to look forward to, but that wouldn't be much comfort when he would be worrying over whether he'd still have his job after that.

Inspector Marshall shook his head. No, it wouldn't do to have a good officer kicked off the force for something like this. "Not to worry, Sergeant Moore. I suspect that the board will let this one go without too much concern. His words and attitude made it sound like he was going to attack us, and you managed a couple good shots that shouldn't be lethal. I think I can safely say that will be reflected in my report. You agree?"

The younger man slumped forward a bit, before nodding. "...Thank you, sir. I will... just be honest in my report. I- I really appreciate that."

"It's not a problem to tell the truth. You have a promising career, Sergeant, I'd hate to see it cut short because of some stupid octogenarian who thinks a wooden baton is a good weapon. Now stay here for a few minutes and rest while you keep an eye on the kid, I'll need to call for some backup and a supervisor to take our own statements, alright?" He put a hand on the man's shoulder as he heard the positive response, before excusing himself into another empty room to place the call. Yes, things would turn out just fine. He just hoped there weren't any more weird crazies on their way to try to take the poor kid.

.

A/N: Just a start to a fic without any real fleshing out of where it'd go from here. Obviously very AU, my thought is that it would take a while for anyone to even figure out where Dumbledore went since he has no identification, no wand, and is stuck in the Muggle world for a while. Most likely I'd expect to see Amelia Bones get involved, though there's plenty of reasons for Dumbledore to end up one place or another (or even not surviving at all) and plenty of places for Harry to end up in the process. Just a plot bunny that attacked me and I needed to get it out of my head, if you're interested in using it please just credit me and let me know- that's all I ask.

Point of note: Most of the British police force does not carry guns. According to the information I could find, around seventeen percent of officers would have been carrying guns in the early 80's. It was luck of the draw for the Inspector that he had one on hand, most likely assigned on purpose to ensure the full safety of the witnesses.