Harry Potter and The Changes of Chance: Book 1 (The Sorcerer/Philosopher's Stone)

Author's note: Hello! This is my first fanfic, and I'm excited to see if it will work out how I want it to. I hope you enjoy it! (I will try and update at least twice a week)

Changes from original: The Strider Family; Macnair was placed in Azkaban after Voldemort's downfall; Sirius Black is never framed for murder; ? Was never imprisoned.

I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER (duh)

Chapter 1: A Different Perspective

It was a normal day on Sutton Path, where nothing unusual was happening at all. The birds were chirping, the flowers were swaying, children were playing, and nobody driving by would have suspected that a very powerful wizard lived on that very street. The wizard's name was Henry Strider, and he was a graduate of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Henry was a kind man, and was married to a kind woman, Natasha, and they had a kind son, named William. They were a normal seeming family at first, setting out tablecloths and making dinner by hand. But if you happened to see them when they thought nobody was looking, you would see magic wands waving around and doing laborious tasks when they needed them done.

Henry liked to sit at the dinner table and sip tea, while reading the wizard's newspaper, The Daily Prophet. Natasha often discussed William's education with Henry and her son, and William listened intently, wanting to know everything he could about magic. It was on William's eleventh birthday that he would receive a letter from Hogwarts, and that was only in a few weeks. William was very excited about this, thinking that his eleventh birthday would be the happiest day ever.

He was very mistaken.

On William's eleventh birthday, he ran downstairs and checked the mail. There was a yellow envelope laying on the doormat, much to William's ecstasy. It was addressed to:

William Strider

Number 18, Sutton Path

The Bedroom At The Top Of The Stairs

He picked it up and studied the purple seal on it. It had a coat of arms containing a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake, all surrounding a large "H". Grinning madly, William tore the seal off the envelope and removed the letter inside. It was written in neat handwriting, and looked just as William's father had described his. It read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Strider,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

William grinned more than he had been before, which seemed impossible. He called his father to get him to read the letter while he took out the list and read the books and other things he would need for school. After a few minutes, he did not come down. William assumed he was still asleep. He set the list down, having memorized it already, and headed up the stairs to his parent's room. He knocked on the door. There was no response. "Tired yesterday, huh?" He muttered to himself pushing open the door to find the room empty.

He stared. Where were his parents? They weren't in the room, or anywhere in the house, and they couldn't have left, as their car was still there and the fireplace was not lit. "Did they Apparate?" William asked himself, finding it odd that his parents wouldn't just take the Floo or car. He shrugged it off and assumed they were birthday shopping, and went back to read the list and pack up his trunk.

It was only when a knock came at the door that he stopped in his packing, and hurried downstairs. That would be his parents, coming back from shopping. He looked out the window, but couldn't see anything. Was it nighttime already? Why had his parents been gone so long? He opened the door and came face to belly with a man three times the size of his father. The man nodded at William and came in. He recognised him as Hagrid, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts.

"Um.. hello Hagrid. Why are you here?" William paused. "Do you know where my parents are?" Hagrid choked on the drink he had been guzzling from his flask, and William saw that his face was lined with tears. Hagrid set his flask back and sat down at the dinner table, in the same seat that his dad would have sat in if he were there. Hagrid almost broke the chair, however, and so dragged up his mother's chair to sit in as well. The two looked at each other, and William knew why Hagrid was crying. He felt tears coming, but he held it in long enough to ask "How?"

Hagrid looked at William solemnly and said "Death Eater. They 'scaped from Azkaban I reckon. Went right for em." Hagrid looked to be having a hard time not breaking into tears, while William already had. How had someone escaped from Azkaban? His parents said nobody could. It was supposed to be impossible. "'S not all" Hagrid said, his jaw trembling. "They took some Muggles an killed em too." William felt anger at this Death Eater. "What's their name?" William said, trying to take his mind off the horrible fact, the most horrible fact he could have heard.

"Walden Macnair." William engraved that name into his memory, stuck it in the deepest recesses of his brain. He would never forget that name. He would learn at Hogwarts, do well like his father, and avenge his parents by any means necessary.

Walden Macnair, you'd better watch your back.

I wonder what'll happen at Hogwarts…

What house will William be in?

I suppose we will find out soon…

Uh yeah you will… can you stop telling them about the next chapters?