What If? By Spunky
Summary: What would have happened if Hagrid had given Harry to Sirius that fateful Halloween night? Misunderstandings, pranks and a very mad Hermione.
Disclaimer: If Harry Potter was mine, would I be writing Fanfiction? None of this belongs to me so everyone else can battle it out arguing that it's theirs. Let me know who wins.
Author's Note: Let it be known that the characters in this story are alternate universe characters. They will behave differently then they do in the books because they have lived their lives differently. However if they act differently, reasons will be give for their change in behavior. They are not Out of Character (OOC) in this story because the situation is different. I have done my best to make the behavior changes realistic. Everything up to when the Potters are killed is the same as is described in the books.
I solemnly swear I am up to no good! Really!
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It was morning at Hogwarts on the day after Halloween, All-Saints Day, and just as Hermione was sitting down to breakfast the owls flew in. Hermione cut a piece of sausage for herself, popped it into her mouth and consulted her schedule. Tranfiguration was in the morning and Defence Against the Dark Arts was that afternoon. It was an ordinary day at Hogwarts. Well, as ordinary as they came.
Or was it?
Around her fellow students were whispering excitedly as they read their newspapers. Hermione leaned over to the boy sitting across the table from her, a red head named Ron Weasley, and asked, "What's got everyone so excited?"
"Didn't you hear? They found Harry Potter and then he disappeared again! He was living with some Muggle family in Edinburgh. And then someone found him yesterday, but he ran off again. And now no one knows where he is again."
"A Muggle family in Edinburgh? What's their name? I live in Edinburgh. Maybe I've met him." The prospect of having met Harry Potter was rather exciting. It's not every day that you get to meet someone who kill an undefeated dark wizard as a baby.
"Oy! George!" Ron yelled down the table four seats to his older brother, "What's that Muggle family's name? The one that had Harry Potter living with them?"
George consulted his paper, "Their names' Granger!" He hollered back.
Hermione paled.
"Some relative of yours?" Ron asked eagerly.
"Harry Granger? Harry Granger? Nope, doesn't ring a bell." Hermione replied. The idea was ludicrous. Yet, unwillingly, her mind began to drift back to the last day of fourth grade in which Chad had used a stick to control the weather. Had that been a wand? And what about that man who had come into her room every night as a baby and told Chad stories? Stories of Witches and Wizards and a place. A place called Hogwarts. He had called Chad, "Harry". Chad couldn't be Harry Potter. Could he?
"Oh, he didn't go by Harry with the Muggles." Ron said, "The article said that he went by a different name. What was it again? Charlie? No, that wasn't it. Umm... Chris? No. I know it started with a 'C'. Wait a sec. Now I remember, it was Chad."
"Chad Granger?" Hermione asked faintly.
"Do you know him?" Ron asked excitedly.
Hermione's jaw dropped and she stared at Ron. "Oh my- I- I can't believe it. That's not possible." Hermione was having trouble string words together.
"Then you know him? Do you know Sirius Black to? Rumor is he's an Animagi."
"What- What form?" Hermione stumbled over her words.
"They say he's a big black shaggy dog."
"What!?!?!?!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Do you know him also?" Ron asked eagerly.
This was too much for Hermione. She fainted.
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Ron Weasley stared at Hermione Granger who had just collapsed on the floor in front of him.
"I guess she did know him." Ron muttered.
Fred and George came running over.
"What happened?"
"What'd you do to her?"
"I didn't do anything!" Ron cried. "I just told her that Harry Potter's name with the Muggles was Chad Granger and that Sirius Black was a Animagi and she fainted!"
George pointed his wand at Hermione. "Enverate."
Hermione sat up. "There is no way that Harry Potter could be Chad!" Hermione declared. She seemed to be trying to convince herself of this more than anything. "No possible way!"
Hermione immediately stormed out of the Great Hall in the direction of the Gryffindor Common room.
"Absolutely starking mad."Ron proclaimed as he returned to his seat to finish the last of his breakfast.
"Do you really think she knows Harry Potter though?" asked George.
"I think we are going to have to play detective and find out." Fred grinned. "And we've got just the tool for that, don't we George?"
"But I thought we weren't going to tell Ron."
"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Let's go."
(A/N: Okay, so it's not desperate times, nor measures. I wanted to include the map. So sue me.)
Ron, Fred and George hurried up the stairway to Gryffindor tower. On the way they passed Hermione who was walking along whispering to herself. "Harry Potter is not Chad. Harry Potter cannot be Chad."
"That girl's off her rocker." Ron said to Fred and George once they were out of ear shot of Hermione. "If I were her I would love to know Harry Potter!"
Soon the three boys reached the common room. They gave the password to the Fat Lady and climbed in. When they reached Fred and George's dorm room, the twins began to dig through George's trunk. They began tossing out all sorts of things. Dung bombs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans, Fizzing Whizbees, Sugar Quills, Ice Mice and Pepper Imps were flying everywhere.
Fred hit Ron on the forehead with an Acid Pop.
"Fred! That's not funny!" cried Ron.
"Sure it is. Oh look," said hurriedly Fred, "here it is!" He said this partially because Ron was advancing on him with a dung bomb and partially because he had apparently found the item of his search. He thrust it in front of Ron.
"Funny." Said Ron flatly, "An old piece of parchment. This is your brilliant plan."
"This isn't it." Said George, "THIS is it." George took out his wand, placed it on the parchment and whispered "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Where George's wand was touching the parchment, lines spread out in all directions until Ron saw a map of Hogwarts in front of him.
"Wow! Where'd you get this?"
"Finch's office. First year. Now if you look closely, you can see where everyone is in the castle."
"This is amazing! Hey look, Hermione's in her dorm now. Should we go and ask her?"
"Let's go!"
The three boys thundered over to see Hermione. She was staring at a picture and Ron had looked over shoulder before she noticed them. "You're not allowed in here." Hermione said half heartedly.
"Who's that?" Ron asked curiously, pointing at the boy with the black messy hair in the picture next to a younger Hermione.
"Never you mind."
"Who is it?" Ron persisted.
"If you must know, it's my pest of a brother. However I am beginning to think that you would rival him in a contest on who is the most annoying. Now go away."
"What's his name?"
"Leave."
"Come on. What's his-"
"Leave. Do you want me to tell McGonagall that you were here?"
As if on cue, Professor McGonagall chose that moment to stick her head in the door.
"Miss Granger, Professor Dumbledore needs to speak to you about-." She cut off as she noticed the three boys in the room. "Misters Weasley, Weasley and Weasley you need to get out of the girl's dormitory now if you don't want me to take points from Gryffindor."
Ron and his brothers hurried down to the common room.
"What is going on around here?" Ron asked.
George replied. "I think we're about to find out."
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A four-legged version of Sirius was wandering through a forest on the outskirts of Edinburgh. He had hated leaving Harry at the Granger's house but he hadn't seen any way around it. Besides, that way Harry could go to Hogwarts. But still, Sirius would miss him. It almost felt like he was Harry's father, that's how close they had become.
There was the sound of some branches cracking a few trees away. Sirius turned back into his human form and dug into his pocket for his wand. It wasn't there. Unsure of what to do, Sirius backed behind a large tree and transformed into a dog.
It was Remus Lupin. Sirius watched as he slowly trotted through the forest, obviously searching for something. Or someone. Sirius tried to carefully blend in with the trees to keep his once best friend from finding him but luck was not with him. Due to the need for Sirius to put as much space as possible between himself and the Granger's house Sirius had not taken the time to eat. His stomach growled, causing Remus to turn around and look directly at Sirius. To Sirius's astonishment, Remus smiled.
"I thought I might find you here." Remus said, "After our escapades in the woods at school you always seemed to have a fondness for it."
Sirius transformed back into himself and reached behind himself hoping to find a stick that resembled a wand. His hand grazed upon a stick and he pulled it out. "Get away from me Remus! I'm armed."
"With what?" Remus laughed. "A tree branch?"
For the first time Sirius looked at the stick he had chosen. It was very twisted and did not resemble a wand in the slightest. "Ummm..." Sirius trailed off unsure of what to do.
"Relax Sirius. We found out about Peter shortly after you disappeared. Everyone knows that he was James and Lily's secret keeper, not you. I've been looking for you and Harry since we found out."
Sirius felt ridiculous. He had been hiding from nothing for ten years! A great weight that Sirius hadn't even realized he had been carrying was lifted off his shoulders. Sirius looked sheepishly at Remus and, before he knew what he was doing, he enveloped Remus in a giant, bone squishing hug.
"Uf!" moaned Remus "I'm certainly glad to see you too but I'd like to live beyond this moment."
"Sorry, it's just..."
"I understand. It's all right. Now is Harry nearby?"
"Isn't he with you?" Sirius was concerned. "I told him to stay at the house."
"When Mrs. Granger and I got there he was nowhere to be found."
"I told him to stay at the house!"
"Did you ever do anything an adult told you to?"
"Good point. We need to find him."
"And quickly. Peter escaped after his trial. If Harry is unprotected in the Muggle world, who knows what could happen if Peter found him."
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Hermione glanced around the Headmaster's office. She noticed the furniture, painstakingly carved to immaculate perfection, and the tidy shelves of books lining the walls. What an interesting read they would make. The desk was clear of all clutter, except for a small stack of papers in the center of the desk. To her left a large, scarlet bird stood on its perch. Hermione took care to notice every detail of the room because, if her plans went right, she would be spending a lot of time here; Not because she was planning on getting into trouble. That would be scandalous.
She was planning on being Head Girl.
It was then that the Headmaster entered. "Ah. Miss Granger. Please sit down."
Hermione took one of the chairs in front of the Headmaster's desk. "You wanted to see me?" She asked.
The Headmaster sighed, "I daresay you saw the newspaper this morning?" Hermione nodded. "I can assure you that the Chad Granger the newspapers mentioned is indeed your brother."
Hermione's last thread of hope that Chad and Harry Potter were not, indeed, the same person shattered. Up until this moment Hermione had been wishing feverishly that she could wave her wand and make reality a rumor. Instead, it appeared that Chad shared her unique talent of witchcraft. Her exceptional and unusual talent.
HER gift.
Undoubtedly, when Chad was found, he would join her at Hogwarts and proceed to choose her to be the recipient of his many pranks. It would be horrid. The Weasley twins were bad enough alone, but to add Chad Granger... Hermione shuddered at the thought.
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore asked. "Are you all right? I'm sure this has come to quite a shock to you."
Hermione shook her head as memories from the past floated through her head. "Not really. I've always noticed that unusual things happened around Chad but I never knew how. All I did today was I found out how Chad accomplished them."
"Well-" but Dumbledore was cut off by a knock at the door. "Just a moment, Miss Granger. Come in."
The door opened and two men walked in arguing good-naturedly.
"Padfoot! If I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times! You do not pelt Snape with shampoo bottles!"
"But Moony-"
"Not even if his hair needs it!"
Dumbledore cut in, "I see you two are well caught up already."
"Moony's been letting me know everything that has been going on." Said 'Padfoot'. "Any news on Harry?"
"Most unfortunately no. However, we have every non-essential Ministry worker out looking for him."
"What about the essential ones?"
"You know as well as I do that they wouldn't be called essential workers if they could be spared to search."
'Moony' spoke up, "Where can we look?"
It was then that 'Padfoot' noticed Hermione sitting there, "Oh! Hello, Hermione."
Hermione stared, wondering how the man knew her name.
"What? No big hello?"
Finally Hermione, brow furrowed, asked. "Who are you?"
The man laughed. "Of course! You wouldn't recognize me, would you? You might know me better if I looked like this."
With that there was a pop and, standing in front of Hermione, where there had formerly been a man there was a big black dog that looked suspiciously like-
"ORIAN?!?!?!?!?!" Hermione exclaimed.
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Ron slammed shut The Standard Book of Spells (grade 1). Fred and George looked up from their Quiddich tactics.
"I want to know what's going on!" Ron exclaimed. "I've asked every single teacher and no one will tell me anything! I even tried asking Snape but he just scowled and muttered something about brats being like there parents and shampoo bottles. Doesn't that map of yours do anything else?"
"Well," replied George, "We could leave the castle and find out what's happening ourselves."
"That's against the rules. We'd probably get detention until we're 50 if we're caught. Besides Mum would have a fit."
"Then we just won't get caught. You want to know, don't you?" Fred asked.
Ron sighed, "All right, when do we start?"
"That's the spirit! Now just follow us."
The three boys hurried out of the common room and down the hall. They stopped in front of a statue of a one-eyed witch. Fred took out his wand and tapped the statue with it while whispering "Dissendium!". The statue stepped aside to reveal a passageway and they hurried down the passageway and the witch closed behind them.
"Where does this lead to?" Ron asked.
"The cellar of Honeydukes. It's great for sneaking out to get sweets and pranks."
"Where are we going once we get out of Honeydukes?"
"We'll head for London. If we're going to find out anything, we'll find it there."
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Professor Dumbledore was seated at his desk sorting through the countless owls he had received from people searching for Harry Potter. So far they all held little promise. It was then that Professor McGonagall tore, disheveled, into his office.
"Albus! I'm afraid we have another problem!"
"What's wrong?" Dumbledore asked. It was so rare for Mivera to let her stern facade fall that he would have been amused had she not looked so worried.
"Percy Weasley has just been to see me and his brothers- Fred, George and Ron- Albus! They've disappeared!"
Albus set his head in his hands exasperated. He had lost four students. Four students in two days. Perhaps it was a new record.
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Harry had managed to find a train to London where he immediately began looking for the Leaky Cauldron. He had given up on finding Sirius and was simply hoping to make contact with the Wizarding world and tell them that Sirius was innocent, but it wasn't an easy task. Sirius had told him everything about the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley except how to get there. Harry had been looking for several hours and he began to grow tired. He entered a small side alley and leaned against the wall. He had shut his eyes for only a moment when he heard a cruel voice.
"Hello, Harry."
Harry looked up and noticed a short, balding, man standing before him. Though in his memory he had never seen the man before, he immediately recognized him.
"Let me introduce myself." sneered the rat faced man. "I am Peter Pettigrew."
Harry watched furiously as the man who had betrayed his parents pulled out a wand.
"It's not mine of course." said Pettigrew. "Any ways, you don't have your own wand and I have a wand so this should be simple."
'Pettigrew's right,' thought Harry. 'I don't have my OWN wand but that doesn't mean I don't have a wand. In fact, didn't I leave home to give Sirius his wand so he could find Pettigrew? I guess I'll just have to do this myself. Now, what spell?' Harry reached in his pocket and pulled out Sirius's wand.
"You do have a wand!" Said Pettigrew in suprise. "Well, that's not a big of a problem. Expelliarmus!" Sirius's wand flew out of Harry's hand and into Pettigrew's. "That wasn't that hard was it?"
Damm.
It was then that Harry noticed something red on the wall next to him. It was a Muggle fire alarm and next to it was a fire escape. Maybe, just maybe... Slowly Harry reached over.
What do you think you're doing?" Pettigrew sent a spell at Harry, but Harry ducked and pulled the alarm.
"BBBRRRIIIIINNNGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Harry jumped on the escape and started climbing. Spells whizzed around him.
A few seconds later a shout sounded behind Harry. "Stupify!" Pettigrew fell to the ground, stunned.
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*****I just want to let everyone know that I'm working on two shows right now. Plus school. The next chapter is almost done but I'm out till ten-thirty every night this week. Then I have to do homework. So the next chapter won't be up for a LITTLE while (maybe a week). I'll try to work quickly. Meanwhile you can read my other stuff if you want. My Bio's a story in itself. I've also wrote a poem called "Not A Sorting Hat Song".
Thanks for all the reviews! I really appreciate them!
Read, Review, and Solemnly Swear You Are Up to No Good!
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