There must always be a beginning, just as there must be an ending. They aren't always happy, or pleasant, they just are.
Which is why one rather cold November morning, an innocent child's future was set into motion by the unlikeliest of chances. A man, trying to remember where he parked his rented car in the almost cookie cutter homes of Privet Drive, happens to spot the basket on the doorstep of Number 4.
Curious as to what was in it (he was inquisitive by nature, to his mother's ire) he is horrified to find an infant with the thinnest of blankets. The child's face was slightly pale, and it was clear he had been left outside for some hours.
The man scooped up the boy, and when he found his car he drove straight to the nearest hospital. The note had made it very clear...the boy's parents were dead.
After answering questions by the police, he came to a decision. His career was at a dead end, and he was a well respected college professor who had more or less left the world of marine biology. He had no wife or family, but he was well off enough to own his own home, in Scotland near the infamous Loch.
His decision made, he went to the nurse who helped him fill out the adoption paperwork. He paused, and wondered what the boy's name should be.
The paper hadn't mentioned the name, so he assumed that the aunt (who, when she found out that her sister was dead, wanted nothing to do with her newly orphaned nephew) knew of it. After speaking to the woman, he decided against asking.
"Chris. His name will be Chris."
The newly named Chris, who had been given a clean bill of health by the doctor, was handed over to his new father. Thirty year old Daniel O'Neil, took his new son and drove back to the hotel.
(In the afterlife)
James and Lily watched the scene play out, and when they realized a squib who had left their world adopt their son without question, they couldn't help the cries of relief. Lily had been beyond furious that Albus had tried to leave their precious son with her sister, who she knew very well hated anything to do with her world.
There was a reason Lily had cut almost all ties from her sister when she graduated.
Petunia, when she was informed of the adoption, had decided to take some precautions to prevent her nephew from ever being sent to her.
She agreed to sign off on the papers, since as the oldest living relative of the child she was his guardian, on the condition that the adoption be closed. She wanted nothing to do with her sister's child, and had the man swear never to mention her name to the boy.
After meeting her, Daniel had agreed. The only way the magical communities would ever find their Savior would be through the Hogwarts letters, and even then it was unlikely the boy would be made aware that his birth name was Harry Potter.
Daniel couldn't believe it when he realized that his son Chris was magical. He had asked the aunt what the boy's last name had been, and upon learning he had accidentally adopted the Potter heir, had set up a meeting with the goblins before his son was three. Griphook had been rather sympathetic for the man, and had immediately reset the magical guardianship of Chris to his adopted father.
To say Dumbledore had been displeased to learn he no longer had control of the Potter boy's vaults would be an understatement. Particularly when the goblins flat out refused to name who had it had changed to.
Daniel found his living suddenly improved after the change, and did his best to raise his son to be a good man. By the time Chris entered primary school, he was devouring any book he could get his hands on.
Because of his former profession, those books were mostly marine biology books. Chris was absolutely fascinated with sharks.
When Chris was seven, Daniel took him to see the coelacanth, a prehistoric fish once believe extinct until a fisherman pulled one out of his nets in 1938. Chris had been hooked the moment he saw it.
When they returned home, Chris immediately dove into books about prehistoric sharks, and within a week found the love of his life.
Carcharodon Megalodon. The ancient prehistoric cousin of the Great White Shark. Chris had an actual great white shark tooth around his neck. It was his favorite possession, and he never left home without it. It wasn't long before the boy's room was filled with Megalodon posters.
Time skip to age eleven...
Chris looked up from his usual birthday breakfast to find an entire flock of owls outside his kitchen. Daniel merely shooed them off, so they could finish in peace.
"Dad, what's going on?"
"Remember that school I mentioned? The one I got rejected from because of a small problem with homework?"
"Yeah? Pigs warts or something?"
"Hogwarts," he corrected absently, "What I never mentioned was that you would most likely be accepted when you turned eleven."
"...Does this have anything to do with that weird cooking pot and those plants you told me never to mess with without you around?" he asked.
Daniel chuckled. Chris had always bothered him about the smelly concoctions he brewed in his cauldron, or as Chris had once called it, the weird cooking pot. Some of the magical plants would have reacted badly to some of the experiments Chris did whenever he cooked.
Chris loved to cook, but he only did it under strict supervision, and never with the cauldron. It was only recently that he was allowed to use the oven without Daniel keeping an eye on him.
"What do you say? Would you like to go to Hogwarts, or would you prefer to have tutors?"
Chris looked at his father askance.
"I'll give it a year or two, but I'm not dropping my regular education just to learn a few tricks," he said dryly.
"This coming from the only eleven year old that lives next to the Loch with a degree in marine biology," said Daniel.
Chris, when he was nine, had been given a strange test by Daniel. He later learned it was the final exam for Daniel's marine biology class.
Everyone but Daniel had been floored when they learned that Chris had gotten a perfect score, plus a few bonus points for his clear understanding of the subject, particularly in concerns to sharks. It was after that joke Daniel had played on his former colleagues (he had only given it to Chris to pull one over on them) that Chris got a degree in the subject. It was framed in his room.
Ever since that day, Chris had been given an invitation to come to the few Institutes that studied sharks near Scotland. Chris usually spent his summer vacations working with the great monsters of the deep.
(That was how he got his shark tooth. He picked it off the bottom of the pool where they were treating a great white that had run afoul of a fishing net.)
Chris finished his breakfast, and Daniel summoned the bus that they both hated taking.
It was called the Knight Bus, and the only reason either of them used it was because it was faster than taking a plane to London.
Chris had only been to Diagon Alley twice, both times to take care of business at Gringotts. Chris nodded cheerfully to the goblin guards. He was one of the few who treated them as equals.
Griphook greeted them with amusement.
"The letters arrived I take it?"
"An entire flock of the buggers. Some of them were for a H. Potter, but I threw those in the fireplace."
Griphook still found it amusing that a squib had unknowingly ruined the old goat's plan for the Potter heir. The fact that Daniel was from an old line only made it funnier.
Once they had the gold coins, Daniel took his son shopping. Chris got his required books, and a few others. They passed the Menagerie, but there weren't any animals Chris would have liked.
Besides, aquatic snakes would freak out the other students.
They did buy a beautiful white owl which caught Chris's eye. He named her Joan, after the French revolutionary.
Finally, they went in to get his wand. Chris jumped when the old man walked in.
"In for your first wand?"
"Yes," said Daniel tersely.
It was here that Daniel found out that he would never attend Hogwarts with his brother. Usually the letters went out on the child's birthday, and since his was right after his younger brother, they had come together.
Daniel at least had his love of aquatic mammals to fall back on, because his parents spared no expense to send him to a very expensive muggle school so he could at least live a life in that world.
That was the only reason he never abandoned the Magical community after all these years.
Chris went through wand after wand. After seeing all the accidents he caused in the store, Daniel was relieved that his son wouldn't suffer like he did.
Finally, Chris found his wand. It was a mahogany wand, thirteen inches, with the ground up tooth of an ancient predator that Ollivander had found while on vacation. He didn't know what it was, but he had the remains of the tooth.
He gave them to Chris for an extra galleon.
Since Chris would be going to the school for the next nine months, Daniel decided to let him spend the rest of his vacation at the shark Institute.
Chris found his favorite shark there, which happened to be the great white he had gotten his tooth from.
Over the months he had helped around the Institute, Chris had come to an understanding with the testy shark.
It wouldn't bite him while he was in the tank, and Chris would add special treats to the rather boring diet the scientists had it on. Usually those treats were live fish or ducks. Chris never once flinched when the shark rose from the tank to bite into the animals, or when the bloody remains floated by him.
"You know we're going to be releasing him back into the wild by the end of August," commented Annie.
"Too bad, but all good things come to an end. I'll miss the old shark," said Chris honestly.
The shark swam lazily in the giant pool.
"You get to help us release the old boy back into the ocean," said the director.
"Really?"
"He seems to have taken a shine to you, so it's only fair you get to send him off," he shrugged.
They lifted the ten ton shark into the special truck. It was equipped with an ever flowing pool of water, so the shark could swim against it and still be able to breath.
Chris was in the cab right behind it, and he kept an eye on the shark. He would be their first alert in case something was wrong.
He was in front of the shark as they carefully lowered the back end towards the ocean. The shark did a backward slide into the water, struggling a bit before regaining it's sense of direction. It swam in a few circles around them, before swimming off. Only Chris had felt the bump of it's connical nose against him.
It was almost like the shark was saying thank you to the boy.
Daniel helped his son lift the heavy trunk onto the rack, then gave him a bone crushing hug. It would be the last time he would see him before Christmas.
"Remember, no matter what house you end up in, treat everyone with equal respect. If I find out you've gotten into trouble, I will come after you."
"Dad, half the stuff that lands me into trouble isn't my fault!"
Daniel sighed. Chris had undoubtedly inherited his birth father's sense of trouble, because he landed in hot water more often than not. Fortunately he had his mother's brains to get him out of it.
"Just try to stay out of trouble this year..." he sighed.
"Yeah yeah... You know my luck dad. I attract bullies without trying. Is it my fault they usually end up in the hospital for attacking me?"
Daniel, when he had noticed the rather alarming tendency of the larger kids to go after his son, had sent him to a special class to learn how to defend himself.
It had worked, more or less, but he still got complaints from the boy's mothers whenever Chris sent them to the hospital with a broken arm or leg.
He may have been small, but when he fought he packed more of a punch than the larger boys.
"Just take care of yourself."
"Yes dad," said Chris.
Daniel watched as his son left for the school. He stayed until he couldn't see the train anymore.
Chris was reading a fiction book about megalodons when the door opened to reveal a gangly red head.
"I heard Harry Potter was in this car."
"Wrong compartment. The only person in this car is me, and my name happens to be Chris."
The boy left, annoyed.
The door opened again, revealing a girl with bushy brown hair and a bossy attitude.
"Have you seen a toad? A boy named Neville has lost one."
"I am afraid not. The little bugger wouldn't have had a chance to get in here, because I closed the door. Perhaps one of the older students would know a charm to summon him?"
She brightened up. Clearly it had never occurred to her to save time by asking the older students.
Ten minutes later she returned, this time with a rather timid boy that Chris liked immediately. Say what you will, but Chris was a defender of the timid and weak.
"I take it you're Neville?" he asked kindly. The boy nodded.
"My name is Hermione Granger."
"Chris O'Neil. Would be Dr. Chris O'Neil but I'm still three years behind earning it."
"Dr.?" she asked surprised.
"I study marine biology, specifically sharks and other aquatic predators. My dad played a prank on his old friends, which is why I earned my degree without having to deal with boring classes."
Hermione made a sympathetic face.
"I would have done the same, had my parents let me work with my rather eccentric uncle for a few summers."
"What's their profession?"
"Dentists, the both of them."
"College professor."
They settled into a companionable silence, and after a while Chris shared some of his books that he brought from home. Neville was absolutely fascinated by the muggle books on aquatic plants and their habitats.
Finding out the rather nervous boy loved plants, the three opened up and discussed their various hobbies.
About halfway to the castle, a blond boy came in looking for Potter.
"The only people in this carriage are us, and not one of them is Potter."
The boy left, and it was Neville who told them who he was.
"Draco Malfoy. He's almost certainly going to be a Slytherin," said Neville quietly.
"What are the house structures like?" asked Hermione.
"Slytherin is mostly egotistical idiots who believe they're better than everyone because of their blood purity. Sometimes people get sent there due to being cunning or sneaky, but it's mostly pure bloods. Gryffindor is full of jocks who mock the other houses and are particularly rash and foolish. They jump in without thinking more often than not. Ravenclaw is full of nerds and people with higher IQ's who question everything. They even have their own private library. Hufflepuff is supposedly full of the dregs, but frankly I think that's mostly hype. A more accurate description of the Hufflepuff house is hardworking, loyal and reliable, which is more than people can say about the other three."
This explanation was not given by Neville, but rather Chris. Daniel had been most informative about the housing structure, since he was originally from a pure blood family who had been neutral during the war.
Seeing their stares, Chris shrugged.
"Dad was a squib, but he still talks to his younger brother. Uncle Steve works in the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Sometimes he lets me hang out at his office," explained Chris.
"What's your dad's name?" asked Neville, curious.
"He goes by the name of O'Neil, but he once mentioned that his birth name was Alten."
Neville choked a bit.
"Daniel Alten? Heir to the Alten family?" said Neville in shock.
Chris shook his head.
"Grandma changed it once they found out he was a squib, but Steve doesn't mind if we borrow from the vault every once in a while."
After that, they settled in for a discussion of their various childhood. Chris easily won for the most interesting, especially when he brought out the shark's tooth around his neck. He was particularly interested to hear about a giant squid in the lake.
"Must be salt water then. I've never heard of a squid living in fresh water," said Chris.
"From what I heard, the lake opens into the sea."
Chris nodded. It would explain the presence of the squid.
"Must be a deep lake too, otherwise the squid would have trouble moving."
They quickly got dressed (Hermione using the bathroom since the boys were in the compartment) and waited for the train to stop.
For those of you who recognize where I got the name for the Alten family, Kudos to you for actually reading a book!