I would just like to clarify that this is a No Horcrux AU, they are already enough of a headache for me in When Spirits Call and The Black Fortune, I can't deal with them here. No worries, the prophecy is still in play, and Dumbledore still has plans to force Harry to sacrifice himself. I said no horcruxes were in play, not that Dumbledore knows that's the case.

November 4, 1981

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was a very happy man indeed.

The loss of James as a trained Auror was lamentable, but Albus supposed it worked out better for him in the long run. Yes, having the boy grow up with Vernon and Petunia would ensure that he came to Hogwarts as the malleable child Albus wanted.

He'd had one hell of a time trying to find the puer quartus mare the Trelawney woman had gone on about in the prophecy. Everything pointed to the prophecy child being of Atlantean descent, but he'd run into one problem: no one knew where the blasted city was. Trawling through old tomes and esoteric texts only served to give him a massive headache. The continued existence of Atlantis wasn't common knowledge, but Albus had plundered the depths of the world's stockpiled written knowledge and the clues were there if you knew where to look, and look he did.

The Order had been commanded to keep an eye out for any unusual foreigners visiting Britain, particularly those with children, but no leads were found. Albus had been about ready to admit defeat when the child himself was practically delivered to his front door. A couple with a newborn baby had been spotted exploring Diagon Alley and Alastor Moody had picked up on a strange magical aura surrounding them. Knowing of Albus' request, Alastor had sent off a message Patronus and tailed the family to a Muggle hotel.

One raid, several technically illegal bindings, and one very illegal binding later, the newly named Harry had been delivered to James and Lily Potter in exchange for their continued loyalty.

Harry's parents, Callum and Lucia as Alastor had found out, looked everywhere for their son for months. Albus had been confident in his work on the bindings, but was still relieved when they finally left Britain and returned home. He'd attempted to find out exactly where that home was, but the duo had been far too slippery and evaded all of the magical tracking methods in Albus' considerable repertoire.

Albus was aware that murmurs of dissent were making their way through the Order's ranks and did everything he could to stomp them out. The Potters were the most headstrong, impulsive, and irritating family he'd ever had the misfortune to deal with, but delivering their fondest wish into their arms had cemented his place as a hero in the Potter's eyes.

Both Potters were unable to bear children, Lily because of a medical condition and James because of a particularly nasty hex from Dolohov during a skirmish between the Death Eaters and Auror forces. Before being carted off to Azkaban, Dolohov admitted that he'd been aiming for James' head and was quite bitter that James had dodged.

He hadn't intended for them to die of course, but Voldemort was dead by the time Albus had found out about the attack and all he could do was send Hagrid to recover the boy. Albus rather thought he'd done the best he could with the situation at hand. Intimating to Lily that reconciliation with her sister might be in her best interest hadn't worked, and now he had the perfect excuse to expose the child to the Dursley's tender mercies.

Everything had been taken care of, but Sirius Black remained a constant thorn in his side. The mangy mutt was utterly devoted to his godson and had even prevailed upon Hagrid to allow him to raise Harry. Fortunately, Hagrid was one of the few Albus could trust to blindly follow him into hell and back and had refused to hand Sirius the child.

Then the man landed himself in a ministry holding cell. A little pressure on Barty Crouch Sr and a reminder of the overwhelming evidence against Black made sure that the mutt would be shipped off to Azkaban without a trial.

Finally back in his office after confirming that Black had been transferred to a cell in Azkaban, Albus sank down into his chair and sighed. He knew he was condemning an innocent man to hell on earth, but he assuaged his guilty conscience by reminding himself that it really was for the greater good. A Chosen One raised by Sirius Black would not be amenable to Albus' interventions and he simply couldn't have that.

On his perch in the corner, Fawkes gave a few short trills that immediately raised Albus' spirits. Drawing out a bag of unlaced lemon drops from a pocket in his robe, Albus popped one in his mouth and hummed happily. Things were finally going his way.

I've made a discord server for those who read my fics and want to discuss them outside of AO3. There are five fics (two of which are currently unpublished) that are on this server. There is also a general discussion channel for anything you may want to talk about as well as spoiler channels for each fic. This is where I will be sharing my thoughts on the plot and also where I will ask for any input on my ideas!

Since I just made this server a week ago, there are very few people. I hope you will consider joining!

discord dot gg / WCJaK7RZ2C