Chapter 1
He wasn't sure what happened next. One minute he was standing up in a bright white room, next moment there's a brief flash a green light and he fell down face down in the middle of what appeared to be what was once a living room wearing a white t-shirt and boxer shorts holding a wand. Part of the ceiling had caved in and the rest of the place was a mess. And he wasn't alone.
"Morsemode!" he heard a man yell.
"Black you fool! We weren't finished! Now the Aurors will be here any moment! Get back to headquarters and hope I spare you!" he heard Voldemort yell angrily. Voldemort sounded like he just a few feet behind him.
'Voldemort is here...' he thought. He decided pretending to be dead would be the best thing to do. He wasn't sure who he was. He remembered being a Harry James Potter but he also remembered being a Andrew Christopher Potter. Then he remembered, he was Harry Potter but he died and was sent back in the past to continue living as Andrew Potter to change the future. If he didn't want to be caught as a time traveler, he decided he best start thinking himself as Andrew Potter. He heard series of pops before he heard some more voices.
"Looks like we're too late. They already casted the Dark Mark... It appears several curses and jinxes were casted by the damage... Who ever lived here didn't give up without a fight..." a woman said.
"Oh Merlin!" Andrew heard a man he recognized as James cried out.
"What is it James?" the man asked.
"Its Chris! My brother!" James exclaimed.
"I'm sorry." the man replied solemnly.
"I barely knew him Frank. My parents never talked about him and the two of us didn't even know the other existed until Lily and I got married. He married her Aunt Shannon. They have son named Andrew whose a few years younger then Lily." James continued, clearly trying to hold back from crying.
Andrew felt he could stop playing dead and was about to move when he heard someone walking towards him and felt someone touch him on his next as if they were checking for a pulse.
"The boy is alive!" the woman shouted to James and the other man. "Are you are right?"
"I think so..." Andrew replied, figuring he could trust this woman as his dad in his other life, if you would call it that, was with her.
"Andrew! Thank Merlin you're alive!" James shouted as Andrew got up and gave him big hug that nearly prevented him from breathing. The man and woman that arrived with James looked familiar but he couldn't quite place them...
"Can you tell us what happened?" the man Andrew assumed was Frank asked as James let go so Andrew could breath.
Andrew tried to recall what the real Andrew experienced during the last few minutes of his life.
"I was asleep. My dad woke me up telling me to get out of the house. Something about Death Eaters. I grabbed my wand. I couldn't get out threw the window because of this bush my dad keep saying he wanted to remove. I went out the hall but there were two of them by the door to my parent's room. I tried to stun them while I ran down but they were to fast. I came out to to front room and there was a few more of them. They had already killed my mum and dad at that point. They hit me with a spell and I fell down. They casted the dark mark and left just before you showed up." Andrew more or less told the truth as the real Andrew remembered.
"You're a wizard? I thought you were a squib since Hogwarts has let out for the summer." the woman replied.
"He's home schooled Alice." James explained to the woman. It then dawned on Andrew why the man and woman looked familiar. They were Neville's parents who were tortured into insanity shortly after what most people believed was Voldemort's death. Hopefully he could prevent that from happening so Neville wouldn't feel so ashamed of talking about them but that wasn't important now. For the time being he needed to focus on making sure that people didn't suspect he replaced the real Andrew Potter. He knew everything the real Andrew knew so it wouldn't be too difficult but he didn't want to take any chances.
"I wanted to go to Hogwarts but my dad wouldn't let me. He was afraid my classmates would give me hard time if they found out..." Andrew said before he trailed off as he remembered the reason why the real Andrew didn't go to Hogwarts. He wasn't sure how James, Frank, and Alice would react. He seen how some people reacted to it in his second year in his old life if you would call it that.
"What was he afraid of them finding out?" James asked curious.
Andrew could bring himself to not answer the question since James was, in away, his father.
"That I'm a parslemouth." Andrew replied nervous.
"A parslemouth? I could see why that may cause some problems but having a rare ability like that is a lot easier to hide then being a metamorphmagus. I think your dad was a little paranoid..." Frank commented. James looked a little shocked. Alice didn't look to surprised.
"Its not unusual for children who have a pure-blood parent and a parent from a muggle family to either be significantly more powerful then their parents and/or have an ability that neither parent has. Be thankful its just the ability to speak to snakes. I have a cousin who's a half blood that can't stop her hair from changing colors when she doesn't want it to causing her to throw a fit, especially in serious situations like at a job interview... Anyways, after you get dressed, we should take you to the Ministry and they'll most likely said you to James and Lily's house. James, I know you are going to say it would be a lot quicker for you to take Andrew straight to your place but the Ministry bureaucrats insist we fallow standard procedure so they can have it be on record before any action is taken." Alice said looking towards James near the end of what she said.
"They're nothing but chair bound paper pushers if you ask me..." James muttered.
"I totally agree with you James." Frank added.
Andrew walk into what was the real Andrew's bedroom. Andrew knew the room like the back of his hand but nothing in the room felt like it truly belonged to him. The real Andrew liked two things, reading and Quidditch. Since the real Andrew had a couple of friends that were Muggles, any Quidditch related things were kept out of site like any other magical objects in the house. Christopher Potter didn't want to anyone to know that there were two wizards living in the house. Shannon Potter was a muggle and if it wasn't for her, Andrew was sure the Statute of Secrecy would have no doubt been broken since her husband, being from a wealthy pure-blood wizarding family, at first was hopeless at doing things the Muggle way but learned quickly enough. At least that's what the real Andrew's memories told Andrew.
It just felt so odd for Andrew to have the memories of someone else. In his old life, he only knew of being depressed and miserable when he was with his "family". In the real Andrew's memories, he knew what it was like to have parents that loved and cared about him. After he put on some blue jeans and green short sleeve shirt, he started feeling upset. He felt like the real Andrew's parents were his and he would never see them again. Holding back tears, he put on some shoes and reminded himself that he still had parents that were alive.
In what seamed like a short period of time, he found himself in the Ministry. He was questioned some by some Ministry officials he didn't recognize. He told the same story he told James, Frank, and Alice except he added more details like how he heard the name Black being said and that Voldemort was there as well. After they were finished questioning him about details that he thought were completely irrelevant such as what color the carpet he fell on was, they decided he could go.
"Now Mister Potter, since your parents died in the attack, we had to ask Gringotts for a copy of your parents will. However, after looking at it, it appears they haven't updated it in the past few years as that the guardians they appointed in the event of their death have all died in the last three years." a woman Andrew was convinced was a relative of Umbridge by their looks. They're age and how they appeared to be nice instead of pretending to be nice was enough to convince Andrew it wasn't the future Hogwarts High Inquisitor that just about every non-Slytherin rebelled against.
"I see." Andrew replied.
"They're first choice was your grandparents but they died three years ago in another Death Eater attack lead by You-Know-Who. Their second choice was your aunt and uncle who happened they died about two months ago the same way your grandparents did. I wonder why You-Know-Who seems to like to target your mother's family more then other muggle families... I think I should leave a memo for Crouch and Minister Tyler about this. If my hunch is correct, one of your two cousins could be next." the woman explained, a little disturbed by the papers she was looking at. Andrew's heart sank as he wondered why Voldemort was after his relatives on his mother's side. He couldn't find any reason but at least now he knew why his Aunt Petunia and cousin Dudley were his only living blood relatives in the future. But if Voldemort was after his mother's relatives, he better be careful.
"Anyways, about your situation. In your situation, its policy that custody of the child, or teenager in your case, be given to the oldest relative of the parents' last choice for guardian that the Ministry knows." the woman continued after a brief pause.
Andrew wondered if his parents named the Dursley's his guardians if Sirius was unavailable. He doubted it because the real Andrew remembered his mother Lily commenting it was a bad idea to invite them to the wedding after Petunia acted immaturely after learned that she had an uncle and cousin that were wizards and Vernon going on a rant about how magic is unnatural that nearly resulted in a riot. But if they weren't, he wondered, then he should have gone to go live with Sirius' family. The last one of them died in 1992 if he remembered what he saw the family tree he saw in 12 Grimmauld Place correctly. From what Sirius told him, he was glad he didn't. He concluded he would have either been treated worse then he was at the Dursleys' due to the fact he was a half-blood and the Blacks were pure-blood fanatics or raised to be rude, arrogant, spoiled, and muggle hating like Draco Malfoy was.
"According to what I have here, it would appear the your cousin Petunia is that person."
Andrew nearly fainted.
Chapter End Notes:
There's chapter 1. Poor Harry or Andrew as is now called. He's finds himself in the past and about to be sent to the Dursleys'.
Also, remember everything in canon up until the events that resulted in Harry's "death" would have happened exactly the way it did if Harry didn't come backwards in time and "replaced" Andrew. In the old timeline, there were no survivors. So things are changing. What will the end result be? You just have to read on.
I might want to warn you about this ahead of time. In fact, I should have put this warning in the prologue. Andrew will not be able to save some people from their fates. Things may happen that I am sure people will flame me for that will keep Andrew from saving them. I won't say who he won't be able to save but I'm sure there will be people out there that will hate me for the rest of their lives because who Andrew isn't able to save (it shouldn't be to difficult to figure out who if you read the story notes). I do not want to hear any complaints concering this issue. Its my story and who lives, who dies, and who has an unfair life is my choice and not yours.
Anyways, reviews please.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
