Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: There were other people the wizarding world could have chosen as their savior after Voldemort was supposedly vanquished at Godric's Hollow.
Beta: kbinnz
Four Names That Were Never Hyphenated and One That Was
The-Order-That-Fought
Harry waited next to Ron Weasley for the Sorting Ceremony to begin. He was a bit nervous about it, because even though he wasn't a muggleborn, like the bushy-haired girl next to him clearly was, he didn't really know what the sorting entailed.
Fred and George had told him all about the four houses, but they had refused to say exactly how the first years were to be sorted after Percy had scolded them for spinning a tale about wrestling a troll. Harry - who denied to this day having been scared by the thought of troll wrestling - wasn't able to get them to say anything else.
Eventually, Professor McGonagall came back and, with a raise of her hand, silenced the nervous, chattering first years. "This way," she said, and led them through the ornate doors of the Great Hall.
Harry had been to Hogwarts before, had even seen the night sky of the Great Hall a half dozen times when he was younger, and had been dragged along to Order meetings (held for tradition's sake), but he still found himself staring at the ceiling. It was different, somehow, more important now on his first official night at Hogwarts. When his head lowered, significantly earlier than the other first years, he glanced at the students around him. He knew a fair amount of them, as they were friends with the elder Weasley children or their parents were associated with the Order, as Molly and Arthur Weasley were.
Professor McGonagall began the Sorting Ceremony. "Harry, who do you think will be in Gryffindor with us?" Ron asked from his position next to Harry. "I bet…" Ron said, searching the group of first years and pointing to two at what appeared to be random, "they will be."
"I'm sure, Ron," Harry said.
He noticed, as Professor McGonagall called names, that people were whispering reverently at the names of certain children. Harry recognized a few of those names as those whose parents were Aurors or volunteers during the first war against Voldemort. When his name was called, though, the whispering increased.
"Harry Potter," he heard people whisper.
"As in James and Lily Potter?"
"They were in the Order-" he heard an older student telling some younger students, like he was conducting a lesson.
"And they were there the night He was defeated," someone added.
"I wonder if he's anything -"
The rim of the Sorting Hat fell over Harry's eyes. He had expected the talk; he had always known his parents' history. The Weasleys had told him that when he was just a baby his parents had fought against Lord Voldemort with them, and then, when Voldemort had come to their hiding place, he'd tried to attack Harry. Somehow, his attack had failed, and he had been defeated, but not before he had killed Harry's parents.
Days passed, and the papers were professing their thankfulness for the 'vigilante' group they had been disparaging the weak before. It somehow became common knowledge who had been a member of the Order. The press transformed them from radicals into heroes, willing and ready to fight. Saviors.
The Weasleys used their newfound position in the wizarding world to adopt the son of two of their fallen comrades. The wizarding world may have chosen to exalt the entirety of the Order of the Phoenix, but the Weasleys felt they owed something to Lily and James. They hadn't been close to the Potters, personally, but they knew that it had been the Potters, specifically, who had - somehow - stopped the Dark Lord.
The only reason Harry was still known as Potter, and not as a Weasley was for the sake of his parents' memories. He was Harry Potter because his parents had died to save him, and he knew he owed them that much. The name didn't really matter much though; he had been adopted before he had even known his history.
Harry argued with the Sorting Hat for a moment or two against Slytherin. The Hat gave up easily and placed him in Gryffindor, sounding only the teeniest bit regretful.
Later, as Fred and George were still congratulating him and whispering to him about some prank they wanted him to help with tomorrow, Ron's name was called, and the entire process was repeated, whispers about parents, heroes, expectations, and all.