A/N: Hello, this is very much a work in progress and honestly I'm not sure where it's going to go. My intent is not to rewrite the entire series and right now this is simply a change to the beginning of the first book. I've been bothered by some choices made in the books for years and figured Minerva was the one to fix things. Hope you enjoy.

Minerva McGonagall walked the halls of Hogwarts, wondering once again how she had managed to end up on duty the night of Halloween. Students filled up on candy after the big feast and, emboldened by the sugar rush, often attempted to pull pranks on others or hunted down the castle ghosts, begging them to tell a true ghost story. She'd already shooed several of her own Gryffindors back to the dorm along with two Hufflepuffs and a handful of Ravenclaws. She was sure there were Slytherins out and about; she just hadn't found them yet. She ducked into an empty classroom and checked the clock on the wall. Only a few more hours, and she could go to bed. Biting back a sigh, she stepped back into the hallway and continued on her rounds. As she came down the stairs into the entrance hall, the headmaster ran past her and out the doors.

Curious, Minerva followed to the door, stood there, and watched the man go down to the groundskeeper's hut. He knocked on the door, spoke to the man inside, then headed to the gates, where he spun on the spot and disappeared.

Scowling, she pulled out her wand and waved it. A silvery cat appeared; she spoke to it quickly, directing it to patrol the halls until she returned. The cat then took off up the stairs. Satisfied that the students would be supervised, she went out the doors herself and down to the groundskeeper.

"What in blazes is going on that Albus couldn't stop and tell me?" she muttered to herself. "What's the point in being deputy headmistress if he's not going to tell me when I need to step into his role? What could be so important that he isn't letting any of the staff other than Hagrid know?"

Reaching the hut, she knocked on the door and waited.

"Oh, Professor McGonagall, ma'am, Wha' can I help you with?" Hagrid asked when he opened the door.

"Hagrid, would you please tell me where the headmaster was going? And where are you going?" She asked, seeing he had put on boots and an overcoat.

"He asked me to get to Godric's Hollow. He was off to find young Sirius Black. Then he asked me to meet him tomorrow evening at Number 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey. He said Sirius might come to Godric's Hollow, and if I got there first, Ms. Bagshot would explain what needed to be done and to keep Sirius there. "

"The Potters," her eyes went wide, and she stiffened. "No, nothing can have happened to Lily and James, could it?"

"I don't know, ma'am. I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will send you a message soon. I need to go now," he said, standing impatiently at the door with his pink umbrella in hand.

She nodded. "Certainly, Hagrid, please be careful and ask Sirius or Bathilda to send me a message when you arrive. They can Floo call my office, or if I'm not in, Professor Sprout or Flitwick should be available."

Minerva stepped aside to allow Hagrid to leave, then, ruminating, returned to the castle. Once inside, she walked quickly upstairs and through corridors, waving her wand to reveal hidden passages, still doing her duty to find any students out of bed.

When she reached her office, she again waved her wand and sent several silvery cats out into the halls. While she waited for her coworkers to arrive, she attempted to Floo call Bathilda Bagshot herself, but it appeared the witch was no longer at home. She could step through, but if Albus was on his way there, she needed to stay at Hogwarts at least for a little while longer.

It wasn't long before knocking rang out at her door as one professor after another answered her summons with only one or two muttering about being pulled out of their bed. She shared with them what she had seen and learned from Hagrid.

"I will finish my patrol duty tonight, then I'm going off to see if I can learn more," she informed them.

She did exactly that, getting very little sleep once she returned to her quarters, always listening for the floo. When she got up, just before dawn, she once again attempted to floo call Bathilda Bagshot and was about to douse the flame when the older woman answered and proceeded to tell her that the Potters were dead.

Shaken, she checked in with the other Heads of House, sharing the bad news, before walking to the edge of the school property and apparating away to Privet Drive. As soon as she arrived, Minerva seemed to disappear, and in her place was a tabby cat with large square outlines around each eye that looked suspiciously like the glasses the professor wore.

The cat strolled to the sidewalk near the street sign and looked up at it. Then turned and perused the houses around as if looking at the street number for each. The cat then moved down the street and jumped up on the garden wall of Number Four, spending the day sitting stiffly.

When the fat man who lived in the home with the screaming child and gossipy woman returned home, he attempted to shoo that cat away. The cat simply looked at him and ignored him. When the man went into the house, the cat moved closer for a while, cocking its head to the side as if listening to the news reports on the television inside.

"This just in, it seems there was an explosion in London, suspected to be a gas line; thirteen people in the vicinity were killed; fortunately, no others were harmed. And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping patterns. Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"

"Well, Ted," said the weatherman. "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars."

At this, the cat shook its head and appeared to scowl. Then the occupants of the home began discussing the sister of the woman and her son Harry, along with "her crowd." The cat's scowl deepened further.

As the evening wore on, the cat moved back to the garden wall until well after dark, when the street had settled into the silence of a sleeping neighborhood. Not long after that point, Dumbledore appeared as if from nowhere. He pulled something from his pocket, and the lights on the street went out one by one until there was only one in the distance.

Dumbledore walked quietly down the street and sat down on the garden wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

"Albus, you cannot really be planning on leaving the boy with these people," Minerva said instead of a hello after she had transformed back into her human self. "I've been watching them all day, and they are the worst sort of Muggles."

"It doesn't matter; this is the best place for him. He needs to be away from our world, where he has become an instant celebrity. No child is equipped to deal with that level of attention or the level of danger from Voldemort's remaining followers," Dumbledore replied. "Besides, even if it wasn't the best place, there are no other options."

"No other options?" she hissed, fighting to keep her voice down. "There are any number of wizarding families who would take him in in a heartbeat, and you know it. The Weasleys, for a start; it would be nothing for Arthur and Molly to add another child to their family. They'd just raise Ron and Harry as twins; it's not like they don't have experience with that. While she wouldn't be my first choice, Augusta Longbottom would take him and raise him with her grandson Neville. Neither Augusta nor the Weasleys would allow his fame to go to his head, and they would protect him at all costs. Lily and James would have wanted him to stay in our world. Lily would never have wanted her son raised by this family."

"This is his family," Dumbledore replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. This is his family; his aunt, uncle, and cousin."

Minerva's jaw dropped, and she pointed at the house, "This, this is Lily's sister? I heard them talking about her sister, and, well, I suppose I was just in denial that Lily could be related to that woman."

"Yes, well, there's more to it than you know, but this will be the safest place for little Harry."

"What about his godfather?" She asked, but before Dumbledore could answer, they heard a rumbling coming from above, and shortly a very large man on a flying motorcycle came into view and then settled down into the street.

"Hagrid, excellent timing," Dumbledore said.

"Yessir, here's the lad," Hagrid said, sniffling and holding a bundle gently in his over-large arms.

"Albus, I must protest. This home is no place for a child," Minvera insisted.

"They already have a child," Dumbledore replied.

Minerva grimaced. "And he's an absolute beast of a boy."

"He's nothing more than a baby," the headmaster replied. "Why, he's just barely older than Harry himself."

"Where is Sirius?" She asked suddenly, looking over to Hagrid's mode of transportation. "That's his bike; where is he?"

"He left his bike outside the house and told me to use it to bring Harry to safety, Pr'fessor. He was waiting with Harry when I arrived," Hagrid said.

"I'll tell you more when we return to Hogwarts," Dumbledore reassured the woman. "I simply need to leave Harry here first."

Hagrid looked down at the bundle again and sniffled, one large tear rolling down his face, and then passed the child over to the headmaster.

"Leave him?" Minerva snapped in a harsh whisper. "You're just going to leave him? You're not even going to talk to them?"

"I have a letter here explaining the situation," he responded, tucking the envelope into the blanket with the child.

"A letter? Albus, you cannot be serious! You cannot possibly leave the child and a letter. This woman lost her sister, and you're going to tell her in a letter. What in Merlin's name is wrong with you?"

"It's better this way," he assured her.

"Better how?"

"It just is; you have to trust me."

Hagrid looked as if he wanted to speak, opened his mouth for a moment, then closed it and shook his head.

"That's it then," Minerva huffed. "Hand the child over to me."

"What? Why? No, you need to return to Hogwarts immediately, both of you," Dumbledore insisted.

"I have never known you to be so heartless," Minerva frowned.

"You just told me these are the worst sorts of Muggles," he argued.

"That does not excuse what you're doing. Even the worst people deserve our sympathy at the loss of a loved one."

"Minerva, you must believe me, they will not take kindly to witches or wizards on their doorstep. This is the best way to handle this."

"How in the world do you expect this family to raise a magical child? They can barely manage their own Muggle baby," Minerva argued.

"Arabella Figg lives just down the street," Dumbledore explained. "I'll be asking her to help keep watch over the boy."

"Figg?" Minerva's eyes shone with puzzlement. "Is she a relation of Beatrice and Barnaby?"

Dumbledore nodded. "She is the twin's older sister."

"But she didn't attend Hogwarts."

"She is unfortunately a Squib," Albus explained. "The family was quite concerned about the twins after she showed no signs of magic. They both began exhibiting signs by age three, however."

"Neither of them ever mentioned her," Minerva said. "They lived in my house, and I never knew they had a sibling. How could I have never known?"

"You know as well as I do that families often hide their Squib children. In Arabella's case, they didn't have any Muggle family they were able to send her to, so she was raised in their home and sent to Muggle schools. She still keeps in contact with hersiblings,s however, and she raises both cats and kneazles."

"How will she be of any assistance with a magical baby when she has no magic herself? You know how much Argus struggles with the students at school."

"She helped raise her siblings."

"How much older is she?"

"Arabella was ten when the twins were born."

"This stil cannot be the best option," Minerva argued. "What about his godfather?

"It doesn't matter. He won't raise the child."

McGonagall gritted her teeth and considered before responding, her voice tight. "Where is Sirius?"

"I will tell you later."

"You can tell me now. There is no reason not to tell us. Something has clearly happened as Hagrid has Sirius's motorbike," she said as calmly and evenly as she could.

"He met me at Godric's Hollow," Hagrid explained, "and told me to take it to bring Harry here."

"Where was he going? Did he say?" Minerva asked.

"Minerva," Dumbledore chided.

"Albus," she returned. "He is one of James Potter's best friends and godfather to that child. Speaking of friends, where are Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin?"

"Remus has been trying to infiltrate the werewolves for months now. Peter is dead, and Sirius is in Azkaban," the headmaster said wearily.

"Sirius is…," she paused, taking in the implications of what the headmaster had just said. "You don't mean to say he killed Peter?"

"And twelve Muggles."

"He would never."

"He was found at the scene laughing with the Muggles on the ground, and all that was left of Peter was a finger," Dumbledore said. "Now, we're leaving Harry here, and we're returning to Hogwarts. We have other children to take care of, and Harry will be fine here. Go on back to school, Minerva."

Minerva's eyes filled, but only one tear dared trail down her cheek. She nodded once curtly and turned on the spot.

"Hagrid, you must go as well. We've already spent too much time here."

"Yes, sir."

Hagrid climbed aboard the motorbike and once more took off. Dumbledore placed Harry on the doorstep. He stepped back, looking at the child for a moment, then walked back down the street, returning balls of light to each street lamp as he went. He then disappeared with a loud crack.

Moments later, a small, odd creature with large ears appeared in the darkest corner of the garden at Number 4. It approached the front step warily, picked up the bundle, and retreated to the dark corner of the garden.

"Hello, little Harry Potter," the little creature whispered. "Mistress Minerva sent Tilly to watch over you. She will be being here at dawn. I is to take care of you and make sure you sleep."