so, i wanted to call it "apparent serendipity" but named it "serendipity" when i made the cover, and can't figure out a way to get the "apparent" into it, so i guess it's called serendipity,, hm
anyway!! it's in an alternate universe where peter pettigrew was ousted as the spy, severus snape didn't hear the prophecy and, you know, the rest of the world helped the uk with the voldemort problem and drove him away.
let me clarify: all that happened was voldemort was driven into hiding. he's not dead. still a problem. it's just that everyone's all "hey we did it" and can't be bothered going and trying to actually end him
what do these tweaks mean? good question
they mean that harry's parents are still alive, and harry had a good childhood. that lily had her second child and named her daughter after her sister.
they mean that sirius never had to go after wormtail and instead focused on living his life with his gorgeous husband, remus. that the two adopted a chaotic genderfluid metamorphmagus muggleborn who was abandoned after his/her parents noticed her/his hair kept changing colour.
they mean that neville's parents weren't driven to insanity and he had an abuse-free childhood. that he got his own wand instead of being handed his father's.
they mean that lucius and narcissa malfoy went into hiding with voldemort and the rest of his death eaters after being identified as death eaters. they mean that draco was raised ashamed to be a malfoy, afraid that he would be accused of being a death eater as well. they mean that draco was raised by a wizarding orphanage.
they mean that the order of the phoenix never stopped doing it's thing, and kept searching for the dark lord in an attempt to end him.
alright, so, voldemort hasn't marked out his equal. although he doesn't even know about the prophecy, it's still going to happen at some point. there are two possible people who could become the chosen one: harry and neville. both raised by extremely capable wizards and both on the road to becoming extremely capable wizards themselves.
on the day before their first day of hogwarts, harry and orion (wolfstar child) steal a map of the department of mysteries. however, they don't know that it's that. it simply resembles a bit of blank parchment to them, as the order have placed a spell on it that requires you to be true of heart, strong of spirit and full of bravery to be able to read it. although james and lily realise it's gone, they let the two keep it, deciding that it can decide for them when harry is old enough to join the order.
voldemort is hiding away in australia, where no-one has been able to find him because, let's be honest, aussie is f***ing huge. i don't know where they are, but,, just imagine voldemort and all his death eaters holed up in a cave in ayers rock (because why not). in reality, lucius malfoy is passing as a wealthy muggle businessman and living in sydney, narcissa has integrated herself into the australian ministry of magic, bellatrix is in muggle prison for accidently attacking the australian prime minister (voldemort thinks she isn't subtle enough for the tasks he needs done so just leaves her in there) and the rest of voldemort's death eaters are trying to recruit wizards and witches to their cause.
a new zealand pureblood family (the twyford family) join you-know-who to create a world for their children where they don't have to hide who they are to the majority of the world. one of these children being a natural born legilimens, voldemort, being voldemort, sends her to hogwarts to see what's happening in england (or actually scotland, i guess-) and to spy on dumbledore. she happens to turn eleven the same year as harry, and starts attending at the same time as he does. she's placed in hufflepuff.
over the year, she tries to release the basilisk from the chamber of secrets (which she finds hard, seeing as she can't, y'know, speak parseltongue). she doesn't manage, to say the least. but not for lack of trying!
harry, orion and the legilimens kid (let's say she's called davey, just because) don't really do much for the next three years. just, you know, kid stuff. orion goes through a bit of shit because of her/his gender identity. so does davey (she's a trans girl). the two get c l o s e r because of this, and slowly orion begins to consider the idea that voldemort isn't as bad as he/she's been raised to believe.
oh! and during the next three years, voldemort slowly starts sending his agents back into the country. bad stuff slowly begins to start happening again.
also!! forgot to mention that duelling is now a sport at hogwarts and has been ever since voldemort was chased away. dumbledore wants his students to know how to defend themselves, and making it a way to earn house points was his best idea. so harry and orion and neville are pretty good at defending themselves. and stuff.
and harry grows up, slowly. becoming more mature. becoming true-r to himself. and one day, he glances at that blank piece of parchment he's had for three years and goes "wait. i can read that". so he does. he sees the map of the department of mysteries, checks it out, and wonders to himself why there are details about a particular shelf in one section of it labelled the "hall of prophecies". he dismisses this, though, and goes back to hogwarts for his fourth year.
where davey reads his mind (sorry snape, it's mind-reading to me and always will be) and learns this stuff. she tells voldemort about it, but expresses doubts about the need to investigate it. while orion's slowly walking towards voldemort, davey's slowly going the other way, towards dumbledore's side. voldemort senses this and sends his agent, barty crouch jr, to go infiltrate the order, while avery helps figure out how to get him into the department of mysteries.
orion's feeling a lot of pressure this entire time. feels that he/she's fake, that he/she can't do anything right, that he/she's evil because he/she's in slytherin. the bad house. that he/she's already a failure. because, although ori can't really understand it, he/she is seriously hurting and in desperate need for someone. and davey is filling that space. part of it is the muggleborn slytherin combination, but so is the adopted child thing. ori just feels he/she isn't meeting the standards he/she should be meeting as everything he/she is.
everyone is starting to freak out, since the dark mark is appearing everywhere again as voldemort eases his way back into the u.k, so the triwizard tournament is arranged in harry's fourth year to try to boost everyone's moral. which doesn't have any plot impact, but you know. there are only three champions, since voldemort doesn't know about the prophecy y e t (although he suspects there is a prophecy about him and is trying to get into the hall of mysteries) and isn't trying to kill any fourteen year olds. i think the main reason i want the tournament is so that i can get a yule ball in there, so that harry and ori/ori and davey/davey and neville can go. haven't decided which ships i like.
at the end of harry's fourth year, voldemort finally manages to get into the ministry and out again without being detected with the prophecy. he now knows that harry or neville is destined to defeat him, and orders davey to start seeing one of them so that he can spy on them at the start of the fifth year. luckily enough for voldemort, davey has already asked neville out, so no need for her to lie her way into a relationship. although davey says okay, since voldemort has her parents and will happily kill them, she tells neville everything about her being planted in hogwarts as a spy, and promises him that she'll only pretend to be voldemort's spy and actually begin working for the order. she goes to them to give them information about the dark lord and try to begin working for them, but they don't look past the dark mark on her arm and treat her with cruelty. this finally pushes ori over and he/she enters voldemort's service.
sixth year!! dumbledore starts giving neville and harry occlumency lessons and tells them about the prophecy. because voldemort has finally abandoned australia and has successfully gotten his puppets into the top positions at the ministry for magic. seeing umbridge as a perfect way to topple dumbledore from power, voldey sends her to take the position as defence against the dark arts teacher. she does what she does in the canon books; you know, torturing her students and forbidding them to learn defensive magic. however, seeing as fudge is under the imperius curse, she also is a bitch about muggleborns and pure blood supremacy. she gets rid of dumbledore through ministry decrees, then sacks most of the staff, replacing them with death eaters. draco finally gets to meet his real parents, but refuses to side with them. he is not like them; he's been proving that his entire life. harry begins to suspect orion of turning to the dark side, and neville, scared for davey's safety (as the death eaters are merciless to her after learning she is switched sides), runs to the dark lord, promising voldemort his life in exchange for davey's and her family's. this is accepted, but instead of killing neville, voldemort brands him with the dark mark and makes him into another death eater. horrified that her neville is gone, davey swears that she will continue fighting for what neville fought for; the liberation of the wizarding world from voldemort.
harry confronts ori, and he/she flees to join voldemort. now, it is clear who voldemort will seek to destroy: harry potter.
seventh year begins, and it is dumbledore, harry, davey and the order against voldemort, neville, ori and the death eaters. voldemort gives his two youngest wards one task: kill dumbledore. although neville hates the very idea, he agrees, because he's doing it all for davey. ori agrees because he/she's really beginning to believe that he/she is evil. that she/he's just being who she/he was destined to. ori was sorted into slytherin, after all. dumbledore learns of this plan and informs harry of it, then begins to teach harry about the horcruxes that make voldemort seem so immortal. throughout the year, neville becomes more of a nervous wreck and ori becomes darker and more brooding, for the first time in his/her life, not making jokes every fucking minute to try and lighten the mood.
davey, feeling useless, decides that the only way she can be of any use is by turning to spying again. she joins neville and ori, pretending to assist them while really just reading their minds and reporting her findings back to dumbledore and harry. ori figures out what's happening, and in a fit of rage, performs the cruciatus curse on davey. neville freaks at this, and stuns ori, grabbing davey and disapparating, leaving ori alone in the dark. it happens to be a full moon, and a werewolf finds ori. he/she wakes after being bitten, manages to disapparate away, but is now a werewolf. because, i don't know, i just wanted her/him to become one.
ori is rather injured, but manages to find her/his way back to voldemort. he listens to ori's story and decides that neville longbottom must be the chosen one. he then discards ori, deciding that the injuries the metamorphmagus has sustained will not heal well enough, and that the newly made werewolf will be more of a liability then any help. ori's mental state gets worse; he/she feels like a failure in everything he/she does. couldn't be a death eater, couldn't be a slytherin, couldn't be a muggleborn, and now, seeing as werewolf injuries do not heal properly, would never be able to be a proper metamorphmagus. he/she decides that he/she will now bend all of her/his efforts to destroying voldemort. but also to destroying the ministry of magic system. discrimination had to go. all of it.
by the way, harry's been hunting horcruxes the entire time!! neville n davey joined him after the whole "orion tried to torture davey so i hexed him/her" thing.
and, of course, the book will end here, leaving plenty of space for a sequel.