What if?

Ambush and Murder

Harry often wondered what his life would have been like if he hadn't been attacked as a child. He liked to imagine that he lived a normal life without the threat of Lord Voldemort every living day.

He liked to imagine what would have happened if Voldemort hadn't gone to their home on Godric's Hallow that day.

He would have grown up with his mother and father. They would have gone to Quidditch matches, shopping in Diagon Alley without ministry officials guarding them.

He would have lived his life as a highly normal child. Nobody would have known his name, he wouldn't be famous. He would just be Harry Potter, child of the brave Lily and James Potter. He imagined that his parents would have had more children had they not been under threat all the time, they always liked the idea of a big family. Harry liked to believe that he would have had at least 3 siblings.

By the time Harry was 11 he wouldn't have been attacked and kidnapped multiple times. No, he would have been preparing for Hogwarts. He would get on the Hogwarts Express and people wouldn't gasp and point when they saw him. He would go to Hogwarts and enjoy his time there as a normal student.

He wouldn't be in the papers or anything like that, he would be reading about other people in the papers. Would he have done well at Hogwarts? He didn't know. He liked to think that he would have focused on his studies because he wouldn't have to focus on Voldemort.

But when Harry wondered all of this he also thought about the things he would lose. He didn't know if Daniel and Elena would be around or if things would have turned out differently. He didn't know if he would have been friends with Hermione had he not gone to school with her beforehand. What if they never really met at Hogwarts. He also wondered whether he and Ron would be friends had their parents not brought them together.

And then he thought about Draco. Where would Draco be? Probably still with his abusive father, meaning that Draco would never have been brought up with love. He would have probably been sorted into Slytherin and the two would have never really got on. He wouldn't have his brother if it wasn't for Voldemort.

Draco often wondered similar things. He wondered what he would do if the Potters hadn't been around in his time of need.

He would have had put up with his fathers abuse until he went to Hogwarts, maybe it would have even stopped once he was older, but what then? He would undoubtedly been placed in Slytherin house. Making him instant enemies with Harry, thinking about it, it was likely that he would have been brought up to hate people like Harry and the Weasley's. "blood traitors and mudbloods" as his father liked to say.

Would he have been happy at Hogwarts? He didn't know. He was sure that he would have had loyal friends from Slytherin house but would they have liked him for him, or because his father scared their fathers. He already knew his fathers death eater friends and some of them had children his age, would that have been the people Draco was friends with. He didn't know.

But Draco knew now that when he went to Hogwarts with Harry, Ron and Hermione that he would be happy no matter what. He would have friends.

Thanks to the Potters, he had a family. He had a loving mother and father, he had a brother who was also his best friend. Thanks to the Potters he was in a loving home, not an abusive one. Thanks to the Potters he was happy.

So when Harry and Draco were huddled together in their Animagus forms and heard that crash they looked at each other directly in the eyes. In that moment time stopped and they just looked at each other. A silent understanding passed between the two boys; a silent thank you, a silent I love you, and in many ways it was a silent goodbye.