"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead!" came the desperate cries of Lily Potter, as she shielded her infant son from the most feared wizard that ever lived.
"This is my last warning," he said, his voice sinister, patience clearly thinning.
"Not Harry! Please... have mercy... Not Harry! Please — I’ll do anything..."
There was a jet of light, as a spell flew through the air, knocking the redheaded witch aside forcefully, her head hitting the wall with a crack, and she crumpled to the floor, unconscious and barely breathing.
And then, he set his sights on the child in the crib. And Harry Potter, the child the Dark Lord believed was the one of the prophecy who had "the power to vanquish him," was killed...
Wizarding Society, under the manipulative hand of the Dark Lord, has reached the pinnacle of its decadence, and resistance has been practically extinguished, only a whisper of what it once was. Muggle-borns have all but been eradicated from the Magical World, being hunted to near extinction. Pure-bloods are at the proverbial top of the heap, and even half-bloods seem almost second-tier to them, though ties to certain families may lead some to overlook the unfortunate occasional "tainting" of blood. They are nature's nobility.
But what if the Dark Lord made a mistake that fateful night? What if the one with the power to vanquish him is still out there, beneath his radar, at Hogwarts? With a small student resistance organized, passing information to what remains of the Order of the Phoenix, perhaps there is hope...