Harry Potter#2(exposition really)
Lily Potter was rendered infertile during her time fighting for the order of the phoenix by an unknown curse shot off by a death eater. The death eater was killed shortly after the curse hit its mark, but afterwards, there was nothing that could be done to restore Lily’s ability to have children. She and James still wanted to be parents however, so they researched for a long while and eventually devised a plan. You see, it wouldn’t matter to Lily if a child of hers didn’t actually share her blood—she just wanted to have something to raise, something that was hers. And James was undeniably hers, so anything that belonged to James, also belonged to her.
She and James had found a ritual, something so dark that even James, who had been quite close to his aunt from the Black family (someone who had never shied from teaching her family the darker aspects of magic) was resistant to considering at first. He said it was unnatural, unseemly; something that only a madman would consider. The ritual, dear reader, was one designed to completely change a person’s gender, inside and out. In the pureblood families of the wizarding world, same sex relationships were largely forbidden. Those of the old families who still chose to have romantic, or just physical relationships with people of the same gender (and got caught) were cast out of their families and removed from their family trees. The Potter family was no different, and so to James, just the mere thought of changing his gender to sleep with another man and, perish the thought, get pregnant was inconceivable to him.
Lily, however, would not be so easily denied. It was still quite fortunate for her cause that James Potter happened to love her more than he hated what she wanted him to do for them. He also couldn’t deny that this ritual would, in the end, give them what they so dearly wanted. It wouldn’t be permanent, he reasoned to himself. After he….carried to term, they could do the counter ritual and spells to restore him back to his real body.
Since Lily and James were on the same page about what they would need to do, now all they needed was a person to help them out with getting their baby in the proverbial oven. They needed someone healthy, a wizard preferably, since they agreed that they both wanted the best chance for their child to be magical. The person would also need to be someone they trusted, someone who wouldn’t ever try to claim their baby against the two’s will. There was really only one person who they could choose, their dear friend Sirius.
A very magically, and physically healthy pureblood, one of their closest confidants if not the person they would trust before anyone else, even Dumbledore. Yes, Sirius was the perfect choice to them. They approached him about their request one evening after their whole group had spent the day together goofing around and just enjoying each other’s company. Remus and Peter had left to take care of their own things and so it was now just the three of them sitting in the Potter’s living room.
Sirius was a little concerned when his two normally lighthearted friends had taken on an uncharacteristically serious demeanor. He was completely blindsided however, when he heard their proposal. The wizard had been aware that his friends couldn’t have kids, but no one besides the couple’s physicians had been told why, or which of them it was. He listened to them, they explained their idea, their plans, and what they would need from him. To the two’s pleasant surprise, Sirius was on board with what they wanted before they even had to resort to begging. His only reasoning given when they asked why he agreed so easily was ‘we’re friends aren’t we? Of course I’ll help you, even if you’re both absolutely mad for even coming up with this.’ But what really surprised them was when he volunteered to help with the ritual.
A little more than a year later, their perfect little Harry Almach Potter was born. Three weeks more, and James had all his dangly bits back where they belonged. The middle name Almach was chosen by the Potters as a nod to the traditions of their friends’ family. Sirius tried to talk them out of it, basically saying, ‘fuck ‘em all and their traditions’, but the couple still wanted their son to have something of the line his biological father comes from, since astronomy related first names were the norm in house Black. Of course, they didn’t give him a star related first name as that would be a bit too suspicious for anyone who looked too close, and the three agreed that it would be best if no one knew that their sweet little kid was a main-line member of the darkest family.
Legally, on the most confidential, red-taped kind of paperwork they could get their hands on, Lily is Harry’s god-mother, Sirius is his father, and James’ classification is his bearer. But to anyone and everyone else who doesn’t bother to go looking in all the administration they buried the information in, Lily and James simply had a miracle baby. That somehow beyond all odds, Lily had been able to get pregnant and now they were raising their beloved half-blood son. That assumption would be mostly right anyway, aside from lily’s pregnancy and the tiny fact that their boy is the pureblood heir to two of the most ancient and noble houses.
When the Potter’s go into hiding beneath the Fidelius, it takes both Sirius, Peter himself, and a small amount of guilt tripping ‘I’m your friend, aren’t I? Do you really not trust me?’ to convince them to switch the secret keeper over to Peter. When they are betrayed by the one Sirius practically made them trust, the guilt tears him apart far more effectively then the dementors ever could. Sirius still goes to Azkaban, yes, but this time he had torn that filthy, traitorous rat into pieces before it could escape into the sewers. So this time when the Aurors show up, along with a hysterically cackling Black covered in blood and practically professing his guilt to the world, and a dozen blown up muggles, they find the mangled, eviscerated body of one Peter Pettigrew. As in all the time-lines before, after, left, right, up and down, there is no trial.