Professor Quirrell was the chosen one

Professor Quirrell was a mediocre wizard at best. Most people would call him an absolute failure as a wizard and teacher, but he had a secret. He was the chosen one. Every year, he would volunteer to teach first years their defense against the dark arts course, and every year, he would intentionally fail them to prevent them from going out there and getting themselves killed. It was all worth it for him to spend one more year alive.<br><br>How does this affect the story of Harry Potter?<br><br>We'll start with the basics. If he had graduated into the real wizarding world, Harry's story would have resembled that of the boy who lived, with a backwards twist. Harry's story was defined by the absence of the dark lord, but Voldemort's story would be defined by the absence of Harry Potter. My take on this is that Voldemort would fade into obscurity, because he isn't surrounded by anything to truly define his power. He never had the courage to be a worse dark lord than Grindelwald, and he never had the ambition to be better. Without Harry Potter to serve as the opposition to his regime, he spent the rest of his days wandering aimlessly.<br><br>As for Harry Potter himself, he would likely have been captured and turned into one of the death eaters. He would have been the red headed right hand man of Voldemort, something like sirius black was to the potter's before sirius was convicted of murder. Instead of killing Thaddeus Thistlewaite, he would have become his right hand man, maybe even surpassed him and become the head of the auror office in his own right. Maybe he would have jockeyed for position, moved into the ministry with a bit of luck, and had a child or two.<br><br>Presumably, Draco Malfoy would have become the main character of the story. He would have graduated from Hogwarts with perfect marks, and gone on to become one of the most powerful wizards of his generation. He would have married a woman of his social class, Astoria Greengrass would have been a good choice, and had a few children of his own. Maybe he would have had a child or two that didn't quite live up to his expectations, and that would have been the conflict of his life.<br><br>Ron and Hermione would probably have married and become the owners of the new and improved Burrow. It would have been bigger and better than any of the other homes in the neighborhood, and they would have spent their time catering to all the people that lived there. Instead of giving birth to a bunch of mischievous children, they would have raised a bunch of children who were far better behaved. Maybe they would have adopted a few of the older Weasley children, people like Bill and Charlie, and raised them as their own. Maybe they would have even adopted a few kids from the muggle world who didn't know that magic existed, and they would have been shocked to learn that magic was real.<br><br>The rest of the Weasley children would have been split up. Charlie would have gone off to Greece to do a bit of dragon wrangling, and he would have eventually become the head of the Greek dragon sanctuary. Ginny would have pursued a career in acting, and she would have ended up on a TV show of some sort or another. Luna would have become a professional Quidditch player, and she would have played for several teams and been known for her bravery. Maybe she would have even met a few Veela during her time as a Quidditch player.<br><br>As for the rest of the story, it mostly remains the same. Dumbledore still dies at the end of book 5, and the rest of the story follows what it would have followed if he had lived anyway. Instead of harry being the chosen one, though, Dumbledore is the chosen one. He was the one who defeated Grindelwald, and he was the one who would have defeated Voldemort if he hadn't died. Harry's entire story gets turned upside down, and he's not really the hero of the story anymore. Instead, he's the constant source of conflict. <br><br>He lives a happy life, but something always seems to be a bit off. Nothing goes quite right for him. Every time he gets close to achieving something, he fails. He's constantly struggling to achieve his own goals, and he never quite gets there. Maybe he even ends up with a bit of a drinking problem, and he spends his downtime wallowing in his own misery and sorrow. He never finds love, because every time he gets close to a woman she ends up running away. He never has any children, and he dies alone.<br><br>It's not that the world itself changed, it's that he changed. He doesn't have the same fire in his belly that he did before. Without the constant conflict, he is never truly able to find himself. He never goes out and does the things that he wants to do, and he is never truly happy. <br><br>The Dursleys fare a bit better, though they are never really happy. They are never truly conflicted, either, and they live their lives without ever having to worry about the dark lord. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia never have to deal with the shame of raising a child who isn't even theirs. They never have to worry about the fact that they've lost the ability to have children of their own. Dudley never has to deal with the fact that his parents will never truly love him, and that he will never truly be their child. They don't fare much better, but they do fare a bit better.<br><br>And that's the story of Harry Potter, if Professor Quirrell had been the chosen one.