Indeed, if Voldemort's body was completely destroyed, then surely the total wreckage of the Potter's house, coupled with the death of both Lily and James would lead people to believe that Voldemort had torched the house and simply not noticed Harry, rather than believing the most powerful dark lord in a century was inexplicably vanquished by a fucking baby.

 

Yes, but Dumbledore said it. Therefore, it must be true.

 

That actually gives me a plot bunny. It happens exactly as you said Death Eater Neophyte. Voldemort comes, tortures and then kills Lily and James and totally ignores Harry. Dumbledore then basically tells everybody that Voldemort is dead. The ministry runs with it and tells people that the snake man who appears to torture and kill them is nothing more than a pretender. Or something.

 

My personal idea for this scenario is that if Voldemort's body is totally destroyed than instead of the Death Eater's simple acceptance that their master is dead, an inner circle member (Malfoy, Dolohov, Rookwood? etc) instead take his place, either by a glamour or even something as mundane as wearing a cowl. Pretending to be Lord Voldemort and continuing the war. Harry is presumably still left with the Dursleys, regarded by all but Dumbledore as merely lucky. At the beginning of the first year of Hogwarts Voldemort returns to a massively war torn magical Britain either by Quirell or other methods and is not pleased by the usurpation by the faux-Voldemort, and is compeled to either start a war against his own followers (the new "Voldemort" not feeling compelled to surrender his leadership) or to form a new equally homicidal faction.

I see this as an interesting start point of an independent Harry, considering he would simply be viewed as another face in the crowd (with the possible exception of the order of the phoenix) and this cuts out the necessity of becoming friends with Ron etc. And would still be viewed by both Voldemort and Dumbledore as the "boy who lived" which even opens possibility of a mentored by Voldemort!Harry if Riddle was to conceal his true identity and promise Harry a way of getting back at who Harry views as the murderer of his parents...

 

Well people knew that the Potters where hunted by Voldemort right? And they were fairly well known? That part wouldn't matter much but what about the people at Godric's Hallow. Like others have said, I also assume that the Secret Keeper charm failed when the house blew up and its targets died. So they would notice a house appear out of nowhere and would probably see that it was destroyed. Potter's are hunted by Voldemort, dead body of Lily and James and a baby crying in the ruins. How did the baby survive when the parents died?

I think they, the people at Godric's Hallow put everything together. Plus the lightning bolt scar would be recognized as a curse scar. Of what curse they might not know but they can speculate that it was the killing curse. Either way I'm sure they would see baby Harry survive and figure that Voldemort failed. They could spread the story. I believe a scene in Deathly Hallows has the story from Voldemort's point of view and a muggle kid actually sees Voldemort gliding down the street. Maybe Ministry investigators found out about it or the wizarding neighbors?

 

I have always thought that the fidelius was cast on the land not the house. The reason I believe this is that if the house was the only thing that was affected by the fidelius then you would see a plot of land with no house in between the two house in OotP instead of nothing in between the two houses. If this is true then the Potter's house being destroyed would have not cause the charm to fail.

If we say that the house being destroyed caused the charm to fail we would have to assume that there is something like a ward stone need for the fidelius and it was destroyed along with the house.

 

Of course, Peter may have just stopped maintaining the charm. When he gave the secret up to Voldemort, he may have let go and then the wards would have fallen.

 

Dumbledore knew the prophesy, and knew that Harry was the prophesied child. From there, it wasn't a hard jump of logic to realise what had happened.

 

It was never mentionned in the prophecy that Voldemort would be defeated then, it just said Voldemort would mark him as his equal.

 

Yes it did, it talked about the one with the power to vanquish.

 

You know, technically, Harry had already fulfilled the prophecy when Voldemort was cast from his body for thirteen years. He had been marked, he had the power of love in him that the Dark Lord didn't understand, he had vanquished Voldemort, and he fit all the other more obvious pieces.

 

It all depends on your definition of "vanquish". One could say that it means to utterly defeat, rather than just temporarily defeat. Though of course after Voldemort's first fall, there was really no reason for anyone to believe he'd rise again. No one, not even Dumbledore, knew about the horcruxes back then, though it seems he suspected something.

 

This is an awesome idea. I could totally see this if someone like Dream Red, Tinn Tam, or ip82 wrote it.

 

During the prologue, McGonagall stays in Privet Drive for the whole day and is there several hours before Dumbledore arrives. It's possible to consider that during the time she spent there, it was confirmed that Voldemort did indeed die (or so they think), and she hasn't heard the news yet.
Still has several problems in the plot for that sequence of events, but that part makes sense, at least.