Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot; everything else belongs to the wonderful JK Rowling

Thanks to my beta Ana aka phoenixginny13


Chapter 1- The Arrival and the Truth

Harry lay down on his bed, he was sore from the recent beatings of his Uncle Vernon. They started as soon as Harry arrived at the King's Cross Train Station. Harry was sitting in the backseat, thinking about Ginny and how much he loves her. When out of no where Uncle Vernon turns around and starts to punch him. Aunt Petunia was yelling at him to stop and watch the road, but Uncle Vernon didn't listen he kept hitting Harry over and over again. After 5 minutes, Uncle Vernon stopped hitting Harry and continued driving like nothing ever happened. Harry was bleeding from his lip and nose. The bleeding finally stopped by the time they pulled into the driveway.

Since then, the beatings became more common through out the day and worse. Aunt Petunia and Dudley tried to help him from the wrath of Uncle Vernon, but that didn't help. Uncle Vernon finds ways to beat him. Harry didn't fought back, he knew that he could never win and that Uncle Vernon would just hit harder if he ever fought back.

Harry was brought back to reality by the door bell. Luckily, Uncle Vernon wasn't home; so Aunt Petunia answered the door. Harry carefully went downstairs to see who it was. He was surprised to hear the familiar voice of none other than Hermione Granger.

He heard her ask Aunt Petunia, "Hello, Mrs. Dursley, I'm Hermione Granger, is Harry home?"

Aunt Petunia responded, "I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are talking about?" She remembered, "People were after Harry, and she wasn't going to let anyone come near Harry."

Just then Harry spoke up, "Its ok Aunt Petunia, and she is a friend from school." Those were the key words for Aunt Petunia, she remembered "Harry telling her about his friends, and said that one of his friends, was named Hermione Granger and she was 17 years old, a year older than Harry, so that means she can do magic. Maybe she can help Harry. She didn't understand why the name didn't click before"

Petunia smiled as she let Hermione, "Hello Hermione, I'm Petunia Dursley, Harry's aunt, sorry about before but you can never be to safe"

She turned to Harry, "Harry, would you please take Hermione to your room and help her unpack? I bet she's a little bit tired from her trip."

Harry responded, "Ok, umm…Hermione can you go ahead upstairs, I'll be up in a minute, I need to talk to my aunt about something." Hermione nodded and went upstairs.

As soon as Hermione was out of ear range, Harry turned to his aunt and said, "Aunt Petunia, please don't tell Hermione about what's been going on, I want to handle it by myself. Promise me that you won't say a word?" Reluctantly, Petunia agreed. Harry ran upstairs to help Hermione unpack.

Meanwhile, Hermione entered Harry's room; she had no problem finding it. As she unpacked, she was wondering, "Why Harry told her to go ahead upstairs, that he needed to talk with his aunt. Harry never got along with his relatives." She just finished unpacking, when Harry walked in.

Harry said, "Dinner will be ready soon." Hermione nodded. Harry continued, "There's only one bed, but I have some sleeping bags, so you can take the bed. I don't mind the floor." Hermione was just about to open her mouth to protest, but Harry put a finger over her lips.

"Honestly, I don't mind. Anyways, you're the guest," said Harry, in a whisper. Hermione nodded. Harry removed his finger from her lips, Hermione was blushing, and both had a sly smile on there face. They just realized how close they were, when Aunt Petunia yelled up to them, "Dinner is ready!"

"Ok," yelled Harry. He turned back to Hermione and said, "Let's go." They headed downstairs for dinner, with a smile on their faces.

Aunt Petunia told them that Uncle Vernon had to work late, so he won't be joining them for dinner, which was great in Harry's opinion. After they had a good, quiet dinner, they said thank you to Aunt Petunia and helped clear the table and wash and dry the dishes. As soon as they were done, they walked into the living room, Hermione took a seat, expecting Harry to do the same, but he didn't, instead he looked around to make sure no one was around. Harry was about to take a seat next to Hermione, but jumped up when he saw Aunt Petunia walk in.

"That's weird, what's going on here, why is Harry acting all strange?" thought Hermione, but she turned her attention back to Harry and Petunia.

Just then Aunt Petunia said, "It's ok Harry, you can sit back down, I was just wondering if you would like some tea and crackers?" Hermione and Harry both shook there head and said, "No thank you, I'm full." She nodded and said, "Well I'm heading for bed, please don't stay up to late." and she went upstairs. Dudley went to bed straight after dinner, so they didn't have to worry about him. Harry and Hermione sat and talked about there summer vacation, with Harry leaving out the bits about his uncle. By the time they were done talking, it was almost 9 o' clock. Just then the old grandfather clock, struck 9. Hermione noticed Harry got really tense. Hermione didn't know what was going on.

Harry relaxed a little and said, "Hermione, it's getting late so why don't you go ahead upstairs and get ready for bed. I'll be up in a couple minutes. Don't worry if you hear noises down here, it's just my uncle getting home from work." Hermione nodded, not knowing what to say. When she stood up, so did Harry, he walked her to the stairs and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek and said, "Good Night." Hermione smiled and went up stairs.

When she arrived in Harry's room, she immediately got ready for bed. It didn't take her long to get ready. She sat in the bed, waiting for Harry. 10 minutes later, Harry still hadn't come up, she started to worry that something was wrong. So, she grabbed her wand off of the nightstand and walked quietly downstairs, being very careful not to make any noise.

When she reached the final step, she heard yelling, it was Harry's uncle, he was yelling, "You are nothing!" over and over again. She walked carefully into the living room, to see what Harry's uncle was yelling about. When she reached the living room, she was shocked, she saw Harry on the floor covered in blood, while his uncle kept kicking him and yelling at him. As soon as Hermione got over the shock of seeing Harry like this, she ran up to Mr. Dursley, with her want out, yelling at him. Mr. Dursley stopped his abuse on Harry to see who was yelling at him. When he saw Hermione's wand in his face, he sobered up and calm down a little.

Hermione was just about to send Mr. Dursley a rather nasty hex, that she just learned when Harry stopped her.

"Hermione, his not worth it and I'm alright." He turned around and walked upstairs. Hermione followed him to figure out all of this. She found Harry in the bathroom, washing the blood off of his face.

"Harry, what's going on? Please tell me" she asked.

"Just forget about it, it's nothing" He went back to his room. She followed; Harry was taking his shirt off, when she walked in. She could see all the damage of Vernon all over his body. Harry lay down and was out like a light. It was a different story for Hermione. She couldn't fall asleep, she kept thinking about Harry and how he hasn't had a great life, but soon all that will change, real soon. She and Harry are heading to the Burrow in a couple weeks for Bill's wedding and then she, Harry and Ron will talk about the mission, which they have to do.

Ever since that last night, Hermione is always with Harry, when his uncle is home, afraid of what his uncle would do to Harry. The next morning she woke up and saw Harry's bed was empty and figured he must have gone downstairs. She got up, got dressed, went to the bathroom, fixed her hair and brushes her teeth.

She was towards the stairs when Dudley stepped in front of her and said, "Why are you with scarhead, when you could be with a real man like me." Hermione just looked and him and laughed.

"Harry's more of a real man, than you'll ever be He knows how to treat and please a woman, if you catch my drift, all night too. It's amazing." Dudley looked dumbstruck, while Hermione walked passed him and went downstairs. She was half way downstairs when she heard yelling. She started running down the stairs, as she got closer to the end, she heard, "You have no one here to protect you now. You're nothing; no one will ever want you. You're nothing but a failure, a loser and you're worthless." Hermione came bursting into the kitchen and found Harry on the floor covered in his own blood, he was bleeding from everywhere. He was holding his right arm close to his body, tears coming out of his eyes. Her saw Hermione raise her wand at Uncle Vernon and cried, "Stupefy!", then it all went black.


A/N: Please review, tell me what you think. Please don't hold back.