Prologue.

The sun shone brightly from the clouds. The remnants of war laid all around the young green-eyed man but he couldn't care less. Everything had gone to plan they won yet looking at the castle he knew it was at a price.

As Harry made his way up to the castle that he once called his home, he felt a pang of nostalgia. Everything that he loved about Hogwarts seems tainted, darker, but things would change now, for the better, he could just feel it. With a slight spring in his step he climbed the staircase. Harry stopped when he heard voices very familiar voices.

"What do you mean by that you stupid bitch?"

"I mean exactly what you're hearing you arse!"

Harry followed the sound of the familiar voices and found himself outside a door of an empty classroom.

Now Harry was after all, a good friend, but the sound of his squabbling best friends (or favourite couple now, if the kiss was anything to go by) piqued his attention.

"No Ronald! You're wrong! How could you ever do this to us? Get away from me! Don't touch me you son of a bitch."

That was all Harry needed to hear and he was about to burst in and stop Ron from doing something he'd live to regret. Yet he was stopped in his tracks by the last voice he'd thought he'd hear in such a conversation.

"Ronald let her go!" Came the voice of the fiery redheaded angel that Harry was so taken with.

Ah Ginny! Of course she would stop Ron.

Nothing however could ever prepare Harry to deal with the next sentence that came out of Ginny's mouth, "I don't know how she did it, but she broke free from the Potions. You must have forgotten to douse her. God why are you such an idiot do I have to do everything, get the potion I'll stun her and you pour it down her throat. Then, then Harry is mine and Hermione is yours to do with as you please forever." She said a slight dreamy and insane tone in her voice.

"Okay Gin." Came Ron's happy voice.

"Ginny please I thought we're friends –" But her words were stopped mid-rant with a very clear "Imperio" and Hermione fell slient.

Harry had heard enough and just as he burst through the door Ron spoke up "Ginny why did you do that"

Yes Ginny why did you do that? Ron and Ginny were shocked and all the colour drained from their faces as they turned to face him "In fact a better question is why did both of you do that to her."

"H-Harry m-mate, its-its not what it looks like at all!" Came Ron's half-hearted attempt to save himself.

"Shut up Ron, Ginny fix Hermione now!"

"No Harry please listen to me-"

"Shut the fuck up you lying bitch! I thought I loved you and this is what I find? You two manipulating and controlling my best friend and" Here Harry paused "me?" He finished questionably.

Un-noticed to Harry and Ron Ginny was slowly smiling.

"Bloody Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen-One, the Master-of-Death, the Defeater-of-Voldemort, the Man-who-Won, blah blah blah! Did I miss something out your holiness? You get everything, you can have anyone, why have you to get Hermione too? Why can't I get her? I deserve her more than you do, you selfish prick!"

"Is that really how much our friendship meant to you Ron? Is this all you ever saw as noteworthy?" Harry asked with naked emotion in a small voice that chilled Ginny and Ron to the bone.

"Yes! Ok Mister-I'm-the-Best with money and girls and fame! You were my family's hook, you were what we needed to rise up from our poverty and in turn we gave you a family. It was an equal bargain so stop being such a bitch about it! I thought I had had enough of you during the Triwizard Tournament but Mum made me see reason and I apologized to keep you bound to the family." Boasted Ron ignorant of Harry's temper

"I see." Was all Harry said as he glared at Ron.

"And you? Was it all a lie as well?" He asked Ginny pointing his wand at her.

"Harry, lower your wand!" Ginny ordered.

"What? No." But to Harry's amazement he felt himself lower his wand.

"What have you done you whore?" Snarled Harry, his wand still held tightly in his hand but pointing useless at the ground.

Ginny smiled a brilliant ten watt smile as she answered his question. "Before Dumbledore died he handed me a potion to make sure you do what you're supposed to do, and in return for this I get you. Do you remember last year, Harry? That was the obedience potion Dumbledore gave me, working its way into your system . . . solidifying in your magical core itself."

"Ginny, how could you? I mean this . . . this is it too deep. I want out!" Ron demanded.

"No Brother, you're involved and that's how it's going to stay. You wanted her for your silence and now you'll have her."

Ron fell silent.

"Why? Why have you done this to us?" Harry questioned.

"Because you love her! Her and not me! Now, Harry, you can watch the love of your life suffer the same fate as you." Ginny said smugly as she pulled a little stopper bottle from around her neck and walked over to Hermione.

"But I don't love her." Harry said confused, trying to keep Ginny's attention on him.

Unbeknownst to everyone in the room Harry's magic, which had been blocked for nearly two decades, was slowly wearing down the seals blocking it. What started as a trickle soon turned into a flood as the dam finally burst upon what Ginny revealed.

"Memory charms are the best aren't they, Harry? Now quiet! You don't me to use the wrong dosage, do you?" Replied Ginny patronizingly.

"Um Ginny,"

"Not now Ron."

"Get away from her." Ginny turned and saw Harry tall and proud, and she smiled.

"Or what?"

A huge onslaught of magical energy shot out of Harry and threw the two youngest Weasleys off their feet and into the wall. Ginny slid down unconscious, while Ron was just stunned.

Harry walked up to Hermione and just with a wave of his hand, relieved her of the unforgivable curse that had been laid upon her. Hermione looked confused and dazed as she looked around until her eyes fell upon her emerald-eyed saviour.

"Harry! Oh-Harry!" Was all she said as she flung herself onto him and hugged him as tightly as she could manage. Tears freely streaming down her eyes.

"I tried to fight them." She said in between sobs, "Since the end of fifth-year, I've been trying to get you free of their control but I didn't know how to tell you without an-angering you. Then he started controlling me! Using me! I couldn't break away Harry. I was so afraid."

She broke down sobbing in his arms and he held her tight, gaining some kind of insight on how truly bad the situation was.

"You're safe now Hermione." He said keeping her as close as possible, "I'll never let this happen to you again. Never." Harry gently pick her up bridle style and began walking out of the room.

"Harry please I'm sorry I never meant for it to get so far please believe me." Ron pleaded from his position on the ground.

"Today has seen too much death, be glad for that fact because I hope for your sake I never meet you again" and with that Harry turned around and began leaving from the classroom. Unbeknownst to him or the crying brunette snuggled comfortably in his arms, an angry redheaded girl was rising from the floor and was not happy with the sight in front of her.

'That bookworm is finally doing what she always wanted to do, she's taking away my Harry, my prince! He's mine!' Ginny thought.

That's when Ginevra Molly Weasley made the biggest mistake of her short life. In a bout of misguided revenge, she raised her wand and muttered the first curse that came to her mind, "Avada Kedavra!"Green light surged forward and the spell met its target. Silently, Hermione arms fell to the side red-rimmed eyes now gazing lifeless up at him. An enraged green-eyed boy turned around and his magic rose up to his meet his demands and as he gaze changed between Hermione and Ginny his magic still rising flickered visibly.

"There Harry, she's gone! Now you're all mine and we can be happy together. Ron might be unhappy I had to kill his future wife, but I'm sure we can find another mudblood for him."

"Ginny what have you done!" screamed Ron as he watched his once best friend fall to his knees.

'No' Harry thought as he fell to his knees. No, no it can't end like this Harry thought as he cradled Hermione's head lovingly. Tears of unbelievable agony ran down his face and as he touch her still warm check he cried out "Hermione" and it echoed throughout the halls of the Hogwarts chilling many people to the bone.

Neville helping others repair the damage looked at the others and took off to find out the cause of such a noise he only hoped that it wasn't what his gut was telling him.

Luna sitting serenely on the only surviving bench in the courtyard raised her at the noise and smiled and almost too quietly to be deciphered by the human ear she muttered "It has begun."

A powerful burst of magic came from Harry as pure magic ran through the young wizard. A swirling emerald green mass of magic burst from his body engulfed everything it came in contact with. Yet the obsessive girl didn't back down and tried to get his attention, even when Ron flew into the wall and slid down unconscious.

"Harry! This is not the time for a tantrum! You're hurting me, I'm the one you love, me! Dumbledore made it so, so stop it! I order you to stop!" She demanded never heeding the danger, never letting her illusion dissipate.

And with that thought another blast of magic spread through the empty classroom and within seconds everything in the classroom was blown up. Nothing remained. Expect a man with a broken heart and a woman that was set to eclipse Rowna Ravenclaw herself.

The sound of explosion caused other celebrators to rush and find the cause but it was too little too late. Distantly, the haunted laugh of a young man could be heard as he looked at the remains around him, everyone who every mattered to him was gone and as pain filled his heart and as his magic purged his system clearing the rest of the potions and charms on him as he can to realized the true weight of what he had lost. Memories of the kisses they shared, declarations of love made, all the good simple times they shared.

He bent down and lovingly picked up the lifeless body of possibly his only best friend and true love, the one person who truly cared for him and saw him as Harry and not the boy-who-lived. He was undone. He was broken. As Harry let his gaze wander through the wreckage he wondered how much control he really had over his life.

Now with his mind free for the first time in years. He saw how stupid he was. How could he have been so naïve? Grandfather-like man comes every year to save abused child from hated relatives and instantly becomes the hero. He keeps the said child in their care to make sure he's meek and malleable. He makes sure that the Godfather is kept away permanently in Azkaban. He controls and manipulated the child until he hones the child into a venerable weapon. Controls who gets close to the child. How could Harry have not realized it?

If old goat-fucker was alive, he would personally kill slowly and painfully.

But now everything was gone. He had no purpose anymore. Voldemort was vanquished, Hermione was avenged, the guilty punished. Now what or where could Harry begin his baleful existence?

Harry knew he couldn't carry on anymore he had nothing left. Putting Hermione on the ground he conjured flowers and placed them in her hand. He kneeled down and kissed her still warm lips. As he raised the Elder Wand to his heart, he muttered "Soon my love soon" and uttered the last two words that had destroyed his life and haunted him. He uttered them precisely and accurately and hoped that he would find solace in what is to come after death.

After all, someone once told Harry that "Death was nothing more than the next great adventure."

"Avada Kedavra."

A flash of green light...

A young man aged by war ...

A lifeless heap on the ground...

A grand victory with no one to celebrate it...

Two lives that were set up to eclipse the founders…

Gone like a whisper in the wind…