Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any other associated characters or elements of the Harry Potter Universe.

Harry made is way to the Ravenclaw table where he was immediately engulfed by a hug from Hermione. Harry could sense that Tom wanted to make a comment about Hermione but he wisely kept it to himself. As Harry took a seat next to Hermione he scanned the crowd to see how everyone had reacted to his sorting. The Slytherins appeared completely unfazed by the Boy-Who-Lived ending up in the House of the Wise. Most of Ravenclaw was still cheering and clapping, it had taken them a few seconds to overcome the shock of actually getting Harry Potter, so it was only expected that they would still be celebrating. The Hufflepuffs were clapping politely as they did for every new student, but the Gryfindors were an interesting mix of polite applause and what appeared to be heartbreak, Harry could swear that a few of them were on the verge of tears. The teachers were also an interesting collection of reactions most of the teachers were clapping politely, McGonagall had a slight frown but it was almost indistinguishable from her usual expression, the tiny Professor Flitwick looked like he might have a heart attack from excitement, Flitwick had been Head of Ravenclaw for more than half a century. The ancient Professor Vector who had started teaching Arithmancy when Tom had been a second year had a look of eager anticipation which confused Harry, until he realized that almost every Ravenclaw took at least one year of Arithmancy and almost every other house only had one or two people take Arithmancy. As Harry continued to scan the table he saw a face that he had not expected to see until he had hunted him down and was holding a knife to his throat, Severus Snape.

'What is Dumbledore thinking letting a Death Eater teach? Has the old man finally lost all his marbles?' 'Severus was always an able hand with potions.' 'He was also a cruel, petty, and vicious bastard, which was exactly why you let him join up in the first place.' 'Quite true, not to mention that his... appetites make him highly unsuitable for any position that has him around teenagers.' 'If he tries to do anything to Hermione I will flay him alive and feed him his own flesh.' Harry mentally growled 'Hmm you are quite protective of the girl, why do you suppose that is?' 'She is a good friend, that is all there is to it, now drop it.'

Returning his gaze to Severus the moment he made eye contact with the greasy snake he felt an attack being made on his mental defenses. Harry immediately forced Severus Snape from his mindscape, more for Snape's protection than his own, but not before sending a message to Snape along the connection. 'Ah ah ah, that is a very rude thing to do Severus. If you try it again I shall be forced to teach you some manners.' Snape's already sallow skin paled even further and Harry let a small smile cross his face. A nervous looking man in a turban caught Harry's eye next, something about the man set Harry on edge, and deciding to take a chance Harry launched a subtle mental attack against the man. Harry soon realized that subtlety had been unnecessary as the man was weak minded and had no training in occlumency. The mans name was Quirenus Quirrel, he had been sent to Hogwarts on orders from Voldemort's shade to get the Philosopher's Stone, and he had brought the shade with him.

'We will need to step up some of our plans, especially those concerning the horcrux here at Hogwarts.' 'You still intend to follow your plan.' 'I have not seen anything yet to convince me I should not at least attempt it.' 'So *she* will not interfere with the plan.' 'If she is willing I will bring her into the plan, but I will only wait until June to give her a choice.' 'One school year is not a very long time to introduce someone to the Dark Arts.' 'Yes but if I wait to long then circumstances may change unfavorably. If she can be brought around she will be a valuable asset, I will simply need to be charming and persuasive. But first I must complete her training in occlumency.'

Continuing along the staff table he finally came to Albus Dumbledore. As he looked at the headmaster Harry would have sworn that if they weren't a metaphor he would have been able to hear the gears grinding away inside the old man's head. Dumbledore clearly hadn't expected Harry to go into Ravenclaw, he had probably thought Harry would be in Gryfindor like his parents. Whatever the cause of Dumbledore's contemplations, Harry was quite certain they were not going to be helpful to him in the slightest. As Harry was finishing his sweep of the hall the sorting continued without any surprises, Ron Weasley joined the rest of the ginger brood at the Gryfindor table, and Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, Parkinson, and Bulstrode, all children of Death Eaters, were sorted into Slytherin. After the sorting Dumbledore gave a short speech, which only reinforced Harry's belief that the old man was no longer in complete control of all his mental faculties, and then the feast began. Harry and Hermione began a discussion with Penelope Clearwater, the fifth year girl prefect, about classes and professors. Harry was more interested in what she thought of the professors while Hermione wanted to know about what they would be learning in the different classes. Penelope was a wonderful source of information, she had no trouble expressing her opinions about teachers, most of whom were apparently excellent with the exceptions of Snape, who taught Potions, and Binns, a ghost who taught History of Magic. She also said that if either of them were thinking about taking Muggle Studies that they should forget about it as the curriculum was at least a century out of date. It turned out that Penelope was a muggleborn witch just like Hermione and this started them on a discussion about whether muggleborns were at a disadvantage in classes. The conclusion from the older students was that any disadvantage quickly disappeared and performance really came down to work ethic and effort after the first month.

After the feast was over Dumbledore made a few more announcements about school rules and informed everyone that the third floor corridor was out of bounds, this last announcement caused more than a few raised eyebrows, not least from Harry and Hermione. 'Probably where the Philosopher's Stone is hidden.' Eventually they were dismissed for the evening and the Ravenclaw prefects led the new Ravenclaws to Ravenclaw Tower. On the way up to the tower Scruffy fell into step between Harry and Hermione. When they arrived at the entrance to the tower one of the Prefects gave the password "Eternity" and led them inside.

Penelope stepped in front of the first years and said "Welcome to Ravenclaw, this is the common room" she gestured to the room they were currently standing in, which contained a large number of blue chairs and couches "Upstairs is the Ravenclaw Library, while it does not have the same selection as the main library it does have copies of some of the more commonly asked for books which are reserved for Ravenclaws only. Downstairs are the dormitories, the girls are down that stairway on the left and the boys are down the staircase on the right. Each of you have been assigned an individual room so just look for the door with your name on it."

Harry gave Hermione a hug goodnight before he made his way down the boys staircase to find his room. Harry was glad to find out that his room was only two doors down from the stairs on the side of the hallway that faced out over the grounds. His room had a double bed with blue bedding a desk with its own bookshelf and chair, and a wardrobe. Harry found his trunk at the foot of his bed and began to unpack, he put all his books on the shelf above his desk and put his robes in the wardrobe. Last he pulled a wooden box and a thin black hooded sweatshirt out of his trunk and placed them on his bed. Harry took off this robe and trench coat before putting on the sweatshirt and putting the coat back on over it. The sweatshirt was a piece that he had made himself, it was enchanted so that when he put on the hood he would be hidden by a disillusionment charm and a notice-me-not charm. Picking up the wooden box and slipping it into one of the magically expanded pockets of his trench coat he pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt before exiting his room quietly and making his way back out of Ravenclaw Tower. He then made his way to an abandoned hallway on the seventh floor where he paced in front of a bare stretch of wall three times before a door appeared out of nowhere. Harry entered the door and found himself in a room full of pile after mountainous pile of junk. Harry followed an unmarked path through the piles until he found what he was looking for.

'You know Tom, your arrogance never ceases to amaze me.' 'What are you on about this time?' 'You chose to hide a piece of your soul here without any defenses.' 'This place is well hidden no one can find it.' 'Riiiight, so where did all of this shit come from? Clearly you are not the first person to find the Room of Requirements and you definitely weren't the last. I mean how the hell did you come to the conclusion that you were the only one who had found this room when you hid your horcrux in a room full of a thousand years worth of students secrets that they hid here?"

Leaving Tom to his sulking Harry placed the wooden box on the ground and opened it. He pulled out his ash wand and levitated a small silver tiara into the box. The moment Harry began to levitate the tiara he heard a whispering voice urging him to put the tiara on, ignoring the voice Harry closed the lid of the box and the whispering immediately stopped. The box had been designed to contain horcruxes, the outside was covered in binding runes and the inside was lined with lead plates to block any magic that originated inside the box. Taking the box with him Harry made his way back to his room where he hid the box in his trunk and went to bed.

The next morning Harry woke up and went up to the common room to find Hermione waiting for him. "Good morning Harry, how did you sleep?"

"Morning Hermione, I slept fine. Want to head down to breakfast?" Harry asked cheerily. Hermione nodded and they made their way down to the Great Hall in a companionable silence. When they got there Professor Flitwick handed them their class schedules. Harry glanced at his schedule and saw that the first class o the day was Potions. "Well I guess we'll get to see just how bad Snape is today." Harry said to Hermione pointing out their Potions lesson on their schedules. After a quick breakfast Harry led Hermione down to the dungeons where they had Potions lessons.

When they had taken their seats near the back of the classroom the rest of the Ravenclaws started making their way into the room. Shortly after everyone had taken a seat Snape came swooping into the room with his cloak billowing like the wings of a great bat. Snape immediately called roll and though he sneered when he read Harry's name he didn't comment on it. After a short speech about the art of potion making he set them to making a simple boil curing potion while he walked around snapping insults at anyone who made a mistake. Harry brewed his potion perfectly all the while staring defiantly at Snape, daring the man to make a remark about Harry's potion. Every time Snape passed Harry and Hermione's table he looked angry that he couldn't find anything to belittle them about and soon he just stopped looking at their patients. At the end of the lesson Harry and Hermione each placed a sample of their perfectly brewed potion on Snape's desk.

After Potions they had Charms and then Transfiguration. Charms was interesting and even though they didn't get started on anything in the class Flitwick's excitement about the class was infectious and everyone was looking forward to actually learning some magic. Transfiguration started off with a lecture from McGonagall about safety and proper behavior in class before she passed out matchsticks that they were to transfigure into needles. Harry was able to complete the transfiguration easily and after a couple of pointers Hermione completed it as well.

After Dinner that evening Hermione joined Harry in his room, boys weren't allowed in the girls' rooms and the common room was to noisy for what they were doing. Hermione was focusing on organizing her memories again and had insisted that Harry be there to stop her if she was going to long. About fifteen minutes after she had started she came out of her meditation.

"Harry I think I've got all my memories sorted. What's next?" Hermione said drawing Harry's attention from the book he had been reading.

"Well next you decide where you want to put your library. It needs to be somewhere the library wouldn't stick out, otherwise if someone came across it they would know that they had found your memories. The place also has to be big enough to hide other places where you could keep your memories and it would be best if it was easily defended." Harry explained.

"Could you give me an example?" Hermione asked after a few moments.

"I guess I could show you my mindscape so you get an idea." Harry sat down on the bed with his legs crossed and looked at Hermione "Alright look straight into my eyes." The moment she complied with his instructions he sent a mental probe forward and suddenly he was standing in a grand library. The library was at least three stories tall and every shelf was full of books, more books than Harry could ever imagine reading. And there standing behind the librarians desk was Hermione, well it wasn't exactly Hermione, this Hermione was a little taller, her hair was curly rather than bushy, and when she smiled upon seeing Harry her teeth were perfect and straight instead of having front teeth that were to large for her. This was a mental projection of Hermione, not as she was but as she saw herself. "Do all these books contain memories?" Harry asked taken aback at the sheer size of the library.

"No, I built the library a little to big and I had to put in a lot of empty books to fill all of the shelves, most of these books are empty." Hermione said blushing a little at the thought of her overestimation of her memories.

Harry shrugged at this "That isn't necessarily a bad thing, if someone found their way in here it would take them longer to find what they were looking for. Here take my hand and I'll show you my mindscape." Hermione stepped out from behind the desk and took Harry's hand. With a slight concentration on his own mind there was a rushing sensation and soon they were standing in front of a hedge maze. Without letting go of Hermione's hand Harry started off into the hedge maze and following a carefully memorized route he led her through the maze.

"How do you find your way through the maze so easily?" Hermione asked after they made it out the other side.

"The route is a password in Morse Code dots are left dashes are right." Harry answered honestly.

"What's the password?"

"I can't go giving you all of my secrets can I? From here on out don't touch anything, there are some pretty nasty things hidden here and I wouldn't want them to get hold of you." Harry said as he walked forward, after a short walk they came upon a huge manor house.

"That's where you hid your memories? It's gigantic." Hermione said awestruck.

"Yeah I guess it is, inside there are one hundred and seven rooms, inside one room is a secret doorway that leads to an underground passage that leads to my office, but one of the rooms is a library and it is well guarded and locked tight so anyone coming in would spend all their time focusing on the library and never even find the office. You get the idea of what you need now?" Hermione just nodded unable to think of anything to say as she considered the sheer scale of the house.

The next two weeks were pretty boring, Harry had no trouble keeping up in classes and Hermione was always a close second in performance. Every night Harry and Hermione would work on occlumency in Harry's room. Hermione had decided to build a castle in her mind and every night she would show what she had completed to Harry. Harry had never been happier in his life, the more time he spent with Hermione the more time he wanted to spend with her, he could finally say he had a friend and he never wanted to lose that, to lose her. At the end of the second week Harry woke up from a strange dream that he could only vaguely remember, he knew it had something to do with Hermione, but he didn't know what. Deciding that he needed to clear his head Harry decided to go to the common room, when he got there he sat on a chair by the fire place and just sat and thought for a while. A few minutes after Harry sat down there was a creaking from the girls' stairs and Harry looked over to see Hermione coming up into the common room.

"Hey Harry, what are you doing up?" Hermione asked, barely stifling a yawn.

"Couldn't sleep, weird dreams. You?"

"The same." Hermione admitted taking a seat in the chair next to Harry. After a couple of minutes Hermione spoke again "Harry, have you ever had an idea pop into your head and... you have no idea where it came from, but the more you think about it the more sense it makes."

"Not that I can think of, Why?" Harry said after a moment to think.

"Because I have an idea that I can't get out of my head, it keeps telling me to do something, and the more I think about the more I want to go along with it." Hermione said standing up and moving in front of Harry.

"What is it telling you to do?" Harry asked a little concerned.

"This." Hermione said before leaning in and kissing Harry. The moment their lips touched Harry and Hermione felt like they were standing to close to high voltage wires as a buzz of power passed through them which made their hair stand on end. In the dim light of the common room they couldn't help but notice the golden threads of light that wrapped their way around them. As the kiss broke Harry put his arms around Hermione and pulled her down onto his lap not wanting to lose the contact with her.

As they sat there to stunned to do anything the entrance to the common room opened and Professor Flitwick entered the room. When he spotted them sitting there he walked over and spoke to them in a calm voice that was a little strange coming from the normally exuberant professor. "Mr. Potter Miss Granger please follow me." They stood up not letting go of each other as the diminutive professor led them to a large portrait that stood opposite the fireplace. The professor touched his hand to the side of the portrait and it swung open like a door and they were ushered inside. Inside the room was a smaller version of the common room built for two people and across from where they had entered was another door, Flitwick opened this door and gestured for them to go inside "It is late and you had better get some sleep, we will need to speak tomorrow so come to my office after breakfast." Inside the room was a king side bed and without thinking Harry and Hermione climbed into the bed and promptly fell asleep.

While Harry slept he had the strangest dreams he was watching as a small girl was picked on by other children. As he watched he realized that the little girl was Hermione and the more he watched the more he wished that he could stop the other children from tormenting her. Then he watched her go home to a house she shared with strangers. It wasn't that her parents were bad people, or even bad parents, they were just busy, and as Hermione got older and she started having more magical outbursts they couldn't understand her. By the time Hermione's Hogwarts letter had arrived they would go weeks without speaking to each other. Hermione was alone so much of the time that all she could do to keep away the loneliness was bury herself in books, to try to run away from the truth and hide in the world of the printed word. And then the dream shifted and Harry saw Hermione walking alone through King's Cross station, her parents had dropped her off but hadn't walked her into the station. Then she was on the Hogwarts Express looking for a place to sit and then he saw her find his compartment and he could feel her emotions as they began to talk about a whole range of meaningless topics, and after watching her grow up alone he realized just how much his acceptance of Hermione had meant to her, and he swore to himself that he would never abandon her.

The next morning Harry woke up to find Hermione snuggled up to him and he had his arms wrapped around her protectively. Moments after Harry had awoken Hermione woke up as well, while neither of them knew why they had fallen asleep in the same they both knew it felt right. As they sat up they saw that Scruffy had curled himself up at their and was watching them with a goofy grin that only a dog could pull off. Having simply fallen asleep as soon as they entered the room the night before they took the opportunity to look around the room, it looked like a larger version of the other Ravenclaw dormitories, it had two desks sitting next to each other and against the opposite wall were two wardrobes. What was strange though was that the desk on the left was exactly how he had left his own desk the books on the shelf above it were even in the exact same order as they had been in his room. Without a word they both got out of the bed and got dressed in uniforms from the wardrobes, and Harry was further surprised to find his trench coat hanging up in one of the wardrobes. They then walked out of the bedroom into the first room and back into the Ravenclaw common room before heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast, neither one of them noticing that they were holding hands the entire way there. After getting some breakfast they headed up to Professor Flitwick's office, when they knocked on the door his squeaky voice called them in.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, I needed to speak to you this morning about the events of last night." Flitwick began, when he saw the look of concern on Hermione's face he quickly continued "You are not in trouble Miss Granger, but because of what happened last night some changes will need to be made in your arrangements here at Hogwarts."

"Professor, what did happen last night?" Hermione asked timidly, not sure if she would sound foolish for not understanding what had happened.

"Last night you and Mr. Potter formed a soul-bond." Flitwick explained looking at both of the students "I assume that neither of you is aware of what a soul-bond is."

Hermione shook her head, but Harry answered "I've seen them referenced in a couple of books, but they didn't say much about them."

"Well a soul-bond is a deep and permanent connection that forms between two people whose magical cores are as close to perfectly compatible as possible. This bond literally binds the two individuals souls together, as such it is considered to be the equivalent of a legal marriage." Flitwick let his words sink in for a few moments.

"How did this happen though?" Hermione asked

"Well, the bond was formed when you two kissed last night, now while you two were always highly compatible, magically speaking, the bond could not form until you both had subconsciously accepted the other and had developed a base of trust and companionship upon which the bond could form. In fact unless I am very much mistaken I would think that the two of you were pushed by your magic into finally kissing last night, you see your magic recognized in each other the beginning of that bond and knew that you would both accept the result of that bond or the bond would not have formed last night, it would have waited until you both were ready, do you understand?" Harry and Hermione both nodded, so Flitwick continued "Now, while soul-bonds are uncommon they happen often enough that there are already procedures that the school will because of the bond, you two are in fact the eighth couple I have seen become soul-bonded in my time as head of Ravenclaw. Certain changes will need to be made, first of all you will now be sharing the Ravenclaw marriage quarters, which is the rooms I put you in last night, and you will need to set a password for the entrance. Secondly over the next few hours the bond will continue to strengthen and by the end of the day it will have increased to the point where the two of you will be able to communicate telepathically as the bond connects your minds, as such your school work will now be done collaboratively as you would end up handing in work that would be a subconscious collaboration anyways and your exams will be taken together. Now one other effect of the bond is that both of you will experience a slight increase in your magical power."

"How slight?" Harry asked, wondering just how much more power he would have at his disposal.

"Well, are you both familiar with the Emrys Scale?" Harry and Hermione both nodded "Good, when you completed the first charms you learned in my class your results were evaluated and recorded in your medical files in case there was a need to see if any injury had an effect on your magical core, now you Mr. Potter scored an impressive 73 on the Emrys Scale and Miss Granger scored a 65, both of you were well above the expected first year average of 50, now though your cores have strengthened each other and you will both have increased your scores. What little research has been done suggests that the end result of the increase will put both of you at a level equal to Mr. Potter's higher score plus ten percent of Miss Granger's lower score, so a 79 or 80. Most likely you will both reach the adult average of 100 sometime in your third year and will likely be two of the strongest magic users of your generation. Now do either of you have any other questions?"

"You said that a soul-bond was equivalent to a legal marriage, so does that mean we are married, or that we aren't." Hermione asked

"Legally you are married with only one minor exception, unless Harry were to marry someone else you would be considered his wife in all instances. As such your legal name is now actually Hermione Potter." Flitwick explained.

"Wait Harry could marry someone else, how is that right?" Hermione was more than a little irked at the thought of her Harry marrying another girl.

"Most of the old families didn't like the idea of a soul-bond getting in the way of political marriages. So the way the laws are written until a legal marriage is completed the witch is officially the wizard's 'consort' not his wife, and as such the wizard could still be forced into a political marriage." Harry explained recalling the section he had read in an old book on magical law. "Once an actual marriage occurs the exception goes away. Now if I remember correctly the earliest you can get married in the magical world is at fourteen, so if your not busy on July 31, 1994 we could get married 'officially' then."

"Do you really mean that Harry?" Hermione asked with tears forming in her eyes.

"Of course I mean it Hermione, you are the best thing that ever happened to me, and I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with you." Harry told her pulling her into a hug.

Flitwick had to take a moment to compose himself before he spoke "Now I am sure you two will need some time to talk in private, however I should mention that it is not uncommon for soul-bonded couples to dream each others memories for the first few nights, so it would be a good idea for you two to share any secrets you may not have shared already as they won't remain secret for long."

Twenty minutes later Harry and Hermione were laying down on their new bed when Hermione finally asked the question that had been bugging her since she had realized that the dreams she had had the night before had actually been Harry's memories "Harry, that day when you were nine and you had ended up on the roof, what... what happened to you? One minute you looked like you were going to die, and then suddenly when you wake up the next morning you suddenly go off and get a wand and then you went home and you... you..." She couldn't get the words out.

"That night, my uncle nearly killed me, I actually would have died if it weren't for one little side effect of my defeat of Voldemort. You see Voldemort had put a lot of effort into becoming immortal, and one of the things he did was rip his soul to pieces and leave pieces of his soul in objects called horcruxes. When he died his soul was so fragile that a piece broke off and turned me into a horcrux. That night the horcrux activated in order to prevent its own destruction, saving my life in the process. When it activated the piece of Voldemort's soul became part of my soul, so I gained all of Voldemort's knowledge and an annoying voice in my head that wants me to take over the world in the most genocidal way possible. I call him Tom because it pisses him off."

"So what, now you are going to take up where he left off?"

"No, I have no intention of following in his footsteps, but I have realized that I have to do something with all that knowledge. Those horcruxes prevent him from dieing, so he will eventually come back. Before he does I intend to weaken his support structure and destroy most, if not all of his horcruxes. And then I will do what I have to to make sure that Britain stops being a breeding ground for dark lords and blood supremacists."

"And how are you going to do that? Just murder and torture everyone who gets in your way?" Hermione was almost on the verge of tears.

"Not everyone, no. Hermione you have to understand something, when Voldemort was in power he had an inner circle of eighteen three died in battle, and four were sent to prison for torturing two well respected purebloods into insanity, the other eleven are all free because despite being arrested they bought off politicians and there was no public outcry because the only known victims were muggles and muggleborns. Those eleven are unrepentant killers all, and as long as they are allowed to walk free the world will not be able to move on from Voldemort's reign of terror. All but one or two will return to him without hesitation and they must not be allowed to do that."

"So you're going to use the dark arts to kill them? Harry the dark arts are evil."

"No they aren't, the dark arts are dangerous, absolutely, but they are not evil. The dark arts draw their power from anger, from fear, and from all the other negative emotions that make up the darker side of the human experience, and just as those emotions are not evil neither are the dark arts."

"But what about the unforgivable curses..."

"They aren't dark, they're black, there is a massive difference between dark magic and black magic. Dark magic is negative and destructive, but black magic is pure evil. Tom thinks I'm a fool for refusing to use black magic but there is a line even I won't cross. So yes I will use the dark arts, but only on those who have earned the punishment they will receive."

"Harry violence doesn't solve anything." Hermione said finally running out of arguments but unwilling to admit that Harry really was right.

"Hermione, you are a brilliant girl, you have your own thoughts, it's part of what I love about you, so please don't insult your own intelligence by parroting the idiocy of idealists. History is rife with examples of violence solving problems from the Carthaginians to the Communists there have been thousands of people who have refused to let others live in peace and the only way to stop the is to strike back with everything you have. I didn't start this war, but if I hold back it will never end, any victory will merely be a respite before someone else comes along and starts a new war. In the last nine generations every dark lord to rise in Europe has had the financial backing of a Malfoy, they've had Crabbes, Goyles, Averys, Notts, and Lestranges on their front lines and that won't change as long as those families continue to exist."

"Alright Harry, but if your going to do this... I want to help you. I want you to teach me everything you know and I want to be at your side through all of it." Hermione finally said with a determined look in her eyes.

"Very well, your training will begin immediately, but I have to warn you, once we get started there is no turning back."

A/N: There we have the soul-bonding of Harry and Hermione, I hope you enjoyed. Next chapter Harry shows Hermione how they are getting rid of the horcruxes, hopefully you all like the way I came up with to do it.