January strangely passed without anything notable happening, but February would be anything but.

Harry was sitting in the library, thinking about Hermione, sort of. A few weeks ago Alba pulled Harry aside and spoke with him…

-FlashBack-

Harry was walking towards the Great Hall for breakfast, it had only been two days since they returned from the holidays and Hermione had taken ill so he was walking but himself when he heard his name, "Harry!" turning to the voice, he smiled for it was Alba. "Harry, I'm glad I found you, I wanted to talk with you."

Harry raised his eyebrow, "What do you need Alba?"

Alba looked around, "You remember when I told you and Miss Granger about the houses here, right?" at Harry's nod, he continued, "The reason for that, do you remember what I told you?"

Harry nodded, "You have some seer capabilities, though they mostly focus on one's intentions and personalities. One side effect is that you can see deep subconscious memories, often your own."

Alba nodded his head, "And I know that it may seem odd to mention, but trust me on this, how do you feel about Miss Granger?"

Harry's face fell, "In all honesty, I've not a bloody clue, though that might be down to how I was raised."

A flash of anger crossed Alba's face for a moment, Harry had trusted him with the secret of his childhood, "If your 'Aunt' and 'Uncle' weren't already in Azkaban, I'd make them regret their decisions," he muttered, before smirking, "I can't tell you what you feel, but might I recommend that you take up some light reading on a couple of subjects, tell Madam Pince that a friend recommends 'The Princess Bride' and other titles of similar genres."

-End FlashBack-

Harry had done just that, with many years of hindsight, his first clue to his intentions should have been when Madam Pince smirked at his request. On second thought, maybe his first clue should have been the title of the book that Alba suggested, but Harry was a clueless boy and he still didn't know what Alba was on about. "Harry!" Well, speak of the devil.

Alba came up to him, considering the timing, it would be cutting it fine, but Harry wouldn't know that yet, "Harry, have ye figured it out yet?"

Harry shook his head, "No, remember what my experience is and remember that it will take me time to figure it out."

Alba smirked, "Well, in any case, next Wednesday is Valentine's Day, a day dreaded by men for millennia and looked forward to by the fair women of the world. I'm heading into Hogsmeade to pick up things for those second and first years whom can't get things for their partners, is there something you would like me to pick up for Miss Granger?" he asked cheekily.

Harry turned beet red, "I wouldn't know what if I would say yes."

Alba shrugged, "That, I can take care of; now, what do you say?"

Harry thought for a moment, "Sure, could you make sure she knows that it's from me though? I don't I would have the courage to give it personally."

Alba chuckled, "All right, I mean the Hat did place you in Slytherin, not Gryffindor. Catch you later."

Alba proved to have the most impressive timing ever for, as soon as he left, Hermione entered the Library and Harry lost track of time soon thereafter. They could talk about anything and nothing and still enjoy themselves and the time would just fly.

February 14 came and many owls flooded the Great Hall during breakfast. Hermione looked at the flood with wistful longing in her eyes. She knew that it was unlikely she would get anything and so turned back to her eggs and toast. Harry though had the unenviable joy of receiving seemingly all the valentines in Britain, but he had Professor Snape send them to the common room, it was embarrassing after all. All of a sudden, the entire hall went silent and Hermione looked up, there, amongst the hoards of owls, was Hedwig, in one claw, a card and in the other, a bouquet on the brightest red roses anyone had ever seen. No one on the staff table was at all surprised to see the beautiful owl make a dive for Hermione's spot. Hermione opened the card and, much to the amusement of the older Slytherins, whilst she read it, Harry was sweating like a madman. He needn't have worried though, for as soon as she finished the card, she embraced Harry for all he was worth.

At the staff table, Professor McGonagall was muttering under her breath, "Come on say the words one of you."

Professor Flitwick looked at his colleague, "Minerva, calm down!" he quietly threatened.

Severus glared at them, "Just because you have money on them getting together today, doesn't mean you can interfere, after all, you don't see me trying to delay them."

Meanwhile, Harry was trying to breathe but it wasn't until Alba said something that Hermione loosened her hold on the boy, though she didn't completely let go. But the bell rang, signalling that everyone was to start heading to class. Then Harry leaned into her ear, "Happy Valentine's Day Hermione."

"Thank you, Harry," she whispered back.

Most of the day passed uneventfully, granted, there were many hostile glares that were sent towards Hermione, but they went largely ignored. Late in the day, Harry was sitting in the Great Hall, studying with Professor Flitwick when he felt cold all of a sudden. Professor Flitwick noticed his change and asked him what was wrong, "I don't know sir, it's like I'm in danger or something."

Just as he was about to continue, Neville Longbottom ran into the Hall, "Harry! I overheard some of the older students yelling at Hermione, apparently, they don't like the affection you've given her and wish to make it so that way 'you'll see sense and leave the mudblood' according to them."

Harry grew red with rage, "Where's Hermione?" he growled.

Neville shrugged, "Last I saw her, she was on the second floor, but who knows now, it took a few minutes to find you."

"We might be able to help!" a pair of voices said from behind Harry.

Turning to face them, Harry saw the red-headed twins, Fred and George Weasley. "How?" was all he could get out as his fear was climbing at a rapid rate.

The leftmost twin pulled out a piece of parchment and pointed his wand at it, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." and a map of the grounds formed.

Professor Flitwick ignored the fact that a map that showed everyone's position on it was in the hands of the two pranksters of Hogwarts for a moment as he scanned for her name. "There! The closest classroom to the Library." he couldn't get any more out as Harry took off faster than any broom. Looking at the assembled students her gestured towards Harry, "Well, follow him, I must find the Headmistress at once."

Harry reached the classroom Hermione was in and slowly opened the door, but all pretence of caution flew out the window as he saw her curled up in a corner of the room crying. "Hermione," he said, hoping to get some reaction out of her, but he didn't. He stepped up to her and put his arms around her and did his best at soothing her. It seemed to work though as she, through her tears, told him what they had told her. That she was not worthy of being in anyone's presence much less the hero of the Wizarding World's, that she was ugly and that soon he would leave her for "A proper Pureblood" woman, etc. To say that Harry was angry would be like saying that there was breathable air on Earth, a rather large understatement. "Hermione, I now see what Alba told me a few weeks ago, I thought that reading the books he mentioned would make me understand but I now see that they're wrong, oh so very wrong. You're the most beautiful girl that I've had the pleasure of meeting, I could never, nor would I ever want to, date anyone other than you. You who've known the true me, not some story told to children. I guess that I'm saying that if you would have me, would you be my girlfriend?"

Hermione shot into his arms, "Yes I most definitely would!" she said before landing her lips on his and drawing him into their first kiss. But, before they could say anything, they blacked out.

Several hours later, Harry and Hermione woke up in the Hospital wing, confused and quite overjoyed. "Good lord, she's a good kisser! Especially if we had to end up here!" Harry thought.

"Why thank you, Harry, you're not half bad yourself," Hermione said from the other bed.

Harry paused, "Hermione? I didn't say anything."

Hermione was very puzzled, "I swore I heard you say that I was a good kisser?"

"I think we can answer that!" they heard.

They turned and saw Professors McGonagall, Snape and Flitwick as well as the Sorting Hat and Madam Pomfrey. The Sorting Hat looked quite chuffed for a hat, "What? did you think that between every Professor at Hogwarts we wouldn't have an answer?"

Before Harry could answer that, Professor Snape spoke up, "It turns out that a lot has happened since your first kiss…"

-FlashBack-

While Harry and Hermione were sharing their first kiss, Neville and the Weasley Twins were shocked to see them glowing, but before anyone could say anything, Harry and Hermione passed out. They had the worst timing it turned out "Does anyone else smell that?" Fred asked.

A loud crash was heard and part of the wall fell out. After the dust settled, a troll was seen entering the room. "Fred? George? Ideas?" Neville asked.

The twins looked at each other, "Grab them and run!" was the consensus they came to.

It worked, for a second, but the troll was blocking their exit. Seeing this, the twins started casting their most powerful stunners but the troll just shrugged them off. Neville, seeing no other alternative, used the distractions that came from their actions and clambered up the troll's body and stuck his wand up the troll's nose and shot his own stunner, it did had the intended effect and the troll did fall unconscious, but he did just that, fall.

Thankfully Neville jumped clear and Professors McGonagall and Flitwick came and saw the aftermath. Upon hearing what the two Slytherins did, they brought them to the medical wing where they slept for two hours.

-End FlashBack-

"... in the end we awarded quite a lot of house points to them, something I never thought I would say about the Weasley twins, and, after they were checked over by Poppy, sent them back to their dorms." He finished.

Minerva looked at them, "I know you're wondering what that was that knocked you out. That was the third stage of something called a 'Soul-Bond', I believe that the Muggles call it a 'match made in heaven' but Magic can actually detect that and it becomes a legal marriage in many years, hopefully at least." she said before smiling.

Snape sighed, "We're never going to hear the end of this are we?" to which Minerva's grin just widened, "I thought not," he muttered before turning to the children, "There was a betting pool to see when you two would start dating, the Headmistress here won the bet and now we are never going to hear the end of it." he chuckled.

Minerva smirked, "Just because you're five Galleons lighter and I've become several hundred Galleons heavier doesn't mean you get to mope."

That got Harry's attention, "How many people entered?" he asked, quite shocked.

Snape thought for a moment, "All of Slytherin, most of the staff, a couple Ravenclaws, and about half of the Hufflepuffs, mostly the men or younger years."

Then the Sorting Hat spoke up, "In the history of magic, there have only ever been three Soul-Bonds; the first being King Arthur and his Queen Guinevere, whilst the second and third being the founders of Hogwarts, Godric with Rowena, and Salazar with Helga." he paused for a moment, "There are five stages to a Soul-Bond; the first where you haven't yet met your Soulmate, the second where you have met your Soulmate and made an everlasting promise to them, I sense that this took place on the train to King's Cross, the third, where you are now after your first kiss, the fourth where you get slightly… er more intimate, and the final when you will be recognised as a married couple in the eyes of magic with your finality." as he had been saying this the professor grew redder by the second and once they had heard the full story, Harry and Hermione were outdoing their professors. Thankfully the hat spoke quickly, "Typically, finality is reached at a mature age, but we have no concrete evidence so all I can say is to use your brains and not your nether regions to think."

"Fergus!" McGonagall shouted, "If you say anything to that effect again you will only leave the office for the sorting!"

Properly chastised, Fergus continued, "With your bond, you'll gain some new abilities, this all started when Harry sensed that Hermione was in danger, that came with the second stage, your telepathic abilities with each other will start now, and in the fourth stage you'll be able to share magical power. Nothing comes of the final stage as it was seen that marriage was a great enough gift."

Harry's face was pensive for a time, then he said, "Considering the circumstances I am in, does anyone have any advice as to how I should break the news to my parents-in-law?"

The men just smiled and said "Good Luck!" before taking off. McGonagall at least stayed to help him, "Since it seems they loved you from the start, I'd say that you should just be yourself."

With that in mind, both Harry and Hermione shut their eyes and slept, only waking the next morning.

Chapter Three is in the bag, yes, I know that they are proceeding rather fast for that age and that it seems as though I will stop at the end of the Sorcerers stone, but I promise that I will complete all seven years.

In regards to reviews: god of all, ObsessedWithHPFanFic, alba, Cheryl, and WriternotAuthor, thank you all for your kind words in regards to my story as it was really needed to push this chapter out. pschlegs62, we shall see, I haven't decided about what to do with the 'would have been Slytherins' yet but there will be answers. jkarr, I would have thought that the Grangers would have taken him in if they had known so there it is. leonix2009, in general, it seemed that Harry's life in the canon was 'his life is shit and there is nothing we can do' so he desperately needed a break. aidansidhe, thank you, I'll get that fixed in a bit. SLYNNR, we'll have to see how the other houses respond. Katzztar and anyone who is confused about that thing, that was my bad, I should have written the explanation much earlier than this, but that said, I how that this chapter answers your questions.

With that out of the way, I would like to clarify something; one reviewer remarked that they wished me luck with my story, but that they wouldn't read anymore since Harry and Hermione are in Slytherin; it is their choice and all I will say is that it is a shame but I don't expect this story to be everyone's cup of tea. However, another reviewer chose to take issue with my story with the writing style while not offering any tips on how I could improve it then they spent many words bashing why Harry would not have gone along with many of the events of the first chapter based on his own experiences, to this I say "IT'S A WORK OF FICTION! WRITTEN BY A FAN!" with that out of my system, if you have criticisms on my story, at least make sure you offer possible fixes for it rather then a block of text that boils down to 'your wrong!'

6500 views and 38 reviews! Thank you all, this support means the world to me as does the 239 followers and 127 favourites and the 3 communities that have added this story to their notice. All of this in three weeks, thank you.