AN: Sorry guys but as I said before I can't escape the real world L

Chapter 12

Before anyone realised how much time had flown by the first year of Hogwarts was on its final day, the great hall had been decorated in reds and gold clearly showing that Gryffindor had won the house cup. Thankfully Harry and Hermione had been careful not to be as careless in the loss of house points as they were during their first time round. Gryffindor came in first with a total of 652 points smashing Slytherin who came in second with 452.

Harry hadn't been very hungry during the feast, Hermione had noticed that he looked rather bleak so casting a privacy charm discreetly she enquired as to why.

"What's wrong Harry?" She asked, Harry tried to shrug her off saying it was nothing but he knew he would lose.

"What if I get it wrong again?" He whispered not able to look Hermione in the eye properly.

"What do you mean?"

"This year played in our favour but next year is when things get twice as dangerous Hermione what if I don't think of everything and you end up petrified again or worse dead? What if I get it wrong?" he whispered. Hermione couldn't help but start laughing, Harry looked up at her and was about to leave in anger until she grasped his hand.

"Harry you still don't get it does you; it's not just you anymore, it's us. Not just me and you but your mum and dad and mine you don't have to face this by yourself and besides its like Meredith said to us, time has been changed we don't know what is going to happen remember we destroyed part of Voldemort this year so we know that Lucius won't be instructed to give the diary to Ginny. Besides we know how to stop the basilisk we know that a crow from a rooster is fatal to them. But above all else Harry you need to stop living under the impression that you have to do all this by yourself. Remember we are two halves of a whole"

Harry smiled he finally understood now, he wasn't the victim of his past like h always believed, he was the architect to his own future, something which if done properly would become something truly incredible.

The rest of the feast had very little drama, Dumbledore tried to make another bee line to get Harry to go to the Dursley's but James wouldn't let him get anywhere close to Harry. Unlike everyone else Harry and Hermione weren't taking the train home, James was going to apparated them to Potter manor from Hogsmeade.

Upon arrival to the Potter manor atrium Harry and Hermione found them immersed in hugs all round. Emma and Dan grasped their daughter before she had fully adjusted to the horrible way of transport that is apparition. Whereas Lily had waited an entire half a second before grasping her son in a bone crushing hug that would rival Hermione's any day of the week.

After a few emotional minutes Harry and Hermione were released after receiving hugs from everyone. The welcome home party had been moved into one of the living rooms.

"So how was your year?" Emma asked unaware of the changes that Hermione had been through.

"Oh you know nothing special" Hermione answered as casually as possible, Emma and Dan raised their eyebrows.

"You think going to a school that teaches magic is nothing special?" Dan asked; Hermione mentally slapped herself for making such a rookie mistake.

"Ok mum and dad you better sit down this is going to come as even more of a shock than when you found out I was a witch." Hermione said as she prepared to tell all after receiving nods from all three Potters.

Everyone took a seat and after composing themselves Harry began the tale.

"There is something which we haven't told you yet. I and Hermione are living this life for a second time. Turns out that the angel of death whose name for some reason is Meredith has sent me back because I had died many times before and well if it isn't your time to die and you do die they aren't very happy about it. So I was sent back to my first year and was given a great gift, my parents were saved. In my last life my parents were killed by a dark wizard Lord Voldemort and I was sent to live with my Aunt and Uncle who hated me and everything to do with magic"

Harry paused to compose himself and Hermione picked up the tale.

"Right and Meredith made a deal with me she told me that if Harry and I would fall in love naturally then I would be sent back into my younger self to live the life with Harry that I was always destined to have with him. That's why they found us all those years ago because Dudley who was bullying me in the last life was Harry's tormentor. We came back to stop all the meaningless death that occurred through the manipulations and cover ups of Albus Dumbledore who believes that our lives are nothing more than chess pieces. What neither of us realised is that Hermione and I are what is known as soul bounded, like a perfect match for each other and the deal with Meredith is that the powers that come with that soul bond are increased dependant on how many pieces of soul we destroy of Voldemort's"

Harry took over.

"I should explain Voldemort was obsessed with living forever he believed that immortality was deserved by himself so he split his soul into seven pieces and created what are known as Horcruxes, and before you ask the only way to split your soul is to commit a crime of nature. Murder, so far we have destroyed two pieces of his soul, one was taken by Meredith before I was sent back and the other we destroyed in a confrontation with him this year. If we can destroy the rest of them as quickly as possible then we get our lives back and we can leave Britain and never have to worry about Dumbledore trying to stick his nose in again"

Harry and Hermione finished their tale with slight hesitation over the coming replies from Dan and Emma, both were silent and none moving for a few minutes, everyone in the room waited patiently for the reply.

"So what happened to the other Hermione?" Dan asked

"She is me, all that happened is that I was given the memories of my other life and well it sort of fused my two lives into one, but I'm still me Daddy, I'm still the same Hermione, I just have memories from two different lives" Hermione explained

"Why couldn't you tell us this sooner?" Emma asked barely above a whisper, Hermione sighed knelt between her two parents.

"In a word Fear; I was afraid that you would reject me because I have lived life twice and although the process seems simple it in sense made me a different person with different objectives to the ones that I had a year ago. I was afraid that when you found out you wouldn't want me" Hermione replied tears in her eyes. Emma and Dan both grasped their daughter in a hug

"Oh pumpkin it doesn't matter how many past lives you remember when it comes down to it we are still your parents and from now to the rest of eternity we will always loves and cherish the time we spend with you" Dan replied kissing the forehead of Hermione who was still silently crying. Harry and moved in between his parents who each had an arm wrapped round him. Harry suggested that the Grangers spend some time together to get reacquainted after all previously Hermione wiped her parents memories which had hurt her more than she would ever admit. The three potters along with Sirius and Remus all moved into a separate room.

"Well that was intense" Sirius said breaking the silence

"When it doubt leave it to Sirius to provide the most valued of comments" Remus replied sarcastically

"It's what I do" was the reply.

Later that evening found Lily sitting in the library when the light tapping of the door revealed Hermione.

"Come on sweetie" Lily said welcoming Hermione into the library/study. Hermione smiled and entered sitting down on the settee where Lily sat whom almost immediately put an arm round Hermione giving her a one arm hug

"You ok sweetie?" Lily asked, Hermione nodded and replied.

"Now I am I was just so afraid of how badly that could have gone. I never told them but in my last life I erased their memories in order to protect them, I made them forget about me completely to protect them, it feels nice to know that this time round I can protect them better"

Lily smiled, Hermione's intelligence was above and beyond her years regardless of how many past lives she remembered.

"Just remember Hermione, the path to peace is never an easy path to walk you have to rely on those around you to achieve those goals"

"We should tattoo that onto Harry it might make him remember it" Hermione's reply which caused laughter for both

"Oh no, my name was mentioned and there is laughing this can't be good for me" Harry said surprising both females in the library

"And just how long have you been standing there for young man?" Lily asked in mock anger

"Oh you know every since Hermione suggested I get a tattoo at such a young age"

Hermione was ready to reply when Lily placed a hand on her shoulder the universal signal that Harry was having her on.

"What can we do for you Harry?" Hermione asked, Harry smiled and entered the library.

"Nothing actually I was causally wandering around and I happened to hear my name so I thought I would embrace the human instinct to investigate" was the ever so polite reply. The conversation continued for a little while longer until Harry eventually left leaving the smartest witches of their generations alone once again.

"Lily I had a thought, Harry showed me the letter that you sent him and was curious about the research which you came across" Hermione began after Harry left; Lily nodded and showed Hermione the extract.

"One of the most horrific curses of our time could be healed via muggle technology? There is a dramatic irony to that I'm sure" Hermione said as she read the extract

"Tell me about now from what I have been able to determine the cruciartus curse like Charles Potter said attacks the brains central nervous system which then in turn attacks the rest of the body's nerves in response, even for that to happen it must mean that the brain must have some sort of activity present and if there was activity present that in turn a modified healing spell could be used to repair the damage to the brain and thus opening the way for the central nervous system to be restored" Lily explained, Hermione took notes of this happening.

"I agree the problem is however is that is the MRI showed that there was no brain activity the subject would be considered brain dead and as such would not be able to be helped we can only hope that Neville's parents were able to retain some kind of higher brain function. Similarly the healing spell itself would need to be applied carefully, the brain is an extremely sensitive organ if we try to animate it to quickly we could cause an aneurysm killing them instantly."

The two set to work in hopes that they could lead to an eventual cure to such a despicable and vile curse.

AN; Sorry people I know it's been months but I have had the world on my shoulders and as if that wasn't enough my computer system decided to crash and I've spent the last month restoring and repairing it again. I can't promise weekly updates but I can promise that the story will not be abandoned you just have to be patient with me.