The Power of Harmony

Disclaimer: I do not own any content relating to Harry Potter. I am strictly a fan fiction writer and do this only for my own enjoyment. I do not make any money from my writing.

A/N

This story is completely AU and does not follow the books or movies in any particular order. This timeline has tons of changes that differ greatly from the cannon universe. The characters will be quite different and may not be what you are used to. I am a huge fan of the HP fanfic realm and while I may have taken some inspiration from others, I tried my best to create a unique story for our favorite witches and wizards. Fair warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence and adult content. While it is not strictly smut, it does contain a fair amount of it. Yes, the story is also a bit fantastical and perhaps a bit cringey at moments, but I do love a gooey story from time to time, so this is one of those.

This story will also be a long project of mine and it will take a while to complete. I should be uploading at least once a week.

I do enjoy feedback about my story and writing. Thank you for taking time out of your lives to leave a review, to those of you who do.

Chapter 1: A Complicated Farewell

The headmaster's office in Hogwarts was particularly dreary, with a large rainstorm outside the windows and the occasional clap of thunder. The rain pounded on the windows and the wind sounded ferocious. The torches that lit the office were rather dim and did not light the office sufficiently tonight. Despite the storm outside, Friday evening should have been a happy occasion for the students of Hogwarts, with the end of classes for the semester. Everyone had been glad to see the end of the exams they had been crunching for. Everyone, save one student.

Hermione Granger entered the headmaster's office after knocking lightly on his door. "Headmaster, do you have a moment? I have something that I'd…", she suddenly lost her ability to speak. She lifted her eyes from her feet briefly to see the headmaster beckoning her forwards while conjuring a small, padded chair for her.

"What can I do for you Miss Granger?", Albus asked. He noticed that her shoulders sagged, and she stared at her feet. He knew something was wrong, because Hermione Granger never slouched like this unless she was very bothered.

Hermione slowly sunk into the chair and her small body started to quiver. After a few seconds, Albus could see tears dropping from her face into her lap. He sat up straighter in his chair and conjured a few tissues that floated over to Hermione's hand. Dumbledore waited anxiously to see if the girl would continue.

"I'm so…sorry sir. To bother you.", she said as her sobbing only worsened. Hermione grabbed the tissues that Dumbledore had given her, and she balled them up in her hand, occasionally dabbing at her nose. "I need to with…with…", more tears poured down now, and she was struggling to portray her thoughts, which is not something she had an issue with.

"There there, Miss Granger. Calm now and take a minute. You are not bothering me. I was simply doing some parchment work for the Ministry. It is my end of year reports that are filed with them." Dumbledore said, looking worriedly at the sobbing girl. He knew whatever it was that was bothering her, it must have been serious. Hermione nodded lightly and tried to wipe away the tears that would not stop flowing.

Finding some courage, albeit not much, Hermione finally continued. "I need to withdraw from Hogwarts after this school year", she said still staring at her shoes. Her thoughts of ending her magical education after only three years were swirling around her mind, making it difficult to focus her thoughts.

"What?" Dumbledore stammered. "Why on Earth do you want to withdraw from Hogwarts, Miss Granger?". Albus could not fathom why the smartest student in her year would want to leave when she was clearly doing so well. She might have been the smartest student in the entire castle if he were honest.

Hermione's tears fell harder now, and her sobbing was becoming uncontrolled. Albus conjured a Patronus charm and whispered into it before sending it off into the castle. He wanted to go comfort the girl but felt that it would have been inappropriate to do so while alone in his office. It was a few moments later that a winded Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey entered the office, both trying to calm their breathing and looking between Hermione and Dumbledore.

"Miss Granger here has just informed me that she wishes to withdraw from Hogwarts at the end of this school year. I have not been able to get much more from her though. I was hoping you could help.", Dumbledore explained, while motioning to the professor to sit next to Hermione. A shocked McGonagall quickly conjured a chair next to the girl and swept her into a hug.

"Miss Granger, why would you even think of leaving Hogwarts?", she asked with an obvious amount of shock in her voice. She could not imagine why such a bright witch would abandon her studies, which until this point, had been her strongest ambition.

"I hate it here!" Hermione shrieked. Tears flowed in a steady stream now and Hermione suddenly looked up at her professors with a shocking glare that none of them had ever seen from her before. "No one wants me here and I can't take it anymore! I don't have any friends, and no one is willing to talk to me! I just can't take it anymore! I'm DONE!", she shouted.

Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Pomfrey stared at one another in surprise. After a few quick glances, Albus finally spoke. "Miss Granger, I'm sure you must have at least a couple of friends here in the castle. Surely it couldn't be all that bad, right?" he asked, hoping against hope that she must have been exaggerating. "What about Mister Weasley? I've have seen you speaking with him on more than a few occasions".

Hermione shook her head and looked into Dumbledore's eyes. "I don't have a single friend here. Ron only pretends to be my friend so that I will do his schoolwork for him. I have heard him talking behind my back numerous times to his friends…", she wiped her eyes and seemed to struggle with her thoughts for a moment. She looked back down at her feet and fidgeted nervously with her hands. "He told them that I am only smart enough to do my schoolwork, not enough to realize that no one wanted to actually be my friend."

McGonagall tried to comfort the girl and hugged her from the side. "I'm very sorry that you feel that you don't have any friends here in the castle. Perhaps we can speak to a few of your classmates on your behalf…" she said trying to sound reassuring.

"NO!" Hermione shrieked, returning to glaring at her professors. "I am certainly not going to be forced into being friends with my supposed housemates that have made it clear to me that I am a FREAK!", she said suddenly shifting back to her anger. "I came here three years ago, trying desperately to make friends since I never had any before. Even during my muggle primary school days, kids shunned me and beat me up because I was smarter than them. How is that my fault?" she asked, not really expecting an answer.

Hermione proceeded to tell her professors and Madam Pomfrey about her early years in the muggle world, her lack of any friends, and how her parents tried to comfort her, despite not having any luck getting the muggle school to help. McGonagle and Pomfrey listened to her explanation and shed a few tears themselves, hearing the sad story, and knowing that Hermione's only wish was for a few real friends.

A sudden loud pop sounded in the office and Hermione and the professors looked around to see a tall, lanky boy standing over by Fawkes the phoenix's perch. The boy had a jet-black head of very messy hair, deep green eyes, and was wearing an all-black set of wizarding robes. He looked around the room, surprised to see how many people were in the headmaster's office.

"Sorry Albus, is this a bad time?", he asked, not sure if he should stay or leave.

"Ah, Mr. Potter. I do apologize that our meeting snuck up on me. I had forgotten about it entirely. I am afraid that we must reschedule though.", he said, though seemingly pondering something suddenly.

"No worries Albus. I can send an owl tomorrow to reschedule our meeting."

Hermione suddenly remembered seeing this strange boy a few times throughout her three years at Hogwarts. It was always a mystery who he was though. He was not a student at the school, she would have remembered him. He would randomly show up for a day, meet with some teachers or the headmaster, and then disappear again. Hermione was always intrigued by his appearances, however when she would question a professor who he was, she was always told that the boy liked his privacy, and that was all the explanation she or any other student who asked would receive.

"Mr. Potter", Albus suddenly addressed the boy. "I would like to introduce Miss Hermione Granger, third year Gryffindor, to you. Ms. Granger, this is Harry Potter".

Hermione suddenly gasped at hearing the boy's name. She knew his name all too well, having read it in several of her favorite magical books. Despite all her reading, she nor anyone else knew of Harry Potter's whereabouts. He was simply the-boy-who-lived and yet, no one knew much else. He had seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. Sure, there were some fictional books about the hero boy that went on adventures, saving witches from peril, but those were just some fantasy novels that attracted witches and sold very well.

"It is good to meet you Miss Granger" the handsome boy said, extending his hand out to her.

Hermione nervously shook his hand with a loose grip, then dropped her arm back in her lap. "Uh, yeah, good to meet you to Mr. Potter", she said with a shaky voice.

"None of that Mr. Potter stuff. You can call me Harry", he said with a devilishly striking grin.

Albus smiled and then addressed Harry, "I wonder if I could perhaps speak with you for just a moment in the hallway outside my office. It will only take a second.".

"Sure, that would be fine", Harry said. "It was a pleasure to meet you Hermione", he said as he made his way to the headmaster's office door.

"Umm, nice to meet you too", Hermione squeaked out.

"I shall be back in just a moment. Please don't leave yet Miss Granger", Albus said as he followed Harry out the office door.

As soon as the door closed, Hermione was once again on the verge of tears. The sudden interruption of Harry Potter had only for a moment distracted her from the awful business of withdrawing from the school. Madam Pomfrey had produced a small phial of calming potion from her robes and handed it to Hermione.

"Drink this and take a moment to calm yourself. We can discuss this when you have settled", she said, with worry in her voice.

Hermione took the phial and tipped its contents into her mouth. As soon as she swallowed the potion, she felt a little better. At least better enough to collect her thoughts and try to get through the process of withdrawing from the school. Her mind was made up and she even had the support of her parents, who she had sent numerous school owls to, to discuss the decision. They were not happy to hear that her schooling situation was not any better than in the muggle world.

Hermione's parents had at first tried to help her think through the decision, but Hermione knew that she would continue to be miserable in the magical world too. Even though she knew withdrawing meant she would have her wand snapped and have her memories of magic wiped, she just didn't care anymore. It didn't seem that she belonged in any part of the world, and it sent her into a deep depression.

Moments later, Dumbledore and Harry Potter reentered the office and stepped in front of Hermione's chair. "Miss Granger, I was just talking to Mr. Potter here about your situation, and your desire to leave our world", Dumbledore said, staring at the girl while she continued to hang her head, not looking at anyone. She couldn't believe that Dumbledore had spoken to Harry about this and yet, it only further saddened her.

Harry stepped closer to Hermione and took a knee right in front of her. He gently reached out with his hand and carefully tipped her chin upwards to look at him. He could see her tear-filled eyes, swollen and red. "Hermione, Albus here told me about your desire to leave and that you have not been able to make any friends here in the castle. While I am most saddened to hear this, I cannot help but to wish you would reconsider."

"I am not asking you to stay at Hogwarts, I know that would not be a fair thing to ask of you, since you have clearly not had the best time here. However, I hate knowing that you would lose your magic, just because of the idiocy of others." Harry looked into her eyes.

Hermione stared into his deep green eyes and saw something she didn't think she would ever see, compassion from someone her age. She didn't answer him but nodded slightly. She didn't seem to have found her voice yet.

"Miss Granger, I know that there are a lot of wild theories out there about me, most of which I am sure are not true. So, it is not a surprise that you don't know anything about me. However, one thing you should know about me is that I am a fierce defender of those who cannot defend themselves. I'm not saying that you can't defend yourself, but in this case, I can't help but wonder if you could do with having an advocate for you. Someone to defend you from others and help guide you. I don't want to see you walk away from our world. That would sadden me beyond imagination."

Harry took out his wand and conjured two cups and filled them with water. He handed one to Hermione who nervously took it and drank a little. Harry gulped his down and then looked back into her eyes.

"I would like to offer you an alternative to leaving our world behind", Harry took one of her hands in his and held it for a moment. Hermione held her breath, realizing that no one had ever shown her such sincerity besides her parents. A faint glimmer of hope shined through her eyes and Harry spotted it at once.

"What if there was a way to continue your education, away from Hogwarts for the most part, and best of all, you got to keep your magic?" he asked. "This opportunity would also come with an automatic friend for you, and that friend would help you learn and grow your magic. Best of all, you would be the only friend to this other person as well."

Hermione's eyes grew large, and she stared at Harry, hoping that what he was offering was truly real. "Umm… yes, I would like that I think", she said in a small and hopeful voice. She didn't want to get her hopes up too much, but she wanted to cling to this lifeline and pray it was real.

Harry took her other hand and stood her up. Her legs wobbled a bit, and she held Harry's hands for support.

"Ok, here is what I am offering you."