7

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

Chapter one

Broken Bonds

Harry James Potter paced the four steps forward and then the four steps back, the only space he had in this tiny dingy bedroom that was filled with his cousin's junk. He hated number four Privet drive and those that lived there. This summer had to have been one of his worst yet, he had no idea what was going on in the world of magic where he was a famous wizard.

His thoughts were filled with anger and despair since he had saved his cousin from two evil Dementors that had attempted to kill both Dudley and himself a couple of days earlier. Harry's anger was caused by several things and fuelled by the lack of contact with anyone who could or would tell him what was going on. He was feeling even more isolated and alone than he had at any other time in his life.

But what was at the root of his anger was the fact that Hermione Granger was with Ronald Weasley somewhere. That Hermione was with his supposed best mate was what really got to him. He had only recently admitted to him self that he wanted to be with Hermione, that he was beginning to have really deep feelings for her and he had not had a letter from her all summer. If Harry faced the truth he knew he was being unjustly jealous considering she had no idea how he felt about her. When total lack of knowledge about where they were or what they were doing was added to the way he had been ignored by everyone since saving Dudley it was making him extremely angry with the entire magical world. When Harry thought about Dumbledore the one who had sent him here to once again be a prisoner of his abusive relatives, also completely ignoring him, his anger got out of control.

It had been three and a half days since he had been told to stay in the house and not go out at all. Three and a half days since he saved his cousin and received those stupid notes telling him not to do anything stupid. Not once did he receive a letter asking if he was ok, or if he had been hurt in the Dementor attack. Nothing from Hermione or his so called best mate Ron, not even one of their worthless notes that said nothing.

Harry suddenly stopped his pacing 'Why the hell should I do as they tell me if they don't bloody care about how I am?' he asked himself as he looked down at his school trunk. It was still packed with almost all his belongings, being locked up in this room for the summer meant there was no real reason to unpack it.

He made his decision quickly and opened the trunk; he took out some parchment, ink and a quill and then sat on his bed to write a letter.

To my chief jailor Dumbledore.

I have decided that as not one of you gives a damn about whether I am ok after the little visit from the Dementors. That all I got was a bunch of notes telling me off like I was a naughty kid for using magic to save mine and Dudley's lives. That not one of my so called friends could be bothered to even write me a letter this summer, makes it obvious to me that I have no reason to associate with a world in which I have no ties, therefore take this as my resignation from Hogwarts and all things magical.

Do not bother sending someone to collect me or try to do so your self, I have no time for your endless prattle as I know your grandfather image is a load of bull. This is to inform you 'your puppet' has cut its strings. I have informed you, every year how I am treated here and you take no notice of me. Well no more will I allow this to go on, the beatings and starvation have reached their end for this guy. I am no longer interested in your pathetic world of lies where I get treated like a prisoner and put up with getting beaten, starved and isolated. See you around some day if it can't be avoided. Bye.

Prisoner Potter, from the cupboard under the stairs.

PS, Tell Miss Granger I love her very much and hope she has a happy life with the Weasley git…

Harry folded the anger fuelled letter and asked his first and most loyal friend to deliver it to someone at the headquarters Dumbledore's note had mentioned, where ever that was, then find him in a couple of weeks. Hedwig his owl stood and waited patiently for him to fasten the letter to her leg before stretching her large wings and launching her self out of the window and into the bright sunny sky.

After watching Hedwig fly off into the distance Harry grabbed the tatty old backpack that was mixed in with Dudley's junk and placed his few treasured possessions in it. Wrapped in his invisibility cloak Harry said goodbye to the house where he was treated like a slave and walked passed his jailor who was on the lawn passed out, and from the smell obviously drunk, and on down the street. He had decided that he no longer wanted anything to do with his now old life. Magic, Hogwarts, his so called best friends, his godfather who had wrote him a letter telling him to behave himself as though he had been a naughty kid instead of saying well done in saving Dudley, and Dumbledore who thought he was so almighty and all knowing, he had the right to keep him locked up, telling him where he could go or what he could do, who he could talk to. Well he would take no more he would live his life as he saw fit.

Like so many other angry teens before him he decided he could get by on his own. His only destination was a visit to see the sea and stand on the sand as the tide changed, it was something he had always wanted to do the most next to having a family and he was going to let nothing stop him from doing it.

Two hours later Hermione Granger took the letter from Hedwig and watched her as she flew back out of the window without waiting for a drink or a treat. She was thinking Hedwig's behaviour was a little unusual as she opened the letter but those thoughts vanished as she read the angry words from her best friend.

As she read the sixteen year old witch realised something not one person she knew had even given thought of before. Harry James Potter was an almost sixteen year old boy, who like everyone else had 'feelings' and could be hurt by those who were supposed to look after, love, and protect him. Just like everyone else he needed some amount of support, love, and trust, in his life to allow him to grow up and learn as a normal person. She also saw in his words the deep betrayal he felt, he was not the emotionless hero written about in so many books. She and his other friends should have thought about that a long time before things got so out of hand.

That Harry could be in love with her had never even entered her mind before and a wave of sadness and loss washed over her. Like every one else she had been enjoying the summer spent here with her other friends and had obeyed Dumbledore and ignored the boy she owed her very life too. She felt sick in her stomach when she thought about what it would look like to the boy she was falling in love with, she had not sent him one single individual letter all summer because the headmaster told her not to, and she hated herself for listening to the headmaster.

Sirius was sitting in the kitchen of twelve Grimmauld place enjoying a chat with several of his friends when Hermione with tears streaming down her face handed him a letter. His comment of "Oh shit," got the attention of everyone in the kitchen.

"Bad news?" asked Remus Lupin as he sat forward a little.

"Well first, like all Potters Harry has fallen in love while still at school," he said looking at Hermione. Seeing the puzzled look she gave him he sighed deeply then explained. "It's a Potter trait that goes back centuries, Potter men always find their one true love while still young, James found Lily when he was twelve though it took him quite some time to finally date her. James father was fifteen just like Harry is. I should have realised when I saw how you two were together when you came to my rescue, but…"

Remus Lupin looked up at Hermione "So you are the one, I thought so," he then looked back at Sirius "that's not exactly bad news."

"No Moony that was the better news. The bad news is we let Harry down again. He's gone and I can't blame him at all," was all Sirius said as he handed the letter to his best friend.

Lupin read the letter and then looked at Hermione and Ron giving them both a look of disgust. "Was it so hard to write to him via the muggle post, to much trouble to take a few minutes out of your busy schedule of enjoying your selves to write a letter about simple ordinary day to day things that have nothing to do with keeping secrets? We best get in touch with Dumbledore, somehow I don't think his next stupid idea of how to get Harry here will be needed anymore."

Ronald Weasley was, as was his normal, jealous, annoyed and angry, "So bloody Potter wants what's mine again, I'm bloody sick of him getting every thing. Hermione belongs to me not the bloody boy who bloody lived."

Hermione was shocked at both Ron and when Sirius suddenly turned angry and jumped from his chair and with one hand yanked Ron into the air by his lapels. "Ronald Weasley if you don't keep your bloody stupid mouth shut I'll lock you up in one of the bloody cupboards with no food for a bloody week and see how you like it. A slimy thing like you will never be bloody man enough to claim a woman like Hermione you bloody whining brainless little worm." He gave the boy a look of utter loathing before he dropped him back on to his feet.

Molly Weasley, Ron's mother started yelling about the way Sirius was treating her children when she came to a sudden stop as her only daughter shouted in her face. "Mother SHUT UP, you're the bloody reason my brother is so bloody disgusting, stupid, and ignorant. There is abso - bloody - lutely no one at Hogwarts that can stand the filthy, bad mannered smelly bloody thick head; when Harry and Hermione are not around he's always mouthing off about how good Harry has everything, even when he knows it's all rubbish. He's nothing more than a lousy jealous git who deserves a bloody good hiding and you just keep on bloody pampering him, letting him eat like some greedy wild animal and making people who see him eat feel sick at the sight. He's bloody bone idle, disgusting, doesn't bathe near enough and it's time you woke up to the facts, you gave birth to a hated moron. Only Harry will put up with the git. He makes us all ashamed to be his family."

Everyone in the kitchen stared at the young red haired girl as she ranted at her mother. As Molly opened her mouth to yell at Ginny, George stepped in front of his sister and faced his mother. "Before you bother to say anything to Ginny, she's right, that's why Bill, Charlie, and Percy, escaped from you. You treat us all like little babies and apart from brain dead there, all of us have managed to over come your smothering ways. Everything Ginny said is true; I don't know how Harry and Hermione put up with the jerk because no one else would. And he's bloody delusionaly insane too if he thinks Hermione belongs to him, like he's delusional about how he thinks the world owes him and he doesn't have to work for anything, that everything should all be handed to him on a bloody plate as if it is his right."

As an astonished Molly looked around the room she could see the truth of her children's words in all the faces she looked at, whether she liked it or not her youngest son had turned into someone that was disliked by nearly all those who knew him, including his siblings. She was brought from her thoughts when she heard a female squeak then loud smack and then a thud as Ron dropped onto the floor out to the world.

A very angry Hermione was standing over the boy who had taken the distraction caused by his sister to grope her, she was holding her right fist in her left hand. She was actually glowing with magic as her anger at Ron had finally reached breaking point. Something inside her had snapped and the amount of magic coming from her was more than anyone in the room had ever seen from someone so young. "I think I might have broken my knuckles," she said as she scowled at the red head on the floor. "When that wakes up will someone tell it to stay the hell away from me or next time it gropes my bust it wont be its jaw I break, I'll make damn sure there will never be any little Weasleys coming from its family jewels. I'd rather be dead than be with that piece of disgusting bigoted smelly filth."

Hermione then sank slowly into a chair and let Remus heal her hand while a very subdued Molly had to take the unconscious Ron to St Mungo's to get his broken jaw treated. "So professor you think Harry really does love me, that I'm his true love?" she asked hopefully as he finished healing her broken knuckles.

"Yes Hermione, from what I saw between you two, I do, and I think you are the only one who will know how to find him, though it might take a while for him to forgive you for what he might see as you and Ron betraying him. Eventually he will blame the person who is the real culprit. Dumbledore made a huge mistake again. It was wrong to isolate Harry and keep you from writing to him while he was feeling guilty about Cedric and everything, and it was completely stupid to break up the perfect team that is Harry and Hermione." Remus said anger rising in his voice when he spoke of Dumbledore.

Moments later as though he had heard his name being used Dumbledore appeared in the kitchen doorway, he was standing there only a few seconds before he was suddenly flying backward out of the door, with Hermione chasing after him, her wand pointing at him and a small wisp of smoke drifting up from the singed tip of her wand from the anger powered spell that had left her wand slightly hotter than it should be. What ever it was that had snapped inside her had released a tremendous amount of magic from her magical core.

Albus Dumbledore lay on the floor looking up at the wand that was glowing with a blue incandescent light just an inch from the tip of his nose, the look of fear on his face surprised the flood of people who came rushing from the kitchen.

"Don't do it Hermione, the fool is not worth it," Sirius said as he moved forward slowly.

"Sirius you know from that letter that this thing knew all the time how the Dursleys treat my Harry. The old bastard thinks he's so much better than everyone else that they should do exactly as he tells them too. Well I've got some news for the old prat, if he so much as even thinks of trying to control my Harry's future again he'll have me to answer too, and I won't be the same as all you lot, worshiping at this evil old mans feet like he is some sort of god." Hermione said still glaring at Dumbledore. "Dumbledore, stay away from my man; he has enough to deal with, with Voldemort without another dark lord bastard like you trying to hurt him, if you don't I will guarantee you, you will get to see your next great adventure well before you want to do so."

The look of total surprise and hurt on Dumbledore's face made Hermione laugh derisively "What headmaster you don't think that trying to control every aspect of someone's life and doing nothing about the hell that you force on them is dark? Well let me tell you, stealing someone's freedom, taking away their choice about how to live their life makes you far worse than Voldemort, at least he just kills his victims quickly, not like you, doing it slowly by first destroying the ability to think for them selves. My Harry is not your personal bloody slave. YOU ARE NOT GOD! YOU'RE A DOWNRIGHT EVIL OLD MAN AND YOUR GREATER GOOD IS JUST A LOAD OF HIPOGRIFF DUNG!"

Dumbledore was shaking, not with fear from Hermione but from the fear that he was indeed turning dark. The more he thought about all the things that had happened to young Harry that he could have done something about and yet did nothing, the more he was feeling ill. As he watched the wand tip and knew the young woman on the other end meant every word she had said he was filled with regret, but regret won't stop an angry and extraordinarily powerful witch like Hermione Jane Granger, with his eyes on her still glowing wand he hoped she could let her anger subside without doing him a serious amount of damage that he was in no position to prevent at that moment.

The very angry Hermione turned to walk away but after just two steps she spun around and the world turned black for the headmaster as Hermione lost the little hold she had on her temper and stunned him with a very powerful spell. While every one left in the hallway fussed over the headmaster trying to revive him before taking him into the kitchen, Hermione made her way up to her room. She had a problem to solve and she needed some peace and quiet to do what was needed. Lying down on her bed she used her amazing eidetic memory and her unbelievable mental abilities to run through every conversation she had ever had with Harry since the day they first met. Had anyone been able to see how her mind worked they would have seen memories flash through like a film on fast forward at a speed many times faster than normal time. Memories of a full day taking just a few minutes for her to see, hear, and understand all that had happened that day in full detail. Her ability to separate and inspect only the relevant parts of her memory was amazing.

Even when Hermione fell asleep part of her mind searched through her memories looking for something that would tell her where her Harry might have run off too.

TBC