The first life they died for each other.

The pounding on the door was the soldiers coming to take him away for magic. In reality, Harry had been covering for her. He hadn't been gifted with magic the first time around. But she knew he would never survive if they took him. So she grabbed his face for one last kiss. Then they both drank the poisoned wine. It was slightly diluted by the liquid. By the time the soldiers had burst into his bedroom, they saw the couple in each other's arms with a smile on both their faces. The soldiers shrugged, less work for them.

The second time she gave her life for him.

"I swear Ms. Granger performed magic on Mr. Potter," Abigail said. "He never even noticed her before and now he dotes on her as if she is the only woman in the world. She must have used a love spell."

After Abigail came forward many of their neighbors came forward talking about strange things happening around the two of them. It didn't matter that Hermione didn't even have magic in this life. All that mattered was she willingly took the blame and even admitted to being a witch to protect Harry.

It didn't matter that Harry and Hermione had been spending time together for years. It didn't matter that they grew up together. Or that they had remembered their past life together after sixteen years of age. All that mattered was Salem was full of paranoid people and Abigail had a crush on Harry. Abigail and a few of the other women in town had been using the witch frenzy to take out their enemies. Tactically speaking, it was brilliant.

But that didn't help Hermione who was tied to a stake and about to be burned. She had begged Harry not to come but he had. However once the fire started, he used his magic to ensure that she never felt a thing. They locked eyes until hers had to close.

The third time they had their first girl.

Hermione grabbed Harry's hand as she screamed. That was the final push before another scream was heard for the first time. Unfortunately Hermione and Harry's child was born a month early and they hadn't reached the time yet when they could save her. She lived for three days and then passed away. Harry and Hermione couldn't take the pain of the loss and took their lives as well.

The fourth time they never made it past the first meeting.

"My name is Harry. What's yours?" Harry asked.

"I'm ..." Then the bomb exploded despite the fact that they were barely seven.

The fifth time he was reaped.

"Dudley Dursley" the name rang through the square where the reaping was held. Harry knew his duty should Dudley ever get reaped, he is to volunteer. There were no 'ifs' 'ands' or 'buts' about it.

"I volunteer." This may have been the second time district twelve had a volunteer. Ever since that foolish Katniss got herself killed for trusting her fellow district tribute, Gale. Harry had only been five at the time but it was still talked about in twelve. That and the fact that Haymitch had a horrible 'accident' that year on the train ride back. There were only so many mistakes Haymitch could make before the Capitol interfered.

Harry's only wish was that She wasn't chosen. Hermione was the only one who never made fun of him. And trust him, Harry was an easy target for the school yard bullies for years. This was led by Dudley himself. Harry's glasses were too big for his face and his clothes hung off his frame giving the illusion that he was weak. Although he wasn't weak (doing all the work in the bakery for sixteen years didn't leave you with flabby arms and baby fat, but Dudley's walrus shirts served well to hide his muscles).

Harry should have never made that wish. It was as if the universe heard him and decided to completely screw him over. Of course Hermione was picked. As of this moment he had no chance to win. He would easily give his life for the beautiful brunette from his dreams. He could see moments of lives they've lived. But he concluded that they must be dreams. Magic was impossible. But he would still make sure that she would win.

Harry trained as seriously as he could. He woke up every morning and did exercises. He didn't have much time but his life would be over soon anyways so why not push his body to its limits. He learned everything he could at the training center. Then when it came time, he stepped off the platform and ran to Hermione. He threw her over his shoulders and took off at a run. She was going to win this tournament. He deposited her at the only tree in the whole arena. He turned back to the fray. Everyone was attacking each other. The game makers of this hunger games had failed to create a game that could be drawn out. This game would be finished by the end of the day. Then Hermione could return to that boy Ron who was always talking to her and live a long happy life.

There were only two left at this point, well until the career from district one stabbed the career from district three. Then he turned to Harry. Harry only had one goal, that he would die and kill this boy in the same moment. So when the career started running towards Harry. Harry copied his movements. Whether it was the training or the adrenalin, Harry was able to stab the career with his dagger just as he felt a sword enter his chest. The last thought in his mind was "I did it!" Then he succumbed to the darkness of death.

The sixth time she was a demon and he was a hunter.

It wasn't the first time Harry had crossed paths with the demon Hermione. But it was the first time he had caught her on the way to his bed. Harry had unknowingly picked her up a bar for a night of fun. But she got trapped in the Devil's trap drawn into the ceiling of his motel room.

"I like the new body, what's the occasion?" Harry asked her.

"I felt the need to be introduced to more of you." She said while running her hands up and down his arm. Harry was playing with fire and he knew it but there was no way he was resisting her. He could never kill her just as she could never kill him.

"So who is she?" He asked. He moved to get a chair to stand on.

"A comatose woman who has been brain dead for years. The family refused to pull the plug so I checked the body and Viola an empty meat suit." Hermione stated. Harry stepped on the chair and scratched part of the trap so she could step out from under it.

"I love the brunette." And it was the same hair he'd been seeing since he was sixteen and he knew he had found her. He pulled her to him in a hug.

"Well once she was gone, I played it off as amnesia and donated all of her funds to what caused her to become brain dead. I made sure to give her family closure. I told them I wasn't the same person after the coma that I was before. I told them it wouldn't work for me to stay with them when they knew a whole different me." She placed her head on his shoulder and just breathed in his scent: a mix of liquor, car grease, and the last soap he used from the very motel they were currently in.

"This is why you were gone for a year?" He asked. He just held her tight.

"Well yeah, I couldn't leave her family like that." She mumbled into his shoulder.

He released her hips that his hands were on and lifted her face. He stared into her beautiful brown eyes. They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. It was alarming how hot he found her conscience. Then he attacked her lips with his own.

Unfortunately three months later they were taken out by the threatened prince of hell, Crowley's hand chosen successor.

The seventh time she was just a patron of the diner he worked at.

"Hey 'Mione! You want the usual?" Seamus called from the kitchen. Harry turned immediately at hearing his hard-ass boss actually sounding nice for once. Then he saw the girl from his dreams (literally he'd been having them since he was sixteen).

One day after dancing around each other for two years Harry fainted from shock. "Will you marry me?" Hermione asked. And Harry blacked out.

"You could have just said no." Hermione grumbled as she dabbed his head with a cold wet washcloth, when he came to. It felt great.

"Who said I was saying no? You can't just spring that on a guy." Harry slowly sat up so he wouldn't get dizzy, then he leaned forward so his right cheek was touching her right cheek. "My answer is yes," Harry's attempt at being smooth may have failed on anyone else but this was Hermione. She'd been dreaming about him and the life they'd live since she was sixteen.

The eighth time their eyes locked over the barrel of their guns.

"So you're the famous chosen one." She said not moving her aim from the spot right between his eyes a kill shot.

"And you're the brightest." He replied. Harry kept his gun on her forehead. It wasn't as perfect of an aim as hers, but it wasn't like many people recovered from being shot in the forehead.

"My reputation precedes me." She said. Her stance loosened up, but she kept her gun trained on him.

"As does mine." When he said that she lowered her gun. He followed suit. They were just standing five feet away now.

"Any particular reason you're around these parts, Mr. British?" She asked. She turned and sank into the leather arm chair behind the director of the MI6's desk. She then leaned back and placed her heel clad feet onto his desk.

"Well I do work here, and this is commonly known as my office.." He said.

"Everyone knows you avoid this office like the plague. What are you really doing here?" Hermione wasn't giving him an inch.

"That doesn't mean I don't know when an unauthorised person enters my office. Besides once I saw the video feed, I had to investigate myself. Are the rumors true? Do you have Salazar's necklace" Harry asked. He sat in one of the guest chairs of his office.

She moved her feet off the desk. Instead of responding Hermione pushed her hair aside and reached into her shirt to pull out an ornate amber necklace with a 'S' on it. Harry gasped and leaned forward. As soon as he moved Hermione immediately had her gun aimed at his face again. Harry put his arms up in a non-threatening way and leaned back in the chair.

"Listen Mr. British, this is not for sale or a kill-and-run. This necklace is very dangerous and it can't be moved from my neck even if I die. So can MI6 drop the investigation? There are parts to this you just won't and can't understand." She sounded slightly bitter but she dropped the necklace back into her shirt.

"Okay. You've made your point. I was just curious no need to be alarmed." Harry said. He placed his own feet on his desk. He looked considerably less worried.

"Curiosity killed the cat." Hermione quipped. She looked annoyed with him for some reason.

"And satisfaction brought it back." Harry finished with a twinkle in his eye.

"Cats only have nine chances, use them wisely." Hermione said then she got up and walked towards the window. Harry immediately stood up, he grabbed her hand, spun her around, then kissed her. She responded, and then pulled away "you just wasted one," she said.

"If that is wasting it, I would waste all the others as well," Harry said pulling her back in for another kiss.

The ninth time they had 'help'.

"Why do you even like her?" Ginny scoffed. But she didn't know. There was this inhuman pull between them. He'd never felt like this before.

"It's just a feeling, I've got to give it a shot," Harry said staring at her from across the class.

"So don't try," Ginny said. She flipped her hair over her shoulder.

Harry turned to her, "What is your problem?" He was annoyed at her continued lack of faith in him.

"She's not even that pretty," Ginny said fiddling with her red hair.

"What? You know what? Never mind I should have asked Luna for help." Harry said. He turned away from her and back towards Hermione.

Ginny scoffed. "Yeah, help."

"Well she wouldn't be tearing me down right now, she'd give me suggestions," Harry said.

"Fine. Start with 'hello' then just focus on what she says." Ginny said she was resigned to the fact that this was happening and there was nothing she could do about it. And if the looks Ginny had seen Hermione giving Harry were any indication this would work out well for him. Ginny was about to add more but class was over and Harry was making his way over towards Hermione.

"Hello," Harry said.

"H-h-hello," Hermione said and Harry smiled.

Hermione cringed as she waited for him to make fun of her stutter.

"Do you want to go to Hogshead with me?" Harry asked.

Hermione just stared at him dumbfounded. No one had ever asked her out before.

The longer she stared at him the more uncomfortable he became. He put his arm to the back of his neck. "I mean it's totally fine if you don't want to come. No hard feelings or anything." He said.

His words seemed to shock her out of her stupor.

"Oh yea-a-ah, I w-w-w-would really l-l-l-like that." She seemed frustrated when she finished talking. But she looked at him with a smile on her face.

Harry's face lit up. He jumped in the air and raised his fist. "Whoo-hoo!" He yelled. Then seemed to remember he was still in front of her. He nervously ran his hand through his hair as she giggled at him.

"Okay, then I'll just, um, see you at the gate on Saturday at four in the afternoon?" Harry said.

"Sure," Hermione said trying to stifle her giggles.

Then he left and she remembered her stutter. She immediately ran to her old speech coach.

"Professor Snape, I need your help again," Hermione said but because she said it so fast he barely heard her. Yet he had been her speech coach so he got the gist of it.

"What guarantee is there that you won't run off again when the going gets tough?" He drawled.

"I h-h-h-have the r-r-r-right mo-t-t-tiv-v-vation this time." She stuttered.

"Okay let's begin." He said.

The tenth time they discussed their past lives.

"You're him!" She said in the middle of the sidewalk. Then she grabbed his arm and linked it through hers. She led him to a small cafe not to far from where they were standing on the sidewalk. Once they were seated she began. It didn't matter that they had never spoken or met in this life before.

"Don't take this the wrong way but I've been dreaming about you." She said.

"I might be really creeped out if I didn't recognize you from my dreams as well." He said.

"But those things we did were amazing." She said dreamily.

"Yeah, I'm not sure if we have some kind of connected unconscious where we are together or an astral plane or maybe it is somehow the future? Actually until today, I thought you were a figment of my imagination." He said nervously, he hoped she wouldn't think he was too much of a nerd or a freak.

"Oh my gosh, I didn't even think of those, I kept thinking it was our past lives." She said.

"That could be a possibility too." He said quickly trying not to make her sad.

"So how about you tell me what you do Mr. tall, dark, and handsome man of my dreams." She said with a smile.

"I'm a lawyer." He said, "but I mostly deal with copyright, trademark, and franchise law." He said.

"So logos and stuff right?" She asked.

"Something like that and yourself?" He asked.

They spent four hours in that cafe and returned the next day and the next day and the next day. They just never ran out of topics, be it their own lives or their latest dream. Sometimes he would remember different parts than she did and it was fun dissecting the dreams.

The eleventh time they met too late and too often.

"Nurse, when is dinner again?" Hermione asked. She had a hand on her cane next to her chair but she was still sitting.

"It starts at four and is open until six." The nurse said with more patience than Hermione ever had at that age.

"Thank you, nurse." She should really learn all of their names, but as long as she was polite the nurses didn't mind. At least she was pretty sure they didn't mind.

"Is this seat taken?" He asked. He was using a walker to get around.

"Of course not." Hermione said. He was a cutie. He just had memory problems so everyday they had to meet again. He could remember everything she told him at the end of the day, but by the time morning came it was as if he had never seen her before.

"What is your name miss?" He asked. He slowly lowered himself into the chair next to hers.

"I'm Hermione and yourself?" She asked politely. Calling him by his name before their introduction made him confused and flustered. He had trouble for the rest of those days when she did that.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter." He said with a smile.

"Would you two like some lunch?" A new nurse said.

"Yes please," they replied in unison. The nurse and she exchanged amused looks while he stared at her with affection.

They lasted two months until she died at eighty-nine and he died as soon as he couldn't meet her anymore.

The twelfth time they just didn't meet.

"Harry!" He slowly woke up. He saw his car, or what was left of it. Ginny had her hand on his chest preventing him from sitting up. What was going on? The last thing he remembered they were on their way to get Molly's gift.

"Harry just look at me don't look down." Huh, down, was something wrong with his legs? Now that he thought about it, he couldn't feel his legs. But he didn't look down instead he looked to the left to see the other car. The driver was in bad shape her brunette hair was coated in red liquid, blood.

"Ginny you have to get help the other driver she's bleeding out of her head." Ginny appeared not to react she was still focused on his legs. Now that he could see them he saw the glass sticking out of different part and Ginny trying to stop the bleeding. There was so much blood on her hands.

Harry grabbed her hands. "Ginny, forget me call nine-one-one for the other driver she's bleeding a lot," Harry said.

"I already called they are on their way maybe another minute," Ginny said as she went back to his wounds.

That minute was the worst of his life. As soon as he saw his legs it was like he could feel the pain. The ambulance finally arrived. They hurried to Harry but he redirected them to the other driver. She was DOA or dead on arrival. Then Harry let them take him.

The thirteenth time they were fire benders.

"I'm telling you the history books have it wrong, Aang was a hero." She said.

Harry looked around them nervously, there was no one watching them but still they could be heard talking.

"I'm not saying I disagree with you, but I don't think we should be talking about this here," Harry said. He kept an eye on the soldiers at the other end of the marketplace.

"First of all, that's exactly what you were just saying. And second don't be such a worry wart no one is even looking at us." Hermione said.

"Ok let's just go back to my house anyway. I had to tell you something remember." Harry said and threw his arm around her shoulders steering her out of the marketplace. He conveniently chose the opposite exit than the one the guards were near.

They got back to his house and to the safety of his room.

"Harry," Hermione said hesitantly she had never been in his room before and was looking at the titles of some of his books. She'd only known him since the beginning of the semester but she felt like she could trust him.

"Yes," he said just as cautiously. He felt something for her and felt he needed to share his secret with her. He watched her back as she faced the books. He took a seat on his bed. Then he summoned some water from a pitcher he kept in his room.

"Why do you have books on air bending, earth bending, and water bending? You're just trying to incorporate the styles into your bending aren't you? You should know that would never work; the elements are too different." Hermione said. She was still facing the books and couldn't see him juggling water, some earth he took from the floor of his room and some fire.

"No, I'm not." He said waiting for her to turn around as he played with the elements.

"Then why..." She trailed off as she turned around and saw him playing with the elements. "Wha? How? I mean you're the avatar."

"Nice deductive skills there, Hermione." He said with a smirk on his face as he made the elements travel around the room.

"Don't make fun of my shock Harry! This is huge! You can save the world! You can stop this fire supremacy nonsense." She looked so happy.

"Hold on, I'm still learning control. I'm safe here for now as long as no one knows. Once I'm in full control and get this underground thing above ground I can start making waves." Harry said.

"You're running the underground insurgence? But you seem to support the fire nation's ideals the most?" Hermione seemed dumbfounded. She sat next to him on the bed.

"Exactly, that's why they would never suspect me of joining or even running the organization. Right now I'm just biding my time for the right moment. Would you like to join?" Harry asked.

"Is that a question? Hell yes!" Hermione said.

The fourteenth time he broke in.

The lights flashed on. To reveal a girl in the armchair wearing Batman pajama pants. "Looking for something?" Hermione asked with a quirk of an eyebrow.

"Just a Monet. Heard anything about it?" He said calmly.

"Yeah it's chilling in a vault about a hundred miles from here." She replied. She turned sideways in her chair. Her head was resting on an arm and her knees on the other arm rest.

"And what if I want to steal the girl?" He said.

"I doubt you'll get much money for her. They'd have to notice she's missing first." She said.

"I'd noticed if she went missing." He said.

"Seems you're the only one." She said bitterly.

"I guess I'll just have to take you with me then won't I?" He said. He held out his hand for her to take.

"You're assuming I'd follow a random stranger at night?" She said.

"By all means stay. It's not like I want to pull you away from your pressing plans." He said.

She hesitated for a second. Then she stood up and walked toward him. With one last look at his face she cautiously put her hand in his.

"Harry Potter at your service, my dear." He said.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Hermione Granger."

The fifteenth time they were cousins.

"Hello I'm Harry Potter, son of Hades, and yourself?" He said.

"I'm Hermione Granger, daughter of Zeus." She replied.

"How long have you known about your dad?" He asked.

"I found out when I was this year. I'm eleven. How about you?"

"The same age actually but then my dad put me in this hotel so I would be safe for a few years and not age. But he recently took me out so I could grow and train and not be a freeloader. His words." Harry said.

"So we're both new campers then. Are you nervous?" She asked.

"A little but I mostly want to get stronger and be the best I can be. I don't think that will be an issue here." He said.

"Are you going to stay here year-round? My mom said I should because she couldn't handle all of my 'accidents' anymore." Hermione said.

"I think so my mom died when I was little so I stayed with my aunt for awhile until my dad came to put me in the hotel to save me or something along those lines. So I don't really have anywhere else to go." Harry said.

"I'll see you later Harry." Hermione looked troubled for a moment then she quickly pecked his cheek and ran away. Harry just raised his hand to his cheek and stood there with a dazed look.

The sixteenth time she was already married.

"...And this is my wife, Hermione Granger." Ron said. They were out for dinner, all of the old buddies from school. Everyone, who had one, brought their significant other. Harry was next to talk.

"Hey guys, no one is with me this time." Harry said as he ran a nervous hand through his messy-black hair.

"Come on Harry! Even Ron has found someone." Seamus said.

Harry just laughed it off uncomfortably and looked to Luna, begging her with his eyes to take over. And like the amazing person she was, she introduced her new boy toy.

After dinner as they were walking to the pub to get some drinks. Hermione fell into step beside him. "Have we met before." Her head was tilted to the side in slight recognition. He was tempted to say 'only in my dreams' which was true but would not be taken well here.

"I don't believe so, but it was nice to meet you." Then Harry sped up until he was walking alongside Dean and his wife. Harry easily fell into their conversation.

Whenever they ran into each other, Harry was polite but standoffish. Not cold but not welcoming her either.

Harry wondered if they would ever stop running into each other. He wondered which life would be there last. But as she was taken in this one already. He would wait for the next one to be with her. Then the next one. He would spend his infinity with her for as long as he could.