Author's Notes: This is the first story in an ambitious project that I decided to start a few months ago. I'm going to be attempting to make a three story harry potter series that combines several popular fanfiction themes. The title of the first story, Harry Potter and Love's Curse, comes from my interpretation of the very popular soul-bond. While the actual soul-bond won't occur until later in the story, it will be the driving force behind the story. There is a spell that is called Love's Curse, if it is cast upon a couple destined to be together it will create a soul-bond. It is called Love's Curse because if one of them dies, it becomes a literal curse for the other, spending the rest of their lives trying fill the hole in themselves from where their deceased soulmate once lived.

Love's Curse will follow Harry through all the seventh book with several changes, the main one being that Harry leaves the Dursleys for the Weasleys when he is eight. The following story I have planned will probably be called Harry Potter and the Descent into Darkness, although that is subject to change. The final story's title is undecided.

Thank-you to anyone who reads this. Reviews will be extremely appreciated.

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they are all property of J. K. Rowling

Prologue

Sirius laughed as he dueled with his cousin Bellatrix in the Department of Mysteries. It was good to finally get out of Grimmauld Place and stretch his legs. He blocked another spell from her and taunted, "Come on Bella is that really all you have? Azkaban must have made you soft."

Bellatrix snarled and continued casting spells with deadly accuracy. Sirius knew that he should end the duel as quickly as possible, but he was having way too much fun…

As that though passed through his mind he stumbled over some rubble that had gotten knocked off of the frame of veil. Bellatrix laughed triumphantly as her stunner hit Sirius.

On the other side of the room Harry saw Sirius and get hit by Bellatrix's stunner. He couldn't move as he saw Sirius fall toward the veil with his cocky smile still frozen on his face.

But he never did reach the veil. Faster then lightning, Harry saw Ginny rush forward and shove Sirius' stunned body, causing him to miss the veil and land solidly on the ground. Harry sighed with relief, but the breath caught in his throat as he watched Bellatrix cast a bludgeon curse at the currently distracted Ginny. He tried to throw a shield in front of her but was too late. The spell hit it's contact and Ginny was catapulted backwards. The last thing Harry saw of Ginny was her make eye contact with him and her voice say the words "I love you" in his head before she fell though the veil. Instantly her presence in his mind was cut, and the last thing he remembered was the room shaking as he screamed in rage and agony.

Harry didn't wake until two days later. He looked blearily around him and saw that he was in the hospital wing. The first thing he noticed was the pain throbbing in his head. The second thing that he noticed was that was all he felt in his head, pain, and nothing else. It was his muffled sob that alerted Molly Weasley that he had woken up. She quickly got out of her chair and engulfed him in a hug. "Oh Harry, thank god you're awake. Madam Pomfrey said that you were in a coma and that she wasn't sure when you would wake up. How are you feeling? Do you need anything?"

"Head… hurts" Harry managed to mutter.

"Well I would expect it to hurt after what you've been through, extreme shock, followed by a severe depletion in your magic levels, and a concussion to top it all off. Madam Pomfrey said as she bustled in, checking Harry and giving him potions to drink.

"Ah, it's good to see that you have finally awoken Harry" Harry heard Dumbledore say as he walked into the hospital wing.

"Professor… what happened?" Harry knew what happened, he had seen it with his own eyes, and even if he hadn't he could feel her absence. But a small part of him still had hope, maybe the only thing that had happened was the veil had cut their connection, maybe she was waiting outside the hospital wing with the rest of his friends, wanting to check on him and see if he was all right.

Dumbledore must have noticed Harry looking at the doorway, his eyes full of hope because he quietly said, "I'm sorry Harry, but she won't be coming through, there's no return from where she went."

Nothing had ever pained Dumbledore more than seeing Harry's eyes, usually so full of life, go completely dull.

Everything came rushing back, Ginny falling through the veil, Harry screaming in rage and running after Bellatrix. He remembered casting the Cruciatus curse on her, and it had worked. Harry almost ejected the potions that were now in his stomach remembering the satisfaction he had felt seeing Bellatrix suffer for what she had done. Then Voldemort had possessed him and the last thing he remembered thinking was about how much he missed and loved Ginny.

Shaking his head, Harry cleared it of thoughts, not wanting to dwell on them, and noticed Sirius in the room with Dumbledore. "Sirius…" He murmured.

Sirius quickly embraced Harry weeping. "I'm s-so sorry Harry, if I had taken Bellatrix more seriously none of this would have happened."

"No, I didn't put a shield up in time, it was my fault." Harry moaned into his godfather's shoulder.

"It was neither of your faults, you didn't cast the spell, Bellatrix did." Dumbledore said sadly.

Harry and Sirius embraced for another minute before Sirius cleared his throat and let go. "Now, I know that this is probably a terrible time to tell you, but Dumbledore has finally agreed to tell you the reason that Voldemort has been hunting you all these years" Sirius said while glaring at the headmaster.

Dumbledore suddenly looked distinctly uncomfortable "Ah, yes Harry I'm afraid your in for one more shock tonight…"

1 month later

Harry sat in his room on Ginny's bed in the Burrow toying with his wand. He was thinking of two words, just the two simple words: Avada Kedavra. Those words were all that it would take for him for him to end his misery. The past few weeks had passed by without him noticing or acknowledging them. Hermione and Ron had tried to help, but Hermione, for once, had no idea what to do, and Ron was also dealing with intense grief. Harry's life was a void. Ginny had been his everything; she had helped him get through the past few difficult years of his life. Whenever Harry was troubled by something, whether it be big or small, Ginny had been there to comfort him. She always knew exactly what to say or do in order to get him to smile, one of the benefits of having a mental connection with him.

He had often asked her what he would do without her. "Probably wallow in self-pity." She would brightly reply. If only she had known just how right she was.

Harry doubted. No, he knew that he couldn't go on without her. No one else would ever be able to fill the void that now existed in his mind where she had once been. No one understood him like she did, and he doubted he would ever be able to find someone else who could even begin to take her place.

Avada Kedavra

The words echoed in his mind, as if his conscious was begging him to utter them. But something held him back. No, Ginny would not approve, she would want him to carry on. After all, it was his destiny to destroy Voldemort. Harry wearily sighed and put his wand back in his pocket. He couldn't allow himself to give up now, the wizarding world needed him, and it would be beyond selfish of Harry to take away their only hope in ending Voldemort's reign of terror. But, once Voldemort was taken care of, well, then maybe Harry would think back on those two words.

He got off of the bed and started heading towards the door. He stopped at a shelf when he noticed a framed picture. Fresh tears formed in his eyes as he recognized the picture. It showed him and Ginny happily taking turns on the swing that was attached to the large tree behind the Burrow. The photo had been taken many years ago, when he was only eight and Ginny seven. A ghost of a smile crossed Harry's face as he remembered that day; it had been shortly after he had left the Dursley's forever…

Harry Potter and Love's Curse

Chapter 1: Abuse

Number 4 Privet Drive was exactly like every other house in the neighborhood. Its lawn was freshly mown and the flowerbeds were well kept, absolutely nothing about the house or the family that lived in it seemed out of the ordinary. But, the family had a secret that they did there best to make sure no one ever found out. That secret was the reason that the lawn was cut so early in the morning and that the flowerbed was almost always in perfect condition.

A young boy labored in the already intense heat of the summer sun, pulling weeds and watering flowers. He was extremely thin, partly due to lack of food and partly due to the baggy, hand-me-down clothes he wore. He had a head full of messy black hair, circular glasses wrapped in tape, and a thin lightning-bolt shaped scar on his head.

He was only eight years old, and yet every morning his aunt woke him up by rapping on the door of the cupboard that he lived in. She would then force him to do backbreaking work in the yard.

"Before all the neighbors see your unnaturalness," she would say scathingly. Once he was finished with that she would then have him cook the family breakfast, a chore he had gotten very good at. He had to; if he even slightly burnt anything then his uncle would beat him.

When he was finished cleaning up for them after breakfast he would go school. He left quite a bit earlier than Dudley, due to the fact that he was forced to walk, while Vernon drove Dudley on his way to work. The second Harry returned from school Petunia forced him to do more chores and start cooking dinner. He would spend the rest of the night wondering if he would receive the small dinner that was given to him at night whenever Petunia didn't "forget".

It went without saying that Harry's life was a living hell.

Summers were even worse because he didn't get to escape his relatives and go to school, instead he would spend the entire day working for them. It was during one of these summer days that Harry was doing his usual yard work. He was so focused on what he was doing that he failed to notice the woman approach him form behind.

"H-Harry Potter?" The woman asked. He flinched when he heard his name. "Oh my god it is you!"

Once he realized that he wasn't going to be hit he turned around to see whom it was that was talking, and a very strange sight greeted his eyes. The woman was older, probably in her 60's; she was very stern looking, but seemed more disturbed at the moment. The strangest part was her outfit; she looked like she was dressed for Halloween, wearing emerald robes and a long, pointed hat.

"C-can I help you with s-something?" Harry stuttered wondering who the woman was and how she knew his name.

The woman flinched when she saw that he had a black eye and several other bruises along his arms and legs. "You most certainly can Harry, would you please take me to your Aunt and Uncle?"

"Um t-they usually don't like strangers" he blurted and immediately flinched when he realized what he had said. "I'm s-sorry, they're inside I-I'll bring you to them." He led her to the front the door, opened it, and yelled. "Aunt Petunia, s-someone's at the door looking for you and Uncle Vernon."

"What did I tell you about yelling boy!" an angry Petunia yelled walking toward the door, followed by an even angrier Vernon. When they saw who was at the door they froze in their tracks.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing boy, bringing one of your freaks to our home!" Vernon backhanded Harry as he said this, knocking him to the floor.

He would have done more if it weren't for the flash of red that hit him, knocking him out. Petunia's scream was cut short by another flash of red. An enraged Minerva McGonagall stood over the two muggles, wishing she could do more to make them pay for what they had done.

"W-what did you do to them?" Harry asked staring with wide eyes at the stunned bodies of his relatives.

"Not enough I would say, but I'm afraid that I cannot do anymore to them. Now I need to get you out of here immediately, gather your belongings Harry."

Harry stared at her. "G-get me out of here? But this is my home."

"Not anymore, and I would hardly call a place that forces you to be a slave a home, now please gather your things, I don't want you to have to be here a second longer." McGonagall said briskly, but not unkindly.

"That's the thing, I don't really have any belongings." Harry flinched when he saw McGonagall's nostrils flare with anger. "I-I'm sorry…"

"Nonsense boy, there's nothing to apologize for, now if you don't have any belongings, then let's get you out of here, grab onto my arm." She held out her arm as she said this. Harry grabbed her arm and she turned on her heel, apparating away from the Dursleys.

Dumbledore was in his office at Hogwarts making preparations for the next school year when one of his silver instruments began whirring. He went to it and swore when he discovered that Harry Potter was no longer at the Dursleys. Just as he was making preparations to leave there was an angry knock on the door followed by the sound of it opening. He turned and sighed with relief when he saw that it was Professor McGonagall with the young Harry Potter. The relief he felt quickly vanished when he saw the physical state that Harry was in, extremely thin and covered with bruises. "Minerva, if I may ask, why are you here with Harry, and what happened to him?"

McGonagall's eyes flashed with anger as she told Dumbledore about how she had decided to check on Harry, only to find out that his family had been starving and beating him, as well as forcing him to spend almost every hour of his life working for them.

Dumbledore wearily sat down and turned to Harry who was looking around his office with obvious amazement. "Is all of this true Harry?" he asked kindly, noticing the slight flinch Harry made upon hearing his name.

"Y-yes sir" Harry stuttered.

"Well don't worry Harry, you will not be returning to the Dursleys." McGonagall told him with warmth that Dumbledore rarely heard from her.

"I-If I may ask sir, why did I have to live with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore sighed, "Because Harry, they were your only family and I believed that you would be safe there, it would appear that I was wrong."

He turned to Fawkes and whispered in the phoenix's ear. Fawkes flew out his window and McGonagall looked at him questionably. "I just sent Fawkes to fetch Madam Pomfrey to look over Harry" Dumbledore said, answering her question. Harry was staring out of the window that Fawkes had just flown out of.

"Who are you people? It's almost like you can use… magic." Harry asked with wonder.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes Harry we can, and so can you." He chuckled again at Harry's shocked face and then turned when his door opened once again. "Ah Madam Pomfrey, I'm glad that you could come so quickly, it would appear that young Harry hear is in need of some medical attention."

Madam Pomfrey gasped when she saw Harry. "What happened to him?"

"I am sorry to say that his relatives are the ones responsible for it" McGonagall told her angrily.

"Yes, I fear I made a terrible mistake in putting Harry with the Dursleys, a mistake I intend to fix. Dumbledore explained.

Now, Madam Pomfrey, would you please take Harry to the hospital wing and patch him up. Oh, and he will probably have many questions about the wizarding world so feel free to answer them." The school nurse nodded and ushered Harry out of his office.

Dumbledore turned to McGonagall. "Well it seems that we will need to find Harry a more suitable place to live."

McGonagall nodded. "Finding a home shouldn't be too difficult, most families would love to get to have the boy-who-lived in their house. The question is which family would be good for Harry."

Dumbledore thought for a few minutes. "Well I think I know the perfect family for Harry, they love children, won't treat him differently, and he will be somewhat isolated from the rest of the wizarding world."

"And what family would that be?" McGonagall asked.

"The Weasleys" Dumbledore replied smiling warmly at the thought of the Burrow.

McGonagall also smiled. "Ah yes, they would be perfect."