Disclaimer they all belong to J.

One Hundred and Forty going on Twelve

Fates intervention

Silent tears ran down the wrinkled face of the old man, it was one hundred years today since she had died. One hundred sad lonely years, filled with sorrow and emptiness, his heart still yearned for her, his soul, his pained and tortured soul wept for her.

She had been fortytwo years old when her husband had killed her in a blind drunken rage; as a Weasley she had suffered twenty years of his abuse, twenty years without telling anyone about it. Abuse only discovered by her death at the hands of the brutal man.

Harry and she had both been thirty eight years old when they had both received the anonymous owls, the notes the owls brought had simply told them to ask in the record office for book Number one, on page five hundred and thirty, they would find something of great interest. They had through some strange twist of fate, turned up at the same time to look at the book, both carrying identical messages. They were best friends, had been for nearly all their lives, so they naturally looked at the book together.

They both knew, once they had read the entry, why they had lived such miserable lives, separately they had both been very unhappy, they read the entry together and together they had left the room. It was the last time he ever saw her alive, her fire and determination were gone, her spirit broken, she had simply said "it's too late," and left him standing watching her leave. The day she died he had known before he was told, he had felt it. His heart had broken just a little more and after so many long years he was still truly unhappy without her in his life, he missed her so much. In his long life he could count the happy days he had had on his fingers and toes.

Today he was one hundred and fortytwo years old, today he was to retire from the post of head of the Wizengamont, he wanted to spend his remaining years as the headmaster of Hogwarts with no other distractions. He had called in to the record office today just as he had done for exactly one hundred years; he stood at the small lectern and read the entry once again.

Entry Number 2904… Date 01. 01. 105,AD.

Hermione J Granger, D.O.B 19 September 1979, Harry J Potter, D.O.B 31 July 1980.

Expected Date of Union. 01 September 1991

Last Date on time limit 24 December 2019…

Date of Union… 00 Unfulfilled…

Harry looked again at the first page in the huge book. And read the page they had not read that first time.

Book of the Fated.

Warning to all written within.

Here in are the names of those chosen by fate to be together as soul-mates for all time. Let it be known throughout the world, that misery and torment for all eternity will befall any who wilfully prevent these unions. For those whose unions are never made complete, only a life of unhappiness remains. For those who find their soul-mate a simple kiss will complete their union.

But beware lest you stand to close to such an event.

If in this book you find your name then take heed, find your mate or suffer an eternal search. There will be no rest until two become one.

For those within the pages of this book are placed here by the power of the universe… Look now learn and be warned you can not escape fate…

Note: Unions of soul-mates are recognised by the fates and the wizarding world as magical unions, unbreakable and eternal. Thus the Wizarding world accepts these unions as a legal and binding marriage for all time.

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Harry left the records office and made his way along the various corridors that would lead him to the Wizengamont chamber, the place where the ruling body of the wizarding world met to make new laws, and to hold session. He was half way along the main corridor when he was stopped; a young wizard had joined him. Ashford Lupin was a brilliant young member of the untouchables, "I have the experiment scheduled for around fifteen minutes time, if you are interested professor you could come with me and witness the creation of the first personal time portal, it will be so much better than the old time turners."

Harry saw no reason he could not spare this eager young man a few minutes of his time; he was passing that way anyway. They were just a few dozen yards away from the lab when they saw it, a binding flash and an enormous wave of magic rippling speedily toward them, Harry knew they couldn't stop it but he tried a shield charm anyway.

Harry never heard the explosion that would have been the biggest in the ministry's history, the accident in the department of mysteries came from Ashford Lupin's lab. The magical wave hit Harry half a second after he raised a shield, but he was lifted from his feet and hurled backward. When he woke up Harry found himself surrounded by a dense cold damp mass of swirling grey cloud, he could just see his hand if he held it at less than arms length. From all sides he could hear voices, thousands of them in all languages, both male and female yet none loud enough to hear the words.

Slowly Harry began to edge forward, his hands groping for a wall, a door, anything to help him figure exactly where he was, but there was nothing to be found, he turned slowly to face the other way, maybe if he went away from the point of origin of the magical wave he would find some thing, someone. The voices, indiscernible conversations, still assailed him from all sides, some he seemed to be getting closer too, then he would lose them amongst all the others, he tried shouting to draw their attention, but to no avail.

Then he heard a voice he thought he knew, the deep booming voice of Hagrid so he turned in that direction, he thought he heard Hagrid again, calling for the first years, but the voice faded once again. Harry realised the voices were being lost to him when he stopped to listen, so he determined not to stop or stand still again, he needed to know where he was, he needed something or someone to help him find his way out of this cold damp all engulfing fog.

Again he heard a voice, a female he thought he knew, he knew the words she said, they had been forever etched in his memory, following the voice he heard it again 'Platform 9 ¾ this way' the voice was undeniable, impossible though it seemed, he knew the voice was real. Still following the direction of the voice Harry finally caught sight of something; it was a fleeting glance at a boy's head of unruly black hair.

Feeling his way forward Harry found the cloud thinning he could see the crowds of people milling around the platform within the fog, then he could see that head of black hair as it headed for a compartment of a train, and the boy was passing just in front of him, reaching forward he tried to get the boys attention, he was close enough to touch the young boy. The moment his hand touched the shoulder of the young boy in front of him Harry felt himself being pulled, dragged forward as though torn apart, his mind and soul seemed to be ripping apart then the darkness came.

Harry woke, or at least he became aware that he was sitting in a compartment of the Hogwarts express. Looking out of the window and seeing Ginny Weasley standing holding her mothers hand he was stunned. He sat there for quite some time trying to work out what was happening where he was; he suddenly knew where he was but he was totally surprised to find out when he was. Somehow he was back where it all started, he had gone back in time to September the first nineteen ninety one, the day things began to go wrong for him and Hermione.

The first thing Harry decided to do was to leave the compartment that Ron Weasley would enter; he needed to prevent Ron and Hermione's first meeting. Forfeiting his happier days at the Burrow was a small price to pay for the life of Hermione Jane Granger. Hurrying from his seat Harry made his way down the train, looking in each compartment as he passed. He had travelled nearly all the way to the front of the train when he saw them, a girl and a boy, both around his age sitting on opposite sides of the compartment.

Harry opened the door and asked for permission to join them.

She was exactly as he had remembered her, her hair that was so bushy, stuck out in all directions, her two front teeth were slightly too big, and she had the warmest smile, he couldn't remember noticing the smile last time, but as he ran the memory through his mind he realised she had never smiled that day they first met. Closing the door behind him he introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Harry."

She spoke up for both of them "Hi, I'm Hermione Granger, and he's Neville Longbottom."

"Wow what a beautiful name, Hermione, isn't that a name from Shakespeare?" Harry asked knowing the answer. "Would it be ok if I joined you two in here for the whole trip?"

Hermione's smile was huge when she nodded, she seemed to have become shy, so Harry decided he needed to make her feel comfortable again. "Hi Neville, heard about your parents, bet you are so proud of them," he said looking at the nervous boy holding a toad.

"I know a charm to stop toads from escaping, if you are interested," he told Neville with a chuckle.

"Do you? That would be so good, Trevor is always escaping, I don't even know how he does it," Neville said grinning.

Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand, but then he hesitated "Hermione if I tell you what the charm is would you do it, I'll bet you are so much better at this than me."

The huge smile on Hermione's face made his heart glow as she answered "Well if you think it'll be ok."

Harry got Neville to place the toad in the middle of the floor then he whispered into Hermione's ear, her scent was exactly as it had always been, no perfumes just pure clean smelling Hermione and a tiny hint of vanilla, he thought of flowers and honey ice cream and books.

Hermione waved her wand down then upward from left to right just as he had told her, as soon as she had said the words, Trevor found himself inside a glass aquarium, a few stones and a drop of water lay on the bottom for him to enjoy.

"Well it'll keep him from escaping." Harry burst into laughter.

"Wow, Harry." Neville exclaimed

Hermione stood to examine the glass tank that now held Trevor; she seemed to be satisfied as she sat back down. Harry took the seat across from her, wondering what to say next he absentmindedly rubbed his fringe from his eyes.

Hermione looked at him for a moment "You're Harry Potter. I've read about you!"

"Harry Potter, The Harry Potter, I never believed Gran when she said we were the same age." Neville gasped.

"It's no big deal Neville, not really, I'm just like you," Harry said trying to calm Neville down.

"Bet you know loads of magic," Neville commented as he moved Trevor's new glass tank to the seat next to him.

"No just some stuff I read in a book, if we were friends I could tell you, but my uncle says nobody wants to be friends with a freak." Harry said knowing Hermione would say something.

"That's awful, why ever would he say that, honestly. I'll be your friend Harry if you want me to be," Hermione told him smiling

"Yeah me too," Neville said losing some of his nervousness.

"Why did your uncle call you a freak?" Hermione wanted to know.

"Well if you don't mind me staying here with you, I'll tell you as soon as I fetch my trunk." Harry rushed off back down the train before they had answered him, he was soon back and had his trunk stowed away.

"Now what was it you wanted to know, oh yes it all started when I was left on the doorstep of my aunt and Uncle." he began… Harry told his new best friends about his life at number four Privet Drive. Even after so many years the memories were still fresh and painful. He knew his story was hard to believe, especially for the two people he had just told who had never been without the support of a loving family. He was trying to think of a way to prove he was not exaggerating like boys tend to do when he remembered something he had hidden so very well before.

Standing up and walking to the door he slipped the lock in place then pulled down the blinds. Then he turned his back on them and slowly pulled his shirt off. "I got these because Hagrid turned up to give me my letter."

Harry's back was covered in bruises and welts, they were yellowing now but they were still highly visible. Hermione sucked in a long slow breath, while Neville went white in the face.

"Oh Harry, how could they, they must be really evil people," Hermione said as she gently placed her hand on his back and felt the welts.

Harry felt a wonderful fire on his skin where she touched him, "I don't want you telling anybody, I have a way to sort this out myself," Harry said as she felt how thin he was. Slowly the talk between the three of them moved on to brighter things, Hogwarts was their favourite topic for the few minutes before the trolley lady appeared selling all kinds of sweets. Harry bought some for all of them, getting some extra chocolate for Hermione, "This will cheer you up when you feel a bit low," he told her.

As the scenery changed and the mountains rose up on either side of them, Neville went off to the toilet; while he was gone Harry made a decision. He wanted to eliminate any chance of Ron getting together with Hermione and he knew only the one way to do it. It would mean moving things along so much quicker than he would normally ever have the nerve to do.

"Hermione, I know we only met a short while ago, but would you be my girlfriend?" he asked her.

"Why would you want me as your girlfriend? Harry, you hardly know me," she asked in return.

Typical Hermione he thought needs a reason for everything "Well you are so pretty and clever and we are going to be best friends anyway, but mainly because I really, really like you." He replied.

She had never had any friends before, her reason was so different than Harry's but she and Harry had both been lonely children, now she saw a chance of not being lonely again "I've never had a boyfriend before, I like you too Harry, so yes, ok, I'll be your girlfriend," she said her smile reaching right down to her soul.

Neville returned just after the conversation ended, and sat back in his seat, Harry got up and sat next to Hermione then he gently took hold of her hand.

Neville's eyes widened as he watched them holding hands fingers interlaced.

"I just asked Hermione to be my girlfriend," Harry explained.

"But suppose you get put in different houses, what will you do then?" Neville asked.

"We won't be put in different houses, we'll all be in Gryffindor, when it comes to the sorting they put a hat on your head and the hat picks the house for you. Well you can tell it the house where you want to go, if it argues you tell it you wont accept its decision," Harry chuckled at their looks.

"How on earth do you know that?" Hermione asked.

"Well I'm not supposed to, but Hagrid talks in his sleep, I asked him about it in between his great snores and he told me the whole thing." Harry told them.

"So we will all be in Gryffindor, the Gryffindor three," Neville laughed "My Gran will be shocked."

"Neville, can I call you Nev, anyway you tell your Gran, you're the best friend of Harry Potter, and then she'll be shocked." Hermione chuckled.

The rest of the train ride was spent getting ready, changing into school robes and preparing their trunks. On the platform Harry and Hermione walked hand in hand toward the huge man Harry said was Hagrid, the first person ever to treat him kindly. They joined the rest of the first years as they followed Hagrid to the boats that would take them on to Hogwarts.

The oohs and aahs that echoed around the lake at the first sight of Hogwarts reminded Harry of his first sight of the place he had called home. The feeling in his stomach was the same as it had always been before. He was home again.