Disclaimer all characters, settings, etc, are the copyright of JK Rowling and Bloomsbury Publishing

Expelled

Chapter 1

It had been six months since Harry Potter had left Hogwarts School in disgrace, he had been expelled and his wand snapped, accused and found guilty by the school governors of sexually assaulting his best friend Hermione Granger. The three main witnesses against him had been his two former best friends, a very distraught Hermione Granger, and an angry Ron Weasley, and his former head of house, professor McGonagall. All three of them had been eye witnesses to the attack. Weasley and McGonagall had apparently arrived at the scene and had been able to stop him before he had done anything more than magically tie her up and vanish her clothes; he had escaped with hastily aimed spells passing him by as he had made a run for it, he had been found later sitting in the Gryffindor common room reading a book and looking as innocent as was possible.

Harry's guilt had been a forgone conclusion as far as almost every one in the school was concerned. At the time all the students accept Harry Potter had been accounted for, he had in fact been alone in the library, it did not matter that Harry vehemently denied any guilt, and had in fact declared undying love for Hermione. He had even offered to swear a magical oath on his life and his magic that he was head over heals in love with her and would never ever lift a finger to harm her, and was totally innocent of the thing they accused him of.

The excitement about the expulsion of the boy who lived had quickly died down over the following two weeks and the school returned to some semblance of normality. No one knew nor cared where Potter had gone once he had left the grounds. Potter was practically forgotten and it had remained that way until the morning some weeks later when the real culprit was exposed. An accidental dose of Veritaserum swallowed by professor Snape, and a rather random question about Hermione Granger and expulsion had revealed the professor to be the one who, polyjuiced as Potter carried out the assault with the hope of getting the Potter brat expelled.

There were several sad and depressed people in the school later that morning, none more so than Hermione Granger. For five years she had stood by Harry Potter through thick and thin, she had always known him better than she knew her self, she had loved him, and yet in her distraught condition she had ignored his plea's to be allowed to take a magical oath. His words as he declared his love for her were echoing around in her head. She needed to find him and beg his forgiveness; she would get down on her hands and knee's if necessary. She had never felt so depressed and it felt like her heart was going to shatter into even more pieces than it was already in.

She now refused to talk to Ron Weasley who had after seeming to care for her and taking care of her until she pulled herself together, become her boyfriend a month after Harry had left; he had still bad mouthed Harry even after the truth was known, so she told him to get lost. Being Ron's girlfriend for four months was another thing she regretted deeply. She berated herself when she thought about how she had so easily blamed Harry. Now that she could look back on the attack with hindsight, it was so obvious that it was not Harry; it was some one using polyjuice.

The one who had attacked her did not smell like Harry, instead he had smelt unwashed, he had not uttered a single word at all, another indicator of someone polyjuiced, they had to keep quiet because the voice did not change along with the body, and the eyes though green were not Harry's eyes, they had been small and cruel empty eyes, eyes she now recognised, just as she also recognised the smell as that belonging to Snape.

Six months earlier.

Harry Potter left Hogwarts swearing to get his revenge on the people who had caused his beloved and treasured wand to be snapped. One way or another he would see them all suffer for what they had done to him after all that he had done to save their sorry arses in the past few years. But he had one place he wanted to go before he left the world of magic behind him to fend for itself. One place he needed to go and convince the people there that he had not done the thing he was accused of. He needed to convince them before he found someplace to live and started to teach himself how to defend himself against death eaters without his wand.

It took Harry two days to find the house he was looking for; when he knocked on the door he was dirty, dishevelled, and soaking wet from spending two very cold days and nights walking around in foul weather in his search for the house he now stood at.

The front door opened and Harry got quite a shock, the woman standing on the door step looking down at him was an older version of the girl he had loved so deeply. Harry was not too bothered about his reputation or with what people thought about him, anyone except for Hermione, what she thought of him was all that really mattered to him and he hoped that if he could convince her parents of his innocence then maybe one day she would listen to them and believe him innocent.

Harry looked up into the warm soft cinnamon and amber eyes that were looking at him waiting for him to speak. "Mrs Granger, I don't know if Hermione has ever mentioned me, my name is Harry, Harry Potter. I was once one of her best friends, I wondered if I could have a word with you and Mr Granger?"

Helen Granger looked at the scruffy young man standing on her step out in the rain, 'so this is the great Harry that Hermione thinks so much of' she thought as she smiled at him. Stepping back a little she invited him into the house.

Harry was led into the living room where Mr Granger was just finished reading his newspaper, Helen then nipped back out of the room to fetch a towel for him to wipe his hair dry.

Harry stood nervously in front of their fireplace as the two Grangers sat in their armchairs watching him; it took him quite some time to pull his courage together enough to start talking.

"I don't know if you have received a letter from Hermione this week, but I wanted, no, I needed to come here and tell you my self. Three days ago I was accused of sexually assaulting Hermione, please before you throw me out please let me finish." Harry said as he saw Mr Granger start to rise from his chair.

With a nod from his wife an angry Mr Granger sat back into his chair and signalled for Harry to continue.

"Well as I was saying, I was accused and found guilty by the school governors and practically everyone in the school including Hermione. I had my wand snapped and I was thrown out of Hogwarts. I came here to swear to you that I did not do what they all said I did. I even offered to take a magical oath to swear my innocence but they would not listen, not even Hermione, they all found me guilty and had decided on expelling me even before they heard any of the evidence.

I now come to you, Hermione's parents, and if you will allow, I will swear my magical oath to you. I swear on my life and my magic that I did not assault Hermione, I am… so deeply in love with her that I could never raise a finger to hurt her, so mote it be." Harry said to the two staring adults. As he finished speaking he was engulfed in a pure bright blue light that then soaked into his skin and vanished.

"What was that light?" Helen asked in awe.

"That was the magical oath, if I had been telling lies I would be dead now," Harry said as the first of his tears of anguish and relief began to escape his traitorous eyes.

Richard Granger stood up and walked over to his small drinks cabinet and poured out three glasses of brandy, he gave one to Helen and one to Harry. "Well young Mr Potter, I've read in one of Hermione's books about magical oaths, that was a very foolish thing to do, putting your life at risk like that."

Harry drank the brandy in one gulp and as soon as he had stopped shuddering from the effect of the alcohol he shrugged "Doesn't matter really, I needed for you to know the truth so that you can maybe one day convince Hermione it was not me, and she will know that I truly did love her with all that I am, well now I've told you what I came to say I need to leave."

Harry placed his glass on the small coffee table and started to head for the door "I'll see myself out."

Helen stood up and walked over to him and took a gentle hold on his arm "Harry where will you go at this time of night?" she asked in a very quiet voice.

"Oh it doesn't matter where I go now, with Voldemort after me and without my wand for protection I will probably be dead before the end of the week, I should go, you are in great danger as long as I am here," Harry said as he walked to the door, again thanking them for listening to him before he opened the door and walked out of their house and back into the rain.

The two Grangers stood and watched from their living room window as Harry walked away from their house, he was about two hundred yards away, half way down the street, when several men in long robes and white masks just appeared out of the air behind the young man, Helen and Richard Granger stared in horror as red and green beams of light shot out from the cloaked figures most of them ending in an explosion near to the now running Harry. Richard was certain that he had seen one of the green beams hit the boy as he rounded the corner of their street and vanished from sight. They had heard from their daughter what those green beams did to people and Helen shuddered. 'Well at least he died knowing that we know the truth.' Richard thought as he and his wife turned to hold each other.