Big thank to The PhantomHokage for all his help with this and for dealing with all my crazy. Thanks dude.

31 July, 1997

For the first time in a long time Harry had hope. She had made this declaration so decisively that he felt he had no choice but to believe her. Then he remembered he didn't know who she was.

"What's your name?"

This question was a simple common everyday question yet he looked at her with such hope and imploring that she knew that her answer was the answer to all his problems.

"Hermione Jane Granger. And before you ask I know a lot about you Harry. You're special, more special than those sacks of dung that claim to be related to you. But I'm here now and you can either come back with me or we can exact revenge on those fucking Dursleys."

"You can do that?" he asked her incredously.

She nodded. He sat upon the swing thinking about his life with the Dursleys. Since the day he had arrived he had received nothing but hate and abuse. Who hates a defenseless child he didn't know but he knew they hated him. All the beatings came back to him, the insults and damage done to him physically and mentally. And as every abuse flashed in his mind he found himself hating them.

How could they do that to him? He was naught but a child. What threat could he possibly pose that they would hate him so much? He grew angrier and angrier the more he thought about his life. And then he just wanted to hurt them. If they could all these things to him why did they deserve his pity? He wanted them to feel his hurt, his pain, his anger. They would pay. He looked back up to Hermione licking his lips nervously.

"Can we- um… Can we hurt them?"

Internally Hermione smiled. This is what she needed. The anger. She needed him to be able to reach dark potential. She had so much to work with. Outwardly she looked at him with tender eyes.

"We can, but care to tell me why Harry?"

He looked at her with shame clouding his features. She wanted to comfort him but she needed to nurture the hate more.

"They hurt me. They hurt me and they hate me. So I hate them. And I want to hurt them like they hurt me. I want to feel powerful for once instead of weak, and like nothing. That's what I feel like Hermione, nothing. I feel like nothing at all to them and I want them to feel the same way I feel."

"Ok." Was all she said back to him.

They made to leave the swings, Harry leading this strange girl to his house. When they got to the Dursley household Hermione paused right outside. 'so this is where it all began.' She thought to herself. 'excellent'. She looked up at the house and squinted her eyes just a little. Suddenly she saw the shield placed around the house. 'perfect' she thought to herself.

She saw that the wards had emotional wards on them as well. Looking at Harry she could see he didn't know what she was doing. This was all perfect in her mind. Looking back at the wards she placed her hands against the walls of the house. She pushed her magic into the wards changing the hate of the Dursleys onto Harry into Harry hating the Dursleys. She needed this to fester inside him till it was time for them to go to Hogwarts. He was just too nice for her plans to succeed.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"I was just thinking. My parents are gonna move to this neighborhood soon. So you'll see a lot more of me. Would you like that?"

He smiled shyly at her.

"Yes."

"Good. I would hate to be here and you don't want to be my friend."

She might have pouted a little with that last one.

"If you can help me with the Dursleys I'll be your friend forever Hermione."

"Okay." She smiled.

"Harry before we go in I have to tell you something. Remember how I said you were special?"

He nodded.

"It's because you're a wizard Harry. I'm a witch. We're better than the Dursleys. As long as you listen to what I say you can make them pay for everything they did to you."

His eyes had widened in shock. He didn't know what to think. He was a wizard? And he was better than the Dursleys? This was a lot to take in at the moment. He didn't know if he should believe her but she was here to save him, wasn't she? And she was his friend. Plus she knew his name. No one had ever told him his name before.

She could see the doubt in him so she decided to demonstrate.

"Look at my hand Harry."

She took a deep breath so she could clear her mind and then pushed her magic into her hand. A flame appeared above her right palm and Harry jerked back in surprise. She closed her hand quickly snuffing the flame as she went. She looked back into his eyes. She could see she had erased any doubts that might have lingered.

"I can do that?"

She nodded emphatically.

"This is what makes you better than them. They're jealous of you Harry. If you stick with me I can teach you how to make them pay for everything they've ever done to you Harry."

"I can do that!" He shouted in amazement, like his mind had just finally caught up with what had just happened and how amazing he really was. She smiled calmly at him, indulging in his child-like exuberance. She waited patiently for him relax so she could tell him more.

"You can do this and so much more Harry. You can be the greatest if you want. I can make you great. But you'd have to do what I say or else you could hurt yourself. Do you want to hurt yourself?"

Harry shook his head. He wanted nothing more than to beat the Dursleys at their own game and everyone else that ever told him that he was nothing. So he listened to Hermione. She was his friend. She was going to save him. Make him the best and if all he had to do was listen to her then he would listen to her for the rest of his life. Hermione could see the thoughts flitting through his head and knew that right now she had cinched control over Harry.

"That's right and I wouldn't want you to get hurt either. So from this moment on I need to you to listen to me ok?"

He nodded.

"Good"

She smiled at him. As they stood there evaluating each other the sound of crunching gravel was heard. A silver Toyota pulled into the driveway. Vernon Dursley was home.

"Alright Harry, are you ready?"

A/N: I wasn't going to reveal this till later but I really hate stupid questions so to field them off. You'll notice that Hermione knows a lot of things she isn't supposed to. If this was obvious before I'll make it really bloody obvious now. Hermione is from the future. That's what the whole bright light stuff was about. Harry isn't going to know this for a long long time because he trust her too much to really ever question her.