Harry Potter 1. A Heart In Pieces

The Final Straw

A/N: This is where I apologize for not having an update but for me, it has been very hard to do so with the way that work is, my relationship with a great girl still building, and the lack of ability to put take an idea and flesh it out at the moment.

Now, the real story notes will be after the chapter as this is a bit more of a teaser, a prologue if you will, to see if the idea is worth fleshing out and bringing more to the table as this one has been in my mind for a while so I figured I needed to finally get this out as it is partially due to having stumbled upon a story that infuriated me.

One warning though, there will be a bit of gore and angst in this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

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Who am I? If you ask my family, I am an unwanted pest. Ask my friends and some will praise me while others can't stand me. Ask the people in general and they will call me a savior. Ask my wife and she will say I am the center of her life... Then why is it that I have to share her with other men? I am Harry James Potter, the proclaimed Man-Who-Conquered and my wife is currently with one of her lovers while I sit here and wait for her to come back, most likely with some other man's fluids inside her. Why do I take it you ask? Because for all that I hate what she has done, I still love the woman and the mind that she possesses. I should start off with saying that we have been together since our first year in Hogwarts.

Ever since I saved her life from a troll that fateful Halloween night, we were bonded by our souls and magic. Things were, pardon the over used cliché, magical between us for the first few days but things turned quickly. She came to me one day saying that no one could know that we were together. At the time I accepted as I believed that I was protecting her but over the next few years, as we discovered that Voldemort, the bloody bastard, was still alive, she began to date other men. These men were "key figures" in our age groups that she said she needed to help shape to be ready for the time when Voldemort did truly come back and to be on my side when the time came. It started with little dates until the Yule Ball where I ended up walking in on her and_ Krum_, the man behind her as she laid across _our_ bed, I cried myself asleep for the first time of many to come that night.

It didn't stop there as she would regularly visit the beds of other but she always said something before she left for the night. "I know this is hard, Harry, but I promise you that as soon as Voldemort is gone, I will be yours and yours alone. It's for the best despite how hard things are." Then she would give me a peck on the cheek before leaving to warm some other man's bed with him. Those few words of hope were the only things that kept me going.

It has been four years since I killed Voldemort, looking forward to the future with the woman that was my wife, and yet she still continued things with her_ lovers_. And tonight, this would be the last that I would stand, I haven't even gotten a night with my own wife while others have had her since our fourth year.

Tonight...

Tonight...

I could see her as she walk in, with a limp again as always, most likely Kingsley again to pass another one of her proposals. And I sat there watching her walk in, wand in my hand and a bit of dried blood on my fingers. "So, how was he? Another night of passion to pass a bill, or was it another night with Neville to nudge him in the right direction, or maybe it was Ron tonight. Giving the jealous git what he wants to keep him from being envious of my life?"

"But Harry..."

Even with her attempt to cut me off, I continued on my tirade. "But who could ever be envious of my life. Yes, I'm richer than most, live in a mansion and always invited to the bump shoulders with the elite of the elite...but at what cost? The money and mansion, that's because my parents gave their lives for me and caused me to live with the Dursley's, a family that hated me. And the parties, because my wife is fucking at least half of so called elite that attend them. You and your 'Greater Good', just like Dumbledore. Did you learn to love it so while you were fucking him? Is that what all of the visits to his office were for?" With this I let out a laugh that made her shiver, if it was from fear or from being discovered, I will never know. "But you know what, I'm done. A soul bond, two souls that were supposed to be perfect for each other and produce a love like no other. Despite all the blood on my hands from the war, tonight...my blood is on yours and that of your _Greater Good_." As my wand came to rest under my chin, I simply grinned at the look of horror on her face. "_Reducto_." The pain was sharp but short as that last second passed, looking forward with hope to being in the arms of those that had once loved me once again.

**[End POV]**

Hermione could only watch as bits of flesh covered the walls and the pinkish mist of blood spattered, Harry's wand now falling from his now limp hand. She couldn't believe it, it was all too much for her mind to handle at one moment but that was want she had to do. She thought back through the years starting with this horrific moment: the nights she spent with men of political power, the fight at her wedding when Ron punched Harry for marrying her that caused her to start sleeping with Ron again to mend the friendship between the three, the fight with her parents after the war and learning that she was a "harlot" in her parents eyes for forsaking loyalty to "her man", the years at Hogwarts and the men that laid in her bed. The last memory that ran through her mind was the night that Albus Dumbledore had pulled her into his office to talk to her about Harry's future and how she was the one that had to help secure a desired future no matter what, for the...Greater Good.

No...

It couldn't have..._HE_ wouldn't have...

Or would he?

As she tried to think on the memory, she could feel a headache developing as she tried to delve further, seeing Albus' eyes lock with her and then nothing until she found herself outside the Gryffindor dorms. Every time she went over the memory, she would see and catch bits that she didn't before. For months, she secluded herself in the room that her husband had...she still couldn't let herself mourn until she found out just _why_ he had done it and what had made_ her_ bring him to the edge that made him do so. Now as she sat in the room with the decaying corpse, her own sins having come to view in her mind and the reason behind both her own and Harry's fate.

_Hermione could she Dumbledore pull out his wand and level it with her now drooped eyes._

"_Imperio." The man said in a quiet yet firm voice. As the spell left his wand, she could hear words replaying over and over in her head._

_**No matter what it takes in order for you to do so, you will follow the Greater Good and bring about a better future. With the courage of a Gryffindor, with the absolute loyalty of a Hufflepuff, with the knowledge of a Ravenclaw, and with the cunning and ambition of a Slytherin. No matter what sins you commit, no matter whose life you harm, no matter what even Harry has to go through. Nothing is more important than the majority. One life is not more important than the lives of thousands, of millions. You will do whatever it takes to keep Harry, Ron, and yourself together as friends. You will do whatever to change the current political climate once I have gone from this world. You will change it all for the Greater Good.**_

_For what seemed like an eternity, Hermione listened to the words play through her mind. _

"_Forgive me for what I have done, Mrs. Potter, but you will understand one day and see my point of view. This is all done with the Greater Good in mind."_

All of this... all of this because of one man's delusions and his own distorted world view. The reason she had sullied herself, the reason she had betrayed so many, the reason she had destroyed her marriage, the reason she now saw Harry's decaying, headless body, all because of that manipulative man. But even then, the spell had broken years ago with Dumbledore's death, she still didn't have the mental clarity to take a look at what had been going on and what she had still continued to do.

She hated Dumbledore.

She hated the Greater Good.

She hated what had happened to Harry because of her actions.

She hated herself...

And it was finally time to bury her husband as she should have in the first place.

As she lifted the corpse of her husband into a transfigured coffin, she noticed the congealed blood on the table that Harry had been at. It was messy and burned from magic being coursed through it but there was a single rune that she could translate.

Time...

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Yes, a bit of a cliffy for the first chapter but I wanted the first chapter to be powerful and different. While I love to do harem and multi stories, I wanted to combat the "male harem" plot device that have been in a few stories or ones where the main female lead drifts from guy to guy, _The List _comes to mind in the Harry Potter section.

It may be a double standard with men being players when they are with multiple women and women being sluts when they are with multiple men, but if you find yourself an unwilling part of this type or relationship, by this I mean the person that ends up one of the "others", when you truly love the person you are with, you still feel harmed, just as you would if you saw your crush kissing another guy. Harry had to face Hermione, the woman that was supposed to be his soulmate, being intimate with so many men that he didn't know the exact answer. This is why I am going against the "male harem" plot device as I cannot stand the reasons behind it as it doesn't fit into the male psyche.

A man, in most cases, is dominant in his own mind. When he is with a woman, she is seen as his, as barbaric as it sounds in this culture to some, his property. Now, a logical man knows the woman isn't literally his property but that he has a bit of a claim on her. To see that claim challenged and then seeing another put a claim on his girl all to just accept it and go along with it, it would not fit with the male psyche.

Yes, there is a lot of angst in this chapter but it is meant to show all the tension that has finally come to a head.

In this story, soul bonds do not provide safeties nor do they prevent infidelity unless it has been affirmed by both bond partners and has gone beyond the initial stages of the bond.

The effects of the Imperio put on Hermione at her young age will be explain in the second chapter if this is well received.


	2. Interlude: A Mirror's World

A Mirror's World

A/N: Been a while since I did a chapter for any of my stories but I ended up reading another story that annoyed me and fueled my desire to push forward in my own stories.

Now, this chapter will go quite a bit different than originally planned or suggested so we are all in for a ride.

This chapter is a bit short but it is a link to the next chapter and is meant to put something out there to get the story moving.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, the rights belong to She-Who-Was-A-Mary-Sue...I mean J.K. Rowling.  
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She was crying again tonight. How many times had she found herself in this situation yet she still suffered the cause. A "boyfriend" that didn't want her, parents that saw her as filth, a supposed best friend that only broke her down rather than build her up. Her name was Hermione Potter née Granger, a teenager purchased by the to-be Lord Potter to use for his own amusement only to grow tired of her after she couldn't please him as he wanted.

It had started when she was eleven and had arrived at Hogwarts, oh how she had dreamed of finally coming to the school after finding out she was a witch, if only to escape her parents and assure herself that she wasn't a living sacrilege. The boat ride in front of the castle only cemented her decision in her mind with the sight of the grand castle embedded in her mind, still the sight brought her joy after three years of seeing the same thing.

Memories of her first year could only lead to the inevitable remembrance of when she met her "boyfriend". He had been such a sweet boy back then, if a little on the shy side. When that fateful Halloween night came, she had been walking down one of the many hallways of the school when a Troll had turned around the corner that had it dead in front of her. She thought that it was going to be the death of her but a short boy with the messiest brown hair had jumped on the Troll and let off a spell with his wand up it's nose. The debt that she had owed him for that night had resulted in a soul bond and subsequent marriage, at least in legal terms minus a traditional ceremony.

Despite how things were for her now, she saw her time with Harry back then to be the highlight of her life as she had been introduced to her "in-laws", James and Lily Potter along with Harry's baby sister Rose. They were the small light in her dark life but only since second year, that was when Harry had changed, and not for the better.

It started with him being unusually quite, even for the shy boy, as well as secretive. He was always writing in that leather-bound journal of his and keeping it away from everyone else, she had started to call him Gollum in her mind with comparison to the character to her favorite book growing up. Her little nickname had taken an almost literal sense as near mid-year, Harry had become obsessed and insanely protective of the book. When the Christmas holidays passed and Harry came back from visiting his family, he was like a different man. Where the young boy had been shy and slightly nervous, this person was suave and had a feel of confidence and charisma to spare.

From then on, things deteriorated into what they were now, Harry off with other girls, strictly Pureblood girls, and referring to her as a "useless mud blood" now that he no longer needed her. She had even given him her virginity in a drastic hope to show him that he didn't need other girls since she would gladly do anything he wanted or wanted to try to make him happy but that only ended in him saying he was disappointed in her afterward and leaving her to cry alone in her bed with her now bloodied sheets.

She had cried as she did now and as she knew she would cry again. Hermione could only ask out to someone, anyone that was willing to hear her at this point. "Please, I want my Harry back. I miss him. I wish I could see him again."

Little did she know that her heartfelt wish would be answer, even if it was in a slightly roundabout way...

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A very short chapter considering what I usually bring to the table but this is sort of an interlude so happenings during the same time as the events in chapter 1. Just to let you know, this scene isn't Harry going back into the past, at least not the truest sense but know that the chapter title is important.


	3. When the Mirror Cracks

When the Mirror Cracks

A/N: The last chapter, the interlude, was a departure from the original idea of the story but I find this idea to be more profitable when it comes to material than the kind of angsty story that would had been. Now, that isn't to say there won't be angst because the beginning, like the past, cannot be changed and characters will have to learn to move on or let the sorrow drag them down.

Now, as my interlude implied, this story is set in an alternate reality within an already AU storyline. In the original story, it was only canon up to the Troll incident and in this new reality, there was no canon so don't expect anything coming into this new timeline.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

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A heavy presence was all that Harry could feel as he came to. It had been his plan to use the blood sacrifice to power the runes and his pent up anger to focus him on his purpose for traveling back in time, lest he lose himself in the process. Things seemed odd though, everything around him seemed to be obscured by a dense fog once he finally opened his eyes and he was still in his original body at his original age. As he tried to figure out what had gone wrong, he noticed a figure in the fog, a figure he remembered from his past.

"What do we have here, James Potter? What could you be doing here during the school year?" That smooth voice that oozed charisma and confidence on the borderline of arrogance.

"Riddle...What the hell are you doing here and where is here?" The sight of the young Tom Riddle put Harry on edge as he had thought the memory destroyed with the diary horcrux along.

"You always were a surprising little thorn in my side. We are inside your son's mind, or at least what is left of it after I took it over. I have had control since his second year and I have you and your wife to thank for that." The haughtiness in Riddle's voice was palpable in his pride at his work.

'_Second year...the horcrux, that damned diary. What is going on, I never had the diary in the past, it was Ginny that had it and was controlled by Riddle. What could it be?'_

"Poor little Harry came to school that year feeling alone and unloved, it was so easy to make him think I was a person to depend on, someone to talk to about his problems at home. Like that he was mine. The more and more he wrote in the diary, the more of his soul that I took over until there was nothing left. Now I own this body."

_'My parents alive, finding the diary myself and becoming Riddle, none of this makes sense other than this not being my time. What did Hermione call that again, an alternate reality? Hermione...Hermione!? What about her, could things also be different here with her? My whole reason for coming back was either to find answers in why she did what she did or stop it from happening. The only way for that to happen it to take back this body.'_

[Harry POV]

I could feel control begin to return to me as the purpose in my mind solidified. This was for Hermione and, most of all, this was for myself. "I don't think you understand, Riddle. I'm not my father and this is my body." I could feel as my body shifted to that of itself during my Fourth year, only more filled and slightly more muscular.

"No, it can't be, I erased your mind and your soul, you can't be here!" The anger in Riddle's voice was almost amusing, he couldn't understand what was going on which was all the better for me.

Focusing on the self-taught lessons in Occulmency, I began to strengthen my hold on the body, pulling bit by bit away from Riddle's control and back under my own. Slowly, the memory of Riddle began to fade, the cries of agony being the final bit left of the consciousness before it too was gone.

Feeling the satisfaction that the memory was finally gone, my sight blurred quickly before I saw that I was in a luxurious bedroom, the first thing to be noticed was the weight on my chest. It was that of a woman slightly older than myself, one I'd never seen before, her long black hair being the only feature I could make out aside from her face as the rest was covered by the blanket that was covering them both. Pushing away from her in surprise revealed my own state of nudity, quickly grabbing one of the pillows to cover my modesty, waking the girl in the process.

"Mmm, good morning Potter. I have to say, you live up to your reputation of being insatiable in the sack, I still feel sore from last night." As she got out of the bed to stretch, showing off her naked form, the only sight I could focus on was the white liquid that was running down her upper thigh as a coldness clutched my heart in slight fear. Apparently she noticed my look as she started to laugh.

"Did our shag last night cause a bit of amnesia? I'm on a potion, don't need any little ones in my Fifth year. Beside, I prefer it raw. I'm Catherine by the way, Catherine Swan, just in case you want a proper girl unlike your toy, Granger. Now, I must be going. Catch you later, Potter." With a twitch of her wand, her body was covered in her school robes, green school robes, with a small badge on the front. A Slytherin and a Prefect at that.

_'Wait...toy? Granger?' _The thoughts of what that could possibly mean boggled my mind. 'What sort of person was I in this world and what did Riddle make my body do the last year or so?'

[End POV]

Harry left the bedroom, which turned out to be the Room of Requirement, and headed to the Gryffindor Dorms, thankful that being the same at least. As he reached the Fat Lady's portrait, he saw Neville Longbottom telling the portrait the password._ 'He's not the same arse that was shagging my wife, have to remember that things aren't the same here as they were for me.' _"Hey Neville, do you know where Hermione is?"

The look on Neville's face was one of contained disgust. "No one has see Hermione outside of classes for the year so far so I would say she is in your private quarters, Potter."

_'Private quarters...the Married Dorms.'_ Knowing where he would find her, he rushed to the Married Dorms that were near the top of the magically expanded Gryffindor tower. Reaching the only door, Harry knocked on the door with a slight panic. "Hermione? Hermione are you there? Please open up, it's Harry." As the door opened, it wasn't the mousy girl that he remembered, it was like the life had been sucked out of her as soon as she saw him.

"Hello there Master. What can your Mudblood do for you today." No emotion could be heard in her voice other than defeat as she tried to look anywhere else but in his eyes.

A pain went through his body as he saw what her body language was saying. 'Don't notice me, don't hurt me.' Moving his hand to cup her cheek, she flinched when his hand got close. Cupping her cheek gently, he tilted her face so she would be looking at him. "Please Hermione, look at me. Mione..."

With no small amount of hesitation, Hermione looked into Harry's eyes, her own now beginning to water. While the charisma and confidence was still there, the look of caring and kindness was once again in his eyes. Could she dare to hope again? "Master...Harry." With only a nod as indication, Hermione leapt into Harry's arms, tears now freely flowing from her eyes and into Harry's robes. The pent up tears that she had hidden for so long flowed and flowed as crying racked her body. This was him, the Harry she though had been gone for good.

As Harry slowly pulled away from her, he gently lead her to the bed and patted to his side once he sat down. When she joined him on the bed, h Harry began his story. "For nearly the last two year, the spirit of Tom Riddle, known moreso as Voldemort, has been in control of my body. It basically became his because each time I wrote in that diary of his, the more my soul was sucked from my body and his replaced what had been lost until I wasn't there any more, just an echo like he had been."

Taking Hermione's hand tightly in his own, he continued. "I don't remember anything that happened over tha last two years and worse, I remember very little about my own life. I remember some faces and certain people but most of it is just gone. You could call it amnesia but it's more like those memories never existed."

Hermione couldn't help but snuggle closer into Harry, this was the most time she had gotten to spend with him in a very long time and she was going to take advantage of it. "It doesn't matter to me, Harry. All that matters is that I have you back and I'm not letting you go, Master." It had slipped out but after being made to call him that was something that would be hard to get rid of, if she even wanted to. In the world that was hers, one that was constantly changing and offered little assurance, having Harry as her "Master" made her feel safe knowing that it was a constant even when he had been at his worst, or Riddle's worst as she now knew. That and if she was honest with herself, the aspect was arousing to her ever since she had read a similar situation from a five pence romance novel.

The mention of "Master" brought a blush to Harry's cheeks when he heard it leave her lips the way it did, not a title used to avoid being hurt but one in happiness. He felt slightly guilty considering he was lying about his memories in a roundabout way but it made Hermione happy and that was all that mattered.

The two just sat there on the bed in each other's arms, enjoying the warmth of the other. Any problems that tomorrow would bring could be faced then, right now they had each other and that was all their world consisted of at that moment.

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Quite a departure from my original idea for the story but I honestly like this story better. While the original idea was meant for drama and angst, this one will be more about the characters overcoming their pasts with the other and those around them. This will be a single pairing of Harry and Hermione but there will be people coming from Harry's past while under Riddle's control to try to intervene in the couple.

Note that there will be a slight bit of a Domination/submission with Harry and Hermione as I see Riddle breaking Hermione down with his loathing of muggles and muggleborns and Hermione finally accepting the placement in order to escape more pain. Now that isn't to say there won't be romance or fluff, as D/s doesn't mean that it is wicked or vile or loveless, just different and sometime kinkier. Hell, sometimes there isn't even sex involved.


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