Disclaimer: For entire story here on out, please note: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER! *cries* you happy now?

AN: I'm not sure how many people will actually read this but just a few warnings before hand. This story is very AU and as such, the prophecy has been altered slightly from canon for my own evil purposes. This will also be SLASH (male/male in a sexual relationship)! If you're not into that then hit the back button now. This is rated M for a reason (though that reason won't come until later). This is just the prologue so please excuse the short chapter. The next chapter should be longer. Also, this story hasn't been beta read so if you catch something I missed, let me know so I can fix it. :)

Soul Bound

The one who will conquer true Evil arrives

Born to those that have thrice defied him

And gifted with death touched eyes

With a power the world knows not

The balance of life will lie in his hands

For neither may live while the other survives

The one with the power to conquer true Evil

Will be born as the seventh month dies

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was not a kind man by any stretch of the imagination despite how others had come to see him. He was more manipulative then any Slytherin could ever hope to be and was utterly callous in his planning, uncaring of who he dragged down as his pawns. His logic was only of what he alleged as "right" and not what others had come to believe. For Albus, everything he did was done "for the greater good" and it was not always clear whom that greater good spoke of.

The British Ministry of Magic almost always went along with Albus's plans for it was the principle of it all that mattered. The people trusted Albus, and if the Ministry followed his example the people would in turn trust them. So, when Albus declared Soul Mates to be a danger to society, the Ministry backed him 110 percent of the way. Some would argue later that the extra 10 percent would lead to their downfall.

Taking it into their own hands, the Ministry ordered the Unspeakables to develop a way of tracking the Soul Bound in order to systematically eliminate them from the Wizarding World. While Albus did not openly condone their actions he did not ridicule them either and a law was soon put in place to allow the Unspeakables to continue their research. Eventually, they developed a book that would scan the wizarding world for newly born Soul Bound, recording their names, parents and places of address. It was very similar to the book Hogwarts had used for many generations, keeping track of newborn Witches and Wizards. Unfortunately, they could never seem to track any older Soul Bound; they assumed it had something to do with their, obviously, dark magicks.

Unbeknownst to the majority of the wizarding world, the Ministry began sending out Unspeakables to collect these infants. The child, who was seen as no better than a wild beast, would be killed on sight and any involved in its birth were obliviated, their memories altered to recall a stillborn in place of the Soul Bound.

Most who found out the true nature of these deaths would never claim it was cruel or wrong. For one, Soul Mates were incredibly rare to begin with, though the Ministry had never really thought over this fact. There were only one or two born every year and some of them would never have made it past their first few years to begin with, the call of their Bonded too much for their frail bodies. So, those people would reason, it wasn't as if they were wiping out an entire race of beings. Of course, it certainly helped that these creatures were considered dangerous and evil.

The second, and possibly most important reason no one questioned them was simply for the fact that they were terrified. They were in the middle of a war after all. A war, in which Dumbledore had shredded, stunted and stretched the truth beyond recognition all for "the greater good." But the people trusted Dumbledore's word and so, if Dumbledore did not trust these beings, then they would not either.

However, Dumbledore's reasons for wanting them eliminated had nothing to do with how many there were or even whether or not they were truly evil. In fact, it had only to do with the fact that they were all much more powerful than him. If any Soul Bound decided to revolt against him, if any of them were to join Tom's ranks, well he just couldn't let that happen. After all, he had the Wizarding world right under is wrinkled old thumb and he intended to keep it that way.

Ah, yes Tom. Now he was another problem altogether. For the only reason Albus even knew of the Soul Bound was through this man. This man who had once been a small, slightly underfed, frail boy who hadn't a clue of anything in the wizarding world until after he'd received his letter. Of course Dumbledore had taken the lad under his wing! After seeing just how great the boys' powers were he couldn't just leave the boy to his own devices. Tom had far too much potential. He had to be kept in check.

Albus was many things but a fool he was not. There were already revolutionaries staining his perfect, ideal world. Grindelwald had been dispatched, sure, but his followers were all still out there, breeding mini-followers and brainwashing the neutral. Given the wrong sort of push and Tom could easily join them. Albus had no idea he was creating the very thing he had set out to destroy.

Of course, once the boy had slipped beyond his grasp, Dumbledore couldn't let Toms true allegiances get out; people might actually begin following him if they knew what his real plans were. So, in order to regain control of the situation, Dumbledore began to slowly build up the Wizarding Worlds hatred of all things different. Werewolves were evil creatures that raped small children and killed for sport. Vampires were disgusting fiends who had no emotions and were merely parasites. And Voldemort, oh he was certainly the worst of them all wasn't he? According to Albus, the Dark Lord planned on eliminating Muggles and Muggleborns alike, to rid the world of their "dirty blood" and take over in their stead. It was a scary notion, and one that played out just as Dumbledore had hoped it would.

The Wizarding World became terrified of this man and those that would follow him were condemned just as well. A single spoken word against the Ministry of Magic was punishable by Azkaban and actually being convicted of following the "mad man" boasted a death sentence. It was scary times they lived in and no one of the "light" side had any idea that they had all been horribly deceived by the very man they followed. Dumbledore, however, was happy to note that almost the whole of the Wizarding World would throw down their lives to fight for his cause. And to him, it was a good cause, for he truly believed he was in the right. That Tom, if allowed to control the way things were run, would end up destroying the very foundation of their world. Dumbledore was very old fashioned and was convinced that the only reason their world had survived for as long as it had was for the fact that very little had changed over thousands of years.

Needless to say, when a prophecy spoke of a child who would conquer the Dark Man once and for all, Dumbledore was beyond ecstatic. He quickly wrote down the contents and called together an urgent meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. Together, they deduced that the prophecy was indeed speaking of the downfall of Voldemort, though it was not immediately clear which child was the chosen one. The end of the seventh month undoubtedly indicated their birth to be at the end of July and the way the prophecy was spoken indicated it would happen very soon, perhaps even within that year.

They collected the names of all the women currently pregnant. From there, they narrowed it down to those few who would give birth around the end of July. After scanning through the names, Albus noted a certain couple almost immediately; James and Lily Potter. Suddenly, the prophecy made that much more sense. "Born to those that have thrice defied him." It was not very well known that James and Lily had been spies since the beginning of the war. That was not to say that Albus trusted them, quite the contrary in fact. He was simply waiting for the opportune moment to get rid of them. The fact remained, however, that the two had given Albus "too much" information on several occasions, leading to raids on Deatheater homes and the capturing of many of Tom's followers. After informing them that James and Lily had, in truth been spying for him, the rest of the Order was quick to agree with their leader, Lily and James' child was the one the prophecy spoke of.

The existence of a prophecy was leaked to the press not but days after its initial reading, though the exact contents were kept a secret. Within hours, the whole of the Wizarding World were gushing over the birth of their Savior, wild celebrations lasting long into the night. The amount of hope that came with this single child was enough to make them believe they'd already won the war and the following months passed with baited breath.

When Harry James Potter was born, the Wizarding World gave a silent sigh of relief, but things were not going as Albus had planned them. Barely months after his birth, three Unspeakables were dispatched to the Potter home. Harry Potter was Soul Bound. The Minister of Magic, after realizing just who the boy was, quickly signed the forms that would allow the boy to live and sent along his most trusted Auror to intercept them. The Auror, being a member of the Order of Phoenix as well, contacted Albus directly after confronting the three other Wizards. After validating the papers the Unspeakables left without a fuss much to Albus' relief but there was still the mater of the child. The Minister would hold his tongue that much he knew. The man was quite fond of Albus though it would be difficult to keep him in office much longer. The Unspeakables were sworn to secrecy, so they wouldn't be telling a single soul simply because doing so would destroy their magic, killing them instantly. Keeping Harry's status a secret would have been an effortless task, that was if Albus didn't have to worry about the parents finding out.

Albus knew Harry would have been a target for Voldemort from the very beginning due to the nature of the prophecy. He'd anticipated that Tom would have attempted the boys' murder and had planned to keep him in a safe house with his parents. He'd hoped Harry's parents, seeing that their only child was destined to destroy the evil man they worked for, would change their ways and come back to the light in order to protect their first born. Now, he realized this simply wasn't a good plan. Harry was Soul Bound, a fact he would do anything in his power to keep from the public. Unfortunately, it was far too likely that both parents would eventually realize what their son was and he simply couldn't let that information find its way into Tom's hands. For if Tom knew Harry was Soul Bound, he would not want to kill him; he would want to turn him.

It was far too easy to sneak into the Potters home. Their wards were weak; they hadn't a privacy charm or untraceable charm in sight. Not to mention, they wouldn't have attacked Albus had he simply strolled through the front door anyhow. Dumbledore was notoriously prone to stopping by at random intervals after all.

As it was, none of this was important anyway. The exhausted parents had already settled down for the night and wouldn't have heard it if the back end of their home had suddenly collapsed. They wouldn't have woken to the sounds of creaking steps or the groan of their door as it swung open on rusty hinges. They wouldn't have heard the softly muttered words of a murderer as he uttered the darkest of all curses. They never would have seen the sickly green flashes as they streaked across the room to devour their targets. They would never have been witness to the bleary cries of two month old child who'd awoken feeling suddenly as if he'd lost something very dear to him. No, James and Lily Potter were ignorant of these things and a quickly cast Morsmordre assured that the rest of the world would be just as ignorant, seeing it only as an act against their Savior committed by the Dark Lord himself...