Rule of two, dreams come true.

Announcement: don't own anything. The army of studios, factories and entertainment distributors do. Original ideas and work by JK Rowling and George Lucas.

This is not a cross-over. Yes, Star Wars will heavily influence Harry's and Hermione's development, outlook and convictions, but you won't actually have any Star Wars characters suddenly appearing on jolly ole Earth. Rather, Star Wars is still fiction in this setting. But magic, magic has a way of screwing over any reality it is a part of, especially in the HP 'verse.

Of how the dark ages of magic ended and the future of the human race began

Introduction:

There was once a little girl, of bushy hair and large-toothed cuteness was she,

Going by the name of Hermione.

Yet none approached the poor little girl,

All alone, she was in the world.

Until one day, off to watch a movie she went,

Which thrilled her, apalled her, and left her a little bit bent.

And so she watched the sequel,

And saw something calling to her as an equal.

But when she saw the final act of the trilogy,

She raged at the unfairness and bias of the story.

And on that day, she entered a pact,

That she would turn the story into fact.

But this time, she vowed, reality would set in,

And the vilified ones, the rightful victors, shall win.

And so a little girl caught in the dreams of stars and far off wonders,

Burned a prophecy, a world and its promise of stability to cinders.

In favor of chaos and upset,

That few would enjoy and many come to regret.

And thus ends this story, and its point I shall gift unto you,

Sometimes, the most horrifying thing is seeing a childhood dream come true.

Inscription found on a tomb on old earth, translated by Melchior Malthus in the year of our Lady 6519 (imperial standard measurement).

Prequel: an article of faith

Stonewall primary school, 1986

Freak didn't know that he had a name until this morning. In fact, Freak didn't know a lot of things. Things such as who he was, who his parents were, what they were like (Freak didn't believe Dear Auntie, not that he ever believed anything she told him) and why he wasn't with them. Freak, in fact, knew very little about himself and where he came from. He knew that he didn't know these things and probably never would. Yet Freak didn't let himself be discouraged by these things, for he was finally somewhere where he could Learn Things. He didn't know what these Things were, but learning sounded exciting to his starving brain. And the first thing Freak had learned was that his name wasn't Freak.

He'd expected the teacher to call out his name when she came to F (for he could read and write already, thanks to Sesame Street and Figg the Lady of Cats), but his name hadn't been called. Dudley's had been called. Presumably everyone else's had been called, since he'd counted fifteen other children and sixteen names on the roster (he'd learned how to count by himself. The Lady of Cats had been unable to teach that, for some reason), and he'd started to get worried after the teacher got to G and everyone had laid claim to a name. He wondered if this was some naming ceremony he hadn't been told about, where those without names could claim an unclaimed name for themselves. His relatives never bothered telling him things. He'd had to figure out how to cook, clean and wash clothes by himself. That didn't stop them from punishing him for Doing Something Wrong or even Being Freakish By Doing Something Too Good. His mind made up, he decided to claim the first name nobody else took. He didn't want to challenge them, after all. It would be seen as something Freakish. Freakishness hurt.

And then it happened. The teacher called out "Potter, Harry" and no-one laid claim to that name. He wondered why nobody would want that name and decided he'd find out later. He hesitantly raised his hand, waited for the teacher to see it, and lowered it again after the teacher's curt nod. She'd accepted his claim to the name. His name was Potter, Harry. He was Freak no longer. He found that he liked this Learning thing more than anything else.

Hermione Granger was a lonely child and she knew it. It was hard for her not to know this as she looked around the classroom, taking in the sights and sounds generated by an excited group of schoolchildren whispering excitingly to each other. They all buzzed about how good it was to see this or that person, how exciting this was, how they were now Adults and Doing Things like their parents did. No-one talked to her. Nobody wants to talk to the freak, after all. She would cry, if she cared. She knew, had known for a long time now (about three months, which kids often misinterpret as Forever) that she was not like the other kids. It was not because she loved books, though that was why others called her freak, the little hypocrites. No, it was because she noticed things no-one else did, saw things others missed, felt things that none of her peers seemed to. She had been somewhat scared of these things, and had proceeded to drown out the strange and incredible things it seemed only she could see with books and thinking. Admirable as this was as a distraction, it was not enough. She still saw and felt the strange things, though the books she'd read had taught her to pay attention to them and study, rather than fear, them. And three months ago, it had clicked. Her Dad, who loved her dearly, had brought a videocassette back home with him. Curious, she'd read the title of the film: Star Wars. And she'd asked Hermione's Favourite Words:

"Daddy, what's this?"

"That, my little honey pumpkin, is a film called Star Wars."

"I know Daddy, but what is the film about?"

Her father smiled at her, delighted by her curiosity (he was proud of how smart she was, just like him and her mother) and said:

"It's about adventure, sweetie. About dashing knights, damsels in distress, an evil empire and many other things."

Hermione frowned at that.

"Daddy, you forgot to mention the dragons and unicorns."

After laughing, her father took the cassette out of its box and motioned her to follow into the living room.

"No pumpkin, it doesn't have any of those things. But it does have spaceships and planets."

"Really?"

And her father chuckled, sat her in front of the TV with Mommy who'd brought snacks with her and pressed Play on the Video Box.

"Watch sweetie. You'll love it."

And she had. She'd seen the pictures of spaceships and stars in her books about space travel. They looked rickety and fragile to her, yet people had gone to the Moon in them! She'd thought then that those people were crazy, but that she'd be crazy too if it meant she would be allowed to go walk on the moon. And there, sitting with her dad in front of the TV, she saw something truly magical. These looked real! They were huge ships that flew in space, not a three-person flying sleepover cabinet! And the swords, the space princess, the adventure! But by far her favourite part had been at the start of the film. When the door opened and the soldiers in white poured through, she saw the monstrosity dressed in black for the first time. She heard the breathing. She heard the voice. She felt the icy grip of fear on her spine yanking ever upwards. It's almost as if the figure was not in the box, but right in front of her, choking the captain to death. This was not like the Daleks she'd seen on TV, where she'd decided to hide behind the sofa. She was riveted in the spot. It's almost as if any movement, any at all, would result in the black clad monstrosity turning to face her, reach out from the TV set and choke her to death instead of the Rebels. He had a presence she could not escape. It felt real. And then she'd heard the name, and shuddered.

Lord Vader.

It still drove a chill down her spine, months after that little episode. The film was exciting, but Vader had stolen the show. She'd been glad that she had been Grown Up enough not to cry or wet herself every time she'd seen him on screen. And yet... and yet, she was curious about that figure. Part of her had reacted badly at seeing the figure on-screen telling her to run away, it's a Dark Lord, run you foolish girl, but she'd been too mesmerised by how real he felt even knowing he wasn't to even register the urge to flee. And so, that night, unable to sleep, she calmed herself down from the excitement of watching Star Wars for the first time by thinking about the powers these Jedi and Sith seemed to have. Like being able to find each other, or move objects across the room, or anticipate what was going to happen next and, in one case, talk to the living despite being dead. And then she was in her room at midnight, watching the summer night sky and dreaming about Jedi, spaceships and Dark Lords Of The Sith. And, like any child after seeing the film, she tried to emulate the Jedi by moving something, anything, around. She'd settled on a book and spent an hour trying to move it from her desk to her bed. She knew she couldn't do it, that it was impossible for her to have Jedi powers, it was all a silly fantasy she was engaging in before realising it was all fake and she could fall asleep, tired and disappointed yet with the knowledge it wasn't real.

She did it. Needless to say, she hadn't slept well for the rest of the summer. She stayed up, trying not to panic about being found by an empire she could no longer dismiss as being fiction. After all, it may have happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but that just meant to her that they'd had time to get here. What would they do if they found her? Would she go the way of the Captain? Or Obi-Wan? Or would she be captured like Leia was, only for her rescue would never come. And so, in the dark, a little girl dismissed her fear and embraced that which she'd previously feared. She had powers. She was different. People would probably hunt her down when they found her, which could be at any time. She had to be ready. She had to train. And for that, she needed a partner. Someone like her.

And now here she was. The teacher had been speaking during her trip down memory lane, handing out a test to see if everybody could read and write. She completed the test, vaguely disappointed that none of the other children approached her, despite her trying to engage them. They weren't like her, something inside her could tell. She was alone. She needed someone. She didn't want to die alone when the empire found her. Despite her grim thoughts, she paid enough attention to the test to come first in class. It wouldn't do for her to slip, after all. Learning and learning well would probably be her only advantage.

---

And here, my dearies, is where everything changes. The strange Star Wars fixation is forgotten as Hermione goes through her education finding nobody like herself. Harry claws his way through childhood, alone and unloved until a strange 8 foot tall, bearded half-giant kicks in the door. In most universes, Harry and Hermione only meet up in Hogwarts, or don't notice each other at their primary school, or go to completely different ones. In the mainline universe, their first encounter is on a train, for crying out loud. This one, however, born of happenstance, circumstance and the randomness of chance, is where they not only meet at a very young age, but where they meet each other just when they need someone. Harry is looking to learn, and Hermione is looking for a partner that feels like her. In almost all universes, they meet and take their chances with Voldemort. This universe, however, this universe is different.

Ah, the imagination of the young

It was a rainy midday lunch break and the newly named Potter, Harry was running for his life again. When he had been stuck at home doing chores while his cousin went to Kindergarten, Dudley had ignored him. He was a nobody, after all. No friends, no toys to play with, almost no food... Ickle Duddykins could go on and on about how Freak deserved to be ignored. Oh, Dudley would do things to annoy Freak, but didn't actively need to seek him out. Freak was easy to find, after all. And pushing Freak down the stairs had stopped being fun years ago. But now, now it turned out that Freak had a name. That Freak could talk, read and write. That Freak could learn and, even worse, WANTED TO! Then again, Freak was a Freak, right? But now Freak was Potter, Harry. And Dudley stopped ignoring him.

What was worse was that today was Halloween. Potter, Harry hated Halloween, though he would be at a loss to explain why. He woke up feeling sad and normally did his chores whilst crying silently, never really understanding why. Or why even Dear Uncle left him alone on Halloween, though he looked angry about doing so. He couldn't cry in class. He would be looked at as a giant wuss. So he had to hold it in, which he did. Figg the Cat Lady had taught him to Be Polite And Keep To Yourself at a very young age. And to his relatives, any expression on his face other than obedience was rude. So he did the polite thing and didn't say or show anything. Without knowing it, he'd scared his teachers badly when they looked up to see him at roll-call, only to find a stone-chiselled mask with eyes full of pain staring back. When asked why he looked like this, he just said that he was having a bad day. He was getting very good at Keeping To Himself. It was never good enough to avoid Dudley though. The boy just wouldn't stop hounding him. He'd even roped his friends into his little game. Potter, Harry shuddered when he found out what the name of the game was; 'Harry Hunting'. He finally understood why no-one had claimed that name that first day. It was the name of prey for young Trolls who played with their food. He'd convinced himself, somehow, that Dudley would eat him alive, tearing him limb from limb as he ate his flesh, should he ever be caught before the bell rang. At least there were rules. In school, at the library or at home, he was safe. Anywhere else, he was food.

And so, convinced of his impending death, Potter, Harry ran as if propelled by the wings of fear. And he had only one safe place he could run to: the school library. He never ate in there, only recently Learning that most people apparently eat in the middle of the day, which baffled him. How did they keep from getting fat? The only people he'd seen eating lunch before were Dudley and Vernon, and they were huge. Cat Lady, Potter, Harry and Dear Auntie only ever had a slice of bread in the middle of the day. But anyway, apart from the baffling ability of his peers to eat lunch without getting fat, the library never let anyone but him and a few others in at midday. As today had been rather rainy so far, he expected about three or four people trying to shelter there until class started. Instead, he arrived at the library only to find it closed for lunch. Potter, Harry, never counting on the librarian having lunch given how skinny she was, started to panic. He could hear Dudley and his friends hungrily stalking him, silently jogging around the corridors trying to find and eat him. He needed to leave as soon as possible. A shadow fell over the entrance he'd just come through. Piers Polkiss was watching the front entrance to the small two-storey building. There were no other exits he could use without giving himself away when the fire alarm went off. He was trapped inside. With Dudley and two of his friends looking to eat him. He started panicking even as he made for the stairs that would take him to the upper floor. Please, someone help me! I'll do anything, just help me live through this!

Hermione felt something brush against her mind. Since discovering the Force, for she was now convinced that this was what she was doing, her quest to find a partner had been unsuccessful. None of the other children she'd approached felt like her at all. A few felt like they were being suppressed by something, a few others like they would probably be like her later on, but none of the groups, clubs, classes or study areas she'd looked into had anyone like her. After spending another disappointing morning sitting next to yet another disappointment, she'd huffed and gone to find a quiet area to eat her lunchtime fruit and force meditate. She'd found the force that flowed through her a few weeks ago, a connection to a raging torrent that she could hear, but not see during her meditation. She'd found her connection and, since then, tried pushing, pulling and prodding it to see how it would react.

This was the one bright spot of this whole affair, the thing that made her believe that having to train to survive, finding a partner and not telling her parents what she could do (for their own safety, should a Sith try to take the information from them) was worth it in the end. She'd discovered how to Push, Pull and See with the Force. Force sight was by far her favourite ability within the Force. She could see the swirls, colours and hidden power of the Force everywhere see looked. She also gained something her books called "precognitive abilities". Just like the Jedi, she could sense and feel what would happen next without her intervention. She could even use the sight to read a book blindfolded, the Force inherent to the ink being different than that of the pages of the book.

Though the force lines did tend to blur together when she tried that, forcing her to bend over the book to read it blindfolded. But it was still, according to her mind, Wicked Cool.

So she spent as much time as she could in Force Meditation, stimulating her connection to the force to see what else she could do. She could see the connection gradually grow stronger the longer she spent stimulating it, her connection to the Force making her ever more alert and aware of, well, everything around her. Obi-wan had warned Luke about that in a round about manner. Now she wished she'd paid closer attention to the old codger, since she could feel her young mind struggling to deal with the overwhelming amount of information the force was bombarding her with. She needed that partner soon. She knew she was overstepping her current limits as it was, and bringing someone up to speed with where she was would be perfect for her to learn to pace herself.

She sat down on the bench in the mess hall, finished her meal and made her way to the library building and science classrooms. Only a few people ever stayed there by choice for lunch, and almost nobody ever turned up at the library at lunchtime. She could meditate there in peace, undisturbed by the other, noisier and smellier children, and be in her afternoon science class way ahead of the others. Except this time, something had brushed up against her mind.

It had been a tiny, fleeting thing, something she was sure she would've dismissed outright as being a side-effect of her mind being overloaded by the sheer quantity of information she was forced to process through the larger connection. But she'd already prepared herself to enter the meditative state by clearing her mind of the influence of the Force before starting her trek up to the library. So it was... something else... She opened her mind to the Force. Immediately, her vision sharpened and the colours brightened. She could see the Force swirling around her, the raging torrent of rainbow colours that made up the sky, the deep blues, greens and yellows coming off the flora and fauna around her, the blacks and reds signifying other human beings, that weird copper-coloured dome rising above some house in a suburb a few kilometres from the school... And then she sensed a weird disconnect in the area, as if something were moving through the force itself rather than just through the physical world. She paid closer attention to the chaos left in the wake of that feeling. There it was, the swirling mist left behind... like when she'd used her connection to see if she could dump thoughts and feelings into the Force. To her mind, the eddies smelled of fear. And then she got it.

A disturbance. Someone is creating a disturbance in the Force. And I can sense his fear and panic through it. Despite knowing that something was going badly wrong for her fellow Force user, Hermione smiled. She'd finally found what she'd been looking for. A peer, hopefully a partner, dare she hope for a friend? Her walking speed slowly increased as her hopes and dreams for a future where she didn't have to worry about being hunted by the empire and dying alone filled her. By the time she went past a fellow first year standing at the entrance (a boy named Polkins or something, she remembered), she was running along the trail left by the panicking Force user, manifesting itself in her vision as a dark, tattered mist. When she reached the landing on the second floor, she found that she could hear his panicked plea despite still being dozens of metres away from the classroom the boy (the pleading sounded like it came from a boy) had hidden himself in. The Force was strong in him, she could feel the currents his emotions were stirring around her, seemingly driving back whatever is causing him to panic like this. She felt the Force trying to push her mind away from where he was (amazing! How does he do it?) and the closer she got, the more she had to keep herself from just turning around and forgetting about what was going on there. By the time she managed to open the door, her knees were buckling under the oppressive maelstrom of emotions the Force was dumping back out in the form of the mental equivalent of Force pushing. Finally, she was in the room and managed to exclaim before being driven to her knees by the storm she was trapped in.

"Hey!"

Potter, Harry had been trying to hide in the corner of the strange room he found himself in for the past ten minutes, trying to wait out his Hunters and praying for the bell to ring. It felt like his cupboard did, in some ways. It was dark, oppressive and with no space for him to hide from whatever or whoever came through the door. So when the door opened, Potter, Harry started crying for the first time in years. He'd failed to survive, they would probably start eating him before killing him, nobody would remember him... A girl stood in the doorway, visibly struggling to stay upright. She must be a fellow Hunted, she certainly looked like she'd just run for her life. But why was she in the same building as him? Had the Hunters ganged together and herded their respective kills into this area? Was the frenzy about to start? Icy fear curled its way up his spine, nausea manifesting itself as he thought of how he'd have to watch her die before they finished him off. Maybe watching that Discovery Channel documentary about sharks was not the smartest thing his science teacher had shown his class. He'd had nothing about morbid thoughts revolving around how his hunters and sharks were so similar that, maybe, they'd finish him off like in the documentary. He really hated it when Dudley decided to Learn too, and he'd watched that film with a devotion that had scared Harry witless. And now it seemed that his worst fears had been confirmed with the arrival of this exhausted girl. It would be nice to be able to talk to someone before the end, at least. None of the other kids could approach him without Dudley warning them to stay away from him. Which was alright with one Potter, Harry, given how the fat idiots his cousin hung out with would probably confuse him with the other child, putting an innocent on Harry's conscience. But this girl, she was doomed to the same fate he was. They were going to die. No reason not to speak to her. Waiting for death in silence was probably considered rude, anyway.

"Hey!"

At first glance, she thought that she'd stumbled upon a kindergarten escapee. Whoever this kid was, he was downright tiny for his age! But he was wearing the required uniform (black on dark grey) and point was that he had found himself in the library building, which was near the centre of the school campus and was not very accessible by the school's own students, let alone outsiders. So chances were he was a fellow student here too.

"Are they hunting you too?" Hermione just stared as the kid rocked back and forth, silently crying his eyes out in front of her. Baffled, she just asked "What?"

"You know, them. The Hunters. They've been hunting me every day, you know. During lunch break. Before roll call. After class. It never stops." That last was said in an almost silent whimper she would've missed if she hadn't started paying very close attention to him at that point. The way he said Hunters... The despair she'd heard sounded exactly like what she had imagined having agents of the empire after will be like in the hopefully far-flung future. She decided to do the first thing that came to mind. Moving quickly, she got close to him and hugged her fellow force user. She didn't miss the flinch.

"Hey, it's okay. I won't hurt you. Nobody will while i'm here, okay?" She could feel the background torrent finally settling down as her hug and low voice laced with the little force she was able to pull out of the vortex and control started to have a calming effect. "Really? So I won't be eaten today?"

This was one strange boy she'd found. "Err, why would anyone want to eat you? I mean no offence, but you would barely rate a snack to anyone hunting and eating little children." He gradually relaxed into her embrace, clearly wanting to believe her words.

"But Dudley called it Harry Hunting! Why else would he hunt me but not eat me? That's not like him. The only time he really makes an effort is when he's hungry, you know? I even saw him going to the kitchen during his favourite tv show once, just to get food!"

"Besides, boys taste bad. If he wanted to hunt and eat someone, it would have to be a girl. We taste nice." There, the boy was getting calmer now. The force was already overcoming the disturbance the boy's emotions had created. He was still scared, but he was almost calm now. Weird. How can you be scared and calm at the same time?

"So they won't eat me? Then why are they hunting me?"

"They're bullies. They hunt and scare kids for sport, but rarely do anything dangerous. That's why they're hunting you, so that they can torment you."

He snorted at that. "Dudley can do that anyway. It's not like I can stop him." Hermione was curious, just how had this mysterious Dudley acquired so much power over this kid? "And why is that?" The kid sighed, as if confessing to a grievous and unforgivable sin. "He's my cousin. I live with him, my Dear Aunt and my Dear Uncle." Wow. She could hear the capitals in that statement. Just what had they done to merit such treatment from their nephew? Looking at the tiny figure dressed in rags, she figured that when he did tell her that she wouldn't like it. "Ah, right. But hey, as long as i'm here, he won't hurt you, okay?" And that's when she felt a new emotion released into the room; suspicion. I can feel emotions now, eh? This... could be useful.

He pushed himself out of the hug, his body language indicating that he was guarded and stressed. He finally raised his head and levelled the most beautiful set of green eyes at her that she'd ever seen. "And what exactly do you get out of this? Did Dudley or Piers pay you for this? To lure me out of here in exchange for keeping your pocket money, perhaps?"

Potter, Harry watched as the girl in front of him squirmed under his gaze, pain and frustrated irritation flitting across her face. Finally, she sighed and sat down on the floor next to him. "Tell me" she said, "what if I told you that I found you by following in your wake? That, despite the fact that you were hiding away from others, that I found you in under two minutes?" She turned to look at him. "I am alone. There is no-one else like me, not my parents, not the other children, not even the teachers that are like me, have the potential to do what I can do!" Her eyes dimmed at that, some of the passion he'd seen upon meeting her eyes for the first time leaving when she said the words. "Nobody else, except you. I found you because you are just like me. I followed your plea for help up here." He looked at her sceptically, confused by the sincerity and sheer belief the girl in front of her was giving off. She didn't seem to be lying, unlike Dudley who would try to sweet-talk him into getting food out of the fridge and then get him into trouble. He decided to see what she was talking about. "Okay, so what am I?"

"You're a Jedi. You have the power to use the Force, to connect to the world around you in ways you can't imagine. Just like I can. And I can teach you how to do it."

The kid just stared at her, his puzzled frown from a few minutes ago still not leaving his face. "And what is a Jedi? What is the Force? And can you really teach me?" She smiled to herself, she'd found her companion. Now to start his training.

"I can answer these questions and I can help you along. But first, what is your name?"

"Potter, Harry."

"Oh, so you're Harry Potter then? You were the one that came second in that last test out of the whole year, right?"

"What do you mean, Harry Potter? You got it backwards!" Is he being stupid or is he joking? "What are you getting at? You just said you name. Your family name's Potter and your given name's Harry. Given name first, Family name second unless you're being roll called or in trouble. So your name is Harry Potter."

She could've sworn the kid say something about waiting for a better name to come up next time. Well. At least she wouldn't be bored...

"Hi Harry, my name's Hermione Granger. I am a force wielder, just like you. I can teach you so that you catch up to me soon enough, alright? As to what a Jedi is and what the Force is, it all started a long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away..."

"Huh."

Harry couldn't believe what the girl, Hermione, had just told him. Alright, he could, but it was just so... incredible. How could this 'Star Wars' film be real? How could Jedi exist? And the Force? What was it exactly? The description was so... vague, yet a part of him knew that there was something to this. Somehow, even just the vague allusions as to what the force was resonated with a part of him that he hadn't felt in five years. And yet he couldn't deny the evidence she'd provided when she levitated a desk and a chair and made them spin around slowly right in front of him. And she said that he, too, would be able to do that after a few hours of practice. Harry could hardly believe it. She'd only been here for ten, fifteen minutes and had offered him something invaluable.

But there was one thing that scared him. She kept referring to this empire and to someone she called 'Lord Vader', a Dark Lord of the Sith. How him and his empire actively sought out and killed people like her and him. How they'd had the time to get here, and were probably already in our galaxy looking to slay any potential Jedi. And how, if the story was to be believed, they'd built a space station the size of a moon capable of destroying planets in a single shot. By existing, the two of them exposed themselves and their very planet to the possibility of death. The only thing they could do for now was train and hopefully find out how to conceal their abilities from the agents of the empire or, even better, find a way to keep them out of their galaxy. Hermione said she had some ideas, but they all tied in with how well their training goes. And then she'd asked him if he wanted to train with her.

"Yes, I want you to help me become a true force wielder, maybe even a Jedi someday."

Hermione just smiled at him with those big teeth of hers.

"Great! We shall get started tomorrow after lunch, then!"

"Wait, you have lunch too?"

His new teacher/friend just looked at him oddly. "Of course, doesn't everyone?"

"It's just that – well..."

"Go on, spit it out."

"Well, I want to know... ?"

His new friend stopped for a moment, a faraway look in her eyes as she mumbled back what he'd said to herself before glaring at him with murder in her eyes.

"Did you just call me fat, Potter?" she hissed, the Force responding to her emotions.

"N-no, no! I did not! That's not what I was saying!"

"Then what exactly were you trying to say, Mr. Potter?"

"Nothing to worry about Miss Granger, nothing at all! I was just wondering, given that my or Aunt or I have never eaten lunch and that the only ones who do so at home are Dudley and my Uncle Vernon."

Hermione was reluctantly impressed by how polite Harry could be when he felt threatened. It was endearingly cute watching her new friend squirm after his little faux-pas. Still, he had asked a question, so...

"The idea is to eat well and exercise, Harry. Mom and Dad tell me that I should only eat what I need, not what I want. According to Mom, sweets stop tasting good if you keep eating them. Enjoy one every once in a while instead of watching your teeth fall out right now, she says."

"I wonder what it's like."

"What? Eating sweets?"

"Having parents. I don't care about sweets, since Dudley usually steals any I have. But what is having family like?"

By the Force, that poor boy...

She looked at the little boy sadly. Nothing she could say or do right then and there would make this any better, and the seven year old hated feeling powerless like this.

"Don't worry Harry. This, too, you shall learn in time."

A/N: hey hey, guess what? Yes, it's the prologue to an Evil Harry and Hermione. Hard to believe with all the childhood angsting here, isn't it? Hey, they're six right now, no child is Evil evil at age six (not even Riddle in canon, just a kid lashing out against his abusers). Don't worry though, this will be corrected as Harry gets semi-adopted by the Grangers (not full adoption though; Harry's not a pureblood, so bonking his adopted sister is out). As for why the hell I wrote a ten-page prologue filled with childhood fears turning into rock-solid belief in the protagonists' young minds, I blame two people: Stephen King and Star wars kid. Stephen King kinda inspired the children's fantasies spinning out of control and bringing out the horrific imagery in their young minds thanks to his awesome book. And Star Wars kid because what child would not start believing in Jedi if they got their hands on an actual light saber instead of pretending with a broomstick? Now imagine a bunch of magical children in the HP verse watching Star Wars at a young age, trying out the various tricks they saw on screen and finding out that they could so totally do these things? Would they consider themselves young Wizards or Jedi fledglings stuck on the wrong planet? Hmm, founding the Jedi order in fifth year, maybe? Mayhap if canon is followed, otherwise maybe... and yes, i'm evil. I'm writing a story in which evil people end up winning, in case you forgot.