A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. Also, constructive criticism is welcome, flames are not. If you don't like the story, then don't read it.

Chapter 9

The following days after their adventure to get the stone were as normal as they could be. There was slight tension between both Harry and Hermione but nothing that was noticeable to anyone that didn't know them. After they got back to the common room, they both bid each other good night and Harry called Gwen to take the stone into his Merlin Vault, he figured that if ever there was a vault that was impenetrable, it was the 1st vault in the bank. He planned on giving it back to Flamel after the school year.

The following day, Hermione mirror called Miku, who was fast becoming her best girlfriend, despite their age difference and was currently in Belgium.

Hermione said, "Miku, I have a problem."

Miku replied, "What is it? Did something happen between you and Harry?"

Hermione nodded, unable to trust her voice for a few seconds.

When she finally got her thoughts in order, she said, "When we got the stone, it was being held within a mirror. It was the Mirror of Erised. Do you know what that does?"

Miku nodded and Hermione continued, "Well, whatever it showed Harry, it caused him to stare into it for a while. We got the stone but he seemed to be mesmerized. He looked like he was really happy. Well, I didn't realize what mirror it was at the time, so after we put the fake back in the mirror, I wanted to know what had him so enraptured, so I stood in front of it and looked at it."

Miku said, "Well? What did you see that has you all tied up in a knot?"

Hermione bit her lip, "You can't tell him, or anyone for that matter" Miku nodded and Hermione continued, "I saw my family, and... Harry standing next to me. We were a bit older but we were holding hands and looking at each other like we were more than friends. I don't know what to do? I think he likes me like that but I'm not sure."

Miku smiled as Hermione told her what was wrong, Harry had called her earlier and told her the same thing, she said, "Well, the only thing you can do is talk about it with him. You told me about what he did when you found out you had all those vaults. I have to say, he likes you. Either that or he was just trying to get a cheap kiss from you, though in the almost 7 years that I've known that kid, he doesn't seem like the type. I know this much though, if you like him, then talk to him about it. You never know, maybe he saw you in the mirror too."

Hermione sighed, she was afraid Miku was going to say that, "But I don't want to ruin our friendship. He was the first and so far, he is my only friend. I have other acquaintances, but he is my only true friend. I don't want to make things weird between us."

Miku smiled at her insecurities, "Don't worry Hermione, if he is truly your friend, he won't let things get weird between you. If he doesn't feel the same way, then he will let you know in a way that doesn't make you feel bad. Besides, he's a boy, girls mature faster than boys, not to mention boys are sometimes stupid."

Hermione giggled, "Okay. Thanks for listening Miku, I'll talk to you later."

The 19 year old smiled at the 11 year old, "By Hermione, don't worry. It'll all work out."

Hermione smiled and put the mirror away. She left her room and walked downstairs. She saw Harry sitting on the couch reading his Manybook, probably some book on Runes.

She made her way over to him and sat down next to him.

He looked up as she sat down and smiled brightly at her, "Hey Mione."

Hermione smiled back at him, "Hey Harry, whatcha reading?"

Harry smiles, "Just the book Ragnok sent me. I've already read it 4 times and I still find something new each time I reread it."

Hermione smiled, then she looked around, "Harry, I need to talk to you."

Harry heard the seriousness in her voice and put his book down, put up Shadow privacy wards, turning all his attention on her.

Hermione took a deep breath, "Harry, I would like to know what you saw in the mirror."

Harry stared at her for a while, then looked away, "Why? What does that have to do with anything?"

Hermione got closer to him on the couch, "Please, I saw something and it got me thinking. I- I like you Harry, a lot. When I looked into the mirror, I saw my family... and you. We were standing together in front of everyone and we were holding hands and we didn't seem to be friends, it looked like we were more than that. I mean I can understand if you don't see me like that, but I wanted to let you know. You don't have to tell me the same, I just felt like I should have told you how I feel. I'm sorry if you don't want to be my friend anymo-"

Harry cut her off by putting a finger on her lips, "You're rambling, Mione. You didn't even hear me talking. I was saying that I like you to. I saw us standing in together in the mirror, in front of all my friends and family and your family as well, or at least your parents. I didn't know if you felt the same way. I mean you didn't slap me at the bank so I thought maybe you liked me, but wasn't completely sure."

Hermione smiled, "Well, I'll clear that up." with that she leaned forward and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips.

Harry smiled, "So, are you my girlfriend?"

Hermione blushed and said shyly, "Yes, but it's not like we'll do things much differently. We already give each other kisses on the cheeks and hold each other's hands. How about we just continue as we did before, just slip some kisses on the lips in every so often. But more or less, we just act the same. It was like we were boyfriend and girlfriend before. That way, as we get older, if we decide that we want to stop, we can still be friends and not worry about any awkwardness because we would have just been acting like we always do."

Harry smiled, "Okay, but if we still like each other in third year, I will ask you be my real girlfriend, so I can take you to nice places and tell everyone."

Hermione blushed and smiled.

After they agreed to take things slow, things quickly got back to normal for them. The only difference was that they held hands a lot more and were a lot closer than before. When they were alone they kissed each other sometimes, but mostly, they just liked being with each other. Harry told her more about how he felt towards the Potters and the people from his old life and how he felt before he met the Order. She told him more about her life before Hogwarts and about some of her bouts of accidental magic.

Once interesting thing happened around the beginning of May. Somehow, Chris, Neville and Seamus Finnigan managed to lose 150 poits in one night. In so doing, Gryffindor's standing in the House Cup went from 2nd, behind Ravenclaw, to dead last. There were plenty of rumors about how they did it, but they nothing could be proven. After that, it seemed like the whole of Gryffindor House turned against them. Seamus and Neville seemed to take it pretty hard. No one seemed to want to have anything to do with them. People had figured out that Ron was behind some of it too, even if he was in the Hospital Wing, so they started to shun him as well. Chris seemed to take everything in stride. He continued to act like a pompous ass, his attitude didn't endear anyone to him either. If anything, it made him more hated because it seemed like he didn't even care that he lost his house enough points to put them out of the House Cup race. He continued to say things like, "At least Malfoy lost Slytherin 50 points." No one cared about that, 50 points wasn't to bad, but 150 points was outrageous!

Though it finally got through to him after a week of nonstop pranks, directed strictly at him, and all of Gryffindor house claimed credit for them. He spent a day walking around bald and completely white. Another prank was, every time he sat down, he farted, whether in the Great Hall, in front of the school or in the safety of his own dormitory. The final straw, however, was when his was forced to wear a dress that had the number 150 on it, for an entire day.

Throughout all this going on, Harry and Hermione noticed a distinct change in the way some of the staff treated them. They, mainly Harry, was invited down to Hagrid's on more than one occasion. During which, newspaper clippings were "carelessly" laying about the hut. There were other, less obvious ways that seemed to be clues or hints at what was hidden on the third floor. They both realized very quickly that Hermione had been right, the old man was trying to figure out who was the real Boy-Who-Lived. They studiously ignored the clues and veiled "interesting" facts.

Soon exam time was upon the inhabitants of the castle. For fifth and seventh years, that meant OWLs and NEWTs, which in turn, meant that many upper years had shorter tempers and patience for everyone around them. Everywhere they looked, people were cramming for tests. Harry and Hermione met up with Padma, Terry, Su Li, Lisa, Blaise, Daphne and Tracey on more than one occasion, whether in the library or elsewhere in the castle. A few times a couple of Hufflepuffs; Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Lilian Moon, Justin Finch-Flechley and Ernie Macmillan, came along and studied with them, along with Padma's sister, Parvati, Lavender Brown and Sally Anne Perks from Gryffindor, who also joined them. Michael, Anthony, Morag, Mandy and a few others from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff studied by themselves, including the three stooges, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. Occasionally the two groups would meet but not often. Those that didn't study with others, studied on their own. From what Harry and Hermione heard, the three stooges didn't really study to much, they were getting at least Acceptables in all their classes so they didn't care.

Harry and Hermione didn't need to study, really, thanks to their Occlumency, but decided to help their classmates and to brush up on their lessons, since they hadn't been paying attention in class to much, instead, they had been writing down different spells for different uses and dissecting their arithmatical formulas. At night they simply reread their course books and knew they would be okay with the exams.

All throughout the different exams people were stressing about their grades, at least those that cared. Harry and Hermione saw that Chris and the other two were very distracted and figured that it was because of the stone. Harry decided to put wards on the third floor corridor to alert him if the three Gryffindors were foolish to try and "protect" it from Snape.

Sure enough, the night after their last exam, the wards tripped, alerting Harry that Chris and his idiot friends were going down the trapdoor. He let Hermione know and they quickly got ready and silenced themselves, removed their scent and disillusioned themselves with a Shadow spell, then threw their cloaks over themselves and shadow walked to the third door. They watched as Chris apparently played a flute and put the giant dog to sleep. They quickly attached themselves to Chris' shadow and followed along.

Their trip was slightly boring the second time around. They watched as Neville identified the Devil's Snare and got them through that test. The next was the "Key Room". They were attached to Chris' shadow so when he took off on the broom to catch the key, they were ready to throw up because of the constant moving around and them not controlling it. It was during the dizzying flight when Harry noticed a slight shimmering in the corner of the room. He detached from Chris and went to a normal wall shadow and saw that it was Dumbles, the old man was watching the whole thing! Harry shook his head at the stupidity and rejoined Hermione in Chris' shadow. He sent her a shadow message explaining what he discovered and she too, was shocked at the idiocy the old man was showing. When they got to the next test, the giant chess board, they watched as Ron, "heroically" sacrificed himself to that Chris and Neville could go on.

When they got to the next room, both looked ready to faint at the sight of the giant troll lying dead on the floor. They got past it and went on to the Potion's Riddle. After looking at the piece of parchment for about 5 minutes, Chris and Neville had the choices of vials narrowed down to three. Hermione could tell that Chris was guessing when he pointed to a vial and Hermione knew from the design of the vial that it was wrong, thinking quickly, she cast a switching spell on the correct potion and swapped the poison for the potion to get him out. While she was taking care of Neville, Harry was paying attention to Chris. He watched as Chris surprisingly picked the correct vial of potion to drink from. They both watched as the two Gryffindors talked about what they would do. Neville would go back and get Ron to the Hospital Wing and get Dumbledore and Chris' mum and dad.

Harry scoffed as Chris said, "I'm the Boy-Who-Lived. Snape may be good, but I beat You-Know-Who. That should get him to think a bit before taking me on. But make sure that you get Dumbledore and my parents as soon as you can. I don't want them to miss me beating Snape and getting rid of him for good."

Neville nodded and downed the potion and walked back the way they came. Harry and Hermione watched as Dumbledore followed Neville. Hermione went with them while Harry went with Chris. Once on the other side, Chris was stunned that it wasn't Snape at all, it was Quirrell. Harry wasn't surprised at all. He had figured out that there was something wrong with the man from the beginning. After it was confirmed that someone was trying to steal the stone, he and Hermione concluded that the most logical answer was that it was Quirrell that was trying to steal the stone.

Harry listened to Chris and Quirrell banter with each other after the crook tied Chris up. When he started hearing a voice come from nowhere, Harry started scanning, with his contacts, for magical, thermal and any other traces that he could think of. He came up with nothing, except when he focused his mage sight on Quirrell himself. A sickly green color was emanating from the man's turban. Harry didn't have to wait long. Quirrell made Chris look into the mirror, after which Chris lied through his teeth about the stone being in his pocket. Quirrell seemed to plead with the voice, finally he started to unwrap his turban. After he was done, he turned his back to Chris and Harry had to do everything not to fall out of the shadow.

There was another face sticking out of the back of the man's head! "It" identified itself as Voldemort. As soon as Chris realized who he was facing, he promptly fainted. Voldemort laughed a cold, high laugh and told Quirrell to take the stone from the boy's pocket. Harry quickly went to another shadow and sent a hoard of offensive spells towards the possessed defense teacher, forcing him to dive out of the way.

Harry used a charm to deepen his voice so that it boomed around the corridor, "Look at you. You're pathetic, living off another to survive, like a weakling? Most pathetic wizards at least know when to give up, you're to stupid to know when you're done. Beaten by a mere child? You'll be remembered as one of the weakest wizards around."

Voldemort screamed in rage, "Where are you! Hiding like a coward?"

Harry laughed, "I'm not the one who hides behind a false name and flees from death's embrace. Nor am I the one who is so terrified of death that I would risk becoming something that even the weakest muggle would be able to best. You're not even human. You're an animal that needs to be put down. I will do this for your own good."

Voldemort screamed, "And who are you to do this?"

Harry chuckled and conjured up a "body" draped in a black rope and made it appear out of the shadows for a few seconds, while saying, "I am death. And I have come to claim what is mine."

"Death" retreated back into the shadows while Voldemort started to fling curses everywhere, trying to get his attacker. Harry laughed in his deep voice and continued to throw curses at the enraged being. After Voldemort started throwing unforgivables, Harry simply flicked from shadow to shadow faster than the blink of an eye and cast multiple cutting curses. After getting hit by at least 20 curses. Quirrell's body gave out and Harry watched as Voldemort's spectre rose out of the body, causing it to turn to ash, and flew towards Chris' body. Harry used his mage sight and saw that he just took what energy that Chris had. The Gryffindor would simply have magical exhaustion. Harry quickly fixed all the damage that Voldemort's curses had done to the room and watched as Dumbledore and Professors McGonagall, Snape Flitwick and Potter rushed into the chamber.

He watched as Dumbledore used Legilimency on Chris to find out what happened and saw the confusion of the old man's face. After making sure that everything was okay, Harry put a shadow charm on Chris to allow him to listen in on any conversations the old man had. Then he shadowed back to his common room where he met Hermione.

She explained, "As soon as Neville was back in the chess room, Dumbledore showed himself and took Neville and Ron back to the third floor corridor and then modified his memory to make Neville think that he made it back and met Dumbles outside the corridor. After that, Dumbledore called McGonagall, Snape, Potter and Flitwick to help him. You know the rest."

Harry explained what had happened with Quirrell and Chris, she was horrified to find out that Voldemort had been in the castle the whole time. She laughed when Harry told her about "death coming to claim what was his". After that, they went to bed. A few days later, Chris finally woke up and told Dumbles what happened. Or at least what he believed happen. Harry shadowed to the Hospital Wing and used Legilimency on Chris at the same time as Dumbles. The idiot actually believed what Dumbles had told him had happened, that he had fought back at Voldemort and had burned hi to ash just by touching him. No memory charms were even used!

Harry laughed at the confusion on the old man's face when he couldn't figure out what really happened. Harry also found out that the headmaster had told kept the "stone" but told Flamel that it had been destroyed. Dumbledore thought that it was for the "Greater Good" that he keep the stone, just in case something happened later on. He justified it to himself that he wouldn't use it unless it was absolutely necessary.

The end of the year feast was very standard. The only difference was that Dumbledore gave a speech that wasn't the standard "Farewell" speech.

He stood and said, "Another year has past and now the House Cup needs awarding."

The Ravenclaws cheered, actually everyone cheered except for the Slytherins, whose winning streak had finally ended. Plenty of students patted Harry and Hermione on their backs for all their point contributions. It was largely by their doing that Ravenclaw had won by such a high margin.

Dumbledore continued, "Yes, well done Ravenclaw. However, I have some last minute points to award." a hush fell over the hall, Harry and Hermione narrowed their eyes at the old man.

He couldn't possibly give those three enough points to overtake Ravenclaw!

The headmaster continued, "For a vast knowledge of plants, for one so young, I award 30 points to Neville Longbottom." the Gryffindor's cheered, though is was still subdued, "I also award 50 points to Ronald Weasley for the best played game of chess that Hogwarts has seen in many years." more cheers went up from the Gryffindors, even if they didn't win, at least they beat Slytherin, "And finally, for outstanding Bravery in the face of danger, I award 50 points to Mr. Christopher Potter."

The Gryffindors cheered, they didn't win but they came in second! Harry smirked at Hermione, he could tell by the expression on Dumbledore's face that he wanted to give more points but couldn't justify doing it without showing his outright favoritism towards the Boy-Who-Lived. Hermione smiled back at him and the rest of the feast went by quickly. The Quidditch Cup went to Slytherin after a nasty defeat of Gryffindor, after which the seeker, Cormac McLaggen was forced to spend a week in the Hospital Wing after crashing head long into the side of the teacher's box, after being hit in the head by a bludger.

The following morning, Harry and Hermione seemed to be the only first years completely packed and ready to go. They had shrunk their trunks and Harry had Hedwig fly to the Grangers from the castlc so she wouldn't be cooped up in a cage the whole way back.

After breakfast, about an hour before they had to board the train, Harry and Hermione were walking around the grounds when the Potters came up to them, Lily said, "Harry, we just wanted to say that we are sorry that you felt that the Christmas gift we sent you gave you the message that we were trying to buy you. We just wanted to get you a present and didn't think you had a broom."

Harry nodded, "Well, thank you for that. But like I said in the letter, I already have a broom so I don't need one. I'll be bringing it in the Fall."

James asked, "Do you like Quidditch?"

Harry shrugged, "It's okay, but really, I just like flying. I may try out as a reserve seeker but I don't know. It depends on if the practices interrupt my other activities."

James looked surprised at the seeker comment but ignored it, instead he said, "Well, what are your plans for this summer?"

Harry shrugged, "I don't know yet. I know that I am spending the first few weeks out of Britain. I am going to visit my friend Miku and her family in Hong Kong, then my friend Jammel and his family in the Bahamas. I'll visit a few other friends too, or at least write to them. I know that I am coming back to go on vacation with Hermione. I'm taking her family to the States for a week or so, then back here to Southern France for the last week. I will also visiting Master Sho to catch up on my potions. This year has been very lacking and I need to catch up a bit."

James smirked at the dig towards Snape but Lily was tearful, "Do you think you could come by the manor and visit a bit?"

Harry looked at her for a moment, "Why? Chris and I don't like each other, really my only friends is Hermione and I'll be seeing her for a large portion of the summer. I don't like Neville or the human garbage disposal either. Really, the only Weasleys that I like at Hogwarts are the twins. Bill and Charlie don't live at home anymore so they're out. I think Percy needs to get that stick removed. It has to be painful, all the way up his ass. Ron makes me sick when he eats and is an idiot when he isn't. There would be nothing for me to do. Thank you for the invite, but I will have to decline."

James said, "Well, we were thinking that maybe we could get to know each other again."

Harry shook his head and sighed, "I was trying to be nice. I already told you. I don't want to get to know you again. Stick with Chris, I realized from very early on that I wasn't really welcome in the Potter home, more like a house guest that everyone left alone. I accepted it. Don't try to make up for something you can't. I'm not mad at you. I was, but I'm not anymore, but at the same time, I don't want to get to know you. Please just leave me alone."

With that, he and Hermione walked away, leaving the Potters gaping. Lily was in tears again and James didn't look much better. Harry knew that he was being a hard ass, but he didn't want them around him. It just brought back bad memories. Memories that he had already dealt with and wanted to forget about, that was his old life, he wanted to live his new life.

Soon everyone had boarded the train to London, Harry and Hermione found an empty compartment and quickly settled in for the long trip. Harry warded the door for any unwanted guests and he and Hermione just dozed for most of the way. They occasionally read a book, but mostly just talked about their summer plans. One more than one occasion, they saw Malfoy and his goons walk past their compartment, as well as Chris and the other two stooges

When they pulled into the station Hermione and Harry were the first two off the train. They took their trunks out of their pockets and enlarged them, or Harry did, since he was allowed to use magic outside school. They grabbed a trolley and made their way into mundane London where they met the Grangers. They were telling them about the rest of their year when Harry noticed the two adult Potters along with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin staring at him sadly. He shrugged them off and he and the Grangers made their way out to their car. Harry went with them to their house and had dinner with them. He stayed the night and left in the morning, promising that he would contact Hermione every night and that she could call Gwen anytime she liked to send a message to Harry, and that he would see them the last week of July.

The following morning he Shadow Walked to the alley next to Gringotts and walked inside. He bowed to the guards, who bowed back and made his way into the waiting area. Soon a goblin was escorting him to Ragnok's office.

Ragnok bowed to him and said, "Good Morning, how are you, Mr. Daniels."

Harry responded, "I am well, thank you for asking, Director. How are you doing this fine morning?"

Ragnok smiled, "I am doing quite well. Your vaults are doing quite well, we just bought stock in many muggle companies, one of which is proving to be quite profitable. Microsoft is already a very well known company and seems to be doing even better, you now own 2% of the company, and even with that low amount, you are still making plenty of gold."

Harry nodded, "Thank you for doing so well with my vaults. Now, may I ask a favor?"

Ragnok nodded, "You may."

Harry said, "Could I perhaps buy a Goblin-made Portkey? I know you do not normally sell them but I would be willing to pay nicely for it."

Ragnok smiled, "And why do you not want to use a wizard-made portkey?"

Harry grimaced, "Because they are horribly made. They make me want to vomit and always give me migraines. Not to mention that I would have to answer questions that I don't want the Ministry to know the answers to. It deals with Walker business. I have to report to Shadow about my last year."

Ragnok nodded, "Very well."

He pressed a rune on his desk and a goblin came into his office carrying a gold Galleon.

Harry smiled, "Thank you War Chief Ragnok. You may deduct the cost from my Daniels family vault. May your gold never cease and your enemies tremble in fear." he bowed to Ragnok, then to the goblin who brought the Portkey to him.

Both returned his bow and bid him farewell. In a flash of color, Harry Daniels was gone from Britain. Only to be back the last week of July.

A/N - This is just Part 1 I already have Part 2 started and am working on it as much as I can to have it up ASAP. Please Keep up the Reviews.