Harry Potter: Love's Second Chance

"No, but the Manipulator arranged for you two to be put together early in hopes of you two becoming friends. He wanted you influenced by a family he himself influenced. I have nothing against Molly Weasley, except her overbearing motherness, but that's beside the point. I had planned on your soul mate meeting you on the train first. She would have come into the car looking for that toad, seeing you alone, she would have struck up a conversation and you two would have become friends before ever making it to Hogwarts. You would have been more inclined to follow Hermione's studying habits instead of Ron's."

"Okay, so Ron wasn't Harry's best influence, can you explain the soul mate stuff now?" Hermione asked.

"Of course, dear," Miranda replied. "But before I do, may I ask if you liked the kiss? Was it everything your dream promised?"

"You knew about my dreams?"

"Who do you think has been sending them to you," Miranda asked with a smile. "Ever since you met Harry, I've sent those dreams to you. Each time the dream showed Harry, but your subconscious has always prevented you from seeing who was kissing you."

"But last night..."

"Last night, you were so exhausted while all the dangers you had experienced were over, so your subconscious was wide open. You finally saw the whole dream as it should have been. So did you like the kiss?"

Hermione blushed as she looked at Harry. "Yes, uh...very much so. It was everything I dreamed it would be."

"Why didn't you send similar dreams to me?" Harry asked.

"That bloody horcrux you had in your head, of course," Miranda said. "Nasty magic. All I needed was for Voldemort to get a dream of kissing Hermione. Of course," She added with a wry smile, "that might have caused his head to explode."

Hermione paled severely at the thought of Voldemort imagining kissing her.

"Now as for what a Soul Mate is; well, every so often I can see into the future and find those cases where love can play an extremely important part in major events in time," Miranda explained. "In this case, I saw the importance of Harry in the time stream."

"The prophecy?"

"Yes, dear, the prophecy; it was in the time stream years before Trelawney spit it out," Miranda said and continued. "In those cases, I search for the one person whose love would match perfectly with the one that is in need of the love. Once I find the person, in this case it was you, Hermione, though at the time you were still a thought in your parents mind, and Harry wasn't even that, I magically bind their futures as much as I can. The final binding happens at the first kiss between the two. For the need was so great in this case I went to such lengths to get you two together."

"Why?"

"As I said, the prophecy. You needed help and love."

"But it's too late now. Voldemort is dead."

"And at what cost?" Miranda asked softly.

Harry thought of all the bodies that he had seen in the Great Hall. "Too many deaths of good people."

"Exactly, Harry," Miranda responded sounding a lot like the silver haired Headmaster did in a time previous.

"If we had...eh...kissed and did this soul bond thing earlier, would it have made a big difference?" Harry asked.

The Goddess of Love looked saddened, "Yes, Harry, it would have been much different. At the very least, you would have listened to Hermione when she told you she thought the Department of Mystery thing was a trap. You would have shown her the package from Sirius, and she'd have insisted on you opening it. You would have had the mirror and a way to communicate with Sirius."

Harry's gaze moved to one of the white walls of the room as tears crept into his eyes. He could see the final seconds of his Godfather's life. The agonizing slowness of the fall through the Veil. He harbored the guilt of that moment deep in his heart, because Harry knew it was his fault. His godfather had only been at the Ministry because of him. It took several seconds for him to recover. His gaze left the wall and he found Hermione looking at him with concern. It was a look she'd had many times in the past, one he'd never defined before. That brought another question to mind. Harry turned back to the petite Goddess, "So, if Hermione and I were destined to be together, why did I see her as my sister, if our love was so compatible?"

"Tell me, Harry, when you sat in front of the Mirror of Erised, what did you see?" The Goddess of Love asked gently.

"My family."

"And family is what you most desperately desired. But what was family to you at the age of eleven? You'd seen the marriage of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, and their relationship wasn't want you wanted, what you desired. When you found the woman or young girl you loved, you didn't call her someone you wanted to marry, you called her sister because with nothing to compare it to, that's how you defined true love."

"So a soul mate is a person's true love?" Hermione asked.

"It's much more than that, dear," Miranda answered. "It's a love so deep that it binds the two people together in heart, in mind, and in soul. If you two had carried on and married other people, you would have always found yourself feeling incomplete."

Hermione turned to Harry, "How are we going to explain this to Ron or Ginny? With Fred dead it's going to devastate the Weasleys."

"I just wish there hadn't been so much loss of life," Harry said. "I could spend my life with you, Hermione, and be truly happy, but how can I ever be happy when I know I was the cause of so much death."

"You were the cause?" Hermione asked forcefully. "Rubbish. You saved more lives than you can imagine. You were willing to die so others could live."

"And that brings us to the final point," Miranda said. "Harry, your sacrifice was made in the name of love. You willingness to die so that so many deaths would end purely out of love gives me a chance to help you."

"What do you mean? How can you help me?" Harry asked suddenly with a glimmer of hope. "Can you...can you bring those people back? Fred, Sirius, Tonks...everyone?"

"In a way, yes," Miranda said. "But not as you're thinking. If you both could go back in time, to relive your lives knowing what you do now, would you? You would have to fight Voldemort again, but you would already know his secrets. You could save many of the lives lost recently, and you might be able to save your friendship with the Weasleys."

"How far back? Far enough to save Cedric and Sirius?" Harry asked.

"I can just do Sirius, but I can't give you back Cedric," Miranda explained. "The events that transpired that night are too far dissipated into the fabric of reality to unwind."

"What about the Horcrux that was in me?" Harry asked.

"I can either leave it out, or put it in. I would recommend having it in your head."

"WHAT? WHY?" Harry sputtered.

"Considered it a get out of a Killing Curse free permit," Miranda replied. "Remember, it is your blood in Voldemort that links you. As long as the killing curse has something to destroy, you will be tethered to life. But I will need you to be able to keep your secrets of the future...well, secret, so I will offer you Occlumency protection. You will feel no pain from your scar and, can block Voldemort from projecting to you or take over your mind."

Harry looked over at Hermione then back at Miranda, "Can we talk about it?"

"Of course. It's an important decision; it is possible to lose someone else while saving someone you love."

Harry turned to Hermione, "What do you think?"