Fate's Course

Written by Cormak

Disclaimer: I don't own these wonderful characters. I'm only borrowing them for a brief while and promise to bring them back as I found them. This story is being written for fan enjoyment as well as my own. No profit is being made.

This is my first Harry Potter based story. Please be kind. I'm still learning about this lovely little world that JK Rowling has created and shared with us.

This is a HG/SS story. Knowing how I write, it will most likely be lengthy. I seem to have a knack for creating stories that are 40 or more chapters in length. Please forgive any mistakes, as I do not yet have a beta for this story.

Chapter 1: Unjustified.

She found it unfair and knew at the same time that life was not about fairness. It was about what was right and wrong. And much in the world was still wrong. The current rumors and talk about the man that currently lay comatose before her were definitely unjustified.

"Murderer, traitor. Greasy, slimy bastard. Knew it all along! He deserves to die."

She cringed remembering some of what she had heard from people walking in the corridor and even from the mouths of the hospital staff. How quickly people pointed fingers when they knew so little about the whole truth.

She glanced over at him, taking in his lithe form for what felt like the billionth time.

He lay perfectly still. Shoulder length lank hair the color of midnight spread upon a pillow as white as freshly fallen snow. His pale skin was nearly as white. It was a stark contrast to the black robe she adamantly requested for him. He bore fresh scars across his face and others on his neck and hands. There were no tubes or machines connected to him like at a Muggle hospital, and so to her he appeared dead. She shuddered at the very thought. He couldn't die. There was so much to speak about.

The attack had come much earlier than anyone had expected. Most believed if the Dark Lord chose to assault Harry Potter it would be sometime after the school year. It was logical, after no attacks on Harry during the summer break, for it to occur after Harry's graduation. He would leave the safety of the school for the dangerous adult wizarding world.

How wrong they had all been.

The "murderer and traitor" to the wizarding world surprised and enraged nearly everyone when he flooed Headmistress McGonagall during a staff meeting with a warning of an upcoming attack. It wasn't long before the whole school knew.

Not many believed him, despite rumors of his attempts of reasoning that the truth behind the death late Headmaster would be known when the war was over. Many claimed he was a cold blooded murderer, which they had suspected all along.

Headmistress McGonagall refused to listen to her pleas that the man was telling the truth and that there was reasoning to what happened the previous year. No one would listen to the clues she had found along the way to prove he had been forced to do what he had done.

They thought she was daft, off her broomstick and gone mental for giving a murderer and traitor the benefit of doubt. Harry couldn't fathom that one of his best friends had betrayed him to side with the greasy git after all that had happened. They had quarreled and even Ron had stepped back from her.

It was just past the middle of the school term in Harry Potter's 7th year. The warning was remembered when events began to happen and it was heeded nearly too late.

Tears clouded her eyes. Much was lost in the preliminary attacks in the days that followed. She needed her friends more than ever and only Ron showed compassion, though it was with distance and tension.

She and Ron and the other students were ordered to stay at the school. It was the only place that was deemed safe. Leaving for home was out of the question due to possible attacks on the train or any other means of transportation.

When the worst loomed, she had made a decision that would forever change the course of many lives.

The tears trickled freely down her cheeks. Ronald Weasley was now dead. One of her best friends of six years, someone she cared for and loved…Gone forever. He left behind a family and many friends who mourned him for his humor, his courage, his loyalty and everything that made him who he had been.

If the death of one of her best friends was not enough, there was more salt to rub into her wounds. The sickening fact she was truly alone picked at her repeatedly like ravenous vultures. And because of her desire to use her knowledge to make things right, the very man she sought to save lay in a coma with no immediate expectations that he would survive.

Hermione Granger buried her face into her hands and for the third time that day, she wept for those who had died, the grave mistakes she had made and the truth she had uncovered.

And she wept for Severus Snape, so called murderer and traitor, who lay dying so that she and another might live.

To be continued...

I know that the first chapter was extremely short. There will be more to come. Your patience is certainly appreciated.

Hope you enjoyed the start of the story.

Cormak