Impossibility

by fringeperson

They suddenly must face the prospect of the wizarding world without Him in it. The thought had never occurred to them that it was possible, even if there had once been a time before him. oneshot, don't own, complete, character death.

"Harry Potter!" called out Professor McGonagall from her list, and looked up from it to search through the first years standing before her, the Sorting Hat held up in her other hand, waiting for the next head to be lowered onto.

There was a sudden surge of excited whispering around the Grand Hall as the students wondered if it could possibly be the Harry Potter. The first years who were still standing all shifted from one foot to the other, wondering where among them this celebrity was hiding.

Hagrid coughed uncomfortably as the silence, and the waiting, stretched out.

"Er, better move on to the next one, Professor McGonagall," he said. "Young Harry won't be bein' sorted tonight."

"Potter too good to be sorted with the rest of his peers?" sneered Severus Snape, the potions master and head of Slytherin house.

"Lad's in the Hospital Wing," Hagrid corrected solemnly, not bothering to take offence at Snape's tone. He knew that was just the way the man was. "I carried the boy up to Madam Pomfrey as soon as I'd delivered the rest of the first years to Professor McGonagall."

"Scraped his knee?" Snape guessed.

"He might have," Hagrid allowed. "But I was a bit more concerned about the fact he wasn't breathing when I hauled him out of the lake after he fell in."

The entire hall went silent in shock. Could the Boy Who Lived really have died on what was supposed to be the first day of his life at Hogwarts? Surely not! He'd been rescuing princesses at five! Battling dragons at eight! It was in all the story-books. He was the strongest, the smartest, the bravest, the most loyal and wonderful – he was their saviour! He couldn't have possibly died! He was the Boy Who Lived!

"Move on to the next name, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid advised again.

The stern woman, a little paler than she had been a moment ago, read out the next name on her list with a slight tremor in her voice. Not that anybody made comment.

~oOo~

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. - Woody Allen

~The End~