A/N: I apologize for the weirdness of this chapter. I have been rather out of it lately and, due to that, have been very prone to doing things more odd than normal. I'm not quite sure what made me want to randomly throw the gods into this story, but I did and now it has a whole new aspect to it…let's see where this goes then, how bout that…

Chpt. 4 – Amusing Fate

They say you can't cheat Death,

That you can't escape Destiny,

But that doesn't me you can't run like hell,

And hope above all else that Fate will deal you a winning hand…

A pair of slippers slapped lightly against the hard stone floor of the Hogwarts' castle and a deep midnight colored nightgown fluttered lightly behind its owner as they ran through the halls. With each corner, each flight of stairs, every new corridor put them a little further ahead of the other two that followed closely behind. A pointed black hat attempted to fly off the top of their head, but was caught rather fluidly by the owner who continued to run without so much as pausing to catch said hat. The ground floor brought forth a new burst of speed as they passed through a small side door that led them out onto the grounds and across a small clearing. Rounding one last corner, Professor Mcgonagall muttered two words that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

"Oh, gods!"

Within moments, Hermione Granger and Madam Hooch emerged from the shadows behind her, panting slightly from the exertion of running down six flights of stairs and through half of the school. Madam Hooch appeared as if she was not fazed at all, but rather went about her duties as healer, proceeding upon the crumpled mass of body parts before them. On the other hand, Hermione burst rather silently into tears before finding herself wrapped tightly in the headmistress' arms.

"Minerva, we need to get these boys to the hospital wing as soon as possible. I can't do much from here…"

Madam Hooch's voice seemed cold and rather stern, but when faced with such a gruesome moment one can only do what they have been trained to do. So putting aside all emotion, Madam Hooch did her best to keep some semblance of control over the situation while Professor Mcgonagall nodded mutely and released Hermione only to grab her own wand and a mutter a spell.

Somewhere in the depths of an unknown dimension, a very angry sounding figure dressed all in black stood across the room from another vaguely human shaped being. The room was what most humans would call "bright white" but technically it was even more colorless than white can possibly be used to describe. Standing at one side of a white marble table was a figure that had, until recently, been located at the foot of the astronomy tower at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Across the table from him stood a being dressed all in white that might have been describe as female, but then again, it might not. A dress was draped from one shoulder and fluttered down about her frame until it brushed lightly on the floor about her sandal clad feet. Long golden hair billowed from her head and fell gently about her shoulders, glimmering in some sort of none existent light, but none of this mattered compared to her eyes. Her eyes were the sort of green that made you think of emeralds glinting in the sunlight. The sort of green that made you think of grass in bright midday after a storm. They were the kind that drew you in and never let you go, and those eyes now fell on a skeletal hand as it smashed into the tabletop between them.

"What made you think you could do such a thing?"

The voice of Death sounded oddly reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard, but heavier. The words seemed to weigh down the air of the room as they traveled across to the lady that stood opposite him. Her response was rather unexpected. She laughed. Not the haughty laugh that you normally expect from a goddess, but the kind of giggle that emanates girlish innocence. Enraged at this reaction, Death hurled his famous scythe across the room to embed itself deep into the marble wall of the room.

"You have no right to be changing my list, especially not without asking me."

The laughter stopped and the beautiful green eyes that made you feel as if nothing could ever go wrong suddenly changed. The glint vanished and a darkness consumed them that gave the feeling of being trapped in a never-ending forest, a feeling of hopelessness that didn't seem to effect Death in the least, yet somewhere deep within his cloak, his bones clattered as a chill ran up his spine.

"I have the right to do what I will. The boy amuses me, and you will not deny me what I wish. I have plans for him, you would do well to remember that and not disobey me."

The warmth of the room seemed to seep out of it at the harshness of these words and Death was quick to shrink back against a wall, trying to hide his stick-thin frame behind anything he could find.

"Yes, mistress"

He muttered quickly before gathering his scythe from the wall and turning to fade through the wall, but not before he got in his last words.

"Damn woman, thinks she runs everything"

Lightning flashed somewhere nearby as Death traveled through time and space.

"That's because I do!"

Her voice echoed off of mountain tops and down into the valleys as Death passed by. Angrily he snapped his fingers and a nearby bird's heart stopped.

Hovering in yet another dimension, Harry Potter appeared to be floating in eternal darkness. At least, it was eternal in any direction Harry seemed to be able to look in. He remembered that he used to love this darkness. That it used to be where he would hide, that it used to be his one true home, but then everything changed. No one could possibly understand what it meant to be him, what all he had to go through on a daily basis. Even more so, no one knew exactly how much it affected him. He was always strong, always the one that people could turn to if they ever needed help, or a shoulder to lean on, and he never asked for help…never…but that all changed when the lights went out. By night he was no better than anyone else. In fact, in his own mind, he was worse. At some point throughout his life his so called family had managed to convince him that he truly was worthless, that he truly deserved no better than what he got, and that was when it almost started. Then he was saved.

A man, far too big to ever be considered fully human came to him one night and told him that he was a wizard. Harry Potter, a boy worthy of nothing, was famous. This was too much for him to take, but even better was that this big man, this man he had never met, stood up for him against his family. He gave that fat ass cousin of his a pig's tail, and then took him away. That was the day that Harry met Rubious Hagrid and his entire world had changed, but not for nearly as long as he thought it would have. Soon he also met his two best friends, Ronald Wesley and Hermione Granger, the ever-clumsy red-head and the most gifted witch of her age.

His life was perfect, or at least closer to perfect than it had ever been, but somewhere deep in the back of his mind the words his family told him for so many years haunted him. He had managed to give himself companionship, he had even allowed himself friends, but when his heart reached out for love, something happened. He couldn't seem to allow himself to take what he wanted. Something deep inside told him that he didn't deserve it, that he wasn't good enough for something like love. Because of this he sabotaged his own first love without even knowing it. He picked the wrong red-head.

It didn't take long for him to realize what he had done, but once he realized what had happened, he wasn't quite sure how to change it. Eventually he had managed to sever his ties from the young girl without too much pain for either of them, but that was when all hell broke loose. He had been so focused on trying to get rid of Ginny without hurting her that he hadn't even thought about what to do next, and what that would mean for his life. As reality sunk in, he began to see exactly what all this meant, and that's when it all started.

He was a freak. He was something that was supposed to have died long ago, but had somehow managed to survive, only to be hated by those who were supposed to love him. Now he was twice the freak that he had always been. He was gay, or at least bi, and there was no way that he could change that or any other part of him. How could anyone possibly love something that was as messed up as this? His world slowly sunk back into the blackness that it had once lived in all those years ago. The tears came at night, unbidden, and the pain chased him through his sleep like monsters through the dark. Nothing seemed to make any of the sense that it had only a few months before. Then he found the darkness.

It was deep, it was enveloping, and it was all that he needed to escape everything. To escape the world he just had to shut himself away in a dark corner. But no corner was dark enough to hide from his own thoughts. Now he had found that darkness. It had started out with just the pain. The pain could numb him, and make it like he wasn't really part of this world, but soon that evolved so that even the pain couldn't keep the voices out. That's when the darkness came. He tried so hard to make the pain work that it had gone too far, the pain had been too much for his body to bear and he had slipped into a kind of darkness that he had never seen before. That was the darkness he floated in now, but it was no longer his friend.

From somewhere in the darkness Harry could hear, over and over again, the sound of a body hitting the earth. He could still see the look on his friends face, and the way his body was twisted in ways that no human body should ever have to bend, but that wasn't what haunted him the most. What had left him curled in the fetal position, sobbing into himself were the last words he remembered Ron saying.

"There's your answer."

Why was he so stupid? Why did he have to think that just because there was no immediate answer that the real answer must be no. He had to jump to conclusions before jumping for real, and then he had to sacrifice his friend…his love…to find out. The words hovered on the outer edge of his unconsciousness until the light came back, and for once, he was glad for the light, though dreading what it might bring.

Harry awoke to find himself lying beneath a cool sheet while the moon hung high outside of a nearby window. A single candle burned on the bedside table to his left, and in front of the table sat a chair with Hermione Granger in it. Her face was streaked with the marks of tears and her hair looked more mussed than it normally did, indicating that she had most likely been running frantic hands through it. Her chest rose and fell lightly, indicating that she must have fallen asleep while keeping watch. She must have been so exhausted. It was only then that Harry noticed the hand that she held in her own, and something deep within him seemed ready to fight even though it was so obvious that his body just couldn't handle that right now. He remembered this feeling, this feeling of wanting what you can't have and hating whoever has it.

Looking on, time moved in seconds or hours for Harry Potter. He seemed to be staring at the two of them for what felt like hours to him, but somewhere inside he knew that it was only a few seconds to the rest of the world. Slowly he removed himself from his bed, placing his feet gingerly on the floor. His body was not ready for movement so shortly after all this abuse, but he couldn't stand to lie there any longer. Taking one step at a time, Harry was careful to walk around the end of Ron's bed and end up on the opposite side from the now sleeping Hermione. He stood there, looking down at the ragged and shallow breathing of his one time best friend and wondered how he could ever redeem himself after this, even if there had been some sort of love to begin with. The love of two friends just couldn't cut this.

Harry jumped slightly as he heard the sound of wooden sandals clunking lightly on the stone floor. Turning rather clumsily due to all his injuries, Harry found a woman dressed in a pure white gown that seemed to hang lightly from one shoulder down to the floor staring back at him. Her hair seemed to flutter slightly in a non-existent breeze, but it was her eyes that caught his breath the most. He had only seen one other pair of eyes that even came close to the startling beauty behind those that were now before him, and those eyes belonged to his mother. She smiled gently, and that smile seemed to fill him with a hope that he had never felt before. Somewhere in the back of his mind he found himself questioning how she had managed to get into the room without opening the door, but that thought was soon wiped from his mind as she began to speak.

"I have given you one chance Harry Potter, don't mess this one up."

Harry started to question what she meant, but his words were quickly cut off as she raised one finger as if to call for silence. Said silence seemed to slice through the room like a knife and Harry was beginning to wonder why he couldn't talk when she spoke again.

"To Thine Own Self Be True…"

With that, the lady otherwise known to the world as Fate turned to walk away and seemed to shatter into, for lack of a better term, a glitter made from pure light. This glitter dissipated throughout the room before vanishing completely. Her words rung silently throughout Harry's mind, but the moment she left, so did the hope that she had inspired. Seating himself lightly on the edge of Ron's bed, Harry leaned down close to his face and looked deeply into his friends closed eyes. Quickly and quietly, Harry placed his lips on those of his friends, jumping back at the rashness of his own actions. Leaning in again, this time Harry placed his mouth alongside his friend's ear as he whispered for the second time that day,

"I'm sorry…don't forget me…"

With that finished, he stood up and started to hobble his way lightly toward the door only to be stopped once again by the sound of footsteps behind him. This time they were light, and carried the slight "whoosh" that was characteristic of any which or wizard wearing robes. A feminine voice rang in his ears from somewhere behind him and he was surprised to find himself listening to Hermione.

"He wouldn't have to remember, if you'd stop trying to leave…"

Harry found a hand on his shoulder that was forcing him to turn around to face his female friend. The look on her face was one that implied total understanding of the situation, and even more compassion, yet how she could possibly understand all of this he couldn't even guess. From somewhere over her shoulder, Harry heard something that sounded like cloth rustling, and she grinned, that kind of grin that told you something was up.

"I think I'll leave the two of you to figure this out for yourselves."

Somehow Hermione had managed to get around Harry and was now standing halfway through the slightly opened door to the Hospital wing.

"I'll be right outside if you need me…"

A/N: I have no idea what made me do all of that…that was so not what I was planning when I stared this chapter but I hit the whole idea of Death and Fate and blah blah blah and you see where we ended up…I hope that you all liked it, latta…

MK