"—oh yes," he said, nodding gravely at Malfoy and Nott, both of whom were smirking sceptically. "When you have seen as much of life as I have you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love…"

Horace Sulghorn, HBP, Chapter Nine (the HalfBlood Prince), pg 177, UK ed.

"…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…"

Sybill Trelawney, OTP, Chapter Thirty-Seven (The Lost Prophecy), pg 741, UK ed.

It had seemed so simple at first. He would study the Dark Arts, he would study the life of the Dark Lord, he would study the way to kill him. Simple.

But as one Harry Potter delved deeper and deeper into the Dark Arts, he began to understand the Dark Lord in a way that frightened everyone, and most importantly himself.

He looked, he searched, he scoured the Restricted Section of the library to find a book with some mention of an enchantment that would allow a biography to be written about a person unknown. And after three months of searching, he found it.

It had seemed so simple at the time: He would just use the spell to find out about what had made Tom Riddle go Dark. And he did. Oh, he did.

Reading of Tom Riddle's childhood was really what did it. He read about the abuse at St. Mary's Orphanage. The abuse of all kinds: physical, psychological, verbal, sexual. And he felt for the small boy who searched deep within himself and found power unlike any every seen in any world Harry knew of. He felt so strongly for the boy who transmuted his deep will to be loved into the pure hatred which drove him all these years later.

Harry read about the boy who came to a wizarding world where every one had the powers that had made him special, and how that boy, the eleven year old Tom Marvolo Riddle, had vowed to himself that he would show them all, that he was still special, that he still deserved to be loved.

So as Harry read, he wasn't surprised that young Tom Riddle delved deeper and deeper into the Dark Arts, and when he found he had living family, Harry understood why Tom had to kill them. It was perfectly understandable. It was reasonable. He understood.

The Horcruxes were rational as well. Of course Tom hadn't wanted to die, death had taken from him everything. He didn't want that to happen to him, not ever.

And all that killing had obvious rational. Tom had just been looking for someone to love him, and each person had turn away. Of course he had to kill them, it didn't make sense to not do so, and of course it hurt him: another reason to hate death.

Harry understood. He got it. Perfectly, crystal clear.

Tom Marvolo Riddle just needed someone to love him, and Harry knew just the person.

Albus Dumbledore was crying on the front steps. He had done it again. He had let down that innocent, beautiful child. Again and again, he played that final confrontation in his head. Harry screamed at him that he didn't understand, that he would never understand. That he was the one who had done this to him.

Dumbledore shook as a frozen breeze swept in off the lake. Why?

Slowly, oh so slowly, Dumbledore stood and made his way to his office, high above the lake. He whispered the password he had set with such glee, and made his way up the spiraling staircase.

Taking a silver contraption from a small table, he sat down at his desk. He breathed on a pane of glass suspended in the silver and whispered,

"Show me Harry Potter."

"No! Tom, I love you! I'm the one that you've been looking for!"

"You foolish child, I haven't been looking for anyone!"

"I understand, Tom! I do! Everyone you've killed turned away from you, dissapointed you! You killed them out of love!"

"What? Potter, you're wrong? What are you talking about?"

"Everyone you've killed! Its just been to find someone to love you! And the Horcruxes were to cheat Death who had taken from you everyone you've every loved! But I've fixed it, Tom, I have, and you won't have to deal with the Horcruxes anymore. I've gotten rid of them, and you will never have to deal with them ever again!"

"NO!"

"Yes! Tom, I love you!"

"I don't love you!"

Silence. And then,

"Avada Kedavra!"