Aristophanes' speech

A not love-story between Voldemort and Harry Potter. Post OotP. Deathfic. Mythological references to Persephone's story. The title comes from Plato's Symposium, where Aristophanes talks about people who look for their other halves. Even if it isn't a romantic fic, I thought the story spoke about missing parts of yourself in other persons. It just fits right for me.

Here you are lying in the land, tucked up in shadows, dressed in rags. Your eyes are open, so is your mouth. You lay where you fell, with arms and legs disjointed like a broken doll. War is over; so is your life. I'm standing victorious, strong, reborn from your blood, survivor of your death. I am the king of this desolated battlefield, the master of defeated wizards, the god of a wasted land. I have beaten you, Boy-Who-Lived. Nothing stands in my way anymore. It was you or me.

Do you remember? I know you used to dream of your parents' death. I was in every dream, in every illusion of yours, in your thoughts. Every other second your heartbeat reverberated over mine, like an echo. It was the same for you, and neither you nor me could break this mutual link. I poisoned your soul, and you poisoned mine.

Now it has ended. There is no echo anymore. For every cool, cruel thought I must have there will be no warm emotion in answer. I do not remember kisses or people, but you did, with that beautiful Cho, with Ginny. I never cared about deaths but you hurt every time one of your friends, or even foes, fell in battle. I do not know about love, but you did. I was a desert. You were the Nile. There was dying all around us, and you were the one to regret it, not me. Never me.

It was our destiny. You or me. It had to be me.

Now I know. With you the world has died too. I will never feel again, because I never did. You were the one to feel for me.

After all these years sharing our souls and minds, hating each other every second, now there's only silence. I get down on my knees by your side. I close your eyes, your mouth. I rearrange your rags, cross your arms over your chest. I put the broken wand in your hand again.

You are still The-Boy-Who-Lived, even in death. You had the courage to live; I never did. I'm inmortal… But my life without an end has no meaning. And now, in the very moment of my victory, I am aware of it. Because my real life was across yours. I never was alive, and now I never will.

I kiss your forehead, the pale scar that linked us: it tastes of ashes, as Persephone's pomegranate. Like her, I am condemned to wander in a world of shadows. But for me, it will be endless winter.

Farewell, my True Life. You do not know it, but you have defeated me. You have killed

me.

To Naga. Love you, sugar, for being the most incredible Beta in the world (even if I don't leave you sleep and always ask you for reviews).