We circled each other. We were old enemies, him and I. I had haunted his entire life from the day he'd been born. This was it though; this was the final face-off.
He talked to me, answering my questions. He explained all about how he found out my deepest secrets. He told me where he found everything. Finally, he asked me to regret.
What was regret? Was it how he, a lowly half-blood, could defeat me? Was that his secret? What was this madness? Did he have some secret to defeat me? Was it some spell the old fool Dumbledore left him to find? Was it something I missed? Was there a detail that allowed him to beat me? Was it our connection?
He told me about the wand. It couldn't possibly be his. Snape had defeated Dumbledore, not that idiot boy Malfoy. Maybe he sought to trick me. No matter, I would dispose of the Malfoy boy anyway, just to be sure.
He stood before me, poised to attack. I shouted the words I had a thousand times before. This time…this time he would finally die. This was the end.
The green light that shot from my wand seemed to move in slow motion. I watched as it bounced off his spell, rebounding back to me. I closed my eyes. I had been vanquished. The boy had beaten me. What was his secret? Was it that ever possible emotion the old man had always gone on about? Was it love? No, it couldn't possibly be. Love was useless. It had never stopped me before. The boy stood before me, staring back at me. I thought back to when he was an infant standing in a crib, a loving mother dead at his feet, an adoring father dead in the living room. Perhaps the old man Dumbledore had been right then. Perhaps it was people who had helped Potter stop me, the people and their love.
I fell beneath my curse. I fell for what felt like an eternity, thinking back to all the things I'd done. They had been right. All of them had been right. Potter had defeated me because he loved. My breath left me. Maybe love wouldn't hold me back. Maybe I should learn it. First though, I would need something else. What had the boy said? I would regret. Even though I would be destroyed, I would regret. Because love is a powerful thing, more powerful than even my own darkness, I would regret all that I'd done. I hit the floor, free to regret…free to learn what love really was.