A/N: My first fanfiction, how exciting! So...

Has anyone else wondered about Voldemort chucking his diadem randomly in the room of requirement? I know he's supposed to be oh so arrogant etc, but he's also supposed to be highly intelligent. Surely the fact that there are hoards of other bits of random junk in the room makes it patently obviously that A LOT of other people have been there before? So why wouldn't he instead have asked the Room for somewhere to hide his horcrux where no one else could ever find it? That's what he did for the purposes of this fic. So Voldemort won; Harry, the only one who could have defeated him, was killed. Voldemort gets to live forever... but did he really comprehend the reality of eternity?

Through a Mirror, Darkly

EXORDIUM

And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also was a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Ecclesiastes 1:17-18

…you will linger on in darkness and in doubt as nightfall in winter that comes without a star. Here you will dwell bound to your grief under the fading trees until all the world is changed and the long years of your life are utterly spent. Elrond; Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

5 billion years from now...

He stood upon a precipice; a lake of molten rock below his feet. Poisonous vapours curled into the noxious atmosphere. Consuming half the sky, the sun rose; an immense red giant, burning its way towards the earth. He turned and stepped into the shadow of a great red rock. His pale spider-like hand held a fistful of fine brown dust; the terror that had once gripped his heart was now a distant memory.

There was nothing left to know, no magic left to weave. The ever encroaching sun would consume the earth, destroying his body. But his horcruxes would remain, as would his consciousness; drifting in the vacuum of space until the universe died and matter itself broke down and all that was left was him and the drone of background radiation, forever.

He opened his mouth, and a mist of silvery strands issued forth, guided by his hand to merge with the dust he held. Pulchra amicus, he whispered, and the dust glowed green for a moment. Non salute aut necopi, a small octagonal box with a sliding lid, carved from solid obsidian appeared in his other hand. The now silvery dust was sucked into the box in a vortex. Manu advena, with a hiss, the box sealed shut.

He lifted his weary eyes, mustering his will for one last spell. Gebō, ōþala, wunjō, raidō, his voice reverberated off the bare rock, echoing as the runes carved themselves into the rock around his feet. The hot harsh wind whipped up the runic names in an inharmonic symphony, as the four runes glowed white hot against the volcanic rock.

Fram Andweardnes æt ándagabéo forwracned, his voice deepened impossibly, rebounding louder and louder in a maelstrom of noise, until with a sigh, the black box vanished from his hand. The incantation died and the runes faded. He looked up over the desperate land at the colossal sun, a blazing clock against the sky, declaring the time not wrong or right.

oOo

Hermione hastened through the Room of Requirement as she, Ron and Harry searched for Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. As she strode past a desk littered with fanged frisbees and other illicit items, something caught her eye. A small, black octagonal box glinted in the dim light. Impulsively, she stretched out a finger and touched the lid. It felt unnaturally cold, and hummed with an ancient power. As her finger touched the stone, the lid slid open.

Craning her head to glimpse the contents, she gasped as the silvery dust rose from the box like smoke. Before she could back away, the smoke was upon her, invading her mouth and nostrils. Fighting down panic, she tried not to breathe in, but her heart thudded painfully, lungs burning. She gasped reflexively, and the remaining dust was inhaled sharply.

Backing up frantically, spots danced in her vision and the room span wildly. She tried to call out to the others, but no sound came from her lips. She staggered for a moment, fighting the blackness climbing up to claim her, before finally collapsing to the floor, unconscious.