This started as a response to those stories where Harry turns to dark magic and fights a harsh war, only to become something dark himself. The tragedy of war and all that. However entertaining this may be, story wise, I find myself thinking back to my own religious upbringing and this verse in particular. What if Harry did the same?

Disclaimer: This is not meant to be heretical in any way. In fact, quite the opposite.

Matthew 16:26 [NIV

What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

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Harry stared in horror at the passage that was open before him. After the battle at the Ministry, and learning of the prophesy, he was determined to give as good as he got. Fight fire with fire. Unfortunately, as much as the term "dark magic" was bantered about, he really had no idea what it entailed. After a summer of forced inactivity and frustrating inability to follow through with his plans, he was finally in the Hogwarts library, looking up magical theory as he should have his first year. The words on the page echoed many other books around, and he could not shake the dread that came with them.

"The true evils of dark magic are the weight upon the soul. A dark arts user is marked by a dark aura and over time become unable to cast even the simplest of light spells, even as a light wizard cannot cast dark ones…. Many claim that the overall price of dark arts is eternal damnation in hell. As the existence of 'heaven' and 'hell' have never been proven (in the context of human afterlife; for demonic realms see chapter 13), many have discounted this theory as 'muggle superstitious nonsense.'"

Harry had never been a believer in God (though if he thought about it he would probably consider himself an agnostic), but he did believe in souls. It was part in parcel to his belief in magic and life in general. After all, if there were no souls, no afterlife, life itself was an exercise in brief futility. Since his day attending church like a 'proper' member of society with the Dursleys, he had clung to the idea of heave, eternal rest for the good; a place untouched by the evils this world seemed to enjoy inflicting on him. The thought of sacrificing that peace, even to save the lives of others…?

He closed the book firmly. He would find another way or die. The 'innocents' who died in this war would reach Judgment and Eternity without compromising his own. But so could the 'guilty'.

This turned out a little different than I planned. Originally, I intended to show Harry dying rather than condemning himself, but my stories, like all my other ramblings, tend to go as they will. Besides, there's something about knowing anyone who dies answers for their own downfalls, or lack there of, that can be rather, err, soothing in a time of warfare.

After this, I wrote another for another verse I think could be put to use in Harry's world.

Avi