Two Stolen Steps

Two steps until the play is over. The dramatic revival scene has occurred and the arch villain's gloating will soon be stopped; though the fair damsel in distress is still in need of saving.

Two steps from Tom's diary, a poisoned fang poised, murder made easy. Besides, it's not like paper and words are real, or at least that's what Harry tells himself.

Two steps from murder to Ginny, and it's only in the haze of Fawkes' song and the poison draining out of his system that Harry notices just how pretty she looks. Death suited her, he thought, but knew that was one observation he wasn't going to share with Ron.

Two steps Harry doesn't take, but instead Tom takes for him. He lifts up Harry's heavy head, and kicks Fawkes away, kicks away his healing tears and haunting song, because in those two steps he stole from Harry Tom remembers all he ever knew about phoenixes.

Two steps to change history forever, and bring Tom's hand to Harry's hair. Tom pulls Harry up, and smiles down at him, and the adverb "handsome" floats around in Harry's mind, unattached, but nevertheless there. Blood's trickling down into his eyes, and through that red haze he watches Tom's face get closer and closer until –

Two steps away Ginny slumbers still, whilst Tom takes from Harry an altogether different kind of energy, and laughs happily as Harry screams, and laughs higher still as the screams echo back. Harry's glasses are broken, and through the fragments of glass remaining in them, Harry sees a small smile play across Ginny's ghostly face.

Two steps from Fawkes, staggering as he attempts to fly with snapped wings, until Riddle's hand looms out of the darkness, and plucks Fawkes' heart from his chest. His half-shed tears had given Harry a short reprieve from eternity, but not enough to stave off inevitability.

Two steps Tom takes, dragging Harry's body and depositing it next to Ginny. He has a sense of the artistic, and so puts Harry's arm around Ginny, and slips Ginny's hand into Harry's. Fawkes he places on their chests, and he takes two steps back to admire the effect of it all.

Two steps forward again, and he's sitting beside Harry, watching Ginny fade into nothing. He briefly wonders what to do with Harry's corpse, but in an instant the answer comes to him, and he smiles in the darkness.

Funny, the damage two little steps can make. But, in that knife-edge moment between what is and what is not, sometimes two steps is all it takes.