A/N: I thought of this as to the tune of the old Scottish/Irish song "The Parting Glass" (apparently it started out Scottish but was made famous by Irish singers). You can look it up on YouTube if you want, but obviously it's not necessary. Anyway, the old-timey language is from being based on that song.
Dumbledore's Goodbye
No foe I've had but I thought that he
Could have once been friendly company.
No friend I've had but I gave him harm—
I wish it were to none but me. ...
If they knew how the blackness spreads,
No friend nor foe would wish me stay,
So speak the incantation now—
Goodnight; it's time I was away.
For justice to my enemy
I've done injustice to my friends.
They all have kept their word to me
Though it may send them lightless ends.
And so I'll not oblige you hence
To give a word in my defense,
But simply raise the wand and say
Goodnight; it's time I was away.
A/N again: So I wrote this several months ago, maybe a year, when I'd first finished the Harry Potter series and was trying to make some sense of Dumbledore. I think he was the real Good Slytherin, not Slughorn. He had very Slytherin temptations - seizing power for the "greater good" and so on - and he spent his entire life resisting them, as far as he could. Hero, right? But his manipulating Harry and Snape ended up being the very same thing he'd been trying not to do, and he had lots of guilt, but in the end, not quite the courage or humility to live and apologize, and die naturally at the end of that cursed sickness. (That cure is what I meant by the "blackness", BTW, very literal.) I think he was kind of running away when he made Snape kill him. And yet he's not really evil, nor a villain ... gosh Rowling's good at making me feel conflicted.