Authoress Notes: Well...I think this has finally come to an end. I just needed some clousure, because, though Harry is not my favourite character (I don't even like him, really) I think there was more to him that Rowling dared to imagine, and I just wanted to take that off my chest. Special thank yous to Inkfire, because you made me want to finish this story, so, thee it goes, this chapter is for you, I hope it doesn't disapoint!
He's been in dark places.
But this darkness...there's no darkness like this one.
This is the darkest places of all.
"You shouldn't be here"
The small figure in front of him laughs slightly, and the voice of a child rises in the air.
"Why not? I've been here all along."
"You were supposed to be gone."
"Why? Because you think you understood?" The dim light of the room flutters and, for a moment, there's only dark "You always understood, Harry. You didn't need an old crazy man to tell you that"
Harry frowns and shakes his head, taking an involuntary step back.
"I never understood. But I do now. It's all over, disapear and let me live once and for all" he pleads, tired.
"And what will you do if I leave?" the kid laughs, somewhere in the shadows, and Harry shudders "You will wake up every morning, kiss your wife, get dressed, go to work, play with your kids, get back home, go to bed. Again and again, until the day you die. Isn't it great?"
Harry tries to supress the though, but lying to himself is impossible at this point, and he has to admit that just thinking about it makes him want to hang himself.
"You being here means all those therapy sesions didn't work" he says, pretending to ignore the boy's last prediction "It means that when I wake up, I'll still want to kill my wife"
"Therapy didn't work, that's for sure, you seem to understand less now than you did before" there's displeasure in his voice and Harry wonders why "Is not your wife you want to kill. Not...especifically, at least. You just need to start living again, you need something to placate your...need"
"What need?"
"The need for power, of course. The need of a thrill, of a battle, of danger...You used to have it all, Harry Potter, and look where you are now."
Harry shakes his head again and presses a hand to his scar, as the familiar pain begins to take over.
"Didn't you miss it? That feeling that only you're going to get. Only you, because you are Harry Potter and no one else lived what you lived. Why would you settle for the life you have, when we both know that you want so much more?"
"You souldn't be here" Harry repeats, as the boy's words begin to fall to close to home "Leave!" he screams, finally, at the shadows "You are dead! Leave now!"
"I would leave if you let me!" the boy screams back, angered "Don't act like you're disgusted by my presence when is you that refuses to let me go!"
Harry takes a sharp breath, and whatever words he had die in his throat.
You could forget if you wanted to, Mr . Potter. But you don't.
"I want you to leave. Why? Why can't you live?" he whispers.
"What would you do if I left?" the boy asks, more clamly "You want me here. I am the only one who understands you, always have been. I know what you want, and I will never judge you."
"I want to...I want to..."
What do you want, Harry Potter? What do you want?
"I want to reign" Harry admits, finally "I am better than all of them. Stronger, wiser, more skilled. I have done things none of them could even imagine. I fougth more battles that anyone, and I was always victorious. I...I should have died, and I lived. I am the boy who lived."
"You lived, yes. You lived when you should have died. The reason I'm here now, the reason you won't let me leave, it all comes down to that. You should have died, and you lived, and now you're not who you were supposed to be."
Ah, he understands it now.
"Something inside of me is not right, because I'm alive when I should be dead"
"You're understanding again" the boy giggles, pleased.
"No" Harry murmurs, frustrated "No, I'm a good person. I am a good man, I..."
"You're Harry Potter" the boy cuts in "You can be whatever you want to be."
And that's just how it is.
"You and me, we are one" he boy continues, as he steps out of the shadows and into the small iluminated space "Confronted, we are weak, together, we're invincible."
Harry stares at the boy in front of him, and, for the first time in a long time, the words seem to make sense.
"I have to make them understand" he says "They all judge and fight, they don't understand. But I will make them understand. Everyone can be good, if given the chance. I am a good person, and I shall teach them."
"You belong to a superior race, just like me. They don't understand, they are like lambs, only taught how to follow. But we will rise above them, and change the world."
Harry nods, absentmindedly, and smiles slightly at the boy before him.
"You were right" he admits "I wouldn't know how to live if you left."
Because he's been throught too much to pretend he's fine.
He's not fine. He's restless.
Not anymore.
The kid Tom Riddle smiles, as Harry Potter changes before him.
He wakes up covered in sweat and breathing heavily.
"Harry, Harry, are you okay?" Ginny asks, getting closer and studying his face "You had a nightmare"
Harry doesn't remember his dream fully, but he has a feeling that something has changed. Something big, something important.
"Do you think...that the things that happen in our head are real?"
"The things that happen in our head are only in our head, Harry."
Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?
"Someone told me the contrary, long ago" Harry whispers.
Ginny sighs and caresses his forehead lovingly. When her hand passes over his scar, Harry has to supress a cry of pain.
It burns. Again.
"You are a good man, Harry Potter, whatever are the monsters that haunt you, don't forget that"
Harry smiles slightly.
"Yes" he whispers "I am the best of all men"
People often commit the mistake of underestimating it.
But the love for power is just as good as any other love.
Harry Potter has always been a good person, but he sees the world in black and white, and, just like Voldemort, admits no shades of gray.
And that, makes all the difference.