Yew
Words: 585
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. This was written for the HPFC Life Challenge by mustardgirl1128.
Warnings: It's all Riddly and EVOL, DH spoilers
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Chapter 10: Death
"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
The two shouts, simultaneous, spelled an end. There was a blast of golden fire that blinded him. The Elder Wand was wrenched from his hands, he felt, but he didn't know anything more but the sensation of wrenching soul. All because he'd been dumb enough to allow himself to be betrayed.
It had never been quite so painful for his soul to rip before, but perhaps it was because this was a different sort of ripping than in the creation of the horcruxes, or when he had been defeated by an infant. His soul was not tearing itself into pieces, nor was it slipping from a mortal body. That last fragment of soul had been connected to his body by dark rituals, and the pain it caused to rip away from the body was more than he could handle.
For a split second in time, he seemed to himself to be floating, flying again as he had learned to do two years before, yet he knew better. There was no sensation. He couldn't feel the cloth of his robes against his skin, his boots on his feet, or air against his neck. He could feel that he even had limbs, their weight seeming to have vanished all of a sudden.
It was a dangerous dance he had done all his life, first dancing a clumsy, ignorant sort of foxtrot, and an idealistic Viennese waltz after. Then his dangerous tango started, dancing with death in his own way, tossing her his dance partners every off step in an effort to delay the inevitability of their own dance together. He danced around her, tricking her, toying with her, but in the end she got him.
And he couldn't feel his legs to keep up the dance any longer.
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A/n: I'm not sure when or how this chapter ended up becoming about dancing (I even looked up ballroom dancing on wikipedia), but wow... not at all what I was intending to end it with, but I guess it works with the continued allusion to Romance, Life, and Hatred with some small bits of other things here and there, I suppose.
Now, I think I will explain my whole reason for picking "Yew" as the title. First, and most obvious, is that Voldemort's wand is made of yew. Yew is the tree of life, death, and rebirth, which is also fitting (I'm contemplating writing an eleventh part called Afterlife, but I very much doubt that will happen. I had enough fun with this as is, and I wouldn't know what to write). My third reason... well, I like homophones.
Thanks muchly to mustardgirl1128 for putting out the challenge and for giving such stellar reviews throughout the process. Thanks to Kore-of-Myth for reviewing a bunch too and telling me when I mis-spell things (stupid typos). It was a fun way to spend my week.
Semi-odd thingy I noticed: not once have I used the word yew in any chapter of this story.