Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
This is the final chapter.
The final days of my reign as a living shield against evil.
I thought I was a protector of unmatched power and strength. That nothing could hurt me. I was wrong.
They showed me the truth. That I wasn't a shield at all. But a double edged sword that cut down my enemies and my friends.
I couldn't protect them. My actions only made them targets. Every last connection to the living, ended to harm me in a way my dragon scales couldn't shake off.
I can't stay here. My rage will consume me. I no longer care about collateral damage at this moment. These are the people who gave up my friends and mentors. Who betrayed my family to monsters.
I could handle being called a monster. I could handle them wanting me dead. But this loss is too great, the cut too deep. If I stay here, my dragonfire will consume all we have worked to protect over the years.
I have to leave. Take the only path that will give me an escape. Go through the Veil of Death. With this act, I will at least take with me all the thousands of souls I have collected.
Over the years the dark have tried to free those souls, to acquire their power and become like me, or to resurrect their Lords or allies. I know that in time they will eventually succeed. At least this way, the souls will be beyond their reach.
It is time now. As I plunge into the sea of souls, the river of the dead, I can hear the dead calling, welcoming me home.
The Sea of Souls as I come to call it, is an all encompassing ethereal realm of the dead. And within that sea are branching and entwining currents, each one leading to a final destination. Time lost all meaning and I drifted between these currents. The souls within, trapped and helpless, being to their destinations by some unseen hand, unable to break away from their fate.
I was different. I could move as freely between the currents as I could in the air. I was the Death Eater still, even in the afterlife. I was full of life and energy, and a master is the souls within me. I would not be pulled to any destination as each time I neared the end of a current, I would know that if I continued I would truly die and be trapped in that destination.
And so I swam on, passing from one current to the next, exploring the realms of the dead until I came across a most interesting current. This one led not to realms of the dead, but other realms entirely. When moving into that current, other currents appeared, each one connected to another realm, another reality.