I thrash, screaming, on the cold stone floor. My thoughts rush past me,
unprocessed. I cannot think, cannot move of my own accord, cannot end it.
The only concept I can understand is pain. The pain rushing through my
body, coursing through my veins, rippling through my very being.
Then it stops.
"Have you had enough yet?" asks a cold, high, cruel voice.
I lack the ability to speak. I lie quivering, unable to tell him that he has not stopped the poison in my mind. The physical pain is gone. I can ignore that. But my soul is still shrieking.
I thought I had found consolation in him. He listened, he was sympathetic.
Potter.
He had betrayed me. An old schoolboy grudge, probably. I used to torment him in the halls, smirk at him when he failed and ignore him when he succeeded. And after seventh year, when I became a Death Eater and he an Auror, we found ourselves facing each other. Either of us could have destroyed the other with a single word- the Dark Lord had given me my orders and the Ministry had given him his.
But we didn't.
We stared at each other for long moments. And turned away. And with that action, we became- not friends. Not lovers, no. But not enemies anymore. We talked, we confided in each other. He never told the Ministry of my doings, and I never told my master of his. But we needed each other. We each needed someone to listen.
We had an unsaid agreement. We kept our words confidential. There was a time when I told him of a plan I was worried about. He could have used the information against us. But he didn't. He has told me of plans the Ministry is concocting to rid the world of all evil. My master. Me. But we don't betray each other's trust. We never have.
Until yesterday.
I told him of the plot to take over the Ministry from the inside. The next day, the Ministry officers we had planted in the center of the action were fired. He had told.
And I was punished by my master. But that punishment was nothing. Physical pain does not bother me. It never has. It was the inner pain. The knowledge that he had betrayed me.
I get up off the floor. He is standing over me, face impassive as always. Standing, I am a full foot shorter than he is. But height does not matter when a person has a destiny. And I now knew that my destiny had nothing to do with the figure in front of me. The pain coursing through my soul was not due to him.
"Yes, I have had enough. I have had enough of you. You and your plots, you and your tattoos, you and your power-hungry self." I was strangely calm. I knew what I had to do. "I have had enough of listening to you moan about him escaping yet again, about the dementors' unpredictability, about everything on this earth that displeases you. I have had enough."
I raise my wand. He raises his. I shout my spell as he shouts his.
Two voices cry, "Avada Kedavra!"
My spell hits him as his hits me. He falls as I do. He hits the cold stone floor as I do. His eyes glaze over as mine do.
And I realize that this is my destiny.
Goodbye, Harry.
Then it stops.
"Have you had enough yet?" asks a cold, high, cruel voice.
I lack the ability to speak. I lie quivering, unable to tell him that he has not stopped the poison in my mind. The physical pain is gone. I can ignore that. But my soul is still shrieking.
I thought I had found consolation in him. He listened, he was sympathetic.
Potter.
He had betrayed me. An old schoolboy grudge, probably. I used to torment him in the halls, smirk at him when he failed and ignore him when he succeeded. And after seventh year, when I became a Death Eater and he an Auror, we found ourselves facing each other. Either of us could have destroyed the other with a single word- the Dark Lord had given me my orders and the Ministry had given him his.
But we didn't.
We stared at each other for long moments. And turned away. And with that action, we became- not friends. Not lovers, no. But not enemies anymore. We talked, we confided in each other. He never told the Ministry of my doings, and I never told my master of his. But we needed each other. We each needed someone to listen.
We had an unsaid agreement. We kept our words confidential. There was a time when I told him of a plan I was worried about. He could have used the information against us. But he didn't. He has told me of plans the Ministry is concocting to rid the world of all evil. My master. Me. But we don't betray each other's trust. We never have.
Until yesterday.
I told him of the plot to take over the Ministry from the inside. The next day, the Ministry officers we had planted in the center of the action were fired. He had told.
And I was punished by my master. But that punishment was nothing. Physical pain does not bother me. It never has. It was the inner pain. The knowledge that he had betrayed me.
I get up off the floor. He is standing over me, face impassive as always. Standing, I am a full foot shorter than he is. But height does not matter when a person has a destiny. And I now knew that my destiny had nothing to do with the figure in front of me. The pain coursing through my soul was not due to him.
"Yes, I have had enough. I have had enough of you. You and your plots, you and your tattoos, you and your power-hungry self." I was strangely calm. I knew what I had to do. "I have had enough of listening to you moan about him escaping yet again, about the dementors' unpredictability, about everything on this earth that displeases you. I have had enough."
I raise my wand. He raises his. I shout my spell as he shouts his.
Two voices cry, "Avada Kedavra!"
My spell hits him as his hits me. He falls as I do. He hits the cold stone floor as I do. His eyes glaze over as mine do.
And I realize that this is my destiny.
Goodbye, Harry.