Disclaimer: Everything you recognize from any of the Harry Potter books or movies belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Neither can live while the other survives...
I remember finding out about that prophecy…told so long ago. I remember my despair…that my life would either end with or involve murder. I close my eyes, gripping my wand. I open my eyes…a night breeze blows past me…whispering in my ear. The sky is clear…the stars are sparkling…tiny beacons of light…
I would have loved the night on any other occasion…
"Bow down to my power, Harry. You will not win…join me while you can."
I won't join him…I won't surrender, and it's not because I truly believe in what I'm fighting for…but because it would be a lot worse to join him than to fight against him. I don't even know what I'm fighting for anymore. The Light…now seems nothing to me but a woven web of lies. Pathetic, isn't it? The Boy-Who-Lived in a battle against the Dark Lord doesn't even believe in the things he's fighting for.
"No, I won't."
"I thought so…you're too honorable…don't you understand? There is no good or evil…there is only power and those too weak to seek it."
I've heard that before…in my first year…Quirrell…but Quirrell is dead now.
Blinding light…our wands raised…Voldemort's and mine…our spells fly…forming a domed web around us...a web made of darting light...darting light against our dark surroundings. Is the Light really better than the Dark? At least the Dark does not try to hide the truth…at least it does not deny the fact that it manipulates.
Flashes of light blocked…occasional screams when a spell hits its target. Every move is graceful…Voldemort is a powerful wizard…and I have become quite a dueler. An amusing thought runs through my mind…a spectator would think of this as a dance…not the battle to death that it is…not the final battle between the Dark and the Light.
A pause…
"You know we're very alike, Potter…we could've been great together…we could've ruled the world."
I've heard that many times…mainly from assorted Death Eaters…but once from Dumbledore as well. "Harry Potter is very much like Tom Riddle…both brilliant, dark-haired, half-blood orphans…but their difference lies in the way that Mr. Potter fought against the darkness of his soul…while Mr. Riddle accepted it."
I remember the Sorting Hat at Hogwarts telling me I would do well in Slytherin…I remember how I tried to deny that. …But now I think back to it. Would it have been so bad to be in Slytherin? I remember my second year…the Chamber of Secrets…Dumbledore telling me, "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." …So we decide who we are? Is that correct? Well, I decide not to be the savior of the world…does that make a difference?
I aim a spell at Voldemort…and he deflects it.
We continue our duel…and my mind is numb. …And then another thought blazes through my mind…I don't want to do this anymore… I'm tired of the world.
Ron is dead…Hermione is on the verge of insanity.
My focus drops…just for a split second…but that is all the time that Voldemort needs…a spell of his sends me flying. I land fifty meters away, sprawled on the ground.
He comes closer…he stands next to me…and I don't get up…I no longer shudder at his cold touch…at his red cat-like eyes.
"So…this is the end of Dumbledore's Protector. Everyone thinks he's the world's savior…but how could they choose such a naïve, inexperienced boy for that title?"
I close my eyes again…I know I will die today…but I won't die without taking him with me. Voldemort is smiling now…I can sense it…he believes I have surrendered…I open my eyes.
I disapparate…I apparate again behind him…this all happens in a split second. Before he can react, I say the deadly curse, "Avada Kedavra."
He is dead…the prophecy is fulfilled…
Neither can live while the other survives...
…But what else? I've just killed for the first time…"Blood on our hands…"
Do I feel guilty? No…
The feeling is rather one of helplessness and despair…the feeling of someone who has lost their will to live. I don't want to live anymore.
I point my wand towards myself…
It's true what they say…about how your life flashes by right when you're about to die. …I close my eyes and I remember…
A woman screaming…blinding green light…I'm only a child…
Watching Dudley open his birthday presents with a sense of jealousy…
Getting my Hogwarts letter and being told that I'm a wizard…
The sorting hat telling me I should be in Slytherin…I deny it…
The Mirror of Erised…the sorcerer's stone…that horrible face in the back of Quirrell's head
A dark-haired boy, tall and handsome, laughs at me…Ginny laying on the floor…her body lifeless…
Meeting my godfather…
Seeing Cedric Diggory dead on the floor…and seeing Voldemort rise again…
Kissing Cho Chang under the mistletoe…
Graduating from Hogwarts…
More memories flash across my mind…and my eyes remain closed.
I hear myself whisper the spell…I feel the flash of light…
I feel something fly…I'm free…
This is it…the end of everything.