Disclaimer- Harry Potter is not owned by me.
Chapter 22 Chiaroscuro
POSSESSION
VIOLATION
CONTROL
DOMINATION
FEAR
SHAME
DEATH
Within the darkness of her own mind and soul, Ginny Weasley screamed.
Outside of the Hospital Wing, Harry Potter clenched his fist as he heard the scream. There was nothing he could do. Within the infirmary, Order members, hysterical Weasleys ran amuck, their efforts to calm or bring sanity back to the young girl in vain.
"Damn you..." he whispered softly, hatred suffused in every syllable.
Albus Dumbledore moved to stand next to the spirit. "How is she?" he asked quietly.
"How do you think she is, having her worst memories and feelings thrown in her face?" the Boy-Who-Lived spat viciously, a sidelong glare flung at the Headmaster.
Sighing, the old man nodded. "I will attempt to contact some Obliavtors we can trust. They may be able to help us."
"I won't feel better until I've killed that bastard with my own hands." Harry replied harshly.
Dumbledore inwardly winced at the tone. "Harry, what happened?" he questioned softly.
A quiet chuckle, bitter and cruel, burst from the spirit's lips. "Voldemort is dead. Then that effing bastard tortured me. A real nice day."
Stiffening, the Headmaster asked rigidly, "What happened when they fought?"
Looking at Ginny with pained eyes, Harry responded bitterly, "Thanatos absorbed Voldemort's powers and his soul. He made it look absurdly easy."
"I see."
Whirling, the spirit yelled angrily, "DO YOU! My friend is lying there, being tortured without any respite! And on top of that, the person responsible happens to be my own Darkness!"
"It wasn't you."
"THE HELL IT WASN'T! I couldn't stop him..." Harry whispered softly, full of self loathing.
There was something more bothering the Boy-Who-Lived, something deeper, the Headmaster realized. "Harry... what did Tom tell you?"
After a moment, the story came forth.
How Harry's infant soul had been split in two.
How Thanatos was just the pure Darkness of Harry's heart.
How the two were irrevocably intertwined, and the death of one meant the death of both.
When it was over, Dumbledore realized that once more, he was crying in front of Harry.
"Do you see?" Harry whispered softly, a sob choking him. Then a glint appeared in his eyes. One that narrowly edged between ecstatic determination and insanity. "I need you to kill me sir. Kill me and put an end to this mess."
The Headmaster took a step backwards, mouth open and gaping. "Harry..."
The glint became harder than diamond, and crossed the line. "It's for the best sir. Do it."
"I..." the Headmaster hesitated. For a decade and a half he had protected the boy... now, after all that work, all the care he held in his heart... now he had to kill him. "I need to think." With that, Dumbledore turned and left.
Albus Dumbledore took solace in his office, in the comfort of the former Headmasters and his phoenix. The Second War was over... but in its place, was something even worse. A single entity capable of consuming all life on the planet.
"How did everything go so wrong Fawkes?" the Headmaster
"Talking to birds?"
Dumbledore froze. His head turned slowly, till his gaze rested upon Thanatos, who leaned against the wall of the office, smirking.
Fawkes screeched angrily, lifting from his perch to attack the demon. Before the Headmaster could stop the phoenix, it lunged forward.
With a cruel laugh, Thanatos grasped Fawkes by the neck and squeezed tightly. The audible snap of bones breaking was heard, and then a dark cloud devoured the phoenix.
"I think I broke your pet." He said, faux apologetically.
Rage burned in the Headmaster's heart as he raised his wand to deliver a Blinding Light spell. Before he could, the Darkness swarmed in around him, pinning him in place.
Thanatos tutted. "Now, now, let's not start a fight. I'd hate for this to get broken."
Dumbledore didn't answer, focusing his magic until it radiated out of him, disrupting the holding magic the demon had created. With a shout, a brilliant flash erupted from his wand.
The eidolon snarled viciously, raising his hand to shield himself from the Blinding Light spell. Within moments, the shadows had once more taken control, extinguishing the light.
"Gotta do better." The demon hissed, raising his hand and swinging it forward. From it came a wave of umbra, which crashed into the shield the Headmaster had barely managed to create.
Jet black sparks danced across Thanatos' fingertips and he grinned. "This is getting fun."
Harry Potter shivered slightly, which was definitely abnormal for a disembodied spirit. Something was bothering him...
Deciding that talking with Dumbledore again might help, he began the long drift towards the office, only to find that the cold feeling in his gut was increasing...
A rain of golden beams battered the demon's inky shield, causing Thanatos to stumble backwards. A roaring sound and a powerful spell later, he was sent flying backwards, crashing into one of the many cabinets in the room.
The Headmaster's office had become a battleground, with various pieces of debris scattered about as the demon and the professor dueled.
Tendrils of Darkness lashed out, whipping through the air, intent on striking Dumbledore, who narrowly avoided the strikes. His response, in the form of a surge of golden thunder, tore through the air, actually connected with the eidolon, sending the creature through the wall, and down the staircase.
His wand raised, Dumbledore descended down the shattered doorway, towards where Thanatos lay, shrouded in a miasma of smoke and dust.
And then, that damnable laughter cut through the air again, dark and mocking, and smoke gave way to shadow. Thanatos took form again, his black hair singed at the edges, his clothing burnt. In a blink, they returned to their original state. As he laughed, a ball of inky darkness manifested in front of his torso. The demon's eyes narrowed, and the ball rocketed forward.
With a flick of his wand, the Headmaster sent the remains of the door flying, blocking the attack. In an instant, the wood was eaten away into nothingness.
A second, navy colored spell leapt from Dumbledore's wand, which Thanatos ducked expertly. He grinned, lunging for the old man-
And was caught on something. The eidolon turned around to glimpse a moving stone, and then was struck hard in the face. Thanatos stumbled backwards, caught off guard by the animated gargoyle. He snarled, and a wave of shadow sent the statue flying, to crash against the far wall.
But he had turned his back on the Headmaster, and paid for it as another spell tore through the air and struck him from behind, sending him flying, straight into the gargoyle's grasp.
Before Thanatos could move again, he felt a wand pressing against his temple. Dumbledore's cold blue eyes stared into his charcoal ones, neither budging an inch.
"You can't kill me." The demon taunted, grinning maniacally. "Not without killing your precious Potter."
Hesitation flickered in the Headmaster's eyes.
It was all the eidolon needed. The shadows that were ever present around his body lunged forward, entangling the Headmaster in a cocoon of darkness. Meanwhile, power pooled in his palm, which he loosed on the gargoyle's foot.
The animated creature stumbled, off balance with only one foot, letting go of the demon. In a blink of Time, Thanatos had spun, and demolished the statue, his shadowy tendrils still wrapped tightly around the old man.
Darkness coalesced around his palm, manifesting into that black blade that took Voldemort from this world. The demon grinned like a Cheshire cat.
"Thanatos!"
Said creature cocked his head and turned, glancing at the just arrived Boy-Who-Lived. "Look, an audience." He drawled, raising the blade.
Dumbledore glanced at Harry, defeated, tired, and looking deathly ill. "Its up to you now, Harry." He whispered softly.
And then Thanatos rammed his sword into the Headmaster's chest.
Albus Percival Wulfuric Brian Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, the Chairman of the International Confederation of Wizards, and head of the Order of the Phoenix, fell, his body falling slowly, slowly, slowly to the ground, as the demon laughed.
What the hell could be the reason for his death? So much death and destruction… Hermione's dead, Ginny's in locked in St. Mungo's, and now Dumbledore…
Thanatos began laughing, laughing his cold, mocking laugh again, and Harry's blood did not run cold and freeze up, but boiled with unrestrained fury. Warmth poured through his veins, like the blinding sun banishing the darkness, bringing hope instead of despair.
Harry remembered Dumbledore's kind smile, how he fiercely defended Harry at the battle at the Department of Mysteries, how he had taken every precaution, however unwarranted and unwanted, to protect him.
More memories came crashing down, now of Hermione. That bossy, bushy headed eleven year old.
The crying, helpless eleven year old who needed saving from a giant troll.
And the memories just washed over him, as the Thanatos gloated and laughed as Dumbledore fell.
The Dumbledore who cried after giving Harry the prophecy, whose endless vitality had kept Harry's spirits up and his belief strong that another day would come, whose wisdom guided Harry on the path he needed.
Of the dead girl Hermione, who had been the closest thing he had to an older sister, bossing him around and mothering him and caring for him. Who died at the hands of this monster.
Just like Dumbledore.
Of the broken, violated Ginny Weasley, who lay in a coma within the Hogwarts infirmary. Who had endured so very much already, starting with the violation of her body, the terrible feeling of being used by the Dark Lord. And then Thanatos violated her mind, raped her of her memories and forced her to endure untold torment, sending her into a world of dancing nightmares and endless horrors.
Another victim of the Darkness.
Just like Dumbledore.
Finally, Albus Dumbledore's body hit the ground, a resounding thud echoing throughout the room, the death knell of the greatest sorcerer of the age.
And Harry felt his own tears begin to fall, diamonds falling from emeralds, feeling warmth surging through him, the belief of Dumbledore, the need to protect the last of his loved ones, the desire to destroy this demon. His knuckles tightened, clenched until they were white and almost about to pop out of his proverbial skin, his hands shaking along with his eyebrow and eyes, which were closed.
Harry couldn't hear the responses, feeling the rage and injustice of this death, all the deaths, begin to swell within him. This wasn't right.
The inner hero complex began to rise, but also, what gave birth to it, Harry's inherent desire to correct the world, stemming from his wishes a child that his life would change for the better. Harry felt it, a burning desire, and his own self-hatred.
Why couldn't he do anything to stop this!
It wasn't right!
Why did he come back, if all he could do was watch! There had to be something he could do!
IT WASN'T RIGHT!
He would do something to stop this, stop this evil that had taken root and life within him!
IT WASN'T RIGHT!
It was his mess to clean up, and he would stop this demon himself, no matter what.
IT WASN'T RIGHT!
Echoing the night of the demon's awakening, when Bellatrix Lestrange, the eidolon's first kill, Harry felt something surge through him, something so utterly impossible and yet undeniably real, something with the power to end everything.
But it wasn't cold, creeping darkness. It was blazing, brilliant light, the warmth, the charging rush that felt like sunlight had suffused itself within his veins and his body, as if his core had turned white hot and as powerful and bright as the glowing orb of the heart of the very sun itself.
Around him, the air around Harry began to glow brighter and brighter, and a spider web of cracks began to form around his feet, cracking and rustling and creeping around his legs. The glow seemed a purer reflection of Thanatos' all encompassing aura of darkness, burning the shadows away from Harry.
Thanatos cry of anger and protest was not even heard by Harry, drowned out by the incessant chatter and rush of flooding sound that drowned Harry's senses, blinding him to all.
Brighter and brighter and bright he glowed, as if he had become the sun, no longer silver but brightest gold, a phosphorescence of light burning around him, illuminating the room, as his brilliant radiance began to grapple with the unfathomable darkness of Thanatos, light struggling to overpower the darkness.
The spider web grew larger and larger and more expansive, as the very air began to heat up warmly, but not uncomfortably, as the ground began to break apart, forming tiny obelisks of stone that shot up from the ground. The cracks continued to grow larger and larger until a circle around Harry's feet burst into a crater, but Harry's feet stayed where they were, holding him above the ground itself, hovering inches above the ground, as if the ground found itself unworthy any longer to touch the feet of the Boy-Who-Lived.
It was then that Harry let out a loud cry of rage and love and wrath, letting his feelings loose, his eyes snapping open, emerald now mixed with golden bright, unclenching his fists and leaving them in a fist after flexing them, claw-like, and his cry was echoed by a sudden shockwave of compressed atmosphere that sent everything in the area, except Thanatos, toppling over. The demon in question simply stood his ground and glared angrily, not trying stop the transcendence of the Boy-Who-Lived.
But as if he had been jolted back to reality by the blast of air, the eidolon's darkness suddenly surged around him, Darkness that surpassed all other darkness that had come before. Black and empty, that power surged forward to grapple with the blindingly pure light.
In response, the glow around Harry intensified, burning away the darkness, golden bright and glowing brighter with each passing second of mortal time, his silvery skin seeming golden, his clothing auriferous, his ebon hair thrown into stark relief, as his luminous blaze continued to grow and grow. His prism-like eyes, that danced with so many shades of began green and gold, began to leak golden mist, as if his very tears had begun to echo the golden power within him.
Furious at having been caught off guard, the Darkness once more surged around Thanatos, a stark contrast, the emptiness of the abyss at the light of the heavens.
Harry's beaming and blazing emerald eyes, like two suns going nova, turned slowly, and locked towards Thanatos, his body not moving an inch, only his eyes. Ablaze emerald met abyssal black, and the two looked into the other's eyes, seeing the opposite of themselves, dark seeing light, light seeing dark.
The most brilliant contrasted as shadow and light blinded all but their avatars.
For a moment, all was chiaroscuro and silence.
And then the avatar of Light spoke. Not roared, not screamed, but spoke.
Opening his mouth, his tone final and utterly oozing conviction, his voice as beyond question as the inevitability of death itself, his eyes glowing with righteous and undeniably almighty fury.
"No more."
Review Response
harrysmom- The answer is quite simple. Darkness can only be driven out by Light. I'm sorry to have kept you guessing for this long, but the answer is finally revealed!
Vegita43- A whole host of manga, sugar, insanity, and Angel Season 4 went into this story. No muses were harmed in its making.
PinkyTheSnowman- With all this terror and death, do you really expect there to be a happy ending?
Lady of Masbolle- Its okay. As you can see, fury and a desire to correct the world, creates Harry's power.
Nippledora Tweaks- Thank you. That's all I wanted, though I don't appreciate the insinuation that I'm some sort of psychopath. I am aware that this story is horribly OOC and poorly organized. That's what I get for not planning my story out.
Also thanks to darkangelgep, mashimaromadness, Emma Barrows, GreyGranian, Julie Long, TwoBrokenToCry, ewww, YamiClara, APS, Catnip070, lordvitris, Black Rose Faith, Pleione, BiTcHOf eViL, and Dreamsprite5for reviewing.
AN: Chiaroscuro is an art form and an Italian word. It's a sharp contrast between light and dark, making it perfect for this chapter. If you've enjoyed this story, or wish to discuss it further, join my Yahoo group. Link is in the profile, under homepage. Next chapter is the last, I'm sad to say.