Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 23 Contra Ipsum
"No more."
Shadows flickered, dancing with the light.
Neither Light nor Darkness moved.
A battle between the two greatest powers in the world, Good and Evil, a battle unlike any ever experienced, was about to be fought.
With a cry, Thanatos charged, thrusting his black sword forward. Harry Potter spun aside, not fully understanding the powers surging through his veins, but deigning to use them regardless.
Remembering the demon's ability to shoot lightning, the Boy-Who-Lived concentrated, willing his power to lunge forward.
It didn't lunge.
It soared with divine gracetowards the eidolon of Darkness with impossible speed, a streak of golden lightning that detonated its force onto his chest.
And then the impossible happened. Thanatos began to scream, a scream of pure, unbridled agony, the kind of scream that only one who has never been hurt can scream. The demon fell backwards, clutching his seared torso, his black blade falling to the floor before it dissipated into smoke.
With an advantage and hatred on his side, Harry fired more lightning, golden streaks of light that ripped the air to shreds.
This time, Thanatos was prepared, and swung his hand out in an arc. A vortex of darkness swirled around him, deflecting the storm, kicking up small twisters of dust and debris where the lightning was redirected.
"Now that... was impressive." The creature managed slowly, even as the shadows began to stitch his wounds back together. "This might just be the most fun I'll ever have."
The word fun set the Boy-Who-Lived off, fury pounding through his veins once more, and he lunged forward, swinging his fist angrily. Thanatos turned sharply, and delivered a blow to Harry's back.
The Eidolon of Light staggered forward, screaming as his back sizzled. Smiling, the demon struck again, and again, and again, a rising chorus of pain and screaming agony, with him as its mad orchestrator.
Harry stumbled forward, and fell to the floor, back burnt hellishly. He lay limp, and the light dimmed around him, making his body the normal light silver.
Thantaos laughed...
And then was cut off, as the Boy-Who-Lived... lived again.
The damage done was undone, and Harry glared defiantly as he turned.
"Interesting." The demon murmured. "If I can't beat you to death, then how about decapitation, evisceration, or just gutting you like a fish!" he snarled, and his black sword coalesced into his palm.
Leaping backwards, the Boy-Who-Lived, in a burst of inspiration, closed his eyes. The light around him began swirling into a storm of luminescence, until it finally solidified into a sword. A bright, golden metal blade that seemed to shine with the same glow that he held himself with.
"Have some originality, for Christ's sake!" Thanatos muttered, and leapt forward, the blade of Evil meeting the blade of Light.
Sparks scattered from the impact, and the very magic around them began twisting upon itself. Over their respective blades, the two Eidolons glared at each other hatefully.
Then, as one, they twisted away from each other, spinning themselves and striking again. Once more, their blades met, inverting the fabric of reality around them.
Harry pulled his right fist back, which began glowing with golden might. Thanatos did the same with his left, and his fist darkened with the power of the abyss. They struck, their fists striking the other's face on opposite sides.
Both felt the pain, and both reeled backwards. With a snarl, Harry and Thanatos leapt at each other again, their anathema blades meeting again with a resounding clang.
On and on, they danced a waltz of blades, duck, slash, parry, thrust, on and on.
Furious at the stalemate, Thanatos leapt backwards, avoiding the gleaming blade easily. He raised an arm and loosed a storm of black lightning, which hissed as it tore through the air.
Eyes wide, Harry raised his hand, palm outstretched to block the attack. A wall of blinding light surged forward and met the obsidian storm, sending waves of power lashing outwards.
Both combatants were sent flying, Harry slipping through the stone wall and out onto the grounds, and Thanatos into a stone wall.
As the Boy-Who-Lived attempted to regain his bearings, the Eidolon of Darkness blasted a hole through the castle wall, and leapt down. The immense height didn't even effect the demon, who stood up from the fall as if he had merely tripped.
The spirit turned just in time to see Thanatos fire another storm of shadowy lightning at him. Unable to block in time, Harry took the full fury of the storm head on, and was sent crashing backwards, screaming in agony.
With a triumphant snarl, Thanatos grabbed Harry's throat and lifted him into the air. The spirit struggled, but the dark held him in place. The demon pulled back his arm, and that orb of nightmares that sent Ginny into a horror-induced coma coalesced in his palm.
"Pleasant nightmares." He snarled, and slammed the inky orb into Harry's face.
"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"
"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now..."
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead- Not Harry! Please... have mercy... have mercy..."
"Wands out, y'reckon?"
"Kill the spare."
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
"Bow to death Harry."
It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall. His body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backward through the ragged veil hanging from the arch...
"SIRIUS! SIRIUS!"
"There's nothing you can do, Harry...nothing... He's gone."
"He hasn't gone!"
"SHE KILLED SIRIUS! SHE KILLED HIM-I'LL KILL HER!"
"Ah... did you love him, little baby Potter?
"CRUCIO!"
"Never used an unforgivable curse before, have you boy? You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain- to enjoy it- righteous anger won't hurt me for long- I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson-"
And then Harry's scar burst open. He knew he was dead: it was pain beyond imagining, pain past endurance-
He was gone from the hall, he was locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Harry did not know where his body ended and the creature's began. They were fused together, bound by pain, and there was no escape-
And when the creature spoke, it used Harry's mouth, so that in his agony he felt his jaw move...
"Kill me now, Dumbledore..."
Blinded and dying, every part of him screaming for release, Harry felt the creature use him again...
"If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy..."
"CRUCIO!"
In raw, terrible agony of the mind, Harry Potter screamed, falling to floor as Thanatos released him from his terrible grasp.
The demon laughed. "Look at the big hero now, screaming in agony." He taunted, and leaned into Harry's ear. "Not so high and mighty now."
He turned away, and placed his hands behind his back. "That's the trouble with you heroes." Thanatos looked over his shoulder at the screaming spirit. "You get so caught up in your own problems you can't even find the world you're trying to save." He remarked, shaking his head.
The Boy-Who-Lived continued to scream. His conscious mind was on the brink of breaking, as memories came like a relentless flood. Through his jumbled thoughts and recollections, he briefly noted that the Eidolon of Darkness was right.
Thanatos walked back over to the fallen hero, and placed his head next Harry's ear. "You failed, Harry." The demon murmured quietly, "You failed everyone. You failed Hermione, you failed Ginny, you failed Dumbledore." He sighed with fake regret and pulled back, straightening. "They're all gone now... just like you will be."
He's right... I lost... Harry managed to think, closing his eyes as more memories assaulted him.
He grasped Harry's form, lifting the Boy-Who-Lived by the throat. "I'm going to bury you so deep in me that you'll never see the light... ever." Thanatos whispered spitefully. "And all those sacrifices, all those people you didn't save... their deaths will become meaningless."
"Harry!"
The demon turned, a large, vicious smile on his face. "Well, well, well. The useless sidekick finally turns up." He murmured. "And just what do you think you'll accomplish, boy? I've killed wizards twice as strong as you... and I've killed a witch twice as smart as you." Thanatos sneered, still holding on to the spirit.
Ron glared. "I know I can't kill you... I'm here for Harry." He said quietly, unafraid of death. At least then, he would see Hermione again.
"Oh, is this the part where you say some sort of rousing speech, 'Good over Evil, Light over Darkness, hang in there kitten it's almost Friday!" Thanatos snarled mockingly, and laughed his cruel laugh. "Don't bother."
Ignoring the demon's taunts, Ron focused on his best friend. "Harry... Thanatos is right. If you give up now, you'll be letting all those deaths go unpunished." His fists clenched. "You'll be letting Hermione's death go unpunished." He said quietly, in barely a whisper.
Hermione... the Boy-Who-Lived remembered his rage, his fury... he remembered promising himself as Ginny fell into a nightmare induced coma that he would kill Thanatos...
New memories flooded him, memories of good times and times that were now forever gone, thanks to this monster.
Harry's eyes snapped open, clear and lucid.
Thanatos turned, and his obsidian eyes met Harry's emerald.
"Son of a-" that was all the demon had time to say before Harry's fist came crashing into his face.
As the Eidolon of Darkness staggered backwards drunkenly, the Boy-Who-Lived floated slightly, nodding gratefully at Ron. "Thanks... but you've got to go now. Before he tried to use you against me." The spirit said quietly.
Reluctantly, the redhead nodded, and retreated back to the castle, but not before he said one final piece. "Get him." Ron said quietly. "And good luck."
And as the redhead ran, he got the distinct feeling that was the last time he would ever see his best friend again.
As the Boy-Who-Lived could turned, Thanatos punched him in the face. "Hello, battle with your alter ego going on here!"
"I remember," Harry snarled, and loosed a storm of golden light.
But the demon caught the attack in his hand, and with a triumphant smirk, tossed it aside. "You're new to this gig. I'm not." He whispered, and punched the Boy-Who-Lived in the face.
As the Eidolon of Light stumbled backwards, Thanatos spoke again, in an admonishing tone. "Why do you insist on fighting me, when you know that no matter what happens, you will lose."
Harry glared at the demon. "Killing my best friends, torturing and killing innocent people... and you just kind of piss me off." He replied, and lashed out with a luminous energy blast-
Which Thanatos backhanded away contemptuously, and stared piercingly at the spirit. "You're going to die."
"Yeah... but that satisfaction of seeing you die makes it worth it." Harry snarled, and tried to punch the demon again, only to have the creature spin aside.
"You don't have it in you." The dark half taunted, unshakable. "Do you know why?" Before the Boy-Who-Lived could answer, Thanatos kicked him in the chest. "Because every dark thought, every murderous impulse is me..." he fired a writhing shadow into Harry's knee, causing the hero to fall to the floor, "and you don't have a single trace of Darkness in you."
Thanatos paused, standing over his Good counterpart. "And that's why I'll win." He raised his foot to stomp the Eidolon of Light's head in. The foot came crashing down-
And was caught by Harry's hand. His eyes narrowed and his mouth curled into a snarl as he shoved his dark doppleganger backwards. "You're wrong..." the Boy-Who-Lived hissed, raising his palm, where a miniature sun coalesced, "I'm just as ruthless as you... and those who fear the Dark have never seen what the Light can do!" to put an exclamation point on his sentence, the orb of light tore through the air, striking the demon in the chest.
As Thanatos hit the dirt, his chest seared and smoking, Harry ruthlessly towered over him, and grabbed at the demon's shirt, pulling his face close to the Boy-Who-Lived's. With a feral growl, he punched his dark half in the face. "I have the impulse, I have the power, and I will kill you!" With each declaration, he punctuated it with a vicious blow to the demon's face.
However, even as the third punch connected, Thanatos roared, and a wave of shadows sent Harry soaring into the air, until he managed to stabilize, hovering a few inches off the ground.
"But you can't, you won't kill me." The Boy-Who-Lived finished, smirking.
"Clever boy." The demon murmured, wiping his face clear of blood, even as the shadows fixed him. "But you're wrong... I can kill you!" Thanatos shouted, and his black blade appeared in his hand, just as it descended towards Harry's head.
But the Eidolon of Light was prepared, and raised his golden sword into the air, the two opposing blades meeting with a fierce shout.
With identical snarls, the two leapt backwards, and fired off blasts of pure shadow or light, respectively. Easily, both Eidolons dodged the energy attacks, and tried to cut each other to pieces again.
However, their thoughts, hell bent on destroying one another and nothing else, caused their attacks to meet equally, and thus, create another stalemate.
As they glared at each other, over their blades, Thanatos leaned in, and whispered his words into Harry's face. "This will never end boy... Light and Dark have struggled for Eternity... and so it shall be with us."
Even as he strained against the demon's sword, the Boy-Who-Lived knew this was true. Every move Thanatos made, Harry countered, and vice versa.
Voldemort's words returned to him in a flash. Your existence is tied to his, and if one of you is destroyed, it is quite likely the other will be too.
At that moment, the awful truth about what had to happen was revealed to Harry at last.
Thanatos looked puzzled as a new determination burned in his enemy's emerald eyes, and the Boy-Who-Lived drew backwards, blade still raised.
"You're fixin to do something stupid, Potter..." Thanatos said, advancing on his counterpart.
"Already did... the day I let you come into being." Harry replied. "And now, I'm undoing that mistake." With a single fluid movement, he reversed the golden sword, its point at his chest.
"NO!" Thanatos screamed, and leapt, blade raised.
But it was too late.
The sword of Light plunged into the Boy-Who-Lived's chest, and even as his mouth opened in a silent scream, Thanatos began to vocalize the agony.
After a moment, the expression on Harry's face changed into a satisfied smile, even as the demon's transformed into one of pure hatred.
And then, as one, Harry Potter disappeared, and Thanatos' dead body fell to the floor.