To Save a Soul
By: Mela Honey
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to it but I do own the woman.
A young man dragged his feet slowly towards the local park. He knew he shouldn't be out this late; he shouldn't even be out at all. But still he didn't care any more; he didn't care about anything since that day.
He made it to the park, where he only faintly realized that someone had fixed the swings on the playground. He sat down on one of the swings and didn't realize when someone sat down next to him until they spoke.
"It's going to be a beautiful night tonight. Such a shame though on how hard it is to see the stars in the city."
The young man looked up to see a young woman sitting there staring at the sky, then he too looked up at the sky. The sun had just set making the sky a deep orange and just visible was a crescent moon high above the horizon.
"Yes, I suppose," the young man shrugged not really caring.
"You really shouldn't look like that. You are far too young to look like that. In fact, no one should look like that. Learn to look at the small things in life, like the pretty moon smiling at us on such a beautiful night," the woman said still looking at the sky.
"Why should you judge how I look? You don't have a clue of what I've been through or what my life is like!" the young man shouted at her. She didn't finch or look guilty, she just continued to stare at the sky. Then she glanced over at the young man who was breathing heavily from shouting at her.
"You are right; I have no right to judge. No one but the four gods has any right to judge and two do not care. So tell me young one, tell me your story so that I might better understand why one so young looks like you do," the young woman said softly looking at him with eyes that had seen many years past, far to many for how old she looked.
The young man could not help himself, he spill his story to the girl. She listened and did not interrupt him at all. The boy even forgot she was there. He had never had someone to ask him to spill everything out like this; to tell someone everything without feeling like he was going to be judge later.
"And now he's gone forever; and it's all my fault!" the young man cried, tears streaming down his face. He didn't care. The woman sat there listening as the young man cried. Slowly the tears began to slow and the sobs became hiccups. The sun had finished setting leaving the sky a dark purple and blue.
"I don't have a family either. I watched all of them grow old and die. I'm cursed that way. Everyone, everyone I meet, get close to, become friends with, I have to watch them grow old and die. But I don't cry, or blame myself, I try to live the life they would want for me. They would want me to be happy so I morn and then get on with my life. At first it hurts and that is normal. But as time goes on, the pain lessens and you can move on and live in their memory."
"That's easy for you to say, you weren't the cause of someone dieing!" the young man shouted at her; angry at the way she seemed to know everything. The woman gave a bitter laugh.
"There is one. It's probably the only one I'll remember for the rest of my cursed life. For I'm sure there are more. My brother's great-great granddaughter; I became friends with her and she was murdered when she was seventeen. I blamed myself for not keeping a closer watch on her, for letting be placed at that place and time, that I wasn't stronger."
The young man remained silenced, thinking over what she had told him.
"I avenged her but it didn't really help. I hated myself. But I made it though by sticking to what I believed in."
"…And what was that?"
"That when fate finally decided that he is done playing with me and hands me over to death, that I'll see her again."
"But you said you could not die."
"True, I do not age so I can not grow old and I'm next to impossible to kill but someone can still kill me. I could kill myself if I wanted or let myself be killed. But I won't do that or let that happen if I can help it."
"Why don't you kill yourself? Wouldn't that just make things easier for you?"
The woman gave a dry laugh. When she finished she looked at the boy sitting next to her.
"Tell me, if you were to kill yourself, and you meet him and your parents, how do you think they would act?"
The young man thought about it then hung his head and answered.
"They would be disappointed."
"Yes," the woman said looking back up at the sky, "I would think so. Those on the other side for me would be. So no matter how life gets always keep going forward and when you do die, whether it be you were killed or you got to live your life out, then they would greet you with open arms and welcome you back to them. So do you think that you'll see them again?"
The young man thought about it and did not answer for a few minutes.
"Yes, I do believe that I'll see them again."
"Then live your life to the fullest and live how they would want you to live or how you think they would want to you to live. And don't forget them; always remember them in your heart. For that is what truly keeps us going."
They sat there in their own thoughts, watching the moon as it sank down to the horizon. They sat there enjoying one another's company; neither not daring to break the silence.
"It's late, you should get home soon. Would you like me to walk you home? It's not safe to wonder the streets at night," the woman said looking at the boy next to her.
"Yea, okay," the boy said standing up. The woman followed and they both began to walk out of the park.
All was quiet, everyone was already home, in bed or catching the last of the evening news. The street lights flickered and in the distant you could hear a dog howl. Their shoes were the only sound made on the street at such a late hour. The woman hummed softly to herself as the boy walked beside her, thinking on all that she had said; then he broke the silence.
"I understand, thank you," the young man said a small smile gracing his face. The woman said nothing just let a small smile grace her lips as well. "But why did you come and help me?"
The woman was quiet for a moment as if she was thinking of an answer; then said:
"To save a life is worth a lot, but to save a soul is worth so much more."
They continued to walk down the street to the boy's home. Neither saying a thing, just listening to the night's soft song as it sang the earth to sleep. They made it to the house were the young man lingered before turning around.
"I thank you again and I forgot to give you my name; it's Harry Potter," the young man said before he realized that the woman was no longer there. He looked but did not see her. Was she a figment of his imagination? Or had she been real? He looked but he could not find any trace of her. The only thing she had left behind were her words to him.
"To save a life is worth a lot but to save a soul is worth so much more," Harry muttered to himself. Filled with new energy and life, he went to the door and let himself in as the wind sighed, lifting up the hair of a woman standing on the roof top across the street; watching young Harry as he closed the door.
"Yes, to save a soul is worth more then you can imagine. Good luck in life young Harry Potter. May you find happiness and always have a purpose to your life."
The woman vanished never to be seen on privet drive again.