written for tomorrow's 30_hath challenge...

[hazy_reflection]

Title:
Author: hazy_reflection
House: Ravenclaw
Date/Challenge: 27 February 2006 // end without audience
Character/Pairing: Harry Potter, Voldemort
Rating: ...
Notes: Implied character death. Gee. What a surprise.

The deed was done, the demon slain, and satisfaction was had. But there was still a gaping hole in his heart. It didn't bring back his parents, it didn't erase the past. It didn't bring back all the people who had died for the cause and it didn't bring back the innocence that he had lost at the early age of just a year old.

Harry fell to his knees, his wand falling from his hand as though it were a sword that had just struck a finishing blow, heavy with the burden of death. Voldemort was defeated, but then again, so was Harry. His friends were gone, and the only people who were left for him were the very people he had tried to avoid. Ministry aurors he had never spent time with, schoolmates he'd only nodded to in passing through the halls of Hogwarts, all were there, all except for the people he had truly needed to be there. And so the end came without audience, without the splendor and the glory that would have made it entirely worth it.

Through the cheering and the roar of celebration, Harry stood and walked, a man condemned to life without the love he had fought so hard to save.