Cold

Cold.

I'm so very cold.

The ice is spreading my legs; it's at my thighs now. It hasn't taken very long; I could have sworn it was only at my feet a minute before. My lips shook with frost.

Why is it cold?

I can't seem to remember anything at all. I don't even remember my name. But I know it is cold. But, wait. I'm not cold alone. That man over there, he seems to be shivering as well.

"Rr, rrr, arrr." I stutter, trying to find the words to talk to the man. "Are, y, yy, you, oooo, oo, okay?"

The man jumped, at least, sort of. The cold was paralyzing him as well.

"Wh, wha, what?"

"Are y, you okay?" I repeated to the man. I thought I saw him open his eyes, and then he spoke.

"It's, it's, co, co, cold," he stuttered, shivering just as furiously as I was. I nodded, and gulped.

"Yes, yes it, it is. Who, who are yo, you?" I asked.

The man seemed to shrug, but I couldn't tell, all of his motions were, like mine, restricted by cold.

"I, I do, don't remem, remember. I don't know wh, why I'm here," he shivered. I nodded back, huddling closer in my arms.

"Me ne, neither," I replied, licking my lips to keep them from going numb. I shuffled slowly over to the man. He shuffled toward me. Both of us knew what we were doing, but the awkwardness of the situation was too unbearable for words.

I couldn't even feel when our shoulders touched, but the little body heat he did have flooded into me. We huddled together, freezing, trying to stay warm by our body heat. Even so, the coldness kept on flooding up my torso, freezing my chest. My vision was starting to dim. The cold was unbearable. I coughed. I felt something warm in my mouth. It was a feeling that was like water for a thirsting man, stranded in the desert. I kept on coughing, wanting that warm feeling more than I wanted the cold to go away. I heard the man coughing, and felt the same warm all over my face. The warm felt nice, especially since I could no longer see. The cold was up at my neck, and I knew that it was coming for my head, but I didn't care. The warm was making me happy. I tried to ask the man if he felt the warm too, but I couldn't talk.

The warm feeling is going away.

Why is it cold?

I'm so very cold.

Cold.

No one quite understood what had happened. Of course, only Dumbledore had known that the prophecy had been fulfilled, but even he didn't understand.

They had been found, huddled close on the ground in the basement of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Both were covered in blood, their faces red with the liquid.

Mortal enemies locked in an embrace in the final moments of their lives.

Harry Potter and Tom Riddle.

Prophecy: fulfilled.