Make A Wish, Harry

Make a Wish, Harry

*****************

He was there.

Out there.

Waiting.

Watching the tall house outside the village.

Waiting...for me.

I knew he was there. In all the summers I've spent here, every one of them had been peaceful, a great blanket of contentment hanging in the air. Whenever I visited, I slept well and felt loved and protected. But now...now, this summer, he was there.

Out there.

Biding his time.

Four weeks I'd been here. Four weeks of lazy, blissful, euphoric happiness. Four weeks of playing one-on-one Quidditch games with my best friend, and him teaching me to play a decent game of chess. Four weeks of carefully guarding what I said to everyone. Four weeks of concealment charms in my face, so no one could tell I hadn't slept at all. Four weeks of knowing that, at any moment, the deadliest Dark Lord the wizarding world had ever known could swoop down and kill us all.

Four weeks of watching him through the bedroom window. Watching him stand out in the middle of the open field behind the house. A sinister grin was always on his pale, twisted face, but, after four weeks, signs of impatience were beginning to show.

But he knew, and I knew, that the moment would come...soon.

*************

It was exactly one half hour until my seventeenth birthday. All my friends from school were there, and the family, in the small living room that still seated all twenty or so of us comfortably. All were peacefully slumbering, thanks to the slow-acting sleeping draught I'd mixed into the drinks.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to the Weasleys. "Thank you, for everything."

I turned and looked at each of my friends' faces. "Have a good seventh year, all of you. I hope your lives are lived to the fullest. Even though mine was so short, I know I've accomplished exactly what I was meant to do."

As I walked out the back door, I paused to gaze at them one last time. Finally, I'd be paying back all the people who had protected my, or tried to, for so long.

"Good bye."

It was now exactly ten minutes before midnight. He was already there, grinning manically, watching my every move through blood red eyes. I stopped walking about ten yards away from him, making room for what I knew would occur in mere minutes. I gazed solemnly at the man whom had haunted me since I was conceived. He simply stared back at me.

Then I broke the gaze and glanced at my watch.

11:59:50.

He pulled his wand forth from his robes slowly. He raised it high above his head, and he whispered two, unintelligible words. Suddenly, great lights sparked in a circle around us.

Seventeen great bonfires surrounding us.

Five seconds left.

I took out my own wand. I held it tight in my fist, and...

I smiled.

It was over.

Two seconds.

We both pointed our wands at each other, readying ourselves for the backlash from Priori Incantatem. My smile remained on my face, and I thought my last thoughts, perceiving the brightly flickering bonfires. Seventeenth summer.

Midnight.

Make a wish, Harry...

*****************

End.