OK, so here's a strange little Potter fic I cooked up last night. The idea's been bouncing around my head for I while now and it ties into the novel-length fic I'm working on. It didn't come out quite how I expected, but ... well, have a look for yourself.

Sleeping in Light

I am a sleeper.

To sleep, perchance to dream

Dreams are all I have left to me now, and perhaps not even that. More like ... memories. Memories of a life too brief, and yet a full life. A life filled with sadness and joy, magic and wonder, evil and darkness.

To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

A life blighted before I was old enough to know it. A childhood spent unwanted and unloved until the door was opened for me. The door to a new home and a new family, to new friends and new enemies.

To take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them

And great opposition I was - even before I was aware of it I was fighting darkness, defeating evil. And when the moment came, I chose to continue that fight - not just once, but time and again. I fought for what I believed was right, no matter the cost. And the price was high indeed - for some of those around me, even one of my closest friends. And as for me...

Death, the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns

I paid the ultimate price for my ultimate victory, but it was a price that had to be paid - not just for the final downfall of a Dark Lord, but for personal vengeance. And so it was that he succeeded at his end where he had failed seventeen years before, leaving me with only enough time to die in the arms of a loved one.

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come

Not all my dreams are memories - some come to me from after my time. There is no sensation of the passage of time here, yet sometimes I catch what may be a glimpse of the world as it is, not as it was. A world free once more from fear, a world where those I loved can find happiness - if they are able. But also I see the return of the darkness - much weaker, it's true, and with a new face, but still I fear that it will once more cast its shadow over the freedom I helped to bring.

To be, or not to be, that is the question

For despite the inescapable fact that this sleep should have no end, I find myself drawn, even called, away from the light. And so I have come to believe that somehow this sleeper may yet awake and take up the fight once more.