ANATHEMA
By Yih

Note: This is an AU fantasy. That means canon events will not happen as you see them. They will be twisted to fit this world, which is not like quite like the wizarding world, though there are still wizards.

Chapter Six
The Price

I am caught before the end. There is no darkness where I am, there is no light. It is a grey area. In between and tired, weary of all that has passed. I find it is like me. I want to give in to this middle ground where there is no struggle. I do not have to choose. I can just be.

My darkness, I hear my Master calling. Do not let him win.

Some other voice is speaking, my Master's enemy, "You have finally learned to care."

"It is strange, is it not?" my Master asks. "For you to find some human quality that you too possess in me?" My Master pauses and I feel his hand around my waist, holding my limp body up. "We are more alike than you wish to see."

"Perhaps," Dumbledore says, "but if you do care, then give him life and light, and not this darkness and death you have forced." The brightness is seeping and flooding the grey. "Let him live as he would and not as you command and control."

"You forget, Albus Dumbledore," my Master says, "that I am not you."

"Then I will have no choice."

Coherent thought is stolen from and me I can no longer feel myself in between. I am being dragged somewhere that I do not know if I wish to go. I don't think I would be adverse to it, but there are some things in the other path I would not mind having more time to journey in.

"WAIT!" my Master shouts. His voice pulls me abruptly back and I wonder what he means. I must go. I must go. Go now. "Wait."

"Yes, Tom?"

"Don't call me that," my Master hisses.

"Shall I?"

"Yes. Do it."

"And then you agree?"

I could not see my Master's face, but I imagine it was not pleasant when he says, "I do."

-

Instead of darkness, there is light and much of it that my eyes burn. I do not know where I am, but I am missing something, someone. My Master is gone. He is so far I cannot feel his presence. It is an odd thing to be missing. Have I not wished for many years to be free of him? Too bad I have not wished that for the last couple of years.

"So you are awake," Dumbledore says, walking into this brightly colored room. "How do you feel?"

My throat is dry, my eyes hurt, but for what I have been through, seesawing as I was, I am perfectly fine. "Well," I say. "I am well."

"That is good."

"But," I begin, needing to know, "where is my Master?"

"Voldemort is gone," Dumbledore says. "He has released you, finally."

I stare at him, occasionally blinking.

"He is not your Master anymore."

And, though, I had known this the moment I regained myself, I am still surprised.

-

I start hearing voices in my head, sometimes I think they are my Master's, but mostly they are my delusions. I have spent so much time in his presence that I find myself half of who I am without him. It is strange. Dumbledore says I am lucky to have escaped, that my price was not so costly as he first thought it would be.

Dumbledore wants something from me, what I do not know. I do not really wish to find out.

I am content to stay in my rooms or go to the gardens when I need some fresh air. It is peaceful here, if not lonely, but if I must live this way—I can do it without complaint. It could be worse.

I know my Master is out there and alive and I know he will come for me. It does not matter that he has temporarily relinquished me. He will have his stone, his life regained, and he will also have me. For I am his and he will not let me forget it.

At least now I know, in letting me go, he cares enough about me to not risk losing me forever.

THE END.

A/N: I really apologize but my muse died. And well this chapter may not have been what you guys were wishing for, but I think it works out nicely. Since in the end it's really about Harry and his Master. I hoped you like this wacky fantasy AU. Please review.