What is the purpose of war? What is the reason we fight?

Dying for your country, that was how they justified it in the Muggle world. Not much of a reason in my opinion. What is the point of it all? To die? To lead thousands of others to their deaths behind you? For the purpose of glory, or freeing your country?

In the Muggle world it makes no sense, but they at least tried to justify it, what was our reasoning? Voldemort is evil and must be stopped. Is that the best we can come up with? Yes, he needs to be stopped, but must it be like this?

So many have died for this cause already, so many have left families to cry and curse and rage at the world. I remember one battle, not sure which one, they all blur together like a giant tapestry of death and blood, it was horrible, curses being flung everywhere and people dying all around. It gets to be impossible to tell friend from foe in the midst of the battle, every face is full of pain, every person that dies, dies for a cause. Whether it is yours or not no longer matters. I look into the face of a young boy, he is crying in pain from a wound in his shoulder, blood and tears mix on his face as he flings another curse.

I look at the boy and think he must be too young to fight in such a horrendous battle; he is too young to have to kill or be killed, but then I remember that I am just as young as he is. How war has changed me, I no longer remember that I am just a child myself. For too long responsibilities that should not have to be mine have been forced onto my shoulders. For too long I have had to worry about the fate of the world.

I wrench my mind back to the present and focus on the task at hand, another battle. I'm standing here in the middle of a fight and all I can think of is that boy and how young he looked. I remember that after that battle had been fought I had returned to the field to see to the fallen. There he had lain, blood pooled around him and his face twisted in pain. I had cried then, cried for the loss of one so young.

Many had died in that battle, from both sides, and I cried then for all of them. Good and bad, righteous and evil, young and old. I mourned them all. As we moved on later that day I had thought of the families of those that had fallen and how they would never know just what had happened to their loved ones. So many left on the field of battle without even a tombstone to guard their eternal rest, their bones to be cleaned by animals and battered by weather.

I wish I could stop and give them all a proper burial and a fitting goodbye. Alas, I could not; I had to continue on, to the next fight, the next battle, the end of this war. All this death around us and all these people can think of is me saving them. If I win this war all the casualties will be forgotten and I will be a hero. Those that have died will be left behind and the world will celebrate, sometimes I hate the world.

Now, here I stand on another battle field, so similar to all the others, as body after body falls to the ground. And all I can think is,

What is the point?

A/N: Yesterday (well it was yesterday when I started this) at school we had our Remembrance Day ceremony and this popped into my head. Tell me what you think. This really is my view on war, I think it's pointless, but I still respect those that go and have gone to war.

Thanks again to karone-sakura for the title and that of my other story.