Seeing Through Shadow
They know when the end is coming when Harry's scar hurts more than it should, more than Voldemorte could ever make it. When he needs Dreamless Sleep just to take a nap. When he grows thin and weak with pain, when they find him slashed to ribbons on Moaning Myrtle's bathroom floor, "All done by his own hand."
Or so she swears.
They know the end is near when the shadows begin to stir. The long dead Chamber of Secrets seems to roar back to life. But a basilisk is nothing without it's eyes. They kill it fast and bury it in the Forbidden Forest.
Harry is deep deep deep below the school, even Headless Nick can't find his body.
It doesn't really matter anymore. He's risen to full power anyways. This time, he's cut a few deals with the elements. He's made them offers they cannot refuse.
Fire demons scurry in with the salamanders, burning Hagrid's hands so that they must be washed and wrapped for two days, even with healing potions. They eventually creep in when he is in at dinner and Fang is in the forest. They burn his cottage to the ground.
All posing as sneaky little salamanders.
The end is near, Hagrid moans. His face is buried in Fang's neck, great sobs heaving as many of the animals have been burned to death, all found as charred little oozing shapes on his used-to-be garden. The salamanders live.
Ron, whose hair is the color of a salamander, grows thin and pale and weak. He can no longer remember Quidditch. Harry lingers everywhere. Ron sits in Harry's chair by the fire, drowning his sorrows in butterbeer, and often something stronger.
Hermione has gone mad. But only in a quite, stuble way. Because Hermione has always been quiet and stuble. She sits and pours over Arithmancy, Advanced Potions, Charms, anything to bring Harry back or to make the pretty flowers grow. She has cut her hair short, almost completly off, and not even Draco can insult her now. She talks to Crookshanks, unaware that she has not been feeding him.
Hagrid heard the poor cats meows and stole him from Hermione's room. Now he keeps the cat well fed and gaurded from salamanders. Crookshanks is getting old, but still knows when the end is coming.
The Water comes as evil mermaids, sitting in bathtubs and toilets, drowning everyone when they can. Nobody goes out to the lake anymore. Not anyone that wants to live, anyway. The Water is pure evil now. Nobody drinks it.
Colin Creevy did. He was the last. Water possessed him, and now Dennis and Colin lay side by side just outside of the castle. Everyone wears deep deep violet, for no element is the shade of violet.
Hagrid wastes more each day. He feeds Crookshanks and Fang, often wondering where the centuars are, are they fairing well? Had they fled earlier? Had they forseen this? Probably, he muses. After his seventh glass of scotch, he winces and stands up. He tries to go to the lake to die, but Fang trips him and then both sit on his back.
Snape is hollower than he was when he started. He and Hermione sit in the library or the dungeon, reading texts and making love. They are insane, yes. Or maybe it's just that they have become saner than everything around them. Or maybe they just don't care anymore.
Earth is solid and still, being the only element that refused to give in. Earth has slowly built mountains around them, sheer tall cliffs impossible to climb or to break. But Earth's siblings still creep in. Earth's siblings are still of weaker will than She.
Air can only turn so violent. It whips the Whomping Willow out by the roots and sends it into the Great Hall. It makes wind so strong that none dare to venture outside.
But all Elements are still when it is time to bury the dead.
When the end finally comes, Earth is killed by Air, Water, and Fire, then torn to shreds and left for the crows. The fair white unicorns with shiny silver hoofs and long spiraling horns turn dark, black with hatred, hoofs jagged and horns red with blood.
When the end finally comes, there is noone there to see it, and not even Moaning Myrtle cries.