Credit: “What Makes A Man?”
Music and lyrics by Dallas Green Bring Me Your Love
I can hear my train coming
It’s a lonesome and distant cry.
I can hear my train coming
Now I’m running for my life.
What makes a man walk away from his mind?
I think I might know.
Lord Voldemort had always feared death. From a young age, he had a preternatural fixation with his mortality. Death landed him in the miserable orphanage, and surrounded him in the faces of the other children there.
The fear of powerlessness had come first. He knew what it was to be helpless, and it was the height of misery. He couldn’t remember when something had taken root in him, but it hardened, and he desired power above all other things.
Then had come fear of death. For what was death but the ultimate form of powerlessness?
I can feel the wind blowing
It’s sending shivers down my spine.
What makes a man spend his whole life in disguise?
I think I might know.
It was not until he was at Hogwarts that he had begun to fear himself. The knowledge that the name he bore had belonged to such a weak man—a Muggle—had horrified him. His father had been ordinary, and he had thought himself better than that. It was supposed to have been his mother, who he knew had died soon after giving birth to him, that was the powerless one.
The revulsion that his own name inspired in him from that point on was like nothing he had ever felt before. He had been sure, so sure, that he was different than everyone else, but he started to feel unsure. The weight of self-hatred threatened to bury him; he felt that he was destined for failure, simply because of who he was.
I can see the sun setting
It’s casting shadows on the sea.
What makes a man want to break a heart with ease?
I think I might know.
And now, he was standing in the crumbling walls of the school he had once called home, face-to-face with Harry Potter, the boy who had done what Voldemort had always wished to: lived. Not for long, though, if all went to plan. The end, he knew, was near.
If death was the lowest form of powerlessness, the ability to cause it was the epitome of strength. Hadn’t death pressed itself upon him and the other children in the orphanage, devastating the lives they might have had? When he had realized the absolute power of death, he had seen his path clearly.
It had taken time before he claimed his first life, but there had been other ways, even as a child. Unbidden, the memory of salty air and a day by the sea came into his mind. A day by the sea, and a cave, and the knowledge that he could rend the lives of others into pieces…
I can hear my train coming
I’m still running for my life.
What makes a man break when he’s about to die?
I think I might know.
He had protected himself from death and weakness more than anyone before him. His Horcruxes, he now knew, had been a mistake. When had he ever truly trusted in anyone or anything but himself? But he had the Elder Wand now, the symbol of everything he had ever coveted.
Yet still, he feared death, though he knew not why. Fear was the only emotion he knew, and as he raised his wand to kill Harry Potter, he did it with the belief that he might banish fear once and for all. He could live forever, if Harry Potter was dead.
What makes a man?
I think I might know.
When he might have realized he was wrong, it was too late.
Author's Note: I've never written a song fic before, but I got struck with inspiration while listening to this song, and I thought I might as well give it a shot. As the chapter summary says, I also decided to make this fit Ilia's "Every Word Counts" challenge, so the story text (without the lyrics) is 500 words.
I changed one word of the original lyrics in the last section quoted here. The official lyrics say "What makes a man pray when he's about to die?"
Please leave me a review if you have any comments on the story! :)
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