dear harry

Dear Harry,

I want you to know:

I do feel remorse.

Though many years have passed,

Though you are long dead,

I know that this letter will find you,

And that you’ll read it and forgive me.

I have been wrapped in haunting memory

All this time,

Ever since that day, when you told me

What would happen.

When the screams of innocent children

Meant nothing to me, no, worse,

Made me laugh;

When the great defenders of that great institution

Fell, one by one,

By my hand, by my order,

And that too, made me laugh.

They had given me all, hadn’t they?

Those same teachers who fought and died before me,

Had once set me homework and helped with my questions.

Had seen the rage and the hatred brewing within me,

And given me a chance still, chances, many.

They had put aside their doubt and mistrust,

Because I was a child,

And I was alone,

And because the greatest of them all

Had wanted to believe in me.

Oh, all the lost boys of that school,

How we could have helped one another.

But you, Harry, found friends to help you,

While I found followers to kill for me,

And I hunted you for that.

Repentance will take eternity,

My eternity

And oh god when it’s done,

May I return to pay it on earth.

I hope to find you again in that life,

And this time,

I’ll sit beside you in the great hall,

Laugh and gossip and complain,

Get in trouble

In a child’s innocent way.

And every day I’ll remember

What I’ve done, and my silence

In the mornings will be for them.

I’ll be silent for a long time.

Until then, yours,

Tom Riddle