Oh Merlin
by Teka Lynn

Oh, Merlin--is it you?
Can it be you I see before me,
Here, where the dust lies thick,
The children stare wide-eyed, terrified--
You, are you a ghost conjured up to spite me?
It can't be you. How could you now forgive me?
You look so worn by life. Tattered, as I am tattered,
Hair streaked with grey... but I know your eyes.
So wise they are, brimful of compassion.

Who would have guessed, the four of us united?
The boy could be his father's ghost. The rat,
Squealing, quivering, a warped mirror image
Of the shy, sweet friend we used to know.
Do you know me? I don't know myself.
What's left of this rag hung out from Azkaban,
Squeezed dry, panting, whose only thought is vengeance?
I'm mirrored in your eyes, this wild stranger
Who stinks of lies and treachery, the twelve-fold killer.

I don't know what I'm saying. Babbling, cursing,
I want my justice, justice denied me. Kill them all!
What matters another innocent lost, when my own innocence
Lies soaked in bloody rain and choked in corpses.
The rat... the rat! My laugh snarls in jest.
Who would have thought the outer form would mirror the inner?
Your wolf belies you. Serenity and peace dwell in your eyes
When another would have lost them, banished to the wolf.

Explanations, shouting. My head hurts.
I don't understand things anymore.
Are you my Moony? How can you be?
I lost you, lost James and Lily, lost us all.
Your arms around me... oh god, sweet heaven.
Warmth to expulse the burning chill
Fills my heart, my shaking body.
Your sweet eyes are closed now;
I feel the light shine through me. You are here.

Written by Teka Lynn
October 19, 2002

All rights to the characters and setting are held by J K Rowling and whoever else holds them, including, but not limited to, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, and Warner Bros. This fanwork was created solely for fun and has no legal or financial connection to the Harry Potter novels.