Chapter 1
“It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”
“I’ve got to go back haven’t I?”
“That is up to you.”
“I’ve got a choice?”
“Oh yes.” Dumbledore smiled at him. “We are in King’s Cross, you say? I think that if you decided not to go back, you would be able to… let’s say...board a train.”
“And where would it take me?”
– Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
**
“Wherever you wish to go,” Dumbledore said simply. Harry turned back to look at the displeasing figure, the horcrux in me , he thought to himself, but found that it was gone. The station was eerily quiet. He looked at Dumbledore again. “Anywhere?” he asked, confused.
“Of course. You’ve done quite enough, dear boy.” Dumbledore looked at him, eyes heavy with guilt that to Harry, seemed misplaced.
Harry thought of all the people he loved, that he would be leaving behind, and he thought of all the people who loved him, who had left him behind.
“I don’t want to die, I don’t think,” he said all in one breath, turning back slowly to Dumbledore.
The old wizard met his gaze, and smiled softly. “Then live,” he whispered.
Harry was about to ask what he meant by that — for hadn’t he just told Harry he had a choice? That he had done enough, could go anywhere? — when a loud horn startled him.
A train was coming in on tracks that Harry was sure weren’t there a second ago, gaining speed the longer he looked at it. He turned back to Dumbledore to ask if this was it, if he had to go back, and face Voldemort all over again, but the old man was gone, just like the horcrux, leaving Harry all alone on the platform.
He stood up wearily, and with a heavy sigh, prepared to board the train. As he did so, part of him wished he didn’t have to go back to the world he knew, full of pain, and hard choices, and death. Part of him wished, just for a second, that he didn’t have to be the chosen one.
**