Here you go. Conceptually this draws on both "Three Versions" and "The Aleph," a lot!
***
The Aleph contains all things, or it would not be a true Aleph, and Snape knew with certainty that this one was true. Even Legilimancy is no help with the paradox. Even as Snape contemplated its overwhelming light, he was already inside it. It contained all the world’s memories of Lily Evans’s eyes; it contained the patterns of moss on the wall as he and Albus had the last and most terrible of conversations. It contained bodily memories of the Cruciatus Curse, and calm afternoons and the sunlight on parchment.
There had been two in that conversation, and now only one remained. (Though of course the other was still in the Aleph, after a fashion). (He saw wrists bound by vow-light). Soon, there would be none left who could describe the path taken; once turned down it, there is no return and so no travellers’ tales. The sacrifice would have to be total. (He sees another young man pausing at this fork. Tom chose a different road.)
Snape lifted his Pensieve one last time, and threw with all his might. Silver beads of memory like mercury spattered into the Infinite, where they had always already been, and left the world.
Oh thank you. Thank you. SO glad you liked it - this was such a wonderful and challenging prompt. Borges is intimidating - the absolute master of weaving a novel's worth of content into a single deceptively simple sentence!
Five more days! *runs around flapping like decapitated chicken*
How exactly did Snape and Judas come up in the interview, anyway?
Oh, this was my panel discussion in Minneapolis a few weeks ago--somebody asked _something_ about supervillains and HP, I forget what, and I somehow started going off about how Snape post-Book 6 made me think of Borges's Runeberg's Judas--the guy whose heroic sacrifice to save everything is becoming the betrayer who does the unforgiveable.
Oooooh yeah. As soon as you said that, it sent chills up the pipe. And that 'Gospel of Judas' business provides at least a little vindication, doesn't it? Of course, for one in that position, hoping for vindication is a sin indeed.
It'd break my heart if she did that, but in a very satisfying way. And she'll break hearts no matter what she does. She's making omelets, after all.
Here you go. Conceptually this draws on both "Three Versions" and "The Aleph," a lot!
***
The Aleph contains all things, or it would not be a true Aleph, and Snape knew with certainty that this one was true. Even Legilimancy is no help with the paradox. Even as Snape contemplated its overwhelming light, he was already inside it. It contained all the world’s memories of Lily Evans’s eyes; it contained the patterns of moss on the wall as he and Albus had the last and most terrible of conversations. It contained bodily memories of the Cruciatus Curse, and calm afternoons and the sunlight on parchment.
There had been two in that conversation, and now only one remained. (Though of course the other was still in the Aleph, after a fashion). (He saw wrists bound by vow-light). Soon, there would be none left who could describe the path taken; once turned down it, there is no return and so no travellers’ tales. The sacrifice would have to be total. (He sees another young man pausing at this fork. Tom chose a different road.)
Snape lifted his Pensieve one last time, and threw with all his might. Silver beads of memory like mercury spattered into the Infinite, where they had always already been, and left the world.
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Five more days!
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Five more days! *runs around flapping like decapitated chicken*
How exactly did Snape and Judas come up in the interview, anyway?
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It'd break my heart if she did that, but in a very satisfying way. And she'll break hearts no matter what she does. She's making omelets, after all.
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