It's never over

Dreams

The first time Tom Riddle killed someone, he didn't expect the nightmare. The ghostly face reached out into the darkness, screaming at him. This hadn't happened at Hogwarts, when he set the basilisk on Myrtle, so he wasn't expecting it. But there it was, haunting his dreams. It only got worse. Every night, every person he killed was in his dreams. Every muggle, witch, wizard. Every child, every old man, and every person that trusted him. Everyone. He had gotten used to it, and pushed the thoughts aside as he took on the name Lord Voldemort. But once he started gaining followers, he saw everyone they killed. It just kept getting worse. With every spell he cast, he could see their faces. Not screaming, not crying, just staring blankly at him. Almost, almost asking , "Why? Why did you kill me?"
He would always answer "Because I had to!" But eventually he stopped. He stopped answering. And then he stopped sleeping. A spell he made up himself, to prevent sleep. He would never have to dream again. He didn't realize that his worst enemy would dream of him instead.
At first, Harry was fine with the dreams. A flash of green light was all he could ever see. His aunt and uncle told him it was from the car crash, but he felt like it was something more. By his fourth year, it was. It was a connection with Voldemort, a terrible connection. Harry started seeing the faces Voldemort saw, but they didn't seem to ask why to Harry. They smiled, laughed, and encouraged him. Sometimes, they were the only way he could imagine himself defeating Voldemort. The encouraging faces of all these people, telling him that he would defeat Voldemort. He eventually realized who they were, and started recognizing faces. That was the witch who he saw in the paper went missing. That was the old muggle from the Riddle house. But he never saw his parents. And once Sirius died, he never saw him either. He could never explain why, and would never know. Once he defeated Voldemort, however, the dreams stopped. Until one night, he dreamt of all his friends. His mum and dad told him they were so proud, Sirius smiled like he meant it, Lupin and Tonks told him what a great job he did telling Teddy about the war. Fred told him to tell George he'd be okay, and Cedric thanked him for bringing his body back. They started to disappear, and he called out for them to come back, but they just smiled sadly. At last, they were all gone. But Harry was still dreaming. There, in front of him, was Hedwig. She hooted softly, and ruffled her feathers. Her beautiful wings spread open, and she flew right over his head. He woke up immediately after that, and never had another one of Tom Riddle's dreams again.