𝑨 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝑶𝑭 𝑫𝑨𝑹𝑲𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟓𝟓: 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐀𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

"BASILISK." SHE SMILED into the basin at his guess. "How did you know?" Lifting her view from the basin and over to Severus, her smile faded as he stood defensively with his wand pointing behind her.

The shrieking resounded from behind her. It hadn't been in her mind. It had been real. It had all been real. Her body shook uncontrollably as she slowly turned her head around to the creature that had emerged from its own cave. She threw herself down, her back up against the basin, hiding from the creature as she placed her hands over her mouth to muffle the sound of her ragged cries and breath.

Severus too, had hidden himself behind a oversized stone, cautiously following the slither of the creature's movements with hand pointing precisely in preparation to harm the scaled monster.

Lilith's forceful foot to the stone hadn't rumbled the cave before. The Basilisk had.

Its tail rattled as its mouth searched high and low for the culprits that disturbed its peace, growing irritated by its own short sightedness and inability to seek out its prey.

Lilith's chest rose and fell heavily with each slither of the Basilisk. Her eyes glistening with hot tears at not only the thought of the Basilisk but also not knowing what to do. She was too far from Severus to quietly make her way back to him and practically positioned in the most awkward place possible. The ground below her shook as the Basilisk shifted itself through the disturbed stone, forcefully slapping its tail at the ground at the sight of its destroyed home.

Severus held out his wand in one hand and with the other, lifted up his index finger to Lilith, telling her to remain quiet. She faced the Basilisk once more as it continued to edge around the cave, hissing at the cracks it assumed its prey to be hiding in. It began bashing its tail aggressively against the stone, causing it to crumble into sharper shards of stone, able to piece through almost anything. She swallowed her cries, unable to find where Severus had moved to.

This was a cruel game Fate continued to play with, in fact she didn't even believe she was playing anymore, she was just being thrown around in all directions, expected to endure the blistering obstacles constantly thrown her way. It was all her life had become, a series of tests and challenges all in the hands of another. She found no heroism in her success, she never believed herself to be greater than anyone else for overcoming what she had. Everything she had endured had merely become part of her, part of her story.

She was exhausted of telling her story, walking everyone through the monstrosity she had the luck to call her life but alas she did it anyway. Her life as of recently had not been her own and although she had experienced that before, this time it hurt more. It hurt more because in the moments she thought that she was truly living, it always turned out that she was just existing for someone else. This day, had she really just been existing to endure the wrath of the Basilisk? Fate's new challenge or new torture, the words began to give off the same meaning now.

Lilith searched her mind endlessly for something, anything. What to do. What kind of spell wards of a Basilisk, how to cause harm without inflicting it, how to repose evil that sought to take the remainder of your life from you. How to take back control.

Control.

It clicked in her mind, the obvious being there from the very beginning. She leapt up from behind the basin, shouting out her words as she watched Severus wave his wand to produce that familiar spell. Her voice collided with Severus', his words overpowering hers, too late to realise, too late to understand.

"Severus, don't!"

"Crucio!"

Shrieking shook the cave, shattering through the obsidian, the secrets once held now collapsing from their cries.