ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴛᴛᴇᴅ ʟɪʟᴀ ʜᴏʟᴍᴇꜱ || ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏ ᴍᴀʟꜰᴏʏ x ᴏᴄ || ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ 1-3

a quick escape

a/n: hehe i love this chapter

———— lila pov ————

"Of course!" I exclaimed. "Slytherin's monster would be a giant snake. That's why I could hear it." I shivered. "How did I not know what a basilisk was?"

"Disappointing, considering you're technically also Slytherin's Heir," Riddle looked unimpressedly at me.

I looked back to Riddle. "How does it get around?"

"The plumbing," Riddle explained easily. "But that won't matter to you, as you'll be leaving the diary with me when I do."

"How do you leave?" I asked. Riddle grinned slyly at me.

"Ginny has relayed all of her deepest fears and darkest secrets to me. I've fed on them and as I grow stronger, she grows weaker. Once she dies, I'll have left the diary forever. Right now, she's on her way inside to prepare for our departure. In fact, I'll be leaving soon."

I didn't have much time.

"Why did you make this diary?" I asked. It occurred to me that the cause of creation of this diary could also be its downfall. "Are you afraid of death?"

"I am afraid of nothing," he snarled. I shook my head slowly.

"You are afraid of death," I told him. "Because death is a thing that happens to normal people, and you hate being normal, don't you? That's why you're still sixteen. It's designed to keep you alive forever."

Riddle was silent, seething. I saw his hand grip his wand. Perfect. I moved to stand in front of the mirror, using it to steady  myself. The glass was strangely warm beneath my palm.

"I'm not afraid," I said. "Of death, or of you. So why don't you just kill me now, Tom?"

He only scowled. "I can't kill you. It's designed to keep your soul immortal."

"Have you ever tested that?" I raised an eyebrow. With a slow, taunting smirk, I added, "or are you too afraid?"

"I'm afraid of nothing," he repeated, now angry. Teenagers were easy to rile up.

"Then why not kill me now?" I sneered as meanly as I could. "Scared it'll bounce back at you again? I can just see it now — Dark Lord dies by his own hand in a diary he made to keep himself alive." I smirked. "And there will be a Boy and a Girl who lived."

"That can't —" he sputtered, red in the face. "It won't happen!"

"Says who?" I raised my voice in challenge. "You're the one who made the damn thing. You can make the rules. You should kill me now, then. Eliminate any chances of my living. Or Merlin forbid you go back to being pathetic, boring, and ordinary—"

"You asked," he hissed. "Avada kedavra!"

I was hit square in the chest with a burst of green light, knocked back into the mirror. Except, as I'd hopes, I went straight through it. I watched my world flip around me as my back slammed into the sofa facing the fireplace. I blinked, and the mirror was replaced with a blank stretch of wall.

"Holy hell," I murmured. The room started to spin. I heard several concerned voices and saw many heads crowd around me. I recognized a shock of blonde hair, and a distorted though familiar voice at the forefront of it all.

"Holmes? What — you were — where the hell did you come from?!"

I smiled dazedly. I could just barely configure a pair of stormy grey eyes, confused and concerned.

"Malfoy. Fancy meeting you here," I managed, then blacked out. 

——— harry pov ———