Harry sighed and shut the book. Tom had been a very boring fellow, Harry decided. The teenager spoke of hardly anything interesting yet seemed fascinated by all that Harry knew. Harry mentioned to him that the world war, the second one that is, ended and when Hitler realized he was defeated he killed himself.
•I could never kill myself•
Tom had said.
•Such a mundane way to go, don't you think? If I were to die, I would want to go out with a bang. Maybe take down a few of my enemies with me,•
•Is this before or after you become Voldemort?•
•After I suppose. I like to imagine I would have built an empire by then•
Harry didn't respond to that. He also didn't point out the irony in this Tom Riddle's words, nor the way Tom spoke with such certainty 'IF' I were to die. In all honesty, Harry tended to hold back a lot of his thoughts when it came to this Tom character. Of course he knew who the teenager was, he had heard the name so many times in his dreams. In his head. Like a whisper. A silent whisper on the wind. Tom Riddle.
•How would you like to die, Harry?•
•I suppose, before we were born we never existed at all, if I have not existed before then not existing again will be like falling into a memory. Why should I fear doing something I have already done? I think death is like jumping from a dock into a lake. At first all you feel is the cold, the shock of it hitting you and the crashing of water. Then I think you'd feel hundreds of bubbles across your skin and the cold seep into your bones, melting you from the inside. You might be scared to open your eyes and look, might be afraid of the pain when the water hits them. But eventually you do. Everything would blur and become fragmented in the light. And you may feel your lungs burning, but even though it hurts, you do not want to return to the surface. You know they say when you drown you don't open your mouth until the last second. That the instinct to not let any water in is so strong that you wait until you feel like you are on fire until you release any air. That's not true though. Your head goes underwater and the first thing you do is gasp in surprise. The water starts to go in your mouth when you push it back out and try to hold your breath. But in a minute the panic sets in. You squirm under the water and you kick and claw and scream. Everything hurts and you try so hard to get up again. To get air.•
Harry paused.
•Truth is I don't care how I die. I don't care when. But I don't want to drown,•
For once, the words did not disappear when Harry sighed and shut the book.
