Unexpected Encounters | Tom Riddle

IV: A Second Chance at Life

Lilia Rousseau.

That was her new identity in this world where she knew no one. The weight of loneliness increased considerably as she undressed and drew a warm bath, sinking in the hot water. With a soft moan of relief, she closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall. She hadn't realised how tense her muscles had been until that moment.

Her thoughts wandered back to her predicament.

She didn't have anyone she loved or cared about here. But then, most of those people had been killed in her time. She had always been alone, the only person she had cared about being Harry.

Hogwarts had been a pivotal point in her life as she got to meet amazing people. People who loved her but still compared her to her extraordinary brother.

She felt guilty as her thoughts strayed in that direction. She loved Harry, always did and always would. Often she thought about how it should have been her who died. The Order needed Harry, not the useless sibling. Lilia shuddered and started to clean herself with honey scented soap.

There was a strong contrast between the sweet smell of the soap and her bitter thoughts. I

should have died, why did Harry die? She thought, tears springing to her eyes. However, she quickly blinked them away.

She hated herself for crying so easily, a habit she had developed when she watched her brother die at the hands of Voldemort. Up until then, she had made sure to hide her feelings because they were never as important as Harry's. She didn't want to be labelled an attention seeker because she was obviously the lesser sibling. It didn't matter that she had always been in a tie with Hermione at the end of each school year, that she was excellent in anything she did. It never mattered when Harry was the boy who lived and Hermione was the brightest witch of her age.

No, Lilia was the sister no one had bothered with. She always helped, but she figured things out slightly after Hermione always did.

She was not important.

She should have died instead of Harry. It was like a cruel joke: she was supposed to prove her worth by retrieving the time turner but instead, she was tortured and killed by Voldemort himself. To make matters worse, by some twist of fate, she had been sent to a past where she would be attending schools with her murderer and his death eaters.

Tom Riddle looked boyish and she couldn't understand how that could have been possible at all. If she remembered correctly, he killed his father and grandparents the previous summer. And yet, he looked as pristine and charming as one could get. Lilia knew it was all meant to be a facade to deceive people and she had to give him credit for playing his part very well.

Her hands shook slightly as she washed herself, the tremor seemingly permanent after enduring the cruciatus so many times that she had lost count. It was not visibly noticeable, so she didn't worry about it too much. She didn't think that anyone would pay attention to that.

When she got out of the bath, she made to grab a towel but her reflection in the mirror captured her attention. She looked terrible. She stared at herself, taking in the multiple scars that littered her skin from encounters with nasty hexes and curses while fighting death eaters. Her eyes trailed to the scars on her thighs and her body started trembling at the memory of Antonin Dolohov forcing himself on her, a fact that she kept hidden from everyone.

Lilia didn't want to feel the shame of people knowing that her body had been violated; even though the war had turned them all into victims, she didn't want to have an extra strike on top of facing death every single day. The two things that reassured her in times of distress were the necklace she wore, which was a gift from Theo and her bracelet. She never took these off to be prepared at all times.