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"Yes!" Tom screamed when the basilisk with the next sweeping movement by the very edge touched Potter, sending him flying. What? What?! Luck is over! Potter does not move. The sword flew to a completely different place. Things are getting too wrong.

Removing the passive hemomancy limiter and putting my wand back into its sheath, I accelerated to the maximum I could, running towards Ginny. What am I going to do? Oh, I have no idea! The problem surfaced from where I did not expect. Even though I started to move very quickly, the laws of physics have not gone anywhere. As well as the speed of perception did not increase much. Having reached Ginny in a straight line, I could hardly pick up the diary with my hand and wanted to turn in the other direction, but ...

"What?" Tom turned sharply, and at that moment, I flew further away from them by inertia. Gravity - you're a tricky bitch! I fell, touched the floor, rolled over a couple of times, and a wall stopped me.

"So Potter wasn't alone here?" Tom was surprised, but the surprise was quickly replaced by an insidious smile. "Oh, one more, one less."

Riddle's phantom pointed its wand at me. Jumping up quickly, I rushed to the side of the basilisk that was preparing to simply devour Potter. Phoenix fiercely chirped and swooped down on a giant snake, but their sizes... sizes are incomparable.

Crouching down, I dodged one beam of the spell, then one more.

"Stop dodging and accept your death!" Tom yelled, but I already saw the target.

For a fraction of a moment, I concentrated and summoned my weapon. The black and gilded hilt of a comfortable one-and-a-half sword fell into the palm of my hand. Another ray of the spell flew literally a millimeter away - green! My heart skipped a beat. But all experiences were somewhere in the background, far on the outskirts of consciousness.

The only available direction for the basilisk's attack is from above. I won't go from the side because I'll just slip past by inertia. From below - it will not work, the basilisk almost spreads on the floor. Taking a couple of steps for maximum acceleration, I jumped, bringing my sword to strike. Behind my back, I created a thick hemisphere of a dome of blood.

I did not fall on the basilisk from above - it was more like I flew into him, into his head, so successfully lifted a little up onto the phoenix. It was at this moment that Harry chose to wake up and shake his head in confusion.

The sword in my hands pierced the basilisk's skin and skull from the outside, going somewhere in the brain, but the creature decided that it was bad form to die instantly. With all my strength, I held on to the sword with one hand and one of the many horns on the basilisk's head with the other. It shook him mercilessly, quickly and sharply, up and down. A couple of times, the creature banged its head on the floor, knocking shrapnel and clouds of dust out from under it. I didn't see what Potter, Fawkes, or Tom was doing — I was too busy trying to hold on. Rodeo on the agonizing basilisk!

Suddenly it was over. The basilisk stopped twitching, starting to fall over. I didn't have time to orient myself and jump off in time, so I was reliably put on the floor, and sharp pain flared up in my arm and leg. Such pain that it seemed that the eyes would pop out of their sockets!

"Nooo!!!" Tom screamed, standing somewhere ... Somewhere there.

With difficulty overpowering the pain, I tried to get up, and it's good that the basilisk didn't crush me — just a little bit. Gathering my will into a fist, leaning on my knee, I stood up, ignoring the pain. There is definitely a broken leg. Perhaps even in several places. But the hand has acquired an additional bend in the forearm. And the fingers do not move ... And the sword scattered as soon as I let go of it.

Staggering, I began to go around the head of the basilisk, ignoring the ruining Tom, coming closer and closer with every second. He seemed to point his wand again and wanted to use some kind of curse, but he also clearly wanted to scream and gloat, or whatever he was doing there during his long speeches.

Standing in front of the slightly open mouth of the basilisk, the width of which, by the way, was only slightly inferior to my height, I took a diary out of the pocket of my robe. And when did I manage to hide it? Without further ado or prefaces, I pierced the diary that I was holding in my left hand with the fang in the mouth of the monster.

Riddle instantly began to writhe and yell, dropping a wand from his hands. A real fountain of ink gushed out of the diary, pouring everything around. Riddle was getting smaller, more transparent. His voice was muffled and seemed to recede. In the end, he literally burned out. Like a vampire in films, like a piece of paper, leaving no trace behind.

"What was that…" Harry looked in bewilderment at the mouth of the basilisk in front of him, at himself, partially splattered with ink, at me, splashed much more. "Your hand!"

"Oh, you noticed?" I smiled at the guy, out of the corner of my eye, noticing the awakening of Ginny, there, in the distance, at the foot of the Slytherin statue. Or maybe not Slytherin. Maybe he respected someone so much that he erected such a huge statue? And what stupid and inappropriate thoughts come into my head.

"You need to get to the hospital wing as soon as possible!" Harry tried to get up, but he was palpably swayed. It looks like he has no major injuries on the outside.

"Don't worry, take the diary." I handed him a twisted and hopelessly spoiled thing. He took it and wanted to examine it, but ...

"Harry!" Ginny shouted hoarsely, already running towards us. How quickly she came to her senses. Running past the basilisk, the girl stared at the corpse, fascinated, even slowed down. And here I came into her field of vision. "Huh? Max?"

"Max," I nodded to the guys. Fawkes landed on Potter's shoulder, grabbing the hat and throwing a Gryffindor sword at our feet. Ginny saw a couple of abrasions and an overall shabby appearance of Potter and was horrified. She looked at me, at my hand, and her eyes became absurdly large, and she turned pale. Although, even before that, she wasn't particularly rosy-cheeked.

"It's time to get out of here, although this place requires careful research."

"Research? This is Slytherin's room!" Potter grimaced.

"Yes, exactly!" I raised my right hand to the sky but somewhat forgot that it was broken. Cracked, "grunted," she bent down even more.

"Oh…" Ginny decided to faint, but it didn't work out. "Harry, I… I wanted to tell you…"

Then she stopped and shot a glance at me. Oh, I understand. It's all a secret, and I'm not a trusted person for her.

"Okay, you can talk later. Let's get out of here."