Chapter Text
Somebody help me, Delphi thought desperately as the Dark Lord dragged her body through corridor after corridor. They were on their way to the main hall, Lord Voldemort so thoroughly in control of her limbs that Delphi could do nothing to slow their progress. She longed to see someone—would have given anything to run across McGonagall or Sprout or Flitwick or even Snape or to suddenly hear Dumbledore running up behind her.
But it was no use. There was no one in the corridors this late at night; surely Filch was patrolling somewhere, but she didn't think he would be much help against the Dark Lord even if they did stumble across his path on their way out of the building.
Because that, undeniably, was what they were doing. The Dark Lord had possessed her, just as he must have been possessing Quirrell all along—because what else could explain the man's eerie, inexplicable knowledge and his two-faced deception all year? And unlike Quirrell, whose body had been used to harbor and hide the Dark Lord from those who would seek to defeat him, Delphi instead was being driven out of the castle quite against her will.
Of all the potential catastrophes that she imagined could possibly come of her bonding with Quirinus Quirrell, this had not been one of them. This was not supposed to happen. This was Delphi's worst nightmare come to life.
If there were any protections in place to stop truants in their tracks, those protections must have been no match for Lord Voldemort. Delphi's body stormed into the entrance hall, looked about only for a moment, and then waltzed toward the door standing between them and the outside world.
Delphi feared what would happen if someone were to catch them now; this close to freedom, surely the Dark Lord would merely kill whoever stood in their way.
A wave of Delphi’s wand hand, and the ancient wooden doors creaked ominously open. Cool night air touched her skin, carried in on a late-June breeze, and then they were outside.
No barrier stopped them.
No alarm sounded.
No one was coming to help.
Delphi was doomed.
Across the dark lawn they walked, Lord Voldemort forcing Delphi's legs to move in a steady stride toward the forest, and as soon as they were in the treeline, Delphi was forced to spin on her heel—
—and was gone.