Summary: Scorpius and Albus are looking forward to their sixth year, after their adventures in their fourth. At first, everything is going okay, and a strong friendship with Rose is returning. But what exactly were those "Safe-Objects" of Voldemort's the Golden Trio have told the world about? Why does Albus randomly experience the effects of dementors? And what exactly did Delphi mean when she said she was following in her father's path?
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter (this disclaimer covers all future chapters)
Prologue
Delphini Riddle did not need a disguise to enter Knockturn Alley. Her hooded cloak was quite enough to cover the face so like her mother's, and if she resembled her father, none could tell. She may have looked like him, back before his eyes turned to slits, his skin to paper, and his hands to spiders. But few living people had ever seen Tom Riddle Jr, and if they had, they certainly weren't the type of people to be in Knockturn Alley.
She slipped into Borgin and Burkes with the deathly silence of a dementor, not even a footstep left behind. Perhaps she was gliding, just an inch above the ground, or perhaps not. Her fingers skimmed the many objects, pulling away just long enough to avoid the ones with signs that read do not touch.
The store, as always, was covered in a thin layer of dust, each object's beauty muted by the filth. The dim light made it hard to see, but the sunless sky in the alley beyond didn't hold the full blame. Jewelry rested on cushions, bones rattled in their glass, and material curses lay waiting on the shelves. A full skeleton was hung in the corner, and next to it were tables, chairs, wardrobes, and cabinets. Everything in this place was guilty of something, be it death, curses, or enchantments. The air was filled with magic, and not the kind the Ministry liked.
Delphi continued to gaze at the items; searching, hungry, for the one that would help her. None of them seemed right. Perhaps they were too big, too small, too shiny, too dull. Again, only she knew the answer. The other customers paid her no mind: Just another one of them, finding the object she needed most.
Finally, she found it. It was an old hairclip, worn dull with time, gems missing from the flowered pattern. Made of gold, emeralds, diamonds, jade, and many other rare finds, it would be even more expensive with a simple washing. It was none of these things, however, that caught her eye. It was the plaque beneath it, stating its origin. Black family heirloom.
She lifted it from its cushion and approached the register.
"Who sold this to you?" Her voice was too loud, too harsh, to match the stealth with which she had entered the shop. It cracked through the air, startling the other browsers, and pounding on their eardrums.
"N-Narcissa Malfoy," stammered the boy at the register, after a moment of fumbling through the records. Her words had done their duty: intimidate those closest to her.
"Did she say whose it was?"
"I-I don't know, miss. I wasn't here when we b-bought it?" His voice rose at the end of the phrase; more of a question than an answer. "Mr. Borgin?" he called, turning to a door behind him. "Mr. Borgin?"
A moment later, the stooped old man stepped out of the back room, and came to the counter himself. The boy whispered fervently in his ear, and Borgin nodded. He turned back to Delphi.
"I was told it once belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange," he said smoothly, trying his best to convince her to buy it without saying so directly.
"Perfect," she whispered, in stark comparison to the only other phrases she had spoken within the shop. She drew a small pouch from somewhere near her waist, and extracted the two thousand gold coins it cost. She turned to leave, not waiting for the boy to count the coins, or for Borgin to wrap it in paper.
It really was perfect, she thought. For now, she only had one more thing to find, and she knew where it was. At Hogwarts, and the Forbidden Forest no less. It would be no more than a stick to the passerby, but it was so much more to her. Its phoenix feather core was the same as the one who defeated its wizard, but in that core, it was soon to hold its greatest secret of all.
This chapter is a bit of a teaser chapter, as I'm not sure how long it'll be until the next update. BUT I have everything pre-planned, which should help prevent writer's block (I hope so). I know this chapter is really short, but it felt fitting. The rest of the chapters should be longer (at least 1000 words).
This is a re-write of my first story, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy: The Wrong One to Blame, which will be temporarily taken down. The original four (pathetic) chapters will be posted as the last four chapters of this story, so you can see where it started.
Thank you for reading!
