Prompt

Round 10 Of Ghosts and Portraits

CHASER 1: Dilys Derwent (Portrait)

Characters/Pairing: Dilys Derwent

Prompts:

8. (image) an origami rose

14. (dialogue) "Can't say I'm too fond of house-elves."

15. (image) close up of a woman playing the violin

Word Count (-AN): 1214, MSW

Note: If it matters, I do not own Harry Potter in any form, except for the hard back copies of the books that sit on my shelf and they bring me no money. Nor do I have any possession of the song or lyrics used herein.

QLFC Round 10

In which the Headmistress plays the violin

Fawkes sings while portraits doze

And Dilys is killed by an origami rose

The Sound of Silence

Dilys watched from her portrait as Harry Potter lost control of his wild magic and destroyed the Office of the Headmaster, and shook her head sadly. So uncouth, so disrespectful, true the boy had just suffered a great loss and he was supposed to be the next savior of the wizarding world, but all those that hung on the walls of this room had done great deeds. The "trinkets" and "knick-knacks" that he was destroying were their prized items and it saddened her greatly to watch them become dust.

She was grateful however that her rose in its protective case was spared the fate of other's symbols of death. So far as she knew traces of the fast acting poison still lingered on the sharply folded edges of the still beautiful paper flower. Seeing the item brought back memories, and Dilys shook her head once more in grief, both for the boy and for the destruction he caused before closing her eyes and drifting back to a time before she died.

Dilys had been working for forty some odd years to teach herself the violin after realizing that the position of Headmistress of Hogwarts got tedious when she did not have a way to engage herself outside of the role that truly took over the majority of her time. She had been warned of this by her predecessor when she took on the job, but as a relatively young witch, still in her early forties at the time, Dilys had assumed that she knew better.

When Dilys released that her predecessor was indeed correct, she promptly remedied the situation, after apologizing to the portrait for her rudeness in assuming it was wrong and had sought out a muggle violin. It was a beautiful instrument; one she had always admired. The sound was pleasant as well and Headmistress Derwent was sure she would eventually be as successful at playing it as she was at everything she set her mind to. After all, much could be accomplished with persistence, dedication, and hard work.

The violin was harder to master then Dilys had originally thought. Eventually, however, her playing grew to such a level that even Fawkes, the phoenix bound to the Office of Headmaster, joined in. It was sad that none of her predecessors would ever receive the joy of listening to the music made by the bow dancing across strings. After the first few weeks of listening to her practice, however, they had taken to shoving balls of cotton into their ears as soon as she lifted the well cared for wood from the leather case that protected it from the elements, which in this case was dust and soot.

It was almost time and tonight…tonight Dilys had spent many hours practicing with a singular purpose in mind and not even the exhausted warbles of Fawkes could persuade her to rest. While it was true she wasn't as young as she once was, she was not too old for a late night every so often, and besides, tomorrow at the closing feast, Dilys had determined to send the students off with a true treat and that meant extra time spent practicing.

Dilys sat her desk and frowned trying to figure just what had gone wrong the night before. The students were all gone now, the Hogwarts Express taking them safely back home, and normally she would be at the station ensuring that all was safe for her precious charges on the platform. This thought, this question, however, currently took precedent in her mind. 'What had happened? What had gone wrong?' She had been playing the violin for well on forty years now and had worked on that particular piece for over a year, not including the extra practice she had put in the night before, yet no one had clapped, not a single student had applauded, and the professors had only stared at her gap-jawed.

She knew by their reactions, or rather lack thereof, that something had gone wrong, but for all the time she spent in reflection she did not know what. To make matters worse, Fawkes wasn't even around to help her. The flighty creature had taken off when she suggested that he join her in song the previous night.

With a sad sigh, Dilys sipped at tea that was growing cold, accepting the distastefulness of the lukewarm brew as her punishment for her playing.

It was some time later when the soft pop of a house elf drew her from her inspection of the dregs if she tilted the cup just so she could make them resemble a violin and she found it sadly entertaining. "Excuses Ms. Headmistress Mam," the house elf said, tugging at one ear as it shuffled forward to place a beautifully wrapped gift box on the desk in front of her, "but this be coming for you." The house elf barely finished the last word before popping out of the room.

Dilys snorted and shook her head. "Can't say I'm too fond of house-elves. They never stay long enough to tell me anything, and always popping about at the most bothersome of times." The headmistress let her grumbling trail off as she reached across the desk to pull the box toward her, assuming that finally, someone was acknowledging her skill at the violin.

Lifting the lid from the box, Dilys gasp in delight. The flower within must have taken a great deal of time to create, which would, of course, explain why it had taken the sender so long to send her the gift. The paper was folded in such a way that the flower looked both sharp and delicate at the same time, it was as life-like in appearance as paper could get.

A flick of the wand and Dilys transfigured a glass sitting on the side of her desk into a vase that would match the grace of the paper rose she had received and then, with utmost care, Dilys reached into the box to retrieve the flower from within. Unfortunately, she was not careful enough and her thumb caught the tip of one, tiny thorn folded into the side of the flower.

It didn't take long for Dilys to recognize the symptoms of poison. She had years of training in the medical profession before coming to Hogwarts after all. She should have realized that an Antidote to Common Poisons wouldn't be strong enough to counteract the poison that was swiftly incapacitating her; however, at the time, Dilys was too shocked that she had actually been poisoned then to think beyond that singular fact.

In the end, she had time to write but a few words on a scrap of parchment before she slumped, glassy-eyed onto her desk. When her deputy found her upon returning that evening, he did his best to puzzle out what had happened, but the only explanation he had was a scrap of parchment on which the only legible words were "house elf", and this did little to help him.

"I never did like house elves, useless creatures the lot of them," the portrait of Dilys Derwent muttered to no one in particular as she watched Headmaster Dumbledore repair what he could of the mess Harry Potter had left in his wake.