Another side piece to Birds become Dragons. This one stands on its own too, and can be read as a one-shot.
If you are reading Birds become Dragons, this follows chapter 37.
If you are not reading Birds become Dragons, all you need to know is that this concerns an AU where Delphini is not raised by the Rowles but by the Malfoys.
Enjoy and please leave me your thoughts at the end.
Of the Curse of Ties
King's Cross Station, June 30th, 2010
She can see the smile in Harry Potter's lips, but she does not share it. There wasn't a letter home from Teddy that did not mention Delphini, and how well they get along.
He even refers to her as Delphie.
Potter is happy, of course, and he will enthusiastically share his happiness with Teddy. Because he sees only the bridges that may be built. He sees nothing of the cliff that should be between his godson and the girl he protects. He sees nothing of the churning seas that keep her away from the rest of the world. He sees nothing of the little boy that is her only connection to that world. Her only protection in the face of the storm.
She saw the two of them talking by the train. She saw it when the girl dared introduce Draco's boy to her grandson. She saw it when Teddy gave him chocolate. The chocolate she sends him with every owl. She cannot reprimand her boy for making friends with his cousin, but her skin crawls with repulsion at the thought of the girl now. It used to be different, because she used to be little, and far away from her mind, and far away from her boy. Andromeda felt nothing towards her but indifference. But now she is close. Way too close. She is too close to what her oldest sister looked like, she is too close to what her younger sister behaved like, she is too close to what she was supposed to be like, and most of all, she is too close to Teddy.
Her family had denied her, her family had disowned her, her family had come after her husband, and her son-in-law, and her daughter.
My precious Nymphadora.
Her family had done so much over the years that she hasn't thought of them as family for decades. Her family took so much that they took themselves away. It's been forty years and she needed all of those to heal the wounds they left her with. It's been over ten years since they inflicted the worst ones and she is not even close to having scars. She still bleeds. Slowly, but constantly, her heart straining in her chest with every beat, every breath, every step, every day, every night, every dream and every nightmare. The only relief she has comes from Teddy. Every sight of him, every minute with him, every time they are together, it doesn't hurt so much. His laughter and his unending joy take the pain away completely.
And even that they will take from her. Once more, her cursed blood of Black spells damnation. Oh yes, this girl is a Lestrange in name but it ends there. She looks like a Black and Narcissa clearly raised her so. The girl's manners are those Druella instilled on her daughters, the distance in the affection is the same she keeps. Because Ted always found it so easy to hug and kiss and cuddled and she never could. Not after her family. Her affection was always a deep stream, ever present but rarely showing. Her daughter knew she was loved deeply by her Mother. Her grandson knows he is loved deeply by his Grandmother. But hugging and kissing and cuddling… is always so foreign to her. The only people she hugged and kissed and cuddled freely denied her. Bellatrix, Narcissa, Regulus. All but Sirius, who rebelled against the name of Black, just as she did. All but Sirius, who was cursed by his blood of Black as much as she was. The only difference is that his curse is already over.
Her curse lingers. Her curse has felt dormant for years. There was nothing more for it to take, not a way that it could take more. Until this girl, this star-named girl of her own blood brought it back to life. Her curse lives and her heart bleeds, as the curse constricts it once more. There is only one tie left on her heart, and this dark, malignant, hungry thing has a hold on it. It needs not rip it out, it needs not sever it. It needs only pull on it, very slightly, very subtly, as subtly as the girl is getting a hold on her Teddy, as slightly as the girl pulls him away. The curse won't take him, she knows that. The girl won't take him, not completely. But they will pry him away, just enough to keep her pain going, just enough to open yet another wound and keep it oozing blood.
It will pull him away just an inch and that is all it needs do. Because she is still chained to that same place she has been chained to for forty years. That cold, windy, tough, bare place she found herself at the night she denied them back. That place forgotten amidst the storm. And Ted is no longer here to slay the monster. And the gift the nymphs had bestowed her with is long gone. And Teddy is slowly drifting and won't be here to keep the monster at bay. The malignant, hungry creature.
The dark cursed blood of Black.