The following day
They must talk to Delphini. They simply have to tell her the truth about her Mother. Not everything though. They have decided to tell her the bare minimum. They will keep the rest until she is older, keeping the darkness at bay for as long as they can. But they must also know how much she knows. How she knows. Why she enjoys that feeling.
Lucius had been furious the previous day. With himself. How could they risk everything? How was he so stupid to not see the danger? The girl is a Metamorphmagus, for Merlin's sake! All we had to do was tell her to change her features…He had spent years shielding Narcissa from the shadows, keeping a delicate balance between his own darkness, his service of the Dark Lord, and the safety of her. Making sure, at all times, that they could accuse her of nothing. Making sure their son, when he finally came to be, would always have his Mother by his side and never grow up the way he did. Motherless. Or like Delphini is. Orphaned. And once again, he failed his most basic task: keeping his precious flower safe.
His heart ached all night, his head pounded, his mind deranged. The only thing keeping him sane through it all was the woman he held in his arms. Keeping her close, feeling her own heart through her, whispering reassuring nonsense into her ear, kissing her hair, rubbing away the tears on her cheeks, breathing in her scent at her nape. Clinging to her so that he would not wash away.
Narcissa didn't sleep at all. She could feel her husband's heart through her skin. She buried herself in his arms. Kissing, touching, caressing, possessing, starving for him, all too aware it could be the very last time. Aurors could be coming, could be crashing down their doors down that very moment. She trusts her guardian to keep her safe, but she is afraid for Delphini. And for her son, because he is her guardian, the dragon that will lay waste to everything for her.
Morning is here now and there is no sign of the Aurors, no Ministry notification. Could it be that they would simply let them go?
X
Astoria is beside Draco, her head on his shoulder. Eyes flushed red and swollen from lack of sleep. She is not budging in her decision to be here. Wabby is looking over Scorpius and she is determined to be by Delphini's side. The Malfoys are all too close; she has distance from the war, from the terror of the Dark Lord. She does know about it. Draco confides in her often and she holds him tight in his nightmares.
Narcissa brings Delphini inside. The perfect little scion of the House of Black, in a deep blue dress, with a little smirk to her face. It vanishes immediately.
"Is it something that I did?" Her composure retreating, her eyes widening in worry.
"No, sweetheart. You did nothing wrong." Narcissa's voice is calm and quiet, like her favourite piano pieces. "This is about your Mother. Remember the people looking yesterday?"
Delphini nods. She takes a seat, curls up, feet on the cushions, and looks positively amazed that no one tells her to sit properly and get her feet off the furniture. Not even Uncle Lucius.
Her dragon comes to her rescue. "It's alright, little bird." Her unease is so palpable that he walks to her, picks her up and sits down where she was, cradling her, protecting her with his wings from whatever it is that's coming. Astoria gives her a reassuring little smile. Lucius sighs and nods, laying one of his hands over one of Narcissa's. This is her family. She is safe in the cage of her dragon's body. So they start.
They tell her of Mother, of her great power, of her loyalty to a cause that lost. Their cause, she knows. They explain why all those people looked and whispered at the sight of her. Because she does look a lot like Bellatrix Lestrange, a witch they all used to fear. They tell her about Mother using her power to hurt people, to fight, to destroy. They make sure she understands she used it to protect her child too, to fight for what she believed was right and better for her baby. They talk of her fierceness, of her passion, and of how it all came together to create one of the most powerful witches, and one all her enemies feared. They leave some things out, she can tell. But she is so enthralled by her Mother's memory that she lets it go. Another time, alone with Draco, she will ask about the rest.
Then they ask. And she tells. She tells them that she likes the fear in strangers' voices because it speaks to the reverence of her Mother. She likes the way they still remember her. She takes pride in the power of her Mother, in her surname, in her passion. She also tells them that sometimes, not always, not with all of them; it was like she could hear them think. She could feel their thoughts. Not listen to them, just sense the emotion there. That she cannot explain. Nor why she likes that. She just does.
Then she asks. Of her Father. They almost never mention him. Rodolphus Lestrange. She bears his surname too, but she loves her Mother more. She doesn't miss him. She knows he is locked away somewhere gloom and grim.
"Did he fight like Mother? Did he do bad things too? Was he powerful? Was he loyal? Did he love my Mother?"
"Yes, Delphini, Rodolphus fought, hard and to the very end." But never with the same passion. Not the one of your Mother and never with that of their Master.
"Yes, he did bad things too. But Rodolphus loved you very much, still does, I'm sure." But not with the same eagerness to serve his Master, no one could top Bellatrix. He does love you, just for a different reason.
I won't refer to him as Father, Draco thinks, he cannot lie to her. I was sworn to secrecy, not to the telling of lies.
"Yes, your Father was very powerful." He leaves it at that, kissing the crown of her head.
"Of course he was loyal, he is a Slytherin." Oh, how he was loyal to the Dark Lord. But how much more loyal he was to the woman he loved, despite never being loved back. Just never as loyal as Bella, no one was.
"Yes, Rodolphus loved your Mother. He loved Bellatrix with all his heart. Wanted nothing but her, and her happiness." He remembers the look on Rodolphus eyes, that day in Hogwarts. But did your Father love your Mother? I cannot say. "Maybe one day, when you are older, they will let you know him, talk to him. He will like to see you, his girl, all grown up." There is a sad smile on his face, she notices. If I ever manage to let you near Azkaban and the Dementors, if the Ministry ever allows it. If Rodolphus is still sane, if he can still remember you…
So there is nothing wrong with me, she now knows. But no one said a thing about what I feel of others' minds…
When everyone makes to rise and leave, Narcissa holds her back. They sit down on their favourite spot, the piano bench. She pulls a silver cord from her pocket, a delicate chain with a pendant. A bird skull. She thinks it odd, but then learns it was Mother's and takes to loving it. Narcissa lets her wear it and she vows to keep it on her at all times, around her neck or otherwise. She will never let go of it.
The bird skull her Father bestowed on her Mother when He learned of the child inside her. The small skull of an augurey, made of silver, their favourite metal. No one but Him knew of the meaning behind it at that time. Bella learned of it, eventually. The others did too, just much later. Gods, I miss her.
Narcissa made a promise to her sister, the day she told her, and swore her to secrecy about it. That should anything happen, she would retrieve the necklace from her body, her murderers, whoever had it, and give it to her precious child. When she had asked about the possibility of burying it with her, Bella caressed her expanding body where Delphini grew. "I will either die for Him or with Him. I will have that. I want my child to have us. Give it for me"
You did, Bella, you have that. I did, Bella.
X
A week later
Delphini sees it on the table.
The Daily Prophet sitting neatly folded next to her Uncle's place.
"The Next Generation-" is all she can see from the main title at the front page. That and half a picture. Her Aunt is walking down a street in the photograph. It can't be. Why would Aunt Cissa be on the Prophet? She thinks it looks like Diagon Alley but she cannot be sure.
Vicious Mist is rubbing himself against her shins, drawing eights on the dark wood floor as he moves around her. She focuses on the slow purposeful caress of his grey fur, on the light blue eyes looking up, on the tail whipping the air and her dress.
Then she moves. Slow and purposeful. Her right hand stretched out in front of her, unfolding the newspaper and setting it back on the table.
It is Diagon Alley. It is Aunt Narcissa. And there she is. Herself. Walking just ahead, curls bouncing with every stride.
"The Next Generation of Death Eaters?"
That is what it says over her half of the picture. "Death Eaters". How do you eat death? Why am I on the front page? The camera wasn't even towards us...
She needs to find Draco. She is about to turn around when she ears Uncle Lucius confident steps right behind her.
"Good morning, Delphi-" his nostrils shiver, a fist clenches, and he is so upright and rod-straight in that moment that he looks like the incarnation of wrath itself overlooking the doom of things beneath him.
She feels smaller standing there. She must have done something truly, deeply wrong to enrage him so. But the burning frost in his eyes never turns on her. It sticks to that front page.
"What is a Death Eater?" her voice is but a whisper, so low it could just be the spring wind coming inside through the curtains.
"Wait in your room. Stay there until I come for you. Do not leave. You are forbidden of talking to Wabby. Do not summon her. Go."
The words are spoken in absolute neutrality but they cut like the sharpest blades, like the frozen winds that ravage the moors in winter. Delphini's hair and eyes cannot settle on a colour. Her pupils have grown like those of a cat in the night. He must be truly furious.
Wabby is always it, never her. Uncle Lucius always looks at me when he talks.
Lucius manages to notice what is happening to his niece. Not because he sees her, his glare is transfixed beyond her. It is the kneazle's dangerously angered growl at him, its ominous hissing and the stillness of its tail.
"You did nothing wrong, Delphini." He manages to push those words through his lips. Through his fear. "Just go upstairs." He should probably try to assure her, look into her eyes and ascertain that her magic remains controlled. Except he is nothing but out of bounds. He is afraid of looking into her green eyes and not seeing past the red glare that he knows lurks inside. He is afraid of what he might do.
"Get out, Delphini. Now!"
X
Delphini doesn't remember coming to her bedroom. She is panting, curled up on herself on the darkest corner of the room.
She can feel the change of her colours.
She can see the magic sparking off her skin.
She knows the walls are warmer since she's there.
But all she cares for is the fear running in her veins, the tears falling down her cheeks in a silent stream, the sobs that shake her to the core.
There is a picture of her Mother on her bedside table. She looks peaceful but she knows what she was capable of. She never wished for anything so hard as for her Mother to come back and make sure she is safe. She holds her Mother's necklace on her hand.
"You did nothing wrong". But why did she feel like he wanted to hurt her... There was hatred in him, he wanted her gone.
There is a noise in the corridor, outside her door.
Her fear takes over and she lets her magic loose. There is a louder noise that she cannot place, she knows her eyes stopped changing, and there is a veil over every wall. It is dark and dangerous and she knows that it is her creation. But she does not care, she only fears.
A small shape in the corner of the room. A red glare in the shadows. A vicious thing keeping watch. A dark beast ready to pounce.
Pure unbound magic.
The purest form of fear.