September 10th, 2009
Delphini has been struggling to keep focused during Professor Binn's endless monologue on the troll wars during the XVI century. She finds herself incapable of taking notes. Syrianna has to look twice to assure herself of what's going on. Delphini Lestrange is doodling.
"What's the matter with you? You were bitten by a flower during Herbology," she asks, using her quill to point to an angry boil on Delphini's left wrist, "and I'm quite sure you haven't heard a word in the past half an hour."
"It's nothing. I'm just not quite awake yet."
Syrianna receives that with raising eyebrows, but when Delphini answers with a glare, she knows it's time to let go and retreat. Her friend has a quick temper, she knows. She rules her temper with an iron will, and hardly ever as she lost it in front of her friends, but she can tell this is one of those days they shouldn't push her.
Delphini is angered at her slip for a moment. She does not allow herself more. She channels her anger into keeping her eyes green and paying attention. She sits straight up again, head held high, her quill dutiful on its way across the parchment. Her notes on the last half of the class are impeccable.
She has a secret to keep. Two actually. She has told her housemates that she simply fell asleep in the library that night and they all take her word for it. She must not falter, for she cannot let others in. Secrets are better kept by a person alone. Her path hasn't crossed with neither Peeves nor the Bloody Baron since. She trusts the Bloody Baron to keep her secret safe and hold Peeves in check. Merlin knows she has not a clue on how to set the poltergeist back on his proper place.
Her path crosses with her cousin though. She is on her way to Transfiguration as he is leaving the classroom, a wide grin on his face at the sight of her. They chat for a few minutes before taking opposite directions. Teddy is still incredibly excited, and she makes sure he is adjusting nicely to being away from home. But he notices something about her; she can feel the worry on his mind. Her cover is not flawless it seems. He runs back to her from the end of the hallway, stopping a few steps away from her friends. They have learned that Delphini and Teddy have a dynamic of their own, where they do not belong. She closes the gap by approaching him with inquisitive eyes.
"I don't know what's going on with you, but I think you need this." He keeps is voice down, just above a whisper, while he shoves a small package into one of the pockets on her robes. "Harry told me my Father used to say this is the best medicine. You'll feel better." He smiles at her and turns before she can thank him.
Delphini walks into Transfiguration under the worried glance of the Headmistress. Minerva McGonagall never looks quite at ease whenever she and Teddy are together, almost as if she is afraid that something out of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes is about to blow up on the corridor. She walks to her usual place, in the front row, with Syrianna at her side. She checks her pocket. She smiles at the present and doesn't regret that her cover isn't quite perfect yet.
Chocolate.
X
September 25th, 2009
Delphini's veneer dries and sticks seamlessly now. No one knows, no one will. The only thing to notice is the slight nod with which the Bloody Baron has taken to greet her. It takes her reputation a bit further. She is not unique in that, but it is a clear distinction amongst those of Slytherin House. It also means people simply assume that is why Peeves turns on himself upon landing eyes on her. It's a bit of both after all, the reason they imagine and the true one.
There are potions to brew, essays to write, charms to learn and perfect, and it all carries on as usual at Hogwarts.
Well, almost. There have been sightings of a couple of students raising mayhem in the corridors every now and then. A boy and a girl, but that is all everyone seems capable of agreeing on. Sometimes they belong to the same House, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they fit the description of students several floors away and otherwise accounted for; sometimes they don't even fit the description of any student in the whole castle. The Headmistress is well aware of the most likely culprits, but they leave no evidence behind, courtesy of Delphini, only laughter and the occasional jape on the wall, courtesy of Teddy. She doesn't even know how they managed to get their hands on other House's uniforms. To as much of her desperation as that or Mr. Filch, that keeps scrubbing "Smile, Mrs. Norris is watching." off the walls, she cannot fairly take action.
There is quite a commotion in the Slytherin Common Room. Classes are over for the week and the first session of the duelling club is about to take place. It goes back centuries, to the foundation of Hogwarts, when Salazar Slytherin himself tutored his pupils secretly in the dungeons, making sure they would be a though match for the other Houses, not to mention a victorious one. The rules have changed quite a bit, of course. First years are not allowed unless they manage to beat a fifth year or above student. Family grimoires have long been banned, on the account of dark and dangerous magic that proved difficult to heal without access to the said family private healing books. Any spell that can cause serious injury is out of the question unless there's a student with the skills to fix it. Minor injuries are easily treated, and their ever resourceful minds excel at explaining things to Madam Pomfrey in ways that do not earn the entire House detention.
The Prefects excuse themselves from the room, unless they partake. That is the tradition. A partaking Prefect will remove the badge form the robes, and can always tell the school's healer that he or she was attempting to stop a fight should an injury befall them. One that does not partake will leave the room so as not to soil the serpent badge with disregard for the rules.
Delphini is eager to have a go. Everyone expected her to challenge someone older last year, but they quickly realized that she was not one for brash action. She had no interest in showing what she is capable of. She has read quite a bit on duelling, and trusts her natural ability to make a remarkable first impression. This being the first reunion of the year, the willing second year students are paired up and proceed to eliminate each other. Delphini makes it to the top of the back with ease, dodging spells gracefully, and aiming hexes precisely, almost as if she were dancing. The ones still capable face the older students in following rounds.
The Common Room is alight with magic, amidst laugher, bantering and occasional gasps and cries of pain. Those watching cheer for the favourites and help the defeated up. Delphini manages to beat a third year girl on the account of speed, and a fourth year boy on account of more luck than she would like to recognise. Still, the third match is a seventh year student, Avery, who seems amused by the sight in front of him.
"So you read up on duelling all summer, did you not Delphie?" She doesn't like being called Delphie on that mocking tone, and her magic stirs, but she keeps it in control. It won't do to shatter her own veneer. "Let's see what the bookwormy Slytherin is capable of then."
She manages a successful Flipendo, and considers Serpensortia for an instant, just before she finds herself flung at a wall and crumbling to the floor. She tosses her hair back, but is incapable of retrieving her wand in due time, distracted as she is by Sigmund falling victim to an Anteoculatia spell. A quick Expelliarmus and her wand is in the left hand of her opponent. She does not like it one bit, it feels like someone just touched her soul and her magic twists inside. And then he pushes her further.
"Ah, bookworm, I think you belong in Ravenclaw after all. You even have that pet raven, don't you? Maybe you should start considering moving to a tower." He has a playful smile on his lips, and is actually returning her wand as he speaks, but the feeling of her wand in foreign hands and the insult of those words make the way to her brain before she can remember her manners.
To imply that a parselmouth like me should be anywhere else but Slytherin House.
"Everte Statum!" The spell is out of her mouth before she can think. She aims an Accio at a large portrait filled with medieval not-cheering-anymore wizards behind her target, causing it to come down on him. She uses a bat-bogey hex on him before he can get up, for good measure. "The Rowena Ravenclaw's symbol is an eagle, you dumb flobberworm! Are you a Hogwarts student or a Muggle?"
Avery manages to aim a Finite Incantatem at his face. Then he points his wand at her, but she is already yelling Stupefy with every ounce of intention in her body. Avery is tossed to the floor across the dungeon again and her magic has never felt so alive inside her.
It's like she was made for this, for the fight, for the sight of foes falling before her. And it is ravishing and ferocious but a big resounding bell of alarm goes in her head. Her eyes turned red with excitement for a second, she knows, but the others don't look like they noticed. She needs to get away from them, though. They are impressed, clearly, by her unusual show of skill, but she cannot allow herself to be carried away now.
"I'm sorry." She forces the words out of her mouth, but they feel wrong. Why should she be sorry for being better, faster, superior? Why should she be sorry for standing her ground in the face of an insult?
"I should go." She needs air, and isolation, and cold. She summons her broomstick from the dorm and makes for the door the second it touches her hand. She stops running only at the doors of the castle, ignoring all sorts of callings, knowing that she will get in trouble for disregarding the teachers. She mounts her Firebolt and takes off for the heights, not really caring where she is headed.
She is over the Quidditch field when she comes back to her full senses, once the wind and the cold have earned her some peace of mind. It wasn't the jibe at her expense, she realizes, it was that feeling she thought to have buried long ago. Fear. The fear of not belonging, yet again. Forgotten but somehow ever present. She notices a bright blue shape moving down below.
Teddy.
She is immediately drawn to him. He is making the most of the last rays of sunshine, playing a disorganized but no less fun game. She sees yellow scarfs, and blue ones, and red ones. They are missing green, it seems. She decides to join the match, descending to meet her cousin.
The game holds. Teddy introduces her to the group and lets her know they need a Beater. If she is game, they can release another set of Bludgers, given there's about twenty-five players at that point. Quidditch with four Bludgers sounds very enticing indeed, and Delphini finds herself swinging a bat in earnest, swinging away her fear and her worry with every strike at the iron devils.
As she is walking out of the field, laughing whole-heartedly with the other players, while Teddy helps a limping boy in blue and bronze, an older girl in green-trimmed robes approaches her from behind. Delphini is about to explain her behaviour and apologise again, but she's not allowed.
"Don't even mention it. What you did in the Common Room was very impressive for a first time dueller. Don't ever say you're sorry for beating your enemy in combat. You won, own it. Show mercy if you like, help them off the floor if it pleases you, but never apologise for winning. Anyway, I followed you out of the castle and saw you play. Quidditch try-outs for the Slytherin team are tomorrow, at three o'clock. Be there, we can use a Beater like you."
The girl takes off without another word. Delphini looks to Teddy, who looks confused.
"What did you do in the Common Room? Why would you apologise for winning?"
"I had a disagreement with Avery."
"Did you hex him or something?"
"Or something," she replies with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
She walks with Teddy and the injured boy to the hospital wing, and then takes to the dungeons. She finds the Bloody Baron on the way, who nods solemnly when she greets him.
"Asphodel" she tells the wall, and a passage is revealed.
She steps inside, confident on the outside but secretly fearing the reception she'll get. There's a wave of whispering across the room, as heads turn and peek from behind armchairs and sofas. She stands still for a second, feeling the atmosphere, wondering how long it will be before someone brings her Mother up. Sigmund, now free of antlers, emerges from behind a pile of books on a table to greet her. He almost hops on his way to her.
"That was amazing! Why did you leave? Avery's not even mad at you! Everyone has been saying that they don't remember a faster student, especially a first time dueller." His grin is wide and full of mirth.
She realizes then that the whispers were in awe of her skill. Delphini strides across the dungeon, all the way to the windows under the lake, and settles on a dark leather sofa, watching the creatures in the water over her. Sigmund joins her, shrugging his shoulders at the obvious pile of overdue essays, chatting away his excitement. Other students, older students, congratulate her on her skill and she enjoys listening to the thoughts she can pick from the air. Darkie comes flying from the dorms, meaning that Syrianna and her homework are coming.
"Don't you have work to do, Sig?"
"Ah, come on, Syri! It's Friday…"
Syrianna opens her mouth to reply, but Delphini cuts her off.
"Sit down, Syri. We'll work after dinner."
Radagast and Freya soon join them. Radagast is going on and on endlessly about the Quidditch try-outs the next day. Freya looks like she can't listen to another word.
"I'll be there too. Tomorrow. I'll be a Beater."
That shuts Radagast up.
She is the lightest player on the field the next day, but the others do not comment on it. Her prowess from the previous day is at the front of everyone's minds. A bulky fifth year scoffs when she enlists for Beater.
"A snitch would be heavier. You'll be down soon enough."
Delphini makes a mental note to knock him off the broom first.
Silence falls over the assembly as the Captain approaches them. She is a tall girl with brown hair and dark eyes. Delphini recognizes her from the day before; she is the one who told her to come. She holds herself a little higher at that.
"Quiet everyone! Chasers get ready, you're up first. Beaters will be next."
"We all know I'll be the new Beater this year, why bother with the try-outs?" The bulky boy snorts.
"Shut it Romulus! I don't care about size, and I don't think you can aim." The Captain winks at Delphini as she turns around to the Chasers. He is most definitely coming off his broom.
X
Malfoy Manor, November 20th, 2009
"Dad, I got a letter from Delphie! Slytherin won the first Quidditch match of the year, 240 to 90!"
Draco smirks. The first game is against Gryffindor. He'll make sure Potter and Weasley get the news.
"How many players ended up in the hospital wing?"
"Five. Three Gryffindors, a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw. One of the Gryffindors dodged a Bludger at the last second and it hit the stands. Delphini says she hit that one really hard so he was out of it for a while."
Draco chuckles and Astoria smiles to him. Delphini being let loose on a Quidditch field with a bat in her hands must be driving the other teams mad. She never does anything but excel.
"Did she knock out any of the Gryffindors?" Astoria is delighted by the enthusiasm in Scorpius face, but the thought of the two of them being at Hogwarts at the same time is anything but amusing given how they're prone to get in trouble together.
"All of them," Scorpius deadpans, "she got two weeks detention because the last one was after the game was over. Professor Hooch was furious at her."
Draco lets out a sigh, covering his face with his hands, while Astoria laughs openly. That makes him smile.
X
Malfoy manor, December 17th, 2009
Delphini has been home for almost a week now, and she is terribly excited by the prospect of traveling abroad in the summer. So he is trying to make her slow down on her now steady rhythm of notices and detentions. They received a total of nine letters from Headmistress McGonagall, and Lucius doesn't even want to know how many misdeeds she truly managed.
"Well, keep misbehaving and you may be left behind." Lucius voice is stern, but there is laughter in his eyes.
"Can I stay at Hogwarts, then?" Delphini has half a mind to pull something wicked in the Great Hall at that. And her smile is all Bella.
"What? You alone in Hogwarts for the summer? Sorry, little bird, not happening." Narcissa's face is a mask of mild horror.
"Oh come on, Mother!" Draco has a grin on "There's only ghosts and they all died badly. What could she possibly do to them?"
"Is that a challenge?" The wickedness almost sparks off her skin.
"NO!" All four Malfoys answer her.
"Alright, keep your eyebrows on... I won't do anything bad for the purpose of being left behind during summer." She solemnly says, huffing out her disappointment at the end.
"Poor Peeves wouldn't stand a chance!" Draco snorts.
And Delphini is happy at that. They have no idea about the Bloody Baron utmost respect for her after the poltergeist incident. They have no idea about Peeves. Her secret is safe. Both her secrets.
X
December 27th, 2009
Narcissa is once more observing her niece from afar. She has her new green and silver woollen sweater on, and is sitting sideways at the fireplace, on the floor, an absent minded look on her face that tells of deep thoughts. The steam from a hot cup of tea dances over her face, while a spoon idly swirls itself silently. Her pale wand is at her side, obscured by the girl's shadow, projected long over the floor in the room that only the fire lights.
The sight is enough to elicit memories of her sister and Narcissa's throat feels constricted for a second. She closes her eyes for that same second, gathering her sorrow and tucking it back to where it belongs. Inside and hidden. Bellatrix used to sit just like that in a house they both called home. She had taken to do it here, in this very same room, after Azkaban. Exposing half her body to the warmth she had come to crave, while leaving the other half in the darkness and the cold she had grown to love.
She lets her memory drift to the rainy days of their last winter together, when Bella would sit sideways at the fireplace holding Delphini close to her, mind lost in the green of her child's eyes, fingers coursing over black locks. She used to stand afar and watch her sister then. The most peaceful she had ever seen her. They would both be lost to thoughts for a while, until Bella raised her eyes from the green to search for the grey and asked the same question, every single time. "Isn't she perfect?" While her eyes asked another. "Will she be enough for Him?"
And when Narcissa opens her eyes and they focus again, the grey that she almost expected is green and bears a question. Delphini refrains from using unnecessary words around the house. They know her, and do not need them.
"I was just thinking of how much you look like your Mother."
She walks towards Delphini, caressing her curls when she is close enough, a warm smile on her lips. She knows this little witch could do without words altogether, needing nothing but look into their minds. But she refrains from that too.
Thankfully.
"What were you thinking of, my sweet star of darkness?"
Delphini leans into her hand at that. Lucius, of all people, coined the endearment she loves the most. She raises her eyes to those of her Aunt and replies.
"I was thinking of Mother." A lie, and a reply in kind, Narcissa understands. Delphini doesn't ask and doesn't pry their minds, but she never misses a lie. "And of the homework I still haven't finished. I should go get my books and some parchment. There's a most annoying paper on some Muggle thing to be written", she finishes with a huff of boredom. That part is very true, and makes Narcissa chuckle.
She combs her curls, attempting to trap a few behind an ear, as she gets up. Narcissa takes the cup from Delphini's hands and sets it on a low table by the armchair.
"Would you mind if I sat here reading while you work?"
"Of course not, Aunt Cissa. I'll just be a minute."
Narcissa moves to the armchair and levitates a book from the bookshelves that cover the walls, all the while watching Delphini leave the room with measured steps that lend a bounce to her curls. For just another second, she could be Bella.
Can you see her from behind the Veil, Bella? She looks a lot like you.
Delphini ambles down the corridor, with a lightness to her step, despite whatever it was that troubled her. Narcissa revels in that lightness, for she is part of the reason for it. The girl has lightness because of her, because of her unquestionable love and that of her family.
Remember how you used to worry that she wouldn't be enough for Him? That she wouldn't be powerful enough to play her role on His game? She is, Bella, she is. She is plenty. She is summer where He was winter.
Delphini turns over beneath the arch at the end of the corridor, just before taking a corner. Narcissa can see the glint of her green gaze, the happiness there, the very thing that was ever absent from her Father's eyes.
Have you seen her, Bella? The girl meant to be His masterpiece. Do you see how she has turned the tables? Not a pawn to be used, not a knight to fight others' battles, not a king to be cornered. A queen, free to move in her own direction.
She is perfect, Bella. Perfect.
Author's Notes: To Alesia and Guest, thank you for your reviews. To everyone who kept on reading, and favorited and/or followed this fic since my last update, my hearts goes out to you. You guys keep me writing.
As always, reviews feed the author, keep them coming. Sorry I took so long, real life got in the way. The next chapter is pretty much done, it won't take so long to update, promise.