His Daughter 2: Hostile World (Sequel!)

by Vessynessy

11 year old Daisy Potter was taken from her family, her little world, and cast out into a cruel and unforgiving, wider world. In order to return to family, safety and happiness, she must navigate this world in its entirety, in any way she can. But at the end, when she finally reaches them, will she even be the kind of person her family wants to see again? Will they love her still?

8. The Witch Who Lost Her Head

Author's Note: Behold, my masterpiece! Coming in at 19,600 words! Nearly 20,000! It's the length of TWO of my longer length chapters! Or three or four average length ones! :D So yeah, I guess you can consider it a double feature! I squeezed in every damn inch of what I wanted this chapter to be and contain! Really flesh shit out and set up some shit! :D :D Ended up twice as long as I thought, but I think it's worth it for this one! So, yeah, hope you enjoy it! :D

End of AN!

---

In earliest morning, on the morning that Daisy would have to go home for the winter holidays, she made sure to get in one last meeting with Rigel.

A special, secret one. They met when the morning was still dark, and the castle was practically empty, outside a special bathroom on the second floor. Daisy was pleased to see Rigel had heeded her request to bring blankets and pillows (she had also brought her own, stuffed into her weightlessly charmed trunk full of the rest of her things). For a secret chamber made by the Founder Slytherin himself, it really wasn't a comfortable or inviting place. Did the man just like sitting on hard stone all day, or what?

"Ready to do this?" Daisy asked with a smile.

Rigel nodded, curiosity in her eyes.

Daisy gave the word to open the passage, then lit her wand and let Rigel climb onto her back. She focused on flying, and she gently descended into the depths of the Chamber of Secrets with her. They landed without incident in the cave, and proceed on the long walk through the tunnel that led to the true chamber's entrance.

Daisy hissed a quick word of Parseltongue to open it, and stepped through. She flicked her wand, concentrating hard: several spheres of light flew out from her wand, positioning themselves around the chamber. She was pretty damn proud of herself for how hard she had practiced this advanced lighting spell for just this moment - the moment to impress the hell out of her friend!

Rigel gasped as she took in the full view of the vast chamber. All its statues and pillars - and of course, the greatest statue of them all, on the far side of it.

Daisy waved her wand to light up the torches with shimmering blue flames; the magical warmth quickly filled the air, spreading to them. She set her trunk down, and then the pair of them placed their bedding down, and set about getting as comfortable as they could together. Laying there, side by side.

"Transfiguration might be stupid and useless, but I'd give anything to be able to do conjuration and just- make us a nice big mattress," Daisy bemoaned, fluffing up the two pillows under her head.

"M-maybe we could b-both w-work on that - over w-winter b-break," Rigel suggested. "S-so when we get b-back...we'll be able to b-be- d-down here in- s-style."

Daisy nodded seriously. "Definitely. I'll be the master of mattresses by the time I come back! We could add more than just beds, though - armchairs, study tables, everything!"

Rigel laughed. "I h-hope so. T-this p-place is p-pretty bland. I s-suppose Slytherin wasn't b-big on d-decorating."

"Or comfort - or anything that doesn't appeal to his huge ego, apparently, yes," Daisy listed off, giggling freely. "But we're seriously going to change that."

"R-right. W-we c-could...n-never mind..."

"No - what?" Daisy said lightly. "What are you thinking?"

"W-well..." Rigel raised a hand, pointing over to the giant statue of Slytherin himself. "I w-was j-just t-thinking...for d-decorations..."

"Yes?"

"If w-we c-could m-manage it, we c-could..." Rigel blushed. She giggled. Then- "W-what if we r-replaced the big s-snake coming out of his m-mouth with a g-giant- c-conjured-"

"What?" Daisy said impatiently. "Spit it out."

"A willy!" Rigel gasped out through high peals of laughter.

Daisy took a moment to process. Then she joined in with her friend, laughing so much that she hurt by the end of it. But it was a good hurt - a totally worth it hurt. What wouldn't be worth it, however, was the idea itself.

"The second my father were to walk in here and see it, he'd murder me," she said flatly, pushing her hair back and putting her hands over face.

"I'd n-never want t-that to h-happen!" Rigel said swiftly, eyes wide. "I c-can be s-satisfied w-with j-just- imagining it!" As if to prove her point, she glanced over to the great statue again, and began to fall prey to another giggle fit, which she tried to stifle by pressing her hands over her mouth.

"So, where are you going for the holidays?" Daisy said casually, after her friend had regained her composure. "Or are you supposed to stay here?"

Rigel's expression was awash with uncertainty. Then she raised her arm up and reached for her sleeve, pulling it back. Exposing that brand again. That mark. "B-back to my p-parents. The Ministry m-monitors our m-mail and c-comes by the h-house for in-inspections, but...at least we're out of the c-camps. T-they p-permitted my p-parents to go b-back to live in the h-house again, and they'll let me go b-back to them for the holidays - as l-long as we d-don't cause any...t-trouble."

"Are they really that awful? These camps? From what Edith's told me, and..." Daisy frowned.

Rigel just nodded, her eyes glazing over as she stared at the high cavernous ceiling. "They're the- w-worst." She hesitated. "I'm g-glad we'll n-never have to go b-back..." She let her arm fall at last, her fingers curling into her palm.

"I'm glad you won't have to, either."

"Even...even if it m-meant never seeing m-me again?"

"What do you mean?" Daisy said, glancing at her friend in alarm.

Rigel blew a breath, joining her hands together over her stomach. She twisted her fingers, laced them together. "T-that whole s-s-story about m-my- relative in m-magical America - it's n-not the t-t-truth," she said quietly.

"What's the truth?" Daisy asked.

"S-she was j-just a family f-friend who...sent f-fake documents here for us to use. P-people in MACUSA have b-been f-forging...all sorts of p-papers to help m-muggleborn families escape the country. P-passports for inter-continental portkey trips and enchanted boat rides. B-but all our p-papers were good f-for were getting m-my f-family out of the- the c-camps, and getting me s-sent here. It p-proved I had a magical r-relative, so I g-got a wand, and my p-parents were allowed to g-go back h-home again, but not anything m-more. The m-ministry c-checks all my p-post, and they're w-watching the h-house and stuff - like I s-said. Our f-friend from America, she c-can't g-get ahold of the travel p-permits until...later. M-months, s-she said."

"So you're just here waiting until you get word you can leave the country?"

Rigel nodded. "T-that's r-r-right. I- I'll be g-gone soon. By the end of the s-school year, I h-hope."

Daisy struggled with herself for a long moment. Anger, fear, panic - even anger at Rigel for not telling her sooner she was going to leave her! But...that was only her reaction for herself; she knew how a good girl, a good friend would react to news like this. How Daisy was meant to react for Rigel. She scooted closer to the girl, and she wrapped her up in her arms and held her close. "Well...I hope your family gets that ticket out of here soon. I hope you get to cross the ocean, to a safe and happy life elsewhere. I'm going to really miss you, but I'll be happy for you. Really happy!" She tried to make her voice as goddamn elated and earnest as possible.

"T-thanks, Del-" Rigel began.

"Rigel?"

"Y-yes?"

"Could you...call me Daisy? Please? Just- just once? At least once?" After so long, after more and more lately of not even knowing who she was anymore, of who she was turning into...and knowing full well who she would become soon...

"T-t-thank you, D-Daisy," Rigel whispered sincerely.

Daisy choked, and she turned away as tears spilled down her face.

---

Daisy's father released her arm as soon as he could - as soon as they appeared before the entrance to the manor, having just apparated in from the gates of Hogwarts.

As they strode through the manor gates, up to the front door, Daisy risked speaking.

Now that she was here, it was time: time to accelerate plans A and B - work on her parents for them, both of them, together and apart. See which parent she made progress with - and see which plan she made progress with. The main one...and the backup.

"Father, I would- like to talk to you about my...soul," she said carefully.

He realized, of course, what she meant. "Must we have this discussion now? We've only just gotten you home."

"If I wait, I might forget," Daisy responded sincerely - and very stupidly innocent.

Father gave her a shrewd look. "Very well. Come, and let us talk."

They moved through the manor, entering her father's private study room.

And there, they talked.

During their talks, Daisy mainly learned from her father what she already knew: he loved the dramatic, the grandiose. A pattern of behavior, of belief and mindset. Ego and arrogance. But it helped her to put a few other things into perspective.

The first thing she did was she had asked him about what he had chosen for his Horcruxes, earning her a very sharp rebuke that she did not need to know. No more than she already did, anyway. So she had moved on to ask about Horcrux protections; he had given her a conjured sheet, a list to be read only by her, of the spells he had used and their descriptions. If anyone else even looked at it, they would see a blank page. If they tried to touch it, they would die - predictably. He told her very sternly "Not to just copy me", and to "Actually try and be original with your own's protections."

He told her, when she asked for clarification, about a cave, a grand lake, filled with enchanted corpses, and a basin of complex poison...

All things that Daisy recognized, from long ago memories.

She had kept her face supremely vacant, and had gone on to make vapid suggestions and ideas for her own Horcrux protections. Daisy wasn't sure whether or not he approved of her necklace - he had simply told her that if she felt it was valuable and worthy enough to host a piece of her soul, then she should use it - but she was glad he had not asked where she had gotten it (probably just assumed she had ordered it by owl post - or maybe stolen it from some girl she hated at school, the way his mind worked). Even so, that had been...a complete minefield, and she was so relieved to have avoided stepping on anything that would have blown up on her.

In her own room that night, behind locked door and Imperturbable Charm, Daisy had clutched the sheet of parchment in hand...and thought about her plans again.

There was a pattern to her father - a pattern she recognized now. Just knowing her father had six Horcruxes had made it almost comically easy to figure out! To go from connection to connection - pattern to pattern.

The Diary was already destroyed - had been given to Lucius Malfoy.

And Daisy knew of another one: a locket. A locket belonging to Salazar Slytherin.

Kreacher had told her, once, on a beach, in a bid to comfort her in her worst breakdown as a little girl...that Voldemort would kill him if he knew about the missing locket from the cave. The locket Regulus had died to steal from him - and left a fake in its place. Ordered Kreacher to destroy above anything else, his last, final order. Kreacher had told her this, and then told her he would die for her! That he didn't care that she was Voldemort's daughter: he would die for her if he had to. Just like he would have for Regulus. Not just because Regulus had ordered him back from that lake the first time, saving him from the "bodies in the water", but because he had cared for Regulus in return. And he cared for Daisy, too, in that same way.

God, it was so obvious now to Daisy that the Locket of Slytherin had been a Horcrux. Regulus Black must have found out about it, learned that Voldemort had at least one, and gone to try to destroy it. Ordered Kreacher to do it if he died trying.

A cave, a lake filled with inferi, a poison basin...

It lined up perfectly with what Kreacher had told her.

Daisy needed to learn all about the others, too, from father. That would be her plan B, if plan A - the whole "turn her father mortal and kill him" plan - didn't work out so well. Plan B would be tracking them down and destroying them all, and then going back to kill her father.

She even knew of a way to do it, thanks to those books of hers: Fiendfyre, it was said, was the most powerful, surefire way of doing it.

It was a very dark, volatile spell. Relatively easy to cast - but after you did...it was almost impossible to control.

And it would spread, and destroy all in its path.

Daisy would have to find a very isolated place - or an underground cave - or maybe even a deserted island, someday.

A safe place to cast the spell and let it burn the hell out of father's Horcruxes.

Diary - dead. Locket - uncertain. Kreacher had said that, years ago, daddy and some Order members had promised to carry out and finish Regulus's final orders, his final command. Honor his memory by trying to find the real locket, which itself had been stolen from Kreacher, and destroy it. But there was no way to know if they had found the real one, all those years ago! Daisy had no way to know.

But there was a third Horcrux she was sure about: one that fit the pattern. There was a Cup that mother had told her about before, during a furious argument between mother and daughter on Voldemort's trust and care for them. A Cup once belonging to Hufflepuff herself, that father had given to mother a long time ago. Just like he had given the Diary to Lucius, but hadn't told him what it was. He had told Bellatrix it was important, special, and to keep it safe and hidden - and mother had done just that.

Mother had thrown that in Daisy's face, that day - that argument - and then immediately caught herself as she realized what she had revealed. She had sworn Daisy to utter secrecy, telling her to forget she ever knew about the Cup, or that it was in her vault.

Daisy wasn't sure if mother herself even knew what it was she truly had in her possession - but Daisy herself did, now. She was certain of it.

As for the rest, the unknown three...

Well, hopefully Daisy would be able to figure them out soon enough, too. It would take more digging, more questions, more looking out for her father's patterns and methods. His dramatic, grand, idiotic methods and behavioral patterns. He was just too arrogant and egotistical to even realize anyone else had figured him out - not Regulus, and not Daisy. Daisy knew it because she knew she had some of those same flaws in herself. And she would either keep that information and use it herself, like Regulus had, or she would give it to the Order someday. Someday, if she could ever...

No matter what, no matter how, she would make sure her father died forever.

---

The next morning, as soon as Daisy had woken up, Voldemort entered her room without warning, without sound or knock or even a call in.

Daisy sat up instantly, placing her hands in her lap, composing her face as best she could.

"Come with me," he spoke lowly.

Daisy jumped to her feet, following after him without question (no time to change out of her nightgown, no time to do her hair, and she didn't even dare try to grab her wand off the nightstand! Father could have taken that very badly).

He led her on, down a familiar hall, around a few corners, and...into his study.

He strode across the room, stopping there and turning back to face her. He gazed at her, his face a mask.

Daisy did the smart thing, and she knelt before him, bowing her head.

Punishment was sure to come - but for what reason? Long overdue punishment for her actions in the Chamber of Secrets?

Had he been stewing on it all this time? Building up a furious storm to unleash on her?

Why did he have to do this so early in the morning? Her brain was still foggy (though, she thought a good dose of Crucio would surely wake her).

"It seems you've quite forgotten yourself during your time away, Delphini."

"I- don't understand," Daisy spoke, flat and quiet. And honest.

"I was recently informed...of just how much of a public spectacle you've been making of yourself at the school. And I'm not speaking of the kind I appreciate."

Daisy swallowed, bowing her head. "Father-"

"Quiet," he interrupted simply. "Until I am finished speaking."

Daisy obeyed.

"I'll...cut right to the chase, as the saying goes: I've heard some upsetting rumors about you over the past several months now. Rumors about you frolicking around the castle with mudbloods and traitors - even going so far as to defend them from rightful treatment and punishment by others." Voldemort paused, gazing at her with dangerous, glinting red eyes. "I would ask you to explain why."

Daisy took a moment before raising her head, meeting his gaze unflinching. Her face a smooth mask, and her mind...clear and detached. God, trying to do this right when she had woken up was so hard. "It's simple, father: I took a liking to them, and they have value to me because they interest and...stimulate me. They entertain me. And they're mine. And I won't let others hurt or mess with them, just like you wouldn't let your Death Eaters or some common citizen screw with Nagini - or with me."

"Yes, I can certainly understand that," Voldemort said quietly, nodding. Accepting. "But your view is incredibly narrow, my child. You, yourself, are being remarkably short-sighted in this matter."

"What do you mean?"

"You are neglecting to even consider the wider, political ramifications of your actions - and how others perceive your actions. You've also completely failed to account for the personal aspect: how your actions reflect on me."

"On you?"

"Yes, Delphi. Everything you do - everything that others see you doing - impacts the country's opinion of me in direct relation. From the lowest commoner to my own devoted followers. They must all be asking themselves, for instance - this instance - why it is that the Dark Lord is allowing his own daughter to defend and mingle with those he brands the lowest of the low, or those he considers his greatest enemies, and dangers to his world."

"Well, we both know why you do, father," Daisy dared to say, her voice calm. "There's only power, remember? What does anyone else's opinion matter to us? We both know it's bullshit - blood means nothing, purity means nothing! You just pulled off a masterstroke and used them all to take the world! So why are you still dancing to their tune, why keep up the act? If they're magical and powerful, and proven, then what does their blood matter? You'd take them anyway, and excuse it to your Death Eaters afterward. We both know you would - have, before. So why does it matter if I do the same thing?"

Voldemort sighed. "You truly are just a child, aren't you. Such a simple mind. Clearly you're still just too young to fully comprehend the scope of your actions - or mine. This is what has landed us in this predicament, Delphini - your inability to consider anything beyond the immediate."

"Sorry I don't have your vision." Oh god, why did that slip out? Cranky morning Daisy, check yourself before you get us killed! Father isn't daddy - you don't mouth off to him!

Voldemort's lips twisted. He shut his eyes briefly. "As you are a child whose judgement has been shown to be rather inept, I will - as your father - be making a decision for you. For your...benefit. Hear this, Delphini: you will not continue to waste your time with these...publicly undesirable children when you return to Hogwarts. You will make true friends, to truly stimulate you. Purebloods would be preferable, but half-bloods, of course, are perfectly acceptable as well."

"And only because it makes you look bad." That was...slightly better than the last barb, wasn't it?

"Precisely. Do try to understand: I cannot have my own daughter being seen choosing traitors and rebels over even the most well and dedicated citizen," Voldemort said, pitching his voice into something like paternal concern. "Out of that entire school, honestly, you could have chosen anyone. But you went right to these marked children, these camp-rats! An error in judgement, to be sure - but one I'm certain you won't make again. Correct?"

"Yes, father. I...apologize for not thinking things through first. Or for- considering how things would...reflect on you. I was too...caught up with myself. I'm sorry."

"Yes, well, so long as you correct your mistake - and correct the mistaken view the public has of you - I will let you off without punishment. Clearly, it was due to your still-childish mind. Believe it or not, I, too, was once a child - and, as well, I once neglected to think beyond the immediate. It took me time to mature, and become the forward-thinking wizard I am today. It is a skill, one that you learn and hone, Delphi. One you must learn, and learn to hone as well. To prevent...mistakes such as this in future."

"Yes, father. Of course." God, father sure loves to hear himself talk, doesn't he? And he loves to prop himself up into the clouds.

Voldemort gazed at her in silence as she stood in silence. "Now, I believe you wish to speak. You may do so."

"I just..." Daisy looked away. "If everything else was removed - the situation, the context - wouldn't you have no issues with them? With me choosing them? Be honest, father."

"Perhaps - but the fact is that there is a context, and a situation," Voldemort stressed. "It is an irremovable factor, an unchanging aspect. And so, we must deal with it as it is." He paused, considering her further. "Do you think I would not have liked nothing more than to have stormed the school years ago, and killed the likes of Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter myself, personally? Do you think I would not simply love to cast off these foolish Death Eaters who have no real allegiance to me, who swore me off at first chance to save their own skins? Do you think I would not love to simply...take the world already? But life is what it is, and we must work with what we have right now. Even for people like us, regrettably, there are wiser decisions to make than others, let us say. It is not that we follow rules or laws of others for its own sake - but because those are the parameters we must operate within for the time being, lest we risk our own downfall and destruction."

"I'm certain the day will come when I will be able to end this tiresome charade," Voldemort confided. "To truly be able to walk in this world wherever I please, doing whatever I please. To cast off this useful but disloyal crop of Death Eaters - but if I were to do so today, I would be left with no one to carry out my bidding, and I would need to start all over again with gaining new followers! And so I retain them, Delphi. Because they are useful and convenient, just as they are. And so until the day comes, or they are all dried up and dead - whichever comes first - it is wiser for us to...stay the course. Just have patience, my daughter. As immortals, I'm sure that day will come for us before you know it."

"I'm not immortal yet."

"And that day will come for you soon enough," Voldemort said, in a consoling tone. "Now," he went on airily. "can I assume we may put this whole matter behind us? We should enjoy the holidays, free of ill feelings or thoughts."

Daisy nodded. "Yes, father."

"Excellent." Her father slowly moved forward and embraced her, briefly before letting her go. "I'm relieved we could resolve this little problem without the need for any...necessary escalation. I never wish to punish you, you know. It is only that you...sometimes make it necessary for me to have to do so. But I take no pleasure in it."

Bullshit. You take all the pleasure in the world. Even when it's me. Lording your power, dominating people...that's how you get your jollies off, father.

"Yes, father."

"Well then, you may go." Voldemort raised a hand, making a shooing gesture as he turned away from her.

Daisy stood, her head starting to pound now. It was way too early in the morning for this shite!

No doubt her father had done it this way on purpose, just to mess with her (or maybe to soften her up - catch her off guard).

At any rate, Daisy was just glad it was over.

She put hand to her head as she left the room.

---

Well, Daisy thought blearily, if she was already up, then why not work a bit more toward her plans?

Just as father had taken advantage of her early morning state, she could go take advantage of someone else's now.

Daisy strode the halls of the manor, went up another flight of stairs until she came to the right door. She opened it and stepped inside without hesitation.

It was a lavish enough room, with a queen's bed - and a woman who probably thought herself a queen sleeping on it.

Daisy breathed, focusing on weightlessness, and she lifted off from the floor in a shroud of black smoke. She glided forward, and she let herself down right on the bed - right next to her. She got in close beside her mother, pressing to her as she looked into her sleeping face. No disdain, no disgust, no hate, no malice, no anger, no irritation - just...honest to god peace.

Daisy reached up to touch her mother's face. To hold her, to caress her. Like she wished mother would do for her more often - it was so rare Daisy could count the times on one hand over the last...damn near six years now.

Mother's breathing caught, and her eyes suddenly opened as her body tensed. She stared into Daisy's eyes, gave a half glance sideways, blearily, to the hand on her cheek. "What...are you doing?" the woman rasped, raw and throaty.

"You've never heard of affection before?" Daisy said quietly. "It's what family does for each other, you see. Parents to children, children to parents - brothers to brothers, sisters to sisters-"

"Oh, no!" mother exclaimed, shoving out at Daisy to push her to the very edge of the bed. "I'm not doing this little game with you right when I've woken up, girl!" she huffed, a lock of messy dark hair being blown out of her face.

"Well, I just had to be dragged out of my bed and interrogated by father right after I woke up, so you're getting off easy with me, mother!" Daisy retorted, closing the distance again and seizing her mother's arm, dragging it right over her own body and forcing her to embrace her.

Mother shook her off, then shoved her again and scooted backwards, her eyes blazing with wakefulness now - and anger. "As if I care! As if that gives you any right to just waltz into my room and put yourself into my bed without asking!"

"Are you saying that if I asked, you'd let me sleep with you?" Daisy said innocently.

Mother leveled a furious glare at her. "Don't be smart to me, girl. Get. Out! Now!"

"Make me."

"You think I won't?!" Mother said viciously, sneering now. "We are not playing games, how many times do I have to tell you!"

"You should," Daisy snapped. "A good, fun game might loosen you up a little! For once!"

Mother drew her knee up, and then kicked out at Daisy, sending her tumbling off the bed completely. Daisy gasped, clutching at her stomach on the floor. Mother swung herself up and gazed down on her, hard and cruel. Then, she softened. She sighed. "Up! Get up, Delphi! I know you've taken more than that and stood back up again. Enough with the dramatics."

Daisy grasped the bed, pulling herself to her feet as her world swam. As she sucked in the biggest breath she could. "You know...mother...you could have asked if I was okay. You could have-"

"Not this again. I knew you were fine - why would I waste time asking?" Mother waved an airy hand, sitting cross-legged on the bed now.

"Well...because that's what loving, kind mothers do?" Daisy replied, sitting down on the bed again - as near to mother as she could get.

"What is with you and this obsession with being babied?" Mother said, exasperated. "I was never babied - Cissy was only babied because she was the youngest, and had a softer touch to her than either myself or-" She froze, catching herself.

"Andy."

"Andromeda, yes," mother said, with a great force of will - and a powerful distaste. "But we both know you are not a soft girl, not in the way Cissy always has been. Hah, you should have seen her when dear Draco was an infant; the way she'd run around like a headless chicken, cooing over him and all the rest of that..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "I never would have been that way if I could have kept you."

"Of course not - because you were never going to keep me. Or did you forget? Father wanted me to be chopped potions ingredients."

Mother stared at her, a genuine look of confusion on her face for a moment. Then she ducked her head aside. The fingers of one hand in her lap became claws that scraped at the back of her wrist. "Y-yes, well...well, I only mean, if our Lord had not decided that would be- if I had- I would have...would have not...!"

Daisy inched closer to her mother, cautious, and reached out to put a hand on her leg. "I'm sure, mother."

Mother gazed at her, then down at the hand on her leg. The hand clawing at back of her own wrist stopped. There was a...a long moment, there. Almost a minute, in which she stayed just like that. Daisy did, too. Then, mother's hand twitched, half moved across her lap- and then pulled back again. She tossed her hair and gave a great big snort. "Don't patronize me, girl!" she said scornfully - but Daisy knew it was half-hearted, for her. One-fourth, even...

Daisy just smiled at her. "Of course not. Mother..."

"What?"

"For the last four months, every day, for hours, I've been practicing at Occlumency - like you suggested. Snape has told me that I'm really skilled at it now. I can even hide things from him - I passed his most recent test. A real attempt. I'm really good at it now, and you said if I learned it, I could tell you anything. Especially things that wouldn't go down well with father..."

"Have you? Well, speak, then," mother sighed, resigning herself to the conversation to come.

"You don't want to test me yourself?" Daisy asked.

"I don't have any need to test your skills," mother said absently. "You're the one who wants to hide things from the Dark Lord; the only thing that matters is whether or not you think you're good enough to do so by now. And if you aren't...the consequences will be yours to deal with, not mine."

"Oh...okay." Daisy said, stamping down on the tiniest trickle of disappointment inside herself.

"Well? What is it you want to say to me, girl?"

Daisy thought about it - really thought. Then, she decided on a course of action. Her opening move. "Wouldn't you ever want to see your sister again - Andy?" she spoke quickly.

Mother pulled away completely, whirling away and leaping off the bed to her feet. She whipped back, her expression furious and cutting. "See her again?! I'd kill her if I saw her again!" she proclaimed with fire and fury.

"Bullshit," Daisy said flatly, meeting her gaze. Unmoving from the bed. "You couldn't bring yourself to kill her through the course of two separate wars, and you couldn't even bring yourself to kill your cousin, Sirius; Lucius told me it wasn't a deadly curse that finished him, it was him falling back through that veil. You weren't aiming to kill, not even then! And I don't think you ever will. Because family is everything, right, mother? You miss her. You love her. You still do, and you always will."

"Of- you- of course it is - of course I do!" Mother said, her voice trembling and tight. She was looking everywhere but at Daisy. "But the sister I love and miss is long gone. She made that choice herself, to throw away her life, cast off the entire family...all for some muggleborn boy!" she burst out spitefully.

"You could still see her again."

"How? Walk up to her and ask to sit around for a gossip, a little catch-up on our lives the last decade or two?" Bellatrix scoffed. "Yes, that would go swimmingly! Foolish little girl..."

"You could, maybe...eventually," Daisy persisted. "You could just-"

"Just what? Go to the Order and ask them to let me in? Or is it join?" Bellatrix sneered. "It sounds as if you're dangerously close to outright asking me to join in on your treasonous thoughts, girl. And let me tell you this: I might tolerate them in you, but you'll never convince me to join in!"

"They'd let you, if you did. Your sister would - she'd accept you, she'd be relieved, happy, that you finally made the right choice-"

"The right choice?!" Bellatrix shrieked with sudden laughter, high and insane. "You believe that?! Oh, you do! Poor baby! You honestly believe the Order is some heroic, righteous organization? You think they're all so sweet and kind?! If they were that much of a pack of simpletons, we'd have done away with them years ago by now!"

"No, but I think they'd at least give you a chance," Daisy said evenly. "They'd hear you out. Your sister would."

"No," Bellatrix refuted, wiping at her eyes and holding hand to her heaving bosom. She shook her head at Daisy. "No, no - I'll tell you what they would do if I ever did something so ludicrous and insane as that: they would take me, they would strip me down, they would bind me, gag me, blind me, and they would interrogate me for all I was worth. And when that doesn't work, they'll move on to torturing me in hopes it loosens my tongue. And when that won't work - and it won't - they might even go for even more extreme measures. Things you, idealistic, optimistic, childish thing that you are, could never imagine. But it is what they would do to me. And at the end of it all, they would kill me because I was worth nothing to them - and a risk to everything they do value. Safety, security...individuals."

"They aren't the Death Eaters," Daisy retorted firmly. "They wouldn't. They're good people."

"Oh, of course, and good people never do bad things, do they?" Bellatrix mocked sweetly.

"Sometimes," Daisy admitted. She knew that better than anyone. "But they'd never do anything that awful. To anyone. Not to defenseless prisoners."

"The good ones, perhaps - but then again, how many in the Order are good people? Hmm? There are bound to be some bad eggs in the bunch, mixed in, wouldn't you say?"

"The rest would keep them from doing things like that!"

"All it would take is a few little tiny moments alone with me," Bellatrix dismissed. "Not something I would ever take a chance on. But this is all ridiculous and traitorously hypothetical talk. And this talk is over now. It is never going to happen, girl."

"I won't leave without you."

"What?" Bellatrix looked bewildered.

Daisy stood slowly, moving toward her mother. She ignored the way the woman tensed. Ignored it all, as she leaned in, and hugged her mother around her neck, pulling her down awkwardly.

"Get off of me, what are you even doing?" Bellatrix growled, twisting in her grasp and reaching up to seize her arms. To pry her loose.

"Let me tell you a secret, or I'll do it this way," Daisy hissed back. "Your choice, mother."

"This is ridiculous, you little-" Bellatrix freed herself and shoved Daisy hard in the chest, sending her sprawling back onto the bed. She took heaving breaths as she gazed down on Daisy. "You couldn't have made that clear to me before you decided to tear my head off?" she spat out.

Daisy offered up a small grin. "Sorry?"

Bellatrix huffed, looking away as she crossed her arms. "What secret is it you want to tell so badly, hmm?"

"Well, if I just told you like that it wouldn't be a secret..."

"If it's inane gossiping about homework, or mean girls, or - god help me - pretty girls, I'm not lending my ear for it!" Bellatrix rattled off. "You can forget that."

"It's not. You should know better, mother. I thought you said I wasn't a normal, helpless, weak girl?"

Bellatrix sighed. She seated herself on edge of the bed, arms still crossed. She glanced at Daisy, then leaned over and cocked her head at her. "Just get this over with, you little..."

Daisy obliged her mother. And in her ear, she began to whisper. "I want to leave, I've always wanted to go. I want to go back to where I was happy, to where I was safe. And I will someday, mother. And when I do...I'm dragging your crazy arse with me, whether you like it or not. I'll reunite you with your sister, and I'll take you to a better life than this - than being tortured and humiliated all the time by a warlord of a madman - and you'll thank me for it, eventually. Once you see just how much better it is, how much freer it is there."

Daisy withdrew, expecting an eruption - expecting a strike, a hit, or even a curse. She looked her mother in the eye. Mother had a stunned expression; her dark eyes were wide, her lips were trembling... "If family really is the most important thing to you, if I'm really important to you, and if you really do love me, mum, you'll keep this between us - like we promised," Daisy went on. "And you'll at least think about it before the day comes. Because I'm right, and Andy is right, and Tonks is right; if everyone is on one side except you, don't you think it means you're the wrong one? The odd one out? Because I think you know as well as I do that Cissy doesn't even want to be here; she'd join the other side if she felt it'd keep her family safer! In a heartbeat! She's soft like that."

Daisy drew a breath, and pressed on. "Now, you can keep your promise, or...you can drag me right down to father and tell him what I've just said to you, toss me down in front of him and let me take one of the worst tortures of my entire life over it. Hell, maybe he'll even kill me for it; he can always start again - have another kid. And you can do what you've always done, and just stand there and watch. Watch him torture me, watch him make me bleed, and break, and scream. And watch him take the life of your only daughter. We both know he'd do it."

Mother shut her eyes, turning away again. "Delphi-" her voice emerged, quivering and whispered.

"Look, lie to him, lie to the world, lie to your sisters, and lie to me," Daisy gently interrupted. "Just, for once in your goddamn life, mum...stop lying to yourself. Isn't it exhausting? I think it would be, by now."

The room was silent for a very long time. All that filled it were the hitching breaths of mother. The little sounds, half muttered words, maybe, like she was having some argument with herself alone. Vestiges of thought and emotion that sometimes got free.

Then, mother just walked out of the room without a word, or even a glance back.

Daisy couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. On one hand, it wasn't the explosion of violence and rage she had been dreading - but it was also, possibly a harbinger of a much greater dread.

Whether it came or not, all Daisy could do now was wait and see if it did.

Wait and see...what her mother would decide to do.

---

Several days passed by in the manor of Riddle, and by stroke of luck or fate, the day Daisy was dreading never came. Or maybe...just by stoke of mind of a certain woman.

It gave her hope for her mother - and the courage to approach her father with something else while he was in one of his better moods.

Daisy entered his study after a simple knock, and a word to enter.

"Do you need something, Delphi?" he spoke, turning away from the desk and his stack of books and scrolls.

"I was just wondering..." she began. "You've been all over the world, right?"

"I have," he said, with no small amount of pride.

"To magical places?"

"Yes..."

"And that wand you have..." Daisy gestured to the old wand on the table, right next to father's hand. "It's the Elder Wand? The Deathstick? The Wand of Destiny? From the Tale of The Three Brothers fairy tale?"

"Yes. A wand with a long and sordid history...a wand of legend. But now it has reached its final, eternal owner: Lord Voldemort."

"Right," Daisy nodded. She paused, a thought striking her. "What about the other two Hallows? The Stone of Resurrection, and the Cloak of Invisibility?"

Voldemort gave a small snort. "What of them, Delphi? What use would I have for them? I am already easily capable of casting an invisibility spell on myself so completely that I cannot even see my own eyes. As for the Resurrection Stone...whom would I possibly wish to call back from the otherworld?"

"Well..." Daisy took a breath. "What about your mother?"

Voldemort did a genuine double take, staring at her with wide, shocked eyes. "What?"

"She was a witch, and she died, and so...why not call her back? Talk to her? Haven't you ever- wondered about why she put you in that orphanage, how she ended up in that situation, or-"

"I'm well aware of how my mother's life went!" Voldemort snapped. "I learned long ago just how weak of a witch she was, how pathetic she was to copulate with a muggle man - and to abandon me to a life lived among filthy muggles! Why would I ever wish to speak to her?!"

"Okay," Daisy said calmly. "Forget the Stone, then. What about the Cloak? You know, Harry Potter has one. It belonged to James Potter, and plenty of Potters before him - through the ages. And it still looked good as new, the last I saw it. That fits with the legend, doesn't it? About how it never wears out, never fades? What if that's the one?"

"Unlikely," Voldemort dismissed. But there was a glint in his eye she knew well by now...

"Do you know whether the Potters are descended from the Peverell brothers or not?" Daisy said delicately.

A pause. A breath. "No, I do not. But, as I said, it's unlikely. And, regardless, as I said, Delphini, I would have no need for such an item."

"Not even for your collection of rare artifacts and stuff? Not even...I don't know...to make into a Horcrux? Why haven't you tried to replace the Diary?"

Voldemort eyed her, his annoyance giving way to...consideration. "You do not need to replace Horcruxes, Delphini, not even if they are ripped from their container; they may move on from the land of the living, but they do not fully move on into the next world, either. They remain in a state of limbo, you could say - untethered to the main soul, yes, but still in existence. And so long as they still exist, no matter where or in what form, to replace them would be to ruin the number count. It would ruin the powers given to me by my current seven-part soul. The Diary may no longer act as an anchor, but it still gives me power by being part of the seven."

"Oh...that makes...sense." Daisy nodded. "Well-"

"No, we are not discussing this any further," Voldemort said softly, but with all the force as if he had shouted. "I believe there is something else you wish to discuss?"

"Yes. Well - you know a lot about magical places and myths. So- would you...know anything about these places?" She offered the book she held out. Her old copy of dark and wonderful fairy tales, still held onto from the Hogwarts library.

He gazed on its cover, then took it from her and opened it up on the desk.

Daisy stepped up to him and flipped through the pages, right to the one she wanted. She jabbed a finger to the page. "How many old, magical myths and fairy tales are really real, do you think? Could this one be?"

"There is always truth to legends, I've found," Voldemort said quietly, his eyes flitting left to right, swiftly reading the first few passages. "How much truth is the real question. This particular tale...'The Witch Who Lost Her Head'? I believe...ah, yes - yes, it was...this is the one, indeed."

"What?" Daisy asked, stamping down annoyance and impatience alike at her father's theatrics. Could the man just not enjoy holding something over someone else's head for a single fucking second?!

"This particular story was based on the life of a witch who lived six hundred years ago. The castle in the tale does exist."

"Have you been there before?"

"No, no I have not. Decades ago, it was one of several trails I followed in search of powerful magical artifacts or secret knowledge - one I did follow to its source - but I ultimately abandoned it at the gates, as it were."

"Why?"

Voldemort waved a hand. "A castle in the high mountains of Europe, a frost dragon acting as a guard dog...? I had better, less troublesome alternatives to seek."

"So, it was too hard for you."

"No - it was simply a great deal more inconvenient to pursue at the time," Voldemort snapped. "Had I wished to, I could have gone, slain the creature, and pilfered that castle for anything it had hidden within its walls!"

"Well, you're not doing anything more important these days, are you? Why don't we go now, father? You, and me, and mother too," Daisy said quickly. "We could make it a- family vacation. You'd have two extra wands on hand, and you could even...think of it as a test for me and my current- skills!"

Voldemort eyed her, a glint in his eye. Interest. Appraisal. "Hmmm...I suppose as your father I should encourage this interest of yours - this interest in historical artifacts and legends that we appear to share..."

"Please. Think of all the things we could find there! Super...powerful...artifacts, or knowledge - scrolls of old spells, or rituals! You might not have gone after it then, but you could go now. We could go together!"

"Very well," Voldemort said, amused. "It would do me good to revisit my travels - particularly the ones I never got around to. Go and inform Bella - and prepare yourselves to leave within five minutes." He shut the book and stood. He tapped it with his wand to vanish it into thin air.

"Five minutes? We're leaving- right now?"

"You wish, still, to prove yourself to me, don't you? To impress me? I'm giving you that chance - today."

"Right. Yes. I'll go find her."

"And, Delphi - I will be expecting both of you to pull your weight on this excursion. You will not rely on me to do everything. Nor, necessarily, to protect you from everything that might be out there; someday you will be alone in battlefields, and perhaps you might even take up such expeditions like this one on your own as well - if I haven't beaten you to them all first," Voldemort concluded, chuckling to himself. "It will indeed be, as you say, a live and true test of your current skillset. If I find it lacking, I may have to consider upgrading or modifying your training routine. But I'm confident I've trained you well enough so far. Do not disappoint me."

"I won't."

"Let's hope so. Go on, now."

Daisy obeyed, wondering what she had truly just gotten herself into.

A field trip to an ancient, evil castle of fairy tale was not going to be safe or pleasant!

But it was still so exciting!

A real adventure of her own, like her daddy had gone on back in his childhood days (and his daddy before him)! A real adventure, like every heroine of the very fairy tales she loved!

All she had ever wanted as a little girl was to get out and see the world - as much of it as she could.

And now she would be going out to do just that.

It definitely beat hanging around in this damn manor for weeks on end!

---

Daisy had wrapped herself in cloak, gloves, boots, and scarf - and a nice double layer of sweaters, trousers, and winter charmed knickers underneath them - and it still wasn't enough to save her from the frozen hell she popped right into after letting go of the Portkey.

Snow. Immediately. Nearly up to her knees! She just sank into it.

The wind whipped at her like it was made up of shards of ice.

"Where are we, exactly?" Daisy asked. Just that single breath of cold air into her lungs was almost painful!

"The specifics aren't for you to worry about," Voldemort said absently, tossing the deactivated Portkey away into the snow, where it submerged and was lost to a sea of white.

"Are you scared I'll come back and loot the place - find things you missed?" Daisy responded.

Voldemort gave her a harsh look, utterly silent.

Daisy let her head fall. "Sorry, father. That was really out of line!"

"My concern is not you, specifically," Voldemort said, with a small sigh. "But, as I said, that is not your concern."

Daisy nodded, still looking at her snow-covered boots - legs, really.

"Should we...proceed, My Lord?" spoke Bellatrix, gesturing ahead.

Daisy glanced up, squinting against the snow.

A great structure loomed before her: a familiar castle. Black stone, not nearly as large or impressive as Hogwarts - it was maybe a third the size of the great school - but in its own way, Daisy still found it impressive enough.

Something that immediately drew her eye was that the wall to the left of the double door entrance was completely shattered, the ceiling caved in. Shards of glass and pieces of furniture everywhere! Pieces of cloth, withered and tattered. Rugs or banners, who knew? And there were bits and pieces of porcelain - knick-knacks, or maybe even dinner dishes.

It looked almost exactly like the pictures in the book...

Daisy scrutinized it, her mind going back to the tale she so loved. She could have recited it all from memory, right on the spot! Her gaze traveled left, down the side of the mountain, the curve of endless white...

"What is it?" Father spoke, following her gaze. "Do you see something?"

Daisy stood silently, her eyes glazing over.

"Your Lord asked you a question!" Bellatrix spoke up, snappish. "Answer him!"

Voldemort raised a hand; Bellatrix bowed her head in contrition, stepping back (she made a face as her boots dragged deep within the snow).

Daisy drew breath, blinking. She began to speak. "'...Fay ran beneath the dragon, the snow clearing before her raised hands. She stumbled down the right-hand path, her only hope of salvation, she knew - of freedom. She knew the lair of the dragon lay down that way, but she thought that in that lair there must be tools that could help her slay it - as so many had tried before.'"

Both her parents stared at her.

Daisy flushed, raising her chin at them. "It...it has to be all true, right?" She pointed to the broken front of the castle. "The dragon broke through there, and Fay ran out - right out here, where we are - and she went...that way. Her right, our left. In the story, at least."

"You know this tale that well?" Voldemort eyed her with something like affection - or at least mild appreciation.

"By heart," Daisy said confidently.

"Then you're to stay close to me - and inform me of any surprises lurking in this place," Voldemort said - ordered.

"Well, father, right away I think I should tell you that...the mother - Aileen The Wretched - she...the story didn't end with her dying," Daisy said slowly. "In fact, it was sort of- the opposite. I liked the story because it was really grim, and-"

"Only tell me what is relevant, Delphi," Voldemort interrupted, a touch of exasperation in his voice.

"Yes. Sorry, father. I- Fay died. She fought to her last breath in the cave, with everything she had, but she was killed. She never made it off the mountain. And Aileen, she...she was still alive, just- stuck in the dungeons of her castle, the last the story said. She might have gotten out eventually, though. Or, soon after, even. And with how she was keeping herself alive the whole time anyway, she would have just-"

"Excuse me?" Voldemort said, interrupting her again.

Daisy worked her jaw, restraining her annoyance. "She did some really crazy dark ritual that let her survive even after her head was cut off - the title of the story, father? You know? It happened long before the story started - the whole decapitation thing - and she was just fine; she had these powerful, enchanted statues without heads, and even metallic constructs that she would just...she'd swap them out like a change of clothes, depending on the mood. She built them and stored them in her castle dungeons. Her whole thing was that she had her daughter - Fay - before she was decapitated, and since she still had her around, she realized she could raise Fay until she was of age, then cut off Fay's head and replace it with her own, getting herself a mature human body again. It was a ritual that would only work because of blood relation - being mother and daughter," she finished quietly. She thought to herself that it was really similar to her own past in this world.

"And this witch did all of that as a head?" Voldemort spoke, looking baffled. "Surely you know that's nonsense, Delphini."

"As nonsensical as the unbeatable wand of Death itself?" Daisy said evenly, meeting father's eye. "I thought fairy tales were true, father."

"I've found no ritual or spells even close to being able to do as you have just described - nothing that would allow one to survive as a mere head, let alone graft yourself onto inanimate objects, or other people's bodies. Blood relation or not."

"Funny, coming from the man who literally used to be a head grafted onto another person's body." Daisy said evenly.

Voldemort's wand twitched at his side. His eyes narrowed. "You are such a child. A child with an extraordinarily incorrect understanding of these kinds of magicks. I was not a head grafted to that fool Quirrell's body; I was merely occupying his body, which had the unintended side effect of my own physical form growing out of his as I increased in strength."

"So you were like a living tumor or something, okay. Not a head."

"Stop trying to understand it!" Voldemort hissed out. He paused, breathing. "At any rate, the story is ridiculous, and I'm certain it's just full of exaggerations to scare children. Even Dark Magic has its limits."

"Dark Magic grew you an entire body back, but you think it has a limit at keeping heads alive? Really, father?"

"You think you know the Dark Arts better than I?" Voldemort laughed at her. "Do not even play at it, child. You know nothing. It's more than evident by now!"

"And you don't know everything, father. We're here to learn what we don't know, aren't we? Maybe we'll find whatever ritual or spell she used in the castle. She has a library and a private study, you know. Or...that's how the story described the castle."

Voldemort took a long breath of frigid air. He twisted his face into a smile, clearly humoring her (and probably also restraining himself from torturing her for outright saying he didn't know everything to his face). "Of course. Let us proceed, then, and see what we learn here today."

He gave a sweeping wave of his wand, and suddenly the snow around them was swept up and sent outward in a spherical wave, washing down the mountain behind and to either side of them. As for the snow in front of them, it simply parted itself to avoid covering the castle's face, piling up to either side of it.

Daisy blinked at the area around them, now cleared. Frozen and rocky and bland - but totally visible now!

Voldemort gave glance to her - then to Bellatrix. "Come, both of you. Do not fall behind, and do nothing unless I tell you to."

Daisy caught mother's eye as father strode for the castle entrance, and she rolled them behind his back. It wasn't like they didn't already do that!

Mother glared at her in return, then made a very cutting gesture across her neck and turned her nose up at Daisy. She drew her wand and stalked away, hurrying after Voldemort.

Daisy hastily tried to catch up with her parents, glaring at mother's backside freely. Would it have killed her to have just - rolled her eyes back, or smiled, or stuck out her tongue? Something? This wasn't going to be any fun if mother didn't even try...

Daisy really found herself missing her mummy now; mummy had known how to have fun! In fact, that had sort of been a problem for a while, according to daddy...

A problem they'd started to really work on, a problem that they, as a family, had begun to change and...

And now they'd never get a chance to really fix it.

Even if Daisy ever got back home again, even if mummy accepted her back with open arms...

Daddy was still never going to be able to see it.

As they entered the front door, Daisy tried her best to collect herself. She began recounting the story as they moved into the castle's entry hall, and then on into the main hall. A place of torches and chandeliers, of splendor and fine dishes, knick-knacks, tattered and dusty tablecloths and furniture. There were exquisite paintings everywhere, moving and animated; they showed animals, magical creatures, other places - a field with two women laying in it, a small house where several young girls could be seen through the window - and...two very familiar figures in what looked like this very hall. There were several doors on either side of the hall, and a wide hallway each that led off into darkness. On left and right sides of the hall, on the far side, there was a fancy double staircase leading up to the second floor - to a wide oval of a balcony that overlooked the hall.

"Where do we go from here to find the library, or the study?" Voldemort asked.

Daisy looked around herself, concentrating hard on the story. "Um...I- I know that she - Fay, that is - ran from her bedroom which...should be upstairs...on the left. She went down the hall, she...went right, once, and there should be this painting of a dinner table with skeletons, and then there was this big statue of a beautiful manticore lady who had these big breasts and I always liked looking at that picture for some reason-"

"Relevant, Delphini!" Voldemort snapped. "Now."

Daisy nodded, looking at the floor. "I'm sorry! Well...just- that. Upstairs on the left, past a painting, and the statue - oh, the statue will chase you on its own; it was enchanted - and then you go toward the back of the castle and it opens up into this big section that's just...all library. Several floors. Huge bookcases, and these platforms you float around on. It's supposed to just be huge. That's...probably the quickest way, anyway."

"Those were some of the worst directions I've ever heard," Bellatrix muttered.

"At least I know where to go - generally, sometimes specifically, kind of..." Daisy trailed off, glowering at her mother. "What can you do to help here? You're useless!"

"Enough," Voldemort said simply, his lips quirking with amusement. "Delphi, simply...try to...do your best to guide us. I'm certain more will come back to you as we go, yes?"

"Yes," Daisy said firmly. "It will."

"Then we've nothing to fret about. Unless there is a human head attached to this chimera statue?" Voldemort added, with a hint of mocking.

"No - it's just enchanted on its own," Daisy maintained, meeting her father's gaze. She knew the story, and she was going to laugh to herself when father came face to face with the truth of it! She would have the last laugh! And she would savor every moment of it.

Voldemort gave a nod. "Well then, lead us on, Delphini."

Daisy spared a moment to stick her tongue out at her mother, then stalked over to the left-hand stairs leading to the upper floor.

---

Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on who you asked - they did not encounter any guardian chimera statues.

And Daisy only made them take a wrong turn once.

They rounded a corner and went down a long, straight corridor, and emerged onto the second floor of the library wing at the back of the castle.

The library wing was every bit as grand as pictured and described in the fairy tales.

The library indeed had the impossibly high, wide bookshelves throughout it - several stories tall! But there were also piles and mounds of books, parchment scrolls, and all manner of other tomes scattered about the place on the ground floor.

"I guess she's had a really long time to collect more," Daisy remarked. "If it's really based off a witch from six centuries ago..."

Voldemort made a thoughtful noise. His eyes took in the library, borderline impressed, for once. "Quite a store of knowledge - though I presume most of it will end up being worthless."

"Do you want to look for the whole immortal head information first?" Daisy addressed father casually. "That might take a while..."

Voldemort glanced at her. "We are mages, Delphini - it will not take but a moment." He raised his wand and gave it a generous wave, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

They stood waiting for a long minute. Then another. And another. And another...

There was a sudden banging noise, and a door flew open as a heavy, tattered tome came shooting into the library from across the room. It maneuvered between the shelves, past tables and platforms, right into Voldemort's waiting hands.

Voldemort gave Daisy a supremely smug look. "You see? Now, let us see if there truly is anything to this immortal head business of yours..." The moment he moved to open the book, the whole library shook, and all the doors flew open as a gust of hot air blew over them. He tapped the book with his wand, disappearing it, and turned to give his wand another sweeping gesture, his eyes flitting from door to door.

Daisy raised her own wand in just about the exact same moment as Bellatrix did as well.

"Delphini, since you know this castle's obstacles so well, check for them," Voldemort told her sharply.

"How?" Daisy questioned, her mind running through the just about every single spell she knew.

Voldemort hissed at her. Actually hissed. "Did I raise a witless fool for a daughter? The human presence revealing spell, if you would!"

Daisy nodded, focusing and raising her wand. But there was only ever going to be one human to worry about in this castle, and she didn't think that one could have snuck up on them without Voldemort himself knowing about it. But there was another variation of the spell that would detect the real threats: the enchanted statues and the like. So she cast that one instead: Specialis Revelio!

She felt her magic sweep down her body, flooding out of her feet - before it instantly came back up at her. She frowned, glancing down and shifting her feet. "That's weird. I must have messed up the spell. It's telling me there's something...right under our feet. Literally. Not a whole floor beneath us, just...right where we're-"

She shrieked as a long, sharp metal object shot up from the stone a foot in front of her. It rose up past her face, half way to the ceiling, impossibly long - and then more began bursting from the floor around them! Piercing, stabbing, aiming for them, all around them!

Voldemort flicked his wand, a shield forming around the three of them.

The long metal spikes went still around them, and then they lit up with purple flames. Shrouded in dark flames now, they suddenly caved inward, slamming against Voldemort's shield. The flames raced across the shield, bursting and popping like they were explosive - or perhaps unstable.

Voldemort had a look of irritation and disdain on his face. "What a crude assault. This is truly the best that this mythical castle can do?"

As if in response to him, the purple flames shot out in all directions, filling the entire library, turning their world into pure fire and nothing else. It was so quick it was almost like an explosion! There was nothing to see beyond the barrier, no books or shelves or anything! There was a popping noise at their feet; Daisy glanced down to see the stone itself was glowing purple.

"Father-" she began, grasping for his arm.

He whipped around, staring daggers at her. Then he looked down, too.

The floor beneath them exploded, smoking stone pieces flying up to pelt at them. As the floor crumbled underneath them, Voldemort was shrouded in smoke as he flew straight backwards, out of the trap, out of the barrier, through the purple flames that somehow just parted for him as he crossed out of the library and into a side corridor! He was out of reach now, Daisy and Bellatrix were left alone in the still-standing barrier. Left to fall down through the floor of the library, as the library itself began to collapse atop them in its entirety.

The bookshelves careening into each other, the platforms and tables all breaking apart to fall on their heads along with the stone floor that continued to break in an outward ripple. The walls came next, and then the ceiling too. All of it, right on top of them, in a world that shook violently and burned like hell!

It was all so fast that Daisy just- she didn't fly, herself, she couldn't even focus enough to raise her wand! Thankfully for them, mother was quick on the draw - almost as quick as Voldemort had been. Bellatrix raised her wand and formed a whole new, smaller, secondary shield around them that glowed yellow as they hit the floor beneath the library.

Huge chunks of stone fell down atop them, bouncing off of and settling onto mother's shield that still held, rippling and powerful...

Dust was cast up everywhere, obscuring all vision between the pieces of stone.

And then it was all quiet.

Quiet and still.

Daisy lay on the floor, her arms thrown over her head, her whole body shaking like mad. There was something heavy and hot pressed right against her body, atop her.

They were alive. Alive - but buried now! Could magic even move this much rubble? The entire wing of a castle, collapsed?

Could father even have-

Father...

Daisy began to laugh, somehow. High and mirthful.

"What is it you think is funny about this situation?" Bellatrix spoke, right in Daisy's ear.

"I told you father doesn't give a single toss of a fuck about us!" Daisy burst out, laughing harder now. "Did you see that?! He just left us to die, just like that!"

Bellatrix shifted atop her, and then she gave Daisy a hard smack in the face as best she could, given their positions. "As the most powerful, most skilled wizard in the world, I'm sure he was just saving himself first so that he could come and save us later! If he were to have been- trapped here with us-"

"You're an idiot," Daisy laughed on.

Bellatrix struck her in the side of the head again, but gave no actual response.

Daisy considered that a point won. "Can you get off me so we can get ourselves out of here, since we can't trust father to look out for us?"

Another hit - harder than the last. "Stop it!" Bellatrix hissed in her ear. "It's not as amusing as you think!"

"No, it's downright hilarious..."

A growl, now. And now that hand seized her ear itself, tugging on it. "Shut. Up! Or I'll make you be quiet!"

"He's not much of a father. Like you're not much of a mother. But at least you didn't run out on me, did you? You're still here."

That warm weight lifted from Daisy's backside - and then a harsh hand shoved her in the back, slamming her down against the floor. "ENOUGH!"

Daisy gasped as she lost the air in her lungs. She waited a beat before finally getting up and turning to face her mother. Here they were, just a mother and a daughter trapped under a million tons of rubble. Protected by a barrier that hardly gave them three feet between them! "What are you so scared about? It's just us down here. And I haven't lost my Occlumency skills."

Bellatrix glanced around, cringing where she sat, as if fearful that their father's face would pop up on the outside of the barrier, from between the gaps in the debris. "Stop talking, girl. I need to focus - I need you to focus on helping if we are to get out of here..."

"Right. Because we're trapped down here. Trapped under all this crap...probably going to die alive..."

"Don't tell me you're just giving up," Bellatrix said, a strange look on her face. She glanced around again, then she scooted forward and reached out to grasp at Daisy's arm. "One little tumble and a bit of rubble and you're resigned to death? I'd thought you were stronger than that - certainly more strong willed. Is this how you're going to be in your first real, dangerous situation? Seriously?"

Daisy looked down into her lap, clutching her wand in a shaking hand. She shook a trembling head. She shrugged. She honestly agreed with her mother; where was her confidence? Where was her anger? Where was her determination? Where was it all? Why was she just...? What was wrong with her? She had been trained all her life for situations like this! The best magic, the darkest skills, the greatest powers - and now she was on a real adventure of peril and she was falling apart?! She had frozen, she hadn't done a thing when her father had acted, when even mother had acted!

She had done nothing of real use.

God, daddy had always made it all sound exciting! The fairy tales always sounded so exhilarating! Dodging dragons and giant sea creatures and- and-

This wasn't exciting, or fun! It was just...

"Hey!" Mother squeezed at her arm. She slid her hand down, and then she grasped Daisy's. Her other hand found Daisy's chin, forcing it up. Daisy stared into a face of softness, of worry and compassion. A face that did not at all look like a woman who... "Listen to me, Delphi: I can't be the only one doing anything here! Because if you're not doing a thing, then you're just dead weight! Do you understand? So either be useful, or be nothing! I- I know just how much you can do. I know how powerful you are - far more than I was at your age! You're my daughter, and I need you to act like it! Otherwise, we'll both be lost down here."

Daisy nodded, and she stood on shaky legs. Mother rose with her, and let go of her hand, all that emotion fleeing her face.

"We can move this," mother spoke clearly, looking around and raising her wand. "We only need to move enough to form a path out - not the whole lot of it. You understand?"

Daisy nodded again. "Yes..."

"Help me with the shield. We're going to expand it, and reshape it until we find a path forward. We fell beneath the library - in that story of yours, what's right underneath the library?" mother continued, almost encouraging.

Daisy thought a moment. "I- I don't know? Just some more corridors. I think...dungeon cells? A bunch of doors lining them. The open space was used for forming separate prison cells...? Aileen- Fay wasn't the only person she kept around. Sometimes people wandered up the mountain, when the dragon was asleep, and they'd try to explore her castle. So she...she imprisoned them with her daughter. Used them for dark experiments, mostly..."

Mother nodded seriously (and did not mock her for being so long-winded). "Then that's to be our way out. Now, prepare yourself. We'll do this slowly, and we'll see if we can't find anything...that way. If we are in a corridor, then we should be able to come to open space at some point."

"Okay. I'm ready."

"You'd better be," mother murmured, stepping toward the edge of the shield and aiming her wand forth.

For the next several minutes, they worked in silence. The barrier grew outward at a single point, and then it expanded left and right, shifting the debris even more. A protective tunnel was formed, slowly. But all they were greeted with at the end of their line of sight was another wall. So they let it all go, and started again in a new direction.

This new direction yielded promising results: more and more empty space, straight on. As the debris was forced aside and pushed up toward the ceiling, it seemed apparent that they were going in the right direction - down a wide corridor! When they reached a wall again, it was after twenty feet of open space. The debris that fell off the right side of the barrier did not get pushed off against another wall - but into more open space!

A turning point! Literally.

Mother and daughter held their wands overhead as they walked down their newly formed tunnel of magic. All the way to that far wall, and to the curve that was so promising. They pulled the barrier back in behind them, and focused on this new path. They were rewarded almost immediately with a wide open corridor, fallen debris scattered about at knee height for only a few feet on ahead.

Mother flicked her wand to open the barrier in front of them, splitting it open to allow them to step out. They climbed over the debris and stepped down onto flat, wonderful stone flooring again. Free and safe.

Daisy grinned, and she threw herself at her mother and hugged her! They had done it! They hadn't died! Daisy swore that her mother waited a good three seconds, at least, before she finally shook her off, telling her they needed to stay focused lest they get stuck in another trap again. She also could have sworn she saw something like pride and delight on mother's face as the woman had gazed on her.

Or maybe Daisy was just seeing whatever the hell she wanted to see?

The pair of witches strode down the corridor, coming to a "T" intersection. A choice to be made. Mother questioned her about the story again; Daisy just shrugged and picked the left hand corridor. Mother wasn't too impressed about that, but Daisy ignored her predicted barb about it.

After a brief walk, there was another turn - right.

"Is this the right way?" Mother spoke as they rounded the corner. "Or do you honestly have no idea where the hell we're going?"

"I think this will get us back to the-" Daisy began, only to strangle herself into silence at the sight before her.

Mother looked on down the corridor, and she paled considerably. "What on earth...is that thing?"

What it was, was a monster that just about made Daisy faint - or scream again. A monster she recognized immediately from the storybook pictures.

Why did this have to be exactly the same as the story?! she thought, horrified. Why did I have to be right?!

She turned away from the monster, looking back down the corridor in hopes of escaping-

And in that instant, the monster moved.

A shining arm glistening from torchlight flashed out, and a long, dark wand was visible before a dark green light burst. An energy bolt flew down the corridor, almost too fast to track!

Mother raised her own wand, forming a barrier before them both, as wide and high as the corridor itself - but the enemy's spell still hit true. It passed through the barrier, flying lower and lower, until it hit Daisy right in the leg.

Daisy fell back with a shriek, collapsing as her pants leg evaporated - as her skin began to melt and flake off, as if it were being eaten away at by some rapid disease or...

She felt her insides twisting, tightening, her body convulsing on its own, in weird ways...

Her leg was turning black and gross, her veins were standing out and looked incredibly purple...

There was a smell, and a weird noise, a buzzing in her head...

A scream, again, but- it wasn't her...?

A bright emerald light flashed - repeatedly. In every flash, a long, powerful metallic limb would flash, an arm would move, a furious face would glower down the corridor at them. And then the monster turned tail and ran, disappearing down a side corridor.

A dark, blurry shape appeared over Daisy, dropping down beside her. A warm hand touched her shoulder, squeezing at her. Shaking her. Little lights began to flare and glow over Daisy's body - blue, green, yellow - and then there was a sharp curse. Utter profanity.

"Delphi, get up, it's- it's not that bad- stand...s-stand up!" That hand grasped her firmly, then pulled her off her feet. Another arm moved around Daisy, and then she was just...she wasn't on cold, hard stone floor anymore. She was floating, she was in warmth, she could smell a new... "Why do you have to keep making things so difficult, girl...?" came breathy, soft tones. "Are you even- Delphi...? Look at me, talk to me - say something insipid! Traitorous! Anything..."

Daisy tried to think. She was being carried? Mother had her? Her mother was taking her away from the monster? Back...back to...She wanted to go back... "M-mummy..."

"What? Oh, you little baby...I'm not going to- baby you - no matter how hard you try to force me to!"

The whole world suddenly rocked, and Daisy felt her dangling limbs strike cold floor again - but not the rest of her body. There was a hard gasp from her mummy...a pained noise...and those arms embracing her tightened considerably.

"You witches come into my home, you throw curses at me, you insult me, you-!" a mad, echoing female voice swirled around Daisy, as clicking and clattering noises bounced around the corridor...

"Let's add a little injury to the insult!" mother said scathingly, whipping around and taking Daisy with her.

Daisy blinked, vaguely seeing the dark, spindly shape before her filling the corridor, and seeing her mother's wand pointed out at it as she clutched Daisy to her chest...

Mother yelled something out, and a great torrent of fire burst from her wand. The fire was burning bright as the sun, the heat blasting off it immediately, warming up the corridor. The flames twisted and took shape - a giant bird, several serpents with great big fangs, and a dragon that spread its wings and lunged with gaping jaws as hissing and shrieking filled the air.

Fiendfyre... Daisy vaguely noted.

The flames were all she could see, they were all her world was - and then the world began to break apart around her as her mother's voice cursed, and her grip on her became firmer than ever. The walls crumbled and the ceiling shattered again, and mum threw up her wand arm and whirled away. As the corridor collapsed on them a second time, something big and heavy struck Daisy right in the head, and she went completely limp in her mother's arms.

Daisy's world was a haze around her for a long time, until a blue light flashed repeatedly, and she found herself clawing back to the surface of awareness.

"...Delphi! You worrisome, exhausting little baby!" mother's voice was high and choked, her face swimming before Daisy's eyes. "Are you alright, are you- I thought I'd killed you, I shouldn't have used that spell like that...What was I doing? What was I thinking?! Delphi - can you talk? Can you- say more idiotic things to me!"

Daisy squirmed where she lay on the floor, staring up at her mother. "Um...you smell really nice and I like it when you hug me..."

Mother gave a shaky laugh, shaking her head. "There we are...you complete baby..." She stared down at Daisy, and it was only when something soft moved against Daisy's head that she realized she was actually...laying in her mother's lap. "M-my baby..."

Daisy smiled up at mother, raising an uncoordinated hand to feel for hers. Mother snatched it up immediately, grasping it firm. And looking...rather bemused, really - though, at herself, or at Daisy, it wasn't too clear. Daisy's head lolled to one side, and she took in the sight of a newly collapsed corridor; a high hill of debris completely blocking it off.

They could still go back to the "T" corridor, and take the other way. The only open way left. That could maybe...maybe...

"I never would have let you become potions ingredients," Mother spoke quietly, almost- gently. "Y-years ago...for my sister - Cissy, not Andromeda, don't say it, you little brat! I'm not in the mood! - I went with her behind the Dark Lord's back to protect her son. My nephew. She threatened to hurt me, she said that there was nothing she would not do for her family. I didn't fully believe...I didn't understand...but I knew family, and for her, I was willing to go along with it. And we did it. And that was for- my nephew. I think, for my daughter...I would have gone behind his back for you, as well. It is...the only thing, I suppose, I will ever be grateful to the Order for - that they took you from that fate, stole you away...allowed you to live..."

Daisy stared up at her mother, blinking again. Was she hallucinating? It was a nice one, if it was...

"But I could have done it myself! I would have!" Mother went on forcefully, glaring down at Daisy as if she had voiced opposition to the idea. "I would have- found a way. Anyway, what I am trying to say, girl, is that I...I am glad that you lived. You are so- lively and I- as annoying as you can be with it all, there is a certain charm to it. I'd never thought about having children before - but now that I have one, it...it is not...all that bad," she finished quietly.

"Is that...closest you can get to...giving me a real I love you...?" Daisy scoffed.

Mother's grip on her hand tightened. She scowled. Then she let her hand go, and she bent low as she touched her face. Caressed her cheek, same as Daisy had done before. "My mother hardly did anything like this for me, but if you want it so badly...I love you, Delphi."

"Not enough..."

"Ungrateful whelp," mother muttered back instantly.

"I want you to...love me for being Daisy...Love me...as Daisy..."

Mother made a face at her. "I'm not using that obnoxious little flowery name that Potter gave you. Ever!"

"Please...just o-once...I might be d-dying here...I might die...just- I need to hear my mum say it...Call me who I am..."

"You're not going to die! Don't be dramatic!"

"How do you know that? If I am, I want to hear it out of you...please..."

Mother growled, then glanced up and down the broken corridor. The blocked off section, and the other way. She leaned in so low her hair spilled over Daisy, and her bosom touched to her body. She put her lips to her ringing ear - paused, drew a breath. Gave a snort, right there. Then- "Daisy. There - only because you might die on me today! Don't you dare ask me to say it again!"

"You have to say it right...say it fully...say...I love you, Daisy..."

"Greedy little shite..." Mother muttered furiously. "Alright: I love you, Daisy. There? Happy? Can you die without regrets, girl?"

"Yes." Daisy giggled, then about screamed again as her leg spasmed in agony. "Thank you, mum...so much...I- I want to love you too, I just wish you weren't...so difficult. And, you know, evil and bigoted and...a psychotic terrorist...who's killed the families of a lot of people I used to know and care about... That kind of makes it hard to love you..."

"Oh, for god's sake - just because you're dying doesn't mean you can go off on me!" Mother rolled her eyes. "I won't tolerate it any more than I would if you were in a proper, healthy state..."

"When I take you back to Andy, we're going to work on you...get you all- rehabilitated...I'll make you see, mum, I'll make you realize it all...and I'll make you admit I was right..." Daisy went on, aimless.

"I told you, I'm not going to just be able to walk up to Andy for a chat," Mother said firmly. "That will never happen. It can never happen. She won't change from her side, and I won't change from mine. That's simply how it is. You're just being- delusional- you literally hit your head!"

"Would you go over if Cissy did?" Daisy asked, dazed.

"She wouldn't."

"For her son, she would. She went behind his back - and so did you - for family. She'd change sides completely...for family...too. I know she would. So do you - you just can't admit it. Because it scares you. Andy left, and if Cissy leaves too, you'll just be-"

"Enough talking!" mother said harshly. "Try to- save your strength. We need to focus on finding a way out of here."

"Mum...you can't just shut me down when you hear things you don't like. Father does that too...it's fucking annoying..."

"Yes I can; I'm your mother. That's my right. Now be quiet."

"Your mother must've been a huge cunt. She passed her cuntishness down to you..."

"My mother was not-" Mother stopped. A small, strangled chortle. Then- "All right, yes, she was a bit of a cunt."

"Knew it..."

"Cuntish mothers aside, let's focus on what's in front of us."

"I'm in front of you..."

"I obviously meant metaphorical fronts of us, not cuntish daughters."

"Hey...I am not a cunt..."

"Yes you are. An obnoxious, immature, rebellious little cunt. I can't stand it. But I can't get enough of it..." she muttered out.

"That's like...the second sweetest thing you've said to me today, mum..."

"Stop calling me mum. It won't win you any points."

"I'm not trying to win points...I'm-"

"What?"

Daisy grasped for that arm again, for the hand, and she looked into her mother's eyes. She blinked her own, shimmering. "I'm scared."

Mother looked distressed. Troubled. Uncertain. She flushed, she stammered something incoherent. She glanced away. "Don't be a baby again, you- you aren't going to die here. We'll get you out - safe - and find your father, and...I'm sure whatever spell you were hit with has a counter-curse. Or that some general means will work on it. Just...stop talking. I mean it: close your eyes and be quiet."

"God, you suck arse at comforting people..."

"If you're going to be like that, then I'm done trying! Look what it gets me!"

"N-no, mum, I'm s-sorry...sorry...please don't leave me..."

"I'm not- I'm not leaving you," mother stammered, gentle. "You're coming with me - the Dark Lord would murder me on the spot if I came back to him without you. The moment the words, 'I left her' left my lips, I'd be dead," she went on swiftly.

"So you don't really care...it's just...self preservation..."

"Don't be that way - did I not just tell you earlier that I care about you? That I love you?"

"I guess...in your own way...you did," Daisy admitted, smiling again.

Mother rolled her eyes again. "We need to get moving." She scooped Daisy up in her arms, rising with her again.

"Wait..." Daisy spoke up again, the sluggish thought entering her head.

"What is it now?"

"You know he'd kill you...?" Daisy asked, as mother began a careful walk back down the corridor.

"I'm devoted, not stupid," mother muttered under her breath. "The Dark Lord could kill us all in a fit of rage any day of the week."

"Huh...maybe you still have a bit of rebel in you after all. It's just a lot more subtle than it used to be..."

"Didn't I just finish explaining that? Or were you dozing off?!"

"Sorry...I hit my head, remember?"

Mother sighed, and reaffirmed her grip on Daisy, holding her just a little closer. "You did," she agreed softly.

---

Voldemort strode out of the corridor, back into the main area of the castle, his wand held aloft.

There was a great deal of magic running through this castle now - up and down the corridors, through the very walls themselves. It could have rivaled Hogwarts, he thought. And every inch of this magic was exuding danger and warning.

The best place to fight against it all...would be here. In this open space, full of objects useful for transfiguring or calling to himself to be used as shields for annoyingly unlucky spell trajectories.

Scraping and creaking sounds came from a cracked open door to his left, and Voldemort immediately aimed his wand at the door.

The banging, clinking sounds grew louder, shrill and shrieking of metal on stone...

And then the enemy burst out of a narrow stairwell into the main hall, fully visible under light of the chandeliers and torches scattered about.

Hm. So it is as Delphi said...how interesting.

"Aileen, I presume?" Voldemort spoke, clear and ringing, as he examined the witch in full.

She was, apparently, going for the appearance of an Arachne - one whose lower body was that of an arachnid's (obviously), while the upper was humanoid: Six metallic limbs, ending in sharp blades that stabbed into the stone on every step; a large, sweeping abdomen; a bare female's torso; and slender arms, the hands of which had sharp metal claws for fingers. Indeed, her entire grotesque body was metal, heavy, and heavily enchanted. Even her humanoid upper "body" was purely metallic. The only part of her that was truly flesh and blood...was the head that sat upon steely neck. Ribbons of steel crept up the side of the skull, curving and piercing into it. Securing it in place.

"Who are you to invade my home?" the witch said with contempt.

"I am the Dark Lord Voldemort, and I presently rule over the country of Britain - magic and muggle alike," Voldemort informed her coolly.

Aileen scrutinized him further. A clawed limb was waved. "Are you? Now that is a new one! So many people have come here over the centuries, seeking my knowledge, my treasures...I've had claims of adventurers, entrepreneurs, archaeologists and even curse-breakers! But Dark Lord? A whole country's ruler? What could you have heard I have that was worth making the journey personally?"

Voldemort cocked his head, raising his wand in gesture to her. "What do you have to give? Lord Voldemort will discover it soon enough..."

"Of all the self-important titles I've had spat out at me as an excuse not to tear them apart!" Aileen laughed, loud and echoing in the hall. "Along comes a Dark, befuddled wizard who considers himself a Lord! You're Lord of nothing, ruler of nothing and no one - leave me be, you don't impress me! And it won't stave off your death! I'll see you ripped to shreds and fed to my pet."

"Your Frost Dragon, yes - so I've heard," Voldemort responded coldly. Her laughter and dismissal were simply...he was becoming quite incensed. But, no, he told himself, this was nothing but a pathetic, aging creature in isolation - a witch clinging feebly to life in the only twisted way she could. She was nothing to get angry over - nothing to be worked up about at all. This Aileen was a wretched entity beyond even pity, if he could have ever been said to have it. It was likely she was quite mad, as well. "If you seek to call the beast here, by all means: do so. It will only end in my taking its life - and then yours."

"Well, if you're so eager to invite death to your doorstep..." Aileen gave a great sneer, and a long metal claw was raised to brush aside strands of strawberry blonde hair - and then to tap against a crystal earring she wore. The blue crystal flashed, and glowed brightly.

"On the contrary - I am the bringer of death that has...arrived at your doorstep. I am the conqueror of death."

"How pompous and preening of you," Aileen taunted, crossing her arms over the unyielding metal sculpt of curves that she called a bosom. "You'll be a fun one to break - to hear you start to beg and scream for me!"

Voldemort scoffed, and he thrust his wand out at her, casting a silent Killing Curse.

She moved with an unexpected speed - though, perhaps it should have been rather expected, given how much magic he was detecting from her body; it was just oozing off of her in waves - scuttling aside and snatching up a large painting off the wall, which she hurled forward to intercept the curse. The painting exploded in flames. Aileen went crawling backwards up the wall, to attach herself to the ceiling. Her hair hung overhead as she stretched out a limb toward him.

The claws of her hand suddenly lengthened tenfold, piercing down for him.

Voldemort slashed his wand, forming a shield to block them, and then aiming to sever them with an extremely powerful, burning curse.

He was pleased to see he got results: four of the five lengthy metal claws were burned through, and clattered to the floor.

Though, the witch seemed unaffected - unhindered. Of course, a body of non-biological material would not be weighed down by things such as pain.

The only sliver of a thing resembling appreciation that Voldemort would give her in her favor.

Aileen detached herself from the ceiling, dropping straight down for Voldemort, her own wand waving as she fell.

Dozens of plates and knick-knacks flew toward Voldemort, vibrating and glowing a bright orange.

Voldemort swiped his wand, causing his shield to burst outward and intercept the dishes and keepsakes; on contact with his shield, they shuddered and burst, splashing out orange liquid all over their surroundings. This liquid immediately began to bubble and smoke, burning right through the floor and the walls - anything it touched.

The witch's monstrous form slammed down onto Voldemort's shield, and those arachnid limbs of hers glowed green on their tips. They stabbed at his shield, and to his surprise, they pierced it.

Voldemort dropped his shield and glided straight backwards, escaping from beneath the metal monster and getting out of reach of those limbs of hers.

He soared back across the hall, flying into the entry hall - and on through it, out of the castle completely. Into the cold environment of the side of the high mountain.

A great and powerful roar sounded all around him, echoing, and then a powerful gust of wind caused the snow to kick up. A big, blue-scaled dragon came flying around the side of the mountain, its sharp, slitted eyes locked onto Voldemort.

He grimaced to himself alone, and brought his wand to bear.

A dragon, while not an insurmountable challenge, was still a challenge.

One he did not need in addition to the twisted metal witch that had just burst out the front doors of her own castle to continue their duel.

And there was still the matter of his daughter. She needed to be found, and she needed to be kept safe.

And Bella, too, he supposed.

---

"You know that Cup of Hufflepuff's that he gave you? Did he tell you what it really was?"

Bellatrix stopped in the middle of the hallway, right at the foot of some stone stairs that would finally lead them up out of this dungeon - hopefully, anyway. "I told you never to mention it again!" Bellatrix hissed. "And if you're going to try convincing me he doesn't trust or care about me again-"

"But he doesn't - because I know what it really is, and you don't!" Daisy hissed back coldly. She had regained a lot of her clarity now, and she was not going to waste this opportunity to be alone with her mother. To try with her, completely away from father's ears and eyes.

"Oh, you know what it is, do you? Enlighten me, then!"

"It's a Horcrux!" Daisy shouted, with no small amount of satisfaction.

Bellatrix's face changed. Her eyes widened. "What...?"

"You heard me," Daisy said coolly. "It's a Horcrux, and so was the Diary he gave to Lucius."

"How could you possibly know any of this...? You're eleven!"

"Because he wants me to make one of my own soon, and he's not as complicated or clever as he thinks," Daisy whispered.

Mother gave a sharp intake of breath, paling worse than she had at first sight of the monster of a witch from fairy tale.

Daisy gazed at her mother, at that look of mingled horror and alarm. "And I- I don't want that, mother," she continued, pleading now. "I don't want to kill someone again, I don't want to tear my soul apart, I don't want to..."

"When does he expect you to do this...?" Her mother breathed.

"Within the year - a couple months, I think," Daisy replied. "Please, mother, I need you to help me!"

"Help you how?"

"Talk to him, convince him not to make me do this! Please...If you love me at all, like a real mum would...just try for me, just for once..."

"I- I will ask," her mother's voice came, choked and quiet. "But whatever his final- decision is- is how it will be. And I will do as much as I can not to implicate myself in all of this!"

Daisy supposed that was the best she could hope for. "Thank you!"

Her mother hesitated, then she put a hand on Daisy's head and just held her close. Like a real mother would. Like a real parent would. "Well, I'm glad to see just how much you appreciate this - I'm risking my own health and sanity as well..." she said uncomfortably, stroking at Daisy's hair.

Oh my god, is that more self awareness? Maybe I can really do this! Maybe I can really...

A great, powerful roar shook the castle's dusty interior.

"The dragon," Daisy breathed.

Bellatrix gave a grim nod. "We need to find the Dark Lord! He might need our help!"

"Maybe," Daisy agreed, as Bellatrix began to hastily ascend the stairs. "He's really kind of an arrogant idiot, thinking he's all invincible when he's not."

"Cut that out," Bellatrix huffed, jostling Daisy very deliberately in her arms. "Stop denigrating our Lord! He won't appreciate it. And neither do I!"

"Only if you stop trying to suck his prick off every second of the day."

"I do not, you vulgar-!"

"Liar."

"Little shit!"

Daisy resisted the urge to just ram her elbow into her mother's stomach; it wouldn't have helped either of them at the moment. Bellatrix waved her wand at top of the stairs, and a heavy metal door flew open. They emerged into the main hall of the castle at last. It was a mess of strewn about items and furniture, and parts of the floor and wall looked as if someone had splashed acid all over it.

Bright blue light flickered from the doorway to the entry hall, which was followed by a high shriek and a scream. Bellatrix immediately raced toward it. Through the little area, out the front door! Into cold, wide open space again.

Daisy twisted in her mother's arms to take in the full magnitude of the sight before her.

Right at the edge of the mountain, there was a dragon. A dragon splayed out on its side, its underbelly melted apart and exposed. An entire foreleg missing. Half a wing. Its neck was charred and black, the scales missing. Several teeth were gone from its muzzle, and an eye was just...a bloody mess. Missing.

Underneath the dragon's shoulder, near the broken wing, was her.

Aileen.

She had only one arachnid leg left, no arms at all - only melted stumps - and her long blonde hair was in tatters. Her face had a large burn on the left side of it, an eye squinting shut. Her breaths came in shallow rasps, desperate and choked.

Voldemort stood before her - before the dragon - his wand at his side. There was look on his face of absolute pleasure - and satisfaction. Sheer, cruel delight. He gave his wand a deliberate flick, and Aileen screamed as a long gash tore its way across the right side of her face - splitting her ear in two.

Daisy turned her head aside; she swore she caught a glimpse of mother wincing above her.

Aileen's eye found the pair of them, and her lips twisted.

Voldemort turned to them, and he gave a wide smirk. "Ah, I see you managed to free yourselves. Excellent work - I'm very pleased, Delphini. You're just in time for the fun."

Daisy stared past her father, meeting Aileen's gaze. Something in her twisted and squirmed.

Voldemort aimed his wand again; Aileen shrieked as another gash appeared on her face, tearing open her cheek.

"F-father-" Daisy spoke up, voice shaking on cold air. Her chest tighter than ever. "Can you just kill her already?" she said flippantly as she could.

Voldemort gave her a sharp look. "This will end when I decide it ends." He turned back to Aileen, and struck her again - this time, with a burning curse that shrouded her neck, causing her head to thrash. "There is not much to do with a mere head, but I think I have managed to make do."

Daisy breathed in, and out again. In and out. In...and out...

Her hand clutched at her wand, fingers curling...arm hanging...

"Father!" Daisy said loudly. "Just-"

"Silence!" Voldemort snapped. "Or you will be punished for it severely."

Daisy gripped her wand tighter as father returned his focus to Aileen. This was wrong, she knew it was wrong - even an evil monster like her didn't deserve this. She was weak, helpless, torn apart, limb from limb, she was just...

Daisy began to raise her wand-

"Delphi - don't," came mother's faint, breathy whisper, barely audible even to Daisy.

If mother had called her Daisy, she might have listened.

Daisy whipped her wand up, focusing her mind on a single, simple spell: DEPULSO!

Sometimes the simplest spells were the most effective.

Blue light burst from her wand, blinding as the mountainside lit up. Voldemort turned back toward her in shock, his own wand raising instinctively to defend against an attack - but Daisy had not aimed for him. Her spell flew past father and struck Aileen; the woman was blown right out from under the dragon's body, and sent careening over the side of the mountain.

Voldemort glanced back at where Aileen once had been, and then back to Daisy. He looked absolutely furious. He brandished his wand at her, and she tumbled right out of her mother's arms as she screamed under his Cruciatus Curse.

She thrashed on the ground, her rotting, cursed leg twisting and bursting with pain as the torture curse added to the pain tenfold-

Daisy threw her head aside and shrieked, and for a heartbeat she was able to look into her mother's face, into her eyes...

Mother glanced away, and then up at Voldemort. "M-My Lord! She's already hurting, she needs healing, she-"

Voldemort ceased his spell, staring at Bellatrix in astonishment. Much the same as he had done to Daisy a moment ago. "She deserves this punishment, Bella - stay out of it, or face my wrath yourself!" He aimed his wand at Daisy again, and resumed it.

Mother retreated a step, turning her head aside, her hands joining tightly together before herself. And she said nothing more - did nothing more.

For over five, long minutes of eternity.

---

Several days after the return from Aileen's castle, Bellatrix Lestrange woke up late at night to something unexpected.

It was a small, warm figure beside her in her bed.

Her daughter, of course.

Delphi.

Or, Daisy, as she so obviously still thought of herself as...

Bellatrix debated whether or not to wake the girl and kick her right out of her bed - again. This obnoxious, rude little intruder!

A tremor ran through the girl's body, a gasp from her lips in her sleep. Bellatrix sighed, and she curled an arm around the girl and held her closer. In the dark, alone, she felt she could do that without much mortification - or supreme awkwardness!

In the dark, alone, Bellatrix thought about all the things her daughter had told her - in confidence and in secret - while they had been alone and lost in that castle.

Horcruxes.

Her Master had given her his own soul to keep safe for him - but, on the other hand...her daughter was right that he hadn't told her what it really was all this time, and furthermore, he wanted Delphi to...

Her own daughter to...

A bubble of shame rose in her as she glanced down at the girl's form. Shame, at herself, for doing nothing on that mountainside. For standing there and watching, just as her daughter had accused her of before...

But what could she have done?! She had done enough, she had tried, she had risked her neck for her! She had spoken up! She had...

She had tried!

Well- perhaps- not...exactly hard enough? On that front, at least.

On the matter of Horcruxes...

Bellatrix Lestrange slipped out of her bed, doing her utmost not to wake the girl. She strode for the door, stepping out into the hall, and summoned up every ounce of skill in Occlumency she possessed - which was considerable!

Only because I love you, she told the girl silently, and stalked off down the hall. She navigated the manor until she came to the study door. She knew her Lord would be here this late - he often was.

"Enter," came the high voice of her Lord and Master, confirming her suspicions. And her fears.

The voice of the man who seriously intended to- to have her daughter...commit...do to her own...

She swallowed, and opened the door to step through.

His face showed surprise, and then he gave her his full attention. Waiting.

Bellatrix bowed to him, kneeling in the center of the room. She kept her head down, as ever. "My Lord...I- something has just- a matter has come to my attention, and I feel as if I should...I have a request, if you would."

"A request? Color me intrigued, Bella. Speak it."

"O-our daughter...has recently informed me that...she is to create a- a Horcrux?"

A dreadful silence filled the room. The air itself crackled. "Did she?" came the hissing, soft tone.

"Y-yes, she did, I- I am her mother, I suppose she must have felt the need to confide in me for whatever- insipid, immature reasoning she must have," Bellatrix rambled on swiftly. "I- My Lord- must she go through with this? Is she not...quite young, to- to- tear apart her own soul? Isn't she...quite unprepared for such a- strenuous trial?"

"She is my daughter; she will not fail in this," Voldemort replied simply.

"But, My Lord-"

"Bella-"

"My Lord!" Bellatrix raised her head, meeting his gaze in an instant. Those scarlet eyes narrowed; his nostrils flared. His lip curled at her. His wand hand twitched, and began to move... "Please, I won't see her damage herself like this, in the worst possible-!"

"You won't see her damage herself? You won't?" Voldemort slashed his wand through the air. "Crucio! Who are you to say what she will or will not do?! Who are you to decide anything about her life?!" He screeched over her screams of agony.

Bellatrix writhed and yelled (she was never able to keep quiet - no one was). She was left a mess, heaving every breath as her muscles twitched and spasmed under her flesh. She closed her eyes as they watered, her lips trembling. For that damn girl, she had to try; it would be no different from the usual punishments he gave her. The only difference would be in the reason behind it. But the pain was going to be the same - it was always the same...

"So you were a proud rebel, once, mother? I wonder what happened to that girl..."

Why on earth was her daughter's words coming back to her now? Why was she remembering that damn talk on the train platform...now?

Why was she even...?

"I...am her mother, My Lord," she whispered, not knowing where she even found the will to speak the words.

The expected, fresh agony did not come to assault her body again.

"Yes...you are her mother," Voldemort said thoughtfully. "And what kind of mother are you, Bella?"

"M-My Lord...?"

"Do you know what a Horcrux is? Do you know what it is for? What it means?"

"Y-yes..."

"No, you clearly do not, if this was your reaction to the news," Voldemort went on, quiet and low. "It means that your child will never die before her mother does. You will never need to watch her die. No matter what anyone in this world does to your child, she will live - she will survive it all. You should be overjoyed, not stricken by fears or worries! Why, you will never have to worry for her! Can you not see it, Bella? Can you not understand this? I realize your initial reaction to the news has good reason behind it - it is indeed quite a thing, to tear a piece off one's soul - but I...will be helping her to mitigate the damages, ensure she is as healthy and mentally sound as can be! I will be making sure...that- our daughter will benefit more in the long term than in the short term. In other words, Bella, the damage to her soul from the act itself is outweighed a thousand fold by the long, happy life she will live on to have after."

Bellatrix screwed her eyes up tight, gasping another breath. That was sensible enough - it was all...it did make sense. Wasn't it wonderful, shouldn't she be happy for her daughter...? Shouldn't she be...overjoyed? That she would live forever? That nothing the Order or anyone else could do would ever kill her? She had been so foolish to come in here like this, to- "I apologize, My Lord! I l-let my- my fears get the better of me! I should not have- I never meant to question- disrespect-"

"Of course not. I forgive you, Bella - you may rise. Come now, stand..."

Bellatrix pushed herself up and stood, meeting the eyes of her Master. "T-thank you, Master, thank you...it was a terrible mistake of mine, I-"

"Quite - but it was also a mere misunderstanding. One I'm certain we will not have again, yes?"

"Of course we won't, My Lord! I will never- I would not have-"

"I believe you, Bella. You may go. Return to our daughter - and be sure to impress upon her the importance of keeping her Horcrux a complete secret. While you may be trusted with the knowledge, there is no one else who is to ever learn of it. Lest they seek to destroy it, and harm her forever."

Bellatrix bowed to her Lord, and she left the room quickly.