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?

9. The Consequences Of My Actions

Author's Note: Another big chapter coming at you! Not sure how, but this is how it ended up! So here we go. xD Hope people enjoy! :D Did a hell of a lot here, and I'm damn proud of it all! :D Some game-changing shit goes down here, and a whole lot of surprises I hope...

And yeah, I'm posting it way early! That's because I'm going to TRY going to a twice a week schedule for updates instead of just once on weekends! I've been finding lately that my chapters are always done way before the weekend, so I figured why not take advantage of that? Get you guys more content for a while! Till that well dries up, anyway. xD

End of AN!

---

It was as relieving as it was maddening when Voldemort did as he always did, and just randomly decided one day that he was done ignoring Daisy's entire existence - and was back to indulging it. Acting like that torture hadn't happened, like none of her pain or any of it had even existed. Like they were still on any kind of good terms again.

Daisy couldn't figure out whether or not he was still holding it against her, or if he had truly let it go, convincing himself it was just a child acting up or some such thought to soothe his own ego - reassure himself of his own doubts and fears.

Either way...

---

After returning from Aileen's castle, and after two straight hours of pure suffering, alone and in bed, Daisy's father came to her at last.

He glided into her room without a care - without so much as a knock or a word spoken. He stood over her at her bedside, gazing down on her with his wand in hand. He turned it over in his palm, his hands at his waist.

Even then, he waited several long, torturous minutes before he began speaking to her.

"Do you wish to know why I felt the need to punish you out there?" he said simply.

"Because I did something you didn't like," Daisy replied flatly.

Voldemort's mouth twisted. His eyes narrowed. "No. It was because, pitiful and worthless though that creature was, she was mine to finish, not yours. You stole Lord Voldemort's kill, you stole his glory from him - robbed him of his moment! And denied him the victory he was so savoring!"

Of course I did. Of course that's what this is about to you. Sometimes Daisy still marveled at how her father's mind worked - at just how batshit insane it was. She loved a good victory, herself - a good gloating, but this...? This was way too over the line! It was all wrong, all nuts. Then again, how was that a surprise? Everything about the past damn near six years now was wrong. Every single day was just full of wrongness.

"Sorry, father..." she uttered, toneless.

"I trust that you are," Voldemort said softly. "And that you'll not try doing such an outrageously disrespectful thing again."

Well, he had one thing right: Daisy sure wasn't going to try doing anything like that again if she could help it.

Had it even been worth it? For Aileen? For that monster from fairy tales? For a witch proven to have kept her own daughter captive, raised her to be a tool, to be a body for herself to latch onto later? A witch who had gotten Fay Dred eaten and killed by her own pet dragon, just for trying to escape her wretched mother's castle?

An insane, weak, pitiful creature of a former human being...?

Sure, Daisy knew her daddy would have said it was worth it - that he would have looked at her so wonderfully, smiled at her in that way that made her feel so warm inside, and he would have told her that he was so goddamn proud of her, that he loved her for attempting to give a merciful reprieve even to a woman like Aileen - but...

Daisy wasn't sure if, for herself, it had been any kind of worth it in the end. The fact was that Daddy wasn't here, and with only herself to consult on the matter, she was really doubting.

---

"Delphi!"

Daisy blinked at her mother. "What...?"

Mother glared at her, throwing up her hands. "You dragged me in here for this! The least you could do is actually pay attention to this stupid game!"

Daisy shifted on the bed. She looked down to the cards spread out in front of her. "You're right - sorry," she said earnestly. It had been a hell of a fight to get her mother to agree to even play any kind of game with her. In the end, she had won her over, and mother herself had chosen this game to play together - Knock-out Whist. A card game that mother had very, very reluctantly admitted that she had once enjoyed playing with her sisters from time to time.

Her mother gazed at her, softening somewhat. She hesitated. "How...how is your leg feeling?" she asked, gesturing with a hand of cards.

Daisy smiled. Actual concern? "It's fine now. No thanks to father."

Mother frowned, but let the comment pass. "Good."

"I could have been walking sooner if father had just healed me right away," Daisy went on. Father had checked her injury after their return, and had informed her that while he could heal it in a day or two, he was going to leave it be, and let her be bedridden for the next week or so - to teach her a lesson. And so she had been. There wasn't anything mother could do to fix it - if she would have dared to. She didn't have the knowledge Voldemort did. Not in this.

"You should show more gratitude," mother responded, glaring. "An old, dark curse like that could have robbed you of any ability to walk permanently! That the Dark Lord was still able to heal it so completely after a week left alone-"

"After he left it alone on purpose because he wanted me to suffer," Daisy interjected darkly.

"-even the best Healer would have been hard pressed to restore it as well as he did for you!" Mother pressed on, ignoring Daisy's remark.

Daisy looked down at herself. Her cursed leg was whole and new and...only mildly scarred. Little lines she could see against her pale skin, thin and faint. She flexed her muscles, finding not an ounce of pain - just a little soreness, maybe. A stark contrast from even a day ago, when every ripple of muscle made her want to cry and scream again. When it had looked like someone had thrown acid on her leg that had eaten away at it in patchwork. It was a job well done, what her father had done for her - but she wasn't about to give him points for it when he could have done it way sooner.

"Mother-" she began, only to cut herself off as the door to her room swung open.

Voldemort entered her room without pause or so much as a courteous word called in. "Bella - leave us. I need to have word with our daughter about certain...private matters."

Bellatrix flicked her wand to vanish the cards, instantly jumping to her feet. She left with a simple nod and a quick bow - though she did shoot Daisy a worried look from behind Voldemort, right before she shut the door behind herself.

Daisy drew breath as she moved to sit on edge of her bed, attentive and straight-backed. Her hands now empty, and her body definitely not relaxed anymore.

Another impromptu interrogation. These were always so fun...

Voldemort stood before her, looming over her. He waited a long moment before speaking.

"You've decided to trust Bella with knowledge of your Horcrux, or so she's told me," Voldemort said, quiet and casual.

Daisy just nodded. "Yes, I did, father."

"Because she is your mother?" Voldemort said, as if he didn't even understand why that would matter. Daisy thought he probably didn't.

"Yes."

"That is foolishness, girl. A Horcrux is meant to remain an absolute secret. There is no greater protection than that. And to give your secret away so freely, even to family..."

"I made the choice to trust her," Daisy replied. "It wasn't wrong." She thought that was the truth, now; she had her mother in her corner - or, close enough, at least. She could risk...

"It is always dangerous to trust, Delphini. Particularly with your greatest secrets," Voldemort admonished, as if she were a slow child.

"I don't agree. And you know what, father? I think if you trusted more, you'd actually have loyal minions. They're all so self absorbed, and they turn tail on you in an instant, because there's nothing you do that keeps them around. They have no incentive, no real reason. They feel nothing for you."

"You think so, do you?" Voldemort said softly.

"I do."

"Well, I would advise you to keep such opinions to yourself," Voldemort said, waving a hand. "I have no need of them."

"Okay," Daisy shrugged. "Keep your subpar, traitorous-at-the-drop-of-a-hat minions. You'll keep having more and more incidents like Lucius and the Diary, or the whole entire end of the last war where nobody gave a shit about you and left you to dry for a decade. If you'd actually shown people some kindness and respect, they'd have fought tooth and nail to bring you back."

"Kindness and respect?" Voldemort laughed, as if he genuinely thought the idea hilarious. "Oh, child...fear and power is all I need to keep these people in line."

"That hasn't worked out for you so far," Daisy said pointedly. "Maybe it's time to try another tactic. Have you ever heard of carrot and stick, father? You're all stick and no carrots. That's your problem. Even a smart evil guy would have figured out to at least pretend to care - but you don't even take the effort. Is it just laziness, father, or what-"

"Enough. As I said: your opinions aren't needed," Voldemort hissed. He breathed. "My methods are not to be questioned."

"Okay. Keep using stupidly ineffective methods that make people rebel harder. I don't care."

"Your trust is quite overrated, Delphini. You're an incredibly naïve, foolish little girl!" Voldemort said furiously. "I trusted Lucius with my Diary, to protect it, and you know well what he did with it: he went off and used it for his own ends!"

"He did - because he had no loyalty to you in the first place, especially not after he thought you were gone. He had no reason to stick to what you told him to do. Maybe if you'd been a better boss - clued him in more about just how valuable that Diary was - he would have, though."

"Crucio!"

Daisy screamed as the familiar pain ran through her body - and when it was over, she laughed. "Yes, torture me because you can't actually offer a counterpoint! Or is it because you know I'm right-"

"Silencio!"

Daisy laughed to herself in silence, clutching her sides as she trembled on the bed.

Father glared murder at her, then whirled away and stormed from the room.

Goddamn had Daisy really needed to get that out of her system finally.

She'd been wanting to take shots at her father for days - ever since the mountain.

Honestly, in all her body's tremors and pains, she felt a lot better now. At least, in the moment. She felt only sad and frustrated when mother did not return to the room to continue their game.

Daisy wondered if father had told her to ignore her for a while, too, to punish her now, further, after the Cruciatus - or if mother was staying away of her own free will, afraid of getting the same treatment again herself.

Voldemort really knew how to ruin everything.

---

Even still, Daisy wasn't one to give up so easily on what she wanted.

That was why, after another couple days of just letting it lie - and being on her best behavior - she went to see Voldemort in his study again, to ask him for something she most definitely wanted. Something she wanted to try. Something that would be crucial to her plans.

"I want to go to Diagon Alley and get Christmas presents - for you and for mother," Daisy spoke clearly.

Voldemort glanced up at her, hand resting on the old tome he had just been pouring over. "Christmas presents?"

"Yes." Daisy paused. "Did you not do Christmas at Hogwarts, father?" she said innocently.

His face twisted, and he scoffed. "No, I did not."

"Well, I think it's time we start. It's been six years and we haven't celebrated even once - as a- a family."

Her father simply gazed at her, almost...uncomprehending. "Very well - Bella will take you," he said at last, dismissive - as if the prospect of Christmas meant absolutely nothing to him.

Well, this was father; it probably did mean nothing to him.

Daisy examined the study room, which was tenfold more cluttered than usual. Stacks of books, old scrolls laying about in piles. Odd objects and trinkets draped over bookshelves and portraits. "Is this all from Aileen's castle?" she asked casually.

Voldemort followed her gaze shrewdly. "Indeed. Though, this is only a fraction of what I was able to recover - and even then, only a fraction of what was relatively still intact," he finished with a shake of his head.

"So, where's the rest of it?"

Voldemort gave her a thin smile. "That is not for you to know, Delphini. These prizes and treasures are mine to peruse, the fruits of my labor - not yours."

"Of course," Daisy said simply.

"Why don't you run along and get on with this Christmas business of yours?" Voldemort said airily, waving a hand. "I'm rather occupied at the moment, as you may have noticed..."

"Okay." Daisy lingered, eyeing the monster of a man.

He looked up from the tome once more, clear annoyance crossing his face this time. "What is it, girl?"

Daisy put on a smile, meeting his gaze squarely. "Happy Christmas."

"Yes, how festive it is lately," Voldemort said mildly, his lip curling as he stuck his non-existent nose in his book again. "Leave me be now."

Daisy sighed, and she left without a word.

Fucking psychotic, unfeeling arsehole. Can't even pretend to care about Christmas! Who doesn't like Christmas?! Who doesn't like getting free presents!

She wondered if it would be worth the torture to try to slap a red Santa hat right onto her father's evil head...

---

After tracking down her mother, Daisy had told her quite joyously about what father had given his permission for her to do - for them to do together!

Mother had been...less than enthused at the idea, but she wasn't one to disobey her Master's command, so she went along with it.

Just as Daisy was counting on.

Another thing she was counting on, was an obvious and unavoidable little trip they would have to make...

They appeared in Diagon Alley in late, cold afternoon. It wasn't too crowded, which was nice. Most of the shops were open. Daisy noted Aurors patrolling up and down the place - as well as robed Death Eaters.

Daisy put on a wide smirk as she left mother's side, striding right toward a pair of them. She gave a big wave. "Hey! Are you Roger or Finley? And is that Eleanor with you? You know, it's always so hard to tell you guys apart!"

Mother uttered a curse and came stalking after Daisy.

The Death Eaters shifted, glancing at Daisy, and then at Bellatrix. The man let out a bit of a sputter behind his mask. "I- we haven't met, Miss Delphini. That is, I haven't had the pleas-" He cut himself short - probably very wisely. "I am Carter Winstred; I don't believe we've met," he finished nervously.

"Well, now we have!" Daisy said brightly. She turned to the woman, scrutinizing her closely; the woman pointedly turned her head away. "And you?"

"Tracey Davis," the woman replied, very quiet - and as nervous as the man. "It's an- honor to meet you, Miss Delphini. What- brings you here today?"

Mother made an impatient sound, and she stepped forward to put herself in front of Daisy. "It's none of your concern!" she spoke haughtily. "Unless you want it to be, of course," she went on, drawing her wand with a predatory smile.

"Of c-course not, we were only-" Winstred began.

"You were only doing nothing, as far as I can see," mother interrupted with a laugh. "Get back to your jobs - go on now!"

The Death Eaters turned and hurried off up the alley in the direction of the Leaky Cauldron.

As soon as they were out of earshot, mother turned back to Daisy, placing a hand on her hip. She had a small smile on her face - one that was more true, of mirth and warmth. "Did you enjoy that, Delphi?"

Daisy laughed, nodding. "It was hilarious! You seemed to like it, too. You see? I knew you were able to have fun!"

Mother's smile turned to a scowl. She waved her wand about, tossing her head. "I'm perfectly able to have fun, girl! I'm just very particular about when it is I have it - and how I have it. Now, if we don't want to be here for hours and hours - which, I tell you, I do not - we had best get on with this and get to Gringotts. We'll grab some gold, and you can buy whatever you like for these gifts of yours - just don't go completely overboard! I won't have you taking advantage of my funds."

"Yes, mother. Thank you," Daisy said earnestly.

Mother looked, for a moment, very pleased with herself. Then it was gone, and she snatched Daisy's hand up and was striding down the alley with her. A quick, relentless pace set for the wizarding bank.

"Mother," Daisy spoke casually, as they made their way down the street. "What...would you like for Christmas?"

"I don't care what you get me," mother said instantly. "Whatever strikes your fancy, girl."

"What about what strikes yours? That's the whole point," Daisy refuted. "Okay, how about, um...what kinds of things did you used to get when you were my age? What things did you get your sisters - and what did they get you?"

Mother's grip on her hand tightened. She studiously avoided Daisy's gaze, opting instead to stare right ahead at the front of the Gringotts building. It took a minute (a minute in which Daisy thought mother wasn't even going to answer her), but... "I can't really recall - but, I believe that the last Christmas we celebrated together, I...Cissy thought she was being thoughtful, and gave me a completely useless little enchanted day planner - I'd started my NEWTS classes that year - and Andromeda thought she'd be a clever little shit and get in some humiliation, and she had me unwrap these ridiculous undergarments in front of everybody. Told me I could use them - that they might help me get a date." Mother snorted, shaking her head.

"And what did you get for them?" Daisy asked, smiling.

Mother's expression grew ever more distant - and troubled. Hurt, for a moment... "Nothing that meant anything to Andromeda, clearly," she said, in a voice poisoned by scorn.

"You weren't...on good terms back then?"

"No. That was the year she met the muggleborn boy - but even before that, she'd been getting more and more outspoken about..." Mother shook her head, pursing her lips. "We had more arguments than anything else, that's all I can recall. It's more than I like to," she finished, shooting a very pointed look down at Daisy.

For once, Daisy took the hint, and she backed off.

They entered the bank in silence. Mother went right up to the nearest goblin, demanding his attention - and service. She showed off her wand and a small key, and then they were being led behind the desks.

Through a door, and into a strangely cavernous place.

Daisy only had her daddy's stories to go off of, but she recognized the most important - and exciting - aspect of it when she saw it: a cart! She had been on coaster rides before, on family trips to amusement parks, but daddy had told her Gringotts was worse than any of them! Maybe he had thought it would dissuade her. But it didn't - it had made her dream of trying it herself someday. And that day was today!

She climbed in after the goblin without hesitation. Mother settled in next to her, giving her a strange look.

"What has you so giddy, girl?" she muttered out.

"This!" Daisy exclaimed, patting the side of the cart. "I've always wanted to do this. This is going to be so fun!"

"Oh yes, fun - if your idea of fun constitutes feeling like you're going to hurl and pass out simultaneously," mother retorted, pulling a face.

"You never enjoyed this? Not even as a girl? Did Cissy or Andy like it?" Daisy questioned.

Mother glared, and put a hand over her mouth. "Cissy found it terrifying; as for Andromeda, she seemed to find it as exciting as you do for some reason."

"Well, she had the right-" Daisy's words were cut off as the cart began to move - very, very quickly! It shot forward, and then down a sharp incline almost immediately, beginning a long and wild ride through dark cave tunnels!

Twisting and turning, rushing beneath stalagmites, past too many bank vault doors to count, and deeper and deeper under the bank!

They even flew past a dragon - or so Daisy assumed, from the roar that fit with the fresh and familiar one in her memories of recent days!

The cart finally came to a slow stop, unfortunately, and it was all over.

"WOOH! YES! Can we just go back up now already?!" Daisy said gleefully, jumping from the cart with a grin.

Mother stepped out, her face flushed and her eyes glaring murder at Daisy. She twisted her lips and gestured to the goblin.

Their guide led them up to a specific door, and he opened it with the key mother had before handing it back to her.

The door swung open, and Daisy stared at the contents within, mesmerized.

"You have all of this down here?" Daisy gasped.

Mother's only response was a little, "Hmph" sound.

Daisy couldn't help it, though. This was treasure. Real treasure! it was mounds of gold, it was old amulets and rings and gemstones - rubies, sapphire, emeralds and silvers and golds - it was parchments and weird objects and items she didn't even recognize, it was tattered books, and even what looked like weapons. Knives and swords and shields!

Daisy happily stepped forward - only to feel mother's hand on her shoulder, keeping her in place.

"Are you that much of a moron?" mother hissed at her.

Daisy glanced up at mother's face, finding it twisted with worry - and disapproval. "What?"

"I spelled my entire vault to protect it from intruders, like you, who are so goddamn daft that they'd think they could simply waltz in and take what they like!" mother went on, voice full of utter exasperation and disbelief. "If you'd like to test my protections, then by all means, go walk right on in there, Delphi! See what happens to you! And don't come crying back to me asking me to rescue you!"

Daisy rooted her feet to the floor, staring back into the vault with newfound wariness. Of course her mother would have put dark, probably deadly enchantments on everything in here. Even to herself. "Sorry..." she uttered, blushing profusely.

Mother sighed, letting her go and striding forth, her wand held high. She waved it intricately in silence before stepping back and glancing at Daisy over her shoulder. "All right, now you can come in."

Daisy shuffled forward and seized her mother's hand, gazing up at her.

Mother gave a little smirk, and she laughed. "Not so eager now, are we? Hah! Come on, girl. Nothing's going to hurt you now - promise." She paused, glancing back to the goblin. "Wait for us and close the door."

The goblin nodded, stepping back. He gave a tap to the door after Daisy and her mother had stepped inside the vault; it swung shut very definitively, in Daisy's opinion.

Gazing around at everything up close and personal now, it was even more impressive than from afar. She let go of mother and moved to pick up a heavy necklace inlaid with sapphires that had caught her eye.

Mother watched her, saying nothing for a moment. She snorted and came stalking over, snatching the necklace up and tossing it across the vault. "Is that what you want for Christmas?"

"Wait, you- you want to get me something for Christmas?" Daisy stammered.

Mother flushed, looking away. "W-well, that's how Christmas works, isn't it, girl? Or are you that slow? You get me something, and I'll get you something. It might be nice, after such a long time since my last..." She trailed off.

Daisy beamed, and set about inspecting the contents of the vault again. "Well, mother, maybe I will find something in here I like... Is everything in here - family heirlooms?"

"Mostly, I suppose," mother responded, nodding. "Not that any of it has ever been worth much to me."

"Why not?" Daisy asked, bending over to pick up the hilt of a long, black dagger with a ruby in its hilt.

"Because-" Mother hurried forward, seizing Daisy's wrist and prying the blade from her hand. She threw it behind a large mound of old, peeling oak furniture. "-because it's just never been needed, that's all! Be more careful with what you're grabbing, would you?! Just because my defenses were deactivated doesn't mean individual items don't have their own! Things I never placed onto them - things I have no idea about, honestly!" she rattled off, breathless.

Daisy smiled. "I'll keep that in mind. But I'm not going to stop looking."

"You can look - just try not to touch so much," mother huffed.

Daisy strode around the mound of furniture, slowly taking in everything around her. She gazed on a large chest of drawers with what looked like diamonds on it. She looked to a full length mirror with green trim around it. She saw a small stack of boxes with jewelry hanging out of them. She craned her neck to gaze up at a particularly high hill of treasures-

And her heart skipped a beat.

Up near the top, sitting atop a plethora of other trinkets and items, was a small, golden cup with curved handles and the image of a badger engraved on its side, shining for all to see. For Daisy to see.

The item she was...almost ninety-five percent certain was one of his Horcruxes.

"So you've spotted it, have you."

Daisy blinked, turning to find her mother standing right beside her. Mother was looking up at the Cup, as well, an unfathomable look on her face. "Yes," Daisy said quietly.

"In that traitorous little head of yours, Delphi, tell me something..."

"What?"

"You're not planning to steal it, are you?" Mother asked, her voice quiet and quavering.

Daisy kept her face blank, and her hands relaxed at her sides. Kept her gaze squarely locked onto the Cup.

"Of course I'm not." Daisy said honestly, glancing at her mother as she continued with, "I'm traitorous, not stupid."

Mother snorted. She nodded. "In some regards, you're not. But in others...not so much. It's worrying, Delphi. Very worrying. But, I suppose if we were both any kind of seriously stupid, we'd both be dead by this point, yes? We would have gotten ourselves killed...long before now. So, I really have nothing to worry about with you, do I?" she finished bracingly.

"I'm not that stupid, no," Daisy admitted, tearing her eyes away from the Cup at last. "You don't have to worry about me like that." Yet, she added silently. She would come back for this Cup - but not yet.

"Even still..." Mother bit into her lip hard, turning to face Daisy. She crouched down before her, reaching for her. Seizing at her arms. Looking her right in the eyes, serious and conflicted. "You've already made me promise something to you, so I'd like you to promise me something, Delphi. Another mother-daughter secret - just between the two of us."

"What is it?"

"Just promise me...that whatever you think, whatever you feel, whatever you believe - and whatever you try to do - that you won't do something that would get you killed."

"Killed by who?" Daisy said flatly. "Tom Riddle?"

Mother winced. She glanced away. "The Dark Lord."

"Tom Riddle."

"Stop it."

"No. Say it, mother. Say his name!" Daisy said harshly.

"Or what?" Mother scoffed.

"Or I won't make any promises."

Mother gripped her more firmly, giving a big sigh. "You're a demanding, stubborn, trying and manipulative little gremlin, you know that, girl?"

"I know."

"Promise me that you won't do anything that would get you killed by- by Tom Riddle." Mother whispered the name like it would call him to them as surely as the Taboo Curse. "You came far too close to that recently, and I couldn't bear to see it again!"

"I promise." Daisy said. Then she darted forward and pecked her mother on the cheek.

Mother pulled away, rising and sputtering. Flushing intensely. She swiped at her face, staring down at Daisy. She turned her nose up at her and turned away, waving her wand sharply. Gold flew from all directions, piling into a bag that had appeared out of thin air in mother's free hand.

"There we go - now let's get on with things," mother said loudly, jabbing her wand at the door to open the vault. "Come on, Delphi! I said I didn't want to waste time here for hours! You're pushing that already, and I'm not pleased about it."

"Yes, mum."

"I'm not pleased about that, either," mother snapped, glowering.

"Yes you are - you love it. Admit it. It makes you feel nice inside!"

Mother's cheeks tinged lightest pink as a smile tugged at her lips. "Well...perhaps only a little... But don't think I don't know what you're doing!"

"Of course." Daisy rolled her eyes at her mother.

---

The trip back up was just as exciting as the trip down into the depths of the bank!

Too soon, again, they were out of the cart and on solid ground again.

Too soon, they were striding out of the bank into the open, cold evening air again.

"Mother, you know, you never told me what you wanted for Christmas," Daisy said lightly.

"I did so - I said it doesn't matter," mother refuted. "Get me anything you like."

"Come on. You have to want something!"

"Well, I don't."

"Well, think of something."

"Don't get snarky with me," mother muttered, though it was rather half-hearted. "Just accept my answer."

"Well..." Daisy pressed her lips together, thinking. "Okay."

"Thank god..."

"How about you just...tell me things you would be okay with? Like, food? Candy? Clothes?" Daisy listed off. "Jewelry? Just to help give me an idea!"

"I- I suppose any of that is fine."

"So you'd be happy with anything I got you?" Daisy pressed.

"That isn't what I said - but, yes, I suppose so," mother agreed, uncomfortable. "Just - don't get me a pet. I'll kill it on the spot. I mean it, girl."

"I wasn't going to," Daisy assured, feeling more than a little sick at the remark. "We're sticking to inanimate objects here."

"Excellent, then."

Daisy nodded, and set her eyes on the shops lining the alley, wondering which one to go to first to find a nice enough present for her mother (and of course, she wondered just what it was that her mother would get for her).

---

On Christmas morning, Daisy woke feeling quite excited.

The day prior, she had managed to convince her father to tolerate conjured decorations for Christmas day itself, as well as convinced him to actually have a great and festive feast, by pointing out that summoning his followers over for the holidays would be a great opportunity to have some fun screwing around with them all day. That had actually earned her a real chuckle from the man, rare as those were, and a quick agreement with her plans (the egotistical sadist).

Daisy slipped out of bed and got ready for the day. She pocketed her wand and left her room, navigating the manor until she had reached the sitting room. She gazed around the room in the early light, smiling at the decor. Streamers, mistletoe, wreaths, and a tall and splendid Christmas tree with enchanted ornaments. She went and seated herself directly at base of the tree, staring at the wrapped gifts underneath it.

That was exactly how she remained for the next half an hour.

"Delphini - what exactly are you doing?" came the mild tones of her father, jarring her from her reverie.

Daisy turned, seeing the man emerge from the dark hallway. "Waiting for you and mother to get here so we can start Christmas."

"Are you now?" he said, amused.

"Yes." Daisy was just glad she had gotten him to humor her on this one - all of it - even if he himself gave zero shits about the whole thing.

"I would hope you haven't been waiting too long," Voldemort spoke again, still in that amused tone of his. "Shall I fetch Bella for you?"

Now that was a dilemma. On one hand, Daisy didn't want to have her mother woken up too early and have her come down here all grumpy and pissed...but, on the other hand...she really wanted to do this already, before father decided to change his mind just because he felt it would be more entertaining to see her get upset or some bullshit like that. The kind of give and take idea of a joke he would actually do.

"Yes, that would be- appreciated- father," Daisy spoke quietly, deciding on the lesser of two evils.

"Well then, I will return." Voldemort turned away, sweeping from the room in silence.

He probably thought it would be funny to wake up mother so early and drag her down here; Daisy knew he would never have just agreed to it so easily otherwise!

At least someone was going to have fun between the two of them, Daisy mused.

She watched the gifts for a few more minutes, before she heard the sound of footsteps.

There was father again, and there was mother - bedraggled as all hell, her hair a mess and her eyes lidded. The former, with a smile on his lips, and the latter - well, she looked precisely how Daisy had expected her to look.

"We can begin now, then?" said father, totally and completely enjoying the state of Bellatrix. "You have everyone you need to initiate the holidays?"

"Yes," Daisy said simply. She risked a look at her mother. She patted the floor beside her. "Mother, if you could come sit here..."

Mother gave her a look of pure murder - but she complied, all the same, pattering forward and dropping down on her arse right next to Daisy. "Let's get this over with..." she said hoarsely.

"Oh, come now, Bella - is that any way to be on such a special holiday?" Voldemort said, mocking as could be. "This is a joyous occasion, is it not?"

"It's meant to be," Daisy agreed, feeling...really awful for her mother all the same.

"Show a little more spirit, Bella, wouldn't you? Perk up," Voldemort continued to jeer at mother.

Mother briefly shut her eyes, and then she forced a big smile on her face and straightened where she sat. "I apologize for my demeanor, My Lord."

"No harm done, none at all," Voldemort said genially (or whatever he thought was genial).

"Okay..." Daisy muttered. She pointed her wand at the presents, bringing all three of them out to her lap. She picked one up and turned to her mother, offering it out to the woman. "This one is for you."

Mother stared at her. She looked down at the gift. She glanced up at Voldemort, who was watching with at least a vague interest. She took the gift and tapped it with her own wand, shedding its wrapping instantly. Dark, fine fabric fell out over her hands. Her eyes widened, and she raised the clothing up before her.

"It's a dress," Daisy said helpfully - quite cheerfully.

Mother glared at her, more awake now. "I know what it is- Delphini. And it's...a very...wonderful gift," she went on tightly, with another look Voldemort's way. "I can always use more clothes in my wardrobe."

"I thought so," Daisy said with a grin. "I also got you this." She pushed another gift at her mother, who took it with a lot less hesitation than the first. She watched as her mother opened it up - this considerably larger, heavier gift.

Mother ran her hand over the long, black box. She opened the lid to peer inside. An actual smile came to her face as she pulled out the gift: a long, curved dagger with a ring of purple gems around the top of the jet black hilt - in a neat dragonhide sheath. "This is what you went into Knockturn Alley for?" she spoke breathlessly, unsheathing the blade and turning it this way and that.

"Uh-huh. It's not just a plain old dagger; it has a Rotting Curse on the blade, so whenever you stab or cut someone with it, it'll just start eating away at them! In seconds! They'll be down a leg or an arm!" Daisy said dramatically, fixing a smile on her face. "And then, you know, once they're down, you can just...bam. Hit them with a spell. Finish them off. That's also why you have to keep it in the sheath when you're not using it."

Laughter rang out. Father's laughter. Daisy turned (as did mother).

"What?" Daisy said, confused.

"The thought behind it was good, to be certain," Voldemort spoke, voice full of mirth. "but, Delphi, darling, if you're close enough to impale someone with a dagger, they should already be down and dead!"

Well...leave it to father to make Daisy legitimately feel stupid and embarrassed. "W-well," she started, trying to salvage herself. "She could...she could throw it! Or just- use it for tormenting captive enemies," she said desperately.

Mother flashed Daisy a rare, real smile. "That's not a bad idea," she said quickly, nodding. She carefully replaced the blade in its sheath, setting it aside.

"Hmm." Voldemort seemed to shrug, his amusement dying.

"Anyway..." Daisy uttered, picking up the third gift. She stood, and she held it out to her father. "This one's yours."

Voldemort took it from her without a word, opening it up with curiosity on his face. It was a bag. A simple, black bag with a drawstring. He glanced at Daisy, then tapped his wand to the bag. A thick, old black book flew up out of it, dropping into his hands. He gazed on the book's cover, taking it in. The words emblazoned there in silver: Attaché Au Sang - Tome 2. He flipped it open, his eyes scanning the first two pages. Another flip - more reading. He closed it, and he met her gaze with some measure of surprise. "How did you get your hands on this?"

"Do you want the short story or the long one?" Daisy said lightly.

Voldemort gave a small smile. "The short one, if you would."

Daisy gave a grin. "You'd be surprised what a girl can do?"

"A bit more detail, if you please."

"Okay," Daisy said seriously. She glanced at her mother, continuing. "Well, after we visited Borgin and Burkes, I told mother I wanted to see what else there was to find in Knockturn Alley. So I went into every shop I could find, on and on, until we were in the very back, and then we went into this new alley, and we came across this witch who asked us what we were doing. So I told her we were looking for rare, dark books or scrolls, and she said that if we were really so interested, she was a private collector, and we could get a view of what she had. So she made a Portkey and we took it to-"

"You what?" Voldemort hissed, looking astonished.

"I told her we should not!" Mother said immediately, literally throwing herself at father's feet. "I begged her, I warned her it was stupid and dangerous and-"

"-And I took it anyway," Daisy said firmly. "Mother had no choice, really. We ended up at the woman's house, and she took us to this really nice, big room in the back where there were all kinds of old books and things. Just what we were looking for. She said they were authentic - that she had been stealing them off people for decades; she was pretty proud of it - and that they were protected by the best security spells she could cast on them. So I Stunned her, mother used Legilimency on her to figure out most of the security spells, and then we took all of her things from her. Mother used a Memory Charm on her to make her think she sold it all off to a married couple - a pair of wizards - and that she had already blown all her gold on nice food and alcohol," she finished with a shrug. She pointed to the bag. "It's all in there, father."

Voldemort gazed down on her, still looking rather dumbstruck.

"I know, she was really stupid," Daisy stated, laughing. "How could you not expect anyone else to rob you after all the robbing you did? Apparently it just...never really came up in her mind as a possibility."

Voldemort blinked, and he smiled at her. "I suppose as long as neither of you were injured, and if these are indeed genuine, then it was a job well done. Very well done." He waved his wand to vanish both book and bag away.

That was it, was it? Job well done? Not even a thank you? Not even an, I'm proud of you? Daisy was...miffed. But at least father wasn't telling her off for her recklessness and/or naiveté again. His entire condescending schtick really got on her nerves...

"That is all, then?" Voldemort spoke, gesturing to the empty tree's base.

"I guess so," Daisy agreed. "Yes."

"Well, I shall leave the two of you to do as you wish for the day - until dinner," Voldemort said absently, striding from the room without a glance back. "I expect not to be disturbed whilst I am in my study today."

Whilst.

"Yes, father," Daisy said, rote as could be.

She waited a few minutes, just silent and alone with her mother. Mother looked everywhere but at Daisy, muttering to herself incoherently. Then, the woman stood, slung the dress over a shoulder, and she grasped Daisy's hand.

"Come with me - your gift is in my room," mother told her quietly - and a tiny bit nervously, if Daisy heard it right.

"You didn't want to give it to me in front of Tom?" Daisy said softly.

Mother looked fearful at the name, but ignored it for once. "No," she said, in a near whisper now. "I wanted it to be something for just the two of us."

"Okay. I have a few other gifts stashed away in my room, too," Daisy admitted, a faint smirk playing on her lips.

Mother dragged her into the room and pushed her onto the bed. She spun away and aimed her wand at the closet; the door sprang open, and a large object came flying out of it to her waiting arms. It was a large book, Daisy realized. Wider than it was tall.

Mother sighed, dithered, and then sat herself down next to Daisy. She hefted the large book, and then she just- dropped it right onto Daisy's lap (eliciting an oof out of her).

Thanks, mother, Daisy thought scathingly, gazing down at the blank cover of the book. It gave her absolutely no clues as to what was inside it. Well, the only way she would find out would be by opening it. So she did just that, flipping the cover open to the first page. Daisy just about choked at the sight that greeted her.

"There you go, Delphi - now you won't need to keep asking me a million inane questions about my life, and I won't need to keep re-experiencing old memories I'd rather soon forget," mother spoke, with an air of utmost discomfort. Daisy glanced at her mother, finding her with her head aside and her nose upturned. Her arms were definitively crossed.

"Memories you'd rather forget?"

"You may think this is all fun and wonderful and- and happy for me, but it isn't," mother spoke tightly. "It doesn't bring me joy to remember my childhood: it just hurts, girl. So you, from this moment on, are going to stop hurting me. Understood?"

Daisy blinked. She hadn't actually...ever even considered that that was the reason behind her mother's reactions. Or...for them. It wasn't anger or disgust because she really couldn't stand thinking about it all - it was anger and disgust to hide from how painful it was. Because it was a better alternative, in her mind! "I understand. And- I'm really sorry for all the-"

"Don't. Just take- all of that...and keep it away from me. It was about time I got rid of it anyway. I was planning to burn it someday - or perhaps mail it all back to Andy in pieces, covered in blood and profanity, and see what she makes of it... Ah well."

Send it back to Andy? Then, for a time, had the sisters actually tried to...?

Daisy lowered her gaze to the pages of the photo album. The moving images, the moving people within them. But it wasn't just pictures, she realized: there were pieces of old, worn parchment sticking out between several of the pages of the album. "Is this all...chronological, or did you slap it together?"

Mother snorted loudly. "Slapped together - you'll get no help from me there. Figure things out yourself!"

Daisy smiled. "Of course, mother. I guess you'd be the tallest one in all of these, then?"

"Obviously."

"Right."

"So, you and Andy here are-"

"No!" Mother's arm shot out, and her hand clamped onto Daisy's mouth. She tugged her head around, meeting her gaze. Dark and intense - and shimmering. "I told you: no more questions. Don't do that to me, girl. Just take it and go!"

"Right," Daisy said, after mother had released her. "Sorry. Alright, mother. Thank you, so much, for this. It- means a lot."

"I should hope so!" Mother said fiercely. "You've no idea how awful it was just to stand to hold these old things again."

"I'm sure. Thank you for doing that for me. All of this."

"Well - go on."

"I want to give you my other presents, too."

Mother let out huge sigh, throwing up her hands. "Summon them, then! Are you a witch, or aren't you?"

Daisy carefully closed the photo album, setting it aside. She focused, raising her wand, and gave it a flick. A minute passed, and two small gifts came zooming into the room. She held them both out to her mother, who snatched them up with slightly shaking hands. Mother waved her wand at them, and they opened for her.

She picked up the first one with a bemused look. "A card and a box? It's jewelry, isn't it? You couldn't think of anything better to get me than a trinket! Did you use up all your inspiration with the dagger - or was it the dress?"

"I'm not telling - go to hell - read the card first!" Daisy rattled off.

Mother flipped open the card with a huff. Her eyes roamed the inside - and she froze. Her lips moved silently, her face flushed. Then she threw back her head and shrieked with laughter.

Daisy was so relieved it had actually gone over well that she joined in on it!

"Oh, Delphi, this is- this is-" Mother choked on her own words, another glance taken of the card's contents. "Where do you get the guts, girl?!"

Daisy pointed to the card. "From you? That's what I said."

Mother shook her head. Gasping, she waved the card in Daisy's face. "No, no! What you said was 'Thanks for squeezing me out of your vagina! I like being alive too!'"

Daisy shrugged. "It's the same thing."

Mother chortled, throwing the card aside in favor of the small box. She pulled the lid off without ceremony, and lifted the gift out equally without ceremony. She threw a sidelong look at Daisy. "What did I say? Jewelry."

"It's at least pretty, right?" Daisy pressed.

Mother dangled the gold chain before her eyes, inspecting the pendant attached to it. Two birds entwined, wings shimmering in flames - actual, orange flames that rippled on the surface of the pendant. "It'll do," she said, dropping it on the bed with the card. Finally, she took up her last present. She shook the large box, giving a hint of a grin as she threw another look Daisy's way. She was enjoying this now! "And what's this?"

"Open it and find out," Daisy said, with her best poker face.

Mother shrugged her shoulders and tore into the box, pulling it wide open. She gazed on the gift with a faint smile. "A board game?"

"I'm not just going to play cards with you forever, mother," Daisy said lightly. "We need to- diversify. We need other things to do together, too, if we're going to keep doing things at all. You know, if you really want to..."

Mother dropped the game to the bed. She smiled. "I wouldn't exactly mind doing other things with you, I suppose. It would keep the boredom away."

"Exactly. Down with boredom! Forever!"

Mother shook her head at Daisy. "Ridiculous little girl..."

"Thank you. I like being ridiculous."

"Clearly," mother laughed.

---

With her gift-giving done with, and a pretty good day under her belt so far...

Well, Daisy still had one last gift to give to someone in the manor.

Just before dinner, she clutched a bundle of cloth in her hands, roaming the manor until she found who she was looking for - right where she expected to find them: in front of the roaring fireplace.

Daisy crept across the sitting room, dropping to her knees before them. Gazing down on them with a big smile. "Hi there," she said brightly, in Parseltongue. "Are you having a good Christmas, too?"

Nagini raised her head to stare at Daisy. Her tongue flickered out. "Christ...mas...?" she hissed, confused.

"It's a holiday! You give people gifts and spend time with each other. I went shopping and got something for you, too," Daisy informed the serpent kindly. She held up the cloth, raising her eyebrows. "See?"

"Holiday..." Nagini trailed off, a strange note to her voice. "Gifts...went shop...?" She went silent, as if she had totally lost any semblance of a train of thought.

"That's right," Daisy said. "Anyway, here you go! I need you to hold still a second and...there! Don't you look really cute with this on?"

Nagini twisted this way and that, trying to look at the long, silky green sleeve she now wore just behind her head. "Cute...? I've worn things before - but never like this..."

Daisy stared, amazed. "Wait, what? Does father dress you up?!"

"No. I wore things when I...looked like...you..." Nagini hissed, halting and confused. Straining, with all her might.

"Wait, you- you used to be a human? You're a person?" Daisy exclaimed, horror rising in her stomach.

"Yes..." Nagini titled her head, then dropped it low. "So hard to remember...cannot even recall...how I...how I looked...it was so long ago...How long ago...?"

"Did- You-Know-Who name you Nagini? Or was that your actual name?" Daisy asked quietly.

"It is my name...the name when I looked like you...I can't remember much, but that...My name is Nagini..."

Daisy touched her snout, caressing. Then she stood. "Merry Christmas, Nagini. I need to go talk to father."

She drew a breath, her hands balling into tight fists at her sides as she stalked through the manor halls. She tried not to think, tried not to feel what she was feeling now. She couldn't be this way, if she were to even hope to broach the subject with father. She had to calm down, she had to. Occlumency, do it. Now.

All too soon, she reached the door to father's study.

He had said not to be disturbed today. Daisy honestly didn't give a damn what he did to her for daring to do exactly that right now.

His voice came to her, and she strode in with a blank face and a deep coldness inside her chest.

He was, as usual, at his study table, his back to her. He only gave a simple glance to show he noticed her.

"I believe I was clear this morning when I said that I wished not to be disturbed," he said sharply.

"You never told me Nagini is a human," Daisy said, emotionless.

Voldemort gave her his fullest attention now, anger giving way to mild surprise. He nodded to her. "She was a human, yes. She was a witch afflicted with the Maledictus curse; she was a natural born Animagus - akin to natural Legilimens, or Metamorphmagus - who lost her mind and body over time, becoming trapped forever as a mere animal. A highly intelligent one, but an animal nonetheless. That is all she is now. Any remnant of memory or intellect is long gone by now - fleeting and fragmented. I doubt her animal mind, such as it is these days, could even comprehend that she was once a human being."

Daisy didn't argue the point - didn't throw it in his face that Nagini damn well knew she was a human being! Fragmented memories and reduced mental capacity or not! She had a greater point to make. "Dark magic gave you a whole body again from nothing. There have to be rituals to give her a human body back, too. Fix her mind too!"

"Perhaps. But why would you wish to do that?" Voldemort said, nonplussed.

Because she deserves it. Because it's awful to imagine living as an animal for god knows how long, losing your memories and your mind, and I just want to hug her and squeeze her and tell her I'll make it right for her! "Because - think of how much more value you could get out of her if she could switch back and forth! If she even just had her former level of intelligence back - or her memories. She could be an even better asset, more worthy than-"

"No," Voldemort cut her off quietly, shaking his head. "No, she is quite fine as she is, Delphi - though the thought on your part is not entirely worthless."

"She's not fine as a snake, because she's not just a snake. She's a woman," Daisy said calmly. "A woman who could be a greater servant than even mother if you just tried to-"

"Not anymore," Voldemort interrupted again, firm now. "Now she is only what I wish her to be. What I have made her to be. She is already of greater worth to me than any of my servants could hope to be combined - including Bella."

Daisy stared into her father's eyes, reading every inch of his face, his tone reverberating in her ears...and something new clicked in her mind, right then and there. A new, horrifying sort of realization. A possibility she had read about in the Horcrux books... "She's one of your Horcruxes," she stated quietly.

Father's eyes widened. His lip curled at her, fury in his eyes! Then, he gave a forced smile. "Perhaps - perhaps not. It is of no concern to you, Delphini. It is not for you to know. And I would urge you to be very careful with your thoughts in this regard..."

Daisy nodded, bowing her head. But that had been all the real confirmation she needed. The shock, and then the rage...and the attempt to cover for it. "Aren't you afraid someone could kill her? You send her out on missions, you take her places with you. What if you lose her? Then you lose that Horcrux." She tried to make her voice nothing but concerned - and supremely innocent.

Voldemort's nostrils flared. His smile grew more twisted, and he raised a hand to her. "Your concern is touching, truly, my darling daughter - but this is not something you need worry yourself over. You have read my list of protective enchantments, have you not? Several of those apply to Nagini; she is as safe and protected as she can ever be."

"Yes, father. I'm sorry to worry so much. It's just - the books did say that using a living being as a container was...ill-advised, right?"

"For most, yes - but I have imbued Nagini with the utmost protection," Voldemort replied, steadfast. "Put these concerns from your mind, child." His voice was hard with warning. Absolute and commanding.

"Okay." Daisy gave another nod. "Of course. Sorry I doubted your skills. I'm sure no one can ever hurt Nagini."

"That's right. Now, is this all you wished to speak to me about?"

"Yes."

"Then go."

"Thank you, father."

---

Daisy threw herself into research, of the best kind and the darkest kinds, as her summer holidays came to a close.

Ways to restore memory and intelligence to people suffering from mental or physical harm - the closest approximation she could get to Nagini's situation - and ways to recreate physical bodies out of practically nothing. The latter led her down a rabbit hole of some of the most complicated and disgusting rituals, potion brews, and spells she could have ever imagined - including a very familiar one: a Regeneration Potion.

An ancient, dark potion used by countless Dark mages across time and the world. One that could restore even the most damaged of bodies to full health again - even the most debilitating injuries could be wiped away in favor of a whole, healthy body again!

Among other ingredients, it required three key ones: The flesh of an ally, the blood of an enemy, and the bone of a same-sexed parent.

The ritual from that graveyard, from when Voldemort had returned to power and form again.

Could Daisy use it to turn Nagini human again? Father may have loved dramatics, and so had forced a servant to lose a hand (though that might have been a bit of a punishment too), forced daddy to suffer a big cut on his arm, and had just had to do the ritual right at his father's grave (probably out of spite or poetry, or something stupid like that), but Daisy...

Could Daisy do it for Nagini, and just...get away with, say, a small bit of flesh sliced off, a few drops of blood from somebody who hated Nagini, and a finger bone from Nagini's mother? If the woman was dead, that could be really easy to just go and get - and if she was still alive...well, who wouldn't donate a small bone to bring their daughter back to life and sanity again? To humanity? They could Skele-Gro it afterward and be just fine!

It didn't have to be this big, horrible thing, did it? That was just father being a goddamn drama queen about it, wanting it to be a whole procession. A whole ceremony, honest to god!

Daisy could do it easy, simple, and as morally as possible.

Although...if father were to figure out that Nagini was human again - whether the woman fled immediately after or not - it wouldn't take a genius to know who was responsible for it.

And that could earn Daisy a great deal of punishment. Probably for weeks.

But she had suffered that before, and she was still here. She knew father; she knew he would never actually kill her, no matter how angry he was. He wouldn't even permanently damage her. He wanted to keep her around for eternity with him, even in spite of all her difficulties, as he would have put it. And because her father was so damn pathological about anything he set his mind on, obsessive and compulsive and just utterly unable to bend from it, even to the point of detriment to his own self and plans...

Daisy could at least be a hundred and fifty percent certain that Voldemort would not do anything more than that, even for this.

Still...that didn't make the prospect of it any more appealing.

That torture he had put her through when she was younger, after she had dared to try to set free some of the captives the Death Eaters had brought into the manor for playtime...

Daisy was not keen on experiencing that again. Not at all.

But she was older now, she was stronger, more hardy. Wasn't she?

She could take it - and take it easier than when she was little.

And it would be worth it, and- and- a good person would do it. And daddy would love her for it. And Nagini would be so grateful to her for it, Daisy was sure!

But, if she did do that, then Nagini would have to really disappear; Voldemort would stop at nothing to get his Horcrux back under his thumb.

Oh...

Daisy hadn't factored that in, in all this so far.

Make that months of torture.

Well, Lucius got off pretty lightly for selfishly doing away with the Diary, all things considered...

Daisy could do it, too. She could take it.

For Nagini, she would.

However, after days of inner turmoil and hypotheticals, Daisy got sick of feeling sick to her stomach, and opted instead to work on what she had promised to Rigel: becoming a master of conjuring mattresses.

She spent hours in her own room working at it, trying with all her might and focus. All she managed to do was make a small lump of cotton and metal bits, however - even after hours of effort! Daisy finally gave up when she found her body aching from sitting for so long, and her brain about to burst from the efforts, and swore to herself she'd try again the next day. And the day after that! Every day until she got it!

---

Her conjuring efforts were just frustrating her to hell and back!

With only three days left till she would return to Hogwarts, Daisy decided to give it a real break.

She was not beaten, she was just...regrouping!

She sat herself down and pulled the photo album from under her bed again, flipping past page after page. Right to one of her favorites: the image of the three Black sisters on the platform in front of the Hogwarts Express. Bellatrix, in her third year, Andromeda, her first, and small Narcissa, who wouldn't even be attending for a while yet, at the tender age of nine. They were happy, they were smiling - Andromeda was trying to scoot closer to Bellatrix, who scooted further away from her in response. Narcissa wanted to hang off of Bellatrix's arm, practically - and Bellatrix, predictably, shook her off with a firm scowl and a flush to her cheeks. Narcissa took a little step back, brief, tiny hurt on her small face before it vanished as she turned back toward the camera - presumably, their parents...

Daisy shut her eyes, falling back on her bed, clutching the album to her chest. She just wished...

As Andromeda had once wished...

Daisy sat up again, flipping through more pages until she found the crumpled sheet of parchment. She took it up carefully, reading those smudged words over again, as she had a dozen times before by now.

Words of hurt. Words of sadness. Words of offering. Words of hope and pleading.

There was another letter after this one - just one other.

One that was a stark contrast to the last. One full of words of resolve. Of rebuke. Of harshness and cutting. Words that left no doubt that, oh yes, these two women were sisters.

Sisters who had decided they weren't sisters anymore.

Daisy still just wished...

She was making progress, she was doing it, she was! She could make it right, she could- she could!

She just had to get out of here, get to the Order - make sure it didn't all die because of her in the process - and find Andromeda, and drag mother along with her, and force the two into a room together, and then...

And then she could make them sisters again.

If it was the last fucking thing Daisy did, she would make them fix things. She'd make mother realize how wrong she was, she'd make her realize how awful it all was, she'd make her apologize, and then she would make sure Andromeda accepted it! Or at least recognized it!

And then, with time and a lot of patience, things would be better between them. With Narcissa, too!

Daisy had a bit of an idea on how to get that ball rolling. It would honestly be a lot simpler than what she was going to have to do to get her mother onboard - and Andromeda, too. It was a bit of a manipulative, maybe immoral idea...but once she had implemented it, everyone would thank her later!

Hopefully.

Or maybe everyone would just cuss and curse her out afterward. Who knew?

Especially with this family of lunatics.

Speaking of lunatic family members...

Daisy shut the album and set it on the floor. She kicked it back under her bed, brushed at her hair, and strode from her room. She went right to her father. She looked him in the eye.

"Father, I would like to go into the muggle town tonight," she spoke flatly.

Voldemort gave her a look of surprise. "Why on earth would you wish to do that?"

"I want to practice my curses and I need good targets," Daisy stated, holding his gaze. "I can't be rusty by the time I get back to Hogwarts."

"No...I suppose you cannot be," Voldemort said slowly. He gave a nod. A smile. "Enjoy yourself, then. Oh - and take Bella with you."

"Thank you, father," Daisy said honestly.

That had been far easier than she had hoped.

Daisy left father's study, going to her room to get dressed for really cold weather. Then she went to find her mother. She found her in the sitting room, lounging about with a bottle of firewhisky in hand. "Mother, come on. Father's given me permission to go down into the muggle town. He said to take you with me."

Mother gave a look of absolute disgust. She grumbled and growled and she stood up, glowering at Daisy. "Why did you have to rope me into this excursion to a muggle dunghole?"

"Father told me to," Daisy repeated, heading out into the hall. Mother was very slow to follow, almost literally dragging her feet. It was sort of hilarious. "Do you want to take it up with him?" she said sweetly, with a glance back at her mother.

Mother glared harder, then turned and hurled the bottle at the far wall, shattering it. She waved her wand down at herself, and cold weather clothes appeared on her figure.

Maybe Daisy should have convinced father not to let mother tag along, actually...

This might not end well for anybody.

Daisy didn't want to have to actually commit to her excuse to get out there!

Not...too authentically, anyway.

As much as she could get away with.

Why was living with a Dark Lord for a father so hard?

---

After half an hour wandering the town of Little Hangleton, wasting as much innocent time as Daisy could before she would have to admit to mother why father had allowed her to go down into the town in the first place...

Well, mother wasn't an idiot.

"What exactly did you tell our Lord you would be doing while you were here?" mother hissed in her ear, glaring hard.

Daisy paused, mid bite of her burger. A delicious, lettuce and onions, cheesy burger. She took a glance around the little diner. She scooted sideways in her seat, touching her body to her mother's. "Well, I sort of...might have...said that I wanted to practice cursing people, and I thought muggles would be the best targets."

"Well, you weren't wrong - even if you lied," mother said, considering.

Daisy fought hard not to make a face. "Are you going to eat yours?"

"I'm not eating anything made by muggles," mother snapped instantly.

"Okay," Daisy shrugged, taking another bite of her food. "You're missing out, mother. A lot."

"I doubt it," mother said, pretending to gag.

Daisy choked on her food; mother gave her a suspicious look, but let it pass without comment. Daisy took her time finishing her meal - and then finishing mother's (which mother still complained about, despite her adamant refusal to eat any of it). That led to an argument, which led to them leaving the place entirely, back out into the snowy, cold night air.

"You shouldn't have lied to the Dark Lord," mother said smugly as they walked down the street. "Now you have to either do what you said you would, or...try and lie again. See if you get away with it."

"I think I have a really great track record so far," Daisy retorted.

"Even the best Occlumens can slip up at some point. Don't get too cocky, girl. That might cost you, eventually."

"I can't help it; I get it from my father."

"Pfft..." Mother outright rolled her eyes. "Child."

"Child-pretending-to-be-an-adult," Daisy shot back.

Mother smiled slightly, looking away quickly. "Juvenile little- oof! Hey, watch where you're walking, you cretin!"

Daisy's chest went tight with fear as she turned to watch the scene unfolding in front of her.

A dark-haired muggle woman in nice pants and a nicer jacket (with feathered wings on the back, and a blue eye between them) had just bumped into Bellatrix - stumbled on past her, stooping as she nearly lost her footing completely.

Mother made a disgusted face as she squared her shoulders and tossed her head about, brushing at her arm like the contact had been full of diseases (or germs - or maybe muggle cooties).

The dark-haired woman's leg straightened out, and she turned back toward them, her eyes narrowed and her jaw clenched.

Oh god, Daisy thought desperately. Don't pick a fight, not with my mother. Don't pick a fight, don't-

The muggle woman's hands came up suddenly; her left palm smacked into mother's backside, while her right hand struck Daisy's chest. Blue light flared at point of contact, and Daisy suddenly found herself unable to move! Mother looked similarly affected.

The woman who couldn't be a muggle drew a wand out of her jacket, and gave it a quick flick at mother's backside; a red light flared, and mother dropped. Stunned! The woman turned her gaze on Daisy, and flicked her wand at her without hesitation.

The light flashed, and Daisy fell unconscious too.

---

Daisy opened her eyes in what felt like a mere moment later. But she knew more time than that had to have passed.

For one thing, she was no longer in the same place. For another, her mother was nowhere to be found.

Daisy looked around herself. She was in a small, dimly lit room. One lit by electricity - terribly running electricity, but electricity all the same. Her eyes were drawn almost immediately to the woman sitting in a chair at her bedside. Her assailant. The woman had dark hair, sharp features, and eyes that were...strangely familiar.

"Morning, sweetheart," the woman spoke, in a very casual tone.

Daisy took a calming breath as she realized she was chained to the bed. A single manacle was on her wrist, and the length of chain was attached to the bed frame by a steel ring. She sat up slowly, and she put her hands in her lap. She examined the woman, the strange familiarity rising. "Have I seen you before?" she asked finally.

"Not as far as I'm aware." The woman shrugged.

"Who are you? And where am I? Where's my mother?" Daisy asked, narrowing her eyes at the woman. She flexed her fingers in her lap, wondering which wandless spell would do best to get her out of the situation. Or at least give her the best chance to start to try to get away from here. Her eyes moved to the closed door of the room; it was probably locked and enchanted with all kinds of barriers and traps to keep her in here if she tried to escape. She'd still have to deal with figuring that all out, even if she did manage to subdue the woman and get free of her chain.

"Who am I?" The woman gave a small smile, raising an airy hand to wave. "Where are you?Where's your mother? I can tell you one thing, but not the other. Well, two things and not a third - I can say that you aren't in Little Hangleton anymore. You're nowhere near Riddle manor. And I can say that your mother is in the same position you are right now."

"I don't do games," Daisy hissed. "Tell me who you are and why you kidnapped me! Now!"

"You're a strong, fiery girl, aren't you?" the woman laughed. A laugh that... "Be careful not to get too fiery, or we're going to have problems I don't want to deal with."

"What kind of problems?"

"Just don't do anything stupid - like causing trouble, or trying to escape," the woman replied. "I might have to hurt you if you do. I don't like hurting children - but I will if it comes to it. Do you understand?"

Daisy breathed, and she nodded. "You won't even give me a name?" she said.

The woman drew a wand from her jacket, pushing to her feet. "You can call me Jennifer, if that's more comforting for you."

Jennifer...

Daisy stared into the woman's face, and it finally clicked into place. "Jennifer...Coleman?"

"The one and only."

"Then you're really...Edith's mother? The leader of the Amethyst Griffons?"

Jennifer gazed down on her with surprise. Then it was gone. "You know my daughter?"

"Yes. We were...sort of friends, but...not so much, lately," Daisy trailed off, ducking her head. "We've been ignoring each other; she stopped wanting anything to do with me a while ago."

Jennifer stepped in, and slowly lowered herself to her knees before Daisy. She reached out and forced Daisy's chin up, gentle but uncompromising. She held her jaw in hand, long fingernails pressed to her skin. "I'm sorry to hear that, sweetie," she said quietly, almost kindly, really. As if she meant it.

Of course, in that moment, the only thing Daisy was thinking about was the fact that this was the woman who blew up babies and didn't care. Not enough to stop.

"But," Jennifer went on thoughtfully, her thumb now caressing at Daisy's cheek. "If that's the case, then you might just be more valuable to me than I ever thought you would be. Not just for your father - but for my daughter."

"You're after my father?"

"Oh, him, and anyone else we happen to see an opening to go for," Jennifer replied. "We've been watching Riddle Manor for months now - from very far away. We've kept an eye on who comes and goes. Even if those barriers are impenetrable, there is still valuable intel we can gather on the building. And when you walked right out those front doors and down into the village tonight...how could we pass up that opportunity?"

Dammit. When father found out about this, he was going to destroy her for her stupidity.

"What are you going to do, use me as bait? Or a ransom? Or- a trade?" Daisy listed off. "Me for Edith?"

"I've considered it already," Jennifer answered simply, her hand finally dropping from Daisy's face. She leaned back on her haunches, just- casually squatting there before Daisy, like she wasn't the woman keeping her chained to a bed. "But if it's more worthwhile to hang onto you - for the long term - then my daughter just might have to wait longer as well. God knows she's waited a long time already, lost to me. Stolen from me..."

"You'd pass up on getting your daughter back like that? Really? What kind of mother are you? Don't you love her-?"

Jennifer's face contorted. Her eyes glared like daggers. She leaned in and seized Daisy's face again, yanking her forward, so they were eye to eye. "What kind of mother am I? The kind that your father made me into. Do you think, Daisy, that I wouldn't love to be living in a normal house, with sunshine and rainbows and fluffy clouds? That I wouldn't love to wake up every morning to a warm bed and a warm body beside me? That I wouldn't love to prance about in my knickers singing some happy tune while I make a wonderful breakfast for my family? That I wouldn't love to have been there to see my daughter off on that scarlet express? That I wouldn't love to be getting daily letters from her about how she's having so much fun at school with her-"

Daisy was not going to just take more shitty treatment laying down! She clenched her jaw and threw her head aside, aiming to bite the woman-

Jennifer let her go, drew her fist back- and froze. She sucked in a long breath, and then she stood and turned away, burying her fist in her other hand's palm.

"You're a child," she said harshly. But what she meant, what she was implying or not implying - Daisy couldn't figure it out. She was too focused on the fact that...

"You called me...Daisy," she breathed.

Jennifer let her hands relax at her sides, and she turned back to face her. She sat down in her chair again, placing her hands on her knees. And she smiled. A small, warm smile - like she hadn't just gone nuts on her, like she hadn't just been about to squeeze her jaw until it broke. "I did. It's your name, isn't it? Your first, your real one. The name of the girl you are - not the one the world is trying to turn you into. The one your father, and your mother want you to be."

Daisy was lost for words.

Jennifer's face flashed with uncertainty. With regret. "Sorry about that, sweetie. I'm sorry. 'Kay?"

"Why did you take me?" Daisy asked flatly. "Please."

Jennifer nodded, seemingly to herself more than to Daisy. When she met Daisy's eye again, her face was full of softness, of warmth - compassion. "No one wants to hurt you. I don't want to hurt you..."

"My father is going to come for me. He'll make you wish you never kidnapped me," Daisy stated factually. "Or my mother."

Jennifer just nodded. "Oh, I'm aware - and I'm counting on that. That's why I left a note behind."

"You want to kill him?"

"That, or at least get him out of the way for a decade or two," Jennifer responded. "For a long time, he was in some sort of dead-but-not-alive state - a specter, a phantom, a wraith, whatever you like to call it - but he had no body and no access to a wand. He was crippled and weak, and it took a very long time before he could be brought back to physical form...and power again. If we can blow his body apart and send him back into that formless, clawing worm of a state again, I'll consider that enough of an achievement. One that could turn the tide in this war irreversibly - swing it all the way into our favor, for a time. Perhaps long enough to end it."

Daisy nodded, looking down into her lap. She pressed her lips together, wishing so badly she could just blurt out all her father's secrets for this woman. All she knew and suspected. Anything to at least give Voldemort's enemies an advantage against him - it didn't matter who, to her! Just that someone got it, someone would make use of it...

But...

A slender, warm hand touched Daisy's free wrist - grasped at her hand. Daisy glanced up, stiffening.

"Look, sweetheart - Daisy - I only need you for this one mission," Jennifer spoke softly. "I only need you here to draw him out - right into our trap. But you won't be harmed, and after we end him - permanently or temporarily - or even if we don't succeed at all...I can promise you that you'll never have to go back to him. We can keep you with us - give you shelter, protection, even training, if you'd like that. If you want to be free, or if you want to fight back...I'll help you do that. I'll give you that chance. Whatever you want to do; if you have family friends, or at least trusted adults you want to go back to, I can reunite you with them..."

Daisy blinked rapidly as her vision blurred. Her lips shook. She clenched her fist and tore it out of the woman's grasp, turning away from her and screwing up her face tight. She slammed her eyes shut and gave a hated sniffle. A cry she couldn't quite hold back. Was she serious? This woman was serious, she meant it, she would- she could- for Daisy...

But...the Refuge...the Order's families...all those innocent people who had already suffered so much, lost so much...who would all die if she dared to betray her father in any obvious, clear way...

If she ran, if she broke ties, the second she did she knew he would go and fulfill his vow to her!

And then everyone...all of it would be her fault! All those deaths, all those people...those kids, safe and happy for once in their lives...

Ritchie...Hazel...even people like Alina...

God, she had never wanted to do anything in her life so badly than in this moment. She had never found it so hard to just say one, single word. But if she even whispered that word aloud...

"I can't!" Daisy burst out, her whole body shaking now. A full on sob ripping out of her throat.

"Daisy, listen to me. Whatever they threatened you with, whatever they've told you - throw it away. It won't matter if you're with me. I'll keep it from happening."

Daisy shook her head fiercely, drawing away until her back hit the wall. She drew in her legs and shoved her head between her knees. "I c-can't, it's not me, it's-"

"Your family? Your friends? I know their tactics," Jennifer spoke, utterly empathetic. Sorrow and grief played across her face. "Just let me help you, and I can send word to anyone you need to, and they can be moved. Hidden away. Before Riddle can even get to them."

"You...know his real name?" Daisy choked, unmoving.

"Riddle Manor, Tom Riddle's grave in the town's graveyard, the oldest Death Eaters all having gone to Hogwarts at the same time as a Tom Riddle Jr. decades ago, a trophy at Hogwarts to a Tom Riddle dating back sixty years ago, to a time when the Chamber of Secrets was opened..." The woman gave a soft little snort. "Riddle is delusional to think no one could discover his origins. It hasn't even taken that thorough of an investigation for us. It's mostly a matter of playing connect the dots."

"Why would you investigate that, though?"

"It's simple: to know our enemy," Jennifer replied airily. "To learn his weaknesses, his psychology - even a little of his travels during the ten year period he vanished from the face of the earth after graduating Hogwarts. Whatever Dark Arts he was into, however he twisted himself up so terribly..."

Again it ached at Daisy like a physical pain; she just wanted to scream it out! But if she dared to do that...

"And I've found it's been good for the morale of the Griffons," Jennifer went on. "to know that he's simply a very fucked up man, and not an unstoppable dark monster from hell itself. A powerful, talented, twisted man - but still just a man. If enough of us can catch him off guard, fire Killing Curses at him - he'll be destroyed like anyone else. Well, not quite, but you get the idea." A small chuckle. A pause. Then- "He was even once a sniveling, pathetic little boy in an orphanage. He was no one, and nothing. He has the whole world believing he's something, nowadays - invincible, even! - but what if we were to shatter that illusion? Psychological warfare is as important as actual warfare, you'll find, sweetheart."

Daisy said nothing, simply focusing on her breathing. She wanted to just say yes, so badly! She wanted to beg this woman to hide her away, to take her with her, to stay here forever. To send her back to the Order, to her mummy...

Jennifer was right: Daisy was a child, and she just wanted this all to be over! She wanted to go home, she wanted mummy. Even if she had thought such awful things about her over the years, she'd say sorry a million times for it all, and for killing daddy, if it meant being in her arms again, if it meant getting to hear her tell her she loved her, if it meant-

But...

Daisy still didn't have all the information she wanted on her father. His last two Horcruxes, and their locations. She had plans, plans she needed to stick to, see through, and only then could she give it all to the people who could use it to end him! And there was also the fact that she needed to go back to Hogwarts - she needed to be there for Rigel, and even for Edith! What would their lives become if Daisy wasn't there to protect them? To look after them (even if one was ignoring her)? Would Rigel even last the rest of the year before she would cross the sea and find true safety and freedom from this oppressive country?

If Daisy couldn't go back to her friends again...if she couldn't be there for them...

There was so much she still needed to do, things she needed to be there for.

The only things she could mark off on her list right now would be Occlumency training - she could have anyone in the Order teach her that - and her own Horcrux creation - she had gone over the methods, the spell, and the ritual a thousand times over the past weeks, to the point where now she knew it by heart (she didn't need the books anymore, not really).

She could make herself immortal any time, if she really wanted to - and she did want to, simply because being alive was better than being dead any day.

She didn't need father for that. But she did need him for what she could learn about his Horcruxes.

She couldn't give that up, she couldn't give up where she was now, how close she was to...to getting her mother to...

And she couldn't just disappear on Rigel either! She couldn't! She'd seen what Rigel was being put through when there was nobody who cared - nobody to look out for the camp-rat of a mudblood in the elite school of Hogwarts! If Daisy just left her behind, it would start up again, and maybe even get worse! Daisy couldn't do that to her, she couldn't! She refused to! Even...even if it meant giving up on her chance to just run away from all of this, right here and now.

A good girl wouldn't run. A good person wouldn't just run away, and leave her friends out to dry - and hurt, and suffer...and maybe die.

Even if her father had promised more torture if she dared to associate with those camp-rat children again, Daisy would still risk it...for them. She would take it for them. Because she had to. She was the only one who could protect them. Even if it earned her more pain, herself, to spare them from it...

"I can't," Daisy reiterated, firm now. "I won't; I need to go back. I need to go back to him! To them."

"No, you don't have to," Jennifer refuted. "Whoever he promised to hurt if you fled - we can warn them, we can move them. Before he even finds them. I can think of a half dozen ways to make him believe you're at least still here, in our custody - to keep his focus here until we've done it. Until you're safe, too."

Why was this damn woman making this so hard?! Why was she making it hurt so much?

"You couldn't do it in time. Not everyone," Daisy uttered. "I just...I have to go back. You have to let me go back."

"Maybe, after all this time, you really do believe that," Jennifer said sadly. "Or maybe you don't - but either way: I'm not letting you go back, kid. You're here, and you'll stay here, whether you like it or not. And you'll thank me for it later on."

"Father's going to kill you for this," Daisy said tonelessly. "You can't keep me here. You can't help me- you can't."

"We'll see about that. If you think he's invincible, like the rest of the country seems to, then, today, I'm going to shatter that illusion for you personally, sweetheart."

A gentle hand patted her head - stroked at her hair. Then it left her. "I think we'll start by shattering the physical symbol of his power. I hate to deprive you of a wand, Daisy, but we'll find you a new one."

Daisy's head came up, and she stared at the yew wand in Jennifer's hand. "Wait, you can't just-!" she swiped for her wand, lunging, desperate.

"I won't," Jennifer said quickly, holding the wand out of reach. "Not just yet." She stood, backing away across the room completely. She pocketed the yew wand and opened the door, letting light spill in from some dusty wooden hallway (nothing to give Daisy any idea of where she was). A familiar, almost feral grin came to the woman's face as she added, "I'm saving that moment for when I have him in front of me. The look on his face will be one to remember."

"Wait-!" Daisy started again.

"Not yet - just sit tight, sweetheart," the woman cut her off, shaking her head and stepping out of the room. She closed the door behind her, and Daisy's world became silent, and lonely.

Only one, desperate, panicky thought raced around and around in her head now.

I need to get out of here!

And she would do anything to make that happen - for Rigel. And, yes, even for Edith.

And for her mother, as well.

---

Lord Voldemort sat in the peace and serenity of his study, absorbed in his pastime.

Until something dared to disturb it.

No, it was not the usual source of such disturbances - that being his annoyingly persistent and talkative daughter - but instead something...entirely new this time. Something entirely unexpected. Something was, perhaps, something to worry over.

In the distance, down the hill from the manor, where the lights of the muggle town glowed, Voldemort's eye was caught by a great beam of purple energy that shot into the night sky. There, it gathered, coalescing to form the image of a burning, purple-flamed griffon.

Voldemort stood from his desk, snatching up his wand immediately.

Worry most definitely gripped his heart as he instantly realized just what that magical symbol meant. Just whom it meant was here! Here at the gates of his home, his headquarters, his everything! And just what it must mean for the two individuals he had sent down to that muggle town not an hour ago now.

Voldemort thrust his wand forth, destroying the window and flying out into the night, shrouded in smoke. He flew faster than the fastest broomstick, descending the hill toward the town, his wand gripped tight in hand.

His worry was only growing, his fears mounting. His daughter...

He soared down to the town's edge, touching down and hastening through the streets, toward where the purple beam was quickly fading now. The symbol in the night sky fading now, so quick...

He reached the origin point to find only a faintly swirling ring of purple energy hovering before himself. The muggles, of course, could not see it as he could. Though, he presumed they could see what was resting on the ground right beneath the ring: a piece of torn muggle paper with words scribbled all over it, and a small, muggle doll.

Voldemort snatched the paper up and brought it to his eyes, taking in the brief words in an instant: Attison Lake - come immediately if you want your daughter back alive and in one piece.

Voldemort dropped the note, snatched up the muggle toy, and let the Portkey take him, the burning rage of murder growing in his heart alongside the still-present fears.

When he reappeared, it was indeed on a lake. A literal, frozen lake. Vast, wide, and thick. Trees lined to the left, while open space of pure white snow was visible to the right.

Voldemort burned the toy to ashes and clenched his fist as he took in his surroundings with a single glance - and his enemies with a wandless, wordless casting of the Human-Presence Detection Charm. The enemies he could not already see, that was. There was one enemy standing several dozen feet across from him - across the lake.

Exactly the witch he expected to see. And beside her, bound in thick black ropes and laid out on the ground, were Delphini and Bellatrix. Both seemingly alive, both seemingly unhurt. Though, that may have been rather relative, considering who he was dealing with... At any rate, only Delphini was moving and squirming. Bella was being quite still.

"Jennifer Coleman," Voldemort spoke out, using his magic to cast his voice out to the ears of every person in the area - invisible or not. Fools who thought he did not know where they were. As if he did not know that there were an additional sixteen individual mages surrounding him on all sides, at varying distances! "I hope that you realize the depths of the mistake you have made here tonight!"

"A mistake?" Coleman called back to him, placing her hands on her hips and raising her chin. "If it is, then it's one I should have made years ago! Because you - Tom - are worth it."

Voldemort almost snapped the Deathstick in two at his side. "You dare-!" he screamed out.

"I didn't stutter, did I?" Coleman interrupted, with a loud, particularly fake laugh. "You're worth every second of this. Not for you - for my wife, and for my daughter!"

"So this is not strategy, then: it's revenge," Voldemort said calmly.

"Yes," the woman called out. "You tortured and murdered my wife...and then you took my daughter from me. And now you're going to watch me do the same thing to your daughter." She gave an absent gesture to the two at her feet. She strode left, then right. Then, she took a hard, crunching step forward.

"What a waste!" Voldemort laughed, high and shrill to the air. "All this effort to seize Lord Voldemort's child from him, and you waste it on revenge? Surely there is something your rebel group wants - could stand to gain. But you do this for no gain? You forfeit your own life for no gain? Because, make no mistake, I will kill you as I did your precious wife, for stealing my daughter from me!"

"I know a monster like you can't understand it. You've never loved anything in life, have you? Never had to lose it!" the woman shouted furiously. "But..."

The Order was the largest, most organized resistance operating in the country - but it was not the only one, of course not. There were others, dozens, scattered and smaller. Each with their own operational methods...and codes of ethics and morality. The Order was always trying to be just and righteous in its crusade, but when it came to some of the other groups...

They were far more willing to commit acts akin to the Death Eaters themselves - something which made them infinitely more dangerous opponents than the Order could ever be, in all their moralizing and posturing.

Evident here and now, on this stormy winter's night, more than ever before over the past ten years of his rule.

And the Amethyst Griffons were one of the greatest threats of them all - some of the most dangerous of them all. True, it worked to his benefit that the public's opinion of them was one of utmost hatred for their violent and indiscriminate acts...but those very acts were an incredible thorn in the side of Voldemort's rule. And now...now...

Now, they had stolen his daughter from him, subjected her to who knew what, and now they had dumped her into the middle of a frozen lake surrounded by a small army of mages.

"If this is the closest I can get to making you feel even a fraction of the things I've felt all these years, then so be it!" the woman was yelling.

The ice began to crack all over the lake's expanse. It crumbled, and out of dozens of holes came dozens of wet, decaying corpses. Inferi! Most of whom wore Ministry uniforms and Death Eater robes, Voldemort noted - Coleman was utilizing her fallen enemies to attack the living one that was he.

Make that not only a small army of mages, then - but a small army of inferi as well.

Voldemort met the woman's gaze across the distance, standing utterly motionless and rigid.

Coleman offered a highly satisfied smile.

Voldemort longed to raise his wand and wipe it from her face - along with the life from her eyes - but...he could not lose control. Not yet. Not here. He had far too many opponents surrounding him now to make such an error. Not to mention, the main reason he had come here: to retrieve his daughter - and Bella, too, he supposed...

"Oh! Before I forget - this is the part I'm going to love, Tom!" Coleman resumed her pacing, almost leisurely, as if she were a lion toying with prey. Waiting to pounce. That smile grew, and she reached into her jacket's pocket and pulled out...

Voldemort's old wand! His yew and phoenix wand! The wand which he had given to Delphini.

His wand arm trembled; he was glad to hide it in his robes, and in the darkness. "No muggleborn filth will touch the wand of Lord Voldemort!" he yelled out.

"Just touching it? What about...this?" The woman tossed his wand out in front of herself, and then she hurled a Blasting Curse out at it. The wand was blown in two, as large chunks of ice blew up around them. They clattered back down onto the ice, separate and charred.

Voldemort nearly screamed. "You will regret this, I will make you suffer in a thousand ways before I finally kill you - but before I do, I will go and find your daughter, and I will see her ravaged and violated before your eyes, and then I will see her dead at your feet before I finally murder you myself!"

"More bravado, Tom?" The woman's laughter rang in his ears, enraging beyond all belief. "Come on, you know that won't hide the truth. You can hide, run, disguise yourself however you want to - with however many dark rituals, across however many decades - but we both know the truth! Underneath those red eyes, behind that noseless snake face, you're just a sad little orphan crying out for mummy and daddy."

Voldemort roared, raising his wand-

Coleman flashed her wand down to her left, and a jet of green light flew out to strike the ice a foot from Delphini's body (but the girl did not scream; she must have been under a Silencing spell).

Voldemort froze, an indescribable terror rising in his chest. His eyes became slits as he gazed at the woman.

"One last thing, Tom!" Coleman spoke, her face sharp, her voice harsh. "Just one, small thing before we get to the main event..."

"And what is that?" Voldemort managed to snarl out at her.

"After I've made another orphan out of the orphan's child," Coleman spoke on. "The entire country is going to see you for what you really are - exactly how I'm seeing you now. Thought you ought to know! Not an invincible monster of pure evil: a deluded sociopath trying desperately to stop thinking about how he's still the weak little orphan Tommy inside!"

Voldemort raised his wand in an instant, casting out a silent, furious Killing Curse.

Coleman began walking forward to greet it, her own wand at her side still!

Was she mad, was she courting death, was she truly so confident in her own skills that she thought she could simply-

Coleman waved her wand, and a large chunk of ice tore itself free of the lake, hovering in the air in precisely the right position to meet the Curse - to take it, and shatter into a thousand pieces across the ground.

Voldemort threw out another, and a third, and a fourth - one after another, relentless!

Coleman waved her wand again, bringing up more ice to take the first. She dropped down to avoid the second and third and the fourth, her body contorting on the ice with surprising swiftness and agility - and flexibility. She did a front split, simply resting there, one leg forward, one stretched out behind her. She sprang to her feet, again, with a surprising ease. A weightlessness that should not have been nearly so...

She flicked her wand at him, and a green jet of energy burst from it - her first act of return fire.

Voldemort waved his wand to conjure a physical shield in preparation to block the Curse.

The moment he did, several things happened at once: the ice beneath him shattered in a radius of a dozen feet; several other Killing Curses and Dark Spells flew at him from all directions; and a great, wide ceiling of pure concrete appeared over his head to block out the sky.

Voldemort levitated in the air, flying forward toward Coleman, his wand rising.

A wall of concrete appeared a foot from his face, and he slammed straight into it. Hard.

He slashed his wand, shattering it to pieces and whirling, casting another Human-Presence Revealing spell instantly after.

The ceiling of concrete above him dropped, and two more walls appeared behind and in front of him, and began to close in on him.

Voldemort ducked under them and flew across the ice for Coleman, rage in his heart.

He would reach her, he would kill her!

And every last one of these fools who thought they could tear him down, destroy him!

Voldemort's whole body jerked as something caught around his body, stopping him in his tracks. He twisted around to see a glowing rope of blue tight around his ankle. Several more ropes were cast out, wrapping around his other leg and his arms!

Spells flew up for him immediately, trying to take advantage of his captivity.

Voldemort waved his wand, and the ropes sputtered out of existence. He moved to avoid the Killing Curses, and conjured a moving bubble of a shield around himself as he resumed his course straight for Coleman. He slung his wand over his head, creating a massive sphere of Fiendfyre, and unleashed it on the world without a care. The fiery creatures formed and ran across the lake, melting it through in seconds, disintegrating the inferi, and burning through a dozen of the mages surrounding Voldemort still.

He needed to thin the herd sooner rather than later.

The woman, however, was simply standing there watching him. Meeting his gaze, challenging, cool, as if she weren't even concerned! Well, perhaps she was not, at the moment - she seemed quite content to let her rabble of rebels do her work for her!

They would all die for her, because of her, in her name.

This woman was nothing but a coward, refusing to face him - using tricks and diversions to avoid a real confrontation, a real duel!

Voldemort thrust out his wand, casting a Killing Curse at her.

The woman remained perfectly still, placing her hands on her hips again, brushing back that muggle jacket of hers. On her waist, something glistened, and then a reflective, circular disc of what looked like metal sprouted into existence in the air before her. It shot forward, meeting the Killing Curse head on, and exploded into pieces.

Voldemort narrowed his eyes at her. How had she managed that? She had not even raised her wand, nor given any indication of a spell cast! He held her gaze and dove into her mind with Legilimency - or, he attempted to! All he found were images, sights and sounds...of two women in a muggle car, sharing laughter and affections, of a young girl held in arms as they moved along a boardwalk-

Voldemort howled as he retreated from the woman's mind, from that agony! That useless, pathetic, worthlessness of memory!

Very well! He did not need to know what she had done in order to overcome it! Lord Voldemort would take her life either way!

Suddenly a purple jet of energy burst to life in front of Voldemort, flying out to strike him in the chest! It had been too close, too fast to dodge, to realize even that anything was-

Voldemort thrust out his wand on instinct and rage, the green jet emerging to fly blindly forward as he twisted in the air as agony burst in his chest.

His enemy, bold and audacious, whoever they were, fell dead to the ice, their invisibility spell fading to reveal a corpse.

Voldemort gasped as the searing pain in his chest pulsed again, and he was forced to ground himself, pointing his own wand desperately as his own body. Heal, he needed to heal this!

Several green jets of light flew toward him again; a purple sludge appeared beneath him, running over his hands and knees, binding him to the ground!

Voldemort slashed his wand out; ice rose up around him in a circle, protective and thick. The spells struck the physical barrier, shattering it all around him - but he lived on.

He did away with the sludge and stood, gasping. He tapped his wand to his chest, and the pain began to ease considerably.

He flew up out of the ice barrier, hovering in the air as he took stock of his surroundings once more.

"Father! Father, please, help me!" His child's screaming, her voice high and ringing, full of such desperation and pleading, suddenly filled his ears.

Voldemort turned his gaze toward her, and saw her surrounded by clawing inferi.

"Please, please - father! Please!" Delphini screamed as the creatures grasped at her, pulling her across the ice.

Their eyes met, for an instant - a single moment - and he felt something shoot through his chest, quite separate and apart from the constant burning of the dark curse afflicting him. This new feeling grew, becoming a small, flickering sort of warmth in him. This warmth spread, almost blocking out the agony of the dark curse somehow. It was light, shallow, but somehow...it was greater than the curse. What was this? Had one of those two cast a counter-curse on him? But how could either of them know it and not him? No, Bellatrix, he saw, was still quite unconscious, laying on the ice unmoving. Only Delphini was awake and aware. But she could not have the skill to even...

Voldemort surged into his daughter's mind, holding her gaze even still and taking advantage of it. He searched the surface, finding only...

An overwhelming blast of the same warmth he was experiencing already - except, from her, it was more like a burning sun! It was almost painful, searing, scorching as a sun would be! Not quite the agony of bonding to Potter's mind and soul when he had possessed him, or the times he had delved into Delphini's mind before now, nor even when he had just seen into Coleman's mind, but...almost...the same...if he thought back to what had been beneath, or intermixed with all the agony...the things Potter had been thinking and remembering at the time...the things Coleman had been just...

The same things he saw now flashing past in his daughter's mind: rare moments when he had tried to connect with her; when he had taught her to fly, and she had truly smiled and thanked him, been practically giddy at the experience; when she had gazed at him so strangely when she had tripped down the staircase in a feat of utter stupidity, and he had gone to heal her injuries - and she had, again, given thanks to him; when he had first informed her she would be attending Hogwarts, how her face had become so full of joy and excitement...

It was all flooding into him, as if she were willing him to experience it all - to feel it all - deliberately! Was she performing Legilimency on him again?

Voldemort broke eye contact, breathing harsh as he curled his fist at his side, the realization striking him like lightning. The connection! Was this...love? Love, at last? Recognized by him, obtained by him, felt by him? Something he had sought for so long now, through his child? Had his efforts finally bore fruit? Had he truly found it? Or...no, it had been there all along! All these times, these moments, it had always been there, he realized in astonishment, in excitement! That burning was love, and what was beneath it was...something more.

And not Potter's love, nor Coleman's - felt through another, toward people he personally cared nothing for nor knew anything about - but this time, through himself? His own...love...? His daughter's love...to his love...? Hers to him...to cause his own to...?

The Elder Wand trembled in his grasp, becoming heated in his palm.

Voldemort glanced down at it. It was radiating with a strange golden glow, its tip burning, as if wanting to release some energy on its own power and will...

Normally he would have felt the greatest of rage at the thought of this tamed tool of his trying to suddenly rise up beyond his control, to become freed of his will and power! But, incredibly strangely, he felt only the mildest sensation of annoyance - along with the strangest of urgings in his mind to allow it!

It was almost a pulse of its own, like a flare of warmth that burst out of the all-encompassing version of the feeling...

His daughter's screams rang out, causing him to wince at the near physical pain in his ears.

Several inferi had pulled her into their clutches, were grasping at her limbs and twisting them, reaching for her head next to-

"Tom, please!" Delphi's shrieking voice reached him again. Against that warmth, the utterly murderous rage he would have normally felt at anyone daring to throw that worthless name at him was...a moderate sense of irritation.

Surely that should be distressing to him - evidence against love being some great power, and more pointing toward it being a weakness, a stifling of his emotions and his will...and yet... It did not bother him too much, either.

What did bother him was the sight before him. He felt in that moment that if his daughter were to be lost, he would be lost to an agony beyond the decade spent as a formless spirit. It would be a thousand times worse than the pain of tearing his soul apart - or as terrible as every single time he had, compressed into one moment and amplified. An agony he would do anything to end, to reverse...something he could never allow to come to pass, no matter what!

He told himself, intellectually, that the likes of Dumbledore and Potter knew love as an instinctual and impulsive thing - grasped and used in an instant alone to achieve bursts of impossible greatness - and so the only way he would be able to utilize its power himself would be to (as much as he hated the thought) trust himself to it. To follow the...impulse.

Very well! For her sake, he would allow love to guide him - but only this once, he told himself. Call it an experiment, even, indulging in his objective long sought after, now finally reached. Voldemort grimaced, and he flew forward, grasping his wand tight in hand.

He strode forward and thrust his wand out, unleashing the wrath of Fiendfyre upon the world for a second time.

Or at least, that was what he had intended to do: what actually happened was that a great golden light lit up the night, and several dozen strands of energy flew freely toward his daughter, encircling her, weaving around and between and through the nearest inferi horde. The strands glowed, and the inferi began to scream and melt, falling apart. Releasing Delphi to fall back onto the ground.

Voldemort waved his wand, and a half dozen strands flew back toward him to encircle him, as if protecting him (how laughable, how audacious, for this wand, this love to think that he needed protecting!). Any inferi who neared him were ensnared, yanked off their feet, and pierced through their bodies to become melted puddles on the ground. He couldn't deny it was effective (even if he felt Fiendfyre would have been just as effective!).

But he was not to argue with love's choice, was he? That was not, he felt, how it worked (grating as it was). Some instinct, some deeper level of himself, his very soul that remained in his body, was telling him so. A part of him that knew things the rest of his conscious self and mind did not. Just as his daughter had said it was like!

The girl he had created, and the woman who had been nothing but unwaveringly loyal and even caring toward him, whom he had entrusted his most precious piece of soul to before anyone else...the woman he had chosen to create that child with before anyone else...

This battle mattered for nothing, he realized. Coleman mattered for nothing. All that mattered...was Delphi.

Voldemort startled as those circling strands of energy struck out around him, smacking away incoming Curses - though not any Killing Curses, he noted with dismay. Was his soul the problem? Was his love the problem? Or rather, his capacity to? Was his daughter truly right, again, then, about his shattered state...?

Well, perhaps this wand's magic was not too grating after all, if it meant less curses to have to worry over.

Voldemort flew down for Delphi, seizing her in his arms as he passed her by, snatching her up. He flew toward lake's edge, toward the trees. Doubtless these assailants had put up anti-apparition barriers around the area - but if he could find their limits, he could easily escape them with Delphi. And then he could return for Bella, of course...

And for Coleman.

A jet of green light suddenly shot past him, nearly right over his shoulder!

He turned to look behind himself, and saw a sight that shocked him.

Jennifer Coleman was flying furiously after him, pursuing him! She was not using unaided magical flight, but enchanted item: her muggle jacket! There were large, wide, brown, feathered wings flapping in the cold winds behind her back, as if they had simply sprouted from her clothing itself. Her arm was outstretched, and her wand was aimed at Voldemort.

Voldemort's rage surged. He slashed his own wand back at her - and the ropes of energy evaporated around him.

He snarled in irritation, in betrayal, the pain flooding his chest again as he clutched Delphini tighter still.

He hurled a Killing Curse back at Coleman, causing her to dip low and aside to avoid it.

Voldemort shot into the trees, swerving left and right, over bush and under a fallen trunk. He surged onward, around a boulder- and he felt it. He could leave now.

Leave with Delphini.

He focused his mind, and Disapparated in mid air as he twisted around one more time - flashing a triumphant smirk at Coleman.

---

The pair reappeared not in front of Riddle Manor, no, but instead far elsewhere.

The gates of Hogwarts castle.

Riddle Manor was clearly not a safe location anymore - not so secure, at least. People knew of it, knew of its location, and its connection to him, much as he hated it for all it was worth!

Delphini would not be safe there anymore.

Particularly not if she wished to take more idiotic trips into the muggle world.

Voldemort slowed his flight to a halt, landing on the cold ground before the gates of Hogwarts.

He knelt down, placing Delphi at his feet.

She was not moving, was not speaking. But she lived, and was certainly awake. She was simply...laying there.

What had been done to her? A curse? A poison? Perhaps...

As Voldemort stared down at Delphini, taking in every inch of her face, an even stranger feeling than ever began overtaking him. As he gazed at her, it was as if...as if he were seeing her for the first time, truly. Taking in color, the curves, and all the depths of those dark brown eyes of hers (eyes that always brought unwitting memories to the surface of his mind, of decades long past), along with the way she was looking back at him.

His hand twitched at his side, it moved - but not his wand hand. The other. He slowly raised it, uncertain of what he himself was even doing in that moment. Unsure of why...

He touched her face, simply looking at her still. A great thrill shot up his arm; he half thought she had used magic on him, but there was no pain. There was only-

"What- are you doing?" she spoke up, a tremor to her voice. He saw the way she flinched, he saw the nervousness on her face - in those eyes of hers.

Voldemort blinked. He yanked his hand away from his daughter and stood. He drew a long breath of cold air, flexing his hand at his side in the folds of his robes as he turned to survey the area. What, indeed, had he just been doing?!

"Father..."

Voldemort ignored her.

"Father!" she snapped out, sitting up now.

He whirled on her, glowering, anger rising. "What?"

The girl gazed up at him, slowly rising to her feet. She glanced down, bringing her hands together in a familiar way. "Mother-"

"Yes, I will retrieve her as soon as I have you safely inside this castle," Voldemort cut her off lazily.

She looked up at him, blinking rapidly. She nodded, then her face became a familiar mask. Her head turned aside, away from him. "Father, I- I'm sorry about your wand, I'm sorry I couldn't escape her, and I'm sorry I had to make you come after me like this and I-"

"You need not apologize," he found himself saying roughly. Was it the cold affecting his throat? The air? He sounded quite a bit hoarser than usual, even to himself. His tingling hand was curled into a fist in his robes, and then let go again. "You...are merely a child, after all. What matters is that you have survived the situation, and that you will learn from it. Yes...?"

"Yes, father. I swear I will. I'll do better, I'll be perfect!"

"In time, I'm certain you will. Now, come."

"Father..."

"What is it now? I already have told you there is no apology to be made for-"

"Mother's dead."

Voldemort stared at his daughter. He did not even see her, in that moment. She took a step back, a tremor racing through her body, visible to see. "What...did you just say?"

"Jennifer- Coleman- she killed her. We were held captive somewhere for a while before she moved us out to the lake. She showed me...Mother was already dead." His daughter's voice was void of any emotion. Her eyes closed, and her hands fell to her sides, becoming small fists. "There's nothing to go back for."

Voldemort turned away, leaving the child behind, his gaze set on the lights of Hogsmeade.

Someone need to die tonight - and he could not risk it being Delphi.

---

Over the course of the many weeks that followed the events of Christmas holiday, Voldemort could have come up with a dozen plausible reasons for why he had acted the way he had - why he had indulged his daughter's shrill pleas, why he had touched her face: he could have told himself it was to help strengthen their bond again, which had been waning since she had gone off to Hogwarts. He could have told himself it was a reward he had given her for doing well in her studies, or even for behaving so well this holiday (barring a select incident or two).

Never in his life had he done a single thing for anyone else that had not, in some way, been about gaining something for himself in the process or in return. Any "kindness" or mercy of his was done for a reason, a purpose, a goal beyond the act itself. An acquisition or an intent.

But Voldemort knew he could not lie to himself.

The only reason he had done what he had done was for his daughter's sake, and no other: it had been impulse. Reaction. Emotion. Again, it had been...an act of love.

Her screams, her begging him for help, her expression and her eyes beseeching him so...

And he had acted instinctively, for her - he had saved her for her. He had not done it to endear her to him further! He had not done it to benefit himself: only her.

He had done it for her, because seeing her in such a distressed, frantic state had been...discomforting for Voldemort to witness. Displeasing, even!

And he had wanted nothing more, in that instant, than to make it stop for her.

And in that moment of aftermath, it had again been a feeling, an instinct, and he had moved to do as his body wished. As his soul wished.

Even his latest torture of the girl - done simply to ease his soul of his feelings on the matter of the absence of Bella - had left Voldemort feeling something strange inside that he never had before. A twinge in his chest, a strange squirming in his gut...an odd desire to lift the spell long before he would usually feel was appropriate. Along with an even odder desire, a wish, more like, to block out the sounds of her screams and avoid gazing on her as she writhed at his feet.

Usually he would feel satisfied he was bringing her behavior to heel, and of course, the usual sense of pleasure at causing another such agony!

And yet...

Something inside of him had changed. Something was...waning.

And Voldemort could only trace it back to the obvious: the first instance in his life that he had felt love.

It had changed him - as surely as any of his dangerous magical transformations, rituals and self-applied spells. And there was no going back, no ridding himself of it - he felt that inside, knew it somehow to be true (even as he panicked about it, and even felt something like fear over it).

One, single event - one, singular brush with the emotion known as love, and Lord Voldemort had been fundamentally altered! At the level of his very soul! Irrevocably and utterly. And he was terrifyingly, maddeningly helpless to stop it.

And yet...

Some strange, miniscule, new part of him never wanted this feeling to go away again - had absolutely no desire on this earth to snuff it out. On the contrary...

A part of him was now yearning for it. Craving it. Desiring it.

A part of him...wanted to seize onto those feelings and hold them inside himself for eternity. As he had always been wanting to seize, when all he knew it as was a burning!

A burning now become a wonderful warmth, that glorious glow, that...

Love.

And if it were ever to be lost...if he had lost her that day...

An agony he could never have conceived of, and was so glad to not have had to experience...

Loss of love.

He would have killed the entire world for her in vengeance had he lost her...

He felt keenly the loss of Bella, oh yes, but he had not loved her. He knew that for certain now: he felt nothing for her so great as he did for Delphini, his living flesh and blood. His child.

If he had lost her...the agony would have been...

A thought struck him, suddenly. An inspiration. A realization.

A memory flashed back, of a young man long thought lost, coming back to him in the dark.

A mind he had plunged into, a body he had desecrated and twisted, all to ascertain the true loyalty...a loyalty once heavily questioned, but then - assuaged. And then never questioned again.

But now, as some light went off in Voldemort's head, something burgeoned in his mind...he questioned again.

Questioned, because he could suddenly see it so clearly. In his own memories of that meeting, that interrogation, Voldemort was seeing it all anew.

Severus Snape's eyes, the lines of his face, the way that his breath had...

Oh, how Voldemort had put it down to the torture, to the terror - rightfully so!

But now...

No, it wasn't precisely fear alone. Or fear of that. It was fear of...

He merely desired her, that was all.

But was that the truth?

Childhood friends, through Hogwarts, to that public humiliation of a memory that Voldemort had used time and again during Legilimency sessions to humiliate the man again and again...

The shame, the rage - the sadness at the time...and...

The love.

And the loss of love!

It was all so clear to him now.

Severus Snape had loved Lily Evans - and if Voldemort would have destroyed the world for Delphini's death...surely Severus Snape would have sought to destroy the one man he could consider responsible for her death. For the loss of his love.

A lie!

He had lied to Voldemort's face, perhaps even counted on him not understanding the true depths of his- feelings. And so his loyalties!

Yes, that was it, that was it!

Every raid and mission came to question now, a flurry of moments and events passing by. The ones involving Snape - the reports, here and there, oddities, and the subsequent explanations given to satisfy Voldemort.

But he was no longer satisfied with them.

With Snape.

Everything added up now, worryingly so. Added up to a single, burning conclusion in Voldemort's soul.

It was, as love was, a feeling.

An instinctive knowledge, as his daughter would have put it. Something she just knew yet could never have explained. But now...

Now he understood it.

He could almost...see the world how she did - how they surely had. The likes of Potter and Dumbledore. Those insights they had had into this power, this realm beyond magic, of souls of people themselves. It was truly as if he had had his eyes closed this whole time, and had only just opened them! He had seen in black and white before, but now, now the world was full of color. Each with its own meaning, its own- implications! Associations! So much it was practically overwhelming! All these missing pieces, now so clear to see - assaulting his eyes, and sinking into and being processed by his mind!

Voldemort closed his eyes physically, trying to reign it all in and focus.

He would take this new insight, and he would use it to truly ascertain Snape's loyalties - once and for all.

---

It was simple to call the man to Malfoy Manor.

To meet him in the private room on the upper floor.

To stand there and watch as the man surveyed the room, and knelt before him.

Voldemort stood waiting, observing the man for many minutes on end.

And then he spoke.

"You loved her, didn't you, Severus?"

"My Lord?"

But that instant, that surprise, that fear - that was enough.

Perhaps he wouldn't have noticed before (or, as before, he would have put it down to general fear of Voldemort's wrath), but he knew now it was almost a panic, a horror, that Voldemort knew.

"You loved Lily Evans. And her death at my hands...it would have been- devastating, would it not?"

"N-no. She was nothing to me, My Lord. In the end, she was just a remnant of a foolish child's dreams."

"A dream held onto, for all this time, perhaps," Voldemort said softly. "A dream she once held, now...taken on by yourself?"

"My Lord, I have been nothing but loyal to you." Snape argued. A bit too quickly. His face paling.

"Have you been? I've let quite a lot of things slide over the years, my friend. Irregularities and oddities when it comes to missions you are involved in...and allowing you so long to be amongst Albus Dumbledore and the Order during my absence as a wraith...It is all adding up, and I can no longer ignore it. I see it now, Severus. I see it all so clearly. Do you wish to know what it is I see?"

Severus Snape remained silent, still. Rigid. But the glistening in his dark eyes...it wasn't something visible by Legilimency. It was the eyes themselves. It was...

"All this time, in...honor of her love, have you dedicated yourself to my downfall? You are not loyal to me - but you do not fear me as Wormtail does. No, you hate me. Tell me the truth, Severus, and I will at least allow you to live as my eternal prisoner until the day you die; I will have you thrown into Azkaban, right alongside the rest of your most valuable traitors in the Order. You could even think of it as a kindness, my reuniting you with those whom you truly ally with."

Snape raised his head, and an utter loathing and ferocious malice was written all over his face. "Yes."

Voldemort still felt the astonishment at the admittance. He still felt the anger. He still felt the...what was that he was feeling now? "How unfortunate," he said quietly. "Though, the honesty is highly appreciated. Unfortunately, I myself was not being quite so honest." He flicked his wand to send out a bolt of green to fell Snape, the man's corpse forever stricken with a look of shock and terror.

Voldemort smiled to himself, a rush of satisfaction in him.

He would have to remember to truly give thanks to his daughter - his dear Delphi - for this wonderful gift. Perhaps an appropriately expensive book, or jewelry, would do well to express the depths of his gratitude toward her for opening his eyes in this way? To finally helping him obtain that which he had long sought after!

Because she had, of course, been right about it.

He felt a sudden, strange urge in himself to simply go and find her, and give her a firm embrace. But he stifled it as he gazed on Snape's body. He was forever changed, he acknowledged that - but he needed to know the full extent of the changes before indulging in any of it. Caution was best in this matter, he felt.

He could not allow himself to...run away with himself.

After all, he was still Lord Voldemort, and Lord Voldemort was still the one in control - of this country, and of himself.