There is a noise at her door. A presence beyond it.
There is a crimson-eyed shape in a dark corner. Doom waiting to strike.
Another noise from the corridor. There may be a voice to it, her mind is beyond that. Someone is approaching her. The dark veil within her room waves over the walls, almost like a dance. The most dangerous dance there is, that of the Dark.
The door cracks open and seems to be coming ajar for a moment.
A loud whipping crack answers it, cutting the air, striking, crushing.
A soft breath sounds. She can't listen to it any more than she could before. Her ears ring of something else. There is a thump just outside her door, followed by shattering.
She cares nothing of it. There was a menace, there is no more. Until realization sinks in her mind.
She eliminated the menace. Eliminated. The tiny rise of pride immediately falls, only to be replaced by dread. She eliminated something. Someone. Her magic has done something new, foreign to her knowledge. Foreign to her will.
Her ears stop ringing with fear. The darkness is coiled again, sticking to the walls. She knows it's hers and so wills it back, into a deep place she holds secret inside her.
She can ear steps now. Running steps. Draco's steps and lighter ones. It takes her a minute to place those. Aunt Narcissa. She never runs.
Opening the door all the way now, she sees. She sees what her magic has done. What I have done. It was me. That was mine. Her mind struggles to put the pieces together. She cannot fathom how the darkness that comforted her just minutes ago is the same thing responsible for the fallen body at her feet.
The steps are much closer now, and she can see a blond shape turning the corner in her peripheral.
"Don't come near me! I'll hurt you!" She is so very afraid of hurting someone else now. Wabby is suspiciously still, lying in an unnatural position. Uncle Lucius is right. I should be gone, I'm evil. She doesn't know how she did it, but she knows it was her. She willed that darkness forward. She willed it to hurt. To kill.
X
"Delphini, don't!" He knows exactly why Wabby is so still. He has seen it before. He doesn't want her to know.
"Go away, Draco! No one can come near me!" Her eyes stay frozen on the house-elf.
It has happened. What he has been afraid of ever since she was born has happened. Her magic has done what it was created for. That is the truth of it.
Her parents would be proud. Their augurey was supposed to bring forth a new era, they meant to raise her as a weapon, killing, destroying and ruling was the reason she was allowed to be born. The instillation of fear. She fulfilled that wish of her parents. They would be proud indeed. But she is terrified.
Her face is blank but he can see it in her eyes. She understands that this is different. This isn't just hurting to keep from being hurt. This is killing. It is driven by fear all the same, he knows that, he can see that, but he has never been so afraid of her. He feels like running, like getting his wand, like protecting his Mother, and himself, and her.
His mind halts at that. Protecting her. That is his mission and his promise. He will not allow himself to fail. He breaths, in and out, several times, pacing his heart and his mind.
"Delphini, it's alright. You are safe-"
"It's not alright! And you are not safe! Aunt Cissa take him away, please! I'll stay in my rooms like Uncle said. Please, don't send me away. I'll never do this again, I promise. Just let me stay. I'll stay here, I'll be good-"
The rest succumbs to sobs. Her eyes change continuously.
"Mother, step back. I have this." He should not have said that. It is the worst thing he could have said. He can see Delphini's heart shattering in her eyes, finally setting on her mesmerising green. You idiot! You proved her fears right! Think this through, now!
"Delphini, it's fine little bird. You're not even eight yet, you can't control your magic. It is not your fault."
Buy she shakes her head. Tears running down her cheeks, shoulders shaking.
"Don't come near me. Keep the others away. Ward Scorpius, I don't want my magic to hurt him. I'll stay here, I won't leave my rooms. I'm too dangerous, I did this."
"Delphie-" But it's too late. She shuts him out, retreating into her rooms. And at that he understands. "I'm too dangerous, I did this." This time it wasn't an accident. She didn't mean to kill, but she had some sort of control, lacking has it is. She did do this.
He needs to get to her, he cannot leave her alone now. He cannot let her believe what the world will say of her. She is not evil, she is not like her Mother, she is nothing like her Father, and he must convince her of it. He moves toward the doors.
"Draco, the doors!" His own Mother is stuck to the ground.
"The doors are not under Delphie's control. They won't harm me. Neither will she." But a little girl's voice shrieks from inside as he puts his palm against it. She is utterly terrified, not of him or his Father, but of herself and her magic. And in fear... she might just harm him, despite her will.
His Mother makes for his arm. "Not now, not yet. She needs to come down from it before..." They exchange a look of remembrance. Her parents were to be left alone in the aftermath too. There was nothing they could do but keep their distance and wait. They will do the same this one time, and then they will love their child and teach her better.
"You should go to Mr. Potter, I'll take your Father and deal with the newspaper."
"And Rita," he growls "I can do that."
"You are going nowhere near her, nor the Prophet's offices. Let me and your Father handle that."
He nods and she leaves him, banishing the elf into another room, where they can try and figure out what hit it. He decides he cannot leave Delphini and that he will summon Potter here. And Granger, we need her help to control this. And to figure out how Delphini managed to do that.
X
Lucius and Narcissa walk through the doors exuding anger, emanating the old power only ancient blood can carry that gracefully. Their wrath is a palpable thing, a majestic creature on a tight leash, walking beside them.
Lucius goes straight for the editor's office, not even wasting a glance at a frantic secretary trying to appease him. He could almost move through her, so much that she just stands by the closed door, incapable of both hearing and moving. He will play his cards, man to man, keeping his family life private. But he is well aware that the certainty of such outcome lies elsewhere. With his magnificent flower turned dark lioness yet again. She is the one who will ascertain their dominance through terror. To infuriate a Malfoy is a wrong move, Miss Skeeter. But to infuriate a Black... it's an entirely different game of chess. One that she's already lost.
Narcissa stands at a glass panelled door. Golden letters announce its ownership. Rita Skeeter. She is seething and determined to unleash her anger, and her fear, on the blasted green woman. Her only regret is that her sister is not here. I'd so let Bella loose and alone with you, you disgusting beetle. For once in her life, the flower wishes for the warrior's ruthlessness, for the warrior's despise of lower things, for the warrior's ability to inflict pain. But overall she wishes for a way to undo it all. Since that is not happening, I'll settle for second best. She composes her features and knocks. Knocks! The dark lioness was raised a proper highborn witch and is about to teach a social climber what family means in the circle she will never be allowed into.
"Come in." Rita is looking over her glasses to the figure in white at the threshold. A coy smile in her face, a malicious glint in her eyes, as she rises and speaks. "Mrs. Malfoy, what can I do for you?" She gulps at the end of the sentence. Not a Malfoy she realizes, on the other side of her desk stands a member of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black and she is suddenly very aware that she does not know what Bella's little sister is capable of.
Narcissa gets very, very, close to allowing her prim façade to falter as the doubt in Rita's eyes grows. She doesn't. This woman's actions terrorised her niece, drove her to lose control, and drove her husband to the verge of his sanity. It's her turn to be scared out of her mind, now, and she will bring all of it down on her soul, until she is left so meek not even a Dementor would be interested in it.
"Why, Rita, must you always meddle?" She allows the woman in green a second to gulp and shrink back to her seat. Another to feel just how very low beneath her she is. Then she sets her palms on the wooden secretary and lets her anger flow.
The green quill, which ran frantically over parchment just now, has frozen in place. It falls to the floor. Narcissa's voice is not raised once, she is in absolute control. Rita is more and more aware of it by the second. By the time Narcissa leaves, all she remembers is Lucius standing at her door, a smug smirk on his mouth and a knowing glare in his glance. That and how very much she remembers being made to feel like this only once in the past. In a greenhouse after everyone else had left, when she was a fourteen year old at Hogwarts, equally terrified. Another Black, with meaner eyes, all burning rage where this one is freezing anger. Another goddess of wrath bringing doom and downfall.
Author's Notes: please be so kind as to share your thoughts. Thank you for sticking around