CHAPTER 6: Zelda
Delphi walked over to Luna and Pansy before left the Veil room amidtst the celebrations. She put a hand on Luna's head for a moment, muttered an incantation and then straightened up. and addressed Pansy, "I'm sorry. I'll make sure her new arm is the best it can be." With that, Dumbledore followed. "Ms. Riddle, a moment if you would."
Delphi didn't break pace as she made her way back to the Hall of Prophecy. "You have one. Walk with me if you want to talk, Chief Warlock." Despite her brusque words, her tone was not an unkind one. She spared Dumbledore a small smile, "I'm sure you have many questions. You'll get your answers, but I need to do something in this department before the unspeakables and aurors swamp the place. I'm not going to be hurting anybody, but I recommend not trying to stop me. You might as well ask your questions." Her threat was clear, but it was also obvious that she really didn't want to fight Dumbledore.
"How did you kill him? The prophecy was quite clear on several points that indicated Harry Potter," Dumbledore didn't hesitate to take the opening she gave him.
"He's alive by the way. Potter. He was breathing when I walked by him a minute ago. Somebody's got to tell him Sirius Black died though when he wakes up," Delphi said.
"How did he survive?" Dumbledore asked. He had an inkling, but the girl probably had the answers too, and he was quite curious how she'd respond.
"Horcrux took the hit, I'd imagine. Nobody knows exactly how that curse works, so it's guesswork. But I think it severs souls from the body. It sought the weakest link imbedded in the boy's face I suppose," Delphi ventured. She'd never admit it, but she was glad for this conversation. For one, it was calming. For seconders, it distracted her from the mountain of emotions she would have to process once she was alone again.
"Would you mind first walking me through how you fullfill the prophecy?" Dumbledore asked.
"I'd rather answer those questions with at least Potter and Longbottom present. Probably the rest of the kids and your militia soldiers who arrived with the cavalry. They're a part of this divination clusterfuck now two. The prophecy destroyed some of their lives. They deserve to be in the room for that conversation, it's the decent thing to do," Delphi headed off Dumbledore's potential retort after a moment. "This isn't a refusal. We can have that talk tonight even, but it doesn't just concern me, do you understand?"
"Yes. That's actually quite wise of you. Very well," Dumbledore began, but Delphi cut him off.
"Also, discussion of my parentage fits into the same conversation of the prophecy. Annoying, I know, but I think a great weight rested on my interperatation of the bloody riddle. So I'll have my big confession then too. I'm sorry I didn't protect all the students," Delphi finished with a bit of genuine remorse.
"Yes. Why didn't you stop them?" Dumbledore went out and asked.
"Why didn't Snape?" Delphi shot back. "Personal reasons. Also, I would've had to fight them at once. While I only would have used stunners, Potter, Granger, and the Weasley boy would've fought to wound. Sirius' life was on the line from their perspective. It could've been messy, and I'm no healer. Is that a passable reason for you?"
"Passable," Dumbledore repeated with a bit of annoyance. "But not the truth."
"No. But it is a truth," Delphi said as they entered the Hall of Prophecy. "I lied, by the way, back in the Veil room or whatever. Mum's alive," Delphi said as she stepped over the corpse of the Death Eaters who had died in the children's bombardment of Reducto curses.
"That seems pretty dead to me," Dumbledore looked at Pettigrew, polyjuiced as Bellatrix, very dead on the floor.
Delphi waved her wand to reveal an immobilized Draco and a one-armed, chained up, still unconcious Bellatrix. "Ta-da," Delphi drawled as Draco paled.
"Hello there, Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore greeted his student with a genuine smile.
Delphi hit Bellatrix with another stunner before heaving her onto her shoulder and walking back the way they came. "Are you coming or not?"
Draco was freed from Delphi's immobilization spell. "What are you going to do to her?" Dumbledore asked, mildly curious. "You declared her dead to the world. Aurors will surely confirm that with the little scene you clearly set up there. Who was that, by the way?"
"Pettigrew," Draco answered.
"Well, that's a shame?" Dumbledore said.
"Not really. Sirius would've been cleared with a pensieve memory viewing and a veritaserum session. Pettigrew wasn't needed to clear him. Now that's a moot point I suppose. The man dies a murderer in the eyes of the public," Delphi said with distaste.
"You know of his innocence?" Dumbledore asked again.
"You think I didn't go through Pettigrew's mind?" Delphi scoffed.
"You could have removed the memories and stored them to exonerate Sirius at a later date," Dumbledore pointed out.
"When I can help it, I don't tamper with people's memories. If I don't get caught around muggles, and with magicals, well…there are almost always other options. It's why most Aurors repulse me. They don't think twice about violating people's lives like that." Delphi said with no little amount of vitriol. "It's one of the things I've gone to great lengths to have contingency plans for if somebody gets the drop on me and tries to rewrite who I am. Oh, we're here," they had arrived in the time room. Neither Draco nor Dumbledore knew quite what to say about Delphi's outburst just then. So they left it alone.
"And what is it exactly you hope to do here? No time travel I hope?" Dumbledore asked seriously.
"Of fucking course not!" Delphi responded immediately. "Well, not travel per-say. But I need to discuss it with my mother first. So I'd like some privacy for this part." Delphi wasn't really asking. And Dumbledore seemed on the fence, so Delphi added, "I'm the girl who just killed her father to save our country. I deserve the benefit of the doubt."
The truth was that Dumbledore was curious about a great many things that had happened tonight, and Delphi had not been exactly forthcoming. "Very well, how long do you need?" Dumbledore asked.
"Thank you," Delphi breathed out in relief as she set Bellatrix down gently. "Not too long. Let's say five minutes. Then I'll join you elsewhere. Possibly your school?"
Draco had been looking between the three adults, confused at why his cousin seemed younger than she had when she left them. "That works. I will gather the others after I clear some things up with the Aurors and Minister."
"Do the country a favour and call for a vote of no confidence," Delphi said. "Your position in the ministry would allow you to do that right? Elect Bones. She'd be a phenomenal leader for this country."
"You've a savy political mind, Delphi. Are you quite sure you don't want to run for election? Granted, you're a bit young, but that didn't stop them from deifying Harry when he was a baby. And like then, by this time tomorrow, the world will know that you ended Voldemort," Dumbledore pointed out with a wry smile.
"I'd probably enjoy it for a while, true. But then I'd probably start becoming violent with traditionalist officials who put forth legislation to hurt people, or some other of the thousand different ways to piss me off enough to draw on them. It just wouldn't work. Besides, my parents are fantastic examples of extremely powerful and intelligent people who seek out even more power. And then they become destroyed by it." Delphi paused for a moment as she considered her own history. She'd done exactly that and now had a second chance at life. At freedom.
"I'm not ignorant of my heritage, Dumbledore. But I have no intention of treading down my father's path. I killed every Death Eater I crossed tonight."
Draco gasped, "My father?"
"Lucius yet lives, young Malfoy," Dumbledore reassured the boy. "Though he will likely spend the rest of his life in Azkaban once he is released from St. Mungo's."
"Is he?" Delphi looked surprised. Draco looked livid. "Well, he has a harder head than I thought. Good on him," Delphi was genuine in her praise, mostly. It didn't stop her from chuckling a little at her little cousin's expense. "Anyway, I'd like an unbreakable vow," she was just so casual about it she could've been discussing the ice cream flavour she got at the shop.
"Excuse me?" Dumbledore asked.
"What?" Draco breathed.
"Nothing too crazy. Just that you won't divulge that Bellatrix is alive. I plan on telling her sisters and Nymphadora, extracting similar vows from them. So you won't need to hide this from auntie Narcissa. I plan on making Pansy take the vow as well as soon as I get another moment with her," Delphi said to Draco. "And I don't want any reprisals from your people, the ministry, or basically anybody who has a reason or not to attack me because of my heritage," Delphi finished with a keen clarity in her eyes, which had since the duel with her father turned to a deep brown.
"And if we refuse?" Dumbledore asked. Delphi could tell she had already won this argument, and that he was just humouring her.
"I'd rather not say. You'd think less of me I think." Delphi said.
"I'm alright with that," Draco spoke up quickly before Dumbledore could reply. The old man just chuckled.
The casting of the unbreakable vow was rather anticlimactic, and once that was done, Draco and Dumbledore went back to deal with the others. "Thought they'd never leave," Delphi muttered to herself as she began warding the room to stop any intruders or interference.
She turned to her mother. Unlike her father, Delphi had a plan that didn't necessarily rely on her mother's compliance. "Wake up," Delphi muttered, neutralizing the stunning spell. She kept the chains on though.
Bellatrix woke up with a scream as she immediately realised she was being restrained. "What the fuck happened!" she asked.
Delphi took a moment to look at her mother and replied, "Other than Malfoy, the rest of the Death Eaters that came here are dead by my hand."
Bellatrix peered into her daughter's eyes while she considered the woman in front of her. "You are my daughter? I don't remember being pregnant, so that means I was raped and obliviated. Who's the father?" Bellatrix's tone was as emotionless as she could make it, but Delphi could hear the disgust in her tone when she said the word 'father.'
Delphi smiled to herself. "You were not raped, nor obliviated." Delphi tilted her head and reconsidered that. "At least, my conception wasn't involuntary. Because you see, I'm a time traveller."
"Liar." Bellatrix scoffed reflexively. "You really expect me to believe that drivel?"
"I was born in 1997, September 30th just after lunch time on a pleasant day. I was born in Malfoy Manor, and after the war, I was raised by Euphemia Rowle, who neglected and abused me for my entire childhood until my stepfather Rodolphus arrived and revealed my parents' identities to me when I was eleven."
Whatever Bellatrix was expecting, it wasn't the serious and sombre tone Delphi spoke in. "Preposterous. That's…that's just not possible," Bellatrix said, though there was a nagging in her head that this girl was telling the truth. "What guarantee do you have that I'm telling the truth?"
"Here," Delphi said as she clasped hands with her mother and roughly and said the incantation for the Unbreakable Vow. "I, Delphini, daughter of Bellatrix Black Lestrange and Tom Marvolo Riddle do so swear that I have, and will continue to speak no lies as I know them to my mother." She tapped her wrist as the ethereal chains bound her to the oath.
"Ta-da," Delphi smirked at the legitimately shocked expression colouring her mother's face. "So, mum. I'm going to continue if that's alright with you, mum." Delphi's smirk lessened a little before Bellatrix nodded wordlessly. "After Rodolphus told me who I was, I got my hands on the Black Library and the Lestrange vaults. So my education in dark and more arcane magic was quite well-rounded. I never attended Hogwarts, or any other magic school abroad. When I was thirteen, my stepfather tried to rape me. I think Rodolphus was working out some sort of misplaced rage for you. Or maybe he assumed that if he made me his slave, he could control Britain after I paved the way for him. I had suspected he might try something for a while before that, but I was younger, and overconfident. Even still, he didn't get much farther than throwing me to the ground and ripping my blouse open." Bellatrix hissed in rage and almost unconsciously tried to reach out and comfort her daughter.
"He's dead I hope?" Bellatrix managed to breath out.
"On my native timeline, yes. I knocked him back with a wandless blast of kinetic force, disarmed him, and then plumbed his mind for all the memories he had of you and father; and some other things. Once I was done with that, I Crucioed him past the splintering of his pathetic mind. He screamed until his nervous system was flayed, his throat was bloody, and his heart gave out. In an odd way," Delphi said with a shy smile, "Destroying your husband, my attacker the way I did…it made me feel a little closer to you."
Bellatrix looked up at her daughter and felt many conflicting emotions. "And he didn't…" Bellatrix suddenly needed to hear her daughter say it.
"He didn't rape me. I stopped him before it got that far. But he did scare me, and I still have nightmares about it. Even though I'm so much stronger now. My nightmares keep me humble, at least in that regard." Delphi admitted quietly. "When I pillaged his mind, I saw the memories of him raping other girls though. During the time he was teaching me the dark arts. They were muggle girls that looked like me." Delphi stopped and tried to reign in her emotions.
"I'm proud of you, Delphini," Bellatrix said.
Delphi looked up with genuine surprise and something like love in her eyes at her mother's honest praise. "That means everything to me," Delphi said. "Thank you."
"Why did you destroy my arm?" Bellatrix asked with a resentful glance at the stump protruding from her shoulder socket.
Delphi wondered how best to phrase the next bit. "Because I needed to sever you from my father's control. The Dark Mark is a hideous piece of magic, it's a slave brand. And I couldn't stand the sight of it on you, of all people. You deserved better."
Bellatrix looked upon her daughter, and with the death of the Mark, she felt her mind slowly clearing, which allowed some clarity to bleed through, "You're not telling me lies. But there is something or some things you're not telling me. So let's have it!" Bellatrix shouted. Delphi flinched. Ah, there's the Bellatrix everyone knows and hates. I wish I had the training to diagnose her, the daughter thought as the thoughtful woman before her nearly lost her composure with rage once she detected deceit.
"You're right," Delphi admitted. "I destroyed my father. I fulfilled the prophecy, and ended his life, after a lengthy conversation in which I made him believe you were dead. He didn't care. At all, or so it seemed. And I'm good at reading people, I was in his head when I told him, and would've detected any trace of remorse or sorrow for your death. Do you know what I found instead?" Delphi asked with a bit of bite to her tone.
"He's dead?" Bellatrix asked, stunned.
"He felt relief. He was happy you had died," Delphi visibly had to reel in her own rage, for a moment cursing her family's propensity for short tempers. "I was ready to walk out of this fucking place with you both at my side. We would have ruled Britain together. But when he bought my lie about your current status, he failed me. He failed you. Then he wanted to fucking brand me. ME! So he had to die. I couldn't let him live, because if I had spared him, he would have come after me. So I had to. For myself. And for you too."
"How?" Bellatrix asked.
"I'm stronger than both of you put together," Delphi replied with a melancholy smile. "What's the point of having children if the next generation doesn't surpass the previous one, right?"
Delphi did not look happy about her victory. Bellatrix could see that, but it didn't quell her rage at her lover's death, "And what makes you think I won't kill you myself for slaying my Lord?" Bellatrix asked venomously.
"Because you're not going to remember this conversation." Delphi confessed with a frown on her face.
"What? If you Obliviate me, I'll find out about it, and I'll return you to a mewling babe with how much I'll torture you," Bellatrix hissed in real fear, for the first time.
"I'm not going to take your memories away from you like that. I'm going to give you a second chance at life. When I saw all of Rodolphus' memories, I saw from his prospective, your Hogwarts years, and the arranged marriage that slowly broke you. I went through Narcissa's memories as well, but far more gently; she never knew I was there. Serving Father was the only escape you had from the Lestrange brothers. Serving father was the thing you chose to do, the one aspect of your life that you views as a freedom. And he fucking branded you anyway. If I were in your position I know I would've made similar choices; but they were all horrific choices placed on an older sister who really shouldn't have had to sacrifice her future."
"That's a nice speech, deary, but you haven't explained why I won't remember this," Bellatrix wouldn't let Delphi slip free of that explanation. Her expression wasn't as hard as it had been moments ago, though. She could see that Delphi had suffered a personal sacrifice delving into her husband's mind. Not least of which that he tried to fucking rape my daughter! Bellatrix seethed under the surface. Not my daughter, you filthy parasite! Delphi could feel the waves of unadulterated hatred rising off of her mother, and she felt warmed by it.
"I'm going to turn you into a kid again. I don't intend to lie to you about who you were, and who I am to you. But you're going to be getting a second chance, and I quite expertly faked your death back there in the Hall of Prophecy, so that's a loose end cleared up. But the you that exists now will be gone. Destroyed," Delphi said slowly and quietly.
"And what makes you think I'll go along with this?" Bellatrix asked. "If you faked my death, then what's the point of mutilating me like that?" she asked with a voice that was half-way between fear and confusion.
"How long do you think it'll be before you get bored, commit some atrocity, and get yourself arrested and given the Dementor's Kiss if I let you run free? I'm not going to be your jailer. But I have other reasons too. One of those reasons is that I'm pretty sure you'll kill or maim me the moment I let down my guard around you. Tell me I'm wrong." Delphi's sad smile deepedned as she saw the truth of her words etched in Bellatrix's downright murderous expression.
"You're my daughter. I wouldn't kill you," Bellatrix ground out. Delphi rolled her eyes despite the severity of the situation.
Delphi shook her head at her mother's bald-faced lie, "I killed my father. He killed his father. You wouldn't have had a problem killing Andromeda if you ever found out where she ran off to with her 'mudblood' husband. Killing intent reserved for family seems like an inherited trait I've been saddled with, don't you think? I'd be a fool to think you loved me enough to spare me if I put you in a situation where I was your only obstacle to achieving freedom. Trust me, I know that clarity of purpose well. It allowed me to kill father, and in all likelihood I got it from you."
Delphi chuckled darkly as she rose to her feet and drew out the ebony time turner she had pilfered on her way in. She made a gesture with her other hand and both her wands flew out and began to carve a large rune in the floor that encircled them both. Seemingly on autopilot, the wands moved uninterrupted even as Delphi turned back to her incapacitated mother.
"But I did have something else in mind, and I'd never abandon you. I'm going to give you the childhood you should have had." The one I should have had, Delphi left unsaid.
"I won't be me anymore," Bellatrix insisted. She was getting frantic, but at the same time, the peril of her situation was beginning to drown her panic. Her daughter was going to functionally orphan herself tonight, and nothing Bellatrix could do would stop her. Delphi was simply the embodiment of the Dark Lord's old modus operandi 'Might makes right.' But that brought another thought to her head, "Neither can live while the other survives? Is that what this is?"
Delphi nodded. "I erased my future self from this timeline when I killed dad. Showing you mercy is just a bonus. Because I'm selfish, and I don't particularly care if you ever learn from your mistakes, feel remorse. The horrors you perpetrated over your years as Father's right hand are not mine to forgive. They're simply irrelevant to me," Delphi's casual reference to the torture of the Longbottom duo brought a slight grin to Bellatrix.
But then Delphi's voice changed and her eyes flared red, just like her father, and for the first time, Bellatrix really believed that this young woman was Lord Voldemort's heir. Delphini's power was almost bleeding out of her, and Bellatrix trembled in the presence of her daughter. Bellatrix then realised that Delphini wasn't boasting before; her presence eclipsed that of even Lord Voldemort.
"I will not stand by and let the world take more from me. I am bloody well owed something for my troubles, and as Fate would have it, you are my reward. For what it's worth, I'm going to preserve your memories, and one day, once you've grown up again, I'll revisit allowing you to see them. That sound fair?" Delphi asked with a raised eyebrow.
Bellatrix knew her time was over, and despite herself, felt tears form in her eyes. "And what will you call me? I'm assuming Bellatrix is off the table, and you're not a Lestrange."
Delphi seemed pleased, no; relieved that her mother had outwardly accepted her fate. "Do you have any suggestions, mum?"
"Zelda," Bellatrix replied.
"German? Not Latin or Greek?" Delphi asked.
Bellatrix took in a deep breath before saying, "There was a Zelda who transferred to Hogwarts in my first year. She was fifteen, made the Prefect based on her immaculate record from Durmstrang, and the epitome of what I considered a Slytherin should be. I'm not ashamed to admit I idolized her. Some upper year Gryffindors cornered me, yelling that my father had done some nefarious thing to theirs; I don't really remember. They drew wands on me. I sent two of them to the Hospital Wing, but one of them, a girl called Eva got the better of me and I lost my wand. But she didn't stop there, Eva spent two solid minutes hexing me. I was in that hospital bed for a month, and only barely avoided St. Mungo's spell damage ward. It turned out Eva just wasn't strong enough to utilize the spells' full power I was told. She hadn't intended for me to recover fully."
Delphi was nonplussed the direction this conversation had gone in. But she spared only a glance at her wands, which had completed the rune. The ritual was ready. "And Zelda saved you?"
"Some lunatic first year called Pandora saved me, brought me the nurse 'just in time' they said. No. Zelda found out about it, and she made it a point to escort me to my lessons for the remainder of the month. But when she stopped, Eva and her friends were back. I wasn't ready, and I lost my wand again. I was on the ground, but before they could really get started, Zelda was there. She brandished her left forearm at them and yelled something in German at Eva and proceeded to show the real power an education in the Dark Arts could feel like. She was stripped of her Prefect Badge, but she still smiled at me every day, and nobody bothered me until I was far too powerful to be pushed around. I heard she moved to America, and never returned to Britain," Bellatrix was lost in the story, and Delphi was engrossed as well.
"You said she brandished her left arm at them, what was that about? Did she have father's Mark?" Delphi asked with a raised eyebrow.
Bellatrix tilted her head and shrugged, "No. It was just a string of numbers tattooed on the inside of her forearm. No idea what that was about honestly."
But Delphi knew. She gasped. Zelda was a holocaust survivor, which meant she was almost certainly a Muggleborn, and her mother had no idea. Delphi broke out in a wide grin and said, "I think Zelda's a beautiful name, and you'll certainly do her justice. You'll have to have some variation of Delphini as your middle name, Pureblood traditions and all," Delphi shrugged, and Bellatrix just nodded.
"I haven't decided on a surname yet. I think I'll get to that later, after all, I have several to choose from now I'm the head of the Black family as well," Delphi smirked. "For what it's worth, mum, I'm gonna make sure you grow up to be fucking unstoppable."
Bellatrix regarded her far more powerful daughter with an uncertain look, but she settled on, "Thank you, Delphini."
"Right then, any last words or wishes?" Delphi said as she straightened up, levitating her mother to the middle of the ritual circle. Bellatrix seemed to be in a state, unresisting as Delphi's magic carried her like a sack of potatoes.
"Let Bellatrix Lestrange die with me," Bellatrix pleaded quietly. In her heart of hearts, she wanted Zelda to be free from the horrors she'd lived. She didn't feel guilty for what she'd done exactly, but if becoming Bellatrix lead to her own daughter doing this? Then something drastic had to be done. She couldn't risk another end like this.
"I promise," Delphi said just as silently. She raised her wand to her mother's head and spoke a few words in Parseltongue and her wand and eyes glowed blue for a moment. Bellatrix felt her life flash before her eyes, literlaly, and realised her daughter had copied each and every memory she'd ever had."I love you mum, and I'll never forget this, not one word. I'll always remember when Zelda was you, even if you never will." Bellatrix nodded at Delphi's declaration. Delphi took two steps and pulled her mother into a loving hug.
Bellatrix wrapped her arms around her daughter and cried. After her tears had stopped, Delphi stepped back, out of the ritual circle and used her Elder Wand to tap the ebony time turner. "Επανάληψη."
The Time Turner shattered and the smoky ethereal matter inside it expanded to fill the room, but the runic circle lit up and confined the time turner's power to the circle, and Bellatrix alone. Delphi had sweat immediately running down her face as even her considerable magic was tested by this. Soon enough, the mist cleared, and in the middle of the circle next to the remnant of the broken time turner was a little girl with wild black curls who looked up at Delphi quizzically before exhaustion overtook her.
Delphi swept the girl that had been her mother up in her arms and allowed her head to rest in the crook between her shoulder and her neck. "Sweet dreams, Zelda," Delphi smiled at the sleeping girl before pointing her wand at the chain and muttering, Portus. She pointed her wand at Zelda and muttered a spell that would negate the negative affect that using a portkey would normally have. It would be a shame to disturb the sleeping child so soon. Without hesitating, Delphini grabbed the portkey, and the two vanished from the Department of Mysteries.