Chapter 15: Heartbeat
Delilah's vision began as horizontal crescent moons before her eyes opened fully. She thought the fog followed her from her dream before realizing her eyes were still adjusting to the dark blue night. The glittering sky above captured her weak attention, stars zipping across every minute or so. A muffled voice said her name. It got louder. And louder still, until it was finally clear. Delilah turned her head, her body was still too worn out from the bewitched sleep spell. Her back was glued to the cold, snowy grass.
"Delilah, I'm so, so sorry! It wasn't me."
Rowan grabbed Delilah's arms and pulled her upright. The stars shined over her face, sullied with sorrow and guilt. She was kneeling, knowing her friend wouldn't be strong enough to stand.
"I know," Delilah replied weakly in barely a whisper.
"Delilah, it was Ben. He used the imperius curse on me!"
"I know, Rowan," she said a little louder. "I know and I believe you. However, what's important right now is his plan. What is it? Where is he? I need to protect Talbott."
Delilah could somehow sense a faint, rapid heartbeat other than her own. However this feeling wasn't in her chest, but in her mind. It was a connection she could not piece together. She knew it belonged to Talbott, but not a clue how.
"Ben used me to make a polyjuice potion, however he isn't good at potions so it'll be a sloppy one. I wasn't in my mind one hundred percent, so a lot of it was his doing. It won't last long."
"Who has he turned into?" Delilah snapped. She immediately regretted snapping at Rowan, but she seemed to understand she was simply in a hurry and not upset with her.
"Delilah, he is disguised as you. He kept some of your hair when you were dating. He is impersonating you right now. I think he is going to hurt Talbott. He made me tell him about your date tonight. " Rowan began to cry.
Delilah's own heart quickened its pace. The situation was awful, more so than she planned.
"Rowan, I have to go," she choked.
"Delilah, I think-"
"They're in the courtyard," Delilah cut her off. "Don't ask me how I know because I don't. I just do."
Rowan's face was wet. She took off her glasses in attempt to dry it on her sleeve. It half worked.
"I'm so sorry, Delilah. For everything. I wasn't strong enough to face Ben."
"Rowan," Delilah began. "You have been my truest friend. Always remember that. I love you. I have to go..." Delilah embraced her before Rowan said another word. She couldn't keep this conversation in motion. Talbott was in danger.
Delilah transformed into a barn owl as she let Rowan go. Loose feathers fell onto her like a light snowfall. Rowan remained knelt on the ground as Delilah departed for the courtyard. The minutes alone in the air felt like hours. Delilah's head was busy with thoughts. How long did Talbott have left?
Delilah's head continued to spin as she reached the outer rim of her destination. The corner of her eye seemed to spot a small but harsh green light. That green light grew until it was all she could see. "No!" Delilah squawked. She flapped her wings harder. The area was engulfed, causing a blind, sloppy landing. Delilah hit her wing on the concrete.
Delilah's arm ached. She was human. She pushed herself up as the emerald luminosity faded away. Delilah staggered as she whirled around looking for a body, praying it wouldn't be Talbott's. Her heart hammered, making her chest sore. Somebody was dead.
She walked on, dizzy from adrenaline, finally tripping on a leg, falling back to the ground. Another Delilah lay on the cold surface in front of her. Her eyes remained wide open, her skin paper white, lips dry.
The real Delilah choked up. I'm dead... This is what I look like dead...
Delilah sobbed. She reached for the still hand of her double when the body began bubbling. Delilah quickly retracted her hand in surprise. The body almost seemed to melt. Her face was deformed. The eye sockets adjusted, lips shrunk, ears grew. Sprawled out dirty blonde hair changed to strawberry blond, getting sucked back into the scalp in the process. Only a small amount of hair remained. Finally, the green eyes turned black.
It wasn't long before dead Delilah became dead Ben. The legitimate Delilah felt disgusted, yet saddened.
Ben... You weren't supposed to die. We could have worked it out.. Protected your parents...Fought the Death Eaters together...
Delilah's brain didn't register that someone had to have killed him. She didn't realize a shaky wand was pointing at her face.
Talbott was trembling, standing tall over her. He was ready to kill twice tonight to save himself for the final time.
"Avada-"
"Talbott, wait! Let me explain!" Delilah bounced up and knocked Talbott over before he could finish. His reflexes allowed him to catch himself from falling, keeping a firm grip on his wand. He pointed at Delilah again.
She didn't want to fight him. She couldn't. It would only antagonize him. Delilah reached into her pocket and snapped her current wand on her leg before the words of another spell was uttered by his trembling lips. The crack echoed in the winter air, like a twig in the forest. Delilah felt a rush of relief that this wand was done for. She never connected to it anyway like she did her previous one still in possession of her father.
"Talbott, I will not hurt you anymore, " she said quickly. "Let me explain the entire truth. Everything. I mean it." Her hands were in the air as if she was his prisoner.
Talbott continued to point, keeping his guard up. "Go on," he stated bitterly.
"First, let me explain Ben." The chilled air dried her cheeks the moment tears ran down. She genuinely felt sorry for Ben. "He was Muggle-born. Death Eaters threatened to kill his Muggle parents if he didn't kill you. He wanted to protect them."
Talbott's face twisted in confusion at first. Then anger set in. "So you were helping him murder me?"
Delilah sighed. "No, Talbott. My father- my father..." Delilah broke down. She couldn't stop herself. "M-m-My father works for the International Regulations of Unregistered Animagi. He has since my mother was murdered by an unregistered bobcat. He is fueled by revenge and hatred. He uses me, Talbott. He was using me to kill you for being unregistered. He does this all the time. This is the first time he used me to kill anyone though...Usually it is just to harm and capture." Delilah cried. "Ben and I had separate missions that both involved you. They both used and abused me. They both hurt me emotionally and physically. That's why I HATED it when you called me Deli! My father calls me that!" Delilah screamed. The built up rage and secrets were being released. She fell to her knees, sobbing harder than ever. Finally being able to cry so hard felt good to her.
Talbott stood silently still, taking in the information. Taking in her emotions. He had never seen her this hysterical before. He had never seen anyone cry this way before. Talbott didn't know how to react. He let her cry out.
"Talbott, " she began loudly. "I NEVER wanted this. EVER. I wanted to be your friend. I wanted to be by your side, not my father's. I HATE my father! I HATE him!"
The high of being able to say that out loud made Delilah smile. She knew she looked crazy, but she didn't care. She felt the end coming.
Talbott was unnerved. He didn't know how to handle the situation. It made him uncomfortable. He didn't want her to cry, but didn't want to stop her either. He just had to let her continue.
"Ben knew I was after you, he just didn't know why. Your parents were a threat to Death Eaters. He needed to end the family line for them to be comfortable. My father just hates unregisters. We had the same goal, different reasons." Delilah took a breath, gasping still from the crying. "My f-father is going to put me in Azkaban. He promised he would if I didn't kill you." Delilah got to her feet. "Don't be mad at Ben and I, Talbott. Please. Be mad at those who force us to do this. I'm so sorry. I never, ever wanted to hurt you. I-I think I lo-"
"There!" Professor Snape, along with many other professors, came flocked into the scene.
Professor McGonagall picked up Ben's limp body and began tearing up. Professor Dumbledore barely looked at Ben, being more focused on Delilah and Talbott, as were Professor Snape and Professor Flitwick.
"Who did it!?" Professor Snape yelled.
Talbott shook. He would surely be imprisoned, even if it was to defend himself.
"I-I did, Professor! I killed Ben. Not Talbott. He tried to protect Ben. This was all my fault." Delilah acted proudly, still with wet eyes. She kicked away her broken wand before anyone noticed.
Talbott tried to speak up to deny Delilah, but Professor Snape cut him off.
"I knew Miss Tytonidae was no good for this school," he stated angrily. "There is no need for a trial when she admitted to killing him." Professor Snape pointed his wand to the sky, red light shot out of the tip. "Dementors will be here soon to arrest you."
"No!" exclaimed Talbott. Professor Flitwick cast a spell on Talbott that silenced him. Talbott flailed to signal it was his fault, pointing vigorously to himself and shaking his head no at Delilah. Dumbledore grabbed his arm and held him firmly, pulling him away from the courtyard and toward the castle. Large shadows made their way down, abducting Delilah with long, skeletal fingers and taking her away into the ghostly sky. An intense chill in the air remained until the monsters were gone with her.
The Dementors were formless nightmares that only appeared partially solid when your eyes caught a wisp of cloak or mouth or boney claws. Their presence caused any shred of hope or happiness to evaporate. Delilah couldn't count how many of their hands gripped her. The once starry sky was a blur of dark mist. The icy agony caused her to pass out in their grasp.
Delilah's vision went in and out, and she was unable to wake fully. She was in some sort of building, cold, wet, and cemented. Shrieks and cries filled her eardrums. The Dementors carried her down a plain, dark, hallway. Pairs of sturdy large doors were present on either side of the hall. The only door Delilah was able to read was labeled "Snyde" in red letters. It was soon after she passed by this door she was thrown into her own cell. It was just as plain as the rest of the place. Cold, damp, with barred windows. This would be her home for the next three months.
Delilah was never able to see anyone but the cloaked figures that brought her to Azkaban. She heard distant voices outside her room from time to time, normally announcing that her plate of mostly inedible food had arrived through a small magical compartment in the door. There wasn't a back to the compartment, so there was no risk of prisoners escaping through it. Just about every night she heard the screaming from other prisoners.
She often wondered what her father was thinking. How was he coping with the press about his daughter being a killer? Talbott was alive, she just somehow knew. Sometimes she heard a second heartbeat, but it was always in her mind.
Each day her head slipped a little further from reality. Exhaustion from doing nothing caused hallucinations. The voices came back, this time talking about some sort of kiss. Was she dreaming about a kiss?
Delilah felt a force on her arms pulling her up. Again, the Dementors hands gripped tightly. An echo of a voice in the hallway repeated, "Dementor's kiss".
Delilah was dragged into another room. This one was circular, also barren. The difference was this one had no windows and a missing roof. Thousands of Dementors flew above, making the sky black. She could just barely see that there was a full moon behind them all.
Their rusted and metal sounding breathing rattled in the darkness. The air iced over as the multitude of flickering ebony cloaks approached. The giant moon provided no comfort amongst the violent suction of depressing air through many shapeless mouths. Delilah calmly awaited her death.
Her once energized emerald eyes were now dull and gray with defeat. Dirty blonde hair wrapped around her like lifeless serpents. It was barely noticeable that the curled tips were still singed from the owlrey burning. The skin of her face and hands had lost its once opalescent shimmer, and was now a paler white than the paper upon which her sentence was scribed... All that remained of the image of her former self was the vague heart-shape of her face.
Every minute that passed was another shred of happiness gone. Every second, another pinch of hope that someone would put her out of her burning misery drifted away. Frost began to develop around her as she muttered to herself. Nobody else would ever hear her, except maybe the cloaked demons floating above her.
"I should have told him," she murmured. "I should have told him... I should have told him...I should have told..." Her eyes closed tightly as if trying to shut out a bright light. She didn't want to see what sucking out her soul looked like. The guilt of the situation was painful enough. How did it come to this? I am so sorry...
The environment began to fade as the dementors closed in. Darkness swallowed the area. Her eyes were still glued shut, doing her best to block out any potential danger despite her being completely vulnerable. Fight it... Fight it... Darkness still, and then nothingness as her soul began to leave her behind.
Moments later, a lighter colored haze emerged. Colors darkened, and figures of people became clear. As the images became more crisp, she realized the images were not physically real, but a memory.
Memories flowed through her one by one. Her mother, Rowan, Talbott... The many happy memories kept her alive. Would her mother be proud that she didn't kill him? Delilah remembered the photograph of her mother smiling at the camera that hung in her bedroom. That silvery white blonde hair flipping in the wind. A moment when she was still living and breathing. A moment where Delilah's father loved them both and was not yet driven by anger. Their family was still as whole as the moon.
How was this possible? Happy memories during a Dementor attack?
Reality caused Delilah to jerk awake. The sky was completely clear, not a Dementor in sight. She couldn't yet sit up, for her body was too drained. She turned her head to scan the room. Before her was her father arguing with another man she didn't recognize.
Her father's booming voice echoed the chamber. "She is coming home with me and that's final! I already got the approval."
Delilah remained silent. At this point she preferred the Dementor's kiss, the ending of her soul through their mouths. She should have gave in. Going home with her father would be worse than losing herself forever.
It was only a matter of time before she was once again hoisted up and pulled through Azkaban. Her father never once looked at her. His eyes were fierce and determined, more focused on the exit than her well being.
The door behind them thudded hard. A light mist from the ocean surrounding the prison sprayed them. The wind howled, sounding like an angry haunting ghost. Delilah took one deep breath of it before her father disapparated them both.
The days, weeks, months following Delilah's arrest never got easier for Talbott. The questioning was endless. Professors didn't understand his lies that Delilah killed Ben for being an abusive boyfriend, and that Talbott just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. It just seemed too extreme.
He wanted to tell the truth, that Delilah was innocent. Out of respect he even started calling her "Delilah" and not "Deli" when he spoke and thought about her. His instincts told him to lie, that there was an alternative fate at work. He felt that she was alive. A faint heartbeat, like a ticking clock, thumped in the back of his mind. At first it drove him mad, thinking it was like a song stuck in his head. Talbott soon got used to the extra noise and accompanied him. He would have to stall the professors for now until it was time to leave Hogwarts for good. With the events that happened, there would be no way to continue his education without his own secret of being an unregistered animagus getting out.
Dumbledore seemed to understand the information more than he let on, but he remained silent about it if he did know something Talbott didn't reveal or revealed falsely. Professor Flitwick couldn't focus on lessons knowing one of his own murdered his most charmed student in his class. The students mostly worked on homework quietly during class. Professor Snape threatened to give Talbott veritaserum every single day, but Dumbledore refused to allow it.
Talbott's dreams weren't better than his reality. He dreamt of Delilah, stuck in a dark stone room. Sometimes she screamed through the entire dream. Sometimes she was silent and shivering.
One dream in particular sent him into action. A haunting echo of agony filled the empty halls. As dream Talbott walked through a hallway, he came across Delilah on her back on a living room floor of a house he didn't recognize. She was shrieking as if every bone in her body was being crushed to a fine dust. She was so loud he almost missed the faint "Crucio" being yelled in the background by a deep male voice.
Talbott jolted awake. Cold sweat coated his body, and his breathing labored. The dream felt too real. It was a vision.
He didn't have time to pack. The only objects he saved were his mother's white notebook and his wand which he pocketed. Immediately he escaped into the night as an eagle before his roommates awoke. He didn't know where he was going exactly, but he did have a faint heartbeat to use as a guide like a compass. Already it seemed to sound louder the further Hogwarts was in the distance.
Coming Soon: War on Animagi- Birds of a Feather
Unregistered animagus Talbott Winger journeys to rescue Delilah Tytonidae, a once enemy he now feels a literal connection to. Together they will have to face her father, the head of the International Regulations of Unregistered Animagi, who is fueled by rage and revenge over the murder of his wife by an unregistered bobcat.
Along the way, the two animagi meet two unregisters, Rita Skeeter and Peter Pettigrew, who claim to be trustworthy. The sky gets cloudier as their world becomes more uncertain in the fight against Delilah's father.