Chapter 40 – A Visitor

"Anything new?"

An emotionless female voice echoed through the barely furnished room. The house was cold and dark, but for the small fire burning in this unprepossessing room. Since there was no one to spend time here, it was just used to meet up, there was no reason to change anything. Delphini saw it as an expression of how she felt within - barren, unloved, forgotten.

Mr. Diggory provided for any need she had, thinking of her as a long lost family member. He had been so easy to manipulate, his hate-filled mind destroyed by the death of his son so many years ago. He would accept anyone who agreed with him blaming Harry Potter. The boy who had lived to kill her father, twice.

There was a reason she had sent Crow to watch over the younglings. Whenever she saw the younger copy the murderer she wanted to do nothing more than outright kill Albus Potter, just to pay her respect to his father. She wanted him to suffer like she had, by repaying him in kind, but for now she needed the boy alive for her quest. He was the key to the sodding prophesy she had to fulfil. The last gift her mother's husband had given her, the curse of her life. How she longed to be the one to bring her father back, but instead was limited to watch and manipulate.

So many years she had to wait for her tokens to be ready to start her game and now she had to watch two of them messing up her very plan.

"They are planning, but they are nothing but children. Your latest visit was fruitful to remind them that this isn't a game. Still the young Malfoy is scared, but Albus keeps him in line."

The dark deep voice from the window came from her companion, who stood hidden in the shadows of the moon. Cold wind blew in from where he stood and Delphi closed the shutters with a wave of her wand to keep the icy weather outside. Without the light from outside to make his silhouette visible he blended into the dark.

"Can you keep a watch on him over the holidays?"

The question was tricky. They both knew that the Potter House was unplottable and without being given the address, it was as good as invisible to outsiders. A nice way to keep the reporters from your own door.

Crow had the best chances to get near them as a bird, but she knew he was not perfect.

"Not the Potters, but Malfoy Manor is doable." He admitted and hung his head awaiting his punishment for failing Delphi. She just watched him unseeing.

"Stay at Hogwarts and see if you can find the Time Turner." Delphi decided after pondering his answer. The Malfoy's were uninteresting. An old pureblood family fallen from grace. The oldest had fled to France in shame and the Heir was a disgrace to the House Slytherin. Their days in the service of the Dark Lord were counted and Delphi would make sure her father would know about their betrayal of his vision for the future. Maybe she would keep the youngest alive to make good of their money for their case. No campaign could be fulfilled without, something she had grown to hate when she was denied entry to the Lastrange vault. As an illegitimate child she was no heir to the vault after her mother's husband had died. Her real father's vault couldn't be claimed without calling attention to herself, and she was sure everything inside was confiscated by the Ministry anyway. All of this had left her without a gallon to her name as a child, thrown away to a children's home she had fled at every turn. The path that had set her to her mission and meeting Crow. Sometimes she forgot her companion had even a name. He was her dupe to accomplish her goal.

"Go!" Delphi ordered him with a wave of her hand and watched the fire crackle in the fireplace. Her mind was spinning her next move already. If he was successful she would make sure to wipe out Harry Potter with the help of his son, with the Imperius if she had too. How she hated waiting.

"As you wish."

Suddenly the window was torn open and a black Crow could be seen leaving the old house. To any muggle nothing more than a small black shadow in the dark sky, from time to time highlighted by the dim moonlight. Bats weren't that uncommon in this area, but this distal from civilisation that was supposed to see a crow flying at night anyway.

XxX

It was a quiet and cold in London the evening two nights before Christmas. Ginny was out with the children, setting them up at her parents place, to spend a night with all their cousins. Even Albus had joined without a hitch, after he had avoided his family since coming home from school.

The sleepover at the Burrow was a tradition by now and the kids loved it. They would get their grandparents presents in the morning, one day early, and ride a sugar high afterwards with Molly's special breakfast. The family was really big by now so the dinner on Christmas Eve would be held without present. Fifteen grandchildren and their parents unpacking presents would be beyond the scope of the Burrow, to Molly's heartbreak. Now the smaller families spend Christmas morning together at home and the dinner was where they celebrated.

Harry was more than surprised when he caught the sound of his doorbell long before he expected Ginny back. Standing up from his seat in the kitchen he sat down his cup of tea and his work related papers to answer the door.

A cliffhanger for you. The next chapter will be a long one.