Harry blinked several times, pulling himself back into the present as Lalithine watched him guardedly. He seemed completely focused on her, though she knew that was only from years of acting with Hermione and Ronald Weasley. If she had learned anything in that dreadful 'orphanage' it had been that Harry was a very dangerous man. He had been the boogeyman to the 'orphans' the untouchable, frightening one, that killed their leader. The wizard who killed their God, the wizard who killed her father; she stoop up slowly, letting her long legs untangle themselves from beneath her. Potter seemed hesitant, and back away from her. That only made her smirk as she walked closer to him.
"I know what happens," Lalithine whispered while circling around her prey, "when you stand there and look at me, when your eyes cloud over just a little…you're acting, aren't you, Potter?" A full blown smile reached her features, "Itty bitty baby Potter, knows how play!" The words her mother had used made Harry's skin crawl, but he stayed silent. "Little Potter," she continued venomously, "you lead Weasley and Granger around like a couple of blind mutts, blind, deaf, and incredibly dumb. You destroyed their families, all so you could kill a little girl's mother and father. How do you sleep at night? You sick, twisted-"
"ENOUGH!"
Her words were nothing, when compared with the truth; it was a fact that he had put his friends in danger time after time. He tried his best to keep them from harm, but he couldn't protect them all. And they had been so stubborn, insisting on helping him when he told then what the consequences could be. He grabbed Lalithine's wrist and twirled her around so her back was against him, his wand was out in an instant and pressed against her throat like a sword.
"You don't know what happened that night, or any other night," he hissed in her ear, "you only believe what they told you was right."
"What difference does it make?" she asked, clawing uselessly at him in an effort to escape, "I've been told the truth, the truth that you've ignored!"
His grip tightened, but he said nothing for a long while. He wrestled with his thoughts, as well as the deadly girl in his grasp. She was cunning, trying to knock down his defenses, every wall he had built during the last years of his war with Voldemort. Those were the wall Ginny had said he didn't anymore, but he kept them up as a precaution. But Lalithine, she knew how to cut through them one by one. Almost as though she had been taught how to do such a thing – his eyes widened in astonishment.
"They taught you this, didn't they?" Harry asked her.
"Taught me what?"
"This, everything you're doing now, it was learned, it was the way they wanted you to be," he replied quickly. Excitement mixed in with tone. Good for him, Lalithine thought dryly, at least someone was having fun.
"Yes, well, that's better than anything you want me to be," she snorted.
She would never give him the satisfaction of knowing anything about her, where she grew up, how she came to be at his house. Potter should have known better than to try and solve this puzzle. She would take him down, his wife, his children. The victor, she had always been the victor. Even at the orphanage, with the other gifted children, she had been the most special. Nothing he could say would win her over and make her believe. She knew the truth about him.