Heirs of House Black,

Chapter 21, So, What Had Happened Was...

Hydra found herself utterly tongue tied for the rest of Ballan and Greok's visit. It didn't really matter, though, because never had she felt so alive. Just looking at Ballan electrified her. She hadn't given thought to dating or love. Honestly she had not. As such, she likewise had never considered a preference for humans, elves or goblins. She supposed love was like that. It had been with her parents. You just loved who you loved no matter their race, or in the case of the daddies, their gender.

Loughness had complimented goblin girls as much as human ones, though he'd never mentioned elf girls for some reason. In his defense, they hadn't seen many. Only Mira, the servant of Mag's family, but while not old, Mira was certainly not of their generation thus not interesting for Loughness. She was like one of the parents.

Technically, Kereston should've been as well, but having that link to Daddy Kreacher which kept her from aging made her look eternally eighteen, as that was the age she was when the link was formed between vampire and witch. Even though she was twenty years older than Loughness, he considered her young, and Hydra supposed there was nothing wrong with that logic.

All these thoughts and more raced through her mind as she studied Ballan while everyone else chatted. Chatted about what, she had no idea. She didn't really care either. If any of it was important, Loughness would fill her in later. When Ballan and Greok left, they bid a general farewell to the room at large. At least Greok did, and Ballan silently nodded in agreement. He still didn't really seem to notice her, Hydra thought despondently. She would have to do something about that. When Daddy Kreacher showed them out, she noticed that Ballan's right leg dragged slightly as he walked, giving him a pronounced limp. His right eye drooped and his right leg dragged, creating a symmetry that clearly indicated some trauma having been done to the right side of his body. Though she was curious, Hydra didn't feel it detracted from his hotness one bit. In spite of the limp he moved like someone dangerous. Like a living weapon.

She waited until Daddy Kreacher returned from showing their guests out before turning in open frustration to her parents. "How do I get him to notice me?" She practically shouted the desperate words in her exasperation.

"Who," Loughness asked before either of the daddies could answer.

"Ballan, of course," Kreacher replied with a knowing smirk. As he spoke, he slid a brief glance to Daddy Regulus, who likewise did not appear to be in the least surprised by Hydra's words. The two sat together hand in hand on the love seat, looking far too smug about her revelation. So they'd noticed, she thought. Ballan had not, though. Neither had Loughness, but he was not relevant to this.

"What," Loughness demanded. "Why? He's ugly and hardly spoke." He gave Hydra a look of bafflement that she returned with a glare.

"He is not ugly! He looks tough. You can tell he's been through things, and he came out of them, Loughness! What the hell have you been through?"

Loughness sighed and rolled his eyes. "Stuff like this right here," he said in a long suffering tone.

"He has a German accent, and he speaks in first person. That's interesting," Hydra said, directing that observation to her parents.

Regulus nodded. "Indeed. Perhaps the first person human way of speaking comes from the language difference and how he learned English. Indeed Ballan is from Germany."

"I thought they had Kobolds, though," Hydra said.

Regulus nodded. "That's right. But Ballan's former Mistress's family was British. His parents were born here, but he was born in Germany when the family moved. He had a hard life full of a great deal of abuse." As he spoke that last bit, Regulus's youthful face shadowed with a grim sympathy that said more than words just how hard Ballan had had it.

"So his eye and the reason he limps was... that," Hydra asked and he nodded.

"Wolfgang and Millicent bought him from a dreadful master, and then freed him. I don't know much more than that, but it's left him not seeing much good in people. He seems to like us, though, and I know he shall love you when you are ready for him to."

Hydra's jaw dropped. She'd expected more strenuous objections from her parents considering the fact they were always pleased to say the least that she had no interest in dating. "You approve?" She couldn't help but ask unnecessarily.

Regulus exchanged a look with Kreacher and chuckled. "At least he is worthy. I know... we know he will always keep you safe, and you shall be good for him."

"But he doesn't even notice me," Hydra groaned.

"Put him in a web," Reynaldo giggled. Hydra had nearly forgotten the spider was there. He'd been so quiet after Greok and Ballan had departed.

"Yeah, that would do it," she said, grinning fondly over at the horse sized spider. He was curled in a tight giant ball on the troll skin rug near the fire. "You've been quiet," she observed. "Are you feeling alright?" He was usually chatty enough unless he was reading, and currently he held no book.

"Not emotionally," Reynaldo replied in his low raspy voice. "I'm upset about the concept of having to go to work with Kereston."

"Is she making you do that now," Hydra asked, surprised. Kereston may have bought the Acromantula as a pet just after graduating Hogwarts, but when he grew up, she never challenged the fact that he had a will of his own.

"No, but I'll do it anyway," Reynaldo said glumly. "She should have a body guard. I just hope I don't have to kill anyone. Ballan and Greok gave me ideas on how to avoid that and still protect Kereston, though, so I'm feeling a bit better. I approve of you dating Ballan, by the way. I like him, even if he doesn't hate cats."

Hydra chuckled, wondering if she dared to ask about that one. Before she could decide, Kereston entered looking tired and drained. "She attacked Gringotts today," she said with a sigh, flopping into the nearest chair.

"Delphini," Hydra asked. At the thought of that creepy girl, her stomach dropped along with her mood. Why couldn't the Ministry just catch her so she would no longer be an issue? Both daddies stared in open concern at Kereston and even Loughness looked alarmed. For his part, Reynaldo just gave a resigned sigh and stayed where he was.

Kereston nodded tiredly. "Yep. She had..." She let out a breath, shaking her head. "It's such a mind melt, it's difficult to even talk about! She had a group of people with her, her followers I guess. But that's not the issue."

"Were you there," Loughness demanded. "Are you alright?" Now rather than laughing at the caring concerned way that Loughness's eyes drank Kereston in, Hydra found herself wondering if Ballan would look at her like that some day. For now, though, like Ballan, Kereston didn't seem to notice. She gave Loughness a quick strained smile that did not reach her tired blue-gray eyes.

"Oh no I wasn't there, and I'm fine," she assured quickly. "I heard it from Romeo and Gellert when it was all over. They returned to the Ministry to report." She glanced to Kreacher and Regulus, giving a shudder. "Gellert and Romeo were both shook! You know not much gets to either of them, but they were shook. She... Delphini, she has powers that can't be identified."

Kreacher and Regulus exchanged a worried glance. "What sort of powers, Kreacher wonders," the elf murmured half to himself, half to Kereston and Regulus. Briefly, Hydra wondered if he recalled that she and Loughness were still there. Fortunately, Loughness didn't at all hesitate to remind him of their presence.

"She really didn't seem all that at Hogwarts," he muttered, unimpressed. "I mean there's the turning into a huge snake and killing people bit but we can all kill creatively when given the opportunity, I am sure."

Kereston glanced over at him, lips twitching in amusement, but her amusement faded quickly as she drew in a breath to answer Kreacher's question. "For one, she seems to know things that she should not, indicating some sort of seer ability. Even worse and more disturbing than that, though, she has an odd sort of mental magic. A grip on the mind, Blaise called it. She can hypnotize people, I suppose, but she can get into their heads and cause them to see things."

"See things?" Kreacher asked. His expression was a mix of baffled and concerned.

"Well, she made Bellatrix believe that she'd somehow gotten Rodolphus during the Gringotts attack, for example," Kereston replied.

"What were the Lestranges doing there," Regulus asked, clearly concerned. They were family so that was only to be expected. Though Hydra was curious, she wasn't worried for the Lestranges. They'd proven time and time again that they could hold their own against... most things. They were survivors if anyone was.

"The Lestranges were training along with Romeo's new Aurors when the call from Gringotts that Delphini was attacking came into the Ministry," Kereston explained. "Gellert was showing everyone a few things that Rodolphus wanted to learn in order to implement them for warding Azkaban. He's doing a grand job running it, by the way," she added

"Good," Regulus said, giving a pleased smile.

"Kreacher knew he would," Kreacher said happily. "It allows all of them to channel their aggressions, so they shall be certain to excel." Hydra was quite sure that the three Lestranges tormented prisoners on a daily basis. Idly she wondered if said prisoners thought that was better than Dementors or not. The Dementors were gone, but with the Lestranges in their place, it was Kereston's hope that people would be afraid to be locked up.

Blaise and Gellert had enchanted armor to tear the things apart. Kereston did not trust them after they were swayed by Voldemort, not to mention she, along with everyone else, felt the dreadful things should never have existed in the first place. They hadn't run Azkaban for decades, but they still skulked about, and were known to attack from time to time, so having them hunted down and torn apart certainly made the world a better place.

"Back to the Gringotts attack," Kereston resumed the story. "As the Lestranges were present when the call for help came from the bank, they went along to assist Gellert and the Aurors. According to Bellatrix, it looked as if Delphini had Rod and was about to kill him. Only Rod was standing behind Bellatrix at the time, a thing she was well aware of until the second Delphini grasped hold of her mind.

Whatever she does inside their heads is extremely dangerous, because it can cause people to react in ways they shouldn't. Bellatrix went all Bellatrix and tried to break ranks to go and attack Delphini in order to rescue Rod. From Rod's perspective, Bella goes wild eyed, staring at nothing, then breaks rank, shrieking and lunging toward Delphini and he has to grab her and yank her back to safety."

"Did Rod grabbing her snap Bella out of whatever Delphini did to her mind," Hydra asked and Kereston nodded.

"Thankfully, yes."

"But why Bellatrix," Loughness wondered. "I mean why not go for Grindelwald? He's clearly the leader to be reckoned with."

"Well, Delphini has bad blood with the Lestranges. Apparently after they rejected her when she tried to visit them at Azkaban," Kereston began and Loughness interrupted with a shouted, "What? She did what?"

"What he said," Hydra murmured. That was scary. The Lestranges weren't easily scared, but that was scary, considering Delphini's apparently unexplainable powers.

"Sorry. It's been a long few days," Kereston said, sighing as she ran a tired hand through her cork screw blonde curls. "See what had happened was... Delphini believed Bellatrix was her Mum for some reason."

Hydra choked and Loughness snickered. "How'd Rod feel about that?"

"None of the Lestranges were welcoming to her," Kereston replied dryly. "Also Bellatrix stabbed her in the chest a lot with that dagger she always carries about. The worrisome thing is it didn't kill the girl. I can't believe I forgot to tell you lot this, I truly need to get more sleep!"

"It's likely because you've come home late due to all the chaos happening and gone directly to bed. When you wake, Daddy Kreacher is asleep, and he's the one you remember to tell everything to," Hydra said. She didn't mind this because Kreacher and Kereston were best friends and she always went to him with things. Hydra never expected otherwise. She merely pointed it out as an explanation.

"Still I have been remiss," Kereston said with an apologetic sigh. "Sorry. I'll do better. At any rate, according to the Lestranges, while she was being stabbed by Bella, Delphini's eyes went all red and while blood is bubbling up from her lips, so does Voldemort's voice, chastising them for betraying him."

"So like clearly Bella isn't her Mum, but... who is it, do you think," Hydra wondered. For some reason, her mind had chosen to focus on that bit rather than freaking out over the fact that it appeared Voldemort had a Horcrux tucked away in that girl or thing... Whatever Delphini was.

"Millicent's theory is Nagini, and I mean it sounds good to me," Kereston said with a shrug. "She's got those snake abilities what with hypnotism and visions, because Gellert suspects her to be a seer. Combine all that with being a Maledictus, and Nagini feels right."

Hydra nodded. "So what? He shagged his snake? Exactly how did that work?" Loughness asked, expression incredulous.

At that, both the daddies looked aghast and made choking sounds before returning to looking more dead white than usual and clutching one another's hands. Hydra flashed a concerned look in their direction at their clearly shared state of upset. After all Voldemort had done to them as well as the risk he could pose, of course they were taking this hard. She knew that she probably should be as well, but it felt so unreal somehow.

Back to Delphini's disturbing mental abilities, though," Kereston said. The, mental mirage she pulled on Bellatrix- only lasted a moment, but what she did next to Blaise was far worse." She glanced at Loughness. "I think it ties in with what you said about Gellert being the one to attack. Getting at Gellert through Blaise appears to have been her goal. To all outward appearances, he was just standing calmly, but in his mind, several traumatic months passed. Delphini wove stories in his mind of horrific events including Gellert's death and the deaths of his own parents. Awful stories in which he was trapped!"

"Like some nightmare that goes on for ages," Hydra asked, and Kereston nodded. It was far worse than they'd suspected. Hydra glanced over at her twin to see Loughness frowning in concern, all traces of earlier Dark amusement when it came to Delphini gone from his face. Shivering, Hydra wrapped her arms around herself. The idea that that girl, or anyone for that matter, could simply reach into someone's mind and control their perceptions was beyond dreadful.

"It's even worse than that, though," Kereston said, and Hydra groaned.

"No! I don't want worse," she protested, but Kereston went on anyway.

"Gellert and Romeo were shook because of how inhuman she feels."

"Yeah, because she's a Maledictus," Loughness said. Romeo was a natural telepath, a rare magical ability for which he did not need Occlumency or Legilimency. He could easily practice what passed for both without using actual detectable magic. Gellert had no such powers, but he was a very strong seer. As both Gellert and Romeo's talents involved the mind, their respective abilities would surely sense something strange in the fact that Delphini was a Maledictus, especially if her mind was becoming more serpentine in nature.

"Not that," Kereston told Loughness with a small shake of her head. "Gellert has seen a Maledictus before and Romeo thinks her abilities are not common to others with this condition. They both described their experience as a fluctuating to the extreme when it came to their impressions of Delphini when in any way near her. She didn't let anyone too close during her attack on Gringotts, mind, but when they were as close as they could get, both experienced the same thing. Their perceptions drastically and rapidly switching back and forth between seeing that she was just a girl who could be easily defeated to the fact that she was a force far larger than any they had ever seen or could even define. They described these two opposite perceptions switching back and forth as rapidly as a light turning on and off."

"What does that mean," Hydra breathed. She shook her head in utter bafflement, unable to make head nor tails of such a thing. The conflict in perception probably made it more difficult to trust one's own instincts, but it had to mean more than that.

"Precisely," Kereston said with a sigh. "We have no idea what the hell that means other than a big headache for us at a time when enough is going on what with the restructuring of wizarding society."

"Do you think she chose now to do this due to the magical uprising," Hydra asked and Kereston shook her head.

"I would've thought that as well, because it seems logical, but she started before. She was messing about with the former Granger Minister and her lot earlier as it turns out, apparently just to see if she could. She wanted to know that she could infiltrate the government any time she liked. She used her mental mirages on them too, giving them waking dreams, or rather nightmares as she did to Blaise. She had them and even some of their children thinking she had some sort of Time Turner and alternate timelines or some such rubbish."

"But how,' Hydra breathed. "That's giving those waking nightmare things to several people at once!" As if what was done to Blaise or Bella alone wasn't alarming enough!

"That's just the thing bothering Gellert, Romeo and me along with everyone else," Kereston said, settling deeper into her chair with a dejected sigh. The Daddies exchanged a worried glance, and Loughness stared thoughtfully ahead of himself. Reynaldo curled up into an even tighter ball on the floor.

"Did she kill any Acromantulas," he wondered dejectedly.

"Oh no," Kereston assured. "All four of the Acromantula Aurors are fine. She didn't get any of us. Romeo and Gellert had excellent protective shields up. Gellert has taught all of the Aurors Protego Diabolica and they have it layered with other charms. The Gringotts goblins are all safe as well and they even got all the gold out before leaving the place to Delphini."

"So is the bank no longer in use then," Hydra asked, dismayed at the prospect. That was a little alarming considering that most people believed it to be the safest place on Earth, even above Hogwarts.

"I don't think so. Once she is gone, they'll return, reclaim it, up the defensive wards even more and all that."

"I hope they check carefully for any traps she's laid," Hydra said grimly.

"Of course they will," Loughness scoffed. "They're goblins. They invented paranoid and careful. That's one reason I like them so much."

Kereston chuckled. "It's one of many reasons I am glad to have them on our side."

"So what next," Hydra asked.

Nearly like Loughness, Kereston stared into space for several long seconds before turning a tired, overwhelmed gaze to Hydra. "We shall be working on a mix of things from gathering intel on her to draining her resources once we discover them to sorting creative ways to kill her. Because we have to kill her. Whatever she is, locking her up didn't work when the old regime did that, and it's not my thing anyway. I always said when the criminals are too despicable, just kill them so they can't ever escape to do it all again. No matter what, I am sticking by that."

"Good," Hydra said fervently. "It makes a safer world for all of us." Soon everyone but the daddies headed up to bed, including Kereston. It was late, and everyone who did not have to sleep the day away was more than tired. As Hydra closed the door of her own bedroom after bidding Loughness, Kereston and Reynaldo a good night, her mind was no longer on Ballan though it would return to him before long.

For the present, though, it was stunned by the concept of Delphini. Kereston didn't speak of her as human truly, so what could that mean? Apparently no one knew. As she climbed under her blankets, Hydra gave a disgusted shudder. What the hell had Voldemort done now? Apparently his evil could not end with his death. He'd planted a seed and it had grown. Likely he'd planned Delphini as a weapon he could use, so she was sure to be more dangerous than could be expected. Voldemort had not planned to die, considering all the Horcruxes, so he would've planned to use Delphini himself. As she hadn't grown up over night, his plans were long term. He must not have expected to go unchallenged forever, then. That was interesting, and on that thought, Hydra drifted off to sleep.