As the Dark Lord's only daughter and heiress, naturally, I had contingency plans and solutions for every situation. Like, found yourself accidentally transported into the Department of Mysteries?

Then you must have remembered to bring a portkey before hand. You forgot the portkey? At least you brought a house elf with you.

You were a complete numbskull and didn't do your homework? Run like hell.

It just happened that life threw a wrench at me, again. Thanks life. As if being born the daughter of two loving wizard terrorists was not enough. And it happened on my birthday too…

I was searching for daddy, of course because no one has seen him in decades. Kidding, it's been like two weeks since he oh so mightily told me to stay put and that he will crush the new dark wizard competition like an ant beneath his heel. And then he literally went full radio silence, and I jokingly told mother he must have escaped his crazy responsibilities by actually going on an indefinite vacation to Paris, his favorite place.

She screamed in my face that the mighty Dark Lord would never have abandoned us, and that I should not have said such heresy! Sheesh mom, it was just a joke.

Then she started crying and cuddled me saying I was her precious little dolphin, and that she would slay all the mudbloods for me.

I mean, I was touched, and I love my mom, but she was Bellatrix Lestrange, the Dark Lord's most fierce and loyal death eater. And she would slay muggleborns just for fun too…

I couldn't keep waiting for daddy, I almost had gray hairs because of worry and I kept dreaming of him being tortured. So, I snuck out.

I was not allowed outside unescorted because as father once put it, the ministry and Dumbledore would love holding me over his head.

He also told me, in the death of night, when I was seven, that he loved me. He entered my room by barging inside, the door closing with a thud. He stared at me while I woke up, his face was indescribable and he looked like a madman.

I was about to ask him if he brought me sweets as he had the habit of doing behind mother's back, who insisted on me being at peak health for when I will unavoidably join them in a fight. It didn't matter that it was just one candy, or that her wish might happen ten years from then, it was sound logic apparently.

"I am plagued, child." He told me.

"Who's plaguing you daddy? I'll help fight them!" I told him fiercely.

He smirked and said, "I am suffering from the curse of fools when I look at your mother and you. I feel what I have never felt, love. I would murder both of you to get rid of this weakness but it's too late. It's undone me."

"I don't understand, daddy. Love is a curse?"

"A most terrible one, child."

"You love me?" I asked him.

"Unfortunately."

"Then can I have some pepper imps?"

He laughed, and not just a mocking snicker, a full on belly laughter. How I missed him.

And I was not going to rest until I found him.

You might say, "Great Delphi, you're determined, you're smart, you're going to rescue your father and he'd be so proud of you! Well yes, until the wrench, I meant, Dumbledore found me."

Daddy's gonna freak out.

And because I was a numbskull x-nay on the ortkey-ptay. And no house elf either. Yes, I watched muggle cartoons behind my parents' backs with one of my pureblood friends who might be a future traitor to the cause. But he's kind to me, so it's okay, kind of.

You see, I wasn't one hundred percent sold to the cause either. I mean, I would jump into fire for mom or dad, I would fight a mountain troll unarmed, I would even eat uncle Rod's cooking for them, but I don't want to kill people, and certainly not for something they can't help like birth.

And mom's stories of how muggleborns stole our magic always seemed absurd, magic can't be stolen unless one has done certain dark rituals. She also called muggleborns weak, so, by her definition, our stolen magic was feeble. I did not tell her how silly it sounded, out of fear of being grounded, then I really wouldn't see sweets for the rest of my life. Or sunlight!

Sometimes I had the impression that even with my acting skills father knew I was loyal to him and not the cause. Father always knows everything.

And now, I was face to face with Albus Dumbledore in Knockturn Alley, after trying to find a clue about daddy's whereabouts from seedy people who might have knowledge about the new player in the game and who could be bribed, or threatened. I wasn't picky.

The old man watched me with horrid recognition on his wizened visage, almost as if he'd seen a ghost. So, I did the smart thing for a thirteen year old, I ran.

But he gave chase.

Who knew a one hundred twenty seven years old relic could run like that?

I tried anything to escape, I tried cutting corners, the wind flowing through my wild, uncombed curly hair, inherited from my beautiful mother. I snuck through sinew, narrow, dirty alleys. I fell twice, blood leaking from my knobby knees, but I didn't look back.

My heart was beating wildly, this whole situation was a ticking time bomb, and I feared becoming a corpse, or worse, a prisoner.

Dumbledore was always right behind me, I could feel his oppressive presence, like that time one of daddy's favorite death eaters, professor Snape, home schooled me in potions.

Him and I had an awkward relationship. I respected him, and I enjoyed his sarcasm, but I also thought he was a tyrant who dished out homework just to make me suffer because of small, unimportant remarks about potions not being as interesting to me as DADA.

For that comment alone he sent me a withering glare, the likes that made me think he wanted to Crucio me on the spot. But I didn't worry as I have heard from mother that he was all talk and no cruelty, like a baby lion with milk teeth.

This old lion however, this one could tear to shreds.

Thrice I fell, and he took hold of my hand, trying to steady me.

"Let me go!" I yelled, feeling like I was screaming with the last bit of strength I had, screaming into the abyss.

Dumbledore's eyes turned soft, but I was not going to get fooled!

I have had enough! I tried clawing his eyes out with my left hand, since he took hold of my wand arm and I was too panicked for wandless incantations. I even tried biting him. I was aware that I had stooped low, but it did not matter. What mattered was to put some distance between us again and run!

But his grip was unrelenting, I could not escape it.

"I am afraid I can't let you go so easily, my girl."