The Good Slytherin

Chapter Five: Delphinia

In a seedy outdoor café in Marrakesh, Delphinia Thorpe was pleased to realize that she was drunk. She sipped slowly on her fourth drink--something unpronounceable that her waiter urged her to order--and noted that it nicely dulled the sting of getting dumped by her boyfriend David the previous week. Sittig alone, her eyes shifting in and out of focus, she ruminated yet again on the irritating fact that she and David were supposed to be on this holiday together. They had planned it for ages and not six days before, he had pulled the, "It's not you, it's me," conversation. It was like he had become a completely different person overnight.

Using this holiday in Marrakesh to get her life sorted, Delphinia desperately wanted to figure out why everything seemed completely fucked. David's break up with her came with near comedic timing, a garnish to her dissatisfaction with her job and life in general. Somewhere along the line she had gone off the rails and at twenty-two years old she felt that she was meeting none of the goals she had set after leaving Hogwarts. She was supposed to be doing great things now, not editing obituaries! Somewhere in back of her mind she could hear her sister's voice urging her to be patient, but Delphinia didn't want to be patient. The ambition in her fostered by her time in Slytherin felt stagnant.

Naturally, she wanted to blame David.

"Useless sodding wanker," she grumbled and slammed her glass down clumsily against the round wooden table. The instant the thud reverberated around the café, she regretted it. A lecherous wizard named Ahmed, who had been trying to ingratiate himself with her all evening, looked up her ay. She had only just managed to get him to bugger off and her audible flash of anger lured him back over to her table.

"Dehl-phin-eeahh," he slurred in heavily accented English, breath reeking of the green glowing cigarette he was smoking. She had made the mistake after her second drink to tell him her name. "Why this anger? You come over to my tables. I make you smile again."

She looked over his shoulder and noticed that his mate was eagerly watching the scene, urging Ahmed from across the café in Arabic. Ugh! What on earth was she going to have to do to get this guy to take a hint! She took out her wand and waved it drunkenly in front of Ahmed's heavily lidded eyes. "No. No joining you at your tables. I just want to sit here in peace. So shove off and go back to your mate."

Had she been sober, she would have realized the stupidity of sitting in a café by herself in a foreign land and getting drunk. But since she had clearly stopped thinking straight six days prior, the idea of going to Morocco alone and getting pissed with the likes of Ahmed didn't seem all that bad. His love-struck attention to her was cute at first, but four drinks later, her patience was wearing thin. She briefly wondered if she could even manage the simplest of spells as her intoxicated limbs struggled to keep her wand from dropping out of her ha. The answer was probably no and Ahmed didn't look at all threatened, instead pulling a nearby chair next to hers. Once he sat down, he leaned in close against her.

"You so beautiful, my Eeen-ga-lish woman," he whispered into her ear and Delphinia panicked, wondering if he was going to try and kiss her.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that a figure had joined them at the table. "A friend of yours, Delphinia," came a shockingly familiar voice heavy with sarcasm. She looked up and saw Lucius Malfoy smirking back and her jaw dropped.

"Lucius?" she found herself asking aloud in utter disbelief.

Ahmed was unfazed. He wrapped an arm around her as if she was his girlfriend and Lucius had just rudely propositioned her. Bristling at the sight of him, Ahmed said something angrily in Arabic.

Delphinia was too busy registering the fact that Lucius Malfoy was here in Marrakesh of all places to notice Ahmed's unwanted attempt at gallantry. She hadn't seen him in years--not since Hogwarts, not since he managed to fall off the face of the earth. She had heard rumors from her old Slytherin friends that Lucius had got deeply involved in some Dark Magic. Rumors aside, she was willing to take any help she could get at this point, especially since had managed to press himself tightly against her. Delphinia flashed Lucius a look that read, "Help!"

Lucius smirked again, clearly relishing the chance to save her from Ahmed's overprotective clutches. He sat down in the dingy chair opposite her, disdainfully brushing away some crumbs left from a previous patron. Before Ahmed had a chance to react, Lucius had raised his wand and hissed, "Imperio!" Delphinia could feel an immediate change in Ahmed's body--his arm fell slack from around her shoulders and he stumbled upwards. "Why don't you be a good boy and run along," Lucius commanded and Ahmed obeyed, quickly leaving her side to join his friend at the other end of the café. None of the other café patrons seemed to have noticed that Lucius had just performed a highly illegal spell. Though pleased to not have Ahmed groping her anymore, she was stunned by her old friend's casual use of the Imperius Curse.

Her mind couldn't help but go back to her final year at Hogwarts when she herself had dabbled in the Dark Arts, mostly just to prove herself to her friends. They had even formed a club and Lucius had showed up at Hogsmeade weekends to pass on the contraband knowledge--nothing as much as an Unfoivable Curse.

"Where did you learn that bit of magic?" Delphinia gasped, noting that her head had started to swim--the effects of Drink Number Four all too apparent.

There was a flicker of emotion in his cold eyes and he answered, "From a great wizard."

The rumors must be true.

"I suppose I should thank you for rescuing me?" she asked.

"It is the least I could do for an old friend," he responded wryly.

Delphinia watched as Ahmed and his mate left the café abruptly. She shook her head and took a gulp from her drink, burning her throat. "It's been what, four years?"

"Closer to five." He smirked again and she couldn't help but remember that there had always been something rather seductive about him. Then she remembered his use of the Imperius Curse and now she was suspicious.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm in town on . . . business," he replied rather evasively. "I couldn't help but notice you sitting all by yourself."

She wondered how long he had been watching her at the café. "I wanted to be alone."

"Not sure if that rather pathetic excuse for a wizard felt the same way. And Delphinia," he added drolly as he gave the café a once over, "what is this charming place you have decided to patronize?"

"I'm trying to get drunk. Didn't you notice?"

"I do not think anyone could fail to notice that," he mocked and she sobered slightly at his criticism. When the waiter came by the table and asked if he wanted anything, Lucius waved him away.

"It's been a long time, Lucius," she said as she downed the last of her drink. "What happened to you?"

"I've been involved in a couple of things," he replied. "How's that sister of yours getting on?"

She sat back and eyed him suspiciously--Lucius and her sister Eurydice were hardly friends. Both in the same year at Hogwarts, they had had an obvious dislike for each other that only deepened when her sister learned that Delphinia had been learning some rudimentary Dark Arts courtesy of Lucius Malfoy. "She's fine," she answered cautiously. "She has been working as an art dealer for Gordon & Hollings."

"And you? I hear that you have been at the Daily Prophet. Junior copy editor? I frankly expected more from someone with your talents and ambition."

The criticism stung, even in her drunken haze. "And what have you been doing? Frittering away the family fortune? Arsing about on the continent? At least I'm doing something with myself," she stammered defensively as she rose from her chair. The second she stood up though, the full effects of her four drinks made her teeter precariously over the table.

"Sit down, Delphinia," he said as he smiled condescendingly. "It's rather unfortunate that I caught you after you reached . . . what number drink was that?"

"Four," she slurred as she slumped back dejectedly into her chair.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Do you normally come to foreign countries alone to have a drink?"

"Sod off. I'm on holiday."

"Right. That boyfriend of yours breaks up with you and you come all the way to Africa to drown your sorrows. Very dramatic."

She suddenly snapped her head up. "Hang on. How do you know about David? I never told you about--"

A peculiar look came over Lucius's face and he said, "There isn't a lot that I don't know."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He merely smiled looking rather pleased with himself. She was about to press him further when he rose from the table. "Don't sit here by yourself for too long," he said with disdain before strolling out of the café and into the square.

Baffled, Delphinia sat there and ran through the conversation with Lucius again and again in her mind. What is he doing here? she thought, tracing the rim of her empty glass with her fingers. Drunk or not, the encounter was odd, though not at all ut of character for Lucius. He was always slightly mysterious and amazingly arrogant.

"Lucius bloody Malfoy," she found herself remarking aloud with a snort.

Paying the waiter, she stumbled upwards and out of the café, fully meaning to head towards her lodgings. She wasn't thinking very clearly when she turned left instead of right and traveled down a narrow alley that lead out of the wizard enclave. Before she knew it, she was wandering in a marketplace of sorts bustling with Muggles moving in and out of stalls. It took her a moment or two to realize that she had made a blunder, long enough for her to stray far from the wizard world. "Shit," she muttered, placing a hand wearily on her head. If she hadn't been so drunk she would have just apparated back and been done with it, but apparation and alcohol never mixed well--especially in the middle of a busy market.

Panicking, she pushed through the crowd of Muggles and made for the first alley that she saw, hoping that it was the correct one back. She didn't get very far down the narrow passageway between two ancient buildings before she recognized that this was not where she wanted to be. Silently cursing David for being the reason she was lost, drunk, and alone in Marrakesh in the first place, she looked around the darkness for some clue as to how she was going to find her way back.