The Good Slytherin

Chapter Seventeen: Delphinia

"We have to go to London," Lucius said late one night after a meeting with the Death Eaters. "Rookwood tells me that the Imperius Curse on Fergus Farnsworth is wearing off. He was sent to hospital this morning after acting quite strangely."

"Don't tell me your curses are not what they used to be," Delphinia replied with a playful sneer.

Lucius humorlessly raised an eyebrow. "Hardly."

They apparated to St. Mungo's and used one of their unwitting spies in the hospital to gain entry. Eyes glazed from the Imperius Curse, the young sandy haired Healer mutely showed them in. It had been a while since Delphinia was last in St. Mungo's, not since she drank all that firewhisky and made herself sick. Last she remembered it, the reception area had been filled with people in various states of need. Tonight the room was deserted save for a wizard who was slumped over in his seat and a witch at the inquiries desk who looked just as vacant as their guide.

Through a corridor and up the stairs, they came to a sign that read SPELL DAMAGE by set of double doors. As their guide turned to face them, it suddenly occurred to Delphinia that the Healer was a younger Slytherin classmate of hers. He couldn't have been more than three years younger than her. She began to open her mouth to say something, a reflective gesture, but a sharp stare from Lucius reminded her to keep quiet. The Healer moved dazedly through the doors, making no confirmation of their shared history.

"Stand guard," Lucius whispered sternly, wand out, before continuing onto the last room at the end of the hall. The Healer, with his lurid lime green robes, followed behind him.

Delphinia got her own wand out and scanned the corridor. She didn't expect any trouble, but it paid to be vigilant. The minutes ticked by and she heard some muffled voices--Lucius's probably--and then a flash of blinding green light that lit up the corridor. For a brief moment, the light drew her attention to the room next to her. Though the door was closed, a bed was visible through the small pane of glass. She spied something familiar about its occupant.

"What are you doing, Delphinia?" Lucius hissed, suddenly next to her as she pressed her face against the glass.

She didn't answer him, instead raising her wand. "Alohomora." The door opened immediately and she walked shakily over to the bed, staring down at its sleeping occupant. Though she hadn't seen him in two years, not since he had abruptly dumped her, David's face was still the same--the same lips, same dark hair, same curve of the brow and sharp nose. It seemed rather strange to be reunited with someone that she once had known so intimately. A mixture of hate and longing churned within her as if tearing into an old wound. Delphinia had fantasized about this moment for so long and had devised long drawn out tortures to repay him for every ounce of pain he inflicted on her. And yet he lay there motionless--asleep but surely afflicted by something much greater. It didn't bode well that they were on the spell damage floor of St. Mungo's.

"Delphinia," Lucius hissed again, his voice inexplicably agitated. "We need to leave now."

Her voice caught in her throat. "This is my ex-boyfriend, David."

"Yes, yes. I know," he said dismissively and tried to steer her out of the room, but she was not going anywhere.

"What do you mean you know? How do you know him? You never met him!"

For an instant, there was a flash of emotion in Lucius's cold grey eyes, but his features soon hardened. "Don't be so naïve." His voice was stern and distant.

"Naïve?"

The Trainee Healer suddenly shuffled into the room as if waiting for direction from Lucius. Delphinia used the distraction to reach for David's chart, quickly scanning the parchment for some sort of clue to his affliction.

"It says he's addled. He's been here almost two years."

A thin smile formed on Lucius's face. "You can thank Bellatrix for that."

The past two years replayed in her mind at an alarming rate, starting with David's uncharacteristic behavior coupled with his casual dismissal of their relationship, and then of Marrakesh and Lucius's coincidental appearance. These events seemed part of the painful movement of time, but now another reality emerged--one that was much more sinister.
"It was you, wasn't itquot;

"You are going to have to be more specific than that."

"Don't be coy with me," she shot back loudly. "Marrakesh? It wasn't an accident you were there. And David? What did you do? Use the Imperius Curse to get him to break up with me?"

"His mind was easy to push into. Like turning a handle on a door."

It was such a smug answer. She wanted to hit him.

"Delphinia, don't be cross," he said, his tone even more arrogant. He then pointed to David, who hadn't even stirred. "Look at this pathetic blood traitor. I was saving you."

"Oh how noble." The comment was meant to be biting, but she was surprised to hear her voice so emotionless.

Lucius softened ever so slightly. "We must go. I don't fancy a trip to Azkaban and I am sure neither do you."

"Right," she said curtly and turned back towards David.

It had been a long time since Delphinia felt anything akin to mercy, but as she looked down at him, she knew what she had to do. She raised her wand and pointed it at him, summoning all her will and all her power. Lucius stepped back as he if he instinctively knew what was about to happen. Only seconds later did Delphinia say the incantation for the Killing Curse, the green jet shooting swiftly from her wand and making contact with David's motionless body.

Delphinia left St. Mungo's confused and disoriented. Perhaps Lucius meant her to discover David, perhaps not--she had stopped believing in coincidences that night. His veiled admission of manipulating her into joining the Death Eaters made the last two years seem hollow and meaningless. Disoriented, part of her began to fantasize just how different her life might have been if Lucius Malfoy had never entered it.

Soon after that, she realized that her faith had deteriorated so far that she didn't know what she was doing in the Death Eaters anymore. It was a dangerous conclusion to arrive at, especially since death was the only way to leave the Dark Lord's service. She had seen his wrath firsthand brought swiftly upon the less faithful. All it would take was one look into eyes and her reticence would be discovered.

Occlumency would buy her some time.

A couple months later she came to another dangerous conclusion--she would go to Dumbledore and offer her help. By that time she had resigned herself, knowing that death would come either from the wand or from the slow descent into madness under the attentive care of Azkaban's Dementors. It was a matter of prolonging the inevitable as she apparated just outside the Hogwarts gates late one night.

She knew that the wheel of fate was already in motion.