Slytherin's Legacy Behind-the-Scenes

CHAPTER ONE

• Delphi's relationships with the Malfoys have changed, but they're not entirely destroyed.
• Lucius has given her increased access to the Dark Arts books in the library. (He clearly thinks this Harry Potter thing is an opportunistic long con.)
• Narcissa is literally setting her up on play dates with other pureblood boys. (Hoping Delphi develops a crush and/or that Draco gets jealous.)
• Draco is being a shithead at every opportunity. Especially if another Slytherin boy is around. (Nott is there when the story starts, and he isn't interested in bullying Delphi. Draco still picks on her over not hearing from Harry, though.)
• Delphi has heard from Hermione and Ron but not Harry or Neville. She sends Harry a birthday gift anyway.
• Delphi literally catches Dobby with her parcel in his hands.
• Delphi & Draco discover that Dobby's been stealing Harry's letters (to make Harry think he had no friends at Hogwarts). (July 31, 1992 or August 1, 1992)
• Delphi and Draco demand an explanation from Dobby. They find out that Dobby has already visited Harry in an attempt to keep him out of Hogwarts.
• Delphi heads off to rescue Harry from the Muggles, quite accidentally dragging Draco along for the ride. (August 1, 1992)
• Draco is utterly stunned and horrified by what the Dursleys are doing to Harry; he takes this as further evidence that Muggles are monsters.
• Harry, meanwhile, is none too pleased to find Draco Malfoy in his bedroom... until he realizes that a break-out is a break-out, and he'd best not look a gift horse in the mouth.
• They debate where to go--the manor's out, but maybe Diagon Alley or Hogwarts would work?--before deciding to go to Dumbledore to try to clear up this "underage magic" thing.
• Dobby takes Draco, Delphi, and Harry to Hogwarts. They're on the way to the Headmaster's office when they quite unfortunately run into Snape.
• Dumbledore isn't quite as furious as Snape is about the ease of Harry's runaway. (That's a HUGE security risk!) But he shoots down Delphi's request to let her and Harry stay at Hogwarts for the rest of the summer; after arranging for Harry to spend the rest of August at the Burrow, he sends Draco, Delphi, and Dobby home.
• When Dumbledore asks Dobby about why he tried to "help" Harry, Dobby manages much more self-flagellation than answering. And for the first time in her life, Delphi is suddenly aware of just how horrific Dobby's life is; she's terribly embarrassed by his behavior and by what it means about the Malfoys and about her. With Draco ordering Dobby not to help Harry anymore and not answer Dumbledore's questions, Delphi orders him to stop punishing himself.
• Snape escorts Delphi and Draco back to Malfoy Manor. All in all, it's been a weird fucking night, and Draco, for one, is ready to put it all behind him.

CHAPTER TWO

• Things are a little different between Draco and Delphi after that. Draco is suddenly very concerned with the powerlessness of a magical child constrained by laws against underage magic; clearly, it opens up the possibility for them to be victimized by Muggles. More importantly, though, he suddenly has insight into Harry Potter. Delphi asks what he'd been imagining Harry's home life was like; apparently, he'd assumed Harry'd been living like a prince, lording his power over the Muggle idiots who'd raised him. Instead, Harry's being abused; he makes a very good point about Dumbledore's failings while trying to make a less great point about the Ministry's lenience toward Muggles. But Delphi does manage to turn it around on him, if only a little bit: if he's so concerned about the potential for Muggles to abuse magical children, perhaps he should have more sympathy for Muggleborns.
• Delphi is trying to retrain herself when it comes to how she treats Dobby.
• Delphi gets an intent-to-disown letter from Madam Lestrange. She's stunned by how much it genuinely upsets her. Even more surprising: Lucius looks horrified by the threat of a paternity test and plans to fight it legally.
• Harry, the Weasleys, the Grangers, Lucius, Draco, and Delphi all run into each other in Diagon Alley. Lockhart is a twat. Lucius and Arthur get into a fight. Lucius slips Ginny the diary. (August 19, 1992)

CHAPTER THREE

• train ride to school; Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Delphi welcome Neville back into the group, and Delphi & Hermione take Ginny under their wing. (Ron is NOT pleased.) Delphi notices Ginny's crush on Harry, and she's jealous as hell, though she doesn't quite realize it yet.
• Parkinson taunts Delphi about a tiny article Rita Skeeter wrote in an obscure pureblood paper called the Merlin Report, about Madame Lestrange attempting to disown Delphi on behalf of her son. Skeeter speculates that Lucius has actually taken up the cause of defending Delphi's paternity because he's Delphi's real father and doesn't want to be found out. Delphi counters with the much more obvious solution (that Lucius wants her to inherit the Lestrange fortune and eventually marry Draco), to the utter horror of her friends.
• feast & reunion with the other Slytherins; Delphi hangs out with Lilly Moon, who remains eerily prescient.
• Boros surprises Delphi in her dorm, and the other girls nearly catch her speaking parseltongue to him. Lilly helps Delphi get away with it,though Delphi's a bit disturbed by the implication that Lilly knows the truth. (September 1, 1992)

CHAPTER FOUR

• Lockhart and his lessons are a nightmare; Delphi, furious, purposefully answers his stupid quiz with the dumbest bs answers she can think up, and she's supremely guilty over how much he's making her miss Quirrell (at least she has Dumbledore's book... though it's not as good as having a teacher) (September 2, 1992)
• Draco's on the Quidditch team; Draco calls Hermione a Mudblood; Ron's wand isn't broken, so he succeeds in cursing Malfoy (September 5, 1992)
• Snape catches up to them eventually to punish Ron, though he backs down from giving detention (just takes points instead) when Delphi protests that Draco called Hermione a mudblood (September 5, 1992)
• Ginny is notably absent from her usual place in the library (where they usually see her scribbling away in a book, presumably doing her homework), and Harry & Delphi hear the basilisk's voice for the first time (canonically September 5, 1992)

CHAPTER FIVE

• (Tom Riddle, in the guise of Ginny Weasley, takes it upon himself to investigate and befriend Delphini Lestrange. There's a considerable family resemblance, after all.) 'Ginny' joins Delphi in the library without invitation and has vastly more confidence and charisma all of a sudden; they have a chat about Harry Potter & Delphi's paternity woes. (September 1992)
• Delphi decides to do something to celebrate Hermione's birthday (September 19, 1992). With Ginny tagging along uninvited, she goes back to her abandoned classroom to scope it out as a potential party spot. (Her continued use of the abandoned classroom further establishes her sense of entitlement to the castle.) They chat about to plan a party, and Ginny suggests tracking down the house elves to help.
• With Boros' help, Delphi tracks down the kitchen & the house elves. Delphi is startled by the stark difference between the Hogwarts house elves and Dobby. She asks then a bit about their lives, and she's forced to admit that the Malfoys are irredeemably bad masters.
• Hermione's birthday is celebrated by the trio, Neville, Ginny, and Lilly. Upon Ginny's suggestion, Delphi puts the house elves to work. Things go south when Hermione discovers that Hogwarts has slaves, and then everything really blows up: Snape catches them all.
• With Delphi taking full responsibility for the party, Snape gives her a ton of shit (and a week of detention) for her gall. (Apparently, throwing her friend a party constitutes "misuse of school property", "unauthorized gathering", and most ridiculously, "think[ing she's] special".)

CHAPTER SIX

• The gang has a chat about house elves & their rights. Hermione hates the status quo; Delphi's mired in guilt; Ron doesn't get what the big deal is; Lilly is cryptic about Dobby's fate; and Harry wishes they'd all just drop it. (Ginny, oddly, is acting like she doesn't understand why they would invite her to hang out with them, and for a second she actually seems like she doesn't know what they're talking about when they bring up the birthday party, though she quickly hides her confusion.)
• Delphi can't stop dwelling on Hermione's judgment and her own guilt over Dobby's abuse, and she ends up going back to her classroom, calling Dobby to her (http://mwwnb-potterthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/10/solving-house-elf-mystery.html), and having an awkward chat with him on the subject. (It's only with his help that she narrowly avoids getting caught in the room by Snape AGAIN, and she gets a further reminder that house elves actually can Apparate within Hogwarts.)
• Delphi's birthday comes and goes with little fanfare & constant vigilance from Snape. (October 21, 1992)
• Nearly-Headless Nick invites Harry to his deathday party; he passes the invitation along to the rest of the gang. Ron and Neville don't want to miss the feast; Hermione and Lilly are genuinely interested in what a ghost party's like; Ginny's lowkey avoiding them??; and Delphi is suspiciously interested in going along with whatever Harry wants (because she has the beginnings of a crush that she's not yet aware of). (October 24, 1992)
• The deathday party is awkward and weird (they all ended up going except for Ginny), and between it and the mysterious voice that Harry and Delphi both hear in the corridors, they miss the Halloween feast entirely. They do, however, find Mrs. Norris petrified moments before the rest of the school finds her, and so they come very close to getting blamed. (October 31, 1992)

CHAPTER SEVEN

• Hermione tries to have a chat with Binns about the Chamber of Secrets legend in History of Magic class, but Binns isn't particularly useful. When Hermione reveals that she left her copy of Hogwarts: A History at home, Delphi reveals to her friends her project from the year before: the book network. Hermione is scandalized (books are sacred! spell creation is years ahead of their curriculum!) and Harry is wary that this spell might have been created with Quirrellmort's help, but Delphi persuades them that it was all her and that it's harmless. They read about the Chamber of Secrets legend. (November 4, 1992)
• Having brainstormed a rather ridiculous plan (Delphi tries and fails to persuade them just to use the cloak and/or Disillusion themselves while she interrogates Draco, but Hermione insists on doing things her way), Hermione takes Most Potente Potions from the library with the permission slip Lockhart signed. (November 5, 1992)
• Gryffindor and Slytherin have their first Quidditch game of the year, marking the first time that Harry plays against Draco. Unlike in canon, Dobby does not interfere, Harry is not attacked by the rogue bludger, and Lockhart does not debone his arm. (November 7, 1992)
• As Harry is not in the hospital wing in this story, the gang doesn't find out about Colin Creevey's petrification until the rumors start up the next morning. (after midnight November 8, 1992)

CHAPTER EIGHT

• Selwyn stops a fourth year student from trying to sell Delphi and Lilly a (ridiculously fake) "protective amulet" to ward off Slytherin's monster. Though Selwyn's been ignoring her thus far this year, the interaction is tense.
• McGonagall takes names of those staying at Hogwarts over Christmas; Snape does the same for the Slytherin students. Pansy and co take Delphi's stay at Hogwarts as a reason to bully her over the thought of her impending disownment, and they cruelly speculate about what her new name is going to be. (Delphi Black? Delphi Malfoy? Delphi counters that she'll go by just her first name, like Merlin.) When this doesn't seem to phase her, they switch to outright telling her that they hope the Heir gets her next (for being a blood traitor and an enormous disgrace to the Slytherin house), and the degree to which Lilly finds this truly hilarious makes the whole lot of them uncomfortable. (December 7, 1992)
• With Harry creating a distraction, Hermione steals potions ingredients from Snape's office. Delphi honestly thinks she's lost her mind; she offered to try to get Snape to give them the ingredients, but Hermione insisted that telling Snape what they wanted would just make him suspicious of them and would make it impossible to steal the stuff after they told Snape what they were after and he inevitably turned them down. So half the class gets splashed with Swelling Solution, and Harry very nearly gets his ass expelled. (December 10, 1992)
• The dueling club is second only to the climax of last year in terms of excitement. Just about everyone hates both Lockhart and Snape, and most students don't know who the heck to root for between the two of them; Delphi, on the other hand, is having some uncomfortable feelings while watching Snape hand Lockhart his entire ass. [REDACTED] More importantly, though, is what happens when Draco accidentally sets a snake on Justin Finch-Fletchley: Harry stops it with Parseltongue, revealing to the entire school that he's a Parselmouth. Delphi's over the goddamn moon and reveals to her friends for the first time that she's also a Parselmouth ("Oh, I already knew," Lilly said serenely, and Delphi decided not to question it.); Ron, Neville, and Hermione are all varying degrees of disturbed by this (Ginny has nothing to say, because Ginny is Tom at the moment). (December 17, 1992)
• Draco confronts Delphi over Harry's Parseltongue. He demands to know how she found out about it, and he doesn't believe it when she insists that she didn't know until the dueling tournament. He's suddenly convinced that she's been keeping things from him—specifically, that she's been keeping from him that there's way more to Harry Potter than meets the eye. He's back on the Harry-might-be-a-future-Dark-Lord train, and he's more upset about his being rejected by Harry than he's been since it first happened last year. They have a whole fight about it ("I told you what you did wrong, you nonce! Just be nicer to him!") that results in Draco storming off after threatening to tell the rest of the school that Harry isn't the only Parselmouth around. Delphi fears he wasn't bluffing, but she doesn't do anything about it.
• The day after the dueling club, there's a blizzard that blankets the grounds, and already the entire student body is abuzz with rumors that Harry's the Heir of Slytherin. Most distressingly, Justin Finch-Fletchley and his friends are convinced that Harry is a budding Dark wizard, and Harry's attempt to stand up for himself only makes him that much more suspicious a few hours later when Justin and Nearly-Headless Nick show up petrified. (December 18, 1992)
• After she and Harry get called into Dumbledore's office, Delphi confesses to Dumbledore (and Snape?) that she and Harry are hearing a phantom voice... and realizes that obviously that means the monster must be a snake. Harry, Delphi, and (later) the rest of the gang feel particularly stupid for not realizing this sooner, but it gives Hermione a renewed surge of research-related eagerness.
• end of term (December 21, 1992)

CHAPTER NINE

• The rest of the Slytherins are suddenly acting very strangely toward her. Daphne and Tracey are rather nice to her; Pansy and Millicent suddenly don't have any more shitty things to say; Selwyn even apologies for his behavior the year before. Lilly lets Delphi in on the obvious: the rest of the house clearly now suspects Delphi of being the Heir, and Delphi is furious with Draco for apparently letting her secret slip.
• When the polyjuice potion finishes, things go much more smoothly than in canon. Neville, Ginny, and Lilly sit this one out; Harry and Ron become Crabbe & Goyle, Hermione becomes Lilly, and Delphi leads the lot of them down to the Slytherin common room for a chat with Malfoy. Harry and Ron casually interrogate for him while Hermione and Dephi eavesdrop and occasionally guide the conversation; Draco winds up admitting that he thinks either Delphi or Harry are the Heir. ("I'd put my money on Delphi, if I were you. She's not really a Lestrange, you know—which means her father could be literally anyone. She could easily be a descendant of Slytherin, like the Gaunts were supposed to be. Maybe there's another Gaunt out there were don't know about... or maybe Aunt Bellatrix shagged that last, really crazy one just so she could have a real Slytherin baby." He glanced at Delphi, feigned innocence on his features. "What? It could be true.") (December 25, 1992)
• Delphi and her friends are all horrified. They're no closer to finding out who the Heir really is, and it turns out that they're their main suspect's main suspect! (Ron tries to convince the others that Draco was purposefully trying to mislead them, but Delphi—who's insisted that it couldn't be Draco this entire time—resoundingly rejects the idea.

CHAPTER TEN

• students return (January 3, 1993)
• start of term (January 4, 1993)
• dueling club resumes after Delphi pesters/flatters the shit out of Snape (January 10, 1993)
• The dueling club kind of fractures between dueling lessons and a dueling tournament.
• Delphi's actually lowkey getting a kick out of this "everyone thinks I'm the Heir of Slytherin" deal, and she's kinda, like, ~into~ the idea of Harry and her being this awesome, terrifying, Parselmouth power couple.
• Hermione figures out what the monster is: a basilisk. It's a type of snake that kills with its eyes; seeing it through something like a mirror or a camera, though, means the victim is just petrified.
• Delphi warns Draco, who spreads the news of the basilisk around the school. Mirrors and blindfolds are suddenly all the rage in the school, and Delphi and the twins break down and study Colin's camera to invent some anti-basilisk glasses.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

• Delphi's doing amazing in the dueling club. Snape's begrudgingly growing a bit fond of her. (early February) (He does not yet suspect that she is Voldemort's child; he actually suspects she might be Lucius's.)
• Lockhart's batshit Valentine's Day; Delphi is trying to work up the nerve to confess her feelings to Harry (prompted by that awkward af musical valentine he gets); Harry finds the diary & talks to Tom Riddle. (February 14, 1993)
• Harry shows the diary to Delphi; he thinks Tom Riddle is Delphi's father. Once their resemblance is pointed out, Delphi realizes he must be right. This leads her to the horrific realization that Tom Riddle must have been the one to release the basilisk in the 40s, that he must be the one to release the basilisk in 1992, and that his name hides a horrible secret: "I am Lord Voldemort." Delphi is undeniably Tom Riddle's daughter; Tom Riddle is almost certainly Lord Voldemort; and Delphi's fucking screwed. (February 15, 1993)

CHAPTER TWELVE

• Delphi goes to confront Dumbledore with the horror she's just discovered. Snape is there to witness the conversation. It's awful. (February 15, 1993)
• Dumbledore and Snape try to take the diary from Harry, but someone (Ginny) has already stolen it back. (February 15, 1993)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

• Harry is furious with Delphi for tattling about the diary; Ron and Hermione side with him, mostly because Delphi won't explain herself.
• Delphi's social circle is now reduced to Lilly, Ginny, and Neville.
• Deeply concerned with the potential evil of her own inherent nature, Delphi tries to bow out of the dueling tournament. Snape refuses to let her. (late February)
• Ginny is acting very strangely. She swings wildly between two extremes: being attached to Delphi at the hip, and to doing her damnedest to avoid her. Delphi doesn't get it. Neither Lilly nor Neville's advice proves very helpful (Neville suggests that Ginny feels conflicted over the rift in the friend group; Lilly starts lecturing about split personalities, and when Delphi dismisses that out of hand, Lilly suggests instead that maybe she's got a crush on Delphi to go with the one she's got on Harry).

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

• After avoiding her friends for a while, Delphi tries to put something together for Ron's birthday at Neville's encouragement. The gang makes up, and Delphi finally has her awkward tween romance moment with Harry. (March 1, 1993)
• The dueling club is getting intense. It's down to Delphi and three of the older students, and though Delphi is practicing with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville, it's not the most fruitful use of Delphi's time (and Ginny's being really weirdly intense about it). (April 1, 1993)
• Easter break begins (April 4, 1993)
• Snape begins training Delphi. Inexplicably, he wants her to win the dueling tournament. She doesn't get it, as she had assumed he hated her after the reveal of her parentage. In actuality, he wants to steer her away from the path he followed. (April 5, 1993)
• Easter break ends (April 15, 1993)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

• Delphi/Snape bonding via training. Some conversation should eventually be had regarding Madame Lestrange's attempt to disown her and what will happen if people find out she is Voldemort's kid.
• Delphi's friends are suspicious/worried af about her spending all this time alone with Snape.
• Semifinal Matches A & B of the dueling club (some seventh year v. Selwyn & Cedric v. Delphi) (April 17, 1993)
• Final match of the dueling club (some seventh year v. Delphi; Delphi wins, Ginny is inexplicably gleeful & gets just a *tad* inappropriate with Delphi during the celebration, maybe in 'this hug is lingering a bit too long' territory)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

• Gryffindor v. Hufflepuff quidditch match canceled on account of Penelope Clearwater and Percy Weasley being petrified; Ron, Harry, & Delphi witness Dumbledore's removal as Headmaster & Hagrid's arrest (May 8, 1993)
• Still on the search for more clues, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Delphi, Neville, & Lilly meet Aragog in the Forbidden Forest (May 9, 1993)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

• Harry, Ron, Hermione, Delphi, Neville, & Lilly search for the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, usually in two groups: Harry, Ron, and Hermione & Delphi, Lilly, and Neville. (Ron forbids Ginny from so much as leaving the common room.) (May 1993)
• Delphi, Lilly, & Neville decide to interrogate Myrtle, who spends enough time in the school's pipes that they figure she might know something... and they find the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in her bathrom. Tom knocks out Lilly & takes Delphi into the Chamber, intending to kill Ginny & sway Delphi to his side. Upon waking, Lilly hurries to get Harry—the only other person in the school who can open the entrance. Harry, Ron, & Hermione descend into the Chamber while Lilly and Neville rush off to get more help (Snape and Dumbledore).
• By the time Harry, Ron, and Hermione reach Tom, Ginny, and Delphi, Ginny's nearly dead. The trio is set upon by the basilisk—but only after Tom takes great pleasure in outing Delphi as his child (and himself as the Dark Lord).
• The chase is on! Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Delphi try to survive the basilisk, stop Tom, and save Ginny. Delphi realizes that her magic won't work against either Tom's memory or the basilisk, and so she calls for Dobby to help. He gets them to a safe distance from the basilisk and buys them enough time to come up with a semblance of a plan: Harry and Delphi are the ones Tom actually wants, so they'll be the distraction. They'll get his attention while Dobby, Ron, and Hermione take Ginny to safety and get help.
• It sort of works? Harry and Delphi face off against Tom and the basilisk, and then Fawkes swoops in with the Sorting Hat, and Harry pulls out the sword of Gryffindor. He can't use it against Riddle, though, and using it against the basilisk would mean getting lethally close... but then Delphi has a brainwave.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

• Delphi has quite suddenly realized something extraordinarily important: SHE is the real Heir of Slytherin, not this fucking memory dork. She challenges Tom's control over the basilisk... and its allegiance turns. Young Tom Riddle is scared for perhaps the very first time as the basilisk's attention turns to him; he turns Harry's wand on the basilisk and successfully chases it away for the moment, then turns his attention to Delphi & Harry. Delphi and Fawkes fight Riddle while Harry tries to get the diary; Dumbledore and Snape come running in just as the basilisk returns and, on Delphi's orders, pierces the diary. The memory of Tom Riddle is very dramatically destroyed.
• All in all, it's quite a triumph. Harry and Delphi are pretty much fairy tale heroes right in that moment, with Harry holding the destroyed horcrux and the sword of Gryffindor while Delphi lingers awkwardly with Fawkes on her shoulder and a basilisk at her heels. As Fawkes returns to Dumbledore's side, Delphi panics, realizing that the professors will likely kill the basilisk that just saved her life; she orders it to hide. Snape's pissed, but Dumbledore orders him to let it go for now, and the four of them are about to depart the Chamber... when Delphi has one last realization. She calls Dobby back to her and frees him; as far as the rest of the world is concerned, she says, he died saving her from the basilisk—and she hints that he might be able to find a wizard who would be willing to properly hire a house elf.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

• Harry, Delphi, Snape, and Dumbledore have a pretty important chat.
• Lucius Malfoy removed from school governors; Hagrid returns; petrified people cured (very early morning May 30, 1993)
• Ginny Weasley's, you know, been through a lot? and doesn't want ANYTHING to do with Delphi. (Lilly is oddly smug about insisting that Ginny'll eventually come around.)
• exams are canceled (June 1, 1993)
• Delphi embraces being the Heir of Slytherin and leaves her only little message-in-blood on the wall for the students; hers, though, is a promise of protection
• Delphi gives Harry a parting gift: a little journal that they can use to write each other over the summer, even if the Dursleys lock up Hedwig again (it's reminiscent of Riddle's diary, which makes it a bit uncomfortable for both of them)
• On the Hogwarts Express back to London, Delphi gets her official disownment letter. She is no longer a Lestrange; just in time for Sirius's breakout, she is Delphini Black. (June 19, 1993)