Treacherous | J. POTTER

14 | the dark lord

tw: child abuse

Del could feel the blood flowing from how deep her mother's nails were digging into her forearm before they even apparated into Grimmauld Place. Her mother yanked her into the building and dragged her through the halls.

"I can walk myself, you know," Del huffed.

"Shut up," she sneered, her grip tightening, causing Del to bite her lip to prevent the gasp of pain from escaping.

"What's going-" Regulus began but the question died in his throat as he took in the scene. His eyes widened as his mother stepped toward him, pulling Del with her.

"Did you know about this?" Walburga demanded.

"He didn't know," Del spoke quickly, her gaze flickering over to Regulus for a brief moment. "I lied to him just like I lied to you."

"Enough!" Walburga screeched and Del cringed as the glass vases shattered around them.

Regulus moved to step forward but Del caught his eyes, shaking her head ever so slightly. He reluctantly stepped back, his jaw clenched.

"I've heard enough from you, you ungrateful blood traitor," the women scowled before yanking the girl forward, causing her to stumble as her foot caught on the end of the carpet. "It's that stupid James Potter!" she shrieked, yanking her in another direction. If she kept this up, Del would lose her arm. Del bit back a response as the women continued berating her.

James paced back and forth in the living room as he tried to figure out what to do. Sirius sat on the couch and watched as his friend spiraled.

"Okay, stop!" Sirius exclaimed. "Stop doing that."

The boy stopped in his tracks as he turned to face his friend, "What are we going to do?"

"There's nothing we can do."

"Why are you so calm about this?"

"I'm not calm," Sirius countered, "I'm resigned. There's a difference."

"What's going to happen to her?"

"Del never antagonizes," Sirius explained. "She'll keep her head down and listen and it'll work itself out."

"This is all my fault," James huffed as he continued his pacing, running a hand through his hair. "I shouldn't have convinced her to come here. I should have told her to stay at Hogwarts or-"

"Stop," Sirius interrupted. "Del never does anything she doesn't want to do. It was her choice to come."

Before he could respond, it sounded as though someone was shouting his name from the pocket in his pants. He grew confused as he pulled the mirror out. The two way mirror that Del had the other half of.

"You do realize that there's one other common factor between the two disappointment children, right?" Del's voice sounded but they couldn't see her. Sirius stood up quickly and joined James to look at the mirror. It was pitch black meaning Del was either hiding it or she hadn't intended for them to hear and it was still in her pocket. "That maybe the issue wasn't James and that it was you."

"Okay," Sirius sucked in a breath, "She doesn't normally antagonize." James hushed the boy quickly. If Walburga heard them, Del would be sentenced to a far worse fate.

"Regulus is just fine," Walburga countered.

Del let out a laugh that was so unlike her that James felt his heart drop in his chest, "You think Regulus is fine but I hate to break it to you, that's not the case."