PART 2: ACT 1

PART 2: ACT 1

I met my maker,

I said, "Listen up man, they don't even know you're born!"

- Oasis “D'You Know What I Mean?” UK Number 1 on 14th July 1997 (Delphi Riddle's birthday)*

It was almost dark when Delphi and Severus arrived on a patch of scrubby land just outside the Hogwarts grounds. She stumbled into him slightly having landed heavily on an uneven bit of earth, with Severus holding her upright as she used her hands to steady herself on his chest. She looked up into his face with gratitude, enjoying being close to him. Her gaze flicked from his eyes to his mouth. She thought he looked ravishing in the diminishing daylight.

Severus did not need to use Legilimency to read what was on Delphi's mind. But it wasn't right, with her currently dressed like a schoolgirl. And besides, they had a job to do. She had to stop distracting him with her constant flirtations. It was enough to drive a man mad! He pulled away sharply and she tried to hide her disappointment.

Severus began striding towards the periphery of the magical wards purposefully. As he drew closer to the castle, the wards began to glow softly.

“Wait!” Delphi called, trying not to trip on various thistles and stones as she jogged to catch up with him. “I've just thought of something!”

Severus slowed to a halt and turned around. “What?”

“I'm not sure if the wards will let me through. They'll let you though, of course, because you're a teacher.”

Severus considered this. “They'll let you through if you're with me,” he answered after a moment, and held out his hand. Delphi broke into a grin and ran towards him, grabbing his hand once more with delight.

“I can't wait to see Hogwarts,” she breathed, as they passed through the wards together and she took in the vista, the old castle looming up ahead of them.

o0o

“Are you quite sure the spell will work?” Severus asked as they walked down the deserted school corridors. Delphi's head turned this way and that, distracted by the sumptuous décor, the suits of armour and the wonderful architecture that years of working in the place had made him take for granted. She looked like a kid in a sweet shop. He supposed he'd felt the same way the first time he'd set foot in the castle, too.

“Yes, it's the same one I tried out myself, remember?” She stopped suddenly in front of a magical painting of the Fat Friar, who nodded and raised his golden goblet to her.

“And how do you know exactly how much time the spell will need to remove?”

Delphi waved cheerily at the Fat Friar and then fell back in step with Severus. “Ah, well, I was hoping you'd ask that. That was the complex bit. I had to calculate how many years of You-Know-Who's life needed to be shaved off in order to kill him at a precise date and time. He was 54 when he killed Lily, and he was 71 when he died at the Battle of Hogwarts in this timeline. So I calculated we'd need to shave off around 17 years in order to kill him in 1981 before he kills Lily. Well, to be accurate – just over 16 and a half years, or 198 months. Now, back in 1981, he only had 5 Horcruxes, as he didn't make Nagini a Horcrux until around now, actually. So each of the 5 Fauxcruxes will house just over 39 and a half months of his life. Obviously, the spell is a lot more precise than that, going down to minutes and seconds, but you get the general idea.”

Severus felt a wave of gratitude that she had planned to save Lily all along. But there was still more he needed to know.

“Will altering the Horcruxes somehow affect the prophecy? How do we know Lily would still be a target once they have been changed?”

Delphi didn't miss a beat. “Hadn't thought about that, to be honest. But I can't see why the prophecy would change. You-Know-Who still thinks he's created genuine Horcruxes and may still yet create an accidental one if he got to kill Lily, due to how she protected Harry. Which he won't, of course.”

Severus pondered this as they rounded the corner to the corridor that led to the library.

“And what happens to the fake Horcruxes? Do they need to be destroyed?” he asked.

“The Fauxcruxes are perfectly safe as inanimate objects. They are merely chunks of time frozen in a receptacle, they do not bond You-Know-Who to this earthly plane like bits of his soul does. They could stay unnoticed forever unless someone who knew what they really were decided to use the spell on them to release the time. And the only people who know they are not real are me and you.” She waved her hands with a flourish.

“Once again, you seem to have thought of everything,” Severus murmured as they reached the doors of the library. He held the door open for her.

“What can I say? I'm a Ravenclaw,” she grinned, and entered the library with Severus following after.

* A/N – I chose July for Delphi's birthday as the birth flower for that month is Larkspur, the common name for the genus Delphinium, many of which are a beautiful shade of blue (like her hair). The blue Larkspur flower is a symbol of support and trust. I chose the 14th for her birth date as it coincides with Bastille Day, the date of the start of the French Revolution, as Delphi is starting a revolution of her own! Lyrically, the song fits where I see the story heading too.