Not My Canon!

WTF: Delphi, The Inexplicable

The Smell of Fascism

As I've recently said, the first time we even hear about the Augurey is at the start of Act Three with Scorpius. Dolores Umbridge is mentioning "dispatches to the Augurey". There's no follow-up, no explanation. We don't know to whom she is referring, but we are meant to assume that this is a powerful individual. Two scenes later, this is expounded upon when we see flags for the Augurey.

DRACO is impressive in a way we haven't seen. He has the smell of power about him. Flying down either side of the room are Augurey flags - with the bird emblazoned in a fascistic manner.

Putting the notion aside that Draco "smells of power", because that doesn't make any fricking sense, the formidable reputation of the Augurey goes unexplained but is heavily implied. On paper, this is not altogether bad. It's setting the stage for a character to come. Unfortunately, it's so late in the play and so contrary to the context we were given in the original universe about Delphi, that it takes a lot of work to get us to accept her potential as a "fascistic" figure. Which is why this one line of dialogue by Alternate Universe Hermione (Alt-Hermione) is meant to tell us all we need to know about the Augurey, without telling us a thing.

SNAPE: You're risking everything -

HERMIONE: We get this right, Harry's alive, Voldemort's dead, and the Augurey is gone, for that no risk is too great.

I get why JKR and Co. would want to do this, or need to do this. They have a lot more narrative to get through. But it all just feels a bit last minute. This is the second half of the story, and now we have to be on the lookout for a character who could potentially become this "Augurey" in the alternate universe? It feels like a random and pointless addition to an already convoluted plot. Then... learning it's Delphi is an outrageous let-down. But it's not as if they gave us many options. I mean, had it been a Hogwarts teacher, that at least would have been more understandable. Give us a character in a position of power who secretly has an alternate agenda. Give us something that would make their transition to a fascist overlord believable.

Delphi? So. Not. Believable.

Invisible Friends

Part of the reason Delphi is so unbelievable as the antagonist is because of the efforts the writers took in diminishing her in order to make the reveal surprising. Under normal circumstances, this would be seen as a cheap writing tactic. One of their diminishing efforts falls under our heading of the Unexplained and Abnormal, when they admitted that Delphi had an imaginary friend as a teenager.

DELPHI: You know, I didn't have a best friend when I was your age. I wanted one. Desperately. When I was younger I even invented one but -

SCORPIUS: I had one of those too. Called Flurry. We fell out over the correct rules of Gobstones.

Heh... Weird. But, okay. Fine. Delphi, unprompted, admits to having an imaginary friend. This wouldn't necessarily be seen as a weakness, had Alt-Hermione not just mocked Albus for this very thing in the first universe shift, when she was his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

HERMIONE smiles a thin smile. She really is quite mean.

ALBUS: No. This is stupid. Where's Rose? She'll tell you that you're being ridiculous.