The Hated Hero

Across the Pond

The Rowles were an ancient family that prided themselves on being pureblood wizards, thank you very much. They lived in a manor in England off the coast on a small island they'd owned forever.

Euphemia Rowle was a woman who wore the finest materials she laid her sharp green eyes upon and prided herself on her impeccable charmwork and ability to foretell events. Her husband, Thorfinn, was a well-built man who repaired and extended upon the manor in his spare time. Their darling twin daughters, Freya and Ondine, had grown up to be metal-charmers and brought plenty of gold into the vault to support their luxurious lifestyles.

Indeed, the manor appeared to be a happy place where luxury and well-doing purebloods abounded. Absent from the family portraits and the dinners at the Walpurgis Club was the child who lived in the attic.

The child was a girl by the name of Delphi, and those who knew of her existence whispered about what an odd girl she was. The shadows seemed to attract to her. When outside, snakes sought her out and talked to her-and she could talk back. One day her hair or eyes would randomly change color, and then the next it would be back to normal. She would whisper strange lines in the hissing language as she stared off blankly, and then act as if nothing had happened.

Euphemia swore up and down that the girl was no good, not worth the steady stream of gold the Malfoys sent every month to keep her. The augury she kept in a cage cried whenever Delphi came near, and Euphemia declared gravely every time that it was predicting a sticky end for her ward.

Delphi played in her room to avoid her adoptive mother, but she was lonely. It felt like there was something missing from her life. Little did she know all that was about to change.

Delphi awoke as light streamed through the tall skylight right above her bed. She rolled over and pulled the covers over head. As she closed her eyes, however, she realized that she felt excited, as she did when the holidays came around. In a moment, it came to her.

It's my birthday! she said to herself. She sprang out of bed, and dashed to the calendar tacked up on the wall. June 30th, she read, then smiled. It most definitely was her birthday!

Her face then fell. Euphemia and Thorfinn never did anything for her birthday. If what she'd overheard in the study was true, the Malfoys sent extra money for her birthday, but she'd gotten nary a present. The only reason she ever learned her birthday was because Thorfinn would be particularly nasty and intimidating to her, calling her the worst mistake of his life. The twins would also rue her birthday as the day their perfect family was ruined.

That's alright, she thought. My friends will throw a party for me.

She smiled and looked to the old toys of Freya and Ondine that Thorfinn had tossed in her room as she'd gotten older. She took the pink stuffed lion, Rumbleroar, and set him on the bed with McGonagills, the plastic yellow tang that actually swam if you placed her in water. She gathered up Snake, Trelowlney, Squirrell, Lupus, and placed them on the bed as well.

"Thank you for inviting me back to Pigfarts, Rumbleroar," she said as she pulled out the old slightly-chipped tea set from under her ebony bed. She poured "tea" for the animals, and lifted her cup.

"Oh, Lupus, you're so nice," she said with a sigh in response to the floral wolf's kind words- I love you so much, Delphi. Won't you stay here and be my daughter? "But I've got to stay and battle the evil forces of the Augury."

Delphi couldn't help but giggle at her own joke, the augury being her enemy. If it weren't for Euphemia, she thought she'd rather like the old bluish-greenish-black bird. It's cry, while sad, was quite pretty to her ears. . .