"Positions, everybody," Hermione says. "And remember, don't come out until he's got her in the light— we've got one shot at this, we don't want to mess it up."
Everybody scatters. Alice stays near her father and Scoprius.
"Hermione Granger, I'm being bossed around by Hermione Granger," Draco Malfoy says, turning to said woman and smiling. "And I'm mildly enjoying it."
"Dad..." Scorpius says. Then they hear footsteps outside and they all retire to their hiding spots, behind two large doors. Alice crouches in the dark and listens as Voldemort enters the church. Well, it's not really Voldemort, it's Harry.
Harry/ Voldemort walks a few steps and then turns. "Whichever witch or wizard is following me, I assure you, you will regret it," he says gravely. Delphi enters the church then, compelled.
"Lord Voldemort," she acknowledges. "It is me. I am following you."
"I do not know you," Harry/ Voldemort says. "Leave me."
The woman breathes deeply. "I am your daughter," she claims.
"If you were my daughter, I'd know of you," Harry/ Voldemort replies. Delphi looks at him with pleading eyes.
"I am from the future," she says. "The child of Bellatrix Lestrange and you. I was born in Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts. A battle you are going to lose. I have come to save you." Harry/ Voldemort turns and Delphi meets his eyes. "It was Rodolphus Lestrange, Bellatrix's loyal husband, who in return from Azkaban told me who I was and revealed the prophecy he thought I was destined to fulfill. I am your daughter, sir."
"I am familiar with Bellatrix and there are certain similarities in your face— though you haven't inherited the best of her," Harry/ Voldemort says. Alice can't help but mentally applaud Harry for acting so well as Voldemort. "But without proof..."
Delphi then speaks in Parseltongue. Harry/ Voldemort only laughs viciously. The sound makes a chill rise in Alice's spine.
"That's your proof?" He asks her. The woman then raises into the air without effort. Harry/ Voldemort steps back in amazement.
"I am the Augurey to your Dark Lord, and I am ready to give all that I have to serve you," she tells him.
"You learnt... flight— from me?" Harry/ Voldemort asks, obviously trying to hide his shock, but Alice doesn't miss it.
"I have tried to follow the path you set," Delphi says.
"I have never met a witch or a wizard who's attempted to be my equal before," Harry/ Voldemort says.
"Do not mistake— I would not claim to be worthy of you, Lord," Delphi tells him. "But I have devoted my life to being a child you could be proud of."
"I see what you are, and I see what you could be," Harry/ Voldemort interrupts her. "Daughter."
Delphi is moved. "Father?"
"Together, the power we could wield."
"Father..."
"Come here, in the light, so I may examine what my blood has made," Harry/ Voldemort says.
"Your mission is a mistake," Delphi tries. "Attacking Harry Potter is a mistake. He will destroy you." Alice notices Harry/ Voldemort's hand start to shift back into Harry's own hand. He pulls it inside his sleeve, hiding it from Delphi.
"He is a baby," he tells her.
"He has his mother's love," Delphi explains. "Your spell will rebound, destroying you and making him too powerful and you too weak. You will recover to spend the next seventeen years consumed in a battle with him— a battle you will lose."
Alice's eyes widen and she stifles a gasp of shock as she notices Harry's hair begins to sprout. He sends this and attempts to hide it by pulling his hood over his head.
"Then I won't attack him," he says. "You are right." Alice's nerves begin to shake. She picks up her wand from beside her. Since hers was broken, Hermione had given her a spare one, which Alice thought odd, that Hermione just happened to have a wand.
"Father?" Delphi asks.
Harry begins to shrink down as he begins to transform back into himself. He turns his back to Delphi.
"Father?" She tries again.
"Your plan is a good one," Harry says, no longer sounding like Voldemort, but trying desperately to. "The fight is off. You have served me well, now come here into the light so I may examine you."
Delphi notices a door sway open slightly, then get pulled shut. She frowns, suspicious. "Father..." She tips her head, trying to see him. "You are not Lord Voldemort," she notices. She suddenly has her wand in her hand. Harry mimics her actions, drawing his own wand.
"Incendio!" They both say, almost the same time. Their spells meet in the middle of the room, causing a small and bright explosion.
Alice begins to push the door open, but feels something push it shut. Delphi has struck it with her free hand. She really is good at magic. The group all attempts to get the doors open, to get to Harry and Delphi, but it's useless, she's far too strong.
Alice hears them fighting each other with spells.
"She's sealed the doors from your side!" Ginny calls out to her husband.
On the other side, Harry faces Delphi. "Fine. I will fight you alone." He goes to attack her, but she is far too strong. Harry's wand rises up towards her. He is helpless. "How did you...? What are you?"
"I've watched you for a long time, Harry Potter," Delphi says to him. "I know you better than my father did."
"You think you've learnt my weaknesses?" Harry tests.
"I've studied to be worthy of him!" Delphi exclaims. "Yes, even though he is the supreme wizard of all time, he will be proud of me. Expulso!"
Harry rolls out of the way just in time, as the floor he was standing on explodes behind him. He crawls beneath a church pew as he tries to think of how to fight her.
"Are you crawling away from me? Harry Potter. Hero of the wizarding world. Crawling away like a rat. Wingardium Leviosa!" The church pew that Harry is under rises into the air. "The question is whether it's worth my time to kill you— knowing that as son as I stop my father your destruction will be assured. How to decide? Oh, I'm bored. I'll kill you."
She sends the pew down hard on Harry. He rolls away as it smashes.
Albus suddenly emerges from a grate on the floor. None of the two notice.
"Avada—"
"Dad," Albus says, cutting Delphi's killing curse off.
"Albus! No!" Harry exclaims, frantic.
"Two of you? Choices, choices," Delphi taunts. "I think I'll kill the boy first. Avada Kedavra!" She fires the curse at Albus, but Harry throws him out of the way before he gets hit. The bolt hits the ground. Harry fires a bolt back.
"You think you're stronger than me?" Delphi dares.
"No, I'm not," Harry says. They fire bolts at each other as Albus rolls away and slams spells into each one of the doors. "But we are."
"Alohomora! Alohomora!" Albus says, unlocking the doors.
"I've never fought alone, you see," Harry says. "And I never will."
Alice realizes that she is not needed as Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Draco, and her father emerge from behind the doors, all firing up spells at Delphi. She lets out screams of exasperation. It's too much for her to take. She is powerful, but there are too many.
Delphi eventually stumbles to the floor, overwhelmed. "No... no..."
"Brachiabindo!" Hermione hits Delphi with a beam of light, bounding the woman with the spell. Harry steps towards Delphi. The others stay back.
"Albus, are you okay?" Harry asks, not taking his eyes off of Delphi.
"Yes, Dad, I'm okay," Albus says. Alice and Scorpius are standing at his sides.
"Ginny, has he been injured?" Harry asks, needing more clarification. But he won't take his eyes off Delphi. "I need to know he's safe..."
"He insisted," Ginny says. "He was the only one small enough to crawl through the grate. I tried to stop him."
"Just tell me he's okay."
"I'm fine, Dad," Albus says again. "I promise." Harry advances towards Delphi.
"A lot of people have tried to hurt me, but my son!" He says in disbelief. "You dare hurt my son!"
"I only wanted to know my father," Delphi argues. Harry's expression shows shock. He is surprised to get this answer.
"You can't remake your life," he tells her. "You'll always be an orphan. That never leaves you."
"Just let me— see him."
"I can and I won't."
"Then kill me," Delphi says pitifully. Harry seems to think about this for a moment or two.
"I can't do that either," he eventually says.
"What? Dad? She's dangerous," Albus interjects.
"No, Albus..." Harry says.
"But she's a murderer— I've seen her murder—" Albus explains. Harry turns and looks back at his son. Then to his wife.
"Yes," he says. "Albus, she's a murderer, and we're not."
"We have to be better than them," Hermione says.
"Yeah, it's annoying but it's what we learnt," Ron says.
"Take my mind. Take my memory," Delphi tries desperately to bargain. But Harry's mind is set. "Make me forget who I am."
"No," Ron says. "We'll take you back to our time."
"And you'll go to Azkaban," Hermione tells her. "Same as your mother."
"Where you'll rot," Draco adds.
Suddenly, they hear a noise. A strange noise like nothing else before. Like someone's hissing... Harry's name.
"What's that?" Scorpius asks.
"No. No," Harry says. "Not yet."
"What?" Alice asks.
"Voldemort," Ron says.
"Father?" Delphi says.
"Now?" Hermione asks. "Here?"
"Father!" Delphi yells.
"Silencio!" Draco says, shutting her up. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The woman rises and disappears.
"He's coming. He's coming right now."
•••
"Voldemort is going to kill my mum and dad," Harry notes sadly. "And there's nothing I can do to stop him."
"That's not true," Draco says.
"Dad, now is not the time," Scorpius says to his father.
"There is something you could do— to stop him," Albus says. "But you won't."
"That's heroic," Draco says. Ginny takes her husband's hand comfortingly.
"You don't have to watch, Harry," she tells him. "We can go home."
"I'm letting it happen," he says. "Of course I have to watch."
"Then we'll all witness it," Hermione says.
"We'll all watch," Ron says.
Then, there are unfamiliar voices from far off.
"Lily, take Harry and go!" One voice— Harry's father, James— is saying. "It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off..." There is a blast and then a laugh. "You keep away, you understand— you keep away."
Then Voldemort strikes the killing curse on someone, most likely James. A flash of green light occurs as this does.
Alice watches with tears in the corners of her eyes as Albus takes his father's hand in his own. "He did everything he could," Albus says. Ginny is next to him a moment later, taking his other hand. Harry leans against them.
"That's my mum, at the window," Harry says. "I can see my mother, she looks so beautiful."
Alice turns and hugs her father, burying her head agains his cloak and crying. For James and Lily. For Harry. None of them deserved what happened to them.
She soaks her father's clothes with tears as Lily begs for her son's life. And then the killing curse again.
Alice doesn't want to watch anymore.
***
A/N: are you crying? because I am...