Hedonistic Megalomaniac

I highly recommend a reread because Harry is freaking hilarious. I mean, not always obviously, but he certainly has his moments. He has a very dry sort of humor and I just love that. Also, I trimmed it down, but sorry if it’s a bit long:

“They stuff people’s heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall,” he told Harry. “What to come upstairs and practice?” “No thanks,” said Harry, “The poor toilet’s never had anything as horrible as your head down it – it might be sick.”

The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water. “What’s this?” he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question. “Your new school uniform,” she said. Harry looked in the bowl again. “Oh,” he said, “I didn’t realize it had to be so wet.”

At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching towards the dungeon ceiling. “I don’t know,” said Harry quietly. “I think Hermione does, though, why don’t you try her?”

“You don’t use your eyes, any of you, do you?” she snapped. “Didn’t you see what it was standing on?” “The floor?” Harry suggested.

“Professor McGonagall told me about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?” “A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir,” said Harry, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Malfoy’s face. “And it’s really thanks to Malfoy here that I’ve got it.”

“I know what day it is,” Dudley repeated, coming right up to him.” “Well done,” said Harry. “So you’ve finally learned the days of the week.”

“Why’re you staring at the hedge?” he said suspiciously. “I’m trying to decide what would be the best spell to set it on fire,” said Harry.

He rolled down the window, the night air whipping his hair, and looked back at the shrinking rooftops of Privet Drive. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley were all hanging, dumbstruck, out of Harry’s window. “See you next summer!” Harry yelled.

“There you are! Where have you been? The most ridiculous rumors – someone said you’d been expelled for crashing a flying car!” “Well we haven’t been expelled,” Harry assured her.

“Oh no, not you,” he moaned. “Doesn’t know what he’s saying,” said Lockhart loudly to the anxious crowd of Gryffindors pressing around them. “Not to worry, Harry, I’m about to fix your am.” “No!” said Harry. “I’ll keep it like this thanks…”

Lockhart cuffed Harry merrily on the shoulder. “Just do what I did, Harry!” “What, drop my wand?”

“Are you planning to eat or sleep at all this year, Hermione?” asked Harry, while Ron sniggered. Hermione ignored them.

They swilled the dregs around as Professor Trelawney had instructed, then drained the cups and swapped over. “Right,” said Ron as they both opened their books at pages five and six. “What can you see in mine?” “A load of soggy brown stuff,” said Harry.

“That means you’re going to have ‘trials and suffering’ – sorry about that – but there’s a thing that could be the sun. Hang on… that means ‘great happiness’ … so you’re going to suffer but be very happy…”

“When you’ve all finished deciding whether I’m going to die or not!”

“It was your head, Potter. Floating in midair.” There was a long silence. “Maybe he’d better go to Madam Pomfrey,” said Harry. “If he’s seeing things like – “ 

“Potter! Weasley! Will you pay attention?” … The bell was due to ring any moment, and Harry and Ron, who had been having a sword fight with a couple of Fred and George’s fake wands at the back of the class, looked up, Ron holding a tin parrot and Harry, a rubber haddock.

“I’ll wait for you, Harry, shall I?” “No, it’s okay, Mr. Bagman,” said Harry, suppressing a smile, “I think I can find the castle on my own, thanks.”

“Listening to the news! Again?” “Well, it changes every day, you see,” said Harry.

“Yeah? Did he say you look like a pig that’s been taught to walk on its hind legs? ‘Cause that’s not cheek, Dud, that’s true…”

“I’ve left a letter telling your aunt and uncle not to worry -” “They won’t.” “That you’re safe -” “That’ll just depress them.” “- and that you’ll see them next summer.” “Do I have to?”

“You’re Harry Potter,” she added. “I know I am,” said Harry.

“You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments.” “Yeah,” said Harry, “but you, unlike me, are a git, so get out and leave us alone.”

“We shouldn’t have taken the stupid subject in the first place,” said Harry.“ “Still, at least we can give it up now.” “Yeah,” said Harry. “No more pretending we care what happens when Jupiter and Uranus get too friendly…”

“You’re dead, Potter.” Harry raised his eyebrows. “Funny,” he said, “you’d think I’d have stopped walking around.”

“I wouldn’t go in the kitchen just now,” she warned him. “There’s a lot of Phlegm around.” “I’ll be careful not to slip in it,” Harry smiled.

“Do you remember me telling you we are practicing nonverbal spells, Potter?” “Yes,” said Harry stiffly. “Yes, sir.” “There’s no need to call me ‘sir,’ Professor.”

“No,” said Harry. “No, I suppose that’s true. But wasn’t that dishonest, Hermione? I mean, you’re a prefect, aren’t you?” “Oh, be quiet,” she snapped, as he smirked.

“My whole family are blood traitors! That’s as bad as Muggle-borns to Death Eaters!” “And they’d love to have me,” said Harry sarcastically  “We’d be best pals if they didn’t keep trying to do me in.”

“She’ll ban you from the library if you’re not careful. Why did you have to bring that stupid book?” “It’s not my fault she’s barking mad, Hermione. Or d'you think she overheard you being rude about Filch? I’ve always thought there was something going on between them…”

“Nice,” he said. “Classy. You should definitely wear it in front of Fred and George.” “If you tell them,” said Ron, shoving the necklace out of sight under his pillow, “I - I - I’ll -” “Stutter at me?” said Harry, grinning. “Come on, would I?”

“Promise me you’ll look after yourself…. Stay out of trouble….” “I always do, Mrs. Weasley,” said Harry. “I like the quiet life, you know me.”

“I told her it’s a Hungarian Horntail,” said Ginny, turning a page of the newspaper idly. “Much more macho.” “Thanks,” said Harry, grinning. “And what did you tell her Ron’s got?” “A Pygmy Puff, but I didn’t say where.”

Also don’t forget:

“Sure you can manage that broom, Potter? Got plenty of special features hasn’t it?” said Malfoy, eyes glittering maliciously. “Shame it doesn’t come with a parachute – in case you get too near a dementor.” “Pity you can’t attach an extra arm to yours, Malfoy,” said Harry. “Then it could catch the snitch for you.”

and

Wensleydale, North Yorkshire

Delphi is, well, as you can probably tell, such an interesting character to me. And I've been talking about my AU too much so let's talk about Canon Delphi! We know so, so little about her, and the little bits of information we can parse about her paint such a tragic and surprisingly complex character. 

I have my grievances with Cursed Child's plot, like most, but the one thing I think it does remarkably well is its characters. 

And tied for my favorite between the main three is of course, Delphi, and I don't see a whole lot of people talking about her (if you do, just know you're awesome), so I wanted to write up my interpretation of her character, cause she really is so interesting to me. 

(Delphi's soft-canonical appearance. Here she's played by Gillian Cosgriff. She looks very similar to this in the majority of iterations of the play.)

One of the most glaring oddities to me about Delphi's character is how she dresses. She wears and accessorizes herself like a muggle, which, when paired with the ideology of the father she worships so much (and being raised by Rowles)…doesn't really seem to line up, and I do think this is done on purpose. Actually, Albus makes a rather explicit remark about it,

ALBUS: On your back. I hadn’t noticed it before. The wings. Is that what the Muggles call a tattoo? DELPHI: Oh. Yes. Well, it’s an Augurey.

While I do think this line was a bit of a continuity error, considering Sirius has many tattoos and the dark mark itself is, or at least resembles, a tattoo (you could make the argument that wizards having tattoos fell out of fashion because of the Dark Mark in the wake of the war), it is a rather explicit call out that Delphi engages in muggle things, which is such an intriguing juxtaposition to the ideology her father spouted. One I think was put there on purpose. 

Her hair is dyed, which isn't something we've seen much in the Wizarding world unless its a prank or that person is a Metamorphmagus. Actually, I would go as far as to say that having dyed hair would be undesirable to pure-blooded wizards. One, it looks muggle, and two, it looks like you could be a Metamorphmagus, something that isn't present in any of the pure-blood lines. (Presumably Tonks got hers from Ted, cause the Blacks are so inbred I imagine it would pop up a lot if they did carry the gene)

And her clothes are styled, it's her style, and they're put together well. While in part, yes, it's her trying to fit in with the boys, but those clothes are hers. She grew up with the Rowles after all, she would probably solely own the things pure-blooded wizards wear; robes and clothing resembling 1800s attire, a far cry from what we see Delphi wearing. She picked these clothes out some point, at some muggle store, and wore them. She could have worn those pure-blood clothes, ones that were closer to what her mother and father would have worn, but she chose the muggle ones.

And yes, you could make the point that Scorpius at the very least, probably would have recognized the certain pure-blood style and questioned it, but the Diggorys were decently wealthy and I really don't think it would be that strange for her to be wearing a bit more aristocratic or even just a bit more wizard-like clothes.

The only thing overtly connected to the Wizarding world that she wears is the necklace with the silver raven skull. I assume this is supposed to resemble the one her mother wore in the movies, and presumably it is supposed to be the exactsame one. (Rodolphus Lestrange visited her, I assume he gave her the necklace when he told her about her parentage and the prophecy.)

The necklace also brings to mind this; 

"An albatross is a metaphor for a psychological or social burden (most often associated with guilt or shame) that feels like a curse. It is an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner(1798), in which a dead albatross is tied around the neck of a sailor who has brought misfortune to the crew." - Wikipedia, Albatross (metaphor)

I know its probably solely meant to represent her connection to her mother (and the similar obsession her and mother had with Voldemort), but I do love this probably-accidental symbolism. 

Side note: I really wish Delphi had talked about her mother as well. I understand why, Voldemort is the 'big bad' and they only have so much time in the play, but still, I think wanting love from both her parents wouldn't hurt her overall narrative (it would add to it, in my opinion). I mean her mom gave birth to her in the middle of a war, was her father's most trusted person, and most of all was her mom, yet she doesn't even mention her? 

All this is to say, I might go as far as saying Delphi enjoys muggle things. At the very least, she doesn't seems to have any disgust towards them. Actually, Delphi doesn't mention anything about blood supremacy, muggles, or really anything to do with her fathers actual ideologies at all. 

Its very possible she's spent a lot of time in the muggle world, it would probably be safer for her than the wizarding one. I imagine it wouldn't hard to find out Amos Diggory didn't have any siblings if any ministry officers got curious of this strange witch or even just someone who knew Amos got wind of her cover story.

Now, I don't think she has an affinity for muggles, maybe she did even actively like a few of them at some point, but anything she would have felt it was far, far outweighed by her loneliness and her subsequent search for her father after Rodolpholus told her the prophecy. 

Everything here just seems to be subtly (or un-subtly) pushing the play's audience into the idea that Delphi really doesn't align with father or her mother. She doesn't want power, she doesn't want followers, and she doesn't want glory. She just wants her father to love her. And yes, she'd do any manner of horrible thing to gain that love, but at its core, her main, and essentially sole, motivation is to be loved. 

And that is exactly the point that drew me into this character so, so much. It would have been so easy to just make her a repeat of her dad's ideology and have her try to be the next Dark Lord or something. But they didn't, no, the main antagonist of the play is a young woman so lonely that it drives her to damning nearly the whole wizarding world just so she could have someone that loves her. (←- what the fuck 😭)

Now into the play, the scene that characterizes Delphi I think the most out of any other is something I mostly missed on my first watch through. ( I'll admit, I was pretty much just watching for Scorbus in the beginning, so my brain was pretty much only looking for the boys haha— I actually didn't know much at all about Delphi other than she was Voldemort's daughter. I never expected me to love her character so much!)

In the very last scene she's in…

HARRY/VOLDEMORT (interrupting): I see what you are, and I see what you could be. Daughter. She looks at him, desperately moved.   DELPHI: Father?   HARRY/VOLDEMORT: Together, the power we could wield. DELPHI: Father . . .   HARRY/VOLDEMORT: Come here, in the light, so I may examine what my blood made.   DELPHI: Your mission is a mistake. Attacking Harry Potter is a mistake. He will destroy you.   HARRY/VOLDEMORT’ s hand turns into HARRY’ s hand. He looks at it, astonished and dismayed, and then quickly pulls it inside his sleeve.   HARRY/VOLDEMORT: He is a baby .   DELPHI: He has his mother’s love. 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.   HARRY/VOLDEMORT’ s hair begins to sprout, he feels it, he attempts to cover it. He pulls his hood over his head.   HARRY/VOLDEMORT: Then I won’t attack him. You are right.   DELPHI: Father?   HARRY/VOLDEMORT shrinks down — he is now more HARRY than VOLDEMORT. He turns his back to DELPHI.   Father?   HARRY (trying desperately to still sound like Voldemort): Your plan is a good one. The fight is off. You have served me well, now come here into the light so I may examine you. DELPHI sees a door slightly sway open and then be pulled shut. She frowns at it, thinking rapidly, her suspicion growing.   DELPHI: Father . . .

This scene hurts so bad. Delphi's smart, she proves it again and again in her ability to manipulate and deceive, and yet she waits so, so long here before she finally lets her suspicion get the best of her. Until its absolutely undeniable that that isn't her father. In the version of the play I watched, she even saw Harry's hand turn back and she still was so, so hopeful that it was actually him. Something about her calling out to her dad over and over as she finally started to realize that this person in front of her wasn't the person who could love her. 

And I do think Delphi fully believed Voldemort was the only person who could love her, because Delphi does have family still alive. Andromeda and Narcissa are her aunts, Lucius is her Uncle, Draco and Teddy are her cousins, and even Scorpius is her first cousin once removed. She does have living family, quite a bit. 

But why wouldn't she go to them? She didn't seem to feel any kind of bond to Scorpius and for someone so lonely, you'd think she would go looking for any kind of family she could get. 

I think its a consequence of her upbringing. She was raised by Euphemia Rowle, a woman who ignored her at best and detested her at worst. I just imagine little Delphi would be so innocently confused by this, why does her guardian (and the woman was sure to swiftly remind Delphi that she was not her mom when her younger self had tried to call the woman that) dislike her so much? She tried her best, but she couldn't figure out anything she'd done so wrong. 

Why does the person that raised her, the one who knows her more than anyone, seem so disgusted by her? 

And then LeStrange comes and tells her what she is and it all finally, finally makes sense. She's the daughter of monsters, no wonder why everyone detested her, she must be a monster too. But he tells her about the prophecy, and there's a chance she could have her parents. (LeStrange left too after that, and maybe that was Delphi's final straw. Even her mother's husband, and loyal follower of the Dark Lord wouldn't extend care to her.) But her father that was just as monstrous as she was clearly destined to be. Surely he would love her. 

Because all her other family members had turned their backs on her parents, there was no doubt, I expect, in her mind that the second they found out what she was they would do the same to her. 

She could finally have a family, she could finally have someone who loved her. 

And when she was finally caught, and she realized her plan failed…

"HARRY: A lot of people have tried to hurt me — but my son! You dare hurt my son!   DELPHI: I only wanted to know my father.   These words take HARRY by surprise.   HARRY: You can’t remake your life. You’ll always be an orphan. That never leaves you.   DELPHI: Just let me — see him.   HARRY: I can’t and I won’t.   DELPHI (truly pitiful): Then kill me.   HARRY thinks a moment.   HARRY: I can’t do that either."

She asks to die, because Voldemort was her last hope for someone to love her, hell, even care about her at all. 

I don't blame Harry, or anyone here, for not trying to emphasize with her more, she just sent an Avada Kedavra at Albus a few lines before, and thats the last of in a list of horrible things she's done (RIP Craig), but I suppose I wanted recognition, if thats the right word for it, of her suffering. That's just me being greedy for more Delphi content though haha

(I do think its interesting that Harry is surprised by her reasoning, even if its understandable why he expected her to be a staunch blood supremest death eater.)

"You’d think Delphini Diggory might know not to put her faith in a prophecy, seeing how her father’s interpretation of Trelawney’s turned out. But no. The words above, apparently delivered by Bellatrix Lestrange’s husband Rodolpho, set her on a path almost as destructive as Voldemort’s own. There were indeed Time Turners and unseen children and, right at the centre of it all, there was another Potter. We don’t know much about the future, but that sounds like history repeating to us.   And was it actually worth it? Without that prophecy, perhaps Delphi might have been able to get past her own past and move on. But, you know, like father like daughter." - Pottermore, Prophecies and Predictions of the Wizarding World

Now, I always watch the play with the thought in the back of my mind. If someone had reached out just a little bit sooner, there's this sinking feeling that all of this could have been avoided. 

(And that ties in quite well to the theme whole play really. If Harry had reached out to Albus or Draco had reached out to Scorpius, and if anyone had reached out to Delphi, then none of this would have had to happen at all.)

Delphi's fate doesn't feel triumphant, not like Harry defeating Voldemort. He was evil, inevitable, he was always going to strive to be the Dark Lord because from the second we meet him, he wanted power, to be feared, to be immortal. You are given his past but you are still made to understand that he does not want good things. He was always going to be the Dark Lord. 

While Delphi's end just feels so avoidable, so tragic, with this horrible looming feeling that this all could have been so easily avoided.