He does control the Dementors by then, but perhaps he was traumatised by losing his second-best Death Eater, who had been kissed by a Dementor only a year earlier. What if the Aurors ordered a Dementor to give Bellatrix the Kiss without a trial, just as they did to Barty?

A year later, he doesn’t send Bellatrix to infiltrate Hogwarts. Instead, he sends only lowly Death Eaters such as the Carrows, Rowle, Greyback, and Gibbon, who ends up being killed because of Rowle’s stupidity.

Why? Because Voldemort doesn’t think for a second that Draco Malfoy will actually manage to kill Dumbledore. He expects failure. He expects losses.

He sends his least valuable Death Eaters to Hogwarts. If they get arrested, he already knows he’ll free them a few weeks later along with the others captured at the Ministry. And if a Dementor kisses one of them in the meantime, he doesn’t care in the slightest. If one of them dies, like Gibbon, that’s no great loss either.

So, of course, he doesn’t send Bellatrix on such a risky and ultimately farcical mission.

Now, after coming face to face with Bellatrix’s mortality (he’s immortal, yes, but she isn’t), and knowing she’s his last and best lieutenant, it’s actually natural that he’d want a child with her to replace her (it’s a very utilitarian vision of Bellatrix, but this is how things make sense in his brain to keep control on his emotions).

A child he’d raise with Bellatrix to ensure her loyalty.

And why should the child be his rather than Rodolphus’s? Because there’s probably a great deal of delusion involved too. Delphini becomes a new obsession, a new project, one that allows him to avoid thinking about Bellatrix’s eventual death. Delphini is a new kind of Horcrux, now that he’s completed his oldest, most important task and ambition. He’s finally immortal… now what?

Delphini is his way of coping with his abandonment issues. He won’t lose Bellatrix through betrayal, but he will lose her to death. And as we know, losing her will unravel him to the point that his magic explodes with the force of a bomb. That uncontrolled surge of magic only shows that both his fear of her death and his attachment to her are completely repressed and largely unconscious.

When the author of a work uses the modal verb “should” to refer to her own story, you can be sure she’s using a DEONTIC should.

The politeness of her using “should” instead of “must” does not remove the fact that her “should” should must (I’m not polite) be read as “Cursed Child is canon.”

Please, pay attention. She didn’t use “can be considered canon”, she said “SHOULD be considered canon, because I—the fucking author of the books—developed it!”

By the way, it refers to the story of Cursed Child. Not Cursed Child itself, not the play, but the story. It means that you MAY/MIGHT/CAN/COULD probably discuss the wordings of the character’s cues, the exact way Harry is being insensitive to his son for instance. The exact date of Delphini’s birth at Malfoy Manor. The colour of Delphini’s hair, even. Who knows?

But you CANNOT/SHOULD NOT say that Delphini herself is not canon. You can’t say that Delphini is not Bellatrix and Voldemort’s daughter. It’s the actual PLOT of the play whose title is CURSED CHILD!

Should is not a suggestion. It’s not a piece of advice. It’s not optional.

It’s very close to The story of Cursed Child ought to be considered canon. And the second sentence confirms it if there was any doubt, as she’s using her own legitimacy as the author of the books to justify why CC is canon.

Oh, and before I forget, it’s not because an author starts developing a sequel years after finishing her books that she didn’t have the story in mind when she was writing the books.

And of course it’s conjecture. It’s only a supposition. I’m not affirming anything here, I just analysed the text and I came to the reasonable conclusion that JKR was considering the idea of Voldemort and Bellatrix having a child together when writing HBP and DH.

The Wizarding World has been exposed and forced to reunite with the Muggles. Durmstrang has been conquered by former Death Eaters led by Delphini. Now, Delphini is reaching out to the banished Dementors of Svalbard to begin her conquest of Europe.

Click here for the full story: "Harry Potter and the Two Worlds, " by Birger, AO3.

Through the Arctic, moved Delphini without touching the ground. Around her walked a handful of her most loyal Durmstrang followers. Behind them, bound by enchanted chains, stumbled a smaller group of students who had dared question her new order. Their eyes were wide with fear, and their breaths were visible in the frigid air.

“Where are you taking us?” one of them stammered in Swedish. “Please, Headmistress, my Lady, Supreme Leader”

Delphini did not answer.

"Crucio!" A Polish teenage girl loyal to Delphini, cursed, and the bound Swede began to scream in pain. No one questioned Delphini again for the rest of the journey.

They descended from the cliffs into the frozen caverns by the sea, where salt and ice fused into shimmering walls. The deeper they went, the more the air changed.

Shapes moved in the dark, gliding between the icy columns.

For years, the Dementors had lived here after being banished from Azkaban following the fall of Voldemort. They had been feeding on polar bears, seals, and the souls of lost wanderers who ventured too far north.

Dozens of them circled Delphini’s group like vultures around a dying flame. Even her loyal students trembled. One collapsed to his knees, sobbing. None of them could conjure a Patronus; their wands shook uselessly in their hands.

Delphini, however, stood still.

“You remember me,” she said softly. Her voice echoed in the cavern, strangely melodic. “You remember him.”

The air seemed to vibrate as the Dementors drew closer.

“I am Delphini,” she said. “Daughter of the Dark Lord, whom you served. His blood runs in me. His will continues through me.”

A sound rolled through the cave like the rustle of ancient wings. It wasn’t language, but Delphini understood. It was recognition.

“You are dying,” she whispered. “The Muggles know you only as myth. The wizards you once guarded have turned their backs. You feed on beasts now, scraps of what you once had.”

She walked closer to them, unfazed by the cold that made the others gasp.

“But follow me, and I will give you souls again. Not scraps but feasts. I will remake the world in shadow. ”

The Dementors hovered, uncertain until Delphini raised her hand. Her chained prisoners whimpered in terror.

“You will have proof,” she said, voice like silk over steel.

Her eyes flashed violet. With a gesture, the chains dissolved. The students tried to flee, but the Dementors descended like a storm. Screams tore through the icy air as souls were ripped from bodies-

The students turned away. One vomited. Another pissed his pants while others were transfixed by awe. Delphini did not flinch.

“Eat,” she whispered. “Feed and grow strong. The world will soon need you.”

The Dementors circled her, recognising Delphini as their new master. She extended her arm, and one brushed its decaying hand against hers. Frost crept up her skin, but her eyes only glowed brighter.

“We are bound,” she said. “My father ruled through fear. I will rule through despair.”

The cavern erupted with a cold wind that extinguished every torch. When it cleared, the Dementors were gone, spreading outward into the world once more

“Let the world remember fear again,” Delphini murmured. “And let it start with me.”

-

The mining town of Barentsburg had so far remained completely unaware of the Revelation and the existence of magic.

Inside the miners’ canteen, a handful of Russian and Norwegian workers sat huddled around a battered table, their laughter echoing through the dimly lit room.

“Magic?” one of them scoffed, raising his glass. “My wife reads too many fairy tales.”

“Same with mine,” said another, shaking his head. “Wizards, spells! Pah! If they were real, they’d have come here long ago. Can’t be much gold in Svalbard for witches.”

“Aye,” muttered another. “We’ve got rifles, not wands. Let’s see them try.”

Hours later, the wind howled softly through the narrow streets. The last ship had left the harbor days ago. Barentsburg was alone. That night, the air changed.

Then it appeared: A green spectral bird, vast and blazing, spread across the sky above Barentsburg. Its wings shimmered like emerald flame, its cry a sound that froze blood.

Dogs began to bark. The miners woke up from their beds.

“Что это?!”

“Hva i helvete!”

By the time the first rifle shots cracked through the air, it was already too late.

Figures in blood red robes moved through the streets. Sadistic teenagers cursed everyone in sight.

They broke through the wooden doors of the workers’ houses with spells that shattered locks and splintered walls.

“Stay back!” a miner shouted, firing a rifle, blowing the head off one young wizard.

"THAT WAS MY BOYFRIEND MUGGLE SCUM!!" A girl shouted in Estonian. "CRUCIO!"

The man fell on the ground, screaming in unimaginable pain.

Screams echoed across the harbor as the invaders herded the survivors into the square beneath the statue of Lenin. The miners’ wives clutched their crying children.

Delphini arrived last, descending from the cliffs with her cloak snapping like a banner in the wind. Around her floated the Dementors, rising from the fog, drawn by the promise of souls. Even the Durmstrang students faltered as the creatures approached.

Delphini raised her hand.

“These,” she said softly, “mock what they cannot understand. Let them learn what true power is.”

The Dementors swooped forward.

The screams lasted only moments, then stopped, replaced by a silence so vast it swallowed the sound of the sea.

When the creatures rose again, they hovered before Delphini like a dark army.

“Remember this night,” she whispered to her followers. “The world will forget Barentsburg, but you will not. This is the dawn of our dominion.”

The Wizarding World has been exposed and forced to reunite with the Muggles. Delphini, Antonin Dolohov, Rodolphus Lestrange, and other former Death Eaters conquer Durmstrang, turning it into a fortress of wizard supremacy.

Full story: "Harry Potter and the Two Worlds, " by Birger, ao3

The Arctic winds howled across the black waters of the Barents Sea as one massive and ancient ship cut through the ice-laden waves. The crimson sails of the Durmstrang fleet snapped in the wind, each embroidered with the school’s sigil: A raven and a wand crossed over a sword.

In the shadowed lower cabins, Delphini stood before a cracked mirror. The candlelight flickered against her silver-blonde hair as she whispered incantations under her breath. Flesh shimmered. Bone reshaped. Within moments, the infamous witch had become someone else, a tall, dark-haired student with forgettable features and a neutral accent. Around her, Antonin Dolohov, Rodolphus Lestrange, Augustus Rookwood, and what remained of their followers performed the same human transfiguration, disguising themselves as teachers and older students.

“Keep your heads low,” Dolohov muttered in Russian, his new face lined but unrecognizable. “The guards on these ships see everything.”

“They see only what I allow them to,” Delphini replied coolly. Her blue eyes, even behind a false face, gleamed with restrained violence.

"Now I'm going to find some handsome boys to play with. This is going to be a long journey, " Delphini said, dancing away from her elderly followers.

The voyage lasted a week. Through endless fog and sleet, the ship pressed north, past the ghostly fjords of Norway and into the freezing waters surrounding Svalbard. Hidden behind perpetual mist, stood Durmstrang Institute. The castle grounds roamed with Draugr, undead beings, serving as the school's guardians.

It was tradition that every year, on the first day of term, all two thousand students and staff of Durmstrang, from all over Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe gathered in the great duelling arena, an enormous, circular courtyard carved from black rock and open to the sky.

At the center stood Headmaster Silas Lange, a century-old Danish wizard in crimson robes lined with wolf fur.

“The world beyond these mountains has gone mad,” he began, his breath misting in the cold. “The Statute of Secrecy is gone. Wizards and Muggles now stare at each other across a gulf of fear. Many call it freedom. I call it folly.”

His words rippled through the ranks of students. Some nodded while others shifted uncomfortably.

“Remember who we are,” Silas continued. “Durmstrang does not bend to chaos. The world will need discipline, strength and vigilance.”

From the crowd, a young woman with black hair and green eyes, Delphini in disguise, raised her hand.

“Headmaster,” she called softly, her voice cutting through the murmur. “What of those who believe the old ways should return? Those who believe Grindelwald was right?”

The crowd gasped. The mere name of Grindelwald still carried the weight of heresy. Silas’s sharp gaze found her immediately.

"How dare you interrupt me. Leave immediately, as you'll await your punishment. "

Two older students, one boy and a girl, grabbed Delphini and led her out of the arena.

“Those who follow that ghost,” he said coldly, “chase madness. I knew the man. I fought for him once, and I watched him turn our ideals into tyranny.”

Delphini smiled faintly.

“Then perhaps he simply lacked the right heir."

Moments later, as the arena emptied, Silas walked the long stone corridor toward his office.

He froze when he saw the rebellious girl sitting in his office with two dead students on the floor.

Delphini, no longer disguised. Her silver hair spilled over her cloak like liquid moonlight, her eyes burning with serpentine fire.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said without turning.

“Oh, but I am,” the girl responded. "And I intend to make this place reach its full potential. "

“Delphini,” Silas whispered. “By the gods… you were expelled before you ever graduated.”

“And yet I learned more than this place ever taught me,” she said softly. “You taught obedience. I learned power.”

Silas’s expression hardened. “You are playing with forces you cannot control.”

“On the contrary,” she hissed, raising her wand. “I am the control. And I have come to reclaim what you and your kind lost. Grindelwald’s dream.”

With a flick, she struck. Silas’s wand met hers mid-air, a blinding clash of light destroying the headmaster's office. The floor split apart. and windows shattered in shockwaves. All over the castle, students screamed, and teachers rushed toward the sound, but Dolohov, Rodolphus, and Rookwood and his followers were already there, blocking their path. Within seconds, Durmstrang had become a battlefield.

Stone walls cracked as spells ricocheted through the halls.

Silas fought with ferocious precision as he conjured fire, lightning, and chains of binding magic. For a moment, it seemed the old man might prevail.

He caught Delphini’s wand in midair with a twisting curse. The wood burst into flame.

“It ends, Delphini!” he shouted, raising his wand for the killing blow.

However, Delphini only smiled as her eyes glowed with violet light.

“I need no wand.”

She raised her hand.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Emerald light exploded from her fingertips. The Killing Curse hit Silas square in the chest. The old wizard fell, lifeless, before his students’ horrified eyes.

The sky above the arena cracked open as Delphini rose into the air. The clouds themselves turned violet as she conjured the Dark Mark: a skull with Augurey wings. Behind it, a massive Deathly Hallows symbol appeared.

“Durmstrang is reborn!” she cried, her voice echoing over the mountains. “This will be the fortress of the new world where witches rise and Muggles kneel!”

The students stared, stunned. Then, slowly, many began to applaud. Others shouted, their cheers echoing like thunder. Centuries of militaristic pride, of discipline and superiority, flared into fanatic devotion.

Dolohov stepped forward, bowing deeply.

“Hail Headmistress Delphini,” he said. “And long live Durmstrang.”

In this timeline, Lord Voldemort won the Battle of Hogwarts and declared war on the Muggles in pursuit of world conquest.

However, NATO proved to be a much greater rival than either Albus Dumbledore or Harry Potter for the Dark Lord. The UK was bombed into oblivion by both magical and non-magical forces, leaving Voldemort to rule a kingdom of ash.

As the US Army and MACUSA advance to "liberate" Hogwarts, Bellatrix Lestrange learns the costs and sacrifices of motherhood.

Full story: "Dumbledore's Army and the Serpent King, " by Birger, ao3

January 2001

Along the shores of the Black Lake, towering Durmstrang ships creaked against the frozen water. Hundreds of students and civilians, what remained of the Serpent Kingdom, were being rushed aboard in frantic desperation.

“MOVE! MOVE!” the Carrows shouted, herding terrified teenagers forward.

Children cried. Parents clutched them tightly. No one spoke of hope anymore—only escape.

At the edge of the chaos stood Bellatrix, her wild eyes scanning the horizon, one arm wrapped tightly around little Delphini.

Nearby, Andromeda held young Teddy close, whispering softly to calm him. Draco and Daphne stood together with Scorpius cradled between them. No one said it aloud, but everyone knew that without Voldemort, they could not win the war.

Then came the sound of distant thunder. Over the mountains, hundreds of military helicopters and Aurors flying on broomsticks appeared, flying closer and closer toward the heart of the Serpent Kingdom.

“Get inside the castle!” Draco shouted, panic breaking through his voice. “NOW!”

Before anyone could react, a missile screamed through the air, striking one of the Durmstrang ships. The explosion tore it apart in a burst of fire and splintered wood, sending bodies and debris crashing into the freezing lake.

Screams erupted everywhere. Panic consumed the shoreline. People ran in every direction, toward the castle, toward the forest, toward nowhere. Daphne turned and ran, clutching Scorpius tightly as she disappeared toward Hogwarts.

Bellatrix didn’t run. She stepped forward, holding her crying daughter with her left hand. Fury twisted her face into something inhuman.

“HOW DARE THEY!”

She raised her wand, and the sky split open as lightning shot upward like divine wrath. It struck two helicopters instantly, tearing them apart midair. Flaming wreckage spiraled down into the lake.

Around her, the remaining Death Eaters joined in lighting up the sky with curses of every color. The sky became a battlefield of magic and steel. Helicopters burned, and Aurors fell.

One Auror broke through the chaos, dodging every curse. He aimed for Bellatrix and Delphini and raised his wand.

“Avada Kedavra!”

A flash of green tore through the air straight toward the mother and daughter. Bellatrix turned around as the curse struck her in the back. The spell deflected, ricocheting wildly and striking the Auror midair. He fell instantly from his broom, lifeless before he hit the ground. Bellatrix staggered, and then she fell to the frozen ground, motionless.

“No… NO!” Narcissa screamed and rushed forward.

She dropped to her knees, pulling Delphini away from the mother's corpse just as the child began to wail uncontrollably.

The moment was shattered in an instant. From the edge of the Forbidden Forest came a new sound. Military vehicles burst from the treeline, crushing branches and earth beneath armored wheels. Hundreds of soldiers poured out with their weapons raised, shouting orders.

“DROP YOUR WANDS!”

“SURRENDER NOW!”

Red laser sights cut through the smoke. The surviving helicopters hovered above, and Aurors regrouped in the sky. The Death Eaters stood surrounded: outnumbered and overwhelmed.

The air twisted, and the sky darkened unnaturally as a figure appeared above the battlefield, flying unaided. Lord Voldemort had returned. All eyes turned upward. Even the wind seemed to stop.

Voldemort said nothing at first. His red eyes fell upon Bellatrix’s body, and something broke inside him. He raised the Elder Wand, and a pulse of magic erupted outward in a violent shockwave, tearing through the battlefield like an invisible tidal wave.

Metal twisted and melted. Rifles drooped in soldiers’ hands like wax. Tanks groaned as their armor liquefied. Vehicles collapsed into burning slag. Screams of horror spread through the No-maj ranks. Above, helicopters shuddered midair and exploded. Fireballs and burning bodies rained down into the lake and forest.

“RETREAT!” soldiers shouted in panic.

Without weapons and without any way to fight back, they fled in every direction.

“NOW!” Draco Malfoy shouted, seizing the moment.

The Death Eaters surged forward with renewed fury. Green flashes erupted across the battlefield.

The Carrows cast waves of blue fires, consuming twenty Aurors at once. Pansy, Zabini, and Nott fired curse after curse into the chaos. Rodolphus and Yaxley advanced without hesitation. Greyback launched forward, biting one Auror in the face. Even Umbridge joined the assault.

Above it all, Voldemort hovered like a god of war, setting every Auror in sight on fire. The invading forces fell from the sky, landing on the ground with broken bones.

However, chaos did not choose sides. In the frenzy, a single green flash went astray and struck Greyback. The werewolf froze mid-stride and collapsed heavily onto the ground.

Umbridge lowered her wand slowly.

“Whoops…” she muttered, almost to herself.

The battle continued until every American Auror and Muggle soldier had fled or fallen. Silence replaced chaos.

Above it all, Lord Voldemort hovered, motionless, the Elder Wand still raised in his hand. Below him stood what remained of the Serpent Kingdom. Death Eaters, students, and families looked at him while frozen in fear.

Bellatrix's body lay lifeless on the frozen ground. Delphini cried next to her, waiting for her mother to wake up.

Narcissa fell to her knees beside her sister. “No… no…”

Her voice broke as she reached for Bellatrix’s hand. Nearby, Andromeda held little Teddy tightly as tears streamed down her face. Delphini screamed in confusion and grief, reaching toward the mother who would never answer. Teddy cried in Andromeda’s arms, sensing the sorrow around him.

Nearby, Draco stood rigid, holding Scorpius close as the child sobbed against his shoulder. Daphne clung to them both.

Voldemort descended downwards until his feet touched the scorched earth. He looked at Bellatrix for a long time. Then he spoke.

“Bellatrix Lestrange… did not die in vain.”

No one dared move.

“She died… as all who are loyal should. Her sacrifice… will be remembered.”

His red eyes swept across the crowd.

“And she… will be avenged.”

He raised the Elder Wand once more, and the ground trembled. Stone tore itself upward from the earth, forming a black and jagged tomb. Bellatrix’s body lifted gently from the ground and lowered into the tomb. The stone sealed shut with a deep, final echo.

Then Voldemort turned toward the child. Little Delphini sobbed in Narcissa’s arms, reaching blindly for a mother who was gone.

Voldemort approached. For a moment, Narcissa hesitated and took a step backward. Then, trembling, she allowed him near. Voldemort looked at his daughter.

“Delphini…”

He reached out, placing a pale hand lightly against her cheek. Her crying faltered.

“You are my heir.”

The words sent a ripple through everyone present. No one had ever heard him speak like this before.

“You will grow. You will become strong. You will remember. And one day…”

His red eyes burned with something far darker than grief.

He's not mediocre. He's just not as good as Delphini, which makes perfect sense given her genetics.

Also, why do these morons think they know the story and characters better than JKR does? She co-wrote Cursed Child. She loves it and approves of it wholeheartedly. She had the entire plot of it memorised before it was released!

If she'd portrayed Harry as secretly cheating on Ginny with Kreacher, that's what he would be doing! Your headcanons and interpretations mean nothing next to her decisions.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing!