Still, he kept another place setting at the table for her each morning, and while he usually skipped lunch and ate dinner alone in his study, he had the elves be sure to set her a place for dinner each evening. He did not check to see if she made use of it, or merely scrounged food from the kitchens when she was hungry.

"Ah, Delphini, thank you," he said, accepting a cup of tea and nodding to the dining room. "Let us sit."

He had been correct. Delphi and Bella had clashed further that night - and it had clearly gotten ugly.

"You may stay here as long as you please," Voldemort said, sitting at the table and taking an orange off of the fruit tray. "You never have to ask permission to come here, of course." He slowly began peeling the orange in one, long coil.

"Your mother," he said, not taking his eyes off the orange, "can be quite cold. She has this..ability to say the most cutting, brutal things at times. I have not been spared her sharp tongue." The peel of the orange fell to the table, and he began to break it into quarters. The other day's argument with Bella sprang back into his mind. Tommy Riddle. The nobody, the thrown away child with the tainted blood, the one thing he tried to run away from for good, the - he cut his internal monologue off, breaking off an orange wedge.

"Whatever she said," he sighed, popping the wedge into his mouth, his eyes scanning the table for anything else that looked palatable. Bella would say he needed to eat more than just an orange. He grabbed a croissant.

"Whatever she said, whatever she did -" he broke the croissant in two, contemplating the flaky layers. It was still warm. "She will come to her senses eventually. She always does." He took a bite. Mm. Good choice. -asktheheirofslytherin

Delphini bit her bottom lip when he finished his last statement, the food in front of her looking very unappetizing suddenly. Would Mother come to her senses? To what conclusion, realistically? Delphini is the one who had screamed at her, thrown it all back in her face, brought unnecessary dissension between both of her parents knowingly. Selfishly.

She paid the price, of course. But that didn't mean that Delphini even remotely knew where she stood with Bella now. Would Mother ever look at her the same? Did Mum even really want to see her again? Delphi had been pushy her whole life, but she'd never done something to elicit such a raw reaction from her Mother. Her heart sunk anew.

"I am not so sure.." She murmured softly, thumbing the side of the warm teacup, her eyes never straying from the plate of pasties in front of her. She tried to shake herself out of her stupor. "Regardless, I think I like it better here anyways. I have missed spending so much time with Nagini - feels as though I hardly see her anymore between business and studies."

She cleared her throat softly, finally deciding on a small slice of buttered toast. Her stomach flipped as she bit into it. It had scarcely been a week since she arrived here, and though it felt almost like a lifetime, she knew time had certainly flown by for her Father, and perhaps for Mother too? Father was nothing if not busy. In all this time had he the chance to talk with Mother? Have they even spoken since that day?