InsaneJournal

Who: Hallam & Delilah Selwyn
What: Hal has to have a talk with his daughter.
When: July 17
Where: Delilah’s flat.
Warnings: R - VIOLENCE. TRIGGER WARNING: CHILD ABUSE.



Things had been interesting. Work was interesting, for one. Bill Weasley was definitely a strange sort of fellow. She wasn’t sure if she liked working with him or not. He seemed to have a lot of things to say and none of them were particularly helpful, but Delilah did enjoy the actual work of it all. She was still reserving judgement about him, trying not to let her upbringing colour her every interaction for the rest of her life. She’d been able to get around it with Kevin, she should be able to do the same with Bill. And in time, maybe she’d forget all about her Purist ideals.

But now was not the time for thinking. She had her own flat - quiet, and relaxing. Filled with magical things. The two-way mirror she shared with Kevin was in a little drawer in her coffee table. In front of her sat tea and a bit of pie, some dessert after having had dinner. A fire was set low in the fireplace, more for atmosphere than for heat, and she was curled up on the couch with a book about dangerous plants sitting in front of her. Bill had her tending to Devil’s Snare and the like, and she wanted to make sure she did everything right, considering Herbology had been her worst subject on her NEWTS.

The last thing she expected at this hour, or in her flat at all, was a visitor...

Hallam did not bother to knock or use the door for that matter. He had his own ways around low level wards as it was. If he wanted to badly enough he was sure he could break the Malfoy estate wards, but they had never done anything against him to make him try. In a swirl of dark smoke, the tall figure walked forward into the living room of the ridiculous flat Delilah was living in. His intention was set, but he lived for the reactions and surprises of far slower minded people, like the mudblood bastard that held so tightly onto his name.

Darkened blue eyes stared down at Delilah, a slight smile on his lips. “Enjoying yourself?”

The wards were rather low level, that was true. Delilah hadn’t done much to strengthen them, she knew it would only cause suspicion. Besides, she didn’t need to be worried about Lady Noir or Death Eaters did she? Not while her lie was still so tightly kept. But maybe she should have had them strengthened - her father’s sudden appearance was enough to startle her right off the couch. She jumped up, book tossed to the floor, wand in hand.

She lowered it once she heard the deep voice, saw him. “Dad - you scared me.” She replied, breathing a little hard. “Yes, I was, reading up on plants. It was interesting.” Delilah bent down to grab the book, setting it down on the coffee table next to her tea and pie. “Can I get you something?” She offered, motioning at the teapot.

The smile on his lips faded quickly into a thin line. His high cheekbones and angular face giving a severity to his look that she had seen so many other times. His eyebrows raised as he tilted his head in response, the angered look fading once more into his more sarcastic of smiles. “I do not need anything at this moment.”

Hallam stepped forward, his full height looming over the young girl, and he placed his hand on her shoulder. “Have I not been kind to you lately? Have I not helped you? Do I not buy you presents as if you were an actual child of mine?” His grip tightened on her shoulder. The softness toward her lately had obviously gone to her head. He had wanted her to be as real of a daughter as he could get, but when he asked for one thing, one very important thing, the little bitch could not follow his rules.

Sliding his hand to her neck, he looked her dead in the eyes. “Is this how you repay such kindness?”

He didn’t have to put a hand on her for Delilah to become scared. The moment he took a step towards her she knew something was wrong. This wasn’t the first time she’d been approached in such a way, and her hand gripped tighter on her wand as he put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it to the point that it hurt.

“Dad please - I don’t know what you’re talking about. Of course you have been kind.” She replied, hesitating, not moving. She didn’t want to struggle, that would only make it worse wouldn’t it? She stayed very still as his hand moved to her neck, her eyes glancing down just briefly before she looked back up at him, visibly shaken.

“What are you talking about?”

“Do not play coy with me.” A low growl came from his chest at his pronounced words. With a flick of his wand, his silent spell sent her wand flying across the room. The clank of the wood against the furniture echoed in the seriousness of the situation.

“I have been pleasant in my manners until now, and yet you still disobey me.” He leaned down closer to her face, a smoldering fire of anger darkening his light eyes. “Tell me, what is the first rule of our household?” His voice was a whisper in her ear. The expectation of the correct answer could be felt in the grip of his hand tightening down around her neck. When she broke the rules now, she had no where to run to. There was no more Hogwarts to save her from his punishment.

Disgust in himself with thinking he could treat her in kindness poisoned his words and slithered through his veins. He had truly wanted to protect her, keep her safe for the family secret as well as keep her from the childish reactions of Lady Noir. That had been his mistake. Years of treating her as he was treating her now had made for quieter times than the few months of treating her well. Hallam was willing to fix his mistake.

He was much better at this than she was. She should have shielded herself or something, but it was too late. Her wand ripped itself from her grip and clattered on the floor behind her. His hand slithered up to her neck and gripped it.

There was nowhere to go now. Nowhere to hide.

"No... lying." She struggled to get out. It wasn't easy to speak when someone had their hand squeezing your throat but she managed to get the words out anyway. There were so many lies she didn't even know which one he was talking about, but she could assume it was about Kevin. Or had Narcissa spilled the beans?

"I'm... sorry."

“You have said sorry before for your lies, and yet.” He smirked at her. “Tell me the truth right now about everything, and I will go easy on you.” The bait was obvious. He did not need to hide it or play his word games as he did so often to others. With Delilah he would not use children’s gloves, he did not pull his punches, everything he said was spoken in a manner to make her understand her place still fell on the low end of the pole. She was still a mudblood no matter how much they pretended.

He lifted his grip enough to allow her to speak properly, but not enough that he would lose his grip on her.

She knew there was no point in making a run for it, even if his grip was a bit more relaxed. It wasn’t enough to break free of and if she tried he could very well break her neck. She wasn’t stupid. A liar, maybe, and perhaps even a bit stupid for having lied about what she did, but she wasn’t all dumb. She knew very well what would happen if she tried to fight back right now.

“I went to London with Kevin. We stayed with his parents, and then went and saw the rest of Europe.” She replied, easily and even. It was the truth. She didn’t include the bit about learning about muggle things, but it was sort of inherent in the truth. She had stayed with his family, obviously she had been around muggle things.

“And he lives across the hall.” Since she knew her mother knew that already, and had told her father that much. “That’s it.” Well, the facts. She wasn’t being entirely honest about how she felt about Kevin, but she didn’t really think her father needed to hear her say she loved Kevin for him to know how she felt about him.

The look on his face became one of boredom and annoyance. Hallam sighed audibly. the force in his hand let go for a moment before he flung her to the ground like she was a rag doll. His strength always had that effect on his little mudblood.

“They are disgusting creatures, living in that hole in the wall like the rats they are for attempting to breed into our world.” Anything compared to the vast estate of the Selwyns was a hole in the wall, but further more he waited to see her look when she realized that he had paid the muggle family a visit as well.

With another flick of his wand, the air around the walls of the flat seemed to thicken. He wanted to make sure no one was nosy about what was happening in the apartment. “I warned you against the boy and since you so brilliantly let it slip to him what you are I have had to deal with that for some time. But maybe I should have went straight to his source to begin with.”

He leaned down over Delilah and backhanded her across the face. “Even if I told you to stop lying to me, I know you would not. That rat nature of the muggle infests you like it does all other mudbloods.” He hit her once more before he kicked her in the stomach hard enough to push her back a few feet.

“I should not have tried to treat you like my daughter. How could I have thought that would make any difference? That the shame of your life could be hidden away and I would have a real child.”

She was tossed to the floor without any thought. No care, no effort really. She hit the ground and knocked the table, causing her teacup to spill over. She paid it no mind. What she needed to do was get to her wand, but that wasn’t going to happen just yet. Not when she froze in sheer terror when she heard her father had visited Kevin’s parents. He would know if they were dead, wouldn’t he? Had her father done it just before coming here?

“Tell me you didn’t - did you hurt them?” She asked, her face drained of nearly all its color. She didn’t listen to anything else he said - save for claiming to treat her like a daughter right after he slapped her clean across the face, and kicked her hard enough to be shoved a few feet back - closer to her wand, she noticed. The fight-or-flight instincts were starting to kick in.

“Treat me like a daughter?” Delilah laughed it out, even though she was still nearly choking from the pain, she had to ignore it. She grabbed her wand and stood up, holding it out against him. Silently, she cast a shield spell around herself. “Tell me you didn’t hurt them.” She asked - half begged, really - as she held her wand out offensively, ready to strike.

She wouldn’t just wait this time. She wouldn’t just let herself be pushed around. If he - if he had dared hurt them, she would do all she could to kill him herself.

Hallam had not answered her question the first time she asked it. Muggles mattered little really and to care at all for them or their safety was laughable in its own right. A twisted amused look gathering on his lips and in his eyes once she stood with her wand and faced him. Hallam had no fears or worries about her fighting abilities. The fact that she thought she had a chance to fight him in a real duel was an insult to him. The practicing they had done together had not been to the best of his ability, as he was not trying to kill her. When that day came, she would know it.

Shifting his weight into a dueling stance, he looked over her stance in judgement. TSK TSK TSK. “Are you ready to put your life on the line for that filth?” Half of his lip raised in a snarl of smirk. He was ready with a curse for when and if she decided to strike. Instead of attacking first, he would continue on his rant about her. “I have protected you far too long. Even Marcelia has realized this. How many lives do you have to ruin in your wake? Some muggle parents to a mudblood bastard who corrupted the name of Slytherin by being placed there. They all deserve to die.”

“The only life that’s been ruined is mine. You adopted me. That was your mistake, not mine.” She spat back, knowing she had very little time to get out of here before things got ugly. She tried to apparate, but found herself too shaken to properly focus. This is why those stupid tests were so difficult. Instead, she shielded herself again and took another step back. She needed to leave here before it got any worse.

“Everte statum!” She wasn’t the best at silent spells - quite a few she could do, actually, she was very talented but some of the more difficult offensive spells she had not quite gotten the hang of. You couldn’t exactly practice them at Hogwarts without calling attention to yourself. She tossed the spell hard in his direction, preparing herself to flee. She just had to focus. If she couldn’t get past him, and she couldn’t apparate out, she wouldn’t be leaving at all.

“Impedimentia,” he shot back at the same time she sent her spell at him. The tall, lean figure flew back against the wall with a thud. Hallam fell to his feet, wand in hand, and real anger in his eyes. Silent spells were useful, but there was more power in saying the words. When a spell was said out loud during a duel, it added that touch of fear with it.

“Your mistake was being born in the first place. Everberus!” A large magic fist spat out from the end of his wand, growing in size as it flew toward Delilah. Hallam did not need to put up shields for the little girl, his personal wards would take care of any damage she could manage.


The fact that her spell had hit him at all was surprising to her, though she figured it wouldn’t damage him much. More likely it would damage her flat, but that wasn’t something she was really thinking about just yet. Since her shield had been up when he cast the spell, it only hit with a portion of its original power. Her shields were strong, but she was panicked and he was a lot stronger than she was. She was thrown off balance and incapable of moving for a few moments as his second spell hurtled towards her.

She was just barely capable of putting up a shield in time to block some damage. The shield didn’t get her entirely, though, and the giant fist crashed into her side - it sounded as if something cracked and breathing became immensely difficult. “Norricto!” She shouted, hurling the spell at him as she backed up again, looking around her like she’d find some help in the room. Why couldn’t anyone hear this? Was the spell he put on her flat that strong?

“Obruo!” Suddenly, her whole flat was moving. Cups, books, anything light was hurtling itself at Hallam - while the larger objects sort of lamely attempted to slide their way to him. Mostly it was a distraction, though the small objects did launch themselves quite harshly at him. She heard one of her teacups shatter against the wall behind him. “Just leave me alone!” She finally shouted, bursting into tears as she turned to run away, lock herself in a room, anything until she could calm down enough to apparate.

Hallam practically laughed at her attempt to keep him from casting, as if covering his mouth would do anything. Flicking his wand, he deflected the spell as if it were an annoying mosquito. “Condolesco.” All his spells were said at an even cast as if everything she threw at him made no difference to him or his state of mind. She could panic, she should panic, but Hallam was at his scariest when he was focused on a target of a duel. The patience of the alligator, the snap of its jaw as it wears you down until you drown, that was what Hallam was.

With a brief pause to watch the items of the house start to move, a wall pulled up from the ground in front of him, taking the impact of the flying objects. The book she had been reading managing to skip off the side of the wall and hit Hallam in the chest. He heard her retreat to her room and put down the wall so he could pursue. A small part of him thought to leave her alone. The little voice was a lot louder than it had ever been before, but it was still easily ignorable.

“You want a muggle life, you deal with the consequences. I laughed when I heard Narcissa was trying to pull you to be her underling. I should warn her to your inabilities.” He called as he sent a spell at her bedroom door to blast it into pieces. “You are not good enough to be near a true pureblood let alone be mentored by one.” He stood in the doorway, not attacking, but watching her.

The spell hit like a ton of bricks. Her head felt like it was going to split open. She let out a sharp cry as the door behind her slammed shut, and she stumbled into her room. She didn’t have long, Delilah knew Hallam would follow her in there. After a brief moment of not being able to think at all, she muttered “Finite” to end the migraine just as her door was blasted to bits. She turned around again with a sharp intake of breath, raising her wand once more.

He was there just to taunt her now. Talking about how she wasn’t good enough, she didn’t deserve to be mentored by Narcissa. Delilah could feel all that old self-hatred coming back to her, tearing at her insides and making everything look so bleak. She should just let him kill her - let it happen already. Claim a break in, whatever, someone else had come and killed her. Gloss over it. He could lie about it, they all could. It would be so much easier.

But she couldn’t do that to Kevin. She couldn’t let her father do that to her, not anymore. With a final bit of determination and sheer want to hurt him, she cried out “Relashio!” It wasn’t the most damaging spell she knew, but it would burn. And she hoped it was harsh enough to burn a lot, even with his stupid sigils and wards that protected him so much from harm. “This is over. For good.” She said, before turning on her heel and Disapparating.