SturnusAstra

Those kids sure are cursed

[sturnusastra]

Hi!

This blog will probably be exclusively Cursed Child stuff! Most likely a lot of Scorbus and the Pyrite Trio AU which has been bouncing around in my head forever.

Basic stuff: I'm 19, this blog will be SFW (though I'm not beyond reblogging some suggestive stuff), she/her, you can call me Sturnus or Astra, or any other variation of my username :)

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DNI If you support JKR and/or are a transphobe

[istillwishforyouateleveneleven]

web weave finds that made me want to claw my eyes out

[boredomsbonedeep]

head girl delphi + first year james sirius potter... because canonically delphi is 6 years older than james sirius & almost the same age as teddy :)

[sturnusastra]

[Pyrite Trio AU - info under 'read more']

awkwardest person alive VS broods 24/7 VS thousand yard stare

There's going to be a proper introductory post of the AU soon. I've kind of been dragging my feet with the next year of Uni starting very soon, BUT I am absolutely working on all of it. I have so, so many ideas I can't wait to put down on paper!

I wanted to get something down quick cause I'm posting the first proper art/comic for this AU pretty soon so I thought I'd drop the summary again until I make one big 'introductory' post.

Next post is probably going to be the Rowle family designs, Delphi's Augury outfit, the General Death eater designs, plus Scorpius and Albus' Death Eater outfits they'll wear when they inevitably make the terrible decision to go spy on Rowle all in one big post.

I'll try to throw Delphi's childhood tormentor and Euphemia's pet, 'Bird' the augury in there too. I love Bird so much.

Here's a quick summary of the AU. Though it's pretty general and missing Scorpius' and Albus' character arcs and has a little sprinkle of Delphi's, all three of which are my favorite part of the story. But I really want to save them for art and/or way too long text posts.

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In this AU, Delphi was created by Thorfinn Rowle (who managed to weasel out of Azkaban using his connections, namely his sister and nieces) and numerous other Death Eaters in a dark magic ritual. The ritual used what was left, both magically and physically, of Voldemort and Bellatrix to create Delphi— the perfect pure-blooded next Dark Lord. And most notably, a new Dark Lord Thorfinn could control to his own liking. But Delphi, unlike her parents, was born without that endless thirst for power and cruelty. 

This however, she learned quickly to hide. She was kept a closely guarded secret by the Death Eaters for numerous years, though this didn't stop the ever-growing rumors of a child of the Dark Lord spreading. When Delphi started getting older, Rowle began to instill proper training in her. 

Growing up isolated and ostracized even among the Death Eaters, Delphi thinks herself a monster, lovable only by the two monsters she was created from, and desperately wanting a way to get her parents back. In the midst of her own conflict, she meets Albus and Scorpius for the first time.

The three quickly became friends, leaving her with the choice to become what she was created as or take a chance on the Albus and Scorpius

After they almost got caught when Death Eaters came looking for her, she was forced to tell them what she was. It took remarkably, perhaps recklessly, little thought for them to accept her. They weren't much like their parents either after all. Leaving Delphi reeling with the conflict of what she believes herself to be versus the person the boys see in her.

The main conflict of the story starts when they're 16, about a year after their first meeting. Rowle, using his Death Eaters and Delphi as a puppets, creates staged propaganda about the Aurors (mostly Harry, the head of Auror Office) not being able to properly guard British magical society, and the Ministry itself not being strong or strict enough to fight what must be the next dawning wizarding war, and throws in his own bid for Minister of Magic. And Rowle, after revealing Delphi's existence to the world during a Death Eater raid of his own making, creates just enough unrest and fear in the wizarding world to win the bid for Minister for Magic against the now-former Minister, Hermoine. Now, as Death Eaters rise in the ranks of the ministry, the trio have to figure out a way to take down Rowle, all while Scorpius and Albus have to keep their 'Voldemorts Daughter is our best friend'-sized secret from their families and Delphi has to keep her own true nature hidden from the people that created her.

[sturnusastra]

Delphi's Character in the Cursed Child...

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. 

She really did just want to be loved in the end. 

[shrimpalbuspotter]

I think it's so funny that in canon Albus Is more of an Optimist and Scorpius a Realist despite their sunshine x grumpy trope, like there's a whole scene where Albus is arguing that his plan is absolutely postively going to work and Scorpius straight up says it won't because they suck too much

[stardustinmortalform]

Rereading Percy Jackson has got me thinking about fatal flaws gang. You know what i have to do

James- Pride

Listen, no matter how much he'll deny it. He has an ego, it's just not boastful, and is it really an ego if he can back it up? He carrries a silent superiority to him. Jamie thinks VERY highly of himself and is ass at listening to others, so he places himself as the leader in literally everything he does. Like I've said before, he's a control freak and perfectionist and hates not being in the know. I think of him as lawful good, but like in a way where he follows his own rules and bends others (he never breaks them though, always with the plausible deniability this guy). To put it simply, yes, he does assume he's the smartest in the room and constantly acts like he's got smth to prove (he's got severe imposter syndrome gang+ superiority complex+inferiority complex someone help him)

Albus- Envy

Albus is full of anger issues, middle child angst and envy. He constantly compares himself to everyone around him and unlike James, his fear of failure doesn't motivate him, it keeps him stagnant. Albus just kinda sucks at magic, it's not one's fault, logically, he knows this, but everytime he hears "when James was your age" or " your brother got this spell on his first time" it leaves him seething. Rose is the top in their year, his best friend barely behind her and Al is failing most of his classes. Its not his fault, its James really, he set the bar too high. Its not his fault (another inferiority complex here they must've been on sale)

LilyLu- Pride

Overconfident is the only word to describe her. She thinks she's the shit, and acts like it, girl could get her ass beat several times and leave that fight thinking "Yeah, it was pretty close ". Some of it is just a bit, but like a decent amount is genuine, shes a braggart. Lily is incredibly stubborn and tends to do her own thing with poorly thought out plans and a prayer. Her and James usually clash over this, he just sees her as an immature child and she sees him as a child cosplaying an adult. She feels like she can't do anything in his presence without him showing up like "erm you're doing it wrong". She acts without thinking very often. I think she believes in the Harry Potter myth more than any of them. She takes pride in being a Potter.

Bonus-

Lily is an open book, she's not good at keeping secrets and lying because her face is just so expressive. Albus looks mysterious but is in a similar boat, he's the most sensitive of the siblings and very emotional, he can't keep strong emotions at bay. James is very smiley and chatty but super distant, he's friends with everyone but not FRIENDS with them, everybody loves him but nobody likes him

[souptastical]

WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH PTSD THE GOLDEN TRIO/EVERY WEASLEY KID/ALL THEIR PEERS WOULD HAVE WHEN RAISING THEIR KIDS???

Like seriously- I NEVER EVER see it. It's all how lovely life would be, the peace, how they could finally live a comfortable life- gurl what??

Harry, Ron Hermione were 17. Do you remember being 17? Yeah, take that mindset and imagine going through a goddamn war, one that alllll revolved around you/your best friend succeeding and if it didn't happen, there would be a dark age like no one had ever seen.

⚡️Harry would keep having nightmares, probably forever. There would probably be days where he laid in bed, unable to move due to the consuming guilt and/or depression which would just add more guilt and depression when he got out of it as he left Ginny to care for their kids and would wake to figure out he missed out on core memories of his children. Sometimes, desperate to see him, James, Albus and Lily would just lay there with him in silence. They witnessed their father go through periods of being totally present, totally happy and then he would randomly just look into the floor as if he was no longer there- his flashbacks were always quiet.

💫Ron, I feel, might end up going through substance addiction to deal with the loss of his brother coupled with moments of anger or just random, unjustified annoyance- the same goes for George and this would extremely strain their romantic relationships. He would most likely have flashbacks of countless moments of fear, would hear Hermione's screams at night, would see his brother's dead body upon that stone ground. Rose and Hugo felt so loved by their father, but also aprehensive because at any moment, his mood could switch.

🌙Hermione would have phases of constantly putting herself into intense moments of focus- her work, the kids, anything to keep her mind occupied out of fear those random moments where her arm burned or the memories of her husband spliced would return full force. She would eventually breakdown, her mind strained due to always, all the time, trying to ignore it all. Rose and Hugo witnessed this constantly- one minute she's fine, the next she's sobbing on the floor and Ron was barking at them to go to their room so they didn't have to be there for it, so they could leave him to console her.

☀️I feel like Ginny remained strong for her siblings, parents & Harry after the war to a degree that she ignored her own emotions and turmoil. Entirely. And then, finally when James was born, what was only supposed to be a flicker of post-partum went full fucking swing due to the fact she bottled everything inside for roughly 6 years straight. And it was bad- Harry was left caring for a newborn and his wife that couldn't move, eat, or bathe on her own. She was probably the only one of them besides Hermione who got proper therapy- the boys being too stubborn. When shit was better, she found herself going through these phases of dismissive attitude towards all her children, her PTSD coming out more in anger, probably similar to Ron and George. But she was especially this way to James- because she couldn't bear to feel the guilt about not being there for him upon his birth, she tried to ignore him entirely at points until she finally realized what she was doing later on.

Then there's everyone else- they would be so fucking destroyed by what happened like??? And their kids would have to watch it- they would grow up with parents riddled with PTSD, an entire generation that had the people raising them be torn from war; some that were able to move past it, some that weren't, and some that were always somewhere in the middle.

[nina-s0]

"The Cursed Child isn't canon cause Harry would never do that to his kid!"

Yeah. You're right. He would never do that to his kids. He didn't do that to James and Lily. He did it to Albus. Albus who was the carbon copy of Harry the same way Harry was the carbon copy of James. Harry who couldn't even look himself in the mirror because he believed it was his fault that Fred and Remus and Sirius and everyone else was dead. Harry who hated himself so much, Harry who couldn't see anyone but himself in Albus. Harry who thought that he was stopping Albus from making the same mistakes Harry did.

Albus severus potter who wasn't just burdened with living up to Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape but also Harry Potter, the saviour of the wiziarding world to everyone else and a failure to his dad.

[blue--ingenue]

I have Feelings™️ about the way Harry's heart breaks when Albus believes he's innately wrong and unlovable.

Like when Albus says he doesn't blame his father for saying he doesn't want him. Albus isn't yelling or lashing out at this point. He's resigned. He's just heard his own father tell him that he wishes he weren't his son, and he's telling Harry not to apologize because he really believes it's true.

And again when Albus promises him that he'll try to to be more like Lily and James, try to be a better son. Harry's looking at his son, who is suffering at the hands of his words and refusal to listen, and Albus is blaming himself. His heart breaks when he realizes he's made his son feel unlovable, and he truly believes it's his own fault.

EDIT: i’m rereading this and realized - Harry must have promised himself (and Ginny) that he would give their children all the love he never received from the Dursleys. he knows what it’s like to be a child who believes they’re wrong, unwanted, undeserving of love, and in these moments he realizes that he’s failed his son. he looks at Albus and sees himself

[houseofmarcella]

dear god Albus Potter do you utterly haunt my thoughts

Just… Albus in the cursed child, for as mixed as people seem to be on it… Albus as the certified middle child who doesn’t have the cloak, doesn’t have the map, who doesn’t even have a family name?

Can you imagine little Al (not yet Albus because that’s a name he truly goes by once he has Scorpius) tucking himself into the cracks of the door as he hears his parents talking, hears his dad say it would have been better to know they were having two boys so they could have just called him Sirius

Al, getting teased by his invisible brother, yet seeing so distinctly that his father chose James over him for their family legacy

Al, who grew up on the filtered advice of a distant, out of reach mentor who he could never live up to. Not like James with his fun, his humor, or Lily with her love and her girlhood.

(Albus, who will hear Cedric called the spare and understand far too well what it’s like to be of secondary importance)

Al, who out of all his siblings looks the most like his father, a reflection to every family friend of what harry went through and an eternal reminder to himself and the world that he will always be his father’s legacy (he will look in the mirror for most of his adult life and see his father before he sees himself)

Al, age 11, seeking comfort on the train platform as everything changes around him and getting another lecture about bravery that he doesn’t feel he has

Al becoming Albus on that train, when the boy who would become the most important person in his life actually asks him, asks him what he wants to be called

Albus, under the sorting hat, struggling but thinking about who he wants to be outside of his family’s legacy and getting put in Slytherin for it

Albus, who grew up on war stories and hogwarts hyjinks staying up half his first night because he’s afraid of his peers, but doesn’t want them to know that because he so desperately and conflictingly wants to both fit in and stand out

Albus, who is bad at flying, humiliating himself in front of his peers, because he isn’t harry but isn’t Quidditch player Ginny either… Albus, who all the adults see as Harry’s extension; Albus, who struggles with charms like Lily never will, who can barely make his matchstick silver under the blue eyed portrait in the room, who struggles to parse through the moving and unequal words of wizarding textbooks, who attracts bullies like flies and doesn’t yet have his mother’s hexes to fight back

Albus, struggling to write that first letter home, to tell his parents and little sister that he’s different from them; Albus who doesn’t even get to tell them because James tells them first

Albus, who doesn’t get a green scarf and hat until after the first snow, unable to parse if it’s the color, the fact that he’s the second born, or maybe just that it’s him that made it come later than James’ had

Albus, who goes back home for Christmas and faces his father’s disapproval for befriending a Malfoy, his father’s distrust and attempts to assure his morality for befriending someone harry assumes cruel and antagonistic

Albus, having to hold awkward conversation with Rose and Ron and Hermione, because neither of the kids want their parents to know they’re not talking (they find out eventually, and though they’re nice about it, Albus knows they’ll always put Rose’s feelings first)

Albus, who is suddenly assumed more malicious and problem causing than he ever was before, who suddenly is seen as a prime person to scot the blame off to when things go wrong

Albus, who gets chosen after his sister (“just like her mother!”) during the family quidditch match; who gets meaningful looks from his Uncle Percy; whose Christmas sweaters are no longer red but never green; who suddenly cant seem to talk to his uncle ron anymore, someone who used to understand what it was like to be James’ brother

Albus potter who stradles the line of too Potter for Slytherin and too Slytherin for his family.

Albus Potter, who’s ambition has been squashed out by bullies and disregard and distrust, struggling to find his identity in a house and world that is still in the midst of undoing decades as an indoctrination machine…

[sturnusastra]

The Pyrite Trio!

Finally, FINALLY got these guys faces to a point I'm happy with! I knew what I wanted out of Delphi from the start, but Albus and Scorpius were much harder for me to figure out. But I'm SO happy with how all three turned out!

(Pyrite Trio AU related) Head-canons/notes and single headshots below the cut...

Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy!

Despite appearances, Scorpius has quite a bit of his mom mixed in. Especially in the shape of the eyes and brows, and a slightly softer jaw line and general features.

His hair is wavier than his father's, another thing he got from his mom

His hair, even though he doesn't put too much effort into grooming it, is always significantly less messy than Delphi's, and especially Albus'

He blushes so easily. Thankfully for him, just as often as when he's embarrassed (or even just cold), so he could at least excuse anytime he went remarkably red around Albus

He's the only one I made smile in these lol

But to add to that, he's probably the easiest out of the three to make smile, but the hardest to make laugh loudly (like belly laugh.)

His face is referenced from Aidan Close, Tom Felton, and Jade Olivia (the woman who played Astoria Greengrass in the Deathly Hallows epilogue)

Albus Severus Potter!

I really made him look remarkably like his dad. Sorry Albus

He has some faint freckles though? That's different. (...Sorry Albus)

His hair is ALWAYS messy. It never calms down

I used Radcliffe and Emmet Smith has a reference for his appearance

I replaced the 'raven-black' that Harry (and presumably Albus) would have with a very dark brown. Albus' and Harry's actor in the version of the play I initially watched had brown hair and I personally like it better than the jet black

Delphini Riddle!

She has her father's eye color and shape, along with his brow shape

When Harry looks at her he sees the Voldemort-red in them (Thanks for the suggestions, guys!!)

She is a pretty even mix of Bellatrix and Voldemort, but most wizards only knew Bellatrix, rather than Tom, so they see Bellatrix in her. When Harry looks at her, he only sees Tom.

Her skin is very, very pale, almost like that of a corpse

She

She has faint stress line around her eyes. You could probably tell how well things are going for her depending on how thick I make them lol

Her hair is curly, but not quite as much as her moms

She has a really intense stare that's kinda just her resting , and she doesn't realize she's doing it most of the time

Delphi has this 'uncanny' feel to her. Not entirely in her face, I like to think she inherited good looks from both her mother and father, but more so in a way you can't quite point out, its just instinctual, she was created with dark magic from long dead parents, and I like the idea that someone could sense that wrongness. Perhaps her magic kind of feels off as well?

To add to that, a lot of her social interaction and body language is just slightly off or stilted sometimes. A consequence from her lonely upbringing. It's not super noticeable, but it adds to that sort of uncanny feeling.

Referenced off Helena Carter (Bellatrix) and Ralph Fiennes (Tom Riddle)

These are really just about their faces, rather than their actual traits or personality, but that's coming soon! I'm saving that for when I get their full body refs done, which shouldn't be too much longer now that I've got their faces down!

[sturnusastra]

Drawing young Delphi while listening to That's Okay by The Hush Sound on loop and teenage Delphi with Abbey by Mitski on loop owwwwwww

[mistressaugury]

Delphi is visiting the Potters again.

[sturnusastra]

“The Augurey breeding season lined up with the celebration of Valentine’s Day in February. Augurey courtship rituals were highly complex, meaning that Augureys raised in captivity would often have a hard time finding a mate if released into the wild, as they had no knowledge of these rituals.” - Harry Potter Wiki

I will always be thinking of this quote in relation to Delphi. She doesn’t quite know how to connect with people, doesn’t quite trust herself to make friends, doesn’t trust they’d love her (and by her, she means what she is, along with who) if she did. But she wants to, oh, how she wants someone, selfishly, she thinks, to love her. But even if she pushed past what she thought of herself, and what Rowle would surely do to someone she called a friend, a small part of her craved one. But even so, she really would have to idea where to begin, when making a friend.

[sturnusastra]

Delphi's eye color...?

My first post on this account was meant to be way cooler, but here we are! The Cursed Child brainworms have gotten hold of me like no other, to the point I'm making a brand new blog just for these guys.

To get to the point, I'm developing an AU! It'll have a proper introductory post soon (with a LOT more information), but for now I'm stuck on this on question- What should Delphi's eye color be?

Info dump below the cut about the context of the two options

(Please ignore the messy handwriting, it was never meant to see the light of day haha)

A very, VERY brief (and messy) intro to the Pyrite Trio AU-- In this story, Delphi was created by Rowle (who managed to weasel out of Azkaban using his connections) and numerous other Death Eaters in a dark magic ritual. The ritual used what was left, both magically and physically, of Voldemort and Bellatrix to create Delphini- the perfect pure-blooded next dark lord. But Delphi, unlike her parents, was born being able to feel love (much like how I believe Canon Delphi to be, more on that later). This however, she learned quickly to hide. She was kept a closely guarded secret by the Death Eaters for numerous years, though this didn't stop ever-growing rumors of a child of the Dark Lord spreading. When Delphi started getting older, Rowle began to instill proper training in her, cruelties you would imagine from a Death Eater training the next Dark Lord. She was 15 when she met Scorpius and Albus for the first time, in one of the many times she'd run off while Rowle was busy to try desperately find some way out of the hell she'd been born into. The three quickly became friends. And after they almost got caught when Death Eaters came looking for her, she was forced to tell them why they were looking for her. It took remarkably little thought for them to accept her. They weren't much like their parents either after all. The main conflict of the story starts when they're 16. Rowle, using his Death Eaters and Delphi as a puppet, creates propaganda about the Aurors (mostly Harry, the head of Auror Office) not being able to properly guard British magical society, and the Ministry itself not being strong enough to fight what must be next wizarding war, and throws in his own bid for Minister of Magic. And Rowle, after revealing Delphi's existence to the world during a Death Eater raid of his making, creates just enough propaganda and unrest in the wizarding world to win the bid for Minister for Magic against Hermoine (who's already been minister for a few years at this point- his campaign was running propaganda against her a LOT). Now, as Death Eaters rise the ranks of the ministry, the trio have to figure out a way to take down Rowle, all while Scorpius and Albus have to keep their 'Voldemorts Daughter is our best friend'-sized secret from their families and Delphi has to keep her own true nature hidden from the people that created her. <- That missed so many important things, and pretty much all characterizations, that it kinda hurt, BUT there is so much more coming, hopefully with more art so no more text walls haha

---------

okay back to the post...

From what I can tell from various cannon, like Grindlewald and Voldemort himself, extensive use of dark magic seems to have a 'bleaching' effect on things like the users hair and skin. Considering Delphi was by and large created using dark magic, I made her skin extremely pale and her hair white. Initially, I also extended this to her having unnaturally pale blue eyes, but I thought it would also be interesting and thematic for her to have her father's eyes.

Delphi is roughly the same age as Scorpius and Albus in this AU, as she was created shortly before they were born. Delphi sneaks off a lot from Rowle and the other Death Eaters, when she's 16, she manages to befriend the boys, but WAYYY more on that later. A big tie between the three of them is being different than their fathers, despite having similar appearances and subsequently being constantly compared to them. The brown eyes would help Delphi tie into this theme more. Plus I love the parallel this gives her and Harry. His eyes are always being compared to his mother's-- he's brave and kind and smart just like she was. While Delphi will have the eyes of her father, always being tied back to him, and expected to be just as cruel as him because of it. And Harry, being one of the few that saw Tom when he was Tom, would look at her and only see Voldemort.

The blue also intrigues me though because I like the idea of Delphi having this 'uncanny' feel to her. Not entirely in her face, I like to think she inherited good looks from both her mother and father, but more so in a way you can't quite point out, its just instinctual, she was created with dark magic from long dead parents, and I like the idea that someone could sense that wrongness. Perhaps her magic kind of feels off as well? I think the unnaturally light blue adds to that effect.

I really like both options, which is why I decided to post the question here, what do you guys think?

Eye Color?

Blue

Brown

Voting ended onJul 28

[boredomsbonedeep]

Personally I think that Delphi has "her father's eyes" in that they are brown, like Tom Riddle's were when he was young, but there's a glint of red undertone to her eyes that only Harry sees. To everyone else, they look at her and see Bellatrix Lestrange, which is why they have a gut reaction to lash out at her. Also this art is beautiful.

I can't even say how exciting this AU is and how much I agree with all these opinions! Delphi is just Creepy and just has something a little Wrong with her. When I read Frankenstein all I could think of was how she would relate to the monster, something made to only to be scorned by society. This AU reminds me of that so much. Honestly just love when Delphi gets attention and empathy and real thought put into her character!! :)

[sturnusastra]

I can't put into words how much I love everything you just said!!! AND FRANKENSTEIN IS SUCH A GOOD PULL HOW DID I NOT THINK OF THAT!??? THATS LITERALLY HER!!

Sketched up some quick art (seriously don't look at it too closely, they're basically loose sketches but I hate leaving things uncolored 😭) based of what you said cause it inspired me SO SO MUCH-

Big text wall below the cut of me explaining way too much...

[At a ministry raid, Harry sees Delphi's face for the first time]

[Baby Delphi reading Frankenstein]

Ohhhh Delphi. Baby Delphi and scared Delphi is one hell of a drawing combo to hurt the heart 😭

But like I was saying earlier, gosh I can't believe I didn't think about Frankenstein! I just imagine the book would both be of so much torment and comfort to her.

She'd find it when she's awfully young, maybe 7 or 8. Delphi did manage to leave on her own sometimes. Rowle, and the other Death Eaters, were distant at best, or downright fearful and aggressive to her at worst. They were pure-bloods after all, their belief in the heredity of blood purity went far beyond just magical ability. She was the daughter of Voldemort and Bellatrix, there was no doubt in their minds she would turn out with both Bellatrix's insanity and Voldemort's despicable ambition. They mostly left her alone, Rowle being the one who interacted with her the majority of the time, but even that was far and few in between until she was old enough to start learning real magic. The only grace of her loneliness being that sometimes she could escape into the surrounding muggle town.

She never connected with anyone, not in any way that would have saved her. Rowle had made sure of that, one of the first proper lesson's he'd given her. Dark Lords do not make meaningless connections, he'd said, and Delphi found her own wand raising against her will, and her lips saying a spell she didn't yet know, but would soon become intimately familiar with. But at that time, all she knew was her friend, one she'd spent many hours talking with, wasn't moving anymore, and she'd find he didn't ever again. She'd hoped he was just cold, at the time, he was just a little garter snake, she knew he lost heat quickly. He'd told her as much. She had cradled him all night before she finally accepted it.

But she did find that Muggles weren't at all what Rowle said they were. They didn't seem cruel, or stupid, or scary. They smiled at her, that was new. It made her feel...weird. Still, she never let herself get close, but not because of what Rowle said about them anymore. She did manage to find her way into a library, which she found she quite liked. She'd immediately gravitated to the section about monsters, something familiar, maybe she'd find a story about herself. And she did, in the form of Frankenstein's Monster.

It would be such a kindness to be able to connect with a character like herself. That, even if fictional, there was another with the same pain as her. Something created, something born to be a monster- Rowle's Monster, I think she would call herself sometimes when she was younger. She's a scorned thing too, she sees how the Death Eaters turn away from her in disgust, or worse, fear. It just feels like all the confirmation in the world she really is a horrible thing. She had never raised her wand at them, but they were adults, clearly they knew something she didn't. Something must have been written plain as day on her face. It seems to be something her and The Monster have in common. But he looked like a monster, no? She didn't think she looked like a monster. She wonders if she can fix whatever must be so horrible about her, but as hard as she looks in the mirror, she can't find anything so wrong.

But a little part of her had understood why everyone else turned their eyes away from her in that moment. She had killed her friend. Was that the monster everyone had seen in her? Why had she done that? She didn't want to kill her friend, she really, really didn't! She didn't understand why she'd done that, but she knew she would make sure she wouldn't let anyone close again, just in case it came out again. (It wasn't till a few years later that she figured out what happened. She'd never felt rage like she had in that moment.)

Torment too, when she got to the latter parts of the book, when the monster finds itself aimless without its creator. Is that how she would be, if she ever ran away, if Rowle died? Would she too find herself without meaning? She was created to be the Dark Lord, a weapon. If she isn't Rowle's Monster, the daughter of the Dark Lord, what is she?

...What if she escapes and there's nothing left of her at all?

It wasn't till years later she'd seen Harry Potter for the first time. She'd heard first Rowle spitting that name like a curse, telling her too to hate the man. He'd killed her father. He'd kill her too. That, she didn't doubt. But at the time, she couldn't blame Harry for wanting a monster like her dead. Then, she'd heard his name in excited, awed tones from the few passing wizards she'd overheard in her escapades outside the Rowle estate. And a tiny, tiny part wondered if she could be like Harry Potter. Maybe people wouldn't be so afraid then, maybe she could be more than Rowle's Monster. And finally, she'd heard the name in a hilariously exasperated tone from Albus Potter (her friend! her FRIEND!), and Scorpius and Albus (Her FRIENDS!!!) had seen her, known the horrible thing she was, and called her their friend. And a naive, over optimistic chunk of herself believed maybe there was more to her than a monster. That Delphi could just be Delphi.

And then you saw Harry Potter. The man who killed your father, the father of one of your best friends, the great chosen one, the one who lived despite it all. The only person that could truly absolve you of your sin of being born the Dark Lord's daughter, the only one the world would listen to if he said she wasn't a monster. And just imagine being Delphi here for a moment. You thought that maybe, maybe you weren't as much of a monster as you thought, because Scorpius and Albus had seemed so, so sure. But he looks at you, and it doesn't feel like he looks at you at all, no, he looks at you and you know what its like so acutely to be a monster in that moment. He looks at you and you just know, because there was no other option really, he looks at you and he's looking at your father.

And for the first time, your're actually scared of dying at the hands of Harry Potter, you're terrified of the man in front of you, because if Harry Potter kills you, then it will be celebrated, and the whole world will look at you and see only Voldemort.

And suddenly you're just a little kid again, so confused why your friend was lying dead at your feet, believing for the first time that maybe you were always just Rowle's Monster.

-

Phew, lotta writing! I can't say how much I love the idea of Harry looking at her and seeing Tom. Thank you so much for the idea (I believe two people suggested it!) that Harry could see the red, the Voldemort, in her eyes when he looked at her. And it's the only thing he could see. He doesn't see how scared she is, that she's Albus' age, that she isn't even quite pointing her wand at him, she's just got it up ready to make a shield. He just see's Voldemort.

As far as the timeline goes, the Ministry raid art is (tentatively) a bit over a month before Rowle stages the reveal of Voldemort's daughter being alive. The rumors were already ramping up over the years and Harry already felt like something was coming. He just didn't think it'd be this, her. This is when Harry finds out for the first time, and even though he obviously can't confirm anything, and he sounds insane to even Hermoine and Ron, he is sure of exactly what he saw. It gets confirmed in the papers a few weeks later, and then Rowle wins the election shortly after in the midst of the fear, and the world really turns on its head...

[valleyian]

okokok, I just entered this fandom, so I don’t know if this is a wildly unpopular opinion or something.

But Delphi REALLY should have been the same age as Albus and Scorpius!!! I wanted better for her!! (Like actually 🫩 what did they do her like that???)

She could have easily been raised by neo-death eaters or something and slowly, slowly began to doubt the place in the world the death-eaters told her she was supposed to grow into as she’d exposed to more and more unjustified cruelty. She was a lonely kid with the immense burden of a name and a legacy, despite it not being who she is at heart, JUST LIKE ALBUS AND SCORP!!

They have genuinely such similar personal conflicts that I wanted Albus and Scorpius to emphasize with her and pull her over to the good side. Also the daughter of Voldemort and the son of Draco Malfoy bring Albus’ friend group would be very funny. Poor Harry.

But yeah, I wanted them as a trio running around and solving mysteries and trying to stop death eater ideals and actual death eaters infiltrating the Ministry as the most fucked up Golden Trio ever. Meanwhile Delphi has to keep her newfound friendship a secret from the neo-death eaters she will soon double cross, and Albus and Scorpius have to keep their friendship with her a secret from their families and the literal government (which is a little hard when your Aunt is the Minister of Magic.)

I mean one of the underlying messages in the play is ‘you are not your legacy’ so why is Delphi STILL EVIL IN CANNON??? 😭 They should have had an enemies-to-friends arc all about self identity, radical kindness, and figuring out your place in the world.

and yeah, this wouldn’t have worked in the actual plot of the play at all but still—

I wanted my damn Pyrite trio.

also Scorbus.

Lowk I could see this as such a cool concept. I do really wished they had done Delphi better, because omg her character is butchered by the play. She had so much potential, both as an adult and child character, but either way turned out a 2D bad copy paste villain.

As for the potential of a trio, I do think it could’ve been cute as hell, however I do think the reason they opted out of it was to highlight how the next generation breaks from the “friend group” or “trio” trope. Or like the marauders. It’s just Albus and Scorpius, a duo, and no more.

But I 100% agree that this take works better than whatever they cooked up for the play 😭😭

[sturnusastra]

It's me last year! Back when the brain worms got be for the first time. Alas, they really got me good this year lol