From the day that I had found out about my sister I had a choice to make. I was to be in her life or not. It was simple. At the time she was living with two deceased parents. A feeling I could well understand. But she was only six months old. I was just getting over the battle myself and had no way of looking after a baby. After talking it through with Narcissa, Lucius, Draco, Molly, Arthur, Andromeda and pretty much anyone I was in regular contact with we decided that it was in her best interests, and mine, to stay with Narcissa and Lucius. I was to continue training and start working as an Auror.

It wasn’t like I stayed away completely. I would go to Malfoy Manor or they would bring her to me. So, we would always be a part of each other’s lives. In 2002 Charlie and I were officially a proper couple. But we had a choice to make. The choice was that, either we took on Delphini full time, which we were prepared to do, or she had to go to Euphemia Rowle. For some reason Narcissa and Lucius could no longer keep her but would offer Mrs Rowle gold for looking after her. I was sceptical but somehow my relationship continued. All I can say is thank you to a wonderful man and family that took in, not just me but my whole family. We asked her what she wanted to do and she chose to come and live with us.

When Delphi came to live with us, she was three years old. Not much older than I had been when I went to live with my uncle. Charlie had a secure job and was about to be transferred abroad again. I had a good job with the Ministry and was going to join Charlie. We were sisters, orphans, and parselmouths. I know that she used to want to hear about our father and used to want to know all about him. She had a particular interest and fascination with how I was able to know him but she didn’t. She understood that she was a half-sister and I only knew her mother, I wasn’t related.

We are so similar in the ways we have been brought up. Yet another person that had been brought up, if only for a few years, by the sibling of her mother. She wanted to know about Hogwarts, how I had lived at Hogwarts, how I had met friends there. She was fascinated by magical connections between people. She was part of the Snape-Weasley family and I will always consider her as one of my own, whether she felt part of the family or not. She IS my sister.

As Delphi grew older work would continue to take us abroad. She us travelled with us all over Europe and South America, to various dragon sanctuaries in Romania, Ireland, Sweden and Peru.

I always worried because she knew a lot about Auguries when she was little and I worry that even before coming to be with me and Charlie if she didn’t already go to Mrs Rowle’s to be “cared for”. I hoped she had just learnt it from somewhere. From someone.

One thing that Delphi had great difficulty in understanding was something that was always going to be a problem. The deaths of her parents. It was something I had difficulty in coming to terms with and there was one large issue that she was going to have to face eventually. That our father had been the bad guy. That he had lost, and that now her sister was friends with the person, people that in her eyes had killed both of her parents. It is hard. Believe me. I looked at Lucius like that for a long time. I saw him only as the man that killed my mother and was the reason for my father’s death. But when you know the whole story, things slide in to place. Harry did not kill, he defended and protected himself, so did many other people. Molly protected her daughter. We cannot have it all ways. I wish we could but we can’t.