Delilah lands in the grass that was outside the safety perimeter of the Burrow. The auburn-haired witch had slammed into the ground upon her landing and was in no state to attempt to walk, so crawling through the puddles appeared to be her only option.
The crawl was agonising and time seemed to slow as she kept crawling towards the light, her right leg dragging behind her. Delilah emerges from the grass as a spell falls from her lips.
"Periculum,"
A red jet of lights shoots into the air, making a popping sound reminiscent of fireworks. All lights are switched on in the burrow as the occupants run out into the garden to see Delilah lying just outside the perimeter.
"Wait," Remus stretches out an arm to halt any further movement. "What did your father tell Sirius to help with the nightmares?"
"Dum spiro spero. While I breathe, I hope," Delilah manages to get out through gritted teeth.
Upon hearing her answer Remus rushes forward, helping the witch to her feet. Delilah accidentally placed weight on her right leg causing a cry of pain to come from the witch. Remus gently picks Delilah up, holding her tightly in his arms as Molly rushes around shouting orders to the other occupants.
Charlie and Bill begin to inspect Delilah's wounds, carefully cutting away the leg of her trousers to reveal the extent of her wound.
"It's full of splinters," Charlie informs his mother as he sterilises a pair of tweezers. "Magic isn't guaranteed to remove them so we're going to have to do this the muggle way"
Delilah cries out in pain as Charlie pulls the splinters from the large cuts on her leg. Bill was inspecting the gashes and bruises on her face and torso, her modesty being kept with a blanket.
"It looks like she fell from a height," Bill comments. "And that mark there, that's a spell impact site-"
"She was ambushed," Moody infers from Bill's observations.
"Maybe we should give her a sleeping draught," Molly suggests from her position, dabbing Delilah's head with a damp cloth.
"We can't mum," Charlie shakes his head. "Her cuts are too deep, sleeping draughts thin your blood. She'd bleed out too quickly to fix. Once I've got the splinters out we can heal the rest of her wounds with magic but this is going to scar"
"What can I do?" Cedric asks, bursting into the room.
Remus had sent a Patronus to Cedric which had caused him to drop everything he had in his hands as humanly possible. Behind him were Stuart, Fred and George. All four of them had no colour in their face as they stare at Delilah's pale figure before their eyes move to her bleeding leg.
"Keep her awake and talking," Charlie replies, his tone calm and soothing. "It's easier to monitor her if she's awake. If she loses consciousness, it's harder to monitor her breathing"
Cedric nods and sits on the floor, his body facing Delilah.
"Hey pretty lady," Cedric says, pushing her hair back. "How are you doing?"
"Fan-fucking!" The expletive slips from Delilah's mouth as Charlie removes a particularly big splinter. "Tastic"
"So all in all, pretty good?" Cedric jokes.
"Yeah," Delilah replies, a small smile falling on her lips.
"What happened?" Cedric asks.
His question draws the attention of everyone in the room. All of them fall silent as they wait for Delilah's response.
"The house was disgusting," Delilah begins to recount the events of her mission. "Smelt mouldy and damp. Then I found her skeleton"
"Who's?" Remus asks.
"Merope Gaunt's," Delilah replies. "I checked all of downstairs and found nothing so I went upstairs. Halfway up my right leg went straight through the step which is how this happened. Then I got upstairs and I had a feeling Merope's room was the place to look. So I went in and there was this ornamental hand mirror that was barely touched by the effects of time. It was in relatively new condition. The layer of dust was slightly less thick than the rest of the house. I picked it up and I cast revelio which is when I saw the ring. Then I saw her"
"Lestrange? Did she ambush you?" Moody asks and Delilah shakes her head.
"No, not Bellatrix. It was the ghost of Merope. She was this sweet, little slip of a thing so I cast a spell which changed her outfit and made her look less gaunt," Delilah has a small smile gracing her lips as she thinks about the ghost's joy. "Then that's when the death eater came, Merope tried to warn me but he was too quick. The spell hit me right in the chest and I went straight through the wall. Then the strangest thing happened"
"What was it?" Fred asks.
"Merope managed to grab the man's head and snap his neck," Delilah whispers. "She was able to physically interact with something"
"It is possible," Remus informs the adults. "It's extremely rare but when a ghost feels enough emotion whether it's rage or love or anything in between, they can interact with physical objects temporarily"
That night, Delilah slept at the burrow as the other occupants took shifts watching her. She had awoken to find Charlie Weasley with his head on the bed, drooling all over the sheets. The witch was quick to open the window, dropping out but before she hit the ground, she disapparated with a pop.
Delilah enters Grimmauld Place. The house looked less lifeless as Delilah had spent the entire summer decorating the place with the help of the others. Hermione had moved into the house with Delilah after asking the witch to remove her parents' memories of the wizarding world, to keep them safe from the brewing war.
Right now Delilah was lighting black and white candles as she places Merope's antique mirror on the floor. The auburn-haired witch's eyes fall closed as she begins to quietly chant.
"Hear these words, hear my cry. Spirit from the other side. Come to me I summon thee, Merope Gaunt"
A bright white light fills the room causing Delilah to shield her eyes before the light dims. The auburn-haired witch looks out from behind her hand to see a grinning Merope in front of her.
"You kept your promise," The witch grins gleefully.
"You saved my life, it's the least I could do," Delilah smiles at the young ghost who looked elated.
"You're the first person to ever keep a promise made to me,"
"I'm only as good as my word,"
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