before you knew me | past

[Deleted]

slack-jawed.

DELILAH HAD BEEN WARNED SEVERELY THAT SHE must keep her distance at Hogwarts. Her mother was not a creature to be trifled with and for the most part Delilah did as she was told. Though she had begged and begged to be in Hufflepuff, it was a little fact her mother need not know. For, it had only been a thought in her head, immortalised in the mind of a dusty old hat. And when she'd placed her things in her room, each bag carried by somebody she had talked in to helping her along, it had felt a lot like Fate.

However, as the days went by and the news did not break, Delilah grew restless with impatience. Despite the fact that she was always made sure to leave a few feet of space between herself and Cordelia at all times, she felt an overwhelming urge to see her 'sister' up close. What had all the fuss been about, really? She'd been at Hogwart's for almost a week and she hadn't even overheard her speak, which felt rather boring to her.

When Delilah truly broke her mother's rules it happened by accident, sort of. Coming back from a rather dirty lesson in Herbology, Delilah had fallen back from her peers to go back to her room and change. What about her mother think, had she seen her daughter traipsing around like an old tramp? The dirt had gotten stuck under her fingernails and Delilah had been picking and picking with her head hung low, hair falling from behind her ears to shroud her face. So, she almost tripped over a figure in the Common Room.

"Please, mind where you are goin'!" She squeaked in her strong Southern drawl, teeth almost pulling back over her teeth before she lifted her head to be assaulted by her sister's face up close. A smattering of freckles - God's little mistakes according to her mother - and a rather snub little button for a nose. "Oh!" Delilah gasped, regretting her previous lapse in attitude as she held her hands at her heart and stayed very still for a moment while she gathered her thoughts and possibilities.

She should have excused herself hastily and moved on. Instead, Delilah took a dainty step back and looked down at what Cordelia had been bent over. It looked like a lot of angular, black and silver equipment. "What is that?" She asked with a tilt of her head, drawing the blood from her face so that she might look dull and blandly curious. "Is that... No-Maj technology?" She pressed a thin hand to her chest and shook her head. "I am ever so curious about... all that!" 

cordelia regan smith

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[cordelia regan smith]

@delilah

10.XX.2024

Maybe sitting up against the side of one of the couches in the common room wasn’t the best place to plant herself for an extended period of time. Cordelia had figured it would be fine, as the room was practically empty with students only popping in to grab books from their dorms or to drop their supplies off for the day. She was done as well, having only one class in the morning, and then immediately retreating back to the safety of Hufflepuff home until lunch time rolled around. With the afternoon off, she had planned to get outside and enjoy whatever remained of the fall weather - before it became truly cold and the rain refused to let up. There had only been a few falls during her time at Hogwarts that had been actually enjoyable and so far this one was shaping up to be one of the better ones. A perfect send off for her photography.

So there she was, legs crossed on the floor, back arched, and face inches above the camera sitting in her lap, lightly cleaning the glass on her lens with a cloth. The easier way to do this would to have been a light wind charm, something that could push off miniscule dust particles and dirt that the human eye couldn’t see. But cleaning it off the normal way was therapeutic to her. There was time and effort put into her equipment, instead of getting it done the easy way. Cleaning the lens was a delicate process that took time. Again, doing so while sitting on the floor was probably not the best idea, but she also hadn’t seen anyone in a solid half an hour and was confident it was going to stay that way until she was finished.

That was her mistake. Someone tripped over her, obviously not seeing that she was sitting up against the couch. Cordelia had accidental run-ins quite a bit, she was invisible to most of the student body (which she preferred), and wasn’t always aware of her surroundings when lost in her own world. The girl that had run into her said something about ‘minding where she was goin’’, which had Cordelia immediately looking up from her camera, eyes wide and ready to apologize for being in the way. Again. But the girl backed up, somewhat surprised by something, before mentioning the thing she was holding onto. The ‘No-Maj technology’. That had been a popular word over the last few months: ‘no-maj’. Cordelia’s eyebrows narrowed, confused by the fact that the girl had never seen a camera before. That had to be impossible, right? “It’s uhh…a c-camera?” She wanted to mentally kick herself for the hesitant way she said it, like she didn’t even know what it was either. “Y-You’ve n-never s-seen one?”

[Deleted]

slack-jawed.

IT CAME AS A WILD SURPRISE TO DELILAH THAT she would meet Cordelia under such circumstances. It felt off-book, which is exactly what her mother would disapprove of. Perhaps it was the slight rebellion that moved her to speak instead of walking off. Her mother wasn't around to dictate and this was one of the most important additions to their shaky future. Her father's other daughter. The one that didn't know. Delilah felt powerful.

Covering her mouth, Delilah made a show of giggling a little as she shook her head. Cordelia's tone had irked her a little bit, a much drier and dumb introduction than she had expected, but it didn't show on her face. "Of course I've seen cameras before, Silly." She rolled her eyes and sighed at Cordelia, as if they were old pals. "But, not one like that, I will say." She carefully smoothed the back of her skirt before lowering herself on the ground beside Cordelia and her fancy camera, legs tucked under her chastely.

"Do the pictures move when they're printed?" She leaned in close to peer at the contraption, her eyes flickering over Cordelia's frizzy mess of hair as she boldly reached over and placed her hand over the freshly buffed lens. "It looks..." She squinted and took her hand back, rubbing her fingers together like she'd taken specs of dirt with her. "It's kind'a ugly!" She wrinkled her nose and laughed delightedly as she looked at Cordelia to catch her expression, a part of her hoped it hurt. "No offence," She tacked in, shrugging her shoulders a little with hide open eyes, as if to appear guiltless. 

cordelia regan smith

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[cordelia regan smith]

@delilah

10.XX.2024

Cordelia was sufficiently confused now. This girl had seen cameras before, but never like the one in front of her? This was a standard film camera. Every old movie had one in it and they weren’t so far gone from digital cameras that they looked like ancient technology. Her camera wasn’t a dinosaur of its kind by any means. It was only thirty-ish years old and far from being an antique. Meaning it still had a function and working aspect to it, and that was why she treasured hers so much. “No,” she answered, pausing slightly before deciding that was too much of a resolute answer, “It’s a m-muggle camera, so the ph-photographs s-stay still.” Surely the girl had seen non-moving photos. Even muggles had cameras that could make ‘moving’ photos. She had read about the ones that some phones had. And then obviously there was video, but that was something else entirely.

Caught up in the fact that the girl was weird and had no idea what a film camera looked like, Cordelia didn’t see her reaching out for the lens until her hand was planted firmly on the lens’ glass. The same glass she had just dutifully cleaned off, the meticulous process of dust removal gone, replaced by oily finger smudges. She barely had time to react to the girl’s actions before the hand was lifted off of it and she was mentioning that it looked ugly. “Okay?” she forced out, eyebrows starting to furrow at the odd conversation she had been dragged into. “I d-don’t think it m-matters what the camera l-looks like…it’s w-what it helps m-make that’s important.” This wasn’t even all that important now that she had to get started on re-cleaning the lens again. Which is exactly what she did, microfiber cloth immediately returning to the glass, her hands gently wiping it clean once again.

[Deleted]

slack-jawed.

THE IDEA OF WASTING ONES PRECIOUS TIME AND resources on developing muggle photography truly baffled Delilah. She quickly decided that her sister enjoyed tedious practises, which wasn't at all surprising, since she still chose to speak at all with a stutter like that. "Oh," She breathed, appearing deflated at the fact. "That sounds so boring." She snickered slightly before gasping and pressing a hand over her mouth. "Don't mind me," She said, waving herself off, but not apologising. "I just can't mind my tongue sometimes." It was all in good fun, or so it seemed.

She'd smudged the lens on purpose, mostly because she thought it might bother Cordelia if she didn't mind her business. But, she was there and gone before her sister had any time to protest. That was the beauty of a stutter, Delilah quickly decided. She could do anything she wanted as long as she was fast enough. This delighted her in a decidedly wicked fashion. "That is..." Delilah sat back on her calves and seemed to beam. "So adorable." She reached over and patted Cordelia's knee, grinning merrily as she did. "I would never have thought of puttin' it that way."

She watched carefully as Cordelia busied herself with cleaning the lens again. Pulling out a dainty little cloth to do so. "That looks like a little blankie," Delilah commented, reaching over to touch the fabric. "Soft, too!" She giggled at the fact, letting her clumsy fingers prod the lens once more as she pulled away. "Oh, I didn't mean that," She said, pretending to cringe at herself. "I just can't help myself sometimes." She patted her thighs and made a great theatrical show of it. "My momma says I have 'menacing unintention'." She said the word as if it was long and fancy. "Like, I get in people's way without really meaning it, you know?" It was instead, more of a malintent, but who could tell? 

cordelia regan smith

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[cordelia regan smith]

@delilah

10.XX.2024

Staring was rude. Her mum had reinforced that for as long as Cordelia could remember. Staring through a camera lens wasn’t as bad, as long as the person knew she was taking a picture of them. But the sort of stare Cordelia was giving the American girl was one that she didn’t do often. She couldn’t figure the girl out at all. Obviously she was extremely handsy, because people didn’t accidentally touch a camera lens and then brush it off in the manner the girl had. Cordelia was starting to think maybe she was stupid, and if not that, it was definitely obvious that she wasn’t right in the head. ‘Not minding her tongue,’ or however she put it, wasn’t what this was. Lily didn’t know how to keep her mouth shut either and she was completely different than this girl. The frustrating part was that Cordelia didn’t know how to get rid of her. If Lily was a puppy following her around, this girl was a leech or something. Cordelia felt like she was attached now, and the disturbing giggles were only going to grow in number the longer this went on. Minding her own business wouldn’t bore her to death either.

The air-headed response to how she explained the function of her camera had Cordelia staring even harder. It was either that or cleaning the lens that the girl kept sticking her fingers on. She had her hands all over the micro-fiber cloth too, trying to feel it and figure out what it was, before going right back to the lens. Cordelia didn’t like to think negatively of the girl since she didn’t know her, but she seemed stupid and like she was doing this on purpose. A few moments later and that was basically confirmed. “Really?” Cordelia muttered, not realizing that she had said it with a hint of sarcasm. That wasn’t like her, but the right buttons had started to get pressed. She could only clean the camera lens so many times before giving up. Hopefully third time was the charm, because she quickly attacked the new smudge and started to pack the camera and lens back into their carrycase. This girl wasn’t going to touch her camera again.

[Deleted]

slack-jawed.

IT WAS DELILAH'S INHERIT ABILITY TO POKE AND prod that gained her an odd and insufferable reputation. She'd been taught to keep a straight, polite appearance while simultaneously riling her opponent in inane, mindless ways. Cordelia, it seemed, had not been afforded the same level of care and attention. Her uptight posture and lack of speech meant that Delilah had to fill in the blanks all by herself. She was not very kind about it at all. As Delilah had come to pick her apart, and found her terribly lacking.

"Have I upset you?" Delilah asked, donning a crinkled brow and pouted bottom lip, as if she were upset herself. Cordelia had only said a single word, but a lot can be taken from just a couple of syllables. Where Cordelia lacked in chatter, she made up for in tone and dismissiveness - which Delilah had to admit, was a skill in and of itself. She had bothered her, which pleased her greatly, but she didn't show her hand quite so easily. "You seem upset." Her eyes followed Cordelia's ever move as she quickly, but carefully, packed away her camera and all its trimmings. 

cordelia regan smith

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[cordelia regan smith]

@delilah

10.XX.2024

The girl’s words echoed over and over again in Cordelia’s head as she finished de-smudging her camera lens for the third time, this time making sure she popped the lens cap onto it before it could be assaulted again. Cordelia couldn’t help but think that the girl wouldn’t have asked that question if she hadn’t been doing something on purpose, and whatever that was, Cordelia hadn’t figured it out yet. She could have been purposely ditzy (which seemed the most likely) and was an airhead that liked hearing herself talk about whatever. Lacking a certain level of social awareness probably would have brought her to the conclusion that she was upsetting Cordelia. Obviously the older Hufflepuff knew there were infinite possibilities for why the girl was engaging her in conversation and that her own transgressions weren’t helping in the slightest. Packing her camera up made it look like their interactions were coming to a close, or Cordelia at least hoped it would be that way.

“N-Not at all,” she finally said as she placed her camera body and lens gently into their case, zipping it closed aggressively. She wanted to leave the situation because she didn’t understand it anymore, and staying any longer would probably lead her to getting upset. The girl wasn’t pleasant nor was she annoying, and trying to concentrate on her questions while having the camera lens fondled every couple of seconds wasn’t Cordelia’s idea of spending a quiet afternoon by herself. Leaving the common room and going into her dorm room was the best way to rid herself of the girl’s presence. “…n-nice t-talking to you,” she said as she pushed herself off of the ground, camera case wrapped securely in her arms. Taking a few steps back and away from the girl, Cordelia continued, “I-I have homework to do, so yeah…”

[Deleted]

slack-jawed.

DELILAH WASN'T STUPID. SHE KNEW VERY WELL when she had overstayed her welcome. Cordelia was as tense as she was quiet, seeming to horde her camera close this time as she packed it away with nimble, rapid hands. Delilah watched her do it, a narrowed expression on her face as she considered how to proceed. She could push the point and force Cordelia to stay near her, maybe even follow her if she left. Instead, she didn't say a word, dropping her gaze and making a show of picking nervously at a thread at the hem of her dress.

"Oh..." She mumbled, twisting her mouth and donning a shaky smile as she stood with Cordelia. Slow and reluctant, as if she simply couldn't bear the thought of being left so suddenly. "I won't keep you," She muttered, her smile weak and infantile. As if, rather than upsetting Cordelia, Cordelia had upset her with her hasty departure. But, just before she could turn and leave Delilah took a quick step forward and reached up to curl an unruly lock of mad blonde hair around Cordelia's ear.

"You know, you would be so much prettier if you did something with your hair." Delilah told her casually, stepping back as quickly as she'd stepped forward. It was an unsettling thing to do to someone you didn't even know, but Delilah knew that. Her grin growing sweetly as she wiggled her fingers and turned. "I'll see you around, Cordelia!" She declared, meaning it as she skipped off out of the common room and in to the hallway, the large wooden door thudding loudly as it closed behind her. Delilah didn't look back, but she'd wanted to. Oh, she bet Cordelia's face was an absolute picture!

[END]

cordelia regan smith  
she a freak...

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!