This chapter is dedicated to rainfairy79, who asked me to write this ages ago and unfortunately life (and by that I mean my studies; who ever said it got easier after your OWLs?) got in the way. Well, this for you!

~WARNING: CURSED CHILD SPOILERS AHEAD~

I have to say, this chapter has always been on my list to write. However, I've been putting it off. I didn't want to read Voldemort's daughter fanfics, because they can be some of the worst in the fandom. Between the bad grammar, lack of spellcheck, overwhelming cliches, and leaps in logic, these stories have gotten a bit of a bad reputation. While it's true that I've actually read a really great one (*cough* Elysia Riddle by AndSheWrites *cough*), and there are bound to be other good ones, a lot of these are just a few steps above My Immortal.

Disclaimer: I do not think all Voldemort's Daughter books are awful. If you've got a plausible premise, like the Elysia series did, and it's well written, I think I would probably like your fanfic. When I make generalizations in the coming pages, I'm not talking to those of you who know how to write these well and avoid the cliches. Keep that in mind, and please don't be offended by anything I say in this chapter!

Now, since I'm not very in touch with the side of the fandom that's crazy about these, I don't know what happened after Cursed Child came out and finally validated their work to everyone who said that Voldemort would never have a child. However, I think that the argument everyone always made still stands. I have a theory!

Theory Time with Ellie!

Okay, here it goes: Bellatrix lied.

That's right. That's my theory. Bellatrix lied about Delphi being Voldemort's daughter.

I mean, is that really too much to fathom? That Bellatrix, insanely obsessed witch that she was, would lie that her daughter was the child of Lord Voldemort himself, her only true love? And Voldemort probably would think that it was so insignificant that he didn't even bother contradicting it. Or perhaps he didn't even have time to—her conception had to have happened after the thing at the Ministry in Order of the Phoenix. She could have born just a few weeks before the Battle of Hogwarts, when Voldemort was much too preoccupied with finding the Elder Wand and ruling the world to bother with telling Bellatrix off. He would have time enough for dispelling rumors when Harry Potter was dead. Of course, Harry didn't die. Voldemort and Bellatrix both did, and the truth about Delphi's parentage died with them.

But wait! you say with such smugness, sure you've found something I missed. What about Rodolphus?

Ah, I'm glad you asked.

Obviously, he believed Bellatrix. Why would she lie? Anyway, they married for blood status, not love. They would probably try to have children for the sake of not letting the family name die, but they never cared for one another. Would a child have changed that? I don't know. In any case, it's obvious they never had a super close relationship. Azkaban tends to take away a certain romantic flair from a marriage, know what I mean? How would Rodolphus know if Bellatrix and the Dark Lord had been getting it on? Even if he cared, it wasn't like he was going to go into a custody battle with Lord Voldemort.

And then, Voldemort and Bellatrix died, and he was whisked off to Azkaban, away from his daughter. When he finally was released or escaped again, and he found her, he'd been in that soul-sucking place for so long that of course he wouldn't doubt what he'd been told. He tells her what he thinks is the truth, and Delphi holds on to that with all the vindictive power she possesses.

Anyway, let's get off the topic of Cursed Child and back to Voldemort's Daughter fanfics. I'm not going to give an example, because this is the one type of fanfic I actually really can't stand (do you know how many awful fanfics I couldn't get to Chapter 2 on in preparation for this chapter?). However, I will point out some of the major cliches I've spottted and how to remedy them.

1. Torture
Delphini Riddle, or whatever her name is, is always tortured. Always. She always ends up with the Malfoys, and she's either tortured by them, or somehow Bellatrix (because she's definitely not in prison or anything). No one knows because she's a "secret," until she gets her Hogwarts letter. And then Malfoys, who have tortured her every day since she was born and fed her so little that you can see her ribcage, decide to let her go.

My only solution to this cliche is to leave it out. Sure, it may be tempting to garner some immediate sympathy, but starting out with "'Crucio!' said Lucius. I dropped to he ground screaming," is not the way to do it.

Side note: I know that in my Second Gen series (SPOILERS FOR THE FOURTH BOOK!), when Wren escaped and came back, it was pretty obvious she'd been tortured and neglected for the past two years, even if she refused to talk about it. Is this cliche? It can be. Do I think I should have changed it? Absolutely not. It fits the story very well, better than any alternative. Her great-uncle made her use the Cruciatus Curse on children just so he could get some information. He would definitely stoop this low.

Does this mean you have free license to torture all your characters? No. It's cliche; I never denied that. Torture is not something you can take lightly, either. If you use it in your story, especially for an extended time, you need to be prepared to write the consequences. That would permanently scar your character. They might have PTSD. They would shy away from everything and everyone until they learned they were safe again. They would get scared by loud noises. They would be terrified if one of their friends got angry with them. They would have nightmares. They would, overall, have some serious problems to overcome. If you're not prepared to take your character through all this (because it can be difficult; sometimes I just want to take Wren back to how she was, but I can't. She's getting better over time, but she's still deeply hurt and it doesn't heal at once), then please leave the torture out.

2. Delphini and Harry: Happily Ever After?

Whatever the version of Delphini is called, there's normally a Harry Potter love story thrown in (which brings up another unbelievable aspect: this is pre-Potter Voldemort having a kid. Why in the name of Merlin would he want a child before he had anyone to rival his power?). Avoid this cliche as well. Make up an OC, or take a less-focused on male character from the books for your love interest, if you have to have one. Honestly, you don't. In fact, I'd actually really love to see a young daughter of Voldemort struggling between the light and he dark because of her platonic love for her best friends, rather than romantic love for her boyfriend. This may come as a shock, but most relationships people have as teenagers don't last. Fanfics may paint a beautiful, cute, goal-worthy picture of teenage love, but it's not a realistic one. Most teenagers, as they continue maturing, move on with their lives, go into different careers (or to different colleges, which isn't as prevalent in wizarding society). They grow apart as they start to imagine their futures.

I'm not saying having a love story is bad, of course. I'm just letting you know that you don't have to force it. It's okay to not have one. If you're not planning on it, don't give in to the pressure of your peers. It's okay not to!

Whatever you do, though, don't make Harry and Delphi fall in love. Please. Mrs. Potter will probably murder you, and she's a bit of a scary lady.

3. Prophecies
Oh my stars, these books are worse than normal with the prophecies. I've found some that are literally "a child will be born to the darkest man in August and afterwards he will torture and kill innocent people," in an attempt to make Delphi feel even more guilty about her parentage. As if that's her fault. I don't... I can't... Honestly, I think prophecies should be avoided anyway, because they're really cliche as it is, but if you can't come up with a good, well-written, fairly vague and intriguing prophecy that could point to any number of things, you definitely shouldn't include one.

Most of these prophecies are about how Delphi will either help Voldemort (and she always ends up realizing she doesn't need to follow what the prophecy says) or how she'll be the reason Voldemort is destroyed (and she ends up taking over some of Harry's roles), but it varies. (SPOILERS FOR ELYSIA) In the Elysia Series, there's a prophecy, but it actually doesn't have as much to do with Voldemort as with Elysia, her sister, and the boys that you ship them with so hard that Percabeth could pale in comparison (Nelysia for life!). Essentially, it says that only two can survive out of the group of four. Guess what? There're no plot twists. Only two survive. One person from each couple dies and you feel like curling up in a ball and sobbing. The prophecy was somehow made as a kind of insurance, to make sure that both of Voldemort's daughters stayed loyal to him (in which case both of their lovers would have died). If either turned against him, then the traitorous sister and the other one's lover would die. It worked well because you really didn't know how anything would happen until it did. And even then you were praying for a miracle...

Anyway, unless you've got an amazing prophecy that isn't copying Harry's or saying how she'll be the reason Voldemort wins (or copying Cursed Child's, now), don't do it. If you do, make sure it helps the plot, creates more conflict, and is well-written. Stay away from cliches, and make sure there's a logical reason that the prophecy would have been made and that your character can hear it. But if you want my advice, stay away from prophecies.

4. Starting Hogwarts late
I don't know why, but Delphi always ends up starting Hogwarts late. I've read books where she starts after the war, when Hermione (and somehow Ron and Harry?) redoes her seventh year. Why? You'd think hiding Voldemort's daughter in plain sight would work better for the Malfoys. Just don't tell her who she really is and you're pretty set. It's not like the Malfoys ever expected Voldemort to return, and normally this is their niece. They'd treat the daughter of the Dark Lord with as much respect as they could. Definitely not love, of course, because this is the daughter of the scary Lord Voldemort, but they would respect the fact that she was his daughter and probably set her up to become his successor (remember how they thought Harry might become a great dark wizard at the beginning? Imagine what they'd think about the daughter of Voldemort). All they would have to do to let her go to Hogwarts is that her name Lestrange rather than Riddle. It's that simple.

I suppose letting her go to Hogwarts would mean that she wouldn't be able to be tortured. How unfortunate.

5. Sweet little angel
For some reason, despite the fact that Delphi is normally raised by the Malfoys who would have indoctrinated her in pure blood supremacy and support of Voldemort (in the stories where she's not tortured, at least), she always hates them. I know what the author is going for: "Look! My character is good! She's not a dark wizard!" However, this doesn't make any sense. Think of people who, for example, were children in Nazi Germany. They grew up thinking this was right, and Hitler was right, and we were all wrong. And that's why young men went and fought and died for a country that slaughtered millions of people in the name of progress and their country. If you grow up being told that something is right by the people who raise you, you're bound to believe that.

Delphi is so much more likely to want to be exactly like her father than to hate him. She'll have been told her whole life how he was amazing and how she had to serve him just like the Malfoys did. She would probably have hated Harry, the boy who allegedly killed her father.

I'd like to see a Voldemort's daughter fanfic where Delphi doesn't turn to the good side. I'd like to see one where she's one of Voldemort's most adamant followers. It's okay to not have a happy ending. Have the villain be the main character. Show us why she thinks he way she does. Make us question ourselves because her thought process is completely understandable, just like Harry's was. Blur the line between good and bad, because Delphi honestly believes that she's doing the right thing. That's something I'd like to see.

6. Really bad writing...
I don't know if it's just the many that I suffered through for the sake of this chapter, but it seems like a lot of Voldemort's daughter fanfics are really badly written. I get the feeling that some of these people don't have even a basic understanding of English or grammar or story telling. It's not just grammar, or spelling, or things like that, either. It's just bad writing in general. You know that old saying, show, don't tell? Well, they seem to tell, not show. A lot of them start with the generic (and stupid) "Hi, my name is Delphi Riddle, and I'm pretty normal and beautiful but my father is lORD VOLDEMORT!!!1!" It's really off-putting.

I really don't have that much advice on this subject because it seemed like every book I found was like this, and it made my head hurt just reading it. I'm just now getting over my headache from all that studying for OWLs six months ago, and this didn't help!

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Okay, let me admit it. I mainly wrote this chapter so I could have an excuse to talk about Cursed Child. Maybe I should just make a chapter about it. Reread it, now that my head is a little clearer and I'm not as excited about it. I'll be able to critique it, maybe. Don't get me wrong: I loved it. However, it didn't quite live up to the magic of the original series.

If there are any specific topics or cliches you see that pop up in these type of fanfics that I didn't cover, let me know! I'll look into them and add them to the list! Let me know if you've got any questions or topics you'd like me to cover, as well!