Disclaimer: I own nothing except Miss K Rochester and any other original characters not from the Harry Potter series. All characters and plot from the Harry Potter series belong to J K Rowling.
Being a very important agent of the Department of Mysteries, the only one capable enough and with the skills for research work in the Hall of Love, Karma Rochester had an impressive and roomy office. Not that many people got to see it. All of the wall space was taken up by bookshelves packed with books, except for either side of the door, where two large glass cabinets stood. There were two types of book here; those that contained knowledge and speculation about the power of love and those that contained knowledge of old, and in some cases ancient, magic. The oldest books were preserved in the two cabinets.
Karma paced around and around her office-come-study, occasionally lowering herself into the chair behind her desk (the handsome centrepiece of the room, solid oak and carved to perfection), only to jump out of it and resume pacing seconds later.
She was worried. And anxious. And afraid.
Where was Nathan?
She sat down, she stood, she walked determinedly towards the door, hand outstretched. She stopped, she performed a pirouette of frustration, with her hands over her face… She slid down, her back against the door…
He had never missed a day's work as long as he'd been here.
Karma feared the worst. She did not believe the media. She was no fool, and she knew that if Dumbledore said the Dark Lord had returned, he meant it.
She knew Nathan well, they were good friends. He was a good man; honest and kind. But he was not capable of standing up to the Dark Lord. She knew that for certain.
And so… If he had indeed been captured…
Karma jumped to her feet, wrenched the door open, stepped out and pulled it closed behind her. She paused a moment to lean back on it, eyes closed, trying to make her decision.
Resolved, she strode purposefully down the dark stone corridor, heading for the Hall of Prophecy. If Lord Voldemort had found out about her, and her work, he would surely seek her out. She was determined to hear one particular prophecy before that happened. She had been biding her time, waiting for the right time to reach out and take it. She had considered asking the permission of the head of the Department to hear it once or twice, but was apprehensive, because she wasn't sure she wanted to know its contents.
No-one had ever mentioned it, it seemed particularly old and dusty when she found it all those years ago. She was sure it had been forgotten about, like so many of them.
Lost in thought, she was mildly surprised to find that her feet had carried her to the Hall with unexpected speed. The dark, shadowy cathedral-like room loomed all around her as she hurried to the spot she had visited many times, never before daring to take the dusty orb from its shelf. She made herself grab it quickly, with one short glance at the label that she knew off by heart. The initials of those the prophecy had been said by and to had faded away entirely but the names of who it was about were just legible.
'Dark Lord and Karma Rochester.'
She now held it in her hand. All she had to do was let it roll off her palm and smash on the floor, and she could hear it at last. She stood there stock still. The silence of the Hall closed in on her, and she knew she couldn't do it. Not in here… She walked slowly, riddled with indecision, to the musty old room just off the hall which contained the specialist boxes used to transport prophecies. She picked up one of these in her spare hand and headed back to her office. She would make her decision, she decided, once she was back in there.
Listen to it? Hide it away? Listen to it? Hide it away?
Lucius Malfoy slipped between two shelves of the dusty, glass orbs, the gang of death-eaters at his command following as silently as they could. His instructions were to keep watch out of sight until Harry had taken the prophecy off the shelf, and then to use any means necessary to retrieve it without it being smashed. They did not have to wait long…
Karma, whose office was a reasonable distance from the Hall of Prophecy, did not hear the shelves being smashed by Harry and his comrades, nor the torrent of noise caused by thousands of ghostly seers delivering their messages all at once. She had decided to keep the prophecy tucked away in its box and it was now in one of the draws in her desk. She sat down to try and complete some dull paperwork that she had been trying to work through that morning.
After the confusion of noise, dust and rubble and his ordering of where everyone was to go Lucius strode towards a corridor to his far right with Mulciber, passing the room where the boxes were stored. They hurried down the long bare, dark stone corridor till they came to another, equally bare and dark, which gave them a choice of left or right.
Left was the direction they needed, and after turning into the otherwise pitch black corridor in this direction, they could see a dim light being cast into it from a side passage a little way ahead on the right. They approached this phenomenon cautiously, and thrust their wands down the passage when they reached it. The light was issuing from around the sides of a door, and looked like ordinary room lighting.
"Go on ahead Mulciber, I shall be there shortly," whispered Lucius, held by curiosity and the possibility that he may be able to deliver another Department of Mysteries agent into the hands of Lord Voldemort.
Mulciber shrugged and left. Lucius advanced slowly towards the door.
"Lumos"
The wand light revealed a plaque on the door. The name inscribed upon the plaque caused Lucius to draw in a sharp breath, which he let out in a bitter hiss. It read; Miss K. R. Rochester.
Lucius extinguished his wand and took a moment to think. He should really get back to the others, the Dark Lord would be furious if he failed to retrieve the prophecy. But he could not leave this door now, could not leave the chance to see Karma, after all these years. His heart raced at the thought, something that didn't happen to him often nowadays.
She might not even be in there, he told himself. And even if she was, he knew she was a powerful witch. He knew he could not subdue her and kidnap her alone.
What if he burst in and stupefied her straight away? No, her reactions were too quick, if they were still the same as they used to be. And besides, he wanted to talk to her, to confront her, before Voldemort got his hands on her. This threw up huge doubts in his mind. Even if he were able to subdue her and get her out of here, COULD he hand her over to Voldemort? Throw her to Voldemort's so-called mercy? He may have had years of resentment at her for leaving without a trace, but when it came to Karma, Lucius seemed to be incapable of being cold-hearted and indifferent. Passionate, obsessive and even violent, yes, but not indifferent. He made up his mind…
Karma gave up on her work for the second time that day, and lowered her head onto the desk. It was then that she heard an unfamiliar sound. For a brief moment she frowned into her paperwork, before the realisation hit her that it was the sound of the door opening. She raised her eyes apprehensively, while still slumped on the desk, to find none other than Lucius Malfoy standing in her office doorway, wand pointing resolutely at her head, eyes cold.
He looked down at her peering up at him in astonishment with those big, brown eyes, brimming with sparkle and mystery. The long, wavy jet black hair half sprawled on the desk. She sat upright suddenly, stiff against the back of her chair, and now he could see properly the delicately defined high cheekbones and those full, shapely pink lips, that he knew so well.
Karma found herself unable to speak. Here was the man she had long since put behind her, who she had tried so hard to avoid. Although, she had several times written him long, confused letters of apology, thinking of ways to deliver them anonymously, before destroying them, impatient with herself.
She could see his eyes taking in her face with something like wonder, as if he was trying to convince himself that she was really there. Then he regained his composure and cold, sneering face, although she noticed his eyes flick to her chest, making the colour rise in her cheeks, before they focused back on her eyes. She finally found her voice.
"Lucius," she breathed. "What are you doing here?"
Starting to think properly for the first time since Lucius' entrance, Karma realised that he may well be here to kidnap her. She desperately concentrated on not taking a giveaway sideways glance at the draw which now contained the prophecy, and tried to inconspicuously to sneak her hands under the desk to her wand in her pocket.
"Don't move," hissed Lucius.
He advanced towards her round the desk until he could hold his wand against her head. He moved so that he was standing behind her and ordered her to put her arms behind the chair, which she did. He tied them with ropes from his wand which coiled themselves tightly around her slender wrists. He then pulled the chair back so that she was slightly apart from her desk.
"Where is your wand," demanded Lucius, his voice still a vicious whisper.
She nodded towards her right pocket, and after some fumbling he found it and shoved it on a shelf. Karma was now distinctly puzzled. Why was he tying her up? He could have stunned her and had her half way to Voldemort by now, or more likely all the way… She shuddered at the thought. His eyes were intense as he stood there, staring at her again. He put his wand back in the tip of his cane, satisfied that she was now relatively harmless.
She looked at the floor, the silence was agony. She willed him to say something, anything. She saw his feet walk towards her until he was directly in front of her. She looked up slowly into those piercing eyes just as he stooped down to look into hers, leaning firmly with his hands clasped on the arms of the chair. His face within an inch of her own.
Her breath quickened as his eyes moved down to her lips and back again to her eyes with some deliberation.
"So this is where you've hidden yourself," stated Lucius in his usual drawl, sending shivers down Karma's spine.
He leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her head away at the last minute, trying to remain emotionally detached (and failing miserably).
"How's Narcissa?" She asked, as cuttingly as she could.
He sat back on the desk with a small laugh at her resistance.
"She's fine. She believes that you're dead. She says you would have contacted her if you weren't."
That was it, he'd won outright in the cutting remark contest.
"I came here to shut myself away. To do something worthwhile. I've been busy, you know." She insisted.
"Yes, I do know, as does the Dark Lord…"
"NATHAN!" Exploded Karma, remembering. "It was him who told you. Is he… is he…"
"He is not dead. The Dark Lord has spared him for further questioning. And because he wants you on side. He's very interested in your work, you know."
Karma shuddered, but was relieved that Nathan was alive and well. Lucius meanwhile, seemed to realise something, and headed quickly towards the door.
"I must go. I shall return for you later," he announced from the doorway, and then left her to go and rejoin the others, worried that he had been too long.
Once out into the hallway he reflected on the meeting and decided that he was very pleased with himself. He had been in control from the moment he entered the office.
Karma sat staring at the door, stewing in a pot of mixed emotions and confusion.
