Whispering… that was all there was when Cato woke up… first darkness, then whispering where he couldn't quite make out the words.

For a few seconds he just lay there trying to clear his mind…

"…couldn't be a spy?" "…little boy…" "…found the house…"

He was sitting on a chair and he could feel something holding his hands tight behind his back…someone had removed his coat and scarf…. And he felt dizzy… like he needed to puke…now!

His eyes flew open "I'm gonna puke!" Immediately all attention were on him as someone quickly conjured a bowl and held it up as he emptied his stomach. "Sorry" he said while trying to blink away the tears which had formed in his eyes.

"Nothing to be sorry about" a female said as bowl and content was vanished again.

He looked around timidly. There were four people in the room, a woman and three men. One of which was the man with the scary looking eye.

"What are you doing here?" Cato asked before he could stop himself "This is private property. You can't just squat here, my master won't like that"

"And just exactly who is you master?" the man with the scary eye growled.

"Master Black naturally" they all turned to look at one of the black haired men who quickly put up both hands in surrender.

"Don't look at me, I never bought a slave" that made them all turn back to Cato but now with mistrusting looks.

"Master Regulus Black" He felt like clarifying as there was obviously more than one, where ever this one came from.

"You're lying!" The black haired man yelled "My brother died years ago"

Cato looked at him in shock. "Master doesn't have a younger brother, you must be mistaken"

"What?... I'm Sirius Black! I'm the oldest son of this house!" His voice was now full of self-righteousness. "and what are you doing here anyway? This is my house!"

"Your house! This is my master's house! He inherited it from his mother, and he does not have a brother!" He told him firmly.

"Did not!" Sirius yelled.

"Did to!" Cato yelled back.

"Did not!"

"This is ridicules." Cato mumbled now feeling annoyed "So you are obviously living here? You will have to clear that up with master, but if you speak with him I'm sure he won't mind…"

"He damn well won't! You're delusional! He's dead!"

"Sirius calm down" The woman said in a firm tone.

"He certainly is not!" Cato's indignant voice cut her off.

"Is to!"

"Is not! I spoke with him just this morning!"

"Did not"

"Did to!"

"STOP IT! BOTH OF YOU!" The woman finally cut in. "Sirius your acting like a toddler" She informed him with a glare before she turned on a big smile as she looked at Cato. "What is your name young man?"

"Cato" He narrowed his eyes at her not trusting her smile one bit.

"I'm Lily Potter and this is my husband James, the man over there is Moody. Now why exactly are you here? If this house really does belong to your master he haven't been here for years, so why now?"

For a second he considered telling them a lie but then again, Reggie always said the truth was your best ally, even if it was a half truth.

"Master send me to retrieve a piece of jewelry" he finally said.

Lily looked at him thoughtfully for a moment

"What kind of jewelry?"

"A locket" he said smiling. "It's silver with a snake on it. He left it here years ago." All of them were now looking at him with a deep frown.

"Could you show us where it should be?" The woman asked

He thought about it for a second.

"Not if you're gonna steal it no"

"We promise that we won't" she answered seriously.

"Okay" What harm could it do anyway. They had no idea what it was.

The man now named James freed him from the chair and quickly he led them to up the stairs to Reggie's old room. It had been cleared out and refurnished, so where the bed was before there now stood a large oak dresser in its stead. For a second Cato felt a pang of disappointment as he had been looking forward to seeing where Reggie grew up.

"Could you move that please?" He asked the men following closely behind him.

As James and Sirius moved the dresser away Cato dropped to the floor so he could remove the loose floorboard, that used to be under the bed, and retrieve the small old tin box with the locket.

"Here it is" He smiled as he turned around to show them the content of the box.

For a few moments they just stared at it. Then suddenly Sirius reached forward to touch it making Cato close the lid with a snap.

"Master said not to touch it. It's cursed and will posses you, making you do crazy stuff like killing non-magics and…. Something equally horrible" He stated with a scowl.

"We have to ask Albus about this" The woman said to men who quickly agreed making James leave the room, likely to go find this Albus.

"Well, it was nice talking to you but I have to go now" Cato said with a smile holding out his hand for the woman to shake. For a moment they just stood there Lily staring at his hand "uhm…" he let it fall to his side. "So where did you put my coat?"

"I'm sorry but you're not leaving yet Cato" She finally said. "You'll have to speak with Albus first" He didn't say anything but purposefully made his eyes large with betrayal, and for a second he thought he saw a spark of regret in hers when she reached and took the tin box, but then she said. "You can stay in here and rest. We'll lock the door and come back for you when we're ready" Sirius and Moody had already left the room leaving Lily to close the door with a final encouraging smile for him followed by the muffled sound of a colloportus being cast.

It felt like hours as he was sitting there in the corner of the room in front of the bed, clutching Pafoo through the magical pocket in his over sized flannel shirt and waiting…

No, days!

And he had to pee….

And he was hungry

Why weren't they coming back?

Had they left him?

…THEY HAD TOTALLY LEFT HIM HERE TO DIE!

Maybe he should just open the door and go to the bathroom himself… no, Reggie always said not to show others his wandless abilities….

But he would die from hunger, and then they would find him in a puddle of his own urine... and in Reggie's old room… He really had to peeeeeee… what a way to go out… dead by exploded bladder…. He was so not going to Valhalla that way…

…

…Oh no! What about Christmas? He had spent so much time on that bracelet. Did this mean Reggie wouldn't even get it now? Maybe Reggie would find it in his backpack and wear it in memory of him anyway…. That would be nice…

…But he still really really had to pee… like now… or ten seconds ago… Couldn't they just bloody hurry up?

He let go of Pafoo, stood up and walked around for a bit. Then he went to lay his ear against the door…. Nothing… he was about to leave it be when he suddenly heard the door in the hallway go and lots of people hurrying in as they chatted among each other… children too, definitely children, too many to pickup what they were saying and they all went into the kitchen…. For a moment the hallway went back to being quiet…

Cato was now sitting down in front of the door with his ear leaning on it…

Then the door opened again but not a sound reached his own door for a full 20 seconds… then he heard his name loud and clear… it was Reggie! He had come for him! He started banging loudly on his door… kicking… screaming for his Reggie…

Then finally it was flung open but standing on the other side wasn't Reggie but Moody.

"WHAT?" Moody yelled making tears spring to Cato's eyes from disappointment

"I… I really need to use the loo…please?" He pleaded. His voice all teary.

Moody growled low in his throat but stepped aside

"Follow me boy"

As he was doing his business he couldn't help but feel a little spark of hope in his chest as a small smile made it to his lips.

Reggie was near.

And hopefully they could share his old room tonight.

Darkness had fallen over the room long ago when he finally heard someone on the stairs.

Two people. He crawled to the door to lay his ear against it again.

"…could a man just come in? I thought the house was under the fidellius charm?" a boys voice said with the distinct sound of a teenage voice.

"Padfoot said it was Regulus, you know his younger brother, who apparently faked his dead" another teenage boy said.

The boys walked past his door and started to distend the next staircase.

"It seems he send his slave to retrieve a locket which can resurrect old snake face…" the voices faded away as they reached the next floor.

At least these people were on their side. He thought with a smile to the old snake face comment.

He winced as his stomach made a particularly loud growl and took out Pafoo to hug properly as he scooted back to his corner.

"Are we ever getting food again little friend?" He smiled sadly at the old black toy dog as he lay down on the floor beside the bed to rest a bit.

He was sitting in the small pitch black room in the basement again hugging Pafoo as hard as he could. As usual he was naked, but he couldn't remember why other then it had hurt. He couldn't remember when he'd last been fed, and he'd had to soil himself twice now.

The loud sound of his masters boots filled his world as he moved closer to his cell, both frightening him of what were to come and filling him with the hope of him leaving this place.

The key took forever to work and then the door was finally open and the light was hurting his eyes as his master gripped his hair and dragged him into it. He couldn't see a thing but he soon felt the knife on his scalp…

"…kid! wake up! Hey kid!" Cato's eyes flew open to the sound of someone yelling at him and shaking his shoulders.

"Are you okay? You were screaming?" the male voice said as he slowly got his bearings together. "Hey, nothing to be ashamed of, we all have nightmares sometimes." The owner of the voice was holding him… he was sitting in someone's lap… and strangely enough he didn't want to leave he thought as he snuggled further in to the warm chest with a tight grasp on Pafoo.

He had never wanted physical contact with anyone but Reggie… was this betrayal of Reggie? His eyes widened dramatically as he looked up and into the face of Reggie's brother Sirius. He relaxed a bit again… Maybe they had the same smell because they were brothers and that was why.

"How come Reggie never told me about you?" Sirius stopped rocking back and forth for a second making Cato notice the motion for the first time.

"Maybe he ignored my existence because we were never really close?" he finally answered as he started up the motion again.

"No, Reggie's not like that… maybe he was to sad to talk about you because he had wanted a better relationship?" Sirius looked down in to his eyes with an undetermined feeling.

"Maybe" He just said.

They were both silent for another few moments before the moment was broken with a loud growl from Cato's stomach making Sirius laugh.

"Come on. Let's go find you some food" he said with a smile as he untangled himself before helping Cato up.

The food was simple leftovers from the roast the others had had for dinner but it tasted delicious even though Sirius kept staring at Pafoo with a thoughtful look.

"What is your friend called?" He finally asked making Cato smile.

"That was what Reggie first asked me too. He's name is Pafoo" Sirius's eyes widened slightly.

"Cato? How did you end up with my brother?" He asked slowly.

Cato swallowed politely around his bite before answering in a light tone.

"He bought me" Making Sirius's eyes widen even more.

"Like a slave? That's illegal!"

"Not in Germany" Cato answered calmly with a wink.

"But… why?" Sirius looked honestly shocked.

"Because he wanted a companion on his journeys and what better companion than a slave, why me I don't know though… maybe he just felt sorry for me"

"Why?" Sirius asked again.

"Well… uhmm…" He thought about his answer for a second. "I was going a little crazy back then. I was 7 years old, and had been a pleasure slave for two years" Sirius turned a little green at that. "When my master had finally had enough of my stubbornness, shaved my head in anger, and sent me back to the auctions. I spent nearly a month there and they were about to give up and just finish me off when Reggie showed up and just bought me." He finished.

"But how did you end up a slave in the first place?" Now Sirius's eyes showed with something akin to desperation.

"We got stolen from an orphanage of course" Cato said with an unsure voice "like most slaves these days do" Sirius didn't say anything, he just stared. "actually I think it was here in London, I was chosen by the first master because I spoke English…. What are you doing?" Sirius was now leaning over the table brushing away his fringe looking at the scare that lay beneath. He quickly drew away like burned. Then he slowly got up, walked around the table and engulfed Cato in a tight hug.

"Harry" he whispered dazed