Michael disconnected the call, setting the receiver back into its cradle before finally sitting down. He had been pacing during the conversation, but now he rested his elbows onto his knees and ran his fingers through his salt-and-pepper hair. "Bloody bastard."

"An interesting conversation, Mr. Turner." He jerked his head up, looking about for the dry voice. There was a movement in the far corner of his study and he looked over just in time to see Hermione's biological father fade into sight, some type of magical concealment lifted. "I believe you owe me an explanation from earlier. One that has grown in size now that someone has tried to assassinate my daughter. Am I correct in assuming that act is in some way connected to whatever happened to Kathryn?"

He swallowed, looking at the wand not pointed in his direction. "That would be a fair assumption, Mr. Snape." He held up a placating hand. "There is no need to be threatening. I'm not a threat to you."

Severus arched a brow. "I was watching you with the Grangers. I'm not certain how you did it, but I recognized a memory modification easily enough. You rewrote their memories to say that the funeral was uneventful, did you not?"

"Necessary under the circumstances, don't you think?" His phone rang with a loud, electronic chirping. Michael reached for it but stopped when Snape flicked his wand and pulled his chair further away.

"Let it ring, Mr. Turner. We are not done talking." The wizard began to advance, his every footstep falling with a thud that was then echoed by the phone ringing. "I want to know who murdered Kathryn St. James and why. I want to know wants my daughter dead, so much so that they would come to her mother's funeral just to target her."

Michael swallowed again. On the desk his answering machine picked up the call with a long beep. He was staring at the wand tip when Evangeline's voice came over the speaker. "Mr. Snape, I know you're there. Please be so kind as to stop threatening my agent." Michael saw something akin to uncertainty flicker through Snape's eyes. "Michael, bring him in. Full disclosure. Show him everything."

The call disconnected, the answering machine hanging up. Severus leveled a black gaze in his direction, but Michael forced himself to remain calm. He flexed his shoulders and sat up a bit straighter in his seat. "Well, Severus, it looks as though you're going to get the answers you seek. Shall I drive?"

E-Branch had its offices in the heart of London. From the outside it appeared to be nothing more than a non-descript building which could house any number of businesses from law firms to think tanks. There were no visible signs to declare who had taken up residence inside and it could have been empty were it not for the plants in the window and the people coming and going at various times throughout the day.

Inside the floors were carpeted in a deep burgundy that complimented wood-paneled walls. Severus saw the cautious eyes of those who worked here looking at him. They did not feel welcoming. "I don't believe I'm very popular here."

Michael didn't deny it. "There is still some hold over from the old guard. Back when E-Branch kept its members in line with one part fear, one part intimidation and two parts manipulation."

"Sounds like a lovely organization. One would have to ask why you are still here."

"Because that's now how things are done any longer." Turner swiped his badge through a security reader on a door, which opened with a click. "This way." He lead them down another short hallway until he opened a door leading into a dimly lit room with what looked to be about a half dozen muggle televisions mounted in a half circle. There was a comfortable looking office chair seated before them.

"What is this?"

Michael took a breath. "I was with the team that found Kathryn's body. She was in a facility in Arizona, over in the US, which had been either purchased or constructed by one Geoffrey Trout. He used to run E-Branch until he fell out of favor with the higher ups."

"And what did he do to deserve that?"

Turner gave a crooked smile. "A few things, but the thing that kicked it all off was the row he had with Kathryn. She quit over it, and they weren't pleased with our most versatile and useful agent walking away. It made them take a closer look at what was going on here. They finally saw what a bastard the man truly was and chucked him out. At first I thought he was just bitter over that, blaming her for his own mistakes, but… it's worse than that. He's truly cracked."

Severus had a thousand questions on the tip of his tongue, but he did not want to delay things further. "And this American facility equates to this room how?"

The other man looked sad. "We set the monitors up exactly how they were in Trout's control room so that the video feed could be played back exactly how he watched it. The visual helps the Cogs get a better line on everything."

"Video of what?"

"You said you recognize the signs of torture when you see them. How strong of a stomach do you have for watching it?" Turner turned to meet his gaze. "We've edited out the slow parts. The bouts between 'interrogations'. Otherwise it would take you a few weeks to get through it all." He reached over to the chair and picked up a device with several buttons. "Have you ever used a VCR or DVD player?"

"I have not."

"Well, it's fairly straightforward. Play means play. Stop means stop. The double arrows pointing left rewind and the others fast forward." Michael gave him the device. "I'll leave the door unlocked and my office is the third door on the left."

Snape frowned. "You aren't staying?"

Turner paused at the door. "I've already seen it. I don't care to watch it again."

"Hermione, do you want to talk about it?"

She sighed, her head resting on Cedric's lap. They were waiting, quite impatiently, for the time when the students would go down to the train. She had returned to Hogwarts only to learn that Harry apparently had another one of his clairvoyant dreams, this time involving Mr. Weasley. The twins, Ginny and Ron were already gone. She, Cedric and Harry had to wait until they could leave with the rest of the students. She had excused herself from the Gryffindor Common Room with the faint excuse of being too anxious to sit still and wanting to catch up on the lessons she had missed while away for the service. In truth she had gone to the Room of Requirement to meet with Cedric and tell him everything. "There's nothing more to say. Mr. Turner altered my parents' memories so they don't remember the shooter, but Severus felt it best that I go to Headquarters with you and Harry rather than go skiing."

She closed her eyes as Cedric ran his fingers lightly through her hair, enjoying the soothing feel of the touch. "I'm going to agree with Professor Snape on this one. A muggle shooter won't be able to find you here or at headquarters." He paused. "Unless ESPers can see through such things."

She shook her head. "No, Mr. Turner assured us that they can't find Hogwarts. They know the castle is somewhere in Scotland, but that's all they know. As far as they could tell, Kathryn was the only one who could interact freely with the magical world and that was only because she could let a deceased witch or wizard move into her head and guide her through it. Without that, she would have been lost."

"That's something at least. In the magical world we'll only have to deal with the dark wizards running about. In the muggle world you'd have to watch out for both."

"Fun."

He stroked her hair again. "Hermione, I'm afraid for you."

"I'm afraid for me, too." She sighed. "They're not talking to me. Not about this." She opened her eyes and saw him frowning down at her in confusion. "They're dancing around the shooting and what may be behind it. I suspect it has something to do with that man Kathryn used to work for, Mr. Trout, but whenever I try to ask anything about him they all clam up or become evasive. The most I've gotten out of any of them is that they apparently made some kind of promise to her that they wouldn't tell me what happened."

"So who was this 'Trout' person?"

She swallowed. Did she really want to tell him this part? "He… he was her boss, but they got into a fight when she found out about a necromancer and wanted to hunt him down. They, E-Branch, knew about the war and the key players. Kind of hard for them not to. I mean, they're not ordinary muggles. The bait and switch tactics the Ministry uses to hide catastrophes and attacks from muggles don't exactly work on them. Anyway, he was in charge of the ESPers and had laid down strict orders not to get involved in the war. So when Kathy asked him for a team so she could hunt down the necromancer, he told her she couldn't have it. Then he apparently told her she wasn't to do it on her own, either." Hermione gave a shrug. "She never could take orders very well."

"So she stormed out and found her own way, which was how she got together with Professor Snape."

"Yeah. Only, she ended up pregnant and somehow Trout found out about it. He wasn't happy with the idea of a witch or wizard being born with Kathryn's abilities. Felt it would be too much power in the hands of one person." She opted to leave out how Kathryn had also worried over that same detail. "According to what I've pieced together, Trout was watching all the hospitals and birthing centers when she was getting close to due, presumably to… do me in."

Cedric looked shocked. "Do you in? When you were just a baby?!"

"He believed I was going to be a monster."

"He can't know that from when you were born. No one is born evil! We are shaped by our life's experiences and by those who have the most influence over us." She refrained from arguing that her current belief was that Tom Riddle was proof positive that you could be born evil. "It's unconscionable."

"Yes, well, so is using my birth mother's funeral to target me, as far as I'm concerned. I believe Severus would agree. I've never seen him that furious, no matter how close someone's come to killing us in class." She gave a little shudder. He had looked murderous. There simply wasn't any other term that could adequately describe his expression as the furor had died down.

Severus sat still in the chair for several long moments after the video had come to an end and the screens had gone to white snow. It chased some of the gloom away, but did nothing to clear his memory of what had been on displayed on those screens just a few moments before.

How many days in all had they held her? They had brought in Wild Talents, identifiable because none of them used a wand, to interrogate her. The two most prominent ones had been a man who controlled fire as though it were as natural to him as breathing and another who had a disturbingly strong grasp on electricity. When their fists had failed to get anything out of her they had resorted to their natural abilities.

And she refused to give them anything.

Towards the end her captor was willing to settle for just the gender of the mysterious child she had borne and hidden. And she had kept it behind her teeth, never once letting this 'Trout' know whether her child was a daughter or a son.

They had bruised her, broken her bones and blacked her skin with lightening and fire, and still she kept her secrets firmly behind her teeth.

Heaven show mercy on her enemies if Hermione proved to have inherited even one quarter of her mother's strength.

The white static continued to drone on, but his ears rang only with Kathryn's last words to her tormentor, her speech somewhat slurred through swollen lips and aching jaw, before he had finally killed her out of desperation. "Do you think I fear death, Geoffrey? I am death. If this body ceases to breathe, I'll go to the grave knowing I am welcomed. But what of you, Geoffrey? You won't live forever. You have to die someday. And I'll be there, waiting."

Severus set the remote down and got up from the chair. He pulled his long trench coat, his muggle equivalent of a robe, to smooth out imaginary wrinkles before leaving the room and seeking out Turner's office. It proved to be a nicely appointed one with comfortable chairs and a heavy oak desk. Turner was there with a serving tray that held a crystal decanter and two large tumblers.

"Brandy?" Snape gave a sharp nod of his head. Yes, a brandy would be welcomed right now. He helped himself to a chair as Turner poured and handed him a glass, which he then downed in one gulp. Michael Turner said nothing, but merely poured him another. "Do you want a few days to process or do you want to dive right in?"

"What was she?" It was cold and blunt, even to his ears, but it was a reasonable question. He was clever enough to realize that the people who worked here were more Wild Talents, more muggles who were more than muggles. He had always suspected that Kathryn wasn't quite as powerless as she had liked to let others assume. Now he was certain.

"Certainly get to the heart of the matter, don't you." Turner sat down on the edge of his desk. "Get comfortable, Severus. This may take a while."