Chapter 34 – Orphanages and absinthe

"Katherine, what do you do all day?"

Katherine looked up from the evening edition of the Daily Prophet and looked blankly at her friend.

"Sorry?"

"I said, what do you do all day? You're never around but you don't have a job, so where do you go?" asked Nicola, sitting down in the chair opposite her. "And don't say you're working for your father, because Severus says you haven't had an assignment for a while."

Katherine cast a narrowed eye look at Severus, who was sitting at a desk with his back to her.

"Oh he does, does he?" she asked calmly.

"Yes, he does," replied Severus, glancing over at her. "The Dark Lord doesn't trust you, Katherine."

"Oh? So he's not completely off his rocker, then?"

Severus gave her an appraising look and returned to his writing.

"Who's in the inner circle now, then?" asked Katherine after a short pause. "If I'm out, and Bella's out, and after what Tom did to Malfoy, I'm guessing he's out, who's in?"

"I'm not in a position to say," said Severus firmly. Katherine laughed.

"Oh give over, Severus. You're his right hand man after Dumbledore." Severus didn't move for a moment, and Nicola shot Katherine a warning look which she ignored. Nicola sighed; she didn't want to be caught up in another of their arguments. She was just trying to decide how best to excuse herself when Severus said quietly:

"Do you want to get back in?" He turned round, gazing at Katherine with eyes like steel.

"No."

"You don't think it would be good if he trusted you?"

"I don't need him to trust me."

"You do know he's got everyone watching you, don't you? You still haven't told anyone how you escaped."

"I fail to see why that's important," said Katherine calmly. "I'm out – that's all there is to it."

At that moment the doorbell rang and Nicola jumped up to get it, silently thanking whatever deity might be listening for giving her an escape route. Back in the lounge, Severus cast a dark look at Katherine.

"He'll find out."

"No he won't."

"I didn't mean how you escaped, Katherine."

"Oh."

"Are you sure you covered your tracks?"

Katherine gave him a disparaging look. "No, Severus, I have a death wish. Of course I covered my tracks. How stupid do you think I am?"

"You're not stupid, you're reckless," replied Severus softly, gazing at her. "And if you carry on like this you're going to get caught and then I'd have a serious problem because I'm not entirely sure I can live without you."

Katherine looked up quickly, staring at him with something like surprise in her eyes and Severus was about to say something when Nicola reentered the room, Robert Avery behind her. They both stopped when they saw what they'd walked in on, but Katherine stood up, seemingly determined to ignore Severus and feigned a smile.

"Hello."

"Hi," said Robert uncertainly, glancing at Severus, who was frowning at Katherine pensively. "I found that report you wanted."

Katherine frowned reaching out to take it. "What report?" She opened the brown file and glanced down at its contents. "Oh. That report." She looked again, surprise on her face this time and Robert smiled sourly.

"Yes, I noticed that too."

"St Catherine's?" asked Severus and Katherine hurriedly shut the file, glaring at him. He arched an eyebrow, as though to say that if she was stupid enough to open it in public she couldn't get cross with people for looking over her shoulder at it. "What are you two doing looking up orphanages?" he asked softly, so that only she could hear.

"Never you mind," she answered, smiling at him with that sweet expression that warned against pushing her any farther as he would almost certainly be the one coming off worse from the ensuing argument.

"I have to get back to work," said Robert tactfully, stepping back out into the hallway.

"I'll show you out," added Nicola quickly, hurrying after him.

"I think we keep scaring them away," said Severus quietly in Katherine's ear. She turned around, a guarded expression on her face. "Oh don't give me that look," he said, sighing tiredly. "I'm not going to tell anyone."

"No?"

"No, because unlike you, I'd very much prefer it if the two of you stayed alive."

"It's not like I try to get myself killed," she snapped back, glaring at him.

"So you don't think this is suicide?"

"I think it's necessary."

Severus heaved a huge sigh and gazed intensely into her eyes. He wasn't going to change her mind and deep down, he didn't really want to.

"If you ever need anything...you know where I am," he said in a soft voice.

"I won't need anything."

He looked at, dark eyes holding her gaze. "I know. But I'll still be here."

x – X – x

"...completely ridiculous!" finished Tonks, throwing her hands up in the air in an exasperated fashion while Remus laughed, pouring her a fresh cup of tea.

"You knew what you were taking on when you joined the Aurors, Tonks," he said, smiling. Tonks glared at him.

"Nowhere in my contract does it say that I have to deal with reckless little hooligans with bad haircuts whose idea of joke is filling the ornamental fountain with muggle washing powder. That is not Auror business – that is caretaker business. We're trying to fight a war and Dawlish's got us tracking down restless teenagers."

Remus laughed again as the doorbell rang, and shook his head, heading back through the hall to the front of the flat. "Maybe he's working up to it, you know, deal with teenagers first and then when you've mastered that, you move onto-" - he opened the door - "-Death Eaters."

"Talking about me?"

"The universe is not centered around you, Katherine. What are you doing here?"

His old friend held up a suspiciously familiar green bottle.

"Ah," he said slowly. "What's happened?"

"Severus is still in love with me."

"And?"

"And the world is ending – Remus, this is bad."

Remus gave her an appraising look. "Katherine, I thought you were suppose to be smart."

"I am."

"And you didn't realise he still loved you?"

"Well yeah, but I didn't think he was going to say anything."

"He said he loved you?"

"No, but this is Severus we're talking about and he came very close."

Remus looked at her a moment then said quietly. "I think I'm failing to see the problem here. He loves you, you love him, it's a match made in hell – you'll be on familiar ground."

"I can't – if I tell him how I feel he'll get himself killed trying to protect me."

"Katherine, and by the way, I mean this from the heart, get together with him. Please."

Katherine shot him a venomous look. "Very funny."

"What d'you expect?" asked Remus, arching an eyebrow at her and turning as he heard footsteps behind him.

"Remus, do you have any-" Tonks halted and the cheeky expression on her face faded as she recognised the woman standing at the door. "Oh. It's you."

"No need to sound so happy," remarked Katherine, smiling at her with a look in her eyes that Remus knew he'd seen before but couldn't quite place.

"I'm sorry," replied Tonks with the same sarcastic tilt to her voice. "I should of course be delighted to see the most wanted Death Eater in the country who's putting my boyfriend in danger and who I should really be arresting."

"Why don't you then?" challenged Katherine, half grinning.

"Because people I trust keep telling me how nice you are," answered Tonks, looking slightly dubious. "I'm trying to find out if it's true. I can't do that with you in Azkaban, can I?"

"Who's been saying I'm nice?" asked Katherine, looking hurt.

"My mother, Remus, Faye-"

"Faye doesn't know me, so you can ignore her account."

Tonks looked surprised, glancing uncertainly at Remus. "But she's your cousin-"

"I've met her five times."

"What?"

"Five times. We've probably spent less than week in each other's company in the entirety of our thirty nine years of existence."

"Is she being serious?" Tonks asked Remus, who was frowning in thought.

"I think..." he paused, and glanced at Katherine. "I know three. Faye hasn't mentioned the other two. What did you do?"

"Me? Why do I have to be the one to do anything?"

"Because it's you."

"Faye doesn't have to tell you everything about herself."

Remus smiled, gazing at her with a look that told her he could see right through her. "No, and I have no doubt there's many things I don't know about her, but she would have told me if she'd met you because she keeps trying to work you out and she thinks I can help."

"You've worked me out?"

"No, but she thinks I have. And I think I'm probably right in saying that out of everyone, I understand you best. Even if understanding is sometimes just accepting a fact, rather than following your logic, because frankly I don't think even you know what you're doing half the time."

Katherine smiled at him. "I know exactly what I'm doing."

Remus made a dubious noise but didn't comment. "Why did you ask Faye not to tell me she'd seen you?"

Katherine looked at him for a long moment, then shrugged and said nonchalantly. "You would have worried."

A flicker of concern crossed Remus' face and he frowned. "Exactly how bad was it?"

"I'm fine, Remus."

"I don't worry about you, Katherine; you are more than capable of taking care of yourself as you have proved countless times in the past, so if you thought I'd be concerned, you must have been hurt rather badly."

"Who said I was hurt?"

"You did," said Remus softly.

"No I didn't."

"You said you were fine – if it had been something to do with your father, you would have said 'it's fine'." Katherine narrowed her eyes, looking irritated and Tonks put her hand on Remus' arm, wondering whether she should try and pacify the situation and then wondering if she was brave enough to interrupt, but Remus only sighed, his gaze not wavering from Katherine's and said calmly: "Glaring at me isn't going to change the fact that you slipped up."

"Look, I'm ok, right. Nine lives, remember."

"Down to six now," replied Remus, frowning.

"Six?" asked Katherine, looking confused.

"Seventh year, Azkaban and this mysterious ailment. Five if you count our last little adventure."

"Six," said Katherine, grinning wickedly. "I would have found some way to escape if dad had actually arrived. Your plan was much better though."

"It wasn't mine, it was Avery's."

"He couldn't have done it without you. Or you for that matter," she added, looking at Tonks.

"Me?"

"Well Rob won't go within a mile of Alastor if he can help it and I can't see Remus finding an excuse to go round and make small talk with him, and you must have got his hair or something somehow, because the Polyjuice wouldn't have worked without it." She smiled, gazing interestedly at Tonks. "As far as I know, you're the only other one who was in on the plan so you would seem like the obvious candidate. I would say thank you but I have a feeling you'd say you were only doing it for Harry. Or Remus, of course." She glanced at Remus and caught the expression on his face. "What?"

"Am I missing something here?" he asked slowly, looking from Katherine to Tonks and back again. "Only you two haven't spoken more than ten words to each other before and now you're... You-" he began again, pointing accusingly at Katherine, "-used to be like this with James. What's going on?"

"I'm not arguing with her," frowned Katherine.

"Precisely."

"But that's how I was with James."

"Not towards the end; you were only teasing each other in the end. You stopped arguing properly a little while after you got engaged to Sirius – everyone noticed but no one pointed it out because they were afraid to jinx it, but you'd both changed. I never asked what happened to do that, but now-" He glanced at Tonks, wondering if he'd get any answers from her, but she was looking supremely innocent which meant she was not going to tell him a thing. "-now the same thing's happened between you two. So what am I missing? And don't say nothing."

"Remus?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to help me drink this absinthe or not?" Remus glared at her.

"That's not an answer."

"I'm perfectly aware of that fact, but seriously, I may well go blind if I have this entire bottle to myself," said Katherine calmly, gazing at him serenely.

"It's a little early to be drinking, isn't it?" he asked tiredly. Katherine glanced at her watch.

"Ten past twelve? It's not that early."

"Katherine, I haven't even had lunch yet."

Katherine sighed melodramatically and fixed her expressive blue eyes on him. "Will you help if I come back tonight? Please?"

"Will you leave me in peace if I say yes?" Remus asked her, knowing that she knew he was giving in, and not caring.

"Of course."

"Then yes." Katherine grinned.

"Excellent. See you at ten, then." And she disappeared into thin air. Tonks glanced uncertainly at Remus.

"Is she always like that?"

Remus gazed at the spot where his friend had been a moment before, then sighed and shut the door. "Pretty much."

x – X – x

At seven minutes past ten, Archimedes landed outside Remus' kitchen window and tapped on the glass. Remus opened it and took the scrap of rolled up paper from his claws. It was a flyer for some muggle club in London, and for a moment he wondered if Katherine wanted to meet him there, but then he turned it over and saw the familiar handwriting on the back.

Something came up.

He frowned; it wasn't like Katherine to cancel on him. He wondered what the something was; it must be incredibly important if she was prepared to miss an evening of absinthe for it.

A noise in the lounge made him look up from the note and he closed the window and walked in. Tonks stood by the fireplace, brushing soot off her cloak.

"Hi," he said, a little uncertainly. She smiled.

"A little birdie told me you'd been stood up."

"Did it now?" asked Remus, grinning despite himself. That was one thing Katherine had going for her at least: she always had a back up plan. Tonks smiled and pulled a bottle out of her bag, putting on a mock serious face.

"Now, exactly how do you drink this?"

x – X – x

At eleven minutes past ten, Robert Avery looked up from his paperwork and met the gaze of two jewel bright eyes.

"Katherine? I didn't hear you come in – what? Why are you grinning like that?" he frowned, leaning back and studying his friend with light brown eyes. Katherine sat down in the chair opposite him and placed her folded arms on the desk, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"I've found one."