Checked for spelling and continuity: April 4, 2011.
Chapter Fifty-One: Now What?
Katrin was on her own for the first of an expected several days.
And it was a perfect day to be so, all things considered. The sun was shining, but it was not oppressively hot. There was a gentle breeze lazily blowing across the Thames. For whatever reason, autumn was not behaving normally these past few weeks and people were anxious to take advantage.
She sat on the sidewalk with her guitar, playing whatever came to her fingers as her mind wandered. Her case was open in front of her gathering coins and the occasional five pound note. She was currently pondering whether she should save it all for a rainy day, especially since London rain was not always conducive to busking, or just splurge it all on something. The 'save' option was slowly winning, more because she could not decide upon what to splurge than anything else.
Finally compromising, she decided to set a goal for herself and blow the rest as soon as the impulse demanded. Just as her thoughts moved on to how much, precisely, that goal should be, a shadow fell.
"You just never quit, do you?"
She did not need to look up to recognize the voice, especially with that superior tone sounding just so. "Go away. I'm on vacation."
"Whatever." Christopher sat on the sidewalk next to her. He crossed his feet and leaned back, keeping himself propped upright on his elbows. "Don't you know that the High Fae do not get vacations."
Katrin's song ended on an unusually sharp chord. Brow furrowed, she turned to her brother. "Beg pardon?"
He stoically refused to meet her gaze, instead watching the passers by. "Why aren't you carousing merrily with that Bill chap of yours?"
"He's at work."
"I thought you were supposed to be spending your vacation playing tourist with him?"
"And I thought you just said the High Fae do not get vacations."
"Oh, good point."
Silence fell and after a few seconds, Katrin resumed her playing.
"So why aren't you singing along? Doesn't that usually get you better tips?"
"Yeah, I'm just not in the mood. And since, technically, I don't need to gather tips since I'm still technically living on my vacation fund, it doesn't really matter."
"But this is London. What if it rains?"
"The very question I was pondering before you arrived." She sighed. "What are you doing here, anyway? Surely not to question my financial situation."
Christopher sighed, too. "I should be so lucky. I have the pleasure of being the bearer of bad news."
Once again, Katrin's playing ended on that sharp chord. "What happened?"
"Nothing, yet. But there's going to be a Gala, and the family is required to attend."
Another sigh. "I was wondering when this come up. Took them long enough to figure that one out, didn't it?" Another brief pause. "I hate those things."
"Me too. I look ridiculous in Court clothes."
"You look ridiculous in general." She collected the pile of money and stuffed it in a neon orange draw-string pouch before putting her guitar away. "Hungry? I'll spring for lunch."
"Sure." Getting up, they wandered to the pub near Katrin's hotel in silence.
While they waited for their food, Katrin told Christopher about what she had been up to, both with and without Bill.
"How lame is it that he has to work so much?"
"I know. If it wasn't for the fact that I still see him almost every day, I'd probably be paranoid that he was avoiding me."
He better not. "Don't be such a girl."
"I didn't say that I am paranoid, just that I would be if things were different."
"That's still a girl thing to do."
"Shut up." She threw a salt packet at him, hitting him on the forehead. "Oh! Food's up! And just in time for you to tell me all about what's been going on at home!" She sneered gleefully at him before thanking the bartender who brought them their meals.
"No way. Eat first, then talk." With that, Christopher liberally doused his fish with malt vinegar.
"So, apart from the pie incident, everything was as normal as it gets Underground until Dad got 'The Summons'." After lunch, the siblings went back to Katrin's hotel room so she could decide what to pack and what to leave behind in her pre-paid room with hopes of being able to come back before her stuff was considered abandoned.
"How bad was it?" She tossed a couple of books in a bag and flopped down on the bed.
"Just a letter." He eyed her bag. "You call that packing?"
"There's really nothing here I can't live without besides my guitar and my laptop. One's already put away and the other I'll put in my bag before I leave tomorrow. What are the details of the Gala?"
"The regular lavish dinner with all the Court and whatever annoying minions people choose to bring -"
"They should all be dropped in an oubliette," Katrin interrupted.
"The Court?"
"No, the minions."
"They'd never all fit in just one oubliette."
She sighed. "True. Oh well. Please continue."
"After dinner, Their Majesties will meet with our parents, maybe us too, maybe not, but definitely the Wizard who's been representing that Goblin bank."
"Hm. That makes sense. I suppose I'd rather be in the meeting than mingling." Katrin stared at the ceiling. "This is the same Wizard you had to follow around, right?"
"Yup." Christopher wondered if he should give her advance warning about who that Wizard actually was. When Sarah had instructed him to tell Katrin about the Gala, she had implied he should not mention it due to their needing to discover it all on their own. But he also suspected that if he were to let it slip, it would be chalked up to sibling loyalty and easily forgiven. It wasn't an implicit instruction...
"What's he like?"
The question startled him out of his reverie. "What? Who?"
Katrin rolled her eyes. "The Wizard, of course. Is he competent? Trustworthy? Will he actually be helpful? Relate things to Their Majesties in a way that they will find judgment in Dad's favor?"
"Oh. Uh, he's cool I guess." I hadn't thought of him in that regards.
"That's it?"
"Well..." He racked his brain trying to come up with an answer that did not relate his analysis of Bill's character to compatibility with his sister.
Katrin's eyes narrowed. "You're hiding something."
Christopher tried to keep his expression from looking shifty. "No I'm not." How does she always know?
"Fine, don't tell me." She returned her gaze to the ceiling. "I'll find out eventually."
Yes... Yes you will. "Let's see, what else do you need to know..."
Bill sat across from Remus and Sirius in the kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. His long lunch between meetings was, unfortunately, not long enough to meet up with Katrin. Still, he needed to give an update to the Order as to the current mood at Gringotts and some other information he had uncovered. That done quickly enough, he settled in for a chat with the two men he considered friends as well as compatriots.
"And I just don't know what to do about her," Bill concluded.
"You would think she might have gotten the hint by now," Remus agreed.
"Is there someone else you can shove her toward?" suggested Sirius with a shrug.
"Shove her? What, like over a bridge? Come on, Padfoot."
"You know what I meant, Moony. Although that bridge idea might not be so bad."
Bill chuckled. They rarely used their childhood nicknames for each other when the entire Order was around. But when the conversation was vaguely playful, and they were around a select few, the two friends whose worlds had fallen apart around them returned to a happier time.
"I can't think of anyone who she might be interested in. Everyone I work with is either a Goblin or already taken. Or of questionable alliance and, for all her faults, Fleur is dedicated to the work we're trying to do. Unless one of you two is interested?"
Remus looked mildly panicked. Sirius just raised an eyebrow in disdain. "Please," he said. "What about Charlie?"
Bill shook his head. "Still in Romania. Not very convenient."
"It's interesting," Remus commented to Sirius, "how it is the inconvenience of Charlie's location not the girl herself that prevents him from going for that plan."
"Desperation like that is rather sad in a man," was the reply.
"You only say that because you are not the object of her affections." Bill sighed. "Very determined affections." He slumped back in his chair. The other two just laughed.
"And you say you've told her you're involved with someone else?" asked Remus.
"Several times a day. She usually just turns around in a huff and then goes all Veela. I think she's convinced that she'll eventually correct me in the error of my ways."
Sirius scratched his head. "I've never understood that about the female gender. As soon as they hit puberty they start trying to fix every male they come in contact with."
"Just because you experienced that several times in Sixth Year-"
"And Fifth." Sirius' voice was suspiciously indignant.
Remus smirked. "Of course. I'm just saying that it doesn't apply to everyone. Sometimes," he clasped Sirius on the shoulder, "you just have to let those old grudges die."
"Whatever. I still say Charlie's your best bet. Bring him up in conversation more."
"You could invite Katrin to lunch somewhere Fleur would see you two."
"Firstly, wouldn't that be mean? Secondly, Katrin doesn't know about all this." He waved his hand around.
Remus shrugged. "Well, naturally you wouldn't tell her about the Order."
Sirius looked at Remus out of the corner of his eye. "I sincerely hope you're being deliberately obtuse."
Remus shrugged again. "I am of the opinion that life is short. Too short these days. You should just tell her and get it over with. That way you can move on without secrets. We have too many secrets as it is."
"Smart as you are, wise as you are, it's a wonder you ever allowed James and me to be your friends." Sirius sighed.
For the third time, Remus shrugged. "That was the best decision I ever made."
"Stop being all mushy."
"Stop being all self depreciating."
Bill looked back and forth at the two and grinned. "Stop fighting like an old married couple. Or I'll recommend both of you to Fleur!" Sirius snorted and Remus grinned as well. "I think you're right, though."
"You'll pick Charlie?"
"No," Bill replied around a chuckle. "At least, not yet. I think I may just have to tell Katrin the truth."
"Do it at a nice restaurant. That way if she freaks out, she won't make a spectacle in public."
Remus turned in his chair and looked at Sirius. "Does that ever work the way it is supposed to?"
It was Sirius' turn to shrug. "So I've heard."
"I doubt that would work with her in any case. You forget she makes her living making a spectacle of herself. She's actually performing for tips in Muggle London on days we don't meet up."
"I have got to meet this girl. Doesn't sound like your typical Muggle."
Bill nodded. "That she's not."
"Hey," interrupted Remus, "does she do card tricks?"
"I don't think so, just plays music and sings."
"Too bad. I've always wanted to see card tricks done without magic."
Sirius gave Remus a slow, disturbed look. "Anyone would think you've been the one who lived as a recluse all these years."
Bill just laughed.
