The spy's web is starting to unravel. Time now to see if we can get it untangled the rest of the way,

If it hadn't been such a serious moment, it would have been kind of funny watching Steve gaping like a fish as he tried to wrap his head around what Bucky had just told him. "Kendall's the spy?" he finally said.

Bucky nodded. "It just came to me. When he did that thing with his glasses. He did it then, too, right before he cursed me."

Steve nodded, his surprise replaced by intense focus. "Okay," he said. "Okay." He looked back up at Bucky. "We need to get you to the infirmary."

"No, Steve, I'm not sick, I—" Bucky protested. They needed to find Phillips and they needed to find him now.

"I know," Steve interrupted. "But Kendall thinks you are. We need to get you there in case he decides to check on you. Oh, man, no wonder he's been looking at you funny this week!" he said, realization flashing across his face. "He didn't care that you might have been hurt, he was worried you would remember him."

Bucky growled. "I should've known something was weird about that." It seemed so obvious in hindsight.

"Come on," Steve said, grabbing his arm and hurrying towards the stairs. He stopped halfway up. "Wait. Maybe you'd be safer in Phillips' office."

Bucky was about to ask what he meant, but, oh, yeah, that's right, Kendall might still try to kill him if he suspected anything. Phillips' office probably was safer, but… "Yeah, maybe, but we can't get into Phillips' office. He's in class. You're right, let's go to the infirmary. Rains knows what's going on—she can get Phillips without looking too fishy."

"Yeah, you're right," Steve agreed, and then he was yanking Bucky up the stairs again.

Bucky stumbled along after him. "Slow down some, would you?" Yeah, he got that Steve was worried about him, but unless Kendall was following them up the stairs, it seemed unlikely he was going to try to kill him right this second. Bucky had no desire to get assassinated, but he didn't want to trip and slam face-first into the stairs either.

They burst into the infirmary, startling Nurse Rains and the little First-Year she was un-hexing, but after they shuffled off to the side and explained everything to her, solemn intensity quickly replaced her irritation.

"You're sure about this?" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am," Bucky replied. Now that the memory was back, he didn't think it was ever going to stop playing.

She nodded at the room he'd spent the weekend in. "In there," she told them. They went in and sat down, hearing her place some sort of locking charm on the door before she moved away.

"Wow," Steve breathed, sinking down to sit on the bed. "Professor Kendall."

"Yeah," Bucky agreed, sitting next to him. He didn't really know who he'd been expecting the spy to be, but it still seemed surprising. Although… "No wonder he seems to hate us so much. I always just thought he didn't like kids."

Steve looked at him, then burst out laughing. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry, that's, that's not funny."

Bucky smiled back. "It's a little funny."

"I wonder if anybody in Hydra likes kids?" Steve mused. "He may have been the best they had."

"How long do you think he's been Hydra?" Bucky wondered. "You think they turned him, or he's been theirs the whole time?"

"I don't know how long he was in the S.S.R. before he was here," Steve said. "I mean, he wasn't here long before stuff started going wrong."

Phillips burst into the room then, an out-of-breath Rains behind him. "With me," he barked, grabbing Bucky's arm and practically yanking him off the bed.

"Sir—" Bucky started, Steve hurrying along behind them.

"No talking!" Phillips ordered, and they hurried along quietly behind him, leaving Nurse Rains and a very wide-eyed First-Year who was still furry on one side of her face staring after them.

Phillips led them to his office, locking the door with several spells behind them. "I need to see it," he told Bucky, escorting him past the desk and chairs to the Pensieve in the far corner.

"Yes, Sir," Bucky nodded.

Phillips touched his wand to the side of Bucky's head, pulling away a wispy strand of memory that he directed to the Pensieve. At first, it appeared to sink into the watery contents of the bowl, then the liquid lit up with a flash of light and Bucky's memory started playing across the surface of it like a tiny movie screen.

It played out just as it had in Bucky's head: the argument on the radio, nodding at Gabe, walking into the lab. Kendall at the desk in the corner. The split-second of surprise on his face before his wand came up. Everything fading to black.

The expression on Steve's face was hard to decipher, but Phillips' face was scarier than Bucky had ever seen it. He wouldn't have been surprised if flames started shooting out of his ears. "That two-faced son of a—" One of the glasses on his desk behind them shattered and exploded, making both Steve and Bucky jump, though Phillips did not seem to notice.

Phillips whirled to face him. "Have you told anyone but Rogers about this?" he demanded.

"No, Sir," Bucky replied. "Just Nurse Rains."

Phillips waved that away. "Gwyneth can take care of herself. We'll have to act quickly, though. Once he knows we're on to him…"

"What do you want us to do?" Bucky asked.

"Stay here," Phillips responded.

"What?! No, Sir, we can—" Steve protested.

"No!" Phillips barked. "You two will be in more danger than anyone else in this castle once this blows up. He's not going to go quietly."

"We've been in dangerous fights before, Sir," Bucky pointed out.

Phillips almost smiled at that. "Yes, you have. But not this one."

"Sir—"

"No. I'm a Colonel. You're a Sergeant. That means you have to do what I tell you, and I'm telling you to stay here. You too, Captain," he added when Steve opened his mouth to argue some more. He drew in a deep breath. "You boys will have a piece of this before it's over, I promise you that, but not now. I'm not letting this traitor touch anyone else. Stay here."

Bucky suddenly understood. As their commanding officer, he had the right to tell them to stay here, but as their teacher, he had the duty to protect them. For all his grumbling, Bucky knew Phillips took the safety of his students incredibly seriously. And his students had been hurt and some had even been killed because of what Kendall had done. Phillips wasn't going to let it happen again. Bucky and Steve may have had parts to play, but this was his fight.

"Yes, Sir," Bucky said quietly. A quick glance at Steve told him Steve got it too.

"Be careful, Sir," Steve said.

A small smile curved up the corner of Phillips' mouth. "I'm not the one who needs to be careful."

Steve had always thought the dungeon levels of Hogwarts were called that because that's just what you called the lowest levels in a castle, but at least one part of it, all the way down and all the way back, contained a series of small, dark cells. If there hadn't been so many other things to worry about right now, Steve might have wondered why the school had ever needed that.

He still wasn't sure exactly what Phillips had done to catch Kendall. The other teachers had been warned and then some fake emergency staff meeting had been called so they could isolate Kendall and get him away from where he might hurt any students, but that was all Steve knew. Peggy had come to get the two of them about an hour after Phillips had left and brought them down to the dungeon. He'd been right—Kendall had put up a hell of a fight. Phillips was waiting for them in the dungeon, a bloody bandage over one eye. Howard was there too, bloody and pale-faced, and Nurse Rains was cradling her bandaged right hand—she'd been the one to remove the suicide capsule from his mouth, and had gotten bitten badly for her trouble, as well as burned by whatever the hell was inside the thing. They'd passed Perkins and Ellerton going up the stairs as they came down, and though they looked as though they'd been through the ringer, they were moving okay. Their own Head of House, Professor Sparks, had gone to St. Mungo's with Professor Marsh, who had taken a nasty curse to the leg and was in danger of losing it.

Kendall, Steve was pleased to see, didn't look like he'd done much better. He was sitting in the cell, hands chained to the desk in front of him, bloody and dirty and breathing like everything hurt. One leg was extended out in front of him stiffly, clearly of no use to keep him up if he had been standing, and his left arm hung in an awkward way that made Steve wonder if it was dislocated. His eyes were closed as he leaned his head back against the chair, though the lines in his face told Steve he was thinking furiously, worrying, not sleeping. A flickering haze of silver light spanned the length of the dungeon, cutting off the side Kendall was in and keeping him from crossing it, and it let them see in to him but kept him from seeing out.

Peggy was standing next to Steve, arms folded tightly across her chest. "I still can't believe you didn't tell me," she hissed.

"And when was I supposed to do that?" he snapped. They'd had this argument on the way down here. "Phillips locked us in his office."

"You could have come and got me out of class before you went to the infirmary," she countered.

"I'm sorry," he replied, sarcasm dripping from each word. "I guess I was thinking if I did anything to make Kendall suspicious, that he'd come after us and try to kill my best friend."

Peggy turned to him with a growl. "Don't you dare suggest that I don't care about what could have happened to Bucky. I—"

"Guys," Bucky cut them off wearily.

Peggy turned back to look at Kendall and Steve huffed and crossed his own arms. Why were they even fighting about this? They'd caught him, and there was a hell of a bigger picture to look at right now.

Phillips crossed the magical barrier, walking a little more stiffly than normal, and sat down in the chair opposite Kendall's. Kendall opened his eyes and sat up straighter. "Chester," he said coolly.

"Robert," Phillips replied. Silence for a moment. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Kendall smirked. "Took you long enough to catch me."

Phillips didn't rise to the bait. All the anger, the fury that had been on his face earlier was gone. It was replaced by a look of disappointment that, had Steve been the one on the receiving end of that, he would have preferred the anger. "Good people have died because of you. Probably even more than I know about. You're going to tell me everything."

"I am?"

A tiny smile flitted across Phillips' face; the most dangerous smile Steve had ever seen. "You are." The smile got bigger. "Don't play dumb, Robert; you may be a traitor, but you've been working with us for a while now. You know that when people want to know something, they call me."

Kendall's cool expression didn't falter, but he swallowed nervously. "I know," he said. "But, what, you expect to threaten me with your reputation and have me just spill everything?"

"No," Phillips replied. "I just wanted to remind you of it. I expect that I'm going to have to work hard to get the information I want. And I expect this is going to be the first time in a long time that I'm going to enjoy running an interrogation."

Kendall's unease was harder to hide this time. Good. Steve didn't really know what Phillips was going to do, but if it scared Kendall, Steve was okay with that. After everything he'd done…His team had nearly died in Zurich because Kendall had betrayed them, and then they'd nearly gotten killed again in Salzburg after he set them up. Arthur had died because Kendall had tipped Hydra off at the factory. Those guys from the 49th and the people from the 89th and 107th. The old couple at the inn in Zurich. And those were just the ones he was sure about. At this point, Steve wasn't above laying the death of every student who'd ever been caught in an ambush at Kendall's feet. Once you added in the people who'd been hurt on top of that…

Kendall composed himself, sat back in his chair. "You know, what with all the commotion, I never asked how you figured it out, but I think I can guess. It was the Barnes brat, wasn't it? He remembered." Phillips didn't respond, but Kendall shook his head. "I knew I should have just killed him when I had the chance."

Steve growled. He'd seen it, when they'd watched Bucky's memory. Before Kendall had decided on the Obliviate spell, in that split second of indecision, there had been a moment where he'd contemplated killing him. Steve had seen it in his eyes then, just as casual as he heard it in his voice now.

"Is he out there?" Kendall continued, nodding towards the silver barrier. "I know I would be." He turned his face towards the barrier, looking in their direction even though he couldn't see them. "Rogers too, I would imagine. That sanctimonious little whelp." Kendall turned back to Phillips. "There were times in class where you wouldn't believe the amount of self-control it took to keep from cursing him into oblivion," he said conversationally. "If nothing else, Chester, I admire your ability to have refrained from strangling him for the past six years."

Bucky snorted softly.

"What?" Steve asked, arching a curious eyebrow.

"So, we've confirmed that Kendall hates kids," Bucky said. "But you said something a while back about him hating you as much as he hates all the other students. I think he definitely hates you more."

Steve did huff a laugh at that. "Yeah, well, the feeling's mutual."

Phillips, again, did not respond, and Kendall looked a little annoyed about that, but he carried on. "Have you invited the rest of his group of misfits to watch as well?" Kendall wondered. Steve wasn't sure where the rest of the group was, actually, but they should be on their way. "For all that you're supposed to be one of the 'good guys', this is starting to feel rather like a blood sport, isn't it? Something like a public execution."

"Don't think I haven't ruled an execution out," Phillips said.

Kendall smiled in a very unnerving way at that. "I imagine an S.S.R. execution would be a very dull affair indeed. That's one of the problems with being one of the 'good guys'; you don't get to really enjoy something like that. Not in the way we do. A good execution is one of my favorite parts of the job," he said, rolling his head slowly to face the barrier again. "Did you know that, Miss Carter?" he said, that smile of his getting worse. "I assume you're out there too—a nosy little trollop like you would be drawn to something like this like a moth to a flame. Did you know how much I enjoy executions?" That grin was nothing short of evil now. "J'ai certainement apprécié le sien."

Steve didn't understand why Kendall had suddenly switched into French—and who was he talking about, that he'd enjoyed her execution?—but Peggy's eyes looked as though she was right on the brink of a revelation.

"Il est écrit dans les journaux qu'elle est morte dans son sommeil, mais nous avons dû tout nettoyer ensuite pour créer cette impression," Kendall went on, mockingly apologetic, and Steve heard Peggy's breath catch in her throat, her hands flying up to cover her mouth. The look in her eyes was nothing short of absolute horror.

"Peggy?" he asked worriedly.

"Pegs, what's wrong?" Bucky asked at the same time.

Kendall chuckled. "C'était lent et sanglant et absolument glorieux," he continued, clearly enjoying himself. "Et je n'aurais jamais pu le faire si ce n'était pour vous," he finished triumphantly, and Peggy swallowed convulsively and Steve was just in time to dart behind her and catch her as her knees gave out.

She made a noise like she was about the throw up and they made it just out the door and into the hallway before she vomited all over the floor. Steve didn't know what to do but hold her up and hold her hair out of her face. He looked up at Bucky, who looked just as worried as he did.

When she stopped throwing up, she closed her eyes and started to cry, shaking in Steve's arms, and he pulled her away from the mess and sat down against the wall, tugging her into his lap and tucking her head into his shoulder. He held her tightly as she cried, sharing worried glances with Bucky, who had Vanished the mess on the floor and was crouching next to them uncertainly. What the hell had Kendall done? Steve ran back over his words in his head, trying to see if he'd missed anything—Kendall had killed someone, had clearly enjoyed it, and had cleaned up what was evidently a messy death to make it look like an accident for the papers. But who had he killed, and why was he speaking French, and why the hell did he think Peggy had anything to do with it?

She only cried for a few minutes, but it seemed like an eternity as Steve sat there and rocked her and wondered what to do. She stopped crying and pulled in a deep, shaky breath, then another, a little steadier.

"Peggy?" he asked again, unable to keep the worry out of his voice.

"I'm alright," she said, sounding anything but.

"Peggy, what happened?" he asked.

She was quiet for a minute, clearly pulling herself together enough to speak.

"You want some water?" Bucky offered as the silence continued. He conjured a glass and magically filled it, holding it out to her. She accepted it with a nod, washing away the taste of vomit as she drank deeply. She looked calmer when she was done.

"It was him," she said flatly. "That mission with Damaris when I got stuck and had to spend the night in the trunk. He was the one I heard talking with Zola and Sauer, and he was the one—" She swallowed hard. "He was one of the ones we gave those memories to for analysis, because he was the Potions Master, and we thought he might be able to figure out what it was they spent the first part of the night talking about." She swallowed again. "He's the one that killed Damaris."

Steve felt a sick weight drop into his stomach. That was why he'd started speaking in French—to let Peggy know it was his voice she'd heard.

Tears were welling up in her eyes again. "I should have known that voice," she whispered. "He sounded different, but, argh!" she growled. "It's so obvious now. For a bloody year I've been—" Her voice caught in her throat. "I never recognized it, I—"

"Peggy, it isn't your fault," Steve said as she started to cry again.

"I hear him every day in class," she protested angrily.

"Speaking English," he pointed out gently.

"A year, Steve," she argued quietly. "A year. I—" She swallowed down a sob. "All those people that have gotten hurt, that have died, if I had just put it together earlier…"

"Listen to me," Steve said, placing a hand softly under her chin and tilting it up so she was looking at him. The pain swimming in her hazel eyes broke his heart. "It's not your fault," he said firmly. "You had no idea he could even speak French. Changing languages changes a person's voice so much. No one could have expected you to know it was him."

"He's just trying to get inside your head," Bucky said quietly, laying a hand on her shoulder. He smiled humorlessly. "That's what Hydra's good at. And that's all he has left now, because we caught him and he knows his time is up."

Steve nodded. "And we wouldn't've caught him without you."

"Bucky's the one who remembered," she said.

She looked like she wanted to believe them, but wasn't ready to absolve herself just yet. Steve got that. It was hard to let go of responsibility when things went wrong. He hugged her a little closer. "Yeah, but Peggy, you're the one who figured out there was a spy in the first place. We wouldn't've made it this far without you—hell, we wouldn't've even been looking for him. That's why he's going after you now."

She sniffed and nodded, her cheeks going pink. "I know," she said. "I know. He's—he's just getting into my head. I'm sorry, I…"

"Hey, it's okay," Steve said. He smiled gently. "Like Bucky said, Hydra's good at that."

She huffed a soft laugh. "Yeah." She shook her head. "I just…I can't help feeling I should have caught something before now."

"Just like all the rest of us," Steve said sympathetically. "We've all been here too, missing everything that seems embarrassingly obvious in hindsight."

"Tell me about it," Bucky agreed, getting a watery chuckle from Peggy. "You know how many times I've seen him do that stupid thing with his glasses?"

"We all missed stuff," Steve said. "But we've got him now."

"You're right," Peggy replied, wiping away the moisture in her eyes and leaving resolution in its place. She drew in a deep breath and nodded before smiling gratefully at both of them, then slid out of Steve's lap, standing up. "Let's go see what else we can get."

Back in the dungeon, Rains cast an evaluating eye over them before nodding and returning to her one-handed treatment of Howard, who seemed to be getting a little of his normal color back. Phillips and Kendall were still sitting across from each other on the other side of the barrier.

"Did we miss anything?" Steve asked.

Rains shook her head. "A bit more taunting and some very vulgar language on Kendall's part. They've only just started."

"Started what?" Bucky asked.

She nodded toward the two men who were sitting there quietly. "Legilimancy. Much nastier than it was with you, love," she said, patting Bucky once on the shoulder. "Professor Phillips has got to fight his way in this time. Kendall's an accomplished enough Occlumens to have some strong walls up, but Chester has no need to be delicate this time. I believe the metaphor of a sledgehammer would not be inappropriate."

Bucky winced at that description. "If what he did with me was delicate…" He shook his head, but he didn't look like he was feeling much in the way of sympathy. Steve certainly wasn't.

The rest of the Howlies showed up and were given a quick explanation of what had gone on so far. Rains conjured some chairs for them and called one of the house elves to bring them some dinner—they were going to be down here a long time.

"It was a great battle today. The young masters are unharmed?" Winston asked Steve and Bucky when he came back with food.

"Yeah, we're alright," Bucky said. He looked at Winston curiously. "Did you know about this?"

Winston smiled. "Sir must stop being so surprised. House elves is knowing many things." His smile vanished and he glared through the barrier. "Is a very bad man, that one. Very bad."

"You didn't…You didn't know he was bad before, did you?" Steve asked, hoping he didn't sound accusatory. He wasn't trying to be, but he knew house elves did hear a lot, and he knew there were some weird magical rules regarding what they could and couldn't do as far the people they worked for. It was possible they knew about Kendall and had been unable to say anything.

"No, Master Steve," Winston said, shaking his head, and he didn't seem offended. "But Winston heard much as the staff prepared to catch him, and the house elves was tasked with keeping students away from the fight." He shook his head again. "A very bad man."

"Well, hopefully he won't be hurting anybody else now," Bucky said.

"Good," Winston replied. He nodded over at Peggy. "Mistress Peggy is well? She is looking ill."

"She's…She's okay," Steve said. "Kendall just…said some stuff that upset her."

"Mm," Winston replied. He looked very unhappy, and Steve wondered what exactly he'd overheard. "Winston shall speak to Willow when he is going back to the kitchens."

"I don't think Peggy wants to sleep through this," Bucky told him.

Winston laughed a little at that. "Willow works with many herbs, Master Bucky. She has many more things than just for sleeping." He bowed and left, returning not much later with a cup and speaking with Peggy in low tones. She smiled and accepted the cup, and her color seemed to return after she drank it.

Inside the barrier, the battle of wills continued. Phillips did not seem to be hampered by the fact that he was temporarily down an eye. Like with Bucky, they both sat still, hardly moving. Unlike with Bucky, when one of them did twitch or gasp, it was much more dramatic. Steve supposed the reactions were bigger because the stakes were higher. And Kendall was fighting Phillips off, wasn't he? Bucky had let him in.

No one really said much as the evening wore on, as though they were worried any talking might distract Phillips, even though he couldn't hear them in there. All of them snapped to attention as Phillips let out an audible wince and recoiled slightly, though he didn't break eye contact with Kendall. Blood started dripping from his nose.

"That can't be good," Gabe muttered.

"Should we do something?" Steve asked, looking up at Nurse Rains, who looked discouragingly worried.

She shook her head. "Nothing we can do," she said quietly, though her fingers on her good hand tightened around her wand.

They all watched anxiously for another minute, then Phillips growled and a small, triumphant smile split his face—a smile that was made rather alarming due to the blood that continued to drip from his nose and was staining his now-bared teeth. "You didn't think it would be that easy, did you, boy?" they heard him snarl. Kendall cried out and clasped his good hand to the side of his head, and Phillips' smile got a little wider. "Nice try, though."

The look on Kendall's face now reminded Steve a little bit of how Bucky had looked the week before when he sat across from Phillips, with that wide-eyed inability to look away. But where Bucky had looked sad and a little nervous, Kendall looked terrified. Phillips' face was concentrated and determined, and none of them dared to stop watching now.

They sat that way a little longer, then with another cry, Kendall slumped forward onto the table, pulling his arm up over his head and curling into as much of a ball as he could manage while chained to the table. Phillips got to his feet and stalked toward the barrier, dashing a hand across his face to wipe away the offending blood. "Vials," he snapped at Rains as soon as he was through.

"Just let me—" she began, reaching up a hand towards his head.

"Now!" he barked, and she turned and grabbed a handful of glass vials from the table behind her.

"What is he doing?" Steve whispered, not wanting to interrupt, but not understanding what was happening. It looked like Phillips was copying memories out of his head, but Steve didn't understand the rush, or why he'd be copying his own memories instead of Kendall's.

"You can't copy someone's memory unless they let you," Jim said quietly. "But whatever he did in there…" He grimaced. "He saw something of Kendall's that he wants to keep. He saw it, so it's his memory now too, but stuff like that, I think you have to copy pretty quickly or else it loses clarity. It's not actually his, so his brain's not gonna store it right to keep long-term."

"Oh," Steve replied. He shot a glance back into the cell at Kendall, who remained in his protective little ball. He wondered what Phillips had seen.

"Alright," Phillips said, setting the vials back down on the table, each one now full of shimmery silver memories. "Do you have the Veritaserum?" he asked Rains.

"Yes, but you're not having it just yet," she said quietly. "I need a look at you first."

"Gwyneth, the state he's in—" Phillips started.

"The state he's in will keep!" she snapped back. She lowered her voice, and Steve could see his friends watching the two of them curiously, and he realized his enhanced hearing was giving him the ability to hear what they couldn't. "You can't pretend he didn't hurt you in there, and I need to make sure it's stopped before you go in there and do any more damage, you great idiot!"

Steve didn't think he'd ever heard anyone call Phillips names where he could hear them, and to his very great surprise, the fire in Phillips' face died down and he smiled softly. "Fine. But do it quick."

Rains started waving her wand around Phillips' head and muttering spells softly. Steve turned away, suddenly feeling like he was watching something personal.

"Did he really do that to you?" Jim was asking Bucky, nodding at Kendall.

Bucky shook his head. "Not near as bad. He was actually being careful with me." He turned towards Steve, and Steve could tell he was thinking about what Rains had said then, that there were other things they could have done to find the memory they wanted, but they were things that would have hurt him. It would seem this was what she'd meant. Steve shuddered.

Jim asked Bucky some more about what Phillips had done with him, while Dugan was explaining Legilimancy in more detail to an impressed-looking Gabe and Monty, so Steve turned to where Peggy was sitting on his other side, arms crossed and staring thoughtfully into the cell. "Are you feeling any better?" he asked her.

She nodded, still looking at Kendall. "I am. I'm just…going back over things. Figuring out where he came into everything—he wasn't involved in all the missions, but I'm putting together how he learned about them."

Steve nodded. "Hey, um, listen…" He sighed. "I'm sorry. For getting all…snappy with you. I was just, I was all on edge from knowing he was out there and not knowing what was going on with the fight and worrying that he was still gonna come after Bucky or something. And I know you…" He knew Peggy had been taking this whole thing personally since what happened to Damaris. He knew she'd been working hard for over a year to try to nail him down. Of course she was gonna get mad when she felt like she was being cut out of the loop. "I know this is real important to you, and I wasn't trying to cut you out of anything by not going back in for you. I just…"

Peggy smiled at him softly. "You had to act quickly and you were just doing the best you could in the moment."

"Yeah, well, I didn't have to be a jerk about it afterwards. I'm sorry."

She leaned her head over on his shoulder. "I'm sorry too. I'm afraid I got rather more focused on my ego than on the big picture." Her cheeks were faintly pink. "I'm very angry about a lot of things right now, but you're not actually one of them."

Steve smiled down at her. "Forgive and forget?" he offered.

"Deal," she replied, kissing him quickly on the cheek.

"It's an interrogation, guys, is it really the time?" Bucky asked, an eyebrow going up when Steve kissed her back.

"Shut up," Steve told him, then kissed her one more time just because he could.

Bucky rolled his eyes, but he smiled before turning back to watch the cell. Rains had finished with Phillips' head, and he was heading back to Kendall's table for another round.

Kendall sat up abruptly when Phillips sat down across from him again, and there was an unhinged wildness in his eyes. Not a frightening kind, but a frightened kind, and Bucky swallowed an uncomfortable knot back down into his stomach. He didn't know what the hell Phillips had done inside Kendall's head, but just the thought that he could have done it to Bucky if he'd wanted to made him a little queasy.

He didn't hear what Phillips leaned across the table and whispered to Kendall, but evidently it was enough to make him take the Veritaserum voluntarily. If his choice was that or Phillips going back in his head again, Bucky could see why he chose the potion.

Bucky had never seen anyone under the influence of Veritaserum before. He knew it made you tell the truth, but he didn't know how. Did it all just come spilling out, or did it just mean he couldn't lie, but didn't actually have to say anything? It turned out to be a mixture of both. Kendall didn't speak until Phillips asked a question, but he would answer very thoroughly after he did.

"Let's start at the beginning," Phillips said. "How long have you been with Hydra?"

"Nine years," Kendall replied. "Before I started working for the S.S.R."

"Nine years is longer than the war's been going on," Dugan whispered.

Peggy shrugged. "Grindelwald was around well before that, doing what he's doing now on a much smaller scale. And Hydra came out of that, so…"

"What was your original assignment?" Phillips asked.

"Gathering information," Kendall said. "Whatever I could find, initially, but as the S.S.R. started developing science of its own, I was instructed to specialize in potion and spell development, since that was my field. So, naturally, when the time came to replace Dr. Erskine, I was set up to be the obvious choice."

For the first time, Bucky saw something that might be classified as 'unsettled' flicker across Phillips' face. "You were involved in that assassination?" he asked carefully.

"Not directly," Kendall replied. "There was a standing order that it would happen once the formula was complete and appeared to be successful. I knew it was coming, but I had to be well out of it if I was going to be considered as his replacement. I was hoping for his full responsibilities, of course, but then, Mr. Stark was there to head up the research side of things. Which meant I was relegated to teaching, and I just…" He shook his head. "I absolutely loathe children, but I was prepared for the possibility, and it was worth it for the information I would have access to. Hogwarts is a very useful place for someone like me, whether I'm actually involved in research and development or not."

Steve shifted uncomfortably in his chair as Kendall talked about Erskine's death. He had been there, Bucky knew. Had held Erskine in his hands and watched him die. Phillips took a moment before speaking again, and Bucky wondered, for the first time, how he'd taken Erskine's death.

"Alright," Phillips said. "Before Hogwarts. What did you do for seven and a half years? What did you pass on, and what did you screw up?"

Kendall began listing specific things he'd done. The names and places didn't mean anything to Bucky, not from that long ago. Bucky knew the truth serum was what was making him so forthcoming, but Bucky did wonder a little bit that he wasn't fighting it, or that he'd even accepted it in the first place. It occurred to him as Kendall carried on his recitation that it might have been a survival tactic—unable to do the normal Hydra suicide thing, Kendall was now a liability. Hydra would want to kill him as soon as they knew he'd been caught, so spilling enough to keep himself from getting executed was probably his only shot at staying alive.

The list of Kendall's interference went on for some time, and though Bucky did try to pay attention, he drifted in and out some—it was getting late and he was tired, and he didn't actually know what anything was that Kendall was talking about. But then he heard the word 'Azzano'.

"What did he just say?" Bucky asked, sitting up a little straighter. He wasn't imagining it. Gabe had heard it too, and Jacques. All of them, actually, were staring through the barrier in wide-eyed trepidation.

"It was just before my posting at Hogwarts," Kendall explained. "Though, of course, I had no way of knowing that at the time. But this student soldier initiative, it was such a new thing. Everyone at the Ministry and in the S.S.R. was all up in arms about it. It was easy to get a conversation going about it, and it was easy enough to get information about those teams—especially since they weren't supposed to be doing anything dangerous. No one at Hydra was worried about them, actually, since they weren't doing anything overly important. But I knew where they were, and so when Schmidt put it out that he needed more workers at the Azzano factory, I gave him the list. Of course, he took more than students in that sweep, but…" He trailed off with a small smile.

Bucky didn't realize he had stopped breathing until Steve's face appeared in front of his, and it took some effort to make out what he was saying over the rushing noise suddenly in his ears.

"Bucky?" Steve said. His hands were gripped firmly around Bucky's shoulders. "Bucky, just breathe, okay?"

It took several tries for Bucky to be able to pull a breath in, and all his other senses seemed to rush back online when he did. The rushing noise in his ears stopped and he could hear the pounding of his own heart, and he could feel the shivers running down his spine and the way his hands and his arms and his legs and…just everything was shaking.

"It was him," Bucky whispered. "That son of a—" A sob choked off his words and suddenly he was crying, and he didn't know if they were tears of rage or of pain, but they burned and there was no stopping them, and Steve just pulled him in against his chest and let him let them out.

When Bucky was able to stop, he looked up and realized they were out in the corridor again. He didn't remember coming out here, but he didn't really care right now. "It was him, Steve," he said, his voice not entirely steady yet. "He sold us out. Everything I—" Everything that had happened to him, everything Zola had done. Every minute of that hell had been because of Robert Kendall. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, refusing to allow any more tears to fall.

He felt Steve nod. "Yeah," he said, and that was all he seemed able to say. They just stood there for a minute, and somehow, Steve's anger made Bucky feel better about it. He wasn't alone in this—he never had been, but this was a very tangible reminder of that that he could feel practically rolling off of Steve. Kendall had sold him out and Hydra had beat him down, but Steve had gotten him out and pulled him back up again.

"I'm gonna kill him," Steve said. "Even if that was the only thing he did…" He shook his head. "That's more than enough." His eyes were distant, haunted with visions from a year and a half ago, and this time it was Bucky pulling Steve into a hug, his turn to reassure and ground him.

When they went back into the room, Bucky noticed was that he wasn't the only one to have reacted badly to Kendall's confession. The air was humming with tense, angry magic, and someone had broken one of the chairs. Everyone was just standing there now, though, pulling themselves together and glaring furiously through the barrier.

Kendall had now reached the part of his confessional that aligned with the timeline Bucky was familiar with. He'd been assuming that the first time that Kendall had messed with something their team was involved in was in Germany with Damaris and Sauer and Peggy in the trunk, and he was surprised to learn that wasn't true. The first thing Kendall had done that screwed things up for the Howling Commandos directly—aside from getting them all dragged off to the factory—was in France, what had been only their second mission. They'd gone to extract Guillaume, who'd turned from Hydra and was willing to deal, but they'd gotten jumped mid-mission.

"It was Guillaume we were after at that point," Kendall said. "The men we sent in were supposed to have killed him already before the children showed up. Had we realized at the time what a nuisance they were going to turn out to be, we would have had them wait and ambush the lot of them. They almost managed to pull it off anyway, but…" He sighed. "Those little boys of yours are certainly effective, I'll give them that."

"Little boys," Dugan huffed. Jacques snorted in offended agreement.

"He's really been screwing with us for that long…" Bucky sighed. He remembered that mission. They'd barely made it out of that one alive, and he'd had to take over when Steve went down.

Steve was frowning. "That was a long time ago," he said thoughtfully. "Was that when you made me get the helmet?"

Bucky shook his head. "The one after that. Although, you did spend about two-thirds of this mission heavily concussed." He wasn't surprised Steve was fuzzy on the details. He'd been in terrible shape.

Kendall had continued to pass information on to Hydra after that, and his next big play had been France again and Mueller's house in Avignon. That one was a mission Bucky didn't remember much of—he'd been beaten half to death and spent most of the time unconscious.

"I should have known better than to trust a Muggle to get the job done," Kendall snorted. "With that defense spell we set up for him, we were practically handing them over on a silver platter. And they're children, for goodness' sake! The staggering amount of incompetence it takes to be brought down by a bunch of teenagers…"

Phillips smiled at that. "Oh, they've brought down bigger fish than that."

"Is he…" Gabe sat up a little straighter, pointing towards the barrier. "Is he proud of us?"

"He's always been proud of you," Nurse Rains said from the corner, a soft smile on her face.

Bucky had known that, kind of, when he'd gotten his letter with his Sergeant's stripes, but actually hearing it made something warm and happy purr contentedly in his chest.

"And speaking of being brought down by a bunch of teenagers," Phillips went on. "Remind me again who it was that got you?"

Peggy snorted at that, a vindictive smile flashing across her face. Kendall didn't seem to have a response to that.

"It wasn't long after that you killed the girl," Phillips said, getting Kendall back on track. Peggy's smile vanished, her expression going cold. "It had been nearly two months by then. Why wait that long?"

"Well, you didn't pass those memories on to me right away, did you?"

Phillips nodded at that. "And when we asked you for a scientific analysis of the conversation, I'm guessing you lied?"

"Naturally."

"Why didn't Sauer kill the girl? Why did you have to do it?"

"Just so that we're clear on terminology, I got to do it," Kendall corrected. He smiled at the memory, and Bucky swallowed down the urge to vomit. How sick was that? "As to the why," Kendall continued. "Would you believe it was a spell? Of course, it would have been more expedient for Sauer to do it himself, but years back, when he took the girl in, he'd made an Unbreakable Vow to her mother that he would look after her. How was he to know she'd grow up to be on the wrong side?"

"And having her murdered didn't break that vow?" Phillips asked.

"You really have to appreciate the technicalities of a spell like that, Chester. You've always been so literal. Yes, Sauer, obviously could do no harm to her himself, but all he had to do was not be there. Had he been there, the spell would have obliged him to protect her, but there's nothing he can do if he isn't home." That smile was back again. "True, knowing a plan was in motion to kill her was pushing things a little bit, but we kept the date from him so that he would legitimately not know until it was too late."

"That's just sick," Gabe said, watching them in disgust. "He was really cool with letting people murder his own granddaughter?"

Peggy's lip was curled up in a snarl. "She was terrified of him," she said. "And if you had heard some of the things he said that night…" She shook her head. "Can't say I'm surprised."

Bucky didn't have time to think too much about all of that (and he was okay with that) because Kendall was talking again.

"After you put these 'Howling Commandos' together," he was saying. "Our focus as far as student teams went was mostly on them as they became a bigger threat, but this whole business of destroying the factories was really starting to concern Schmidt. I received orders to make them aware of any attacks being planned on Hydra factories, no matter who was carrying them out. And the first one was—"

"Zagreb," Phillips cut him off, already knowing the answer.

"Zagreb," Steve mouthed at the same time. Bucky caught the tremor in his throat as he swallowed down a knot of emotion. The factory outside of Zagreb had been where Arthur had died. Steve shook his head, closing his eyes briefly. Bucky could tell what he was thinking—he knew there was a spy in the ranks, he should have been prepared for an ambush. Bucky moved over so that his arm was against Steve's, leaning into him reassuringly. Steve had clocked the ambush and alerted the rest of them to it. A lot more than Arthur would have died if he hadn't.

"Zagreb," Kendall agreed. He snorted. "For all the good that did. I give them all the warning in the world, and they manage to kill one stupid kid."

Steve jerked like he was trying to swallow down the urge to vomit or yell or just jump across the barrier and strangle Kendall, and Bucky grabbed his arm. "Don't let him get in your head, Stevie," he said softly. "He's just trying to wind us up." Yeah, Bucky would have liked to jump in there and throttle Kendall himself, but keeping Steve calm helped him keep his head.

Phillips' face was carefully expressionless, and his voice was low and flat and frightening. "His name was Arthur Collins," he said quietly. "And he was a better man than you could ever hope to be."

Whatever snappy retort Kendall probably had to that died in his throat. He swallowed a couple of times before continuing. "Schmidt wasn't happy with that. He slaughtered everyone who survived the attack, he was so furious. Then again at the factory in Belgium, same thing. Thankfully, he at least couldn't fault my intel—it was sound, even if the morons at the factories couldn't seem to do anything useful with it. Thankfully, too, when the children continued to be successful, I was safely here and far away from his wrath. After that, he demanded as much information about student fighting groups as he could get, so I passed on everything I could. We started getting more that way…"

Jim's old unit, the 49th, had been the first one where they'd successfully 'gotten more'. Three students: Michael, Roddy and Stewart. Bucky used to play Quidditch with Michael. He'd been on Peggy and Dugan's team.

"…And while we never seemed to be able to nail down your boys out there," Kendall continued, nodding towards the barrier and where they were standing behind it. "At least we were seeing results. The students we have been able to get since then were at least enough to appease Schmidt's wrath somewhat." Bucky felt that nausea that Kendall was so good at creating stirring in his stomach again. People had died because of him. Schoolmates of Bucky's—some he knew and some he didn't, but either way, the fact that Kendall actually sounded happy about it was just…He didn't really have the vocabulary for how disgusting that was.

"The seemingly untouchable nature of your boys continues to infuriate him, however," Kendall pointed out. "And if they keep getting in his way, I wouldn't be surprised if he tries something drastic soon."

Bucky didn't really like the sound of that. On the one hand, sure, it felt good to know they were pissing Schmidt off. But on the other hand, if what they'd seen from him so far wasn't considered drastic, well, that couldn't be good.

"We decided perhaps we should make a more concerted effort to stop the boys," Kendall continued. "A more targeted attack. That was where Gray came in, in Zurich, and oh, he got close. Since I have no choice but to be honest here, I have to admit myself begrudgingly impressed by the team's tenacity in that incident, and by Rogers in particular. I'd still like to tear his liver out through his throat, but the fact that he actually got them out of that was…" He shook his head. "Erskine really did a fantastic job with him."

"It wasn't all Erskine," Phillips told him. Bucky didn't think he'd ever heard Phillips be so bluntly complimentary before, and he smiled and nudged Steve in the arm when Steve' mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Oh, bloody hell," Peggy whispered.

"What?" Steve asked.

"Kendall made the Polyjuice Potion for us for that mission. That one was so secret, I couldn't figure out how he knew about it."

"He was in the infirmary too," Steve said, horrified realization slamming into place on his face. He looked like he'd been hit by a truck.

"What do you mean?" Bucky asked.

"I was the only one still awake when we came back, but Kendall was there, with Phillips and Rains. I actually…" He swallowed hard. "He did potions and medicines and things and I thought…I actually asked Ethan to get him." He looked like he was about to be sick.

"Hey, don't worry about it, Cap," Dugan said. "You didn't know, we're all alive, and, hey, he wouldn't have dared to try anything with Rains and Phillips right there anyway."

"You're bloody well right he wouldn't," Rains said vehemently from behind them. They looked back at her and she smiled. "Not much can be said in way of character reference for the man, but he at least knows better than that."

They were very nearly up to the present day now, with Kendall detailing the set up in Salzburg. Peggy's face was cold as she listened, and Bucky figured she was still pretty sore about falling for the whole thing, no matter how much anyone told her it wasn't her fault. Steve's face was hard too, but carefully devoid of emotion. Bucky wondered if he was thinking about what Zwart had done to him after he'd gotten caught, or if he was forcing himself not to, and just listening—something Bucky was having trouble doing. He could still hear the way Steve's shield had spun on the floor before falling with an unnaturally loud clatter right before he vanished, and the frightened little whimpers Steve had made as he cringed away from Bucky in the chair he'd been locked into. He could still see the burn across Steve's chest, so deep it was showing signs of infection even with as fast as Steve healed, the bloody gash across his cheek that had missed his eye by millimeters, and the needle stabbing into Steve's neck and pumping him full of God only knew what. He could still feel how cold Steve's skin was, how he flinched away no matter where Bucky touched him because everything hurt, and the terrified wave of nausea in his own gut whenever he looked into Steve's sick, lost eyes.

"I'm alright, Buck," he heard Steve's voice say, a large shoulder brushing up against his. "You got me out. I'm okay."

Bucky had gotten Steve out. It didn't matter how big the little punk got, he was never going to stop being Bucky's brother, and it was always going to be Bucky's job to look out for him and get him out of whatever trouble he got himself into. And he had. Bucky had saved him. Steve was okay now. He was okay.

Bucky nodded. "How mad do you think Phillips would be if I walked in there and clobbered Kendall in his smart mouth?"

"He'd probably let it slide," Peggy allowed.

It was tempting, but Bucky stayed where he was.

"Then, of course, Romania, where everything just fell apart, didn't it?" Kendall said.

"How did you find out the team was there?" Phillips asked. "We didn't tell anyone about that mission."

"The outer barrier spell. Mr. Morita was clever enough to figure out a way through, which I would not have expected, but it did send out a signal it was being interfered with."

Jim's eyes went wide. "Crap," he whispered. "I didn't know it did that." He turned to Bucky, remorse splashed across his face. "Sarge, I'm so sorry, I—"

"Don't worry about it," Bucky told him, and he meant it. "You're not the one who erased my memory. And while having that happen sucked, ultimately, it led to us catching him. No harm, no foul."

Jim didn't look entirely convinced, but he nodded.

"Since no one knew about the mission, no one knew how big of a force was invading," Kendall explained. "If Schmidt had known it was just the boys, he would have sent soldiers after them and put an end to them. But, again, not knowing that, he decided removal of critical information was best. I was the first available operative with knowledge of the layout of the house and the secret entrances, so he sent me."

"And what did you take?" Phillips asked.

Bucky leaned forward interestedly, and he felt the rest of them doing the same. Whatever it was was important enough to risk sending Kendall in there while the house was being searched, and was what had set this whole thing off.

Kendall smiled like he'd won a point. "I'm afraid I can't tell you that."

Phillips arched an eyebrow. "You want me to go back in there?" he asked, nodding at Kendall's head.

"I would really rather you didn't," Kendall said quickly. The serum must still be working—Bucky had thought Kendall's refusal to tell him might mean it was wearing off. "No, I can't tell you what I took because I don't know. Being the closest available agent doesn't mean I knew the details of what I was getting—I was just given instructions on what to grab, and there was hardly time for me to read through it. Erasing the Barnes boy's memory of meeting me was a split-second strategic decision, but I had a little more time to think afterwards. I knew there was a risk to leaving him alive, so I didn't look at anything I retrieved, just got it back to Schmidt, and then erased my own memory of getting it, just in case." He chuckled. "I have no idea what I took."

Bucky's eyes went wide at the statement. "He erased his own memory?" He looked at Jim. "Can you even do that?"

"I guess," Jim said. "You'd have to be real careful about it."

"Dude," Gabe breathed, shaking his head.

"Can't Phillips get at it, like he did with you?" Monty wondered.

"I have no doubt you'll try digging for it," Kendall went on, answering Monty's question. "But I think you'll find it rather harder to get to, if you can get to it at all. I wasn't in as much of a rush as I was with young Mr. Barnes, and was able to be much more thorough."

Phillips stared at him for a long minute, then nodded. "I'm sure you were. But we've got some Legilimens on payroll that can make our little dance look like a tea party. You might be looking forward to some quality alone time with the Dementors by the time they're done with you." He stood and left Kendall where he was, crossing back over to their side of the barrier. "Alright, boys," he sighed, looking them over. "I think that's enough for tonight."

"What happens next, Sir?" Steve asked.

"Next," Phillips replied. "He goes back to Auror Headquarters to be made to give a recount of his actions there. Nine years working for Hydra…He's hurt a lot more people than just the S.S.R. He'll be interrogated, a lot, and someone more skilled than me will dig around in his head, see if they can't find what he erased."

Bucky grimaced at that. It hardly bore thinking about what someone even better at Legilimancy than Phillips could do.

"What's left of him will be shipped off to Azkaban, while we sort through all his evidence and try to undo what damage we can. If he survives till we get that done, there'll be a trial. You boys will, no doubt, be called to give evidence."

Steve looked at Bucky, then the rest of the team, and they all nodded. "We can do that," Steve said.

"Gladly," Bucky put in.

"Good," Phillips said. He sighed again. "That's all going to take a while, though. In the meantime, get some rest, then we'll get back to work and see what we can't get done now that that little weasel is out of the way."

He moved back over to the corner to talk with Rains, and they all began the slow trudge up the stairs. It felt a little anticlimactic, just going to bed after all that. But there wasn't much else to be done right now, and there was something very satisfying in knowing that Kendall wasn't going to be hurting anyone else.

Once they made it a few levels up to where there was a window, they realized it was well after dawn. It had been a very long night, and Bucky knew Kendall had just been hitting the highlights in his confession. It was going to take those Auror guys a long time to go through everything, and he was suddenly very glad that that wasn't his job and that he got to go to bed.

Back in the Hufflepuff dorm, Bucky, Steve and Jacques had just finished changing into their pajamas when there was a soft knock at the door and Winston appeared, holding a tray with three mugs on it. "Good morning, young masters," he greeted, quietly, in deference to Dave and Morris, who were still asleep. "Nurse Rains has sent this with instructions for you to drink it before you go to sleep."

"Sleeping potion?" Steve asked, arching a skeptical eyebrow.

Winston nodded. "Yes, Master Steve. She has also given Winston clear instruction that he is in no way permitted to leave the dorm until you has each had some. Winston was given instructions to mind you specifically in this regard."

Jacques chuckled to himself and Bucky laughed as Steve huffed indignantly. "Oh, she's got your number, Stevie."

"Why does she just assume I'm going to fight?" he protested.

"Because she's got six years of you being a little snot to back her up," Bucky said, picking up one of the cups Winston was offering. It had been a long week, and a very long night, but after everything they'd heard, Bucky's mind was racing. He didn't have any objections to getting some distance between himself and Kendall's crimes and getting a good, long night (or day, as the case may be) of sleep. Judging by the way Steve didn't actually argue and downed a cup of his own, he was feeling the same way.

"Thanks, Winston," Bucky said, setting his empty cup down on the tray. He could feel sleep rushing through his veins and weighing his limbs down, and he crawled into bed and nestled down into the covers.

"Thanks," Steve repeated with a yawn. Jacques was already asleep.

"Sleep well, young masters," Winston said, smiling and bowing as he left the room. "Sleep well."

So the spy is finally down for the count. Time for our team to get some well-deserved rest, then see if they can't get some good work done with Kendall out of the way. See you Friday! I'd love to hear what you're thinking of the story!