Don't own anything recognisable from JK Rowling's Harry Potter books

Chapter 7.

The Meeting.

Severus looked around him. His black eyes widened to take in all he could about his surroundings, he would have to tell Albus all about them later.

He realised he was in front of an old deserted house. It was a two-storey house with an old rotten door propped to one side of the porch. Some of its windows looked like angry smiles, the jagged edges of broken glass reminiscent of pointed teeth, and other windows were just boarded over. The walls were a kind of blacky-green from the muck and a plant. The plant (it looked like some sort of creeper) encompassed and held the rotting walls together, it also attracted many sorts of unpleasant insects and creatures.

'Including Death Eaters!' Thought Severus sarcastically.

Apart from the house Severus couldn't see anything, the darkness of the night prevented him, and he didn't want to cast "Lumos" in case the other Death Eaters saw it.

"Severus!" He heard a sly rasp coming from the porch of the house and, coming out of the shadows, he saw a blonde man leaning against one of the walls.
"Avery." Severus growled in acknowledgement.

"Pretty nice place, huh?" The blonde man smiled repulsively. "The meeting is inside. Come on."

He walked inside the house, and Severus followed him hoping that this would be a short meeting. The last one lasted what seemed like days, and took all his strength.

Going from a dank dingy hallway, they entered a room at the front of the house.

In it a fire had been lit and it cast dancing shadows on the faces of the other Death Eaters, at least those who had their faces uncovered.

Severus noticed one figure lurking at the back of the room. They were avoiding the other Death Eaters and had a long hood on covering their face. Scanning the room he could not find anyone he knew missing, so this person was newly introduced to the group. He would have to mention that to Albus, any new Death Eater would be a potential threat, especially if Severus couldn't recognise them.

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

After returning to his room and vomiting, Severus called Albus to his room. Albus arrived wearing his stripy red nightshirt and a matching hat. He looked like a barbershop pole.

"I just went to a Death Eater's meeting." He said, before sinking onto his bed in exhaustion.

Albus lit the fire in Severus' room and watched him as he gathered all his strength and staggered over to a cupboard in the corner of his room. There he ran through various bottles and jars before settling on a couple and drinking from them.

The grey colour on Severus' face disappeared, and the usual pale colour returned. He turned back to Albus.

"Because you called me as soon as you returned I presume you have some information." Albus asked in his usual calm way, sucking on a piece of butterscotch. (He had got bored of Lemon Drops over the holidays. Pat suggested trying butterscotch, and he loved it!). Inside Albus was a turmoil of emotions.

'Severus approached me to get away from the Death Eaters. I can't expect him to carry this on much longer.'  He thought worriedly, looking at Severus' face, which was ravaged with exhaustion.

"There was someone at the meeting who I didn't recognise." Severus said tiredly.

Albus leaned forward in his chair. "Was it someone new? Or have they changed cells. I didn't think Voldemort let any of his collection do that." He began to muse, but was brought back by the look of desperation on Severus' face. "Can you give me a description?"

Severus shook his head. "No. They were masked."

Albus stroked his beard thoughtfully, a myriad of ideas running through his head. (Some of them not even connected to the Death Eater meeting, like 'I wonder if butterscotch coated Lemon drops taste nice?')

"Lets not get too worked up at the moment…"

(Severus looked at Albus in disgust, as if to say 'I never get worked up about anything!')

 "… we need more information about this person. If you could work out who it was…" Albus trailed off in thought.

Severus nodded curtly. "At the next meeting I shall find out who it is."

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

Harry smiled at Professor Phaon as she came out of her room just as he passed it.

"Morning Professor!" He said cheerfully.

She nodded briskly, and continued swiftly down the corridor.

She was in such a preoccupied mood, that she didn't notice Harry quickly putting a stone in between her door and the doorframe.

He continued another couple of steps and, after checking that she had gone, gave a whistle. Ron and Hermione appeared from round the other corridor. They nodded at each other checking that each person knew what the other had to do.

Hermione walked to the corner Katrina had just disappeared round, she was to keep guard.

Ron stood by the door of Katrina's room and held the door open. He was to warn Harry if anyone was coming.

Harry headed towards her bedroom and looked around. He was looking for a hairbrush (this would give them a hair for the DNA), and then something personal of hers.

He found her hairbrush on her dresser; he plucked a few hairs from it and stuffed them into a bag he had brought.

Then he looked around. This was going to be harder than he thought.

All he could see were piles of books. Some of them left open at pages, others covered in dust on tables, shelves. The usual décor of the room hadn't been changed at all; no paintings or posters had been put on the wall. The bedspread on her crumpled bed was a pale blue, which looked dreadful compared to the dark green walls. There were a couple of plants on the window ledge, a cactus and a violet. Other than that he couldn't see anything.

"Hurry up!" The agitated stage whisper came through the door.

Harry started to ruffle through her drawers, but there was nothing personal. Hermione had suggested something like a photo or an item of jewellery, but Harry couldn't see anything like that. He headed back towards the lounge.

"Oh!" Harry exclaimed as he tripped over in the lounge part of the apartment. He looked back at the chair he had been passing and saw a small black box placed underneath it.

Picking up the box he looked closer, it had no apparent opening. He turned it over and over, but still nothing.

"Ron!" He whispered towards the door. "Get Hermione in here! I need her!"

There was a silent flurry of activity from outside the room, and then Hermione entered.

"Look at this!" Harry exclaimed passing her the box. "I can't open it!"

She turned it over in her hands and muttered to herself for a moment. "It appears to be a puzzle box." She said, and then looking at it closely she pushed a side of it away.

It slid to reveal another box.

"You have to push the sides away in a particular order to open the box." She muttered and slowly pushed and pulled the box.

After what seemed an age she finally opened the box.

Harry reached inside and brought out a heart-shaped ruby on a silver fine chain necklace, and matching bracelet and earrings.

They also found a folded piece of paper and a photo.

Harry's face went a pale shade of green, and Hermione gasped in astonishment when they looked at the piece of paper and the photo.

"We cannot mention this to anyone." Hermione said seriously.

"What…?" Harry looked up at her in disbelief.

"Whatever the spell says, we can't tell anyone. This is … well it's personal."

"And the spell isn't?"

"She's coming!" Ron's face appeared around the door.

"We'll talk about this later." Hermione said, while quickly replacing everything but one earring and sealed the box. Harry placed it back under the chair and they rushed out of the door and round a corner in the corridor, missing Katrina by seconds.

"I can't believe it!" Hermione said with wonder.

Putting his finger over his lips in a shushing motion he signalled them to go from there.

They walked back towards the common room in silence. Harry and Hermione would not reveal the box's secret to Ron until they reached a safe place.

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

Katrina entered her room distractedly and rushed over to her desk in the lounge.

"Stupid, stupid!" She muttered to herself. "Imagine going to a lesson without the notes!"

She glanced in the full-length mirror and ran her hand through her dark bob. It was slightly brittle to the touch, as she hadn't had time to condition it that morning. She ignored the dark shadows under her eyes, which were caused by lack of sleep and grabbed the pile of notes on the desk.

She hurried, towards her door. On the way there a black shape in the corner of her eye caught her attention.

"What??" She paused and looked closely. "Why did I leave that there?"

She leant down to grab the box. One of the sides was slightly ajar, but enough for Katrina to notice. She looked around cautiously and clicked the part back in place.

"Anyone could have found this." She scolded herself. Going back to her mirror she whispered a few words and reached through the mirror, leaving the box on a magical secret shelf. Whispering another few words to make the mirror solid again, she headed back out the door.

A/N: Hiya everyone!

Just a quick note. Thanks to everyone (Nekhobi, Kelest, Joebob1379 and Alexgray) for reviewing and staying with me through the "quiet" patch I had!

Love to you all!

Krusty.

xxx