A/N: Thanks AnnabelleElizabeth! And yes- that was our fated badguy(girl?)

Chapter 28

"We still need to find this woman, Hermione. She may not have your daughter's soul anymore, but she still has dozens of other people's souls. She's a danger to the Wizarding world still, and we need to know where she is!" Kate exclaimed, then she paused to stare behind Hermione. Hermione herself turned around to see what it was.

Draco stood in the doorway, leaning impudently against the doorframe. "I gave her a little present. She shouldn't be any trouble for quite a while."

"What did you do to her?" Kate's voice wavered only slightly, but Hermione could hear it. What was it that made her fear this man, she wondered silently.

"I sent a pain-spirit to her. She won't be able to do anything for a good couple of weeks without feeling intense pain."

"Aren't they illegal?" Kate demanded, though Hermione could see a slight tinge of colour rising in her cheeks.

"Oh, not in France. And she deserved it," he added.

"Why was that?" Kate's eyes seemed to be straining to leave her face, and the colour in her cheeks was still more pronounced.

"She was extremely unbalanced. She had no right to be walking the spirit pathways. As is obviously shown by her stealing of souls- nobody in their right mind would do so. Nobody who had an ounce of compassion, anyway. She deserves everything that she gets." Draco finished his little speech with a flourish. Hermione nodded agreement with him.

"Kate, I think that it's likely that she's being cared for in a Muggle institution. If you don't mind, I'm going to do a little snooping." Kate wrinkled her nose at the choice of words, but nodded her head.

"Ok, Hermione. But it's on your back, not on the back of the Aurors. I don't feel like having to go up to the top to get permission for this." Kate rubbed her eyes.

"Ok, Kate. Goodbye now," she muttered as she waved a hand at the fireplace. Kate was thrown back through her end of the fire and landed unceremoniously on her rear, soot covering her face.

Not a good person to get on the wrong side of, apparently. Kate thought to herself. You knew that already, a niggling voice told her in a smug tone. Oh, yes, she replied, but now I know for sure. For a moment she wondered if hearing and responding to voices in her head was a good thing. Then more important things looked over her.

"Kate? It's time."

~*~

Hermione turned again to look at Draco, who was still in the doorway of the room.

"I take it she's not on the best of terms with you, fair lady," he said, his knight's role sliding seamlessly into place.

"No," Hermione replied curtly. "She had the nerve to tell me that I needed a husband." Hermione spat the words, and Draco raised his eyebrows in amusement, twitching the sides of his mouth as though to keep a smile from appearing.

"How could she, Hermione? That's such an awful thing to suggest." Hermione could hear the mocking in his voice, but decided not to reward it with a reply. She pushed past him, heading for her rooms. Draco just stood and watched her go.

Too bad she's got such a mysandric nature. She could be a pretty little wife, Draco thought to himself, before he snorted at the picture of Hermione in a maid's outfit. "Yeah, right," he said aloud to the empty corridor. He closed the door and walked down the corridor, not really caring about his destination.

~*~

"Just a little longer, mama…" Lianna's voice issued from her locked room, and though Hermione was patient- years of being a teacher had allowed her some small graces- having been kept waiting for fifteen minutes was testing her limits.

"Lianna Meridian Granger! I asked you to come from your room fifteen minutes ago! Now I'm getting angry!" Hermione bellowed, and Adrienne- who was sitting at the kitchen table- grinned.

"You go, mama. You show her who's boss."

"Oh, be quiet, Adrienne," Hermione muttered, which only made her grin wider. An annoyed Lianna appeared at the door of her room, glowering at Hermione.

"What?" she asked curtly, her eyes blazing brightly.

"It's time for dinner, and the other teachers will be back tonight. It would be nice if you were there to greet them, would it not?" Hermione looked oddly at her daughter.

"Oh, yes. I suppose it would," she sighed and deflated, her blonde hair falling down over the front of her shoulders. "I was spirit-walking. Just getting the hang of it."

"Well, darling, the spirit world is good- but not to the exclusion of the physical. We just got you back, darling. We don't want to lose you again- at least, not before we get the chance to revel in your presence for a while." Hermione smiled mischievously. Lianna smiled wearily, nodded, then followed her mother from the room.

Adrienne stood and followed her sister and mother, worried slightly about her sister. She noticed that she was worrying her bottom lip, and sternly told herself to stop it. She decided to talk to Draco about training for her sister- on a schedule.

It was interesting to enter the Great Hall and see more than six people. There was not a great volume of noise, but what noise there was echoed around the hall, muttering in the ears of the girls as they entered.

"Oh!" Lianna exclaimed, over her disappointment for now, it seemed, "Flitwick is back!"

"Of course," Adrienne muttered, but kept her voice down so that her sister wouldn't hear. Lianna's smile was firmly set in place, much as Adrienne could feel the scowl fixing itself onto her face. She made a conscious effort to smile at the teachers, although her face didn't feel like it very much. I will enjoy this. I will smile, and laugh, and talk to Draco when the night's over. I'll talk to Lianna tonight. Right now, I'll talk to everyone else. And, with her mind made up, Adrienne plonked herself into a seat next to Aunt Minerva, smiling broadly at Hooch, who was sitting on the other side of her.

"Found any good time to go flying this holidays, Adrienne?" Hooch asked, leaning forward so that her cat's eyes could peer closer into her own.

"Haven't really had much time, Madam. Been too busy adventuring," she said with a conspirator's wink.

"Oh! Do tell," she pleaded, her attention now undivided.

"Well," Adrienne silently and quickly decided exactly what she would be safe to reveal, "I discovered who my father was," a gasp from Hooch, "Mama got lost, but someone found her; Lianna got lost, but we found her, and picked up Draco in the process. All in all, I haven't really had much time for flying." She shrugged apologetically.

"Who is your father?" Hooch asked softly, as though for the others on the table not to hear. Adrienne knew better. She could feel all eyes on the table aimed at her.

"I can't tell you here," she whispered, "Or I'd have everyone else jealous about not knowing, and I might as well tell them all." Hooch looked up at all the other people on the table; now quiet, waiting for the outcome of the talk. Adrienne noticed that Snape's black eyes seemed particularly intent. Not surprising, dear, she told herself. He's got stakes in this, as well. Adrienne smiled broadly at the table, then turned to talk to Minerva, normal conversation levels restoring themselves.

"So, Aunt Minerva, what have you been doing these last few days?" Minerva smiled wearily.

"Reading over the old Yearbooks," she replied. "I found where your mother's friend Kate seemed so familiar from."

"Really?" Adrienne asked, intrigued.

"Yes. She had different hair, though. She was a Pureblood loving, magic loving spoilt child. She disappeared for a year or two, and came back with blonde hair and an apparently changed demeanour. I never was convinced." Minerva confided. Adrienne kicked her feet under the table.

And then dessert arrived, cutting off all opportunities for talk, as the girls all dived into the chocolate cheesecake that presented itself.

~*~

Kate scuffled her feet, gazing deeply at the ground, waiting for it to give up all its secrets.

"Are you going to reply, Kate, or are you going to stand there?"

She had stood, but that was as far as she had reached.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know if I can repay you now," she muttered, hoping that they would not hear the dismay in her voice.

"Don't know if you can repay us?" the man screamed, grabbing the front of her robes and almost lifting her from the ground. "We gave you everything and you don't know if you can repay us?"

Kate whimpered, her eyes roving wildly from the dirty face of her attacker to the darkness of her room. Safety seems so useless when people like this can just walk in, she thought to herself, amidst all the turmoil of her thoughts.

"We want our returns now," he continued in a more reasonable voice, although he didn't let her go, "and we may just have to take them from you."