Chapter 12

A/N:: Sorry for the lapse in updates. Been pretty busy working on this and another fic, and finding my sorry butt a job. Kind of off the topic, but I found myself defending this story to a friend I'm writing another story with on ff.net (turing tides, go look at it...hehe) I'm debating with her over whether or not Katherine is a Mary Sue. I say hells no! Because... a) she's not even that nice, and far from perfect...b) yes she had a dark past, secerts, etc. but that's the plot of the story, so deal with it...and c) she has yet to win over any characters, so as of yet, not many characters like her. I rest my case. What do you guys think about this? Mary Sue, or not? Be honest!

Anyway, hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think

-----

The rest of the week passed mostly without incident. Severus spent most of his time either teaching, or locked away in his office for hours on end. While he was gone Katherine skimmed through the books he kept lying around his rooms. Most were about potions, which she found incredibly dull. She mostly just flipped through them, stopping now and then to look at a potion that she found interesting. One potion in particular had caught Katherine's eye...

On Thursday night she had sat cross legged on Severus bed, drinking a glass of wine and skimming through yet another potions books. She was glad that tonight was her turn to sleep in the bed, that stupid couch was so uncomfortable! She was about to turn yet another page when something jumped out at her...

-----

Severus had been sitting in his office, quietly sipping at a cup of tea. He looked at the clock and sighed, he had run out of essay's to grade nearly an hour ago, but he didn't want to risk going to his rooms yet if she might still be awake.

'Honestly'. He thought. 'She must lay awake at night thinking of ways to insult to me.'

'But why does it bother you so much?' A small voice inside his head demanded.

Severus slammed his cup down, sending tea sloshing over its sides. It didn't bother him...it didn't...

He wiped up the tea that he had spilled, clenching his teeth at the sudden knocking at his door. Someone his wards didn't recognize, probably a student...

"Come in!" He hissed, crossing his arms across his chest and doing his best to look very stern.

Katherine walked in, holding a book open in front of her.

"I thought I told you not to come up here!" Severus jumped out of his seat. "Out!"

"Thanks for the warm welcome." Katherine remarked, walking right into the room and taking a seat at the chair in front of his desk. "I need you to look at something."

Severus sneered at her, but sat back down. "What?"

Katherine slid the book across his desk, and pointed at the page she had been examining.

"An antipathy potion?" He sounded surprised.

"Do you think you could make it?" Katherine leaned across the desk, her voice falling into a whisper. "It's for, well, you know..."

"Oh." Severus remarked flatly. "I suppose I could try. But it will take two months, more if I don't have the ingredients here."

He scanned the list with a long thin finger, looking more and more displeased as he went.

"Most of these we already have, or you can get in Hogsmeade." He ran his finger over a particular ingredient. "But this...this might be a little more difficult."

"A dragon's tooth?" Katherine leaned further over the table, trying to read upside down. "Don't they sell those on Diagon alley? I'm sure I've seen them before."

"They're fake." Severus remarked flatly. "Dragon's teeth are very rare."

He paused and began to thump his fingers on the desk top.

"But, I might know of someone who has one."

"Who?" Katherine asked excitedly.

"Do you know the gamekeeper?"

Katherine nodded quickly.

"He mentioned finding one two years ago, during that silly tournament."

"Do you think he still has it?" She asked.

"I'm sure he does. Why don't you ask him?"Severus shut the book with a bang. "And I'll gather the ingredients we have here in the meantime.

"No, I can't just ask him." Katherine protested. "He'll want to know what I'm using it for."

"So lie to him." Severus sounded as if he could care less what she did.

"But if we're suspected of making the potion, and someone were to ask around if we had requested any strange ingredients lately...like a dragon's tooth..."

"Well what do you suggest?" Severus snapped. "We just go in and take it?"

"You know, that's not an all together bad idea.

"Yes...it...is." Severus hissed through his teeth. "Are you crazy?"

"We could wait till he's in class, or better yet till he's sleeping. Just sneak in and..."

"Shhh!" Severus suddenly commanded, holding his hand up.

"What?" Katherine turned and looked towards the closed door.

Severus didn't answer, but blew past her looking positively gleeful, and threw open the door.

"I know you're there!" He said in a dangerous voice, stalking off down the hall. "I had my wards set to recognize you Potter!"

Katherine stepped out of the door, a look of confusion on her face.

"Are you talking to thin air?" She asked, unsure of whether she should laugh or be concerned.

She nearly screamed when Severus suddenly lunged forward and yanked at something that apparently was hovering in thin air. With great flourish he pulled, and suddenly there was a cloak in his hand, and a sheepish looking Harry Potter and Ronald Weasly appeared out of thin air.

"An invisibility cloak!" Katherine whispered. "How perfect..."

"I should have you expelled!" Severus was circling the two students like a vulture, smiling dangerously all the while.

"Or you could just give them detention and confiscate the cloak." Katherine offered, smiling serenely.

"What?" The smile fell from Severus's face.

"That's what I would do." Katherine walked towards them. "After all, I'm sure these boys weren't up to anything more than harmless mischief."

Both Harry and Ron began to nod furiously in agreement.

"They can get the cloak back after the end of next year, when they're all grown and ready to leave Hogwarts and use it responsibly."

Katherine reached her hand out, and Severus's face twitched involuntarily.

"I"ll even hold onto it myself in the meantime."

She narrowed her eyes at Severus, and then nodded when she saw him come to the same realization she had. He grudgingly handed it to her, and then turned to Harry.

"Both of you report to me in the morning, I'll have you gutting toads for hours, so you might want to skip breakfast."

Harry and Ron both had looks of disgust on their faces, but nodded and ran off before Severus could punish them further.

"We could use this." Katherine whispered once they had fled up the stairs. "We could go tomorrow night, the sooner the better."

"No!" Severus hissed. "I won't allow it."

"I"ll tell on you Severus!" Katherine whispered harshly.

"Tell on me to who?" He spat, before silently answering his own question. He visibly paled at the thought.

"You don't have to come with me." She said more gently.

"Well, you're certainly not going alone!"

------

The next morning Katherine sat at the head table picking distastefully at her breakfast. Draco Malfoy was staring at her again, a hateful look in his eye. There was no way that he could have recognized her, she had only seen him once, when he was only five or six.

She had come looking for her sister, she had been gone for nearly seven years. Vanished without a trace, though when Katherine couldn't remember. It must happened during the great black hole in her memory, during the months that had simply disappeared. She had woken up one morning in her bed, something in her mind screaming that she had to remember, had to remember...but remember what? All of Anne's things were gone...Anne was gone. After that Katherine had found the strength to break away from Lucius. Anne had always told her that he was horrible, evil even. It had almost been too late, she was going to take their mark...

But then those months had simply vanished along with Anne, and her fear drove her to leave Lucius and England behind her. Narcissa must have been thrilled. When she returned years later she wasn't prepared for what she found. The Dark Lord had been vanquished, and many of Lucius's friends in Azkaban. Serves them right...she had thought.

Her search for her sister led her to Malfoy Manor. Lucius had laughed at her when the bumbling house elf showed her into his private study.

"Returned to me so soon?" He smiled wickedly at her.

"Six years is soon Lucius? It felt like a lifetime to me. A long, wonderful lifetime."

Lucius had crossed the room in elegant strides, wrapping his arms around her and making her melt. Cocky bastard...

"She's dead you know. No bother looking..." He nibbled on her ear.

Such pain combined with such pleasure...

"Please Lucius. I would know if my sister were dead. She's still alive, I can feel it. Please tell me where she is."

"Let me make love to you, and then perhaps." He ran his hands through her hair roughly, and smiled when she shivered.

"No." She insisted. "Just please tell me."

But she could not summon the willpower to stop him when he began to disrobe, when he tugged off her own clothes. When he had her down on the carpet...

The hold he had on her was dangerous. She had been blind to the danger before, only Anne had seen it. But now it was so clear...

In the end he had told her nothing. It was dark by the time she left Malfoy Manor, her hair wild and her clothing rumpled and only halfway buttoned. A child had been siting on the front stairs, waiting for his father. A little blond boy with the most painful eyes she had ever seen. By then Katherine had begun to piece together some of what had happened during the months that were missing, and knew that for some reason she should hate this boy. This boy had robbed her, this little sad looking boy.

They glared at each other for a long while, and then she had ran. Tears flew freely from her eyes, and she could not stop the aching sobs that rose within her. She left England again that night, promising never to return. But she did return, because she knew Anne was alive. And she knew that Lucius was waiting for her...

"Um...Mrs. Snape?" A soft voice jolted Katherine back to the present.

"Call me Katherine." She smiled at the student who had approached the table, the ever studious and upright Ms. Granger.

"I don't think that's allowed." Hermione blurted out.

Katherine laughed and took a sip of her pumpkin juice. "No, I suppose not. It was worthy try though, wasn't it?"

Hermione smiled, and nodded.

"I just wanted to thank you." She said.

"Thank me for what?" Katherine asked in surprise.

"I know you must have said something..." Hermione dug around in her bag while she spoke. "It means a lot to me."

She pulled out a crinkled paper, and placed it on the table in front of Katherine. It was a grading sheet, she had gotten a Seventy.

"Do you remember that zero?" Hermione said, smiling.

Katherine threw her head back and laughed. She couldn't believe that Severus had actually changed her grade. She couldn't have planned things better if she tried...

"Very good Ms. Granger." Katherine said. "And don't hesitate to come to me if my husband causes you anymore trouble."

Hermione laughed, and then jolted off to join her friends. Katherine's smile faded as soon as the girl disappeared from eye sight. She again returned to picking at her breakfast, and trying to pretend that Draco Malfoy wasn't staring at her...

-----

Later that night Katherine stood again in the great hall, watching the last of the students finish their dinner and wander off back to their common rooms.

"Curfew starts in ten minutes." Severus whispered, gliding over the stand beside her. "I was sure to put some extra sleeping potion in his wine."

"It won't kill him or anything, right?"

Severus scoffed at her concern, but answered anyway. "Not likely, it will wear off quickly too, so we should go."

Katherine nodded, and follow him out of the great hall and then outside into the cool autumn air.

"Wouldn't it be easy if I went alone?"

"No." Severus said, sounding annoyed. "If anyone asks we'll say we're patrolling the grounds. Now go."

Katherine started to walk down the gently sloping hill towards Hagrid's cabin. She glanced out at the forest that loomed in the distance, and a shiver ran up her spine. She wouldn't be caught dead in there. Severus fell into step behind her, looking at an empty patch of shore next to lake.

"What are you staring at?" She asked.

"Nothing!" He hissed at her,

"You didn't have to jump down my throat! I was just making conversation."

The pair walked the rest of the way in silence, Katherine scowling and Severus looking very pale. When they reached the cabin Katherine crouched under an open window, a smile spreading across her face at the sound of snoring. She nodded at Severus, who pulled the invisibility cloak out from under his robes.

"You wait out here." He said briskly, pulling the cloak around himself. "Keep watch."

"No!" She protested. "I'm coming with you."

"We both won't fit under here." He argued.

Katherine fought to laugh at the pure comedy of the fact that she was now fighting with only a head floating in thin air.

"Yes we will. Just move over."

Much to Severus disdain she fought her way under the cloak. Though they could not fit side by side, if she stood behind him she just fit.

"This is absurd." Severus protested one final time. "Just wait outside."

"Nope." Katherine said, digging her heels in the ground when he reached back and tried to push her out.

"Nothing can be simple with you, can it?"

-----

Hermione, Ron, and Harry walked across the grounds in the growing darkness, a heavy silence in the air. Ron and Hermione had been fighting again, and Harry was as sullen as ever. His friends knew that Sirius's death was still weighing heavily on his shoulders. In fact, that was the cause of their outing. Hermione thought that paying Hagrid a visit would cheer Harry up. After all, they had not been able to see Hagrid outside of class since school had ended last year. Being outside after curfew was always risky, especially with Harry's invisibility cloak gone. Harry had the marauder's map tucked safely away in his robes, though he hadn't bothered to take a look at it since they had left the castle. Only Flich would be out on the grounds this late at night, and last time they checked he had been after Peeves. That could occupy him for hours.

"Hey Harry." Hermione said suddenly. "Don't you think you should check the map?"

"Don't you think you should check the map?" Ron mimicked in a high squeaky voice. "Don't be so paranoid 'Mione."

Hermione gave him a withering look, and Harry sighed deeply. He pulled the map out of his robes and scanned it quickly. His heart jumped up in his throat when he saw two dots marked Severus Snape and Katherine Killroy moving about Hagrid's cabin, nearly overlapping. The dot marked Rubeus Hagrid was still on the other side of the cabin.

"What's Snape doing there!" Ron exclaimed, looking over Harry's shoulder.

"See I told you we should have looked!" Hermione exclaimed.

Ron glared at her, but his face had gone a little pale. "We better turn back."

"Who's Katherine Killroy?" Hermione asked, pointing at the dot that was moving along next to Snape.

"I dunno, his wife I guess." Ron whispered, looking apprehensively towards the cabin. "Yes, but her last name is Snape, not Killroy." Hermione glared at the map with confusion.

"Maybe its broken?" Ron offered.

"I don't think so..." Harry said suspiciously, but shook the map all the same.

"You think that's going to fix it?" Ron laughed.

"Maybe she didn't bother changing her name." Hermione said thoughtfully. "Or maybe they're not married at all."

"Who cares!" Ron exclaimed. "Let's just go!"

"But look! I can't see anyone in the cabin." Harry pointed at a small open window.

She was right, the view in the window was void of people, even though according to the map they should be standing right in front of it.

"That's very strange..." Hermione's forehead wrinkled.

"We should just go then." Ron blurted out. "If Snape catches us out after curfew we'll be dead."

Hermione took a few steps forward, a look resolved look on her face. "I bet you anything that they're using the invisibility cloak Snape took from you this afternoon."

Harry and Ron both looked unsure, but didn't dare to disagree with her.

"And I bet they're looking for something." Hermione continued. " They're going to steal something from Hagrid! We have to warn him!"

"Have you gone mad!" Ron looked ten shades paler that he had only seconds ago. "Snape will us detention for a month, or worse!"

"How can he?" Hermione argued. "If we're not supposed to know he's there. He'll be in just as much trouble as we are if he gets caught."

Ron turned and started to walk the other way, but Harry grabbed onto his arm.

"Wait!" Harry pleaded. "Hermione's right. What if...what if Hagrid is hiding something dumb, like another dragon's egg or worse. He could get into real trouble if Snape finds it. After all he's done for us we could at least warn him."

Ron looked unconvinced, but had little choice as Hermione and Harry marched forward towards the small cabin.

-----

"Ow!" Katherine whispered. "That was my foot."

She was sure that Severus was sneering at her, but at the moment all she could see was his back.

"Shut up!" Severus commanded, reaching out from under the invisibility cloak to open yet another drawer.

"Why don't you let me do that?"

"Because, with your record you'll probably break something and wake him" Severus dug around the drawer before quietly closing it again. "If he wakes up and sees things floating in midair, they'll be questions to say the least."

Katherine stared out at Hagrid, who lay snoring peacefully on his bed. She looked away, scanning the room with eyes. Where would it be?

She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow as she looked. It was getting stuffy under the cloak, she meant to take a deep breath, but instead got a mouthful of Severus's hair.

"Oh...ugh!" She whispered.

"I've got it" Severus whispered, pulling the giant tooth out of a small cupboard.

"Thank Mer..."

A sudden pounding at the door made them both jump. Hagrid stirred slightly, but continued to snore.

"The side door." Severus whispered through clenched teeth. "Move towards it now."

The knocking continued, and this time Hagrid awoke. Wiping his eyes with his large hands he moaned, and then climbed wearily out of bed.

Shuffling under the cloak, the two made their way towards the door. Katherine turned around so she was back to back with Severus, and reached for the latch...

The door suddenly flew open, smacking Katherine in the face and bouncing back. Normally, she would have cried out in pain, but she remembered to be quiet. She could feel the cloak moving about her, and suddenly a hand was up over her mouth. Severus pulled her so her back was flat against his chest. She could feel blood beginning to pour from her nose, and she had to try hard to keep from panicking.

"Hagrid? Are you okay?" Hermione asked, walking through the open door. She glanced behind it, but then shrugged.

"Wha...yes, why?" Hagrid yawned. "What are you doing here?"

Severus was pushing Katherine towards the door, but she suddenly froze. Ron was now standing in the doorway, scanning the room as if he knew they were there. She was sure Severus mumbled something, because though she couldn't hear him, she could feel his breath hot on her neck. Katherine pushed backwards, her face suddenly warm at the thought of his body pressed against her own. The other door creaked open, and Harry stepped inside.

"'arry!" Hagrid crossed the room and embraced him clumsily. "But what'a ya doing out after curfew?'

Harry gulped, and looked around the room. "Are you alone Hagrid?"

"Yeah, just me an' Fang."

Fang, who was sleeping peacefully on the couch, lifted his head at the mention of his name,

"Are you sure about that?" Hermione piped in, spreading her arms out in front of her like a mummy.

Katherine could feel her heart start to race. They knew! But how could they...

She could feel Severus searching in his robes with his free hand, probably looking for his wand. She knew she should probably do the same, but she couldn't will herself to move.

"Of course!" Hagrid said. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Have a look at this." Harry said, holding something out to Hagrid.

The map! Severus could feel his blood start to boil. He knew it! If only he had gotten it from that stupid Potter years ago, this wouldn't be happening.

"What!" Hagrid exclaimed, looking right at the spot where the two were standing.

Severus pulled Katherine closer to him, pulling his hand away from her face. He wiped the blood off on his own robes, and then pressed his wand into his sticky palm.

"Don't!" Katherine whispered as quietly as she could.

They had no where to go. Ron and Harry were blocking the exits, and they could see their every move.

"We could make a run for it." Katherine whispered as softly as she could. "We could plow through Weasley and just go."

Severus's mind was racing. They were trapped, and using magic against the students was only going to make things worse...

"Fine." He finally whispered back. "On three..."

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three!"

Both began to run at the same time, knocking Ron over into the bushes as they passed through the door. Katherine stepped on the cloak in her haste, and felt herself go flying forward. She landed on the ground with a thud, bringing Severus down with her.

"Up!" He commanded, tugging at her. His voice sounded strangely muffled "Run!"

Katherine struggled to get to her feet, but then ran was quickly as she could. Severus wrapped his hand around her waist, and brought her to a stop right outside of the school walls.

"In here!" He said, pulling her towards a side door.

It flew open as soon as they approached it, and they both ducked inside. As it closed behind them Severus pulled them free of the cloak, and both took in grateful breaths of fresh air.

"That was close..." Katherine moaned, leaning gratefully against the cool stone wall.

"You're bleeding." Severus commented coolly.

"Yeah, so are you." Katherine sounded surprised. "Did you hit your face when I pulled you down?"

Severus reached up and gingerly touched his nose, pulling his hand away to glare at the blood that stained his fingers.

"Lovely." He commented.

"What a pair we are." Katherine laughed suddenly. "Matching bloody noses...come on, who does that?"

Severus turned away, but before he did Katherine was sure she saw the beginnings of a smile.

"Get cleaned up." He said coldly. "I have things to attend to."

With a rustling of robes he was gone, and Katherine was left with a quickly swelling face and the strangest feeling fluttering in her stomach.