Disclaimer: Although I worked my butt off on this and it is in and of itself an original story, all connection to anything even remotely related to the Harry Potter Series are the explicit property of J.K. 'I don't care, I never really liked him anyway, get over it people' Rowling and her insensitive publishers who allowed her to whack such a wonderful character. Shame on all of you!

Chapter Ten: A New Set Of Rules

In the early hours of the morning Katlin found herself being nudged awake by some feeling. Rolling over, she found Orion sitting up against a pile of pillows, an intense look on his face as he stared at the wall of the bedroom opposite him. It was the same look he had had the night before when she had found him sitting downstairs.

Katlin watched him for several moments, noting that he didn't even seem to notice she was awake.

"You're sitting there awfully quiet." She commented finally, staring up at him from her pillow.

"Just thinking, Love." He replied in the same quiet tone. "Go back to sleep."

But Katlin pulled up in the bed. "About what?" She asked.

Orion paused for a moment before answering her. "The ski town we were in in Austria."

"Why that?"

Orion shook his head slightly. "Too many unanswered questions. Things just aren't adding up."

"Adding up?"

Orion sighed quietly. Never once so far had he turned to look at her. Instead he kept his attention focused on the wall opposite him.

"Katlin, my contact is dead, I don't know 'why' and I don't know 'who'."

Katlin stared at him in annoyance. "Try this then." She offered. "'Who' cares 'why'? Will you get some sleep!"

Orion finally turned to her, a slight frown etched on his lips. "In my book that is two too many unanswered questions, Katlin. And it's something I need to figure out."

"Well, it's very early in the morning. Haven't you given it enough of your attention for tonight?"

Orion stared back at her for a moment, Charly's suggestion hammering away at his good sense. If his partner was right about one thing, it was that he needed to know for sure that Katlin was telling him the truth. It wasn't that he didn't believe her when she said she had nothing to do with the informant's death. It was how much overall was she keeping from him. On pure instinct he knew she wasn't telling him the whole story, and something in what she was excluding could be the missing piece he was looking for.

"Katlin," He asked her straight forward, "what more do you know about what happened in Austria?"

From the look that appeared on her face, Orion knew straight off she wasn't pleased by the question. But that wasn't going to stop him from what he was going to do. In fact, it hardened his resolve. He was already in for it. What did it matter anymore how deep?

"I've already told you what I know." She replied in a voice she was fighting to keep conversational.

"You never told me why you were in Austria."

Katlin frowned at the statement. "I did." She replied carefully.

Katlin didn't like this game. It was one they weren't suppose to be playing at at all. He had promised her he wouldn't.

But as she sat staring back at him, something touched her. A light, barely noticeable feeling. Another person might have shrugged it off as a stray current in the air. But she knew far better. In the blink of an eye she was out of the bed, the robe laying over the foot of it clutched in front of her as she stared back with a blazing fury at the man before her.

"What are you doing!?" She demanded.

"Katlin...."

"How dare you!" She screamed at him. "How dare you play your Auror tricks with me. This is your trust? You have to prove to yourself if I'm lying or not? You don't believe me?" Katlin balled up the robe and threw it at him. "Fine!" She shouted, standing before him with her arms held out at her sides. "You want your truth? Have it. Here are your answers. Feel them out if you have to."

"Katlin...."

But Katlin cut him off sharply in her fury. "I know nothing about your informant being killed! When I came to the clearing I was as surprised as you to find the man dead. Now!" She stated, none of the anger gone from her voice. "What did you get out of that?"

Orion sat in the bed facing her, looking as apologetic as he could. "Nothing." He replied. "I didn't try."

"Pity." Katlin answered. "Because I'm not going to say it again."

"I don't want you to."

"You have new questions?"

Orion shook his head. "No. No more questions, Katlin."

Katlin stood still facing him, her arms crossed over her chest. A little of her anger had been dispelled. Enough to make her curious now.

"Why?" She asked him. "Why now? Why this? You never did this to me before. From the first day you met me, you never did 'this'. I thought we had come to some sort of understanding, Orion. Some level of trust. And now this? Why?"

Orion couldn't have felt worse about what he did if he tried. Why had he listened to Charly's advice? His partner didn't know anything about the situation really. He was barely on the outside looking in. He knew nothing of what was between he and Katlin. Nothing of the underlying issues that this would touch on like a burning iron.

But the answer was simple enough really. Because Charly was his partner. Because he trusted him. Trusted him more than anyone in the world. Because he had never been asked to do different.

"Someone suggested it." Orion admitted in a low voice. "And I took that advice."

"Someone?" Katlin snapped back.

"My partner."

"Your...partner?" Katlin asked slowly in a skeptical tone.

"You don't understand." Orion replied. Looking up at her he could still see the heat of her anger burning in her eyes. But at least she was listening to him again. "In the department, everyone has a partner. Sometimes it's only two. There are some that work in threes and fours. But I only have one partner, Charly Misser."

"We know of Charly Misser." Katlin replied firmly. "He's almost as hated among us as you are."

"He'd take that as a compliment." Orion replied with a small smile, which quickly disappeared as he met Katlin's angry stare again. "Katlin, he's my partner. He's......he's almost like just another part of me. I've been with Charly for nearly my whole life. We know each other probably better than we know ourselves. When he suggested this, I didn't even think about it really. Because it came from him."

"Well, you should have."

"I don't disagree. Charly doesn't know the whole story here. I...." Orion paused for a moment. The thought itself was hard for him to get past, let alone admit to verbally. "I've never kept anything from him, Katlin. It's too much like lying to myself. But I haven't told him about us. It's the first thing that I have out and out lied to him about. And nothing in my life has ever felt so wrong as that."

"Then tell him." Katlin answered lightly with a slight shrug. "See how well your partner takes the news that your sleeping with a Deatheater. With an Elite, no less."

"This isn't some game, Katlin." Orion replied, his own voice taking on a slightly harder edge. "You don't understand what partners are to us in the Department. My work, my methods, my successes, and in some ways my life depend on Charly and I trusting each other. And here I sit, living this lie because I've deemed it more important to me than he is."

"It?" Katlin questioned slowly. "You mean 'me'?"

Orion paused, then nodded. "Alright. Yes, you. I lied to him about you. About us."

"Why?"

"Because he wouldn't understand. Somedays.....I can't even believe I'm doing it to him."

"Orion, that is your work. This is us. Your partner is not part of this. You aren't 'doing this' to him. Or aren't you allowed to have a private life at all?"

"You don't understand this, Katlin." Orion stated, getting out of bed and walking over to one of the large glass panel windows that lined the outer wall of his bedroom. Standing there, staring out at the night, he desperately fought to reconcile this new issue brought to the forefront. How could he be doing this to Charly. To his partner? Lying to him. And for what? Sex? Just so he could keep Katlin in his bed?

And what would happen if Charly found out? The trust between them would be destroyed. And that was something he could never get back.

And did he even have it now? The lie had already been entered into. The only thing that made it livable at this point was that Charly didn't know about Katlin. Or that Orion was lying to him about her.

Slowly Orion let his head lean forward until it rested against the glass. He hated thinking about this. Because there was no good answer to the problem. And he hated more thinking about it at one in the morning.

Suddenly two arms slowly snaked their way about his waist and a warm body conformed itself to his back.

"So now what?" Katlin asked in a barely audible whisper. "To soothe your conscience I get thrown to the side?"

Orion stayed standing at the window, his head resting against the glass. He could hear the hurt in her voice. The uncertainty.

"I don't have any answers, Katlin." He replied just as quietly. "And I really don't want to think about this anymore."

"If it bothers you so much, then tell him." Katlin said. With her arms wrapped about him still, she forced him to turn to face her, wrapping him once again in her embrace. "I'm not going to ever asked you to do something that tears at your soul as badly as this does. And I'm sorry. No, I didn't understand. I never saw this from the point of view you've shown me tonight." Katlin looked up at him. The turmoil this had dragged up for him reflected clearly in his eyes. "If it is going to cause you this much pain, then tell him."

Orion shook his head. "He won't understand. He'll think I've lost my mind."

"Then don't tell him now." Katlin replied, leading him slowly back to the bed. "Tell yourself that, for now, it's better you don't tell him. Because he won't understand. But promise yourself that someday in the future, soon, you will. Because you have to."

Orion smiled up at her as he sat back down on the bed. Gently he pulled her towards him until she stood just inches from him. "I am sorry." He told her sincerely. "It was wrong for me to do that to you. And if I had given it a minute's more thought, I wouldn't have. And I won't again. I swear it to you."

Katlin pursed her lips for a moment as she studied him, her expression completely unreadable. But finally she gave a small, quiet sigh as she stared down at his hand wrapped tightly about her's. "It wasn't us, Orion."

Orion stared up at her. "Us?"

"The Deatheaters. We had nothing to do with your informant's death."

"You're sure?"

"I swear it, Orion. As a Deatheater." Katlin paused again, considering whether or not to go on. "I was there for much of the same reasons you were." She stated finally, choosing each word carefully.

Orion turned fully to her. "You were meeting someone? For what?"

Katlin sighed as she stared down at him. "For much the same reason you were. Information."

"On what?"

Katlin pulled away from him and walked over to the nightstand where her wand was lying. With it, she summoned a large envelope out of her jacket pocket. Catching it in the air, she handed it to Orion, who took it slowly from her as she crawled back into the bed next to him.

"What is this?" He asked.

"Read it." Katlin advised. "My informant said yours had much the same information."

"Mine?"

Katlin nodded. "He knew about your informant. That was the reason for the coincidental meeting. He thought it was 'funny'."

"Strange sense of humor your informants have."

"That may be. But according to my informant," Katlin replied, gesturing to the papers Orion was now reading over, "everyone in his area knew about this information ages ago. He thought it was funny that apparently neither the Deatheaters nor the Ministry did. But, he said, in the 'right circles', it's common knowledge." Katlin watched as Orion continued scanning the pages. "I can save you some time." She offered. "They say there's a wizard in the north. That currently he's gathering followers, territory, and power at a rapid rate. Voldemort had heard rumors, but nothing for sure. He sent me to meet with my contact for verification. That is what that package contains. All the information my informant had gathered."

Orion continued to peruse the pages, his brows coming together in a deep frown. "This says that this wizard seems mainly interested in....."

".....killing other wizards and witches." Katlin finished for him. "He's not after muggles, Orion. He's after us. His own kind."

Orion turned to her. "Why?"

Katlin shrugged. "We don't know. But my guess would be that one of the agents of this wizard was responsible for killing your contact to keep him from delivering this to you." She added, gesturing to the papers.

"And why do you think that?"

"Because I met my informant the night after you were to meet yours. He said that someone had made a try at him. Nearly succeeded. He handed over the envelope and disapparated immediately. The man was genuinely worried, Orion. And I've known this man for years. He isn't easily frightened. Someone had tried, and nearly succeeded, apparently, to kill him."

Orion studied her for a moment. "Why are you telling me this?" He asked.

Katlin sighed quietly. "For two reasons. One, because I want you to trust me, Orion. To believe that I will never do anything to hurt you. And this somehow got in the way of that. And secondly, because I had to."

"Had to?"

Katlin slowly turned her eyes to him. "Orion, if we keep.....doing this...."

"This?"

"'This'." Katlin repeated, waving her arm over the bed. "One day they will find out about us. We can't be with the people we're with without expecting that. We can hide it for just so long. So we had best be prepared for that day."

"Prepared by your telling me what the Deatheaters know?"
Katlin shrugged. "What better way to get information from a Deatheater than by sleeping with her?"

"Do you believe that?" Orion asked her seriously.

"Do you?" Katlin replied.

Orion thought for a moment. "No."

Katlin fluffed the covers around her, still offering no answer to his question. "The sooner we start laying a paper trail, the better it will look." She replied instead.

"So I'm sleeping with you for information?" Orion stated. "What about you?"

Katlin turned to him. "You'd best be ready to hand something over when the time comes, Mr. Black." She replied. "Now, can we go to sleep?"

Orion obligingly scooted down in the bed next to her as Katlin settled down to go back to sleep. Snaking an arm across her waist, Orion snuggled his body up closer to her's. But for all the outward affection of the gesture, Katlin could still feel the tension in his body.

"Are you going to just lay there and think about it still?" She asked quietly as she slipped her hand slowly over his arm.

"No." Came the equally quiet reply.

"Then go to sleep."

"Katlin."

"Hmmm?"

The answer came after a slight pause. "Your people....the Deatheaters, they're planning an attack on a muggle business establishment in London where they think some information may be stored. Information that Voldemort wants." The arm tightened a little around her waist. "Don't go." Were the last words whispered in her ear.

Katlin lay staring into the darkness long after she had heard Orion's breathing fall into a peaceful, even rhythm.

What had he just done? Warned her of an attack against the Deatheaters? One his own people were planning?

The mission for the Deatheaters he had mentioned was suppose to be easy. Go in and get out. The muggles would never know what happened. She had heard nothing that the ministry knew anything of the attack. Her best informants swore the ministry knew nothing. But Orion had just told her that not only did they know, but that the Deatheaters were walking into an ambush. One where many of them might be killed.

What had he just done?

Katlin tightened her hold on his arm a little as she continued to stare at the ceiling. The body next to her responded on instinct by pulling a little tighter up against her.

Carefully Katlin shifted her position a little as she turned toward him, gently kissing his cheek.

"We won't." She said softly, finally turning against him and drifting off to sleep herself.