Forgotten Memories, Painful Past

A/N: All spells that aren't seen in the book with be translated at the end of the chapter, I'm studying/taking Latin so I might get creative.

Mint- thanks for giving me that heads up about the time error. Watch as my awesome godly authoress-ness makes it all better! BWAHAHA!

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Chapter Nine

Welcome to the Club

Harry sat up straight in bed, his scar burning like never before. What was going on? It usually hurt when a Death Eater was summoned from Hogwarts... But that usually entailed McGonagall coming in to check on him because Severus had vanished. He waited a few moments but McGonagall did not come, nor did anyone else. Slowly... Painstakingly... The ache in his head began to ease. He was tempted to rise and speak with Dumbledore on the matter, but with Ginny laying peacefully beside him, he couldn't. Ron was snoring contently, as were the rest of the occupants.

Sighing resignedly, he closed his eyes to go back to sleep when it flared again. Cringing, he clamped his eyes shut and waited for it to pass. It was a good three minutes. Something was very wrong. Voldemort was furious. People were dying. Unfortunately, Harry knew that all he could do was wait and read about it in the Daily Prophet tomorrow. That fact made it no easier to sleep.

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"Pacem spiritus," he whispered. He couldn't understand a word she said until she calmed down. A moment of silence was only hindered by sobs. "How old?" Severus asked, holding her, still numb with shock.

Katya looked up at him, confused a moment before wiping her eyes. "Seventeen, they'll be eighteen in March."

Severus sighed, "Eighteen..." He picked her up, setting her in a chair near his bed. "Then why are they in sixth year?"

"Ours schools in Russia are different, remember? I knew how to apparate when I came to Hogwarts... But I didn't know a thing about Herbology or how to fly a broom. Our Potions and Defense classes were much more in depth and Ancient Ruins was required. Dumbledore thought it best to put them in that year, after speaking with them." She wouldn't look him in the eye, too ashamed to do so.

He tried to keep his emotions hidden, Dumbledore had known about his children before he had? "Does he know?" That would explain the way Albus had acted after he'd returned from his last meeting with Voldemort.

Katya dried her eyes again, "I'd imagine. The man is too wise not to know..." She took a shaky breath.

Severus lit the fire in his dusty and rarely-used fireplace. This was true, Albus knew everything. "It's okay. Calm down."

"I'm so sorry, Severus." She took his hands in hers.

Frowning, the Potions Master pulled away and stood. He helped her to her feet and froze. Something had caught his eye. "Katya..." he said it in a voice that begged her to prove him wrong. He took her right hand in his, unbuttoning the cuff before she could pull away.

Katya tried to get free, "Let go!" Hells, he couldn't see it. Not now... Not ever. She wasn't ready to explain it to him. She hadn't even thought of how to explain it yet...

Rage swam in the air around him, like thunder that travels throughout a cloud. Katya was pulling away from him instinctively, but Severus had already seen what mattered. That blemish on her lovely porcelain skin, the ugliest of symbols and a sign of the most treacherous of allegiances. "How could you!?" The usually stoic and acerbic voice of the Potion's Master was fully of loathing and astonishment.

She sank to her knees before him, "Severus! I can explain!" She tried to pull away, ashamed of herself.

"Katya," as his eyes took in her pitiful form begging for forgiveness at his feet, his anger dissipated. "Katya..." He repeated her name like some sort of haunted and disbelieving mantra as his eyes locked on the source of her shame, her blazing scarlet letter. Blinking finally, a tear slid down his face like a piece of fragile glass that held the entire world in its contents.

The startled woman wasn't sure what to do or say, how to react. Had the cold-hearted man she'd spent her entire time here trying to defrost just show emotion? A tear, no less? Straining herself not to cry, she brushed his tear from his pale cheek. She hadn't meant for him to find out like this. Never.

"How long?" he asked in a quiet and contemplative voice. It wasn't his usual commanding tone; his intonation was haunted and pained beneath the words.

Her green eyes had begged him not to ask, but now she could not deny him an answer. She owed him that much. "I was inducted as just the last meeting..." Her voice was trembling softly, he was furious, she was almost certain.

Severus looked like his heart had been broken, torn in two right before him, "Why?"

"I couldn't let you do this alone, Severus! Albus already knows... He agreed with me. You've lost who you are; you've become nothing in hopes that it will make the inevitable easier. Well, now we are both in this together. Now, you can share your pain with me."

Albus knew? Severus hadn't, she'd gone behind his back to do it. That was just another thing she'd kept from him and shared with Albus. She'd probably even used Malfoy to do it. He seemed numb, he felt numb. This was all so much to take in. "You were the new inductee?"

Katya could only offer a meek nod in response. His fury emanated through the entire room. She wanted to do something, to say something to make him happy again. "I'm sorry," was that all she could say to him? Was that all the reparation she could offer? Yes, sadly, it was.

Severus frowned, his fingers delicately tracing the black insignia on her right forearm that was hauntingly familiar to the aged and wearied man. "You're a fool." That dark and stoic voice had returned, had those walls gone back up as well?

She sneered unhappily, "I wasn't going to let you do this alone; the last time I was here the Dark Lord begged Lucius to turn me. Voldemort was beyond pleased to see that I had come to my senses. He has a Russian socialite not to mention another occulmen in his leagues, he will not harm me."

"You truly are a fool, Voldemort holds allegiance to no one!" He was furious and desperately concerned. Did this innocent thing actually know what she was getting in to? 'No, not innocent,' he reminded himself as he recalled клетка (1). He had never fully understood it, what клеткаwas; he just remembered her nightmares. Her screams and that look in her eyes had told him that it was something terrible, something he would not have wanted to know about. Severus had easily understood, it was like his dealings with Voldemort. Now, she was a part of that as well. "Katya, you do not understand." He took a breath, and then said it. "Remember клетка? How would you feel if I said I had been there?"

Those deep green eyes widened dramatically and she took a few steps back. Her head shook in disbelief and a hand rose to cover her gaping mouth. "Severus... You didn't…" Her voice was weak, her arms shaking and tears swelling in her eyes.

He shook his head, "I did not, but now you understand what I feel when I see the Dark Mark on your arm."

Her lip trembled, "It's different. If you went to клетка, you would enjoy it." Those green pools almost managed to conceal her bitterness. He would have enjoyed it? Something that caused her such pain? Such agony?

Severus's eyes searched hers, "What was it?" His mind strained to think of possibilities. Why would he have enjoyed something that had left her so broken?

Katya stepped back and swallowed the lump in her throat, "I have a lesson to prepare." Her eyes did not leave his until she turned. Pausing a moment with her back to him, she hurriedly made for the door.

The Potion's Master watched her leave. Клеткаgone from his mind for now as he realized it would be a hopeless search for answers, his mind drifted. He wondered what else she'd been doing with Lucius Malfoy, if that's how she'd gotten inside Voldemort's circle. Lucius was known to have affairs, and Katya was known to use everything it took to get the job done. That's why she'd been forced to leave the Order the first time Voldemort rose to power. Dumbledore had strictly ordered her to return to Russia. The reasons had never been revealed to other members... The Potters knew... Severus sighed. When she'd refused to leave, Karma had intervened, evidently, and sent her back regardless.

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Serviath frowned as Eva filled him in on what the Slytherin House had to offer about Voldemort. The news was not good; ten of them were considering joining his ranks. It was their usual biweekly chat in the Three Broomsticks. No one questioned the twins' conversation; they were twins after all.

He drank his Butterbeer with a sigh, "If it makes you feel any better, three more Ravenclaws joined the DA last Wednesday."

Eva shook her head, "Hardly." Her green eyes stared at the rippling surface of her cognac.

"Something on your mind?" Serviath worried daily about the Slytherin House's effect on his little sister (even if she was only four seconds younger.) The only thing he had to console him was the fact that the Sorting Hat was always right.

She nodded, "I talked to Mum..."

Serviath's ears perked up, being a Gryffindor, he rarely found alone time to speak with her. Mum always took points from Slytherin, so Eva often stayed after class to 'object.' "And?" Serviath pleaded eagerly for more information.

"I do not bring good news," Eva looked grim yet again. Was Slytherin doing this to her as well?

He sighed, bracing himself. "What is it?"

Eva took a deep breath, "Mum... Well... She is working undercover..."

Serviath raised an eyebrow, "Be blunt, just come out with it. You'll be telling me regardless."

"She is one of them," she spat out vehemently. "Mum has the Mark."

He shook his head several times. "Impossible. She would never do that, no matter what the cost."

Eva spun her glass in circles idly, "There's more. The Potion's Master... Master Snape is one as well. A spy."

"How does that correlate?" Serviath was getting lost.

She bit her bottom lip, a common habit of her mother's. "I believe she did it for him. The rumors, I think there may be some validity to them."

Serviath shook his head, "Preposterous! She would never see anything in that disgusting, slimy, unsanitary git!"

Eva raised an eyebrow, "Bitter?"

He glare angrily, "I forbid it!"

"Is that meant to change her mind?" She gave her best sneer, one of the many things that made her Slytherin friends very proud.

Serviath stood up, "She will have nothing to do with that terrible git! I'll send an owl to Anisim if need be!"

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Harry had held Snape off quite well tonight, he thought as he had exited the classroom. Occulmency was going nicely. His scar started burning again. Harry had resolved earlier not to go to Dumbledore, so instead, he decided to seek out his Defense Professor. Maybe she could offer some clue as to why this was happening?

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Fin.

(1) It's a Russian word meaning 'cage.' I will say nothing more of the matter.

Pacem Spiritus- Calm the spirit.