Looking back, Kim realized that if Harry hadn't told her that he'd loved her, she would have taken the cutlery to her throat.
Her summer holidays began with meeting Karl at the door of the very same castle that she had helped captives escape from not so very long ago. Imagining him to have Harry's face, she walked up to him and kissed him before walking into the house and dropping her trunk outside her room. When she walked inside, she was not surprised to find that there was a Queen-sized bed, and that Karl's possessions were scattered around the room. She sighed sadly and dragged her trunk inside before Karl came in, himself, looking shocked that she'd actually kissed him of her own free will. It pained her to see him so happy because of her.
"The whore wishes you to see her in the kitchens," Karl muttered, running a hand through his greasy hair.
"Nassandra? All right," Kim replied and hopped out of the room, attempting to walk and slip on a different pair of shoes at the same time, and earning her an odd look from Draco, who happened to be walking by.
Kim went by several other people in the corridors, each looking at her slightly angrily. She finally reached the kitchens and saw Nassandra dragging something heavy through the door. It seemed to be a cow, but upon closer inspection, it had fangs and instead of hooves it had toes.
"Hey, Nassandra, why did you want to see me?" Kim asked, sitting in a chair and propping her feet up onto the table.
"I've told the Dark Lord that I want you to help me in the kitchens over the summer," Nassandra replied.
"WHAT!" Kim exclaimed in indignation.
"Yeah, it'll give you an excuse not to see Karl so often, and maybe you could slip Sleeping Draught into his drinks or something. Also, I need the help and if you do this, the Dark Lord won't find you for awhile and you won't be punished because he'll probably forget eventually," she replied, slicing up the cow-like animal into burger-like circles.
"Yeah, I could probably slip off to the Order more often, too. Thanks, Nassandra!"
"Don't mention it. I need the help, anyway. She began flipping the burgers made of the unknown meat onto the stove and magically lit the griddle.
Kim stared for a moment. The meat was pink in color. "What is that stuff, anyway?"
"This?" Nassandra asked as she left the pink mystery meat sitting there. "No clue. I'll have Revenge test it for me in a minute. I could always give her an Antidote if it's poisonous."
Kim looked slightly horrified. "Anything I can do?"
"Not yet, no," Nassandra replied, sitting down.
The mystery meat caught fire and began sending foot-high flames into the air. Nassandra got up and merely flipped it over before sitting again and resting her head in her arms. One finger began playing with her orange, plastic nosering.
"Do you think I should get another nosering?" she asked seriously.
"Er," Kim was a bit alarmed at Nassandra asking her opinion. "Sure, why not?"
"I was thinking on an entirely new look. What do you think?" she went on.
"Yeah," Kim replied, "it might be a nice change. Just don't go back to the blue hair. That didn't look very good."
"I was thinking of trying teal curls next," Nassandra said distantly, getting up and sprinkling the flaming mystery meat with water from her wand. Then she took it off and put more on.
"Er, that's nice," Kim replied. Then she looked around the kitchen. "Where are the kids?"
"I left Zute, Zilch, Moonunit, and Celtelusios with Malfoy," she replied. "Revenge and Eleven are playing hide and seek, I think, but for all I know, they could be snapping wands, or doing whatever."
"What'd you leave four of them with Lucius?" Kim asked incredulously as though Nassandra were mad.
"Not Lucius, I mean Draco," she answered. "When I last left, he was telling them a twisted version of Cinderella. I left them with him in exchange for some information that I wouldn't let loose."
"What information? I won't tell," Kim said quickly.
"Nothing really. I don't see why he cares. It's the fact that Celtelusios is his half-brother," she said, waving it away and flipping the mystery meat again.
"You mean you... Lucius... gross-!" Kim exclaimed.
"Tell me about it," Nassandra replied, twirling her green hair around one finger.
"Wait... what do you mean by a twisted version of Cinderella?" Kim wondered, suddenly getting a picture of Malfoy telling four little kids a scary story.
"Well, Malfoy doesn't know the entire story, so he was making up a few things. Like the glass slipper was made of fur, for example. Also, Cinderella somehow met the Three Little Pigs along the way and I think the wolf ate all four of them at one point..."
Kim began to laugh and Nassandra grinned. She would have to tell Harry this... but thinking of Harry made Kim sad that she couldn't be with him. So she got a brilliant idea.
"Nassandra, I'll be in a few minutes," she said.
"Don't you want any?" Nassandra questioned, flipping over the burning mystery meat again.
"No thanks," Kim replied. "I'm not really hungry. I've got to send an owl. I'll be back in a minute or so to help you wash the dishes."
Then she scurried out of the room to the place where Tam had flown off.
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
"Tam!" she called. "TAAAAAAAAM!" She was about to call another time when the owl flew onto her outstretched arm. "Oh! There you are!" she said happily. "I want you to send a message, okay?"
Tam hooted happily. Kim took out the parchment and quill she'd brought with her. She put the parchment on the wall of the castle and wrote:
Dear Harry,
I hope your summer isn't going miserably. I've been given kitchen duties with Nassandra for the entire holiday! Nassandra, herself, is cooking some mystery meat that she dragged out of the forest... I think I'm going to starve this summer...
Anyway, I hope you're all right. I, obviously, can't say where I'm staying, but it's nowhere happy, I'll tell you that.
Send me a reply back with Tam and say it's from any random name you can come up with. I don't care what it is. Use code, obviously.
With Love,
Kim
P.S. I'm hoping to be seeing you you-know-where in mid-July, so I'm hoping that you'll be there!
Kim seriously hoped Harry would reply. She didn't want to be left all alone during the entire summer. She closed the envelope and wrote nothing on the front.
"Okay," Kim said to Tam, "I want you to take this to Harry Potter, okay? Try not to get caught by anyone if you can help it, but stay safe!"
Tam hooted again, excited at the prospect of a delivery. She flew around for a second before Kim managed to grab her and attach the letter.
"Take care!" Kim called after her retreating form into the sunset. Then she hurried back into the kitchens where she found Nassandra handing someone a burger:
"What is it?" he asked, looking at the burnt circle of unknown meat.
"Chicken," Nassandra replied, "enjoy."
"That was NOT chicken, Nassandra," Kim said quietly after he'd left.
"Yeah, well, Revenge said that that's what it tasted like," Nassandra replied stiffly. "Who'd you send the letter to?"
"Harry," Kim replied, dropping her voice so low that Nassandra had to lip-read.
"He on speaking terms with you, then?"
"Yeah," Kim replied, "we're a-" she looked around wildly, "-a couple."
Nassandra raised her brunette's eyebrows so high that they disappeared behind her wild green hair. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah," Kim replied. "I don't know how it happened. We just started snogging one day."
Nassandra looked even more surprised at this information.
"You can't tell, obviously," Kim went on as a few people dropped their plates into the kitchen hastily.
"I know," Nassandra replied, picking up the plates and going over to the sink.
Kim frowned, "You use that sink to wash dishes?"
"Yeah, problem?"
"The water comes out orange," Kim commented.
"So? What they don't know won't hurt them," Nassandra replied, turning on the tap and running the dishes under the water for a split-second before declaring them clean and re-stacking them in a pile.
"That's not washing dishes!" Kim exclaimed, horrified.
"So?" Nassandra replied with a sigh. "I've got more important things to do than wash dishes." She dropped her voice to a low whisper and went over right next to Kim. "Are you going to the Order later this summer?"
"Yeah, why?" she answered.
Nassandra took a deep breath, "Can I come?"
"WHAT!" Kim exclaimed, jumping out of her seat.
"Can I come?" she repeated.
"I dunno, Nassandra, you'd have a lot of explaining to do to them. They'd put you under the Veritaserum and you might have your memory modified. You've also got the Dark Lord to answer to. What would he say if you weren't here? Don't you have to tell him where you're going?"
"Well is there food at the Headquarters?"
"What? Why? Yes, yes, there's food."
"Well then I could tell him I'm going to get some food," she replied simply. "Excuses like that work all the time and he doesn't care."
Kim began to think things over. She'd have to ask.
"Wait a moment. Tell anyone who asks where I am that I'm in the bathroom." She Apparated into the Headquarters, much to a surprised Lupin and Moody, who were the only ones there besides Natalie, who was throwing dungbombs at the pigeons outside her window with Ethan and Eric, who seemed to be visiting, and Mrs. Weasley.
"You're not supposed to be back until July, Sprite," Moody said as greeting, using the nickname he'd given her. "Did something come up?"
"Yeah, I suppose something did, but it's nothing you really need to worry about," she replied quickly. Natalie, Ethan, and Eric were staring at her avidly.
"What do you need?" Remus asked straight-faced.
Kim took a very deep breath, then began: "Well, there's a girl at the castle where I'm staying most of this summer. She's bound to the place, but no one really pays her very much attention. She really doesn't like the Dark Lord and she wants to join our side. Her name is Nassandra and she's really trustworthy, and she'll let you use the Veritaserum on her if you want to, but she really, really, really wants to join so I was wondering if I could bring her, even if she doesn't attend the meeting?"
She said this all very fast and held her breath. Moody and Lupin both looked grave and then looked at each other.
She knew that they needed to talk about it just by the looks on their faces. "Do you want me to come back later?" They both nodded so she bowed her head slightly and waved to her friends before Disapparating back to the castle.
"What did they say?" Nassandra whispered excitedly.
Kim gave Nassandra the answer, who looked happy that they hadn't, yet, said 'no'.
Kim didn't bother to say that it was unlikely that they would allow it, simply because Nassandra was so happy. She decided to leave the kitchens instead, because Revenge and Eleven came tumbling in, Revenge chasing Eleven with someone's stolen wand.
Kim went back up to the room that she shared with Karl and opened the door to find him snoring slightly.
Thanks, Nassandra, she said in her mind as she remembered her friend's words of a Sleeping Draught.
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
The next morning Kim awoke early and saw that Karl's Sleeping Potion seemed to be wearing off. Hastily, she dressed as quickly as was possible, combed her hair, and then tumbled out of the room.
Since there was nowhere else to go, she headed into the kitchens, hoping to find Nassandra there. She was.
"I'm bored," Kim said, sitting.
Nassandra's hair this morning was a vivid teal and rather curly, making her even more shocking than before. She also had given herself another piercing, but it was on her left eyebrow and was a small, red hoop.
"I am as well," Nassandra agreed, "like my new look?"
Kim looked her up and down, "Yeah. It's cool. I wish my dad would let me dye my hair." She sighed, "I expect he wouldn't care too much, but he'd probably just give me a look."
Nassandra seemed to be looking at her closely. "What color?" she asked.
Kim looked stunned for a moment, "I've no clue what color. I'd like curls like yours, though, but I'd want them shoulder length."
Nassandra peered at her hair. "That can be arranged."
She received an electrical shock at this statement and was suddenly reminded of the time when she'd been named a Gryffindor and Anna Flest had fussed about with wanting to cut her hair. It had turned out great, but it was falling apart again. Kim eyed Nassandra's wild teal-colored curls and wondered if she wanted to take that plunge. She grinned.
"I'm all yours for the day," she replied. Nassandra broke out into a smile.
"Okay, you need to come to my room," she said business-like.
Kim obediently followed Nassandra to a small door. "Er, Nassandra, this is a broom closet."
"No, it's my room," Nassandra corrected, opening the closet door and revealing a magically-widened room and a table with many hair products and range of dyes that went from silver to green to black to shocking pink. There seemed to be every color.
"Pick one," Nassandra welcomed, grabbing her wand.
Kim eyed the wand apprehensively and then wondered, yet again, what the bloody hell she was getting herself into.
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
Kim peered nervously around and looked at her reflection in the window. She looked... good...
With a satisfied sigh, she Disapparated back into the Order's Headquarters to hear Moody and Lupin's answer for her. She saw no one in the room she'd Apparated into, except a sleeping Ron. She got a shock when she realized that Moody might not recognize her. She'd rather taken a liking to Moody. Paranoid as he was, Kim respected him and held him in high regard.
She glanced at her reflection in the window again and barely recognized herself. Nervously, she began to pull at her slightly curled, dull purple hair. The purple was dark enough so that, unless you looked at it the right way, you could think it was a brownish-black. She also glanced at the multiple piercings on her ears and wondered slightly about why they hadn't hurt. Nassandra had wanted to give her bright blue highlights on her purple hair and a nose ring like hers, but Kim refused. Nassandra had insisted, however, upon wearing entirely black robes and giving her a silver lip ring that would go away if she wanted it to.
Self-consciously, she took a deep breath and walked into the next room... only to find Ginny talking to Lupin about something, while Natalie was eating a sandwich. The moment she entered, Natalie stopped chewing and stared wide-eyed at her, Ginny looked up in horror, and Lupin was so shocked he looked as though he'd just seen his own ghost.
"Er, have you and Moody decided whether it's okay if I bring Nassandra with me?" Kim said, shuffling around a bit.
Everyone continued to stare and didn't give her an answer.
Then Fred and George bustled in, followed by Ethan and Eric. They seemed to have been making a prank together. Seeing Kim, however, stopped them in their tracks.
"Wow, Kim, is that you?" George asked.
"It is," Fred said in awe.
"Wait until Harry sees you," George added, grinning. "Ron told us about your friendly little chit-chat with him in the Common Room back at Hogwarts."
Kim blushed a deep scarlet, which she was sure did not go well with her hair.
Lupin seemed to have finally recovered, "Yeah, you can bring her, but Moody's going to put Veritaserum down her throat somehow, so I'd warn her." Lupin seemed highly amused about the bit of information concerning her and Harry. Natalie still had not resumed her chewing.
"I, er, got a new look, did you notice?" she said to Ginny, who was still looking at her as though she were mad.
"Notice?" she repeated softly. "It almost knocked me dead seeing it for the first time."
Lupin chuckled a bit and Natalie finally realized she was staring and continued to chew.
"Nassandra insisted," Kim replied, plucking at the purple wave in her hair. "I suppose she wanted someone other than herself to test on..."
"Wait, who's Nassandra?" Fred interrupted.
"She's going to come here in mid-July," Kim replied. "She's the one who's given me purple hair. She just dyed her hair, herself: teal curls and a new red eyebrow piercing."
Fred looked stunned but George grinned, "Sounds cool to me. Why'd she test on you?"
"Because she can't test on her kids," Kim replied matter-of-factly.
"Kids? Wait, how old is she?" Fred interrupted, frowning.
"She's just had her eighteenth birthday," Kim answered, "she's got six."
Fred and George just stared wide-eyed at each other, while Lupin frowned disapprovingly, and Natalie finally said something. "Is she the one who had the green hair, the orange nose ring, and helped us out of that castle?"
"Right," Kim agreed. "I've got to go. I'll be seeing you on the fifteenth, then." She Disapparated.
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
The fifteenth of July went by very slowly. Kim's rays of sunshine were the few Sleeping Potions that Nassandra had managed to make for Karl's goblet at dinner, and people leaving her alone, due to her hair (she had gotten annoyed with the piercings on her lips and ears and had removed them). She also enjoyed the letter she'd gotten from Tam that was sent to her by Harry, who had used the name Dudley Dursley on the front. It read:
Dear Kim,
I'm not too miserable. You're probably worse off. I borrowed my cousin's name for the envelope, good enough? I'm going you-know-where early this year. I'll be there on the tenth, so I'll be coming a few days earlier than you. Fred and George tell me that you've gone through some changes? Well, for better or for worse, I'll be glad to see you.
Is that creep leaving you alone? He'd better be. If he's not I'm going to personally request to kill him for you.
-Harry
Although Kim enjoyed getting his message, she did not reply, because she didn't know how to put into words what Karl was making her do on the nights that the Sleeping Draught didn't work. She shuddered at the very thought of it.
The fifteenth of July came quickly enough for her. She even endured Karl for an entire night without complaint, although he began to rant about how she was beginning to respect him now and it was only a matter of time before she'd be begging him to start their family immediately. Kim almost puked.
The morning that she was going to leave, Kim packed everything magically in front of a scowling Karl. He was looking lethal, so she left quickly and hurried into Nassandra's room, only to find it empty. She shrugged and grabbed her trunk and heaved it out of her room, checking again to make sure she'd gotten everything before going on a search of the castle for Killer.
While waiting for Nassandra, Kim looked at herself in the mirror once again. The purple was gone now, so she almost looked like herself, besides Nassandra's experiment with some dye that she wasn't sure what the color was and turned out to be a nice shade of auburn. Nassandra had liked the color and made her hair wave a bit more and curl at the bottoms.
Nassandra appeared.
"Where were you?"
"Finding somewhere for the kids to stay, but Revenge wanted to come, so I had to knock her out," came the answer.
"Okay," Kim said slowly. "Anyway, I've sent Tam ahead to where we're going and Killer is going to come with me. So can you grab my trunk?"
"Sure."
"All right? Let's go."
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
The Headquarters remained unchanged, so Kim headed into the room she was given last time and found that it was empty. She put her things inside, let Nassandra drop her things, too, and ushered her friend out so she could meet everyone.
They'd not gotten far, when Fred and George came around the corner and the four of them stopped dead in their tracks to look at one another. George had a rather odd look on his face. Nassandra's usually emotion-mixed face held the same look.
"Er, this is Nassandra," Kim said awkwardly.
"Nice to meet you," Fred said, immediately getting over the fact that her hair was teal-colored.
Nassandra continued to stare at George, while George stared at her. Fred shrugged and walked into his room and shut the door. Kim waved a hand in front of their faces, then left, brushing auburn curls out of her eyes.
The next person she met in the hallway was Lupin. His face looked surprised once more, but in a better way. "You look like someone I used to know," he said softly and shaking his head sadly. Kim wondered, but walked on.
When she was downstairs, she found Moody, who greeted her in his usual manner: "Any problems arising, Sprite?"
"None at all," she replied cheerfully. "None that you need to worry about, anyway."
Moody frowned, making his heavily-scarred face gain more rivets, "What does that mean, none that I need to worry about?"
"Well, there's really only one problem, but it's nothing I can't keep a secret. Nassandra's upstairs. She's come for the day, but as long as she brings some food back, she will be keeping her promise."
Moody frowned even more, "And what does THAT mean?" he growled.
"Well, you see, Nassandra is bound to the castle where we stay. She can't leave without giving an excuse. She said she was going out for the day to get some food, so if she brings some back, there will be no questions asked," Kim replied.
Moody continued to frown, but said nothing more, so Kim went into the kitchen, where she found Mrs. Weasley and Ginny cooking something, while Hermione was rolling a broken doorknob over to her cat in the corner, while she read a book.
"Hello, everyone," she said, sitting down behind them.
"Ooooh, Kim, I like your hair like that!" Ginny said.
"Thanks. Is there some way I can help?" she replied.
"Yes, dear," Mrs. Weasley replied, "can you get Fred and George for me?"
"Well, I can get Fred, but I've no idea if George is still rooted where he stands," she answered, making to leave.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny wondered.
"Well George met Nassandra and I believe they fancy each other," she giggled. "Although he's wasting his time: it would never work out. Besides, Mrs. Weasley, I don't think you'd approve of her."
With that said, she turned on her heel and went back upstairs, where Harry and Ron's voices floated through a door. Resisting the urge to Apparate inside, she went by towards Fred and George's room. She found Nassandra and George talking to each other rapidly and Fred sulking in a corner.
When Fred saw Kim, he brightened. "George has lost his marbles," he informed her.
Kim giggled and said, "Your mother wants you and George in the kitchen. OY! GEORGE!" she yelled so loudly that she heard a woman in a portrait downstairs begin to screech, "BLOOD-TRAITORS! MUDBLOODS! HALF-BREEDS! SCUM OF THE EARTH DIRTYING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS!"
George jumped at this and Nassandra looked almost frightened. Kim hurried toward the stairs and she saw Harry and Ron poke their heads out of the door. She hurried by them and rushed down the stairs to the portrait of the woman.
"THE HOUSE OF BLACK IS TAINTED WITH FILTH!" she shrieked.
Kim approached her and yelled, "OY! WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT!"
The woman stopped in her tracks and peered owlishly at her as though sizing her up, "Half-breeds and scum are ruining the house of my fathers!" she went on in a slightly subdued voice. She then stopped Nassandra, Fred, George, Ron, and Harry coming down the stairs and Lupin coming over to the portrait and began wailing again, "FILTHY SCUM! BLOOD BETRAYERS! HALF BLOODS! DIRTY ROTTEN-" The woman stopped and looked Kim's Death Eater's uniform, "My son..." she murmured.
"What?" came an alarmed voice from Lupin.
"The snake of the pure-blood is upon your cloak," she said quietly.
"Well, yeah, that's because I'm a Death Eater," she replied, wondering what the woman's problem was.
"My son..." she woman said, "was a Death Eater."
"Really? Who?"
"My dear Regulus," she went on happily. "He was such a good boy," she sighed, "but he was murdered when he did not follow orders..."
"He was asking for death, Mrs. Black," Lupin corrected.
"HALF-BREEDS TELLING ME THAT MY SON WAS NO GOOD!" she wailed. "Ah," she said, slightly calmer, "but I did have one unsatisfactory son-"
"You're wrong there, Mrs. Black," Harry said angrily, appearing behind Kim. "Sirius was one of the best people I know."
"He didn't follow the family tradition, and look where it got him," she snarled.
"Well look where I got your "good" son," Fred spat.
"Regulus? Regulus, Regulus, Regulus," Nassandra said over and over again, "I used to know somebody named Regulus. I was about three and my mother fancied him... said he was charming..."
Everybody peered at her oddly.
Mrs. Black seemed to like Nassandra instantly. "Your mother, my dear, knows how to read people-" Lupin pretended to hurl, which Kim found amusing, "-who was she?"
"Her name? Er, it was Cairo Skywolf."
Mrs. Black's smile dropped and she began screeching again, so Lupin pulled some blinds that covered her portrait and the wailing eventually stopped.
"Oh my goodness," Kim said after a moment's pause, "what was that all about?"
"She's a pure-blood who hates anyone who's not," Lupin answered stiffly.
"A bit odd having a conversation with a dead person's insane portrait," Nassandra commented, shaking her head and sending teal-colored curls flying everywhere.
"And you're Nassandra?" Lupin inquired, looking her up and down with surprise.
"Yep," she replied, happily.
"And Cairo Skywolf was your mother?"
"Yes."
"Any clue who your father is?"
"None at all," she replied.
"Er, what's this got to do with anything?" Ron interrupted.
Lupin didn't answer, but instead said, "What's your last name, Nassandra?"
"I don't have one, sir," she replied. "I suppose it would be my father's, but I've no clue who he was. All I know was that he was a pure blood, but nobody was very happy with him where I come from. He wasn't even a Death Eater from what I know."
Lupin nodded and seemed to be pondering something. He raised his wand and said, "Accio Photo Album." He flipped through it for a second after it had come to him through mid-air and stopped on one page and held it up, "Is this her?"
"Well, how did you get this picture?" Nassandra wondered as Kim peered at it. It was the same picture that was tacked up on Nassandra's wall. It was of a laughing woman with beautiful complexion and long brown hair that flowed fluently behind her. She was smiling in this picture and seemed to be quite happy to see everyone.
"It was given to me by a friend," Lupin answered, flipping through the book.
"Nassandra, what's going on? That's the same picture that's tacked on your wall."
"I'm not quite sure," she answered, slowly.
"I'll tell you what's going on," Lupin replied, "Nassandra is either Sirius's niece or his daughter. The Black family line is still continuing."