Chapter Five

Kate pulled the invisibility cloak, a relic from the house in France, away from her body, its thin material creating a static zap on her skin.

"I knew you'd be visiting shortly, Miss Bennett." Sibyll Trelawney hunched in the chair in her office; her watery eyes evaluated the young woman standing before her through her thick glasses. This girl was different from her mother; stronger. Steel and silver, maybe; not delicate gold like her mother. "They have brought you here for answers Professor Snape has no plans of giving you."

Kate stared. "How could you know I'd be coming?" She almost said she thought the lined woman before her was a fake.

"You are forgetting you are not the only clairvoyant here, Kathleen. It's not a very common gift here. What will you do with it?" she said superiorly. She pointed her bejeweled fingers to a chair.

Kate shied away. "I don't think…" She sunk into the chair.

"It's a gift at all?" she finished Kate's sentence. "Yes, that's what I thought at first, too. When my grandmother told me so very long ago… You look very much like your mother, you must have seen it. It's those strange eyes. Very penetrating and unnerving to the unseeing, perhaps." She took Kate's hands.

"You, knew my mother?"

"Yes, my dear. And what a terrible story it is. It broke your mother's heart, leaving, it did. Hurt Severus quite a bit, now too. Poor lad, he's never been the same."

"Severus? How'd she hurt him?" Kate already knew how. She'd thrown his ring right back into his face.

Sibyll looked unnerved. And not because of the wild green eyes probing her conscience. "Oh my. You don't know, do you, child?"
Kate shook her head. She felt thick. Not knowing the story of someone as close as her own mother.

Sibyll started in on the dramatics she knew best, throwing the mass of wispy and colorful scarves behind her shoulders. "I know the history of the legend you have just only touched upon, Kathleen. What Professor Snape has told you is only the tip of the iceberg." She pulled an album from her desk. "I sensed you'd be coming, so I pulled this from the archives." She opened the album, flipping to a particular page and slid the book to Kate. It was a photo album. On one page was a picture of her grandmother, mother, and in the arms of her mother, was Kate herself, a small child. Her mother was smiling dutifully for the yearbook, it seemed.

"It's a family photo…I've seen it before." Kate continued to scan the book, turning a page or so. The whole of two pages had pictures of her family in it. All waving and smiling up at her. Her great-grandmother, alone in a black and white shot; then with her great-grandfather, both of them waving and beaming up at her in their colorless pose. On the next page, her grandmother Helen, then Helen with her grandfather Sam. The Grahams. Kate's breath caught in her chest like a bird caged. Beside the picture of her mother was a shot her mother and Severus Snape. They were young and grinning into the camera. Their tanned faces were radiant with happiness as they beamed up at her holding hands, waving as if they had no care in the world. Kate's father was nowhere to be seen. Just like her vision.

Sibyll caught the look on Kate's face. "Oh, but it is, Kathleen. These are photographs of the Guardians. A track record, if you will. There is a pair of Guardians chosen in each generation. And yes, Severus Snape and your mother were to be next in line." She said the last part more softly, trying to break the news gently. "They were engaged at one point, if I remember properly."

Kate raged against herself in the need to know what had happened to the happy couple and wanting to push the whole disturbing thing away from her. "What happened to them?"

"I normally would have asked Diana--your mother--to tell you … and Severus probably won't share much with you--oh, here it is. Diana, your mother, and Severus graduated from Hogwarts, planning to get married and accept the Guardianship, freely and gladly. Diana had wanted so badly to get out in the world, have a career. If only for a little while. So they moved to London for a brief time, and she worked for the Ministry of Magic. There she met Clark, your father, an English representative with the French Ministry. The two fell madly in love and Diana had a choice to make. And she chose Clark Bennett." Sibyll said this with a trace of resentment in her misty voice. "She accepted the Guardianship alone. Clark was no Guardian, he could never accept it. But yes, he knew about it and probably helped her though it a great deal. Diana left Severus and, to be perfectly honest, it's been hard on him. Turned him bitter--not against you, mind, but against Albus, Helen, and I for allowing it. Not against Diana or Clark, thought. He's your godfather, is he not? He never hears a word against her. Never Diana… Merlin rest their souls, your poor parents."

Kate didn't know how to feel about this news. Resentment toward her mother at first, then she remembered the letter, the fact that she was dead, and sympathized with her.

Kate gulped, unsure if she wanted to go any further down this unsure path. "Severus told me he'd never been inside the Garden. Why is that? If he was the next male Guardian…?"

Sibyll got that far away haziness Severus has fallen under earlier. "The female Guardian must unlock it first. Then, she lets him in. From that, they are bound together until the next Guardian, always a daughter, can take over."

"Then what is the Guardian supposed to guard?"

"You, Kathleen, are the Guardian of the Temple. You'd better accept it sooner rather than later. It's easier that way. As to what the Temple holds, I don't presume to know. Don't want to know. Only a Guardian does, and the last one was your mother. And…"

"She's dead."

"Yes." She shifted in her seat and dabbed at the corners of her squinty eyes with her shawl. "You'd best be going, Kathleen. I feel a drastic change in your aura and I think it best if you go to avoid polluting my classroom."

Kate nodded and thanked the woman for her help. Maybe she was a phony, but she still possessed wisdom of things Kate didn't and couldn't know.

An idea held strong in mind, Kate flew down to the Garden, Kali keeping pace, merely a darker shadow on the moonless night.. The deranged clairvoyant had said something about that she could let him in. Kate hoped he was ready for it. Draco was far behind, walking across the wet grass, confused. When Draco arrived, Kate was flat against the circular door. Her ear was pressed hard against the wood, listening. Eyes closed and fingers spread over the grainy door. She wasn't opening it, just breathing it seemed.

Her eyes snapped open and she staggered back, away from the door.

Draco smirked. "What on earth were you doing?"

She raised a brow. "I was feeling."

"What for?"

Kate was feeling particularly enigmatic that night. "For an answer, of course," she teased.

"What is the answer then, my Katie?" Draco was in a playful mood.

"They said 'yes.'" Kate grinned.

"Who said 'yes'?" Draco leaned and kissed her cheek.

Kate didn't answer him and slipped an arm around his waist. A wind blew through their hair, blowing Kate's dark into Draco's light. Yin and yang. Women and men. Balance.

"Are you ready?" Kate peered up through her penetrating greens.

"For what?"

Kate whispered wisely. "The Garden. The Temple. All of it."

Draco didn't understand.

"I'm opening the Garden for you. Tonight. We can go in together now." Kate could barely hold back her excitement.

Draco straightened. "Are you sure, Kate? Because…there's no turning back after this. You know that."

Kate held her hands on the sides of his face. Their eyes locked. "Yes, Draco. I've thought about this. I'm sure. I want to share this with you."

He nodded.

Stepping away from him, Kate moved to the door. She turned the handle and stepped through. "Come on," she urged him through the other side.

"That's it?"

Kate nodded and stepped backwards into the Garden. He stood there, frozen. With a gentle sigh, Kate reached out and took his hand, guiding him through the door. He was in. Kali meowed from the top of the wall. Even years later, in remembrance, Kate felt the intimacy of his kisses, that first night in the Garden. A promise. They were bound together now.