It's been a very, very long time since I updated this, and it'll probably be a long time before I update it again. My apologies. If anyone really, desperately wants to know what happens, go read "the Greater Good, or the Lesser Evil".

Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter. Don't sue me.

Chapter 7

Marcus Malfoy looked down at the missive in his hand, sealed with a distinctive, malevolent green seal, in distinct distaste and disdain. They were growing bolder, more insistent in their offers, in their temptations, in their…requests that he join them and become part of the great Cause.

The Crusade, some might say… both sides, unofficial and as yet fully undefined as they were, were courting him, but both sides believed in their way, in the rightness of their cause, and sought to convert him as if he were an infidel, with a soul that would be saved – one way or the other – whether he liked it or not.

He was not a trophy to be flaunted and thrown in others' faces. His loyalty and support was not a prize that could be won by the strongest, most cunning or most ruthless opponent, and the Malfoy were not a symbol to be used as propaganda and rhetoric.

By the gods, his children were not pawns, to be callously used by the grand puppet masters playing this Game…

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Child of a middle-class, muggle upbringing, Kate had never, ever seen anything like Hogwarts before. She had never seen anything like the whole wizarding world before, and despite the rather shadowed impression she had received from her first days in Slytherin, she was enchanted.

Shifting staircases, talking portraits, animated suits of armour, spells and charms and hexes and magic, most of all magic, just as she had always dreamed of encountering; something more than the mundane, something…something wonderful that made life seem more worth living. She would probably still be going about with a dazed, idiotic smile like she had seen on some of the other mugg- mudblood children, even after six months, but she knew that Luc would have thought it weak and foolish.

And if she had learned one thing in these first few days, it was to do avoid everything that would lead to the impression of weakness, foolishness, strangeness, or anything that reminded anyone that she was a mudblood, and welcome only on sufferance. Life – magic or no magic – was simply not worth living in Slytherin, if they remembered and tried to teach her that she was not, truly, one of 'them'. So a little discretion was called for, a little play-acting, perhaps a little hypocrisy…

There were times when she thought of it as a betrayal of everything she had ever known and loved before coming to Hogwarts. She had erased every possible indication that she was not a pureblood, eradicated every thing that could connect her to the muggle world – including trying to change her accent and manner, to speak as they did, in their cool, disinterested tones, and their smooth, cultured accents.

She had even – and this was perhaps the most shameful thing of all – repudiated her sister, ignoring her in the hallways and in the classrooms…

Sweet, stubborn Lily who still, after nearly half a year, did not accept that Kate was trying to deny her and tried to talk to her, to get through to her and ask what was wrong. She was a perfect example of a Gryffindor, Luc had once said dryly. Brave, stubborn, headstrong and impetuous, with all the subtlety of a charging bull…

That had been after their first meeting, during the first week of school. It had been lunchtime, and Luc, Lucius and Snape – and Kate herself, tagging along as always – had been seated in a little group on a sunny little patch of grass, discussing something lazily; it could have been lessons, or professors, or the latest Slytherin gossip, she couldn't remember. It hadn't mattered. Then a shadow had fallen across them, and they had looked up – three of the most influential first year Slytherins, to see the trio who had already made a name for themselves as troublemakers.

Potter, and Black, and Lupin – no Pettigrew, as of yet – with Lily standing in the background, watching Kate strangely, just as Kate herself sat, unheeded, behind the three Slytherins. While the two groups of boys had faced off, Lily had walked over to Kate and asked how she was doing, and what she thought of Hogwarts and the whole new world that had opened up to them.

With a worried look over her shoulder, Kate had seen that Luc seemed to be fully occupied. So she had smiled, and said, "Hogwarts is wonderful, but Slytherin," she raised an eyebrow, "is not the best of places to be a muggleborn…"

Lily had laughed, not seeing the seriousness behind the light words. "Oh, Kate, Gryffindor is so much fun – you should have been sorted in with us, instead of into Slytherin. It would be amazing to be together…"

Kate grinned, shrugged. "Oh, well, I didn't ask to be sorted into Slytherin. Have they been feeding you the anti-Slytherin rhetoric, yet? All Slytherins are evil, manipulative and untrustworthy?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I've heard it all. They weren't pleased when I told them I had a twin in Slytherin, you know. And nor was I pleased when they wouldn't apologise…"

Kate snorted. "I suppose they want us to hate each other?" She asked, curious, because she had indeed been told that a mudblood sister in Gryffindor was not acceptable. She didn't know what she was supposed to do about it, although she was beginning to get a very good idea…

Lily looked uncharacteristically solemn, her eyes serious as she held Kate's hand and looked searchingly into her eyes. Perhaps she had heard the seriousness under the levity after all. "I could never hate you, Kate, and I never will, no matter what prejudice and rivalry says…"

At that moment, she had looked away from Lily's eyes and straight into Luc's, and the shadows in his gaze, the hidden depths and the tension had sent a chill down her spine… They had had a little talk, later on, when they were in private; a small talk about appearances, and pretence, and of sacrifice and necessity. And after that, she had begun to sever the lifelong bond that she had always shared with Lily.

Of course Lily had written home to their parents, complaining of the odd change that Kate had undergone, and of course their parents had written to Kate, demanding to know what was going on and was she so sure that her friends were good influences on her? Even now, Kate could only shake her head. Of course her 'friends' were not good influences, as her parents would see it. Or even her teachers – there had been some subtle, discreet mention of an attempted re-sorting, to see whether the Hat had indeed got it right the first time. But word of the attempt got out, as it inevitably did, to the Slytherins – and, most dangerous of all, to Luc, who had not been pleased at all.

Not at all – and that had been puzzling, really. Why did he care? If she were sorted into another House, he could forget about her, forget about defending her, or the wearing task of turning her into a High Clan scion, or at least a Slytherin. But he had been absolutely furious, as if she had tried to betray him personally. That had been the first true taste she had ever had of his temper, and of his possessiveness.

Bastard that he was, everything usually went to Lucius, the first, legitimate son, the Heir. So what Luc did have, he held on to – she had known that, but had ignored it, dismissing it as unimportant, insignificant. Intellectual, academic knowledge was never as good as first hand, practical experience…

No further mention, from her at least, was ever made about a re-sorting.

But even so, Kate's friends – James Potter, earnest and idealistic, and Sirius Black, hot-headed and always ready for mischief, especially against his hated, aristocratic cousins – still tried to force her to talk to Lily, still asked her what she thought she was doing, and still scorned her for her apparent callousness. Lupin at least seemed to understand something of what she was going through – but Lupin's words didn't seem to carry much weight with them, at least not in this.

Because she wasn't a Slytherin, so of course she wouldn't think like one. Of course the ancient hatred of muggles and mudbloods didn't make her life hell in Slytherin, and of course she was only ignoring Lily because she was a stuck-up, arrogant snob who thought she was too good for her old friends and her old life.

But what could they know of the separation she was undergoing, of the chilling isolation she felt as the only mudblood in Slytherin, as the outsider, with only Luc to defend her? She couldn't talk to Lily and she had no other friends, and so she was coming, more and more, to be dependent on Luc for everything…

It was almost as if he was training her, if that was possible of an eleven year old boy. Turning her into a person – or even a tool – who would answer to no one but him, would be loyal to no one but him; oh, she interacted with the other Slytherins, but even that was on the understanding that she belonged to Luc, and no one else there was willing to challenge his claim. She wasn't at all sure that this was a good thing, or that theirs was a healthy relationship at all, but she was in too deep now, and there was no real way to back out of it, unless she severed all ties to Hogwarts completely and went back to the muggle world – and she didn't want to lose this new world she had found, even if she had to be Luc Malfoy's mudblood to survive in it.

But there were compensations. After coming to grips with life in Slytherin, after prolonged exposure to Slytherin culture, thoughts and ideals, with no other companions or teachers in the ways of the wizarding world, she had come to think and act, in some superficial ways, as a High Clan Slytherin. And there was a cold beauty, an elegance, in the centuries old traditions she was learning, in the way of life she was slowly becoming absorbed into, and in the people who were slowly, reluctantly, beginning to accept her.

Through sheer chance, fate in the form of the Sorting Hat had given Kate the chance to become not just Slytherin, but High Clan. In the reflection of Luc's fleeting true smiles and his wry laughter, in Snape's rare flashes of humour and Lucius' love and care for his younger brother, in Rayden's disguised affection for his cousin and Shan's brilliant grin, in all the bright, rarely seen humanity of Slytherin House – yes, even in the girls who would stop at nothing to break her – she saw that not all was dark, or evil, or corrupted as the Gryffindors said.

And she didn't think she would change that even if she could. If Dumbledore were to give her another chance to be sorted into Gryffindor – much chance she would have now, after such exposure to Slytherin – she didn't think that she would take it anymore. Life may not be perfect, but there was enough light and laughter to make it good.

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Watching the Slytherin table at dinner, Dumbledore sighed quietly. There they were, the aristocrats of the wizarding world, most of them High Clan, rich and influential, with networks of contacts and influence all over Britain and Europe. He knew their fathers and mothers were being recruited, courted and flattered and pursued by the man who had once been Tom Riddle, and now called himself Lord Voldemort. He knew that some of them had accepted Voldemort's offer, and some of them had not, and would not – but what he didn't know was the complete extent of the corruption, or of those who stood against it.

It was just too early to tell, and the stories of a Dark Lord were still hesitant, still unformed rumours, much to his dismay – he would much rather know just exactly what he was dealing with. But the nature of wizarding society was still conducive to secret plots and rebellions, unlike the more regulated muggle society…

His eye travelled to the group of first years, down to the two Malfoy brothers, sons of perhaps the most influential figure in Slytherin society. Which way would Marcus Malfoy jump? Which way would his sons jump? He had been watching them for a while now, aware of the slight anomalies in their group – their court was made up of all the usual suspects, Avery and Lestrange and Rosier and Courtney and Andahni, but also Snape – and wasn't that interesting – and the two displaced de Sauvigny, Luc's maternal cousins…

And there. The real odd one out, and not just because she was a girl. Katherine Evans, who had no influential relatives, no wealth or lineage or anything at all to recommend her – Kate Evans the muggle born, but who was firmly at Luc Malfoy's side. That oddity was what made Dumbledore hesitate about Luc. Everything he had seen of the boy indicated ruthless, amoral ambition and a potential for terrifying cold-bloodedness – except for his acceptance of Kate.

There had to be something else, something more to him.

Perhaps, if he cared for something more than himself and his ambition, he might resist the easy way to power…?

Dumbledore could only wait, watch, and find out what would happen.

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