Here is chapter four for your reading pleasure. I would have had this up sooner but since it wasn't finished before I left school for the holiday I was unable to. Hope you enjoy. There's more to come.

Chapter Four

Library Training

Later in the day Rebecca had returned to Grimmauld Place without a word. Few had even noticed her return and those who did didn't acknowledge it so when Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione followed Mrs. Weasley up to the library that afternoon, they were surprised to find Rebecca there preparing to duel with Tonks.

"What's going on?" Harry asked Sirius who was sitting in a chair watching the two.

"Training, I suppose. Rebecca knows how to train against Death Eaters better than most others. The current Aurors don't know much about dueling them. She offered to help Tonks."

Harry nodded and shrugged to his friends. They all sat down beside Sirius to watch the two witches. Rebecca did something strange with her wand and a shield went up around them.

"Now," she said, "we begin. Necarai protego."

"Protection stealing," Sirius explained. "But I've never heard that one before. Probably Dark Arts. If there is one thing Rebecca knows well it's Dark Arts."

"If she wants to train everyone, why is she using Dark Arts?" Hermione asked.

Sirius looked at her. "The Death Eaters aren't going to stop and play nice just because someone doesn't know their spells. In fact, that's only more of a reason for them to continue an attack. Death Eaters don't like to play fair and Rebecca knows that. She trained most of them."

"This is not something children should be witnessing," Mrs. Weasley said.

"I don't know where else they're going to see it, Molly. At least Rebecca knows how to do it well. I may not like her, but I'll admit that she does know what she's doing."

If anything, the duel was teaching Harry that all the spells he'd learned to defend himself weren't going to do much against a determined, well educated Death Eater or even one trained by Rebecca. Tonks, even with the limited use of Dark Arts she was given as an Auror, was having difficulty battling Rebecca. She moved with a fluidity Harry thought to be impossible. Very few spells Tonks threw her way ever managed to get past the shield Rebecca had created around herself. Harry heard footsteps and turned his head to see another young woman, only a few years older than him, walk into the room. She had a regal air about her and her pale eyes admitted to nothing. She had black hair that fell just above her shoulders. She looked familiar but Harry was she he'd never seen her before.

Mrs. Weasley threw up her hands in defeat and left the room. The woman looked after her for a minute.

"Kalliope," Sirius said.

"Sirius," she answered. "Your cousin needs to work on her right side. Oh, she knows that now," the woman said, looking at the duel.

"Dora hasn't had the privilege of training with your mother yet."

"Privilege? Hardly. My mother is insane, in case you haven't noticed. More than three decades of intensive study of Dark Arts can do that to a person."

"I doubt that was all."

She shrugged. "Perhaps it was all the years of combined service to two dark lords. Neither are very forgiving and both honour disservice with death. A precarious balance of mistrust and hatred could drive anyone to the brink of insanity."

"Two dark lords?" Hermione asked and Harry nodded in agreement. The only dark lord he'd ever heard of was Voldemort and Grindelwald and the latter was dead.

The woman laughed. "Tom Riddle is not the only so-called dark lord in England."

"Kallie! Come here and let's give Tonks an example of a sturdy shield."

"Lovely. Dueling with Ulrich and now my mother." With a wave of her wand, Kallie disabled the shield and walked over to where Tonks was standing. "So how do you wish to do this, Mother?"

"Don't get smart with me, Kalliope. I could send you back to help Ulrich with the research but I need you here for the moment. Don't make me regret it."

"My apologies," Kallie said. "Traditional duel or fly by?"

"Fly by," Rebecca answered. "Watch, Dora, you four as well," she said, motioning to Harry and his friends. "No holds, Kallie."

"Oh fun."

"You'll think that. Octava!"

Kallie dodged the curse with ease and a wave of her wand brought up a shimmering blue shield that soon faded to transparent. Harry saw Rebecca smile and then she did something he wouldn't have thought her cold enough to do. She cast the Cruciatus Curse.

And it bounced off the shield. Harry wasn't the only one surprised. Tonks stood on the other side of Kallie with an open mouth staring as the pain curse faded into nothingness. Once again Rebecca cast the curse and again it faded outside the shield.

"Impossible," Hermione said.

"Not quite," Rebecca answered. "It's a shield created by Dark Arts and protects against most Dark Arts spells. The only downfall of this shield is that it will not defend against any normal hexes or jinxes of light origin. Using this shield coincides with agility and knowledge of counter charms."

Kallie had walked over to the window and was looking outside. Harry saw her frown and call for her mother's attention.

"Your old friend is outside, Mother."

"Who?" Rebecca asked.

"Narcissa."

"Malfoy?" Harry asked.

Kallie whirled on him with a strange look and nodded. Harry noticed Rebecca looking at him with a slight smile on her face.

"What is it?" Sirius asked. Rebecca turned from him and walked to the window. Harry looked at his godfather wondering why he had to ask what was going on. He thought Kallie had explained the situation quite well but the looks on Ron and Hermione's faces made him think about something else. He had understood what Rebecca and Kallie had said but no one else had. Had they been speaking in Parseltongue? Did that explain the looks he had gotten from the two women?

"Cissa is outside," Rebecca explained from the window. "She's looking for the house." A strange look crossed her face. "I'll handle it. I think I know what she wants."

"Of course. She wants you dead," Sirius said.

"No worries then," Rebecca said. "Plenty of people in this damn country want me dead. She's not the first nor will she be the last to come for my blood."

Kallie laughed. "And I suppose I'm to return to Knockturn Alley?"

"If you wish. Ulrich is helping me with a project and he'll be quite unreachable for a few days."

"The diary."

"No, I'm doing that alone. There are things there no one else should know."

"No one else will. Are you going out to handle your friend?"

Rebecca's face grew cold but she nodded. "Cissa and I have much unfinished business."

"Oh? A debate about who is responsible for what?" Sirius asked.

"I am not going to dignify that with a retort, Sirius Black. Now, I am going to go deal with Cissa, if you will excuse me. Kalliope, if you are going back to the shop, tell Uncle I'll be along shortly for an update." With that, Rebecca turned and left the library. Everyone stared after her.

"That was unexpected," Kallie said. "She never escapes a chance to visit with Ulrich."

"From what I've heard your uncle isn't someone to visit with."

Kallie shrugged at Sirius' comment. "I won't deny his insanity topped only by my mother's. They make an interesting pair and always have. I wonder what they would have been like if they had been siblings instead."

"Together?" Sirius asked. "They would have ruled the world in under a decade."

"I suppose that was always her father's fear. No one in his family had ever been so integrated with the Dark Arts nor so practiced. Ulrich knew everything there was to know and he taught Mother everything he knew."

"I remember well Christopher's reaction when he was told the newest enemy was Rebecca. We thought he was going to start killing people. Regardless, he walked into DMLE the next morning with orders to have her killed on sight."

"She never told me that."

"She knew. When we returned to school that year we sent off a letter to Rebecca immediately under Alesandra's request. Hogwarts owls weren't being intercepted yet and your grandmother couldn't risk letting Christopher find out she still considered Rebecca her daughter."

Sirius seemed to have forgotten Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were still in the room but Harry didn't dare draw attention to them. He wanted to know more about Rebecca and this new woman, her daughter Kallie. These morsels of information about the woman were interesting to him. Rebecca Black was an enigma.

"Mother never spoke much about that time."

Sirius shrugged. "For the first few years Alesandra believed she was salvageable. She asked us to keep in contact with Rebecca. She stopped responding to our letters by our fifth year."

"Did you even care?"

"I did, for a while, but I saw what Rebecca's betrayal did to her family and how little she cared about how she was destroying them."

"Perhaps, Sirius, you should ask her why she really left the family and followed Malfoy into the Death Eaters. It's just like your kind to make assumptions you can't prove." Kallie stopped and looked at Harry and his friends. Harry didn't like her gazes. It was cold and heartless. He had seen more kindness from her mother. "Don't make more of an ass of yourself than you already have, Black. My mother doesn't forgive easily and she has a very long memory. Good day."

"Hello, Narcissa."

"Rebecca."

"I saw you from the window. Come here to kill me?"

"I have no right to ask anything of you, Rebecca, not after everything I've ever done to you."

"Perhaps I should be the judge of that, Cissa," Rebecca said, walking away from Grimmauld Place and to a nearby park. Narcissa followed her.

"Do you remember the day Draco was born?"

"Vividly," Rebecca answered. Lucius had killed her father that day. She hadn't asked him to, but once Lucius had heard the truth of what her father had done, he had gone into a rage. Rebecca had stood, helpless and emotionless as her former lover tortured and killer her father. She supposed she had felt vindicated at some point during the whole ordeal, but she had seen more cold cruelty in Lucius at that moment than she had in all the years she had ever known him.

"I was furious when Lucius wanted to name you his godmother. He was insistent and I gave in. I knew you were out to steal him from me. You had the Dark Lord's favor and his bed, but you still wanted Lucius."

"Do you want to know the truth?"

"Should I b believe anything you say?"

"You came here asking for a favor." Narcissa nodded. "Lucius left me three months after your marriage. I fought for him, but he wanted to become loyal to you. He wanted a son."

"If that is true," Narcissa said, but stopped. "Your daughter, Kalliope, she can't be his."

"You are quick. What did you come here for, Narcissa? I have much to do and little time."

"How did you get Sirius his freedom?"

Rebecca stopped walking and turned to face her former housemate. "I have friends in high places."

"Not anymore. You betrayed everyone by your actions fifteen years ago. Furious betrayal that seeped into the mind of every person in the Circle."

"The Dark Lord was not my only access to friends, Cissa."

"Just tell me, how did you do it? I have an idea and this favor I wish to ask depends on your answer."

Rebecca sighed. "I stole a memory from Lucius and gave it to Jonas Davids. That, along with the names of several high ranking Death Eaters who claimed Imperious in the last war but were fully in their minds was enough to get me a trial for Sirius. Unofficial, of course. I wouldn't have dared to take him into the Ministry after what happened yesterday. I provided them with enough information and with the threat I'd go to the Prophet if they didn't listen to what I had to say."

"A Slytherin plot indeed," Narcissa said. "And it worked. I saw the Prophet this morning. I never thought I'd see the day Sirius was found innocent."

"You did nothing to help the situation."

"I was never in the Inner Circle. I didn't know who the Dark Lord's spies were, but I never thought Sirius would be one to turn traitor against his friends. He was always too much of a bloody Gryffindor and insisted loyalty and would have died to protect his godson."

"Why are you here, Narcissa?"

"Did you give the Ministy my name with the others?"

"They already suspected you, Cissa."

Narcissa was quiet for several long minutes. Rebecca didn't break the silence. She wanted to know what the other woman was thinking and why she had chosen to come to Grimmauld Place. Finally, Narcissa spoke.

"Severus is loyal, do you know that?"

"To the Dark Lord? I suspected, but I never sought to confirm." Rebecca watched her enemy's movements. Narcissa was very much in control of her emotions and didn't betray anything to an outside tick or movement. Rebecca had always been good at reading people, even without the Legilimency she had learned from Ulrich. Narcissa was hiding something, and it was more than the secret of who was loyal to whom. It made sense for a Death Eater to try to convince her of Severus' defection to the Dark Lord and Rebecca understood that. She also understood the method of using a child to gain the trust of an enemy.

"Yes. He is very much loyal to the Dark Lord. He will betray Dumbledore's Order when it is so wished for him to do so."

"I'll take care of it," Rebecca answered and meant it. She would discover the truth of the entire situation and regardless of what she found, she would proceed to the best interests of the Order or to Ulrich, whichever served her best interests.

"Do more than that. With your death, as Draco's godfather, Severus will get custody if I should be sent to Azkaban. Severus will turn Draco to the Dark Lord. I do not want that to happen. I don't want my son to be forced to do what we had to do to survive all those years ago. I know you accepted Dumbledore's offer to teach this year. Make a comeback, show that one can defy the Dark Lord and survive, and take Draco."

"Cissa." She didn't like how Narcissa was wording her argument. It seemed almost faked and strained. Not at all sincere. Something wasn't right and Rebecca could feel it. Memories long buried in pain and denial came to the surface. This was not a plea of a mother for her child; this was a plea to gain sympathy and, perhaps, and dead enemy.

"Don't, Becca, please. You are Draco's godmother. Take him, turn him away from the path Lucius and Severus have set him on. He doesn't know you and I think you are the only one who can save him because he doesn't know who you are."

"Narcissa, you're asking a lot of me. You of all people know how many enemies I have and how far they will go to get the Dark Lord's favour by killing me."

"I know, and I know you hate me, but I also know you once cared about Draco. I have a feeling you still do."

Rebecca sighed. "I will do what I can, Narcissa."

"You always do. The Aurors will raid Malfoy Manor by the end of the day. Severus will move quickly to gain control, thereby gaining his own favour with the Dark Lord."

"If Severus is truly betraying the Order, I will ensure he does not get near Draco."

"I trust you, Rebecca."

"It will take more than trust to get us out of this, Narcissa. I will do what I must to save Draco."

"I know you will. Thank you, Becca."

Rebecca nodded and Narcissa Disapparated. She stood in the Muggle park for a long time after the conversation thinking about what had been said. She wasn't sure whether to trust Narcissa's words or not. She knew there was much for the Dark Lord to gain by fooling her. If Draco was already firmly in the Dark Lord's grasp, Rebecca knew there would be no saving him and by bringing him into what she was planning would only jeopardize her life and the lives of those in the Order of the Phoenix. She couldn't risk it.

But if Draco had doubts about the Dark Lord she could risk saving him and bring him into the fold. She didn't know what to do. She wanted to save Draco, to keep him from the life she had been forced to live. It was an existence she had saved Regulus from, she wanted to save Draco from the same fate as her former protégé.

Closing her eyes in a silent prayer to whatever deity would listen, Rebecca made her way back to the manor. She would need to determine Severus' loyalties first and then get Dumbledore's aid in manipulating the Ministry to gain custody of her godson. She had planned on rescuing or trying to rescue Draco from his parents, this would only provide her with incentive.

As Rebecca reentered the wards surrounding the manor, she didn't notice the cloaked figure hiding in the bushes near where she and Narcissa had spoken. The figure left the bushes and watched the house for a few seconds before removing the white Death Eater mask. Severus Snape had an odd look on his face; it was almost a smile.