Just a slight forewarning here, there is copywrited info in this chapter that (not that anyone will) you cannot steal in any way. The Paladins, the training camp is copywrited to me, as are the characters Kathleen Peters (Kate) Richard Peterson, Jack Hunter, and any other characters that do not sound familiar whilst reading.
Anyway, now taht I got that over with, PLEASE REVIEW!
Chapter Fourteen
Don't Mess With Kathleen
Kathleen eyes shot daggers at the potions professor as soon as he had spoken. Not only because she knew he was about to reveal her one and only failure to the trio but because she was irritated and confused on how he had managed to sneak up on her. She knew the look on Snape's face was confusing the others, most likely the reason being that Snape saved that particular look for Harry most of the time.
"Or perhaps they don't, and you haven't told them," he sneered with a smirk.
"I didn't tell them because it wasn't relevant." She said firmly.
"I'd think he would feel differently,"
Harry mouthed the word 'Me?' to Hermione and Ron but Kathleen ignored it, her venom getting ready to spew on the adult wizard. "I did not ask him nor did I want him to come so it was not my fault, as you very well know."
"Do I? We can never tell what side you are on so how can I be sure you did not lead him into the trap?"
She slammed her hands down on the table, grabbing her wand from her hair, the long brown strands falling down. She pointed it at Snape and, as fast as lightening, was pressing it to his chest. His hand twitched, as if to make a grab for his wand but he was too slow. He was pinned by a witch more than half his age at wand point. With a flash of her hand she grabbed his wand from his robes and threw it aside.
It clattered on the floor and rolled under the counter. Snape twitched again, as if to grab it as it flew but she stopped him by jamming the wand harder into his chest. For several moments they both just glared the other down and if looks could kill, both would be dead in the spot they stood. Slowly she turned around, lowering her wand and started back towards the table.
"You killed him, Peters. You know it," he said softly barely loud enough for the statement to reach the trio's ears, for once Snape wanted the trio to listen.
She whirled around and slapped him across the face. Hermione's gasp of horror and Harry and Ron's of shock rung out. "Do not speak of things you have no knowledge of, Death Eater." She hissed.
He grabbed her by the wrists and twisted her hands, trying to get her to drop the wand. "I know exactly what I am saying, Peters. Do not think that Albus hired you blindly and who better to do his research than I?"
"Do you?" she questioned masking her pain as he continued to fight to control her wand. "Then you should have known that no one attacks me!" she brought her knee up causing him to gasp for air as it hit his gut, knocking the wind out of him. She whirled around, bringing her foot into his face. His head snapped to the side and he stumbled back. He looked back at her wiping in shock a trickle of blood coming from his newly split lip.
"Bitch," he whispered.
"That is something you should have no doubt of," Kathleen said jamming her wand against his chest again. "Give me a reason," she said, her eyes flared much in the same way Lord Voldemort's did before he tortured someone. He started to summoned his wand to him but she yanked a knife from her pant's pocket. She pressed it against his abdomen with a sneer. "For gods sake give me a reason, and I will." Slowly his arm fell back to his side. "Never, ever, say that to me again." The tension in the room was so thick that there was static electricity erupting from her magic being pressed into the air. "Do you understand me?" The trio was staring at the two in shock at her audacity to threaten Severus Snape. His upper lip moved into a sneer of disgust but she jabbed the stick into his chest. "I'm not in the habit of repeating my questions,"
"Yes," came the response, baffling the trio.
"Good," she said shoving him back into the wall with a strength even Snape was not expecting, even after she had kicked him. She waved her hand rather than her wand and his flew back into his robe. "Leave," He didn't move. She looked after she fixed her hair back into the bun. "I said, go." He sneered at her but, to the trio's shock and surprise, walked from the room with a flare of his black robes, the door slamming behind him.
She glared after him for moment before turning and sitting back down. There was silence for several minutes as she ate the rest of her cereal as if nothing had happened. Harry's eyes were as wide as saucers, Hermione's jaw had dropped open so it was nearly scrapping the table, and Ron looked like he had just witnessed the greatest thing since the invention of food. Their looks amused her to no end as she cleaned her bowl magically and packed it away.
Harry broke the silence. "How can you do that if you're underage?" he asked trying to get over her shock.
"Special privileges and I'm out of American restriction." She answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Come on Harry, if I didn't have special privileges how could I have protected you properly?" He nodded as if to say 'I'll give you that one'.
Ron, suddenly and curiously, asked the question that had been burning in the trio's mind since Snape had been first discovered. "What do he mean by that? The greasy git, I mean."
She giggled at the nickname. "Greasy git? Hm, I think that could grow on me," She tried to divert their attention but she knew immediately that Hermione, Ron, and Harry wouldn't give up till they found out the truth. She sighed. "All right, I'll tell you." She muttered. "You already heard this first part last night but Harry hasn't,"
"The Paladins?" questioned Hermione. She nodded. "Can you be a little more in depth about it? I'm intrigued how did it start out? Who started it? Why is it called the Paladins? Why do they take children at such a young age? Why—" Ron cut her off.
"Shut it, 'Mione, let Kathleen at least tell Harry about the Paladins first."
"Huh?" questioned Harry completely confused.
"Okay," She conjured up a glass of water. "Want anything before I begin, I'm not in the habit of stopping," There was a chorus of no's and she sipped her water before beginning. "I am a part of an advanced training group in America called the Paladins. First off, since Hermione seem so keenly interested in the group I'll give you a little history,
"The Paladins were started shortly after Illusion's School of Magic in the States came into being, around fourteen ninety-nine. At the birth of the new school there were problems springing up all around, the native witches and wizards were practicing dark magic to complete their native American rituals and so on and repeatedly attacked the school, under the impression that the powers of a witch or wizard should not be controlled or siphoned through anything like a wand.
"Well, the school was just too knew to continuously get attacked, wizarding families didn't want to send their eleven-year-old children to a school under constant attack understandably. Then the creators of the group of the Paladins, two lovers by the name of Juliana and Taurin Sidalpan managed to negotiate with the natives, unfortunately, yet again, the natives were nearly slaughtered when they tried to kill the two.
"Eventually, of course, the problems were worked out but the school needed a sure and secure way to defend itself against any outbreaks of dark magic, such as the one that ceremoniously broke out here," Harry smirked at the reference to Tom Riddle. "So Juliana and Taurin created the Paladins,"
"Oh!" Hermione gasped out realizing the connection.
"What?" asked Ron, startled at her sudden noise.
Kathleen smiled and wrote in burning white letters in the air, much like the ones the memory of Tom Riddle had impressed in the diary had written Harry's second year in the Chamber of Secrets. "Sidalpan," she said as she wrote the lovers' last name. "Rearrange the letters and," The letters changed into the new word. "Paladins."
"Wicked," Ron gaped.
"I guess, they probably also got it from the mythical knight that would ride in to save the innocent in the Rensouance time period." Ron looked lost but Hermione understood, Harry just shrugged. "Never mind, Ron." He blushed slightly. "Anyway, back to the Paladins.
"The two at first only took in and trained egger adults, much like the Order here does but then, about a hundred years later, they decided to try an experiment, taking two children, a boy and girl, at their first signs of magic and training them from that age till they reached eleven, when they would be accepted into Illusion. The experiment, needless to say, passed with flying colors. By the time the children went to Illusion they could out match anyone who came their way and proved it at the up rising of a couple thousand natives, still bitter at Illusion. Together and without aid, they defeated the army at fourteen-years-old."
"Bloody brilliant," gasped Ron, his jaw dropping.
"I'd say so. That was when it started, a book with an enchanted quill writes the name of every child born that has magic destined in their blood, much like here and everywhere else. Well, the Paladins manipulated a duplicate of the quill into writing down the children with abnormally large amounts of magic in their blood. Children who at three years preformed their first hints of magic."
Ron studied her. "And you were one of them?"
"Honestly Ron, she had to be." moaned Hermione rolling her eyes.
"Well, in a way I was."
"What do you mean?" asked Harry frowning.
"Whereas my peers in the Paladins didn't show signs of magic till they reached three or four I showed signs of it at eleven months by summoning my stuffed animal from the next room by merely thinking about how I wanted it," Hermione gasped. "Yeah, I know. Immediately I was accepted into the program when I reached five. Now, though this method is stupid in my opinion, you are set with a partner that you will train with for the next seven years they pair you up with the person that is closest to your last name,
"My partner was Richard Peterson. It's not the best method, we once had an extremely powerful wizard paired with someone only half as powerful and that dragged them down but Richard," A sad but slightly happy smile was one her face as she looked down. "Richard was like me," The smile didn't go unnoticed by the others but they didn't comment, wishing to hear the rest. "He showed his first signs at nine months when he summoned his bottle from his mother's hand by pure accident."
She stopped, remembering with a smile on her face. Hermione, being a girl, picked up on the hints immediately. Her hand reached over and hesitantly touched Kathleen's. "You were lovers weren't you?"
She nodded slowly. "Yes. See the pairing isn't always boy girl but more often than not you end up like that. Richard and I, because of our last names, were obviously meant to be partners. Our parents had known each other so we had grown up together, a life-long friendship and connection. Our parents died at the hands of dark wizards when we reached eleven. He helped me avenge their death and visa versa. Our connection as partners was almost as strong as the original two Paladins'." She suddenly stopped smiling and looked down, silent.
"So where is he?" asked Ron after a moment.
She swallowed hard. "Dead,"
"Dead?" gasped Ron, his hands dropped onto the table with a clatter.
Hermione hit him on the arm but Kathleen shook her head. "It's alright. Yes, Ron. He died a year in a half ago, on a job. The only job I ever failed,"
Harry, to save Ron from being hit again, asked the posing question. "What happened?"
Kathleen sipped the water before continuing, her eyes no longer looking at them but off to the side. "At Illusion it's possible for early graduation and that's what many of the Paladins did. They were granted something we call the STP Act, which allowed the trained Paladins, after they graduated from Illusion, to go on jobs much like the one Albus had me on. We were sent out to guard various people, do under cover work and so on, from the time I reached twelve Richard and I were already on jobs, being the most powerful of the students in the Paladins, tied to another group,"
The look of hate and disgust on her face did not go unnoticed but she went on before they could question it, the look changing immediately. "We discovered our," She paused, she had only talked about this once before and that was at a mission-relay just after it had happened. "Our feelings about one another, our magic and personal relationship grew and then no one could beat us. Many tried, but we were too good. Playing tag-team, both magically and verbally." A faint smile traced her lips. "He used to tell jokes in the middle of the battle, distracting the enemy and confusing the…" She looked back at them and then shook her head. "We then made a mistake, the worst mistake ever,"
When she didn't elaborate Hermione questioned her. "What?"
"We, we decided because of our feelings for each other we should date and we did. Because of that we grew even stronger but it did something that years of training in the Paladins had broken out of us." She sighed at the confused faces. "In the Paladins we're taught to be scared of nothing, fear makes you weak and vulnerable. Well, we each had a single fear, the death of the other."
"How did they manage to teach you to be unafraid?" She recognized Harry's voice but didn't look at him.
"More times than not the thing you're afraid of is more afraid of you than you are of it," she said calmly.
"Wanna bet?" Ron muttered.
She smirked. "Thinking of Aragog?"
Ron's face flushed. "You know about that?"
She giggled. "I know a lot about all your lives, research is part of the job and I do thorough research."
"You know everything?" asked Hermione, worry and embarrassment seeping into her.
"Yes, Hermione everything, down to the Chamber of Secrets, Sorcerer's Stone, and Polyjuice," With each word Hermione blushed even more but by Polyjuice she was beat red. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about. Rather ingenious if you ask me,"
"Back to Richard," cut in Harry, Ron taking it on himself to stay quiet.
Kathleen sighed, looking aside. She picked nervously at her nails. "I was on a job, a muggle job. We do both wizarding jobs and muggle jobs. Well, we got caught and," She bit her lip trying to put a cap on her feelings. "My cover got blown by a wizard that we had dealt with once before and I was caught by a gang. Richard," She looked away taking in a deep breath. "Richard came in and nearly got me out of there but we were used to dealing with pureblood wizards who think it above themselves to use muggle weaponry. Well, these were muggles,"
"Oh my, Kathleen," gasped Hermione realizing what happened. Harry and Ron were still as confused as ever.
She elaborated for them. "Richard was shot by a gat, a muggle gun." She closed her eyes, the picture playing in her head. "I remember that moment so clearly, I watched him go down and then I snapped. My magic became uncontrollable and swept through the room, killing nearly everything in its path. He was rushed to Prets Hospital but he died on the way there."
Ron's jaw dropped down in shock and Harry's did the same. She looked down biting her lip. "Anyway, that's the story of my hell-bound life. How was yours?" she asked moving back into the calm character she portrayed so often.
"Kate," a voice from behind her side. "Here you are."
Her face went white and she looked back sharply. Lupin stood there. "Don't call me that, Albus told you that no one is to call me that." She said firmly leaving no room for argument. "Am I needed?" He merely nodded. With that she stood up and walked from the room, leaving the three baffled teenagers in the kitchen to process what she had told them.