Katrina was standing in her childhood bedroom, the walls pink and a collection of stuffed animals atop her bed. Her four year old self was twirling like a ballerina, the painted animals on the walls mimicking her motions. As she spun on her heel, a doe doing the same, Cayden, wearing the task force uniform, entered the room, a shallow cut above his eyebrow.

"Very good form," he praised, watching the younger Katrina. "Kane's meeting with an old friend in New Orleans so we have the house to ourselves."

"What if he sees you in my room? I don't want him sending you away again," she said, jumping up and down with a white bunny.

Lifting her up with one arm, he sat on her bed, Katrina on his lap. "It's not your fault he locked me away. He's giving me another chance. When I come back, I'll teach you everything. Forget about Ilvermorny…or Hogwarts…they're a waste of your gifts. You're very special."

"Are you going to fight the bad men?" she asked, worried. "Will you be back before bedtime? Maybe he'll let you read me a story."

"Not tonight, sweet pea." He fiddled with her charm bracelet, a flower charm appearing next to her wolf charm. "I'll be gone for awhile. It'll seem like a lifetime to you but it won't be forever. If you ever miss me, you squeeze that charm and I'll come to you. What are we, huh?"

She smiled up at him. "Family."

"That's right, you and me." At the sound of Kane's voice, he rose from the bed. "Everything I'm doing is for us, Katrina. Remember that."

Struggling to simply open her eyes, Katrina felt something cold and metallic press against her lips, followed by a sour liquid. The taste made her retch and she managed to open one of her eyes, Kane became visible, sitting beside her in a wooden chair. She immediately turned away from him, tiny coughs slipping through her attempt at pretending the potion had no effect.

"Ah, I see petulant Katrina is here." Her stifled cough sounded like a squeaking mouse. "What is the reason for this grudge? Do you honestly believe Dumbledore would have let you accompany me in the search for those children? I kept your outburst contained, for the safety of you and the students remaining in the castle. If Fudge's aurors had arrived before me, it could've caused a catastrophe, especially if they witnessed you defending yourself against Cayden's band of dunces. Sometimes, diplomacy trumps reason."

"Unless you're apologizing, I'm not listening," she mumbled into her pillow.

"I'm sorry." Katrina's ears perked at those two words, ones forbidden in his vocabulary. "Perhaps it was a bit rash to seal you in that classroom but I knew that if you were free to roam, you would've offered yourself to Cayden. I can count the amount of people I've said those words to on one hand so you best cherish it. It was a one time occurrence."

Facing him, she fought the stinging pain in her ribs. "I'd yell at you but it hurts just to blink. Did you lock him up yet?"

An odd feeling bubbled inside her as he explained that Cayden was not in the custody of MACUSA or the British Ministry. When Jace's father and Elizabeth went to retrieve him from his fifty foot grave, the hole was completely empty, no sign of Cayden. Kane theorized that he mustered enough magic to apparate from the compound, to regroup with his minions that had not been captured by the aurors. Katrina could not honestly tell if the feeling within her was anger or disappointment. All of her and Jace's hard work had been for nothing.

Despite the setback, Kane and the task force were interrogating his captured followers, Lukas being the most resistant to their methods. Cayden had obviously planned ahead, his followers unable to divulge any pertinent information without enduring unbearable pain from a curse. Though Lukas was not subjected to that same fate, he refused to cooperate with the interrogation, his years spent training with the task force giving him insight into their usual tactics and having the knowledge that Kane would never reveal his transgressions to the public, to protect his family name. It was why no publications reported Lukas as a conspirator in the kidnapping.

"He'll need to crawl out of his hole eventually and I've got ears to the ground around the world," he assured her. "We'll find him. He's still licking his wounds."

"Father, please," she heard. "You can't barge in there. We're supposed to be in Dumbledore's office with Professor Flitwick. You promised me you wouldn't do this."

An angered middle-aged man in a dark green traveling cloak that matched his eyes stormed into the hospital wing, an apprehensive Roger, Katrina's bag on his shoulder, at his heels and a middle-aged brunette woman and a boy around Cayden's age, but not as muscular, two steps behind them. Based on their similar facial features, Katrina assumed that they were his family. While Roger took after his father, Chester resembled his mother and his uptight demeanor, plain by his wooden expression, reminded her of Percy Weasley. Roger had mentioned that like their mother, Chester worked in the Improper Use of Magic office at the Ministry and he tended to be the more responsible of the two brothers.

"Mr. Carlisle, I'm sorry." He spoke as if Kane was anxious but Katrina knew her guardian was not fazed by a man he could snap in two with one hand. "My father overheard Professor McGonagall tell Harry that you were visiting the hospital wing and—"

"Do not apologize to him," interrupted his father, surveying Kane like he was a dung beetle. "You lied to my face. For the past eleven years, we've been grieving for someone who we believed to be dead because we trusted your word and instead, we find out that he's been alive and kidnapped our son. This is precisely why he should've been under our care from the beginning."

Kane rose from his chair, Mr. Davies doing his best to not show fear. "And we would've arrived at the same result but sooner, long before he was a teenager. When we spoke at your Ministry the night of the fire, I warned you that he was unwell…that he was viewing the world through Amara's twisted eyes. Do not put his madness on me. Perhaps you should've reached out to him instead of the occasional Christmas card that he chucked into the fire."

"How dare you?" Mrs. Davies stepped away from her oldest son, clutching a handkerchief. "You blame us for what he's become? Don't twist the past in front of our boys. We tried to take him in but he wouldn't hear our side of the story. I'd rather know why he faked his death and how he escaped your watch again. Robards told us that you left him alone in that underground compound. If you knew he was such a threat, why didn't you take him in yourself?"

"I was tending to an injured student." Realizing that Katrina was awake, Roger looked even more remorseful for his parents' behavior. "The one in this bed. For all your rantings, your son appears to be fine and I doubt your whining will aid in her recovery."

Mr. Davies did not seem to care about her injuries. "Well, that's on you, isn't it?" Katrina worried that Kane would tear out his throat. "Do you plan on taking her in next, to see if she goes mad as well from your teachings? We empathize, of course, but one can't help but wonder if you had kept a proper eye on him, none of this would've happened, would it, Kane? We're meeting Scrimgeour in Dumbledore's office to discuss security measures and I'd prefer to hear your version of events."

"This will be over quickly. Take your potion," he whispered to Katrina, placing the flask on the bedside table. "And do not leave this bed."

Roger stayed in the room as Kane left with the rest of his family. It was their first time alone since the night of the concert in Hogsmeade. When she had infiltrated Cayden's hideout with Jace, she did not get a chance for personal conversations, solely focused on escaping without ending up captured themselves. She was unsure of what to expect, knowing that the Hogwarts students had seen her fighting in hand to hand combat. Had Kane or Dumbledore entirely altered their memories of their rescue or would that be too difficult of a task?

"You shouldn't have seen that," he said, taking Kane's seat. "When we all got back, Umbridge clamped down on any of us talking about it, with students or professors. Fudge spoke with my parents about it directly yesterday and it must've leaked from his office. He had to put out a statement in the Daily Prophet. He tried burying it in the evening edition but a kidnapping at Hogwarts is a big deal."

She slowly sat up, her bandaged hand on her ribs. "What did he say?"

"He said Cayden was acting alone, even though Harry says he works for you know who, and that he's a deranged individual." He handed her the flask. "He didn't want to hear what Cayden had said to us. My parents agreed with him that we're not reliable sources because he could've been messing with our heads. Besides, I don't think he'd believe that you knocked out a 6'5 man without a wand."

"Heh, about that…" she said, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation.

"It's okay. Mr. Carlisle told us the truth." Her hand shook, the maroon potion spilling over the spoon. "How that death eater had studied his training styles that he taught aurors at MACUSA and then taught you them too because you know who feared him as much as Dumbledore and wanted a level playing field, I suppose. It was amazing."

Katrina blushed at the compliment. Only Kane could concoct such a believable story though she doubted it would be sufficient for her entire life or against a knowledgable adult. What if the story reached someone like Umbridge, who would be suspicious of her 'talents' and want to dig into her past? From the day Kane told her that she would be going to Hogwarts, it was her main concern.

Seeing her grimace at the potion, Roger advised her to hold her nose, to block the sour taste. He grinned as she downed the potion, emitting high-pitched squeaks in her efforts to swallow it without spitting it back into the flask.

"Can take a punch but can't handle a potion. Noted," he joked. "How are you feeling, really? Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let anyone visit and Jace wouldn't tell Hannah how you got hurt. He just said Cayden cornered you. You never should've been in that position, Katrina."

"He barely hurt me. I think this is mostly from Stark squeezing me like a grape," she lied.

"You and Jace shouldn't have had to go there at all. If Cayden hadn't—I never knew about him until that day," he said, conjuring a napkin for her to wipe the potion from her lips. "When my parents arrived this morning with Chester, they told me the truth about him. How they never knew he existed before the fire and wanted to take him in but my aunt and uncle put it in his head that they were the bad guys. I don't understand what's made him so hateful."

"Sometimes, the answer isn't black and white," she said, knowing he was blindsided by Cayden's relation to him. "You never met your aunt and uncle. Maybe being estranged drove them to warp the truth in their favor. It's like Kane said to your father. There's no proof that if he did live with you, he'd turn out different. I'm glad he didn't hurt you. I thought he might when he was yelling at you."

"You and me both. He might've if he didn't get distracted by your bracelet." He pulled it out of his pocket, the strings frayed from Cayden ripping it off his wrist. "Why did you enchant it with a protection charm?"

"I heard Pucey saying he was going to get back at you for showing him up in Potions," she said, convincingly. "I didn't think he meant dyeing your hair pink or putting something in your pumpkin juice."

"Probably not," he agreed. "Lucky that you did though. You're not getting out of here anytime soon but I've got your bag and the homework you've missed. If it's too hard to move, I can do it for you. It's technically not cheating if you tell me what to write and I don't want you overexerting yourself. I'd start with Transfiguration. McGonagall always gives a mountain of homework before the holidays."

As Katrina sifted through her bag for her Transfiguration book, she noticed that pieces of parchment were missing, parchment she had disguised as notes from Hermione. If anyone else were to peruse the papers, they would see them as notes on the curriculum over the first four years at Hogwarts, to assist Katrina in catching up with her classmates. When she asked where Roger had found her bag, having left it in the empty classroom, he claimed that he had gotten it from Snape's office while collecting her homework from the professors.

It was not until the next morning that Katrina, after initial pushback from Madam Pomfrey, was able to leave the hospital wing. Some of her greatest acting yet was pretending that she was not in pain from the basic movement of getting out of the bed. With each step, Katrina felt a dull ache all over her body but in the moment, she was motivated by frustration. She had to maintain the performance as she passed by students, many acting like she had been out for months as opposed to a few days, on their way to the Great Hall, leaning her weight on the banister.

Waiting for Pansy and her clique, their complaints about the professors coddling a redheaded Gryffindor brat likely about her, to leave the dungeons, she slipped through the door and did not stop until she was in Snape's office. He was organizing the vials on the shelves and scribbling in a brown leather journal.

"Mister Malfoy, as I've told you since we returned to the castle, until I hear otherwise, you are prohibited from—" Turning away from the shelf, a vial of porcupine quills in his hand, he spotted Katrina. "Why are you not in the hospital wing?"

"Give it back," she demanded. "I know you stole it from my bag and you had no right. It's my property. I get that you and Kane hate each other but what I do outside the classroom isn't your business. Is this my punishment for being reckless with Jace? I didn't have any part in knocking you out but I don't regret sneaking out to save my brother. If it weren't for us, you wouldn't have found them. I'm the one who enchanted Roger's bracelet that was traceable and if I wasn't there, you'd be suffering from worse than a scratchy throat."

He put down the vial and journal. "Are you finished?"

"No," she said, venting weeks of pent-up anger. "You're a terrible thief and your lecture on befuddlement draughts potions was wrong. You said you couldn't control the length of the effects but you can based on how thinly you cut the lovage leaves. Before you say it was disproven by Jigger in 1954, he admitted his findings were flawed a year later in the August edition of The Practical Potioneer."

"You're correct," he said, simply. "You were reckless and unlike Carlisle, I wouldn't reward such behavior. I would prefer that he not involve you in these matters but you did show you're quite…capable of handling yourself. However, I cannot permit you to continue working on Cayden's potion. It's far too dangerous for a student to experiment with unstable ingredients."

A stack of parchment, almost to her waist and containing her research on the potion, appeared on the desk. When Snape agreed to return the notes, on the condition of assisting her, she thought it was a trap but was backed into a corner. If she refused his request, she would have to start from scratch, hours of work wasted, and that would be complicated without having the sample in her possession. At the same time, she knew that Snape's offer was not out of malice but regard for her safety.

"It's impressive how much you've broken it down with such a small sample. I assume that's why Carlisle kept you the weekend we retrieved from Lukas's home." Katrina did not confirm or deny his accusation as he scanned her notes. "An astute observation, to use ashwinder egg shells to dissolve the venom but they would crack from the powdered erumpent horn before they could neutralize it."

He was clearly testing the limits of her knowledge. "Not if they're dipped in re'em blood. It would keep the shells intact," she countered.

"And how are you certain he hasn't devised a way to combat that?" he asked, picking up the papers. "Creating such a sophisticated potion requires a level of skill beyond an average wizard."

"Because for all his boasts of being better than Kane, they definitely have things in common. They're too arrogant to admit their flaws and think they're the smartest in a room," she replied, seeing the similarities from their short interaction in the compound.

There was a shadow of a smirk on his face. "It's worth pursuing once you've fully recovered. You can hardly stand without support."

Despite her protests, Katrina was brought back to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey scolding her for a premature exit. The doting nurse forced her into bed with a tut of disapproval at her struggle to sit up straight. As a group of first years scurried into the hospital wing, complaining about runny noses and headaches, she left Snape to deal with a headstrong Katrina.

"There's nothing wrong with needing rest," he told her, Katrina pouring herself a glass of water. "It's a miracle you're not in a worse state and you would be if Carlisle hadn't reversed those anti-magic hexes. He spoke with the Order about what occurred between you and Cayden and your claims of what you did with this dagger, one he's been seeking even before he faked his death. As talented as you are, you couldn't have split that memory. It would require a pensieve and the other person to be within your line of sight."

"He doesn't know that," she said, watching Madam Pomfrey tend to a sneezing boy. "The second I mentioned it, it's all he could think about and he wouldn't know that I was sealed in a classroom until Jace broke me out. Now he'll be busy figuring out who's got the other piece. I told Kane I wouldn't tell him where it is either."

"Katrina, it would be safer in the hands of the Order," he whispered, pulling the curtain around her bed to hide her from curious stares.

"You can't open it anyway," she reasoned. "The chest is sealed without a key and I couldn't siphon it. Kane thinks it's blood magic and unless you want to use a time turner to travel back to that fight, you'd spent a century alone searching for the right descendant. You'd need an insane amount of power to break through that kind of bond. It's somewhere no one would go and he'll think twice about hurting anyone."

Any chance of peace and quiet was squandered by constant visits from Harry and her friends. With the amount of candy she received, she could open a sweet shop to compete with Honeyduke's. The way they acted around her reminded her of the aftermath of the Hogsmeade attack, Harry being exceptionally overbearing by cutting her food for her and fluffing her pillows. While he treated her like a wounded baby bird, ironic when she was the one who rescued him, some, like Sophie, Fay, and Roger, wanted to move past any talk of their kidnapping, preferring happier subjects like play auditions, DA meetings, and Christmas.

When she was not pestered by her brother about her encounter with Cayden or fed potions by Madam Pomfrey, Katrina's sought-after moments of privacy were short-lived, feeling like she was losing track of time. One minute, she would be doing homework after dinner, using Hermione's notes for guidance, and the next, she would wake up to the sun streaming through the windows. The first time it occurred, she brushed it off as being too tired but then as she pushed back her blanket, she noticed that her hands were stained with dirt. Stranger than that, she was having recurring dreams about the forbidden forest, specifically where she and Graham located the dagger. The dream never progressed further than her descending into the underground tunnels.

She had hoped for Kane to visit again, to tell him about the dream in person, but he was busy with interrogations and searching for Cayden. The investigation was impeded by Roger's father putting the brunt of Cayden's actions on him, acting as if his nephew was that six year old boy and not a grown man who made his own choices. He pushed for Fudge to bring him in for questioning but not even someone as thickheaded as Fudge was willing to antagonize Kane, aware that his aurors had a better chance of handcuffing Peeves.

In the dream again, she finally stayed asleep longer, now walking down the tunnel to the cavern that encased the old chest. As she picked it up, a corpse-like hand rested over hers and the runes lit up one by one in a random order.

"Katrina! Katrina, what are you—can you hear me? Katrina!"

Bits of rock falling from the rumbling cavern, she felt the ground shift beneath her and was overcome by a sudden chill. It was not from the bony fingers piercing her hand but that she was outside, wearing a white night gown and slippers. A distressed Draco before her, she instinctively flinched at his attempt to grasp her arm, in addition to the freezing cold. Her panic surged when she discovered that they were standing atop the frozen lake, cracks forming in the ice under them.

"It's all right," he said, as if he could hear her wildly beating heart. "You won't fall, I promise. Why did you come out here?"

Behind him, shrouded in the dense mist, was a slim figure, a disheveled Ravenclaw tie the only visible part of them. Draco glanced at the same spot, though he made no mention of the mysterious figure.

"What are you looking at?" When she did not answer, he turned back towards her. "Were you hearing a voice in your head? Katrina, I need you to say something."

"I don't…" The back of her hand bore five fresh cuts, exactly where she had been grabbed in her dream. "I don't feel good."

"It's okay. You're okay." Taking off his sweater, he pulled it over her head. "Let's get you inside. I've got you."

Too weak to object, she allowed him to pick her up, tightening her hold on his shirt at the crunching sound of his shoes pressing against the ice. Her gaze lingered on the figure in the darkness, until the lake was a distant blur. As he walked up the staircase, she was mildly comforted by his quiet assurances that she was in no danger. A frantic Madam Pomfrey was hurrying out of the hospital wing in her pink dressing gown. Resembling an angry puffer fish, she was about to accuse them of inappropriate behavior, both teenagers spared her rant about raging hormones by Draco explaining that he spotted Katrina outside while he was on patrol on the first floor.

Blaming the late night stroll on the sleeping draught, she ordered him to get Katrina back in her bed. Katrina had trouble relaxing her grip, her dream and the figure at the lake still on her mind. Looking to Madam Pomfrey for approval, Draco offered to stay with Katrina until she fell asleep.

"Stay out of that bed, Mister Malfoy, or you will be sent to the headmaster's office. I'll know if there's any funny business," she warned. "And Miss Potter, no more sleeping draught. I'll be keeping the door locked to prevent any wandering around the halls."

As Madam Pomfrey locked the door in a dramatic fashion, eyeing them like they were about to tear off their clothes, a shivering Katrina laid her head on the pillow. Though she had not forgotten why she was cross with Draco, she appreciated his help, uncertain how or why she ended up at the lake.

"Do you remember what you were doing?" he asked, putting another blanket over her. "You were in a sort of trance. It might've been an imperius curse but no one could've gotten onto the grounds. They've tripled security at the Hogsmeade entrance to please the parents who are flooding Fudge's office with angry letters."

"I'm tired," she said, softly. "I want to sleep. You can go."

He grabbed a blanket for himself. "I told Madam Pomfrey I'd stay. Whether you hate my guts or not, I don't want you sleepwalking and falling through a patch of ice or running into Filch."

"You shouldn't be trying so hard to get me to forgive you." She felt her eyelids getting heavy. "I'm not worth it."

Katrina's last words kept Draco up for the most of the night. In all honesty, he had not planned to sleep much, in case she suffered another bout of alleged sleepwalking. He did not want to consider what may have happened if he had not been on patrol, swapping corridors with Selene so she could be on the same floor as Graham. Madam Pomfrey's justification that it was from an overly powerful sleeping draught was not implausible but she had not been the one to find Katrina in a zombie-like state.

What if Cayden wanted revenge for her and Moore foiling his plans? Whoever or whatever he was after, he would be displeased that his efforts ended in failure, particularly at the hands of a fifteen year old girl. Returning to the castle that day was, to say the least, a hectic affair. While Snape went after Katrina, who had been attacked by Lukas after fighting off Stark and Aubrey, Moore led Draco and the other Hogwarts students out of the compound. They were poked and prodded by the aurors, checking for any curses or hexes, when Snape emerged without Katrina but before anyone could ask questions, Moore's father physically preventing Potter from running back through the door, they were sent to the castle with Snape.

Sequestered in Dumbledore's office with the professors, their relief over their return negated by Umbridge's forced attempts to silence them by burning their mouths with cups of tea, Draco hoped to hear any news about Katrina. Instead, he was greeted by the arrivals of Fudge, Scrimgeour, Dumbledore, and Carlisle. Fudge showed no interest in hearing what they had endured, treating them as if they had overdosed on babbling beverages. He hardly contained his laughter when Davies asserted Cayden, his presumably dead cousin, to be the culprit. If it were not for Carlisle, Fudge would have irrefutably disregarded their testimony. The ploy he used to defame Dumbledore would not work on a man like Carlisle.

Though he had supported their story, Draco questioned if he had another motive. When Chambers mentioned Katrina, seemingly to paint her as an accomplice, he was quick to silence him, claiming to Scrimgeour that Katrina had managed to disarm Lukas. In private, once Fudge, Scrimgeour, and Umbridge left the office, he passed off Katrina's surprising skills as the work of Crispin Lee, that he had trained her to fight from a young age to impress the Dark Lord.

Draco saw the holes in the story, knowing, from his father, that Lee's recruitment was based on mind over muscle. It added to the thousands of questions that surrounded Katrina. The way she fought without magic, it matched almost too well with how Lukas fought a criminal over the summer, the image caught by a Daily Prophet photographer.

Woken up by something hitting his foot, he looked down at Katrina's bag on the floor, her books, quills, and an open sketchpad between his legs. Draco's heart leapt at her head resting against his chest. Deep down, he knew that Katrina was not ready to forgive him but he would cherish even the tiniest moments where she did not detest him. Gently placing her head on the pillow, he could not help noticing how she was dwarfed by his sweater, her hands buried beneath the boggled his mind that this slender, doe-eyed girl was able to take on a wizard twice her size.

Picking up her belongings, Draco kept the sketchpad on his lap. When they would meet in the library, he often waited a few seconds before approaching their table, watching her get lost in a book or a drawing. The note she had sent him, with the drawing of a clownfish, was tucked away in his trunk. If they were on better terms, he would be telling her how his mother loved art, always dragging him to museums and galleries, and sneaking in an offer to bring her along during the holidays.

He leafed through the sketchpad, admiring her work and stopping at a drawing that resembled the Forbidden Forest. In the middle of the gnarled trees was a floating white sphere. Katrina had drawn the exact scene, down to the finest detail, on several pages. He turned the page again, to what appeared to be a map of the Hogwarts grounds. Black X's were drawn at three random spots, connected by thin lines. As he lifted the sketchpad, he jumped at the reflection of a girl in the window but aside from him and Katrina, there was no one in the hospital wing.

"Enough of this appeasing nonsense, Albus."

Draco cracked the door open a sliver, seeing Dumbledore in the corridor with Kane Carlisle. Frustration was written all over the burly ex-auror's face.

"Kane, you made a vow to Andrew in my office." Carlisle gave a derisive snort. "This does not have to end in bloodshed."

"Sometimes, I think you want to bury your head as much as Cornelius," said Carlisle, the elderly headmaster responding with a somber expression. "Cayden won't stick with this lone wolf act. I could see it in his eyes that he wasn't prepared for that attack. If he believes a proper alliance with Voldemort is the key, it'll be worse and Cornelius will be waving a white flag to save his own skin. Andrew doesn't want to hear it but he's beyond saving and underneath this veneer of peace, you know I'm right."

"You are fond of your loopholes. Do you propose I perform the deed myself?" he asked, as if it was a preposterous idea. "Or will you offer a member of your team? You are not judge, jury, and executioner. Justice must be served and unlike you, I do see hope in him. His actions are guided by love…a twisted version but all the same."

Carlisle rolled his eyes. "Spare me that lovesick drivel. He wants to control her, to use her for his benefit. If you want to take the harder path, fine. There are ways to stop him, besides death. She can do it, Albus."

"No," said Dumbledore, firmly.

"Power like that is rare and she's got it," hissed Carlisle. "It's why he wasn't ready for her. He was comparing her growth to his mother but Amara was nowhere near as strong and she hasn't reached her peak. No jail cell is going to hold him. He needs to be put down for good and this is the solution. He had his hooks in the Montague boy to get information on her. How long before he charms another student?"

Draco wondered who Carlisle was referring to, in his plan to catch Cayden. If he truly believed that his former pupil would escape any prison, what could put an end to him besides death?

"We cannot put that burden on her," implored Dumbledore. "It's dark magic and it comes with a price. This isn't a question of whether or not she can handle it. Physically, it's possible but it can take a toll on her soul. You see her for what she could be, not what she is, Kane. We will find another way."

Carlisle scoffed at him. "Rather hypocritical of you, considering the burden you intend to place on her brother. This game of chess of yours isn't accounting for all the pieces. Cayden needs to be taken off the board. We play with the cards that we're dealt and she's got a winning hand. There is no other way except—"

"No," interrupted Dumbledore, refusing to hear another word. "I will not involve her in this fight. She is a student, not a pawn. We put their needs above our own and that will always be my priority. In these times, we must be united so I beseech you not to stir up unnecessary animosity by betraying my trust. Katrina will not be part of any solution we agree upon to deal with these dark forces."

A loud bang stirred Katrina from her first peaceful sleep in days. Her eyesight bleary, she thought there was someone behind Draco but as she sat up, she saw only him, rubbing his foot. He apologized for waking her, having hit his foot on the chair.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, sounding overly polite.

Dumbledore entered the hospital wing with Kane and without either speaking, Katrina detected a prickliness between them. Their attention diverted to Draco, who was sticking her sketchpad into her fallen bag.
"I caught her sleepwalking, professor," explained Draco. "I asked Madam Pomfrey if I could stay to make sure it didn't happen again. I didn't want her falling through a vanishing step or ending up in the forest."

Kane's pale blue eyes flickered from him to the oversized sweater on Katrina. "Aren't you such a gentleman? Your mother must be proud. She seems to have survived the night, thanks to your heroic efforts. Why don't you get to breakfast, little Malfoy?"

Draco's jaw twitched at his taunt. As always, what one may hear as suggestion were orders from Kane, never up for debate. Dropping her bag onto the empty chair, he briefly glanced at Katrina before leaving the room.

"Sleepwalking?" Kane asked her. "Did you hear a—"

Katrina tore her gaze from the door. "No voices. Malfoy thought it was an imperius curse too. I was having trouble sleeping so I took an extra dose of draught," she said, a partial lie. "He found me by the greenhouses. Professor, do I have to stay in here another day? I'm all better."

"That will be for Madam Pomfrey to decide," said Dumbledore. Katrina groaned at the prospect of being trapped in the hospital wing. "You absorbed dark magic and I would prefer you not to strain yourself. I'd like to discuss the dagger, Katrina. I understand your reservations of revealing its location but even locked in a chest, it should not be left unattended, as we have yet to identify Cayden's accomplice in the village. I can provide it with the proper protections."

Kane brushed his thumb over his ring. "It's in the Shrieking Shack. When Remus and I were writing to each other, he told me he used to transform there and everyone thinks it's haunted so they avoid it. You need me to get it. I fortified my protection spell with blood magic."

"That's quite the feat at your age." Dumbledore peered at her over his half-moon spectacles. "But as you may have learned from Kane, there are ways to break it without the source and we can't take that risk."

"You have a meeting with Dolores, don't you, Albus?" asked Kane, his hands in the pockets of his coat. "She's already asking too many questions. We don't need to add to the list. Madam Pomfrey should be here in a moment. Once she clears Katrina, we'll retrieve the chest and I'll send it to your office."

Kane had no intention of asking for Madam Pomfrey's permission. After Dumbledore departed from the hospital wing, he ordered Katrina to change out of her night gown. As she followed him to the Shrieking Shack, taking a shortcut to avoid the aurors, she mulled over telling Kane about her dreams and Draco finding her at the lake.

"Don't worry about Dumbledore and your little white lie," he said, erasing their footprints in the snow. "Blood magic was a good choice."

"You signaled that you wanted us to be alone," she said, referencing his ring. "Why didn't you want him to come with us? Do you not trust him with the dagger?"

"It's not a problem if he wants it under his watch." He held open the wooden gate that surrounded the Shrieking Shack. "I would prefer to focus on Cayden but Dumbledore and I differ on our methods. I haven't missed my tedious conversations with Andrew Davies. He wouldn't quit his badgering until I swore not to kill him."

"Roger says his father wants to have Cayden committed to St. Mungo's, if he's captured," she said, taking out her wand. "He'd be out of there within an hour. It must be hard on them, to think it'll end any other way. He seems like the type who'd rather die in a blaze of glory than be thrown in a cell."

"What if there was a third option? To both satisfy his family's request to bring him in alive and put an end to his antics?" Katrina faced him, the two of them outside the rickety shack. "Do you remember the day of that dueling seminar? What you told me about the Malfoy boy?"

"First, Harry. Now, you. Do I have a bad memory or something?" she asked, sarcastically.

"I replayed that memory when you were asleep, before Lukas interfered with his charm. If it weren't for you, he would've died. You were unconscious longer than you thought, Katrina. A healing charm wouldn't have worked fast enough, not with that blood loss." She looked at him, puzzled. "You channeled energy into him, to expedite the healing process, and you can do the opposite. You've seen it before, when you maintain a hold on someone. That is you draining their energy."

"Yeah, you've told me that," she said, not making the connection. "What does that have to do with Cayden? Unless you pin him down for me to grab his arm or his neck, it wouldn't work. You locked me in an empty classroom so I wouldn't go near him."

"Your abilities are surpassing what Dumbledore and I anticipated but he won't tell you that. He sees you as a little girl, not a strong, gifted witch." His bitter tone indicated that she was the source of their disagreement. "If Cayden agrees to a complete partnership with Voldemort, he could divulge the secrets he's been keeping to himself. This spell wouldn't require a physical connection. You could perform it anywhere and transfer its effects, rendering him immobile."

Whatever Kane was proposing, it was not a simple spell. They would begin practicing it when she returned to the manor on the last day before the holiday break, at the end of the week, instead of joining Harry at the Burrow. Her brother would not appreciate the change in plans, his one shared quality with Snape being their dislike of Kane. She contemplated asking Kane to at least allow her to spend Christmas Day with him and the Weasleys.

Heading back to the castle, after sending the chest to Dumbledore disguised as a jar of sherbet lemons, she updated Kane on her progress with Cayden's potion.

"The ashwinder shells should work but we'd need a bigger sample to test," she said, leaving out Snape's involvement. "The issue is how to deactivate the venom if the potion's in the air. I have a couple ideas. I was reading this book in the library about—"

Kane pulled the back of her sweater, saving her from a stinging jinx that hit the oak doors. Outside the dungeons entrance, Slytherins were packed in a tight circle, cheering and shouting, and the circle broke apart, from boys stepping aside for a better view, she saw Graham, a scorch mark on the left side of his face, crushing Draco's head with his bicep, the blonde sporting a bruised eye.