Chapter 4 – R.A.B.
1st November, 18 years previously
"And you're not going to muck it up this time, are you?" asked Bella acidly, giving Katherine a hard look. Katherine just stared back, expression as insolent as always.
"It wasn't my fault it messed up last time," she replied calmly. "Jenkins gave us away."
"And then he just happens to drop dead, conveniently preventing him from giving us his version of events," stated Bella, her dark eyes narrowed to slits. "Which, incidentally, is exactly what happened to the other eleven partners every time the Dark Lord's asked you to do something like this."
"Funny that," agreed Katherine, blue eyes far too innocent to be believable. "Maybe if he stopped giving me imbeciles to work with, I might actually get somewhere."
Bella smiled, a smug look of triumph in her eyes. "Wish granted, Archer. He's sent you Wilkes."
"Leon?" asked Katherine, sitting up in her chair. "You're making me work with Leon?"
"I'm not making you do anything," objected Bella, still smirking. "It's your father's orders. You're not still holding a grudge about that silly nonsense two years ago, are you?"
"Course not," muttered Katherine, scowling. "But Leon is."
"Well that's what happens when you leave someone handcuffed to a tree in the middle of snow covered Siberia," shrugged Bella. "What d'you expect him to do? Forgive and forget?"
"No," said Katherine calmly, dark eyes rising to meet Bella's. "I expected him to die."
Remus caught Faye's arm as the portkey deposited them at their destination and waited for the world to stop spinning.
"Where are we?" asked Faye, grateful of Remus' steadying hand on her arm. She looked around cautiously, taking in the red tiled floor and cabinets around the walls. It didn't look particularly well guarded. It looked, well, like a kitchen.
"Elham Valley, Kent," said Remus, letting go of her arm and tucking the used portkey into his pocket. "Another safe house."
"Did Katherine buy this one too?" asked Faye, watching a tap drip idly into a washing up bowl.
"No, she inherited it," said Remus, pulling up a chair and sitting down. "Childhood home," he explained at Faye's questioning glance.
"Oh, her adoptive parent's house," said Faye quietly. Katherine had told her about them; they'd been murdered here, maybe even in this very room. Faye shivered involuntarily and, to distract herself, wandered over to the sink, twisting the tap sharply so that the dripping stopped. "Are we safe here?" she asked, glancing back at Remus.
"Reasonably," answered Remus, then stopped, staring at her. She hesitated, tilting her head to one side.
"Are you alright?"
Remus frowned slightly and stood up, gazing into sink. Faye looked down at the basin and then up at him. What was so interesting?
"Someone's been here," he said softly, drawing his wand.
"How d'you know that?" asked Faye, utterly perplexed.
Remus pointed at the washing up bowl. "If that tap had been dripping for eighteen years, the bowl would have overflowed."
Faye looked down at the bowl again; there was barely an inch of water lying at the bottom of it. Slowly, she drew her wand from her belt and looked up at Remus. "Do you think they're still here?"
Remus shrugged, listening intently. After a few minutes, he sighed; the house was empty. Faye read his expression and let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.
"We should get back," said Remus quietly. "We can use disillusionment charms to get into the forest out the back and then apparate back to the Burrow from there."
Faye nodded, preparing to cast the spell, but she paused for a second gazing at Remus. "Was it her?"
Remus looked up, looking unconvincingly bewildered. "Was what who?"
"The someone - was it Katherine?" asked Faye, her green eyes burning with curiosity.
Remus shrugged again and promptly vanished from sight, a faint outline of distorted air the only clue that he still stood there. Faye bit her lip but followed suit and hurried after him as the back door swung open and Remus headed towards the forest. I'll take that as a yes then...
5th November, 18 years previously
Leon Wilkes looked up at his partner over the smooth oak table. She'd been studiously ignoring him for almost half an hour now.
"You know, some people might think that a team have to talk to make plans," he said, smiling pleasantly, though there was a dark glint in his brown eyes. "There's no 'I' in team, and all that."
Katherine raised her head and considered him with alarmingly blue eyes. "There's a 'me' in team," she pointed out calmly. "And I intend to make full use of it."
"Well aren't we Little Miss Sunshine today?" remarked Leon, leaning back in his chair and surveying her critically.
Katherine laid down her quill and rested her folded arms on the desk, looking wearily up at the tousled haired man before her. "Leon, do you really want me to hurt you? Because I can, and believe me I will, if you don't shut the hell up."
"Is this how you solve all your problems, then?" asked Leon, meeting her gaze serenely. "With violence?"
"Yes," said Katherine simply, giving him a small smile that radiated hatred before returning to her work, just as the door to the study opened.
"Does Regulus owe you two any money or anything?" asked Bella, fastening her cloak with an elaborate silver clasp.
"What?"
"Money? Regulus? Drinks, possibly. Heaven knows he gets through the stuff," remarked Bella, adjusting her robes.
"He's usually the one buying," said Katherine slowly, observing Bella curiously. "Why do you want to know? You're not going to see him are you?"
Bella smiled like a tiger and tossed her hair elegantly over her shoulder. "The Dark Lord has commanded me to pay my little cousin a visit. It seems his work has been less than satisfactory of late."
"It'll be even less satisfactory is he is late," pointed out Leon, grinning. Katherine shot him a look of pure venom, then turned her attention back to Bella.
"What's wrong with his work? He's done just as much as the rest of us."
"He let those muggles escape last week," said Bella, shrugging. "You call that good?"
"Someone hit him around the head with a cricket bat!" objected Katherine, staring at her. "I'm surprised he managed to get up at all!"
"Well there's very little brain to damage in that thick head of his," said Bella with a sly smile. "Besides, he should have seen it coming."
Katherine arched an eyebrow. "From behind him?"
"You can be as sarcastic as you like, Archer," smiled Bella sweetly. "After today, it won't matter - little Regulus' time just ran out." Bella smiled again and swept from the room, black cloak swishing in her wake.
Leon chuckled, shaking his head. "Your allies just seem to drop like flies, don't they Kat?" He looked up, his smirk fading as he frowned at the empty seat opposite him. "Kat?"
Harry sat on his makeshift bed in Ron's room, looking down at the list in front of him which was written in Hermione's neat hand.
1. The diary
2. Salazar's ring
3. Salazar's locket
4. Hufflepuff's cup
5. Something of Gryffindor's or Ravenclaw's
6. Nagini
Four parts of Voldemort's soul to find and he hadn't the faintest idea where to start looking.
"What are you up to?" asked a soft voice from the doorway. Harry looked up to see Ginny leaning against the doorframe, her light brown eyes gazing at him.
"Uh, nothing much," said Harry, tucking the hurriedly folded paper back into his pocket.
"Well Gabrielle's downstairs. She wants to say goodbye," informed Ginny, tucking a stray strand of hair behind one ear.
"Oh, right," said Harry awkwardly. "I um, I'd better..." He gestured weakly to the stairs, smiled apologetically and sidled past Ginny and down the stairs.
After he'd bade farewell to the small blonde, Harry wandered into the lounge and found Remus and Fleur's Professor sitting by the fire, discussing some new Ministry initiative. Hermione sat in an armchair, engrossed in the Standard Book of Spells - Grade 7 and Ron was sprawled across the sofa, flicking through the latest copy of Martin Miggs.
"Having second thoughts about leaving school?" he asked, taking a seat beside Hermione.
Hermione glanced up, frowning slightly. "Of course not. There won't be a Hogwarts if we don't defeat him," she said softly, so that Remus and Faye wouldn't overhear. "But I'd ordered this book at the end of last term and I thought there might be something useful in it. If Voldemort planted the early ones just after he left school then he's bound to have been influenced by this book, right?"
Harry nodded; he was too weary to argue and besides, Hermione had a point. Now if they only knew where to start looking...
His train of thought was broken off abruptly as a bundle of ginger fur bounded into the room, a struggling gnome held firmly in it's jaws.
"Crookshanks!" exclaimed Hermione, swooping down upon her cat. Crookshanks dropped the gnome who landed on his head, watched it for a moment to see if it would do anything interesting, then padded over his mistress, purring.
The gnome sat dazed on the floor for a moment but leapt to it's feet as Ron dove for it, missing completely and cannoning into Remus' chair, whereupon the bag that had been balanced there emptied it's contents over both him and the floor. The gnome chattered angrily at him before making a rude gesture and scuttling back the way it'd come.
Ron muttered an apology and started picking up the various sheets of paper, glaring at a laughing Harry. Hermione knelt beside Ron to help, though he couldn't help noticing the smirk on her face.
Remus thanked them, then frowned at Hermione who was staring at the last piece of parchment with an odd expression. "Something wrong, Hermione?"
Hermione glanced up and turned the paper around. "Who drew this?"
Remus looked at the sketch, frowning deeply. There were four characters drawn on it, each bearing some resemblance to one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. "I've no idea," he murmured, examining it closely. There was something oddly familiar about the four people in the drawing.
"It came out of your bag," pointed out Hermione.
"I was sorting through some old papers. It must have been my old flatmate's," shrugged Remus.
"Who was he?" asked Hermione, while Harry and Ron stared at her. What was so interesting about an old drawing?
"He was a she," said Remus shortly. "But she can't have drawn it – that's not her signature," he added, pointing to the scrawled initials in the bottom right hand corner of the sketch.
"So who is RAB?" asked Hermione, her face a picture of innocence as Harry and Ron gaped in surprise.
"No idea," said Remus, shaking his head. "She might have bought it from somewhere."
"I doubt that very much," said Faye, peering over his shoulder and grinning.
"Why's that?" questioned Remus, looking round at her.
"Because that-" she said, pointing to the figure furthest on the right, "-is you. And I'd guess that is Sirius," she continued, indicating a hooded figure with a rose clutched in skeletal fingers.
"And they're Peter and James," said Remus suddenly, realisation dawning. Someone had drawn characteurs of the Marauders, but who amongst Katherine's friends had a name beginning with R? Robert Avery? But then what did the B stand for?
"You've really no idea who drew it?" asked Harry, leaning forward hopefully. If it was a sketch from Remus' school days, there was a good chance that the artist was the same RAB as the mysterious note writer.
"Must have been one of her friends," shrugged Remus.
"So it's a girl?" asked Ron, a slight note of disbelief in his voice.
"Not necessarily, she had a lot of friends. Well, acquaintances at any rate," amended Remus. Katherine had had few real friends and those she did have, she kept quiet about. Remus smiled at the trio and tucked the picture into his bag. "I'm afraid I haven't the faintest clue who drew it."
Hermione was about to ask something else but at that moment Mrs Weasley bustled into the room, hurrying them all off to the dinner table and Remus made his excuses and departed for home.
"Next time we see him, we'll ask where she is now," murmured Harry as they took their seats at the table.
Ron nodded and Hermione added in a low voice. "And what he's hiding." The two boys stared at her and she shrugged. "Didn't you notice? He never mentioned her name..."
5th November, 18 years previously
"Bloody hell, Reg, what did you do? Tom's after your blood," said Katherine, staring into her friend's brown eyes, hoping to see some glimmer of justification. "He's sent Trix after you. Trix, Reg, your cousin. The deranged sadist."
Regulus lay down his quill, frowning slightly. "How long have we got?"
Katherine put her hands on his desk and leant forward, black hair falling around her face. "If we stay here, I'd say about thirty seconds. Trix likes to make an entrance, so she'll probably knock first." To her disbelief, Regulus simply nodded and headed towards a cabinet that stood against the wall. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be taking this remarkably calmly," she remarked acridly, staring at him with eyes wide with fear.
"And why not? There's nothing I can do, and I knew this would happen eventually. I just hoped it wouldn't be this soon." Regulus looked up, his dark brown eyes sad, but calm. "Here, take this."
Katherine reached out and took the scrolls he was offering her, casting a quick glance over them. One word in particular caught her eye; indeed she would've had to have been blind to miss it since it was written in large letters at the top of the first scroll.
Horcruxes.
Voldemort's horcruxes. Tom had split his soul. Well that explained a lot.
"Where did you get this stuff?" she asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.
"Asked around. Did a bit of digging," shrugged Regulus.
"A bit of digging?" said Katherine, giving him one of her Looks. "Reg, this is a bloody excavation."
Far below a bell rang, announcing a visitor. Regulus grabbed her arm and looked earnestly at her. "Listen, I found one-"
"You what?" asked Katherine. She was starting to get the feeling she'd seriously underestimated this man.
"I found one," repeated Regulus, more urgently. "A locket, a golden locket, but I couldn't destroy it, so I hid it at home. Promise me you'll get it, Kat, promise me you'll destroy it. We can't let him rule the world – you've got to stop him. So promise me."
Katherine stared at him for a long moment, vaguely aware of footsteps echoing along the long corridor outside. Poor Regulus. She should have tried harder to save him from all this, but he probably wouldn't have let her. Besides, he'd discovered Voldemort's one weakness, the one shred of hope left for the world and he didn't care that it was costing him his life. There was no way she could refuse to help him now.
"You always were brighter than you let on, Reg, and you never did belong in Slytherin." She gave him a small smile, and nodded. "I promise."
Regulus sighed with relief as she tucked his research safely inside her robes and drew out her wand to disapparate. Just as she was about to leave, he clutched at her arm again.
"One last thing, Kat," he added as the footsteps stopped outside the door and a hand knocked twice. Bellatrix had arrived. Katherine met his gaze and saw the look in his eyes. Fear and pleading and a desperate wish to find peace at last - peace that Bella would make him wait to gain.
The knock came again, louder.
"Please?"
Half a minute later, Bella kicked the door in and stared in bewilderment at the body lying sprawled on the floor.
It looked very much as though someone had beaten her to it...