Chapter 5 – Little white lies
Remus was sitting by the fire in the Burrow, Tonks snuggled up against him, when Faye came down the stairs with her suitcase in hand. He sat up abruptly, dislodging Tonks who made a small moan of protest.
"You're leaving already?" he asked Faye, unable to conceal his disappointment.
Faye smiled slightly, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I've got a job to go to," she said gently.
"But-" Remus hesitated, not sure how he intended to finish the sentence. "Can't it wait?" he asked eventually.
Faye shook her head. "Term starts in a few days. Look, I promise I'll visit as often as I can, ok?"
"Come over for Christmas, you mean?" asked Remus, a little reproachfully.
"Of course," agreed Faye. "But before then as well. I mean, I need to get settled in, but how about the weekend after next?"
Remus was quiet for a moment, searching her face for the glint of mischief he'd seen so often on Katherine's face. "We're not talking about the same thing, are we?" he asked slowly as Faye's lips twitched into a barely suppressed smirk.
"Faye's been offered a place at Hogwarts," grinned Tonks, her dark eyes gleaming impishly. "Didn't you know?"
Remus stared from Tonks to Faye in disbelief. "You're teaching at Hogwarts? Here? In Britain?"
Faye nodded. "I met Minerva McGonagall at the wedding and we got talking. She said there was a position going, and since I was thinking of moving over here anyway, it sounded perfect."
"What subject?" asked Remus, though he thought he already knew.
"Defence against the Dark Arts," answered Faye promptly, confirming Remus' fears.
"You do know the job's cursed, don't you?" said Tonks, eyes alight with mischief.
"That's just a rumour," said Faye laughing.
"It's not," said Ginny, emerging from the kitchen, Harry, Ron and Hermione following. "No one ever lasts more than a year."
"Yep," affirmed Ron. "So far we've had an evil minion sharing his body with You-Know-Who, a self obsessed lunatic who was utterly useless-"
"He wasn't completely useless," objected Hermione, blushing.
"Hermione, he couldn't even stun a pixie," pointed out Harry reasonably.
"Yeah, but-"
"And then we had Remus," cut in Ginny, before the minor disagreement could escalate into a row. "But he resigned," she added resentfully.
"Leaving us to the clutches of Lord Voldemort's most loyal follower," said Ron, ticking number four off on his fingers. "Then of course there was Umbridge – enough said. And last year..." He trailed off, shrugging. "Well, you see our point."
"Ok, say it is cursed," smiled Faye. "Who cursed it?"
There was silence for a moment, then: "Voldemort."
Everyone turned to stare at Harry, who shrugged. "He applied for the post once, and Dumbledore refused him. No one's managed to stay for more than a year since."
"Well," said Faye, taking this unexpected news in her stride. "It's about time someone broke it, isn't it?"
"You think you can do that?" asked Harry sceptically.
"I can try," said Faye. There was a long pause while Harry and Faye faced each other, eyes locked. Harry broke first.
To fill the awkward silence that followed, Ginny turned to Faye and held out her hand, revealing the white scrap of paper she was holding. "Mum found this in your jeans pocket – you remember she washed them after Fred and George spilt pumpkin juice over you? I'm afraid the ink's probably run."
Faye took the paper, frowning. She didn't remember anyone giving her a note. She unfolded it with difficulty as the water had glued it together, and smoothed it out. "Oh, it's from the flat," she said without thinking. "And don't worry, it's written in, well, I don't know, but it hasn't run."
Remus stood up immediately, crossing the room to look at it. "Biro."
"What?" asked Faye, staring at him.
"It's written in ballpoint pen – the ink doesn't run as easily," explained Remus. "Katherine didn't use quills unless she had to."
"Who's Katherine?" asked Harry quickly, jumping at the opportunity to ask about Remus' mysterious ex-flat mate.
"She used to live with me," said Remus absently, though his eyes flickered briefly to the form of Tonks on the sofa who had raised her eyebrows. "Um, we lived next door to each other when we were kids," he added as Faye rolled her eyes. "Katherine's an old friend. Very old. Well, obviously the same age as me, but-"
"I'd give you a hand to dig that hole, but you seem to be managing just fine on your own," said Faye, conveniently cutting off Remus' babble. She smiled sweetly at him as he glared at her, then turned to Tonks. "She was like a sister to him. Anything more than friendship would practically be incest."
"Wasn't she your cousin?" asked Hermione slowly, thinking back to the day Faye had arrived and the twins' reenactment of Moody's spectacular flying tackle. Faye looked at her in surprise, then nodded, before looking quickly back at the note. The trio exchanged significant looks; Faye seemed to be strangely uncomfortable that they'd figured this out.
"Does anyone know what-" frowned Faye, peering at the paper, "-B of E is?"
"What?"
"B of E," repeated Faye. "That's what it says. B of E, then V42."
"C of E stands for Church of England," said Hermione promptly. "So B of E might be...Bank of England?"
Remus and Faye looked at each other. The Bank of England? What would Katherine want with the Bank of England? All her money was in Gringotts, wasn't it?
"That'd make sense," volunteered Tonks, from her seat by the fire. "V42 is Vault 42, right? So that only leaves one question."
Remus nodded grimly, looking down at his friend's familiar handwriting. "Where's the key?"
Bella looked up sharply, acutely aware that someone was staring at her. Her dark eyes swept the room and landed on Severus, who was sitting wreathed in shadow in one corner. He raised his glass in mock toast and smiled grimly.
"What is your problem, Snape?" she asked loudly. The others in the room turned to look at her, then over at Severus, preparing for the customary argument that took place whenever Severus and Bella were in the same room for too long.
"Nothing at all, dear Bella," said Snape silkily. "I was just entertaining a rather amusing thought."
"That concerned myself?" asked Bella, a knife edge in her voice.
"Katherine, actually," said Severus, leaning back in his chair so that his eyes fell into shadow. "McKenzie was saying just the other day that they'd seen someone who was the spitting image of her not too far from here."
In his seat by the fire, Damon smiled to himself. 'France, two decades ago' and 'not too far from here' were not, strictly speaking, the same, but the words had the desired effect. Bella laughed, but didn't quite manage to cover her momentary look of shock.
"Katherine's dead, Severus. She wrecked havoc for a few years, displayed moderate talent, made a few enemies and died," said Bella lightly, shaking her head. "It's high time you came to terms with that."
"She killed most of her enemies," pointed out Alecto in a low voice.
"Except you, Bella," said Damon, getting to his feet and grabbing a poker to stir the dying fire. "But you are right," he added, glancing up at Severus, reflected flames dancing in his eyes. "Katherine Archer is long gone."
Severus met his gaze, smiling dangerously. "So it would seem."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Bella, her dark eyes flickering between the two men.
Severus glanced up at her slyly. "Didn't you hear, Bella? Kensington found her cell. It's empty."
"You're lying," said Bella softly, her voice dangerously soft. "Katherine's dead. Everyone knows that. Azkaban makes you see things..."
From his chair by the fire, Damon gave her an odd look. "What was that last one?"
Bella shook her head violently. "Nothing. It was nothing. She wasn't real."
There was quiet for a moment, then Severus laughed, low and sinister. "She came to visit you, didn't she? After she broke out. And you thought she was an illusion."
"No!" snarled Bella, the madness that was so close to the surface these days rising in an instant. "I didn't see anything. It was just a dream."
"Of course, Trix," agreed Severus amiably. "Just a trick of the light."
"That's right," breathed Bella, the anger subsiding. "Just a trick of the light."
Severus stood up, setting his glass down on the table by his chair and was about to leave the room, when he paused suddenly, as though a thought had just occurred to him. "Lucius, refresh my memory will you. Dementors make you relive what, exactly?"
Lucius looked up at him, then at Bella, his grey eyes glinting. "The worst moments of your life, Severus."
"Ah. I suspected as much," nodded Severus. The door barely had time to swing closed behind him before Bella erupted from her chair and hauled it open again, her face a mask of fury. Severus was at the bottom of the stairs, staring into the far corner of the hall. He turned when he heard the door open and stared at her with his cold black eyes.
"Is something the matter?" he asked, raising a haughty eyebrow.
"You tricked me," hissed Bella, dark eyes flashing with rage.
"I did? When was this?"
"Just now. In here," growled Bella, jabbing a trembling finger at the room behind her.
Severus stared at her disdainfully. "Bella what are you going on about?"
Bella gaped at him in disbelief. "Do you seriously expect me to believe you don't know?"
"Bella, I have spent the past hour upstairs discussing matters of importance with the Dark Lord. I cannot be in two places at once and since I am positive I was upstairs until just recently, I was most certainly not devoting my time to harassing you, although I must say would gladly shake the hand of whoever did, since they appear to have done an excellent job."
"But who would impersonate you?" asked Bella, eyeing Severus suspiciously. "They'd need to brew Polyjuice and frankly Snape, nothing on earth would induce me to drink your hair."
"It's a mystery," said Severus coldly. Bella frowned, then turned and retreated into the study, keeping a cautious eye on Severus who stared back calmly. When the door had clicked shut, Severus turned his head and focused on the shadows behind him. "You've got some nerve, Katherine," he said softly.
Nothing happened for a moment, then the shadows shifted and formed into the shape of Katherine, sitting cross-legged on the floor. She did not look amused.
"Why did you do it?" she asked, blue eyes boring into his.
"Do what?"
"Kill him."
"This really isn't the right time-"
"It never will be," said Katherine shortly, standing up. "See, I can understand you telling Tom the prophecy. I can even understand you being a double agent and betraying the Order, but what I don't get is why you murdered Dumbledore. All he did was trust you."
"He was a fool," said Snape coldly. "You always said so."
"Yes, but I didn't try to kill him," growled Katherine, stepping closer to Severus so their faces were inches apart. "I didn't try to destroy the best chance we ever had – the best chance Remus had."
"That's what its all about, isn't it?" Severus shook his head in disgust. "It always comes down that bloody werewolf. Are you in love with him? Is that why you've only ever been with two boys? Because you were waiting for him to ask you out?"
"Don't be ridiculous," said Katherine coldly, her eyes blazing dangerously.
"So you're not in love with him?" asked Severus in a deceptively pleasant tone of voice. "Oh no, that's right - you're in love with his best friend. The ever wonderful Sirius Black. Tell me, how's that working out for you?"
"You bastard," whispered Katherine, ignoring the threats of tears welling up in her eyes. "You complete bastard. You never got it did you, Severus?"
"Got what?" inquired Snape, staring impassively at her.
"Do you honestly think I meant to fall for Sirius?" asked Katherine, almost imploringly.
"You agreed to go out with him, didn't you?"
"Well you never asked," growled Katherine, eyes suddenly fierce at his bewildered expression. "Did you think I was going to wait around forever?"
"No." Severus shook his head, laughing slightly, though there was little humour in the situation. "No, no, no, this is all wrong. You walked out on me, Katherine. Remember? You thought I'd joined. You didn't let me explain, and you went running off into Black's open arms."
"And you didn't come after me," snarled Katherine, glaring up at him. "I gave you a month to try and explain, but you just buried yourself in books and avoided me. I didn't even speak to Sirius until after the exams, so don't play the victim Severus. It doesn't suit you."
There was silence for a moment while they stood rooted to the spot, eyes locked.
"You broke my heart," said Severus tonelessly, gazing at her, not knowing what else to say.
"Fair's fair," murmured Katherine. "You broke mine."
The floorboards overhead creaked and Severus looked up sharply, but saw no one. He shook his head and turned back to Katherine, only to find an empty patch of air. He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. He hated it when she did that. He was never sure whether she'd really been there or not.
He ran quickly over their conversation in his head. Probably not there, he decided. Especially not that last bit. She'd never given any indication of liking him before, had she? Or had she?
Severus pulled his travelling cloak off the hook and put it on, not really concentrating on what he was doing. His mind was on his seventh year in Hogwarts, flipping through the vague memories in an attempt to find anything that would convince him that he wasn't going mad.
A lot of things had happened that year, some of which he'd only discovered years afterwards. The fact that Evan Rosier had been the one who killed Fiona Parkinson, for instance. That had surprised him. He'd always presumed that it had been Katherine; she'd always looked uncomfortable whenever the subject was brought up.
And then there was the entire Reuben affair. He wondered vaguely if she knew about Greyback. Then again, he was still alive by all accounts, so presumably not. Probably best not to be near her when she did find out - you never could tell how Katherine was going to react about things that hit that close to home.
He opened the door that lead out into the grounds surrounding the manor house and began the long walk to the boundaries of the anti-apparation wards. There were only two events that he'd witnessed Katherine discover.
The first was her discovery of her father. True, he hadn't know this at the time but he remembered the change in her personality all too well. She'd gone from being an quiet, reserved girl to a violent, determined witch. And he'd helped her.
It was that morning in the library in their fifth year, when she'd demanded his help then hexed him when he'd refused. That was where it had all started. He'd become intrigued by her then, and by the end of the year, he'd have done just about anything for her - the fifteen year old girl with jet black hair and eyes the colour of winter skies.
He sighed, tugging his cloak more firmly over his shoulders. It was foolish to dwell on the past and yet somehow he couldn't stop himself. So, the second time...
The second time Katherine had changed was when she'd found her mother. Well, not exactly found her as such, but found out who she was. He remembered that like it was yesterday. The change that time had been so slight as to be almost non-existent, but it was there. From that day on, Katherine had an escape route - presuming Arcadia Belle was still alive, of course.
Severus frowned slightly, the name ringing faint alarm bells in his head. He'd heard that name recently, he was sure of it. What's more, he was positive that the name had seemed familiar back then too. Now when was it? Someone had been talking about...Katherine? Was that it? But surely no one knew-
He stopped, the memory surfacing suddenly, like a lost ship appearing over the horizon. James McKenzie. He'd said there was a girl who looked like Katherine at Beauxbaton. A girl called Faye Belle – Professor Belle's daughter...
He frowned deeply, pondering what to do with this information.
Keep quiet, whispered the small voice at the back of his mind. Keep your mouth shut and see what happens. If all else fails, tell Katherine. She has a way of sorting these things out. You probably don't like the people she'd kill, anyway...