Chapter 10 – Bet your life

Katherine leant back in her seat inside the small alcove so that shadows fell across her face. She was currently wearing a face reminiscent of Samantha Stevenson, an old classmate of hers who had died in the first war, so she was unlikely to be recognised but it still paid to be cautious.

Robert appeared a few seconds later, carrying two glasses, one of which was smoking. He pushed this one across the table to Katherine, who grinned.

"Still abstaining from alcohol, then?" she asked, sipping her Firewhisky.

Robert shrugged. "I still drink sometimes, but I've got to go home later and explain to Cass that you really are still around. She's going to think I'm mad as it is; I'd rather not have her thinking I'm drunk. She'd probably lock me out."

"Fair enough," grinned Katherine, examining her long brown braids interestedly. "So, what have you been up to? Last I heard, you'd been made Minister of Magical Transportation. So that would mean you police the Floo Network, right?"

Robert gazed at her with cool brown eyes. "That's the Auror's job."

"And the blue fire network?" asked Katherine, her eyes, currently a velvety green, shining with innocence.

Robert leant back, frowning, though not with annoyance. "You found that, huh?"

"Complete accident, actually," said Katherine, running a finger idly around the rim of her glass. "I happened to have an itch my left arm when I was standing next a fire place and the flames turned blue for an instant when I touched the Mark. Thought it was my imagination at first." She smiled, tilting her head to one side. "A Floo network just for us. How on earth did you manage to deliver that one to Tom without him figuring out you've got a four digit IQ?"

"No one's got a four digit IQ, Katherine," said Robert gently, taking a swig of the purple mixture in his glass. "And the Dark Lord doesn't know I invented it. I let Travers take the credit. In return he lets me drink here, free of charge. He owns this place," he added, by way of explanation. "How did you talk your way out of being dead for seventeen years?"

"Told him I took a sleeping draught and went into hiding," said Katherine with a shrug.

"And he believed you?"

Katherine shrugged noncommittally. "I embellished a bit. I think he was more relieved I hadn't actually found some secret way to cheat death that he stopped caring after that." She was silent for a moment, then dredged up a forename from the dark depths of her memory. "Lynx Travers? The one Nicki was obsessed with in seventh year?"

Robert smirked. "So you've caught up with Nicola then?" he asked pleasantly.

"How'd you figure that?"

"You called her Nicki," explained Robert. "As I recall, you two parted on rather bad terms."

"So did we," reminded Katherine, folding her arms defensively. "So did everyone."

"That was your doing," said Robert, leaning forward and gazing across the table at his old classmate. "You know, it's funny - we only figured that out after you'd been arrested." He sighed, sitting up and running a hand through his blond hair. "Should have seen it earlier, I guess, but Slytherins don't do things like that."

"Things like what?" asked Katherine, determined to make him say it.

"Like splitting their friends up so they don't hurt each other," said Robert softly, shaking his head.

Katherine smiled gently and looked up at him. "Well it worked, didn't it?"

Robert cast her a suspicious look. "Yes. But I don't get why you did it."

"That's because you've got a Slytherin mentality," grinned Katherine.

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Not exactly, but just because you're standing in London, that doesn't mean you're not part of England."

"I don't follow you."

"That's alright," shrugged Katherine. "I didn't expect you to."

There was a long pause, then: "You're crazy, Kat."

"I know."

Robert smiled lazily, and drained his glass. "How about I get us another round of free drinks, and then you can tell me exactly what you've been up to for the past two years?"

Katherine, who'd been staring absently at her nails, looked up at him sharply, then shook her head, grinning. "You want to be careful Rob," she warned, as she handed him her empty glass. "One of these days you're going to cut yourself..."

Remus sat at his kitchen table, staring gloomily at the slim green bottle in front of him. Absinthe. Katherine's favourite. Unopened. He hadn't even realised he'd got any until Faye had gone through the drinks cabinet and asked him what it was. Apparently she wasn't very familiar with muggle drinks, even though some of them had a much bigger kick than any wizarding concoctions.

He glanced absently at his watch. 12:01. He should be asleep, but Faye was staying over in case any Death Eaters were bold enough to risk another kidnap attempt and that meant he was sleeping on the sofa, like the gentleman he was. Even though the sofa was missing half it's springs and sagged in the middle. It'd probably be more comfortable on the floor.

It'd be even more comfortable in your own bed, whispered a treacherous thought.

I can't kick Faye out.

Who said you had to...?

He shook his head violently and sighed. He'd forgotten the effect Katherine had on him; she made him reckless.

She makes you normal, put in the voice again, somewhat spitefully in Remus' opinion.

"She makes me forget," said Remus softly, then jumped as he caught sight of a movement in the doorway.

"You sure you haven't had any of that stuff?" asked Faye, fiddling with the belt of her blue satin dressing gown. She raised her eyebrows at Remus' puzzled expression. "Well you did say it makes you hallucinate and you were talking to yourself."

Remus shook his head and rubbed his tired eyes with one hand. "Just thinking out loud."

Faye smiled and drew up the chair opposite him. "So, who makes you forget?"

"Your cousin," mumbled Remus, then frowned. "I thought you were asleep."

"You thought wrong," shrugged Faye, turning the absinthe bottle around to examine it. "What does she make you forget?"

"Hmm?"

"Katherine. What does she make you forget? Your birthday? How to behave like a normal human being?" asked Faye, keeping her green eyes fixed firmly on the ingredients list, which admittedly wasn't very long. Alcohol, water and wormwood infusion. Wormwood? Didn't you use that in potions?

"What's that supposed to mean?" frowned Remus, derailing her train of thought.

Faye glanced up and gave him an appraising look. "Remus, when I came in earlier you were trying to explain Katherine. No sane person would ever attempt that."

"I guess." There was comfortable silence, then Remus said softly: "Everything. She makes me forget everything."

Faye looked at him with a expression torn between curiosity and sorrow, but remained silent, waiting for him to go on. Remus met her gaze and smiled wanly.

"She doesn't care, you know. That I'm a werewolf. Genuinely doesn't care. Sometimes I get the distinct feeling she thinks it's interesting or useful or...I don't know. Something. She's crazy. She's..."

"Everything you would have been and everything you wouldn't," finished Faye, her gaze fixed once again on the absinthe bottle.

Remus nodded, thinking that that just about summed it up. "And Tonks is never going to understand that."

There was a slight pause that Remus felt went on for just a fraction too long for his liking, then Faye shook her head. "She'll come round."

"And if she doesn't?"

Faye looked up this time, emerald eyes sincere. "Then it's her loss."

Robert Avery pulled the door to his house softly shut behind him and glanced at the shimmering patch of air next to him where Katherine had been a moment before. He frowned, then noticed what Katherine had realised as soon as she'd stepped inside. There were voices coming from the drawing room. Cassandra's clear melodic timbre and deeper, gravely tones. A man's voice.

He glanced at the grandfather clock that stood in the atrium, steadily counting away the minutes. 12:01. Who on earth was visiting his wife in the middle of the night?

A small figure moved in the shadows at the top of the wide staircase and he looked up quickly to see his daughter standing there, clutching a ragged teddy bear under one small arm.

"Katy?"

The blonde girl pattered down the stairs, holding onto the high banister with the hand that wasn't gripping the teddy. She raised her arms up as she reached the last step and Robert picked her up, wrapping his arms around her.

"Had a bad dream?"

Katy nodded, her small fingers clutching at his robes for comfort, her head resting on his shoulder. Robert stroked her soft hair and walked quietly towards the drawing room, feeling Katherine's presence beside him, even though he couldn't see her.

"...thought you should know," the deep voice was saying. Robert frowned and pushed open the door, not at all sure what he expected to walk in on. Cassandra was sitting in a leather chair, still wearing the clothes she'd put on that morning. She was also frowning at the dark haired man who stood before her, his smart bowler hat clasped in his hands.

"Daniel?" asked Robert, adjusting his daughter's weight in his arms. The young girl twisted around to gaze blankly at the stranger, then caught sight of her mother and stretched out her arms towards her. Cassandra quickly stood up and took hold of her daughter, exchanging a dark look with her husband.

"Ah, Ro- Mr Avery," smiled Daniel, not quite managing to hide the nervous quaver in his voice. "How nice to-"

"What are you doing here Daniel?" asked Robert, folding his arms and treating his junior to a penetrating look.

"I uh-"

"Or more specifically, what are you doing here with my wife when all sensible people are in bed, asleep?" continued Robert, frowning.

Daniel shifted nervously, not liking the stress Robert had put on sensible. The man may be an imbecile, but that didn't mean he wasn't powerful. And besides, looking at him now, Daniel was seriously beginning to doubt that Robert was as stupid as people made him out to be. Maybe he just never showed it. And though Daniel himself wasn't astute enough to work out what this meant, he was smart enough to figure out that if an intelligent person could pretend to foolish and get away with it, that meant they were very clever indeed.

"I-"

"He's heard a rumour that Katherine is visiting old school friends," interrupted Cassandra. "He came to warn me."

Robert glanced at his wife for a long moment, then nodded. "I see. Well then, Daniel. Thank you for informing us, but next time perhaps you could just send an Owl?"

"Of course, Mr Avery," gushed Daniel, obviously relieved. He back towards the fireplace, still apologising profusely. "Sorry to have bothered you, Mr Avery."

The flames in the grate flared green for a moment as he stepped into them, then died to orange, leaving no trace that anyone had ever been there.

"What was that about?" asked Robert, turning to his now scowling wife.

"He came to tell me you left work early and then you'd been seen in The Rose and Thorn," Cassandra answered, setting her daughter down in the chair she'd previously occupied. "With a woman. Stupid man thought you were having an affair."

"What did you say?" asked Robert, watching his daughter curl up in the chair, hugging her teddy bear.

"I told him must have been mistaken and to mind his own business," shrugged Cassandra. "Oh don't worry, I was diplomatic about it," she reassured, seeing Robert's expression. "Mind you, from the way you acted just now, he's probably already half way to Rita Skeeter with the all the sordid details he can think of."

Robert sighed and ran a hand through his hair, before glancing up at his wife, with something like worry in his eyes. "I'm not, you know."

"Not what?"

"Having an affair."

Cassandra smiled. "I know. Besides, if you were, there's no way you'd be careless enough to let yourself get caught. And you certainly wouldn't take whoever it was to the The Rose and Thorn of all places. Only a fool would take his mistress to the local pub." Robert nodded dismally as Cassandra put her arms round him. "What did He want?" she asked quietly, and Robert knew she was no longer talking about Daniel.

"Nothing," murmured Robert, kissing the top of Cassandra's head. "Nothing to do with us, at any rate."

Cassandra pulled back, looking up at him curiously. "Then why call a meeting?"

"He didn't," said Robert, meeting her gaze with dark eyes. "She did."

Cassandra was silent for a moment, then tilted her head to one side, studying her husband objectively. "Who's 'she'?" she asked, in a voice too casual to be natural.

"You know who," said Robert softly.

"Rob, she's gone," managed Cassandra in a voice that amazingly still classified as calm. "I know it'd be good to have her around again but I don't care what the papers say, she died. There's no way she could have survived once they bricked her cell up." Cassandra looked up at him, eyes firm, voice quiet. "There's no way she'd do that to us."

There was a long pause, then: "Cass?"

"Yes, Rob?"

"She's Katherine. There's nothing she won't do."

Cassandra stared at him, at his grim brown eyes and steady gaze, and then looked over his shoulder, at the figure that leant against a sixteen century wooden cabinet. A figure with short black hair, pale skin and dark blue eyes that were currently fixed firmly on the floor.

The figure glanced up as Cassandra stared at her and met her gaze with a mixture of shame and obstinacy, then looked away.

"Katherine?" she asked faintly. The figure shrugged, as though it wasn't sure anymore, or maybe simply didn't want to be. Cassandra let go of her husband and walked over to her old friend. "You're alive?"

"It would appear so," agreed Katherine, raising her head to look at her. Cassandra stared at her for a moment longer, then slapped her across the face, looking furious. "What the bloody hell d'you think you're playing at? You're supposed to be dead!"

Katherine stood still for a moment, then rubbed her jaw, looking up at her friend from under dark lashes. "Dmn, Cass. That hurt."

"Not half as much as you deserve," pointed out Cassandra, ignoring the stinging pain in her own hand.

"Probably not," admitted Katherine ruefully. "But think how nice the world would be with a little less pain."

Cassandra stared at her for a moment, then the corners of her mouth twitched and she smiled despite herself. "That's your motto is it?"

"Nope. Morituri nolumus mori, that's my motto. Well, I suppose it should be morituri nolo mori if it just applies to me. Something like that anyway. My Latin's not what it was."

"Not Cogito ergo vexo?" asked Cassandra, smiling sweetly.

Katherine looked at her with wide eyed innocence. "Now Cass, that's just not fair."

In the small silence that followed, the two woman grinned at each other and a sleepy voice murmured: "It's cogito ergo sum."

The three adults paused then turned to stare at the small girl, who lay half asleep in the large leather armchair. Cassandra sighed heavily.

"Only a child of yours would know Latin before they were six, Robert," she remarked, walking over to her daughter and picking her up. She smiled and glanced over at Katherine. "You're still not completely forgiven, you know."

Katherine nodded in acknowledgement. "I know, but I'm making up for it, I promise you."

"I don't suppose you can tell us how?" ventured Cassandra, without much hope.

"Not unless you really want me to kill you," said Katherine calmly, without the slightest hint of jest, but Cassandra just rolled her eyes and carried Katy out of the room and back to bed. "She's cute," remarked Katherine as the door swung shut behind mother and daughter.

Robert smiled. "She's adorable."

"And she's called Katy?" probed Katherine.

Robert sighed. "Katherine Louise Avery," he said, meeting her gentle gaze. "After you and Lou."

"You named your daughter after two dead people?" asked Katherine, arching an eyebrow. Louise had been the name of Robert's elder sister who'd been killed by Aurors when he was twenty, during a raid on the Baltimore Manor.

"No, we named her after two people who deserved remembering," corrected Robert. He shoved his hands in his robes and gazed at her earnestly. "Why did you do it, Kat?"

"I thought it was the best option," answered Katherine honestly.

"It wasn't."

Katherine shrugged again. "Hindsight makes prophets of us all, Rob. I spent so much time focusing on Tom, I missed all the signs. It's a damn good thing Reg didn't."

"Regulus found something out?" asked Robert, eyes bright for a moment, then the light faded. "But Bella was the last one to see him."

Katherine smiled sourly and pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket. "Bet your life on it...?"