Chapter 18 – Trick of the light
"It's not a lot to go on," said Harry dubiously. "We don't know for sure if she does know about the horcruxes and it doesn't look like we can trust her, does it? Not after everything she's done."
Two weeks had passed since they'd met Katherine on a rooftop in London and due to their combined efforts, they'd managed to dig up a substantial, though nowhere near comprehensive, amount of information on the fugitive. She'd been at Hogwarts in Lupin's year – a pretty average student by all accounts, though for some obscure reason they hadn't been able to find any of her national examination results, and after she'd left school she'd moved into a flat in London, got a job and become a Death Eater, though not necessarily in that order.
According to Moody, there was a whole room dedicated to listing her various infringements of the law, but they weren't sure if this was an exaggeration on Moody's part or not. In any case, they knew she'd admitted to a dozen more offences at her trial, the specific details of which were rather hard to come by, though they hadn't the faintest idea why. She was a famous Death Eater wasn't she? So why wasn't the trial more widely publicised?
"But there's got to be a reason why she was so edgy about Regulus. Hermione's right – she would have just given us a straight answer if there was nothing suspicious about him," said Ron, staring thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "Why bother with all the Octavian stuff? She was buying time."
There was the sound of footsteps tripping up the stairs and a moment later the door opened. Ron propped himself up onto his elbows as Hermione entered and shut the door purposefully behind her.
"What?" frowned Harry, seeing her strange expression. "What is it? What have you found?"
Hermione had been trekking up to Hogwarts every day that week to try and find out anything she could about Katherine but hadn't had too much luck so far.
"You're not going to like this, Harry," she said softly, dropping a heavy book onto Ron's bed. "At all," she added for emphasis.
"What is it?" asked Ron, turning the book round and frowning down at it. The cracked leather cover looked black at first glance but was actually tinted green, the thick pages edged with silver. "And why hasn't this thing got a title?"
"For the same reason classy restaurants don't display their prices," said Hermione coolly, perching on the edge of his bed. "If you need to ask, then you can't afford it."
"So do you know the title?" asked Harry, sitting up and gazing curiously at her.
"No, because it doesn't have one," said Hermione irritably. "Those people who own a copy know what it is and that's all that matters. Anyway, that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about; the book's not important – well, it is, but it's not the most important thing."
"So what is the most important thing?" asked Harry, frowning in puzzlement. Hermione took a deep breath and said quickly:
"I know why we couldn't find Katherine Archer's exam results." There was a pause, then, when it began clear that Hermione was unwilling to continue, Ron prompted:
"Yes...?" Hermione made a face, but said quietly:
"Because she's not called Katherine Archer. Well, she was, but she changed her name while she was at school." She consulted a piece of paper in hand and continued, "She graduated with eleven OWL's and seven NEWT's."
"Seven?" asked Ron incredulously; most people only did five.
"Seven," nodded Hermione, and there was a slight pause before she added: "And she got Outstanding in everything."
"So she's clever," said Harry softly. "But we knew that already."
"Yes," agreed Hermione soberly. "What we didn't know, however, is that her real name isn't Katherine Archer, it's Katherine Riddle."
x – X – x
"Five letters, the address from which characters can regularly go to hell," said Katherine, glancing over the paper at Robert, who was flicking through a book bound in green leather.
"Any letters?" Katherine frowned down at the crossword.
"Ends in S." Robert paused in his flicking and thought for a moment.
"Hades," he said finally. "Yes, Hades."
"Four, four. Impress toxophilite?"
"Bowl over," said Robert absently, turning back to his book. Katherine frowned at him suspiciously as she pencilled it in.
"You've done this already haven't you?"
"No," said Robert, truthfully. "You're just out of practice."
"Hmm," murmured Katherine dubiously, as the door to the study swung open. Katherine ignored the newcomer, looking studiously at her crossword. She didn't want company, especially not now - it meant she couldn't ask for Robert's help with the clues. Both had thought it wise to keep quiet about Robert's ability to solve a cryptic crossword in under ten minutes; it didn't quite fit in with the assumption that he was a imbecile.
"You again," snarled a low voice, causing Katherine to look up. Sapphire eyes met yellow ones as she set down the paper and wrinkled her nose.
"Ah yes, Greyback isn't it? Tell me, how is Azkaban these days?"
The werewolf growled, glowering at her and clenching his fists. When the Aurors had found him in Remus' flat they'd carted him off to Azkaban immediately and the Dark Lord had only sent a retrieval team the day before.
"Same old," Greyback muttered with barely concealed malice. "Half expected your lot to leave me in there." Katherine arched an eyebrow.
"Ye of little faith."
"You wouldn't have left me to rot?" asked Greyback, cracking his knuckles idly.
"Me?" asked Katherine in feigned surprise. "Oh yeah, I'd damn you to the depths of hell, don't get me wrong, but the Dark Lord...well, he's rather fond of his pets."
Greyback snarled angrily but a figure moved in the shadows behind him and a hand was placed on his shoulder soothingly.
"Don't rise to it Fenrir," said a voice that made Katherine's blood run cold. "She's just trying to get at you."
Robert looked up as the pencil Katherine had been holding dropped to the floor, and frowned in bewilderment at his old friend. She looked frightened, more afraid than he'd ever seen her before, but that was ridiculous. Katherine didn't get scared – even her father didn't intimidate her.
"Ah, not so confident now, are we?" asked the husky voice, stepping around Fenrir and gazing cruelly down at the black haired girl. "Not now there isn't a safe row of bars and enchantments between us."
Katherine said nothing, only gripped her wand tighter, ready to use it at a moment's notice. The woman smirked, wild scarlet hair tumbling down around a gaunt, ravaged face. Brown eyes glowed maliciously in sunken eye sockets and the face that smiled was pale and covered with scars.
"You never came to visit," chided the woman, smiling oddly.
"How did you get out?" asked Katherine, finding her voice at last.
"The Dark Lord's liberation team. They convinced me of the worthiness of his Cause," the woman laughed softly. "Not that I needed all that much coercion to tell you the truth. Anything's better than another day in that place."
"You've met her?" asked Fenrir, looking questioningly at the newcomer.
"Oh yes," chuckled the woman. "We go way back, don't we Katy? Round about three decades I'd say, give or take a few years."
"Thirty five," muttered Katherine, not meeting her gaze.
"Been keeping count, have we?" asked the woman, looking delighted. "Oh don't look so upset, you weren't the one who got bitten."
Katherine's head snapped up at that, and the fear in her eyes was instantly drowned by a flood of fury, the hand that held the wand twitching slightly, yearning to be used.
"Oh come off it, darling. We both know that if you were going to do something, you would have done it long ago," sighed the woman, giving Katherine a derogatory look.
"Yeah, well maybe I couldn't find a suitably gruesome way to kill you," said Katherine softly. "Or maybe I thought that living with the curse was torment enough."
"Well if you did, you were wrong," remarked the woman, flexing her pale arms in such a way that Robert half expected her to unsheathe claws. "Being a werewolf isn't a curse, Katy, it's a gift. It's just a shame your little friend never realised that, although maybe there's hope for him yet. Fenrir tells me he's been returning to his roots..."
"Leave him the hell out of this," said Katherine darkly, glowering at the woman now. Behind the red head, Fenrir was frowning.
"Who's been returning to his roots?" he asked, tilting his head to look quizzically at the woman before him.
"Remus Lupin," smiled the woman. "Katy's little playmate." Fenrir's eyes lit up at the name, his gaze shifting to Katherine.
"Ah, so that was why you were at his flat; I did wonder. A model Death Eater consorting with the Order's tame werewolf. Tut tut, does the Dark Lord know about your secret liaisons?"
"Why are you so interested in Remus?" asked Katherine angrily, though Robert had known her too long to not notice the desperation that lay beneath the question. "What did he ever do to you?"
"To me?" laughed Fenrir. "He's done nothing to me, girl. It's more a matter of what I did to him." When Katherine looked blank, he elaborated: "I made him what he is today and I like to keep track of my pack."
Katherine frowned, looking completely confused by this. Robert, still sitting largely unnoticed in his chair decided to give her some help.
"I think what our friend is trying to say is that he, what's the technical term, sired, Lupin," said Robert lazily, looking bemusedly up at her. Katherine looked at him, expression rather sceptical.
"I realise that," she said slowly. "But he can't have. Silva bit Remus."
"Reuben?" asked Fenrir amusedly. "That little runt? Who told you that?"
Katherine opened her mouth to say 'He did', but closed it again when she realised that this wasn't strictly true. Thinking back, she didn't remember Reuben ever actually explicitly saying that he had bitten Remus, only that, what was it...? "...he's mine. He was stolen from me and I want him back..."
"He deserved it," Fenrir was continuing, oblivious to the change in Katherine's expression. "After what his father did to me..."
Father? Remus was bitten because of something his father did? Katherine's mind was racing, trying to make sense of this new information when a sudden thought surfaced, halting all other contemplation. Greyback bit Remus, but that means... That means that Remus getting bitten wasn't anything to do with me...
A slow smile crept across Katherine's face, the guilt of years washing away in that instant of realisation. It wasn't her fault – Reuben's pack may have thought Remus was responsible for the death of their leader, but it was Greyback who had gone after him – and his motives lay with Remus' father, not her.
"Ruth?" Katherine murmured softly, addressing the red haired woman properly for the first time. Ruth Saevus arched an eyebrow at her junior, too overconfident to notice the change in her tone.
"Yes?"
Katherine met her contemptuous gaze with a dangerous smile.
"You lied."
Ruth frowned, flicker of apprehension crossing her face; Katherine's sudden change in attitude was disconcerting to say the least and she had the sinking feeling that the slight power she'd always been able to exert over the younger woman was rapidly disappearing. Little Katy wasn't scared of her anymore; this was almost certainly not a good thing.
"I did?" she asked, managing to maintain her veneer of calm.
"All that rubbish in Azkaban about Remus, about how it should have been me... You were just messing with my head..." said Katherine quietly. She looked up, angrily. "I'm the one who messes with people's heads."
"Well it should have been you," argued Ruth, scowling. "Only you killed Dux when he came near you – you murdered him."
"I was five years old," said Katherine defensively. "I didn't know what I was doing."
"You can't kill someone when you're five," said Robert softly, looking up absently from his book. Katherine almost jumped; she kept forgetting he was there.
"What?"
"I said you can't kill someone when you're five," repeated Robert blandly.
"She did," said Ruth, using Katherine's momentary disconcertion to try and get the upper hand once more. If Katherine no longer felt guilty because of Remus, maybe she'd still feel ashamed of what happened to Gareth... "She was born with a black aura."
Robert smiled wistfully. "Black, an aura to which is attributed outer space, the universe and night. Characteristics of which include wisdom, sadness, mourning, loss, death, discord, confusion, fear and evil. Black is the absence of colours, absorbing all the light of the spectrum. Hmm, suits you, Riddle, but the fact remains, you can't have killed that man. It's a physical impossibility; a five year old's magical ability is not sufficiently developed to bring about another human's demise, else we'd all be dropping like flies every time they had a tantrum." He smiled again at his old friend, his expression conveying more than words ever could.
"I thought Malfoy said you were thick," said Greyback bluntly, staring at the blond man. Robert sighed regretfully.
"Yes, he does seem to be under that impression, doesn't he? Well, we'd hate to ruin his illusion, wouldn't we, Katherine?"
"It would be most inconvenient," agreed Katherine, smiling lazily back at him. Ruth glanced at the raven haired girl and realised too late that she had one hand behind her back. "I don't like people who lie to me," said Katherine softly, drawing a small metal object out from where she'd stowed it in the belt of her jeans and flicking the safety off, blue eyes glinting with malice. The light from the window gleamed on the barrel of the gun as she smiled, one finger resting on the trigger. "And I really hate people who threaten my friends..."
x – X – x
"Riddle? As in Tom Riddle?" asked Harry, staring at Hermione in shock.
"Well it might explain why she knew his real name," nodded Hermione, looking uneasy.
"But she can't be related," said Ron, leaning against the head board of his bed. "I mean, Remus is friends with her, isn't he?"
"Yes but she said she was adopted, didn't she?" pointed out Hermione. "And she did say that deciding to meet her father was the biggest mistake of her life. From the way she was talking about him, it sounded like he got her to join the Death Eaters. I presumed he was just a devout follower but what if he's the actually the ringleader?"
There was a slight pause, then Ron shook his head.
"That's crazy. You-Know-Who can't have a kid – it's just not possible."
"No?" asked Hermione, arching an eyebrow. "Well there's something else you should know. You remember that blond guy who grabbed Harry in Diagon Alley a few weeks ago? I overheard Moody talking to your parents about him last night; he was a Death Eater and his name was Kelly Hunt."
"So?"
"So Katherine said that someone called Kel was dead," said Hermione patiently. "And she definitely knew Hunt because Moody said he was her godfather."
"What?" asked Harry, sitting up. Hermione sighed heavily.
"He was asking if Hunt had done anything to you, because Kelly and Katherine were quite close and if she wanted you dead, there's a good chance she would have enlisted his help."
"But he didn't do anything," said Ron. "He just gave you a note..." He trailed off, suddenly remembering what Kelly had said. Harry nodded soberly.
"He asked me to give it to Riddle. He must have meant her."
"And he knew she'd go after you," agreed Hermione. "He knew he was about to die and gave the note to the closest person that might make contact with her."
"Ok," said Ron slowly, trying to take all this in. "But let's just say all that's true, it still doesn't mean that You-Know-Who is her father."
"Kelly Hunt and Tom Riddle were in the same year at school," said Hermione quietly. "I looked him up when I found out her real surname."
There was silence while they all tried to come to terms with this. Harry lay back on his bed, staring pensively at the ceiling.
"Remus said she was worse than Voldemort," he said, almost absently. "I guess if he taught her... Well, they say pupils always excel their master; that's how we get progress."
"Remus trusts her," said Ron, though it was hard to tell whether he was incredulous or trying to reassure himself that things weren't as bad as they appeared. Harry hoped it was the second – if Remus had some influence on her actions as he had seemed to have back at his flat, then maybe they had a chance.
After all, his fate now lay largely in the hands of Voldemort's daughter. Katherine Riddle knew the Prophecy, and surely it was only a matter of time before she told her father...
x – X – x
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