Chapter 22 – Non illigitamus carborundum

"Remember when Fi died?"

There was a slight pause then: "Yeah…"

"My Uncle came to Hogwarts to see Dumbledore – asked him to make sure my mother didn't find me, I think. Well, he brought Faye along and…" Katherine shrugged, glancing sideways at Robert through a curtain of dark hair.

"You've known about Faye since seventh year?"

"To be fair we only met once – I've really only known her for about a week if you add the time up."

"Seventh year, Kat," said Robert, giving her an appraising look. They were walking along an empty London street in the growing twilight and Robert was getting some answers for a change.

"Well you were all grieving and so was I – you didn't miss me and I didn't see any reason to add to your problems," said Katherine, tucking her hair behind her ear and gazing up at the darkening sky.

"You found out you had a cousin and you thought that was a problem…?"

Katherine smiled weakly. "It is when you know your friends aren't going to like you in a couple of months time. They could let things slip."

Robert gave his friend an odd look and exhaled deeply. "You planned it that far ahead?"

Sapphire bright eyes met his as Katherine turned her head to face him. "I didn't plan it – I just saw an opportunity and took it. When people have friends they feel the need to do stupid things like protect each other. Look at you and Cass – you'd walk through hell and back if you thought it would make her happy, and don't say I'm exaggerating – we both know you're tracking down the horcruxes for her sake. When Tom's gone, she'll be safe."

"And I'll be in Azkaban."

Katherine smiled slightly, though it was tinged with sadness. "Maybe – but at least you'll know she's ok."

Robert frowned, brown eyes dark with thought. "Is that what kept you sane?"

"I'm sane, now, am I?"

Robert smiled half heartedly. "As sane as you ever were."

"Knowing you lot were ok, you mean? Yeah, that was part of it," agreed Katherine, squinting up the road into the shadows of the houses.

"Even though you left us to fend for ourselves?" questioned Robert, raising an eyebrow in jest.

Katherine laughed. "Well you fared better than most of our year, didn't you? In fact, if I recall correctly, the only Slytherins in our year that died were killed by other Slytherins. Evan killed Fiona and I killed Evan."

"So it pays not to be friends – as long as you're not enemies," surmised Robert, grinning despite himself.

"Pretty much. I guess I'm going to have to revise that theory now, if we're all gonna make it through this war," she said quietly, shaking hair out of her eyes.

Robert smiled grimly. "You know that's highly unlikely, don't you? That we'll all make it? It was a miracle we pulled through last time."

"I know," acknowledged Katherine in a small voice, meeting his heavy gaze. "But I can hope, can't I?"

"Dangerous thing, hope," said Robert, looking thoughtful.

"Only if it's false," said Katherine calmly. "I'm not deluded, Rob. Overly optimistic perhaps, but not deluded."

Robert laughed, running a hand through his blond streaked hair. "Now that's something I'd never have thought anyone could accuse you of, Kat. What happened to the pessimistic cynic we all knew and loved?"

Katherine just grinned. "She grew up and a met a person called Regulus Black. Best one of all of us really, wasn't he? While we were moping around being bitter and angry at the world he went straight to the root of the problem."

"And got killed? Do you know why that was?"

Katherine shrugged. "All I know is what Bella told me – that Tom was disappointed with Reg's recent work and that she was going to pay him a visit."

"Then you went to warn him and he handed over the papers?" asked Robert musingly.

"That's right," agreed Katherine. "Never did manage to drive him away."

"No – though I notice he never made any attempt to tell us that you'd purposefully split us up."

"Why would he? He knew I was right," said Katherine, smiling slightly. "Besides, you wouldn't have thanked me for it. The only reason you're still talking to me now is because you thought I was dead and you're pleased to have me back. To be honest I'm surprised that most of your reactions weren't more like Cass'; I wasn't exactly expecting to be welcomed back with open arms."

"Why not?" asked Robert, looking slightly amused. "You're the one who kept me on the rails when I first joined, Kat – I wasn't intending on abandoning you just because you faked your own death and Nic's never one to hold a grudge. As for Severus, well he's in love with you, so-"

"That was a long time ago," interrupted Katherine, face impassive in an instant.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

"Or turn to resentment."

Robert shook his head, looking seriously at his friend. "You hurt him when you went off with Black but he never stopped loving you – why do you think he joined the Order?"

"Because Tom told him to," said Katherine simply, frowning into the middle distance. "Or because he wanted to get close enough to Sirius to kill him."

"Or because he wanted you to be proud of him?"

"Now you're just being ridiculous," said Katherine scathingly. "He knows I hate traitors."

"He also knew you were always fighting against your father and you have to admit it's a good ruse. He couldn't be punished for foiling our attacks if it was part of his role as a double agent. And then of course there's Remus."

"Remus? What about Remus? Severus detests Remus," scowled Katherine, shoving her hands in her pockets.

"And yet he's safe and relatively well, isn't he? Never went on a doomed mission – escaped from most battles with a barely a scratch," pointed out Robert quietly. "Very lucky that – especially without you there to protect him."

Katherine had stopped walking and was surveying Robert with a calculating expression. "And Severus told you all this, did he?"

"No, but I'm a genius, aren't I?" chuckled Robert, treating Katherine to a sardonic grin.

"You're a hell of a propaganda minister," conceded Katherine, gazing at him from under jet black lashes.

"It makes sense – and he does love you. If you say otherwise you're either in denial or actually insane. I'd prefer to think it's the first, although judging by your behaviour earlier I have to say the latter is not entirely unfeasible," added Robert, looking slightly worried.

"We can trust Potter," assured Katherine, choosing to ignore her friend's theorising on the subject of Severus. "The worst he can do is not accept our help."

"Correction – the worst he can do is go telling on me – like you said, I have everything to lose," put in Robert, brow creasing with anxiety.

"He won't tell."

"How can you be so sure?"

Katherine grinned wickedly. "Because he's not James and he's not Lily. He's a troubled teenage vigilante."

Robert cocked his head to one side and frowned at his friend. "You like him, don't you?"

Katherine chuckled softly. "He's got spirit – something that is severely lacking in most people I know. He was seriously considering hexing us too – us – Death Eaters twice his age. That's not bravery – that's sheer cheek."

"It's stupidity," said Robert flatly, not sharing her enthusiasm.

Katherine shook her head, still grinning. "I think he's smarter than you give him credit for."

"You've changed your tune," observed Robert. "A couple of weeks ago you were calling him a prat."

"Well I hadn't met him then, had I?" said Katherine, smiling. "I thought he was a reckless little hellraiser. How was I to know he was such a…Marauder?"

"Oh no – you did not just use that word as a term of praise," said Robert, pointing accusingly at her. "You've spent far too much time around Gryffindors, Kat."

Katherine just laughed, hugging her arms around herself for warmth. "How are you going to remedy that, then?"

"I'm going to take you out for a drink with proper Slytherins," said Robert decisively. "The old crowd – tomorrow night, at The Centaur's Arms."

"What time?"

"Eight o'clock. Auriga Nott runs it and she'll let us use the back room."

"Fine, I'll see you there then. Now you'd better head back to Cass and get that shoulder seen to," said Katherine, giving him a loose hug. "Go on, push off."

Robert smirked, shaking his head. "You know, I'd hex you if I thought I could get away with it. You're completely ruining my thick-but-hard-as-nails image."

Katherine laughed again and turned away, striding down the street, her black hair rippling slightly in the gentle breeze. Robert gazed after her for a moment then pulled out his wand and disapparated.

x – X – x

The door to Nicola's house swung shut as Katherine stepped out of the shower. She frowned – Nicki wasn't due back from work for at least another two hours. Wrapping herself in one of the large fluffy white towels that lay on the towel rack, she padded out of the bathroom and onto the landing as a figure came up the stairs.

"Severus?" she asked, staring at him in surprise. She hadn't seen him in a month – not since he'd gone to Bulgaria.

"Ah, Katherine – I wondered if you were home," he said softly, dropping a canvas bag on the floor by his bedroom door and surveying her critically. "How are you?"

"Fine," said Katherine distractedly. "What happened to your hair?"

"Hmm? Oh, I had to cut it short for the assignment," he shrugged, tugging absently at a dark lock. "It's growing back," he added, dark eyes flickering to the pile of clothes she'd dropped on the bathroom floor. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Perfectly healthy, thanks."

"That's someone else's blood, then, is it?" he asked innocuously, gesturing to her blood stained shirt that lay in a crumpled heap behind her. Katherine's innocent expression faltered; she'd washed the blood out of her hair, but she hadn't had time to dispose of her clothes. "What happened?"

"I had a slight disagreement with a wall," shrugged Katherine, shivering slightly in the cool air of the hall.

"Ah."

"You should see the wall," she joked, smiling wanly.

"Are you ok?"

"Bit tired, but I heal fast," shrugged Katherine. "I've had worse injuries."

"That may be true, but it hardly means it's not a cause for concern," remarked Severus. "After all, you've nearly died quite a few times and that's about as bad as you can get. Where did you hit?"

Katherine rolled her eyes. "You sound like-" She broke off, acutely aware that she'd been about to reveal the existence of her cousin to the very man she was most in danger from. If Severus thought Faye's life was putting Katherine in danger he wouldn't hesitate to extinguish it and face the consequences later.

"Like who?" asked Severus lightly, though there was a note of steel in his soft words.

Katherine pulled a face, thinking fast. "Would you be dreadfully offended if I said Remus?"

Severus shook his head in despair and the tense atmosphere melted away immediately. "If you ever say that again to anyone I will hunt you down and use a hex considerably more potent than Ophelia's tickling curse."

Katherine laughed, stepping back inside the bathroom to get changed. "You know you love me really," she said slyly, as she made to shut the door. Severus arched an eyebrow and picked up his bag.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he said mildly, black eyes devoid of emotion and disappeared into his room, leaving Katherine standing in the hall looking bemusedly after him.

x – X – x

When Nicola Meliflua came home from work that evening it was to find Katherine asleep on the sofa and Severus cooking dinner in the kitchen.

"You're back," she observed, dumping a pile of folders on the kitchen table and smiling at the smell of hot spices from the saucepan Severus was stirring. "Good trip?"

"It was ok. Not much to write home about."

"Yes I did notice that," commented Nicki, shrugging off her travelling cloak and draping it across the back of her chair. "Have you talked to Kat?"

"Yeah, she fell asleep about half an hour ago," said Severus absently, turning the gas down and putting the lid on the saucepan. "Do you know what she was up to today? She refused to tell me."

Nicki looked vaguely surprised. "Up to? She usually goes out somewhere during the day but she's never very forthcoming with the details. Why? Is something wrong?"

"Not exactly – she just got hurt and I was wondering how it happened," said Severus, coming to sit opposite her. "You don't bleed that much from getting pushed against a wall – she must have hit something with considerable force to injure herself that badly and she was out like a light as soon as she lay down on the sofa. Her body must have had to go into healing overdrive to make her that tired."

Nicki frowned, gazing into Severus' troubled eyes. "You know it's probably best not to interfere. If she's keeping quiet there's bound to be a good reason for it."

Severus' frown deepened and he looked agitatedly at his hands. "If she's got herself into trouble again…"

"Severus, she's a fully grown woman. She can do what she likes," said Nicki gently, her dark brown eyes sympathetic but firm.

"Not if it means I'll lose her," said Severus roughly. "I'm not going through that again."

Nicki sighed, knowing exactly how he felt; she remembered all too well that fateful news report sixteen years ago. The journalist had put a rather jaunty spin on the article, as though he was glad she was dead, which he probably was. Nicki smiled grimly as she recalled the article that had appeared the following week reporting that he was now in Saint Mungo's recovering from a rather nasty set of curses that had been slung at him while he was shopping in Diagon Alley. Some people never learned…

"What are you grinning at?" asked Severus, arching a questioning eyebrow.

"Oh nothing," said Nicki, getting up to check on the food. "You can't protect her forever, Severus."

"I can try," he muttered, pushing dark black hair out of his eyes.

"You two are mad," sighed Nicki, taking the saucepan off the heat. "Both trying to save each other at the cost of your own sanity."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Severus, frowning at her.

"Well look at you. You snap at everyone regardless of whether or not they deserve it and refuse to let anyone close enough to hurt you and Katherine buries herself in work and tries her level best to replace you."

"Katherine doesn't have a job," objected Severus, leaning back in his chair and watching Nicki serve up dinner.

"Well she does something all day," said Nicki, shrugging. "Sometimes all night too. She might not get paid for it but she's definitely got some sort of project going on."

Severus sighed, summoning cutlery and glasses from the cabinet and setting them out on the table. "She was engaged to Black. Did you know that?"

"Yeah, she told me – well, let it slip," said Nicki, levitating the hot plates over to the table and grabbing a bottle of wine from the work top. "Like I said – she was trying to replace you."

"By getting engaged?"

Nicki shrugged again, uncorking the bottle. "Maybe she loved him, but not as much as she loves you."

"No?"

Nicki stopped pouring and looked purposefully into Severus' dark green eyes. "Don't you think she would have brought him back by now if she'd really wanted him that much?"

Severus stared at her, confusion flooding his face. "What?"

"Sirius Black didn't die – he was stunned and fell through a veil," said Nicki brusquely. "Katherine was an Unmentionable, Severus – she may have been in charge of the Hall of Prophecy but that doesn't mean she doesn't know how to work that veil. If he meant more to her than you did he'd be out by now and damn the consequences." Nicki left this to sink in for a minute whilst she finished pouring the drinks, then looked up at her companion again. "You see, Severus. She did have a choice – she chose you."

"She might be waiting for her chance-" began Severus uncertainly, but Nicki cut him off.

"If it had been Remus who fell through that veil, do you honestly think the entire armies of Genghis Khan would have stopped her getting into the Ministry and hauling him back out again?"

Severus considered this for a moment and discovered that he couldn't truthfully say no. "She'd probably send them to sleep and walk right on past them," he muttered, frowning as the implications of this scenario hit him.

"Precisely," agreed Nicki, sipping her wine.

"But she's still angry at me," said Severus quietly.

"Oh yes," said Nicki, a little too heartily for Severus' liking; she could at least have made a half-hearted attempt to deny it. "But she'll get over it, uh, eventually."

"Who'll get over what?" asked Katherine, entering the kitchen and coming to sit beside Nicki, blinking tiredly.

"Severus was rude to some poor Bulgarian girl," grinned Nicki as Katherine summoned another glass and poured herself some wine.

Katherine smirked. "Severus is rude to everyone," she said, looking playfully over at him.

"Is that supposed to be an insult?"

Katherine smiled sleepily. "Would you be offended if it was?"

"Outraged," affirmed Severus, sighing heavily. "In fact I might just have to kill you."

Katherine laughed, glossy black hair falling across her face and obscuring her bright blue eyes. She tucked it behind her ear and grinned mischievously at her old friend. "Bring it on."