Disclaimer: The book extracts in this chapter are from Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell and I do not own them in any way, shape or form. Well, I have a copy of the book, but I certainly didn't write it. :)

Chapter 26 – The female of the species

"Good day, Potter." She said it cordially, but there was a mad glint in those eyes that made her seem not quite human and gave an unpleasant edge to the words. Harry said nothing; not that he could, even if he'd wanted to – the Petrificus Totalus hex was still very much in place. Bellatrix laughed again and got her to her feet. "Don't go anywhere," she said softly. "I'll be back soon."

Harry watched angrily as she turned and opened a heavy metal door. Beyond it, Harry could just see the grey stone walls of a long corridor before Bella shut the door firmly behind her. Harry resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't do anything in the state he was in at the moment and decided to see if there were any ways out of the room aside from the door which he could take if he ever did manage to get free.

A quick survey of the room destroyed this illusion, however. It was perfectly clear that there was no way out of this room, except for the door, especially without a wand. Harry frowned inwardly at this last thought. Without a wand? But had Bellatrix actually taken his wand?

He tried to think, but couldn't remember her snatching it from him. If that was the case, it should still be in his pocket… He concentrated and was sure he could feel it there through the material in his jeans; a slight pressure against his right thigh.

Suddenly he was aware of muffled footsteps in the corridor and then the door swung open admitting, not Bellatrix, but a younger woman with flaming red hair and dark brown eyes. She smiled delightedly and pulled out her own wand, casting some sort of spell. A moment later her eyes darted towards his right pocket and a quick Accio charm relieved him of his wand. So much for that idea.

The woman chuckled softly at his glare and at that moment Bellatrix's voice came floating down the corridor:

"…very amusing, Iscariot."

The woman glanced around and Harry heard Bella greet her. "Find anything?"

"Yes, you forgot to take his wand." Harry thought he saw a flicker of annoyance cross Bella's face, but it only lasted a second.

"Well it's not as though he could have used it," she shrugged, crouching down to Harry's level and smiling manically. "Could you, Potter? Ickle baby Potter – all alone and helpless. How does it feel knowing you've lost?"

Harry glared at her, hatred radiating off him. This woman had killed Sirius, maybe killed Remus – no, he wouldn't think like that. Remus would be ok – he'd have ducked, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he? But then what had the crash on the floor been?

Bellatrix seemed to read his thoughts – and, Harry realised a moment later, that's exactly what she had done. He never had been very good at Occlumency.

"Yes, Potter, your precious wolf is dead," smirked Bellatrix. "The Order's pet is no more."

Harry wanted to lash out then, he felt he'd give just about anything to get his hands round Bella's throat and wipe that stupid smirk off her face once and for all. A new, male voice intruded on his thoughts and the words he said distracted him sufficiently that he actually listened instead of trying to think up new ways of killing the woman in front of him.

"You killed Lupin? Damn, Bella. Riddle's going to murder you."

Bella arched an eyebrow, her gaze still fixed on Harry.

"You think so? She didn't even touch me when I killed my dear sweet cousin."

"Black?" asked the red haired woman. "Why would she care about him?"

"They were going out," said Bella, standing once more.

The man, who Harry could see now that Bella had moved, laughed. "Oh come off it, Bella. I know Riddle's not exactly the most conventional person in the world, but she wouldn't touch Black with a barge pole – he was a blood traitor. Her father would kill her."

"He never found out," shrugged Bella.

"She wouldn't risk it," repeated the man. He had the same red hair and brown eyes as the other woman – Harry guessed he was her brother.

"I would," said the red haired woman in a husky voice.

"Don't be stupid, Allie," scoffed the man. "Why on earth-?"

"He was gorgeous," said Allie, giving her brother a sly look. "Nicola was with him at one point. I wouldn't be surprised it Katherine decided to hook up with him for a bit of fun. From what I've heard she likes to live dangerously. Besides – she was friends with Lupin, and him & Black were best friends, weren't they? She would have had seen him a lot."

At this last remark, Harry's eyes snapped up towards the red haired woman. Friends with Lupin? Regulus Black wasn't friends with Lupin… And that could only mean one thing: they were talking about Sirius.

"Who was that?"

"We're not entirely sure," answered George, gazing towards the door. Tonks moved forward and rapped on the rough wood.

"Remus? Are you ok?"

There was slight scuffle and a pause, then Remus' voice called back. "Fine, Tonks, I'm fine."

"Hurt my friend and I'll kill you," added a second voice cheerfully. Tonks raised her eyebrows.

"Who was that, Remus?"

"No one," said Remus firmly. "Everything is fine."

"That's the third time you've said that," muttered the second voice, just loud enough for both Remus & Tonks to hear.

"Shut up, feles."

"Remus are you sure you're-"

The sound of the lock clicking cut her off and the door opened far enough for Remus to stick his head out. His grayish hair was slightly ruffled but aside from that he didn't look hurt.

"Someone needs to tell the authorities that Harry has been kidnapped," he said gently. Tonks nodded, her eyes scanning his face anxiously.

"Do you know who by?"

Remus withdrew his head, apparently to look at the room's other occupant, but when he stuck his head out again, it had a disappointed expression. "No. Sorry. It was a woman, though."

"Not the one you've got in there?" probed Tonks gently.

"That's rude. You don't even know me," chided said woman.

"I would if you came out," replied Tonks sourly.

"Rem won't let me," answered the voice again, adding, "You probably wouldn't want to know anyway."

"Who is she, Remus?" asked Tonks, gazing at him with large dark eyes.

"Someone who can help," answered Remus sincerely. Tonks bit her lip, but then nodded.

"I'll go back to HQ and alert the Aurors. Be careful, Remus." She kissed him lightly on the cheek and disapparated. Remus shut the door quickly, mostly to avoid the curious glances from the living room's occupants and turned back to look at Katherine.

"You're not going to tell me who took him, then?" he asked, sighing tiredly. Katherine looked almost confused for a moment, then shook her head.

"Can't," she said shortly, leaning against the wall and looking down at her shoes with a preoccupied air. Remus frowned, studying her carefully.

"Are you ok?" he asked softly, casting Imperturbable Charm on the door. He didn't want anyone listening in on this conversation. Katherine glanced up at him, scuffing her shoes idly on the wooden floorboards.

"Aside from being locked in a room by a man who is supposed to be my best friend, you mean?"

"You would have been difficult," said Remus, smiling gently at her.

"I didn't have the chance," objected Katherine, trying not to grin at her friend's expression. She sighed, running a hand through her dark hair and glanced ruefully up at Remus. "Why did you tell them everything was fine?"

"Because it was – will be, at any rate," answered Remus, perching on the edge of the desk and gazing solemnly at her.

"If Tom gets to Harry he will kill him."

"Then stop him."

"How am I supposed to do that?" asked Katherine exasperatedly, her eyebrows creased in a frown.

"You'll think of something," shrugged Remus. "You always do." Katherine smiled, tilting her head to one side and regarding him thoughtfully.

"That's a hell of a feat to ask of someone."

Remus raised an eyebrow smiling back at his friend. "Well then it's just as well I have a hell of a lot of faith in you, isn't it?"

Harry would have shouted at them that they were lying if he'd been able to – he wouldn't believe it – he couldn't believe it.

But somehow, he did. Sitting on a cold stone floor unable to do anything but think, he saw that the clues had been there all along, he'd just never put them together. That incident with the black haired man on the roof of Remus' block of flats. Katherine'd been talking about Remus and he'd asked whether Black wasn't too much of a good boy for her and she'd said something about him having style and abruptly changed the subject. Harry had always assumed she'd been talking about Regulus, a theory that had been endorsed by the fact she had a key to Grimmauld Place and it had been Regulus who told her about the horcruxes, but now he saw he was wrong. She'd obviously been good friends with Regulus, but it was his brother she'd been interested in.

Now that he thought about it, her expression when he'd confronted her with the picture of her & Regulus, and the way she'd been quick to point out they'd both been drunk were the biggest indicators of that. Anyone seeing that would see clearly that she'd never liked him in any more than a platonic way. Sirius on the other hand…

Harry thought back to the photograph he'd picked up which Katherine said was taken at the end of seventh year. She'd been between Remus & Sirius and even though she'd had her head on Remus' shoulder, it had been Sirius' lap she was sitting on and Sirius' arms that had been wrapped around her waist.

Head spinning, Harry tried to concentrate on what Bellatrix and her companions were talking about. He pushed all the questions he had to the back of his mind, trying very hard not to wonder why Sirius had never mentioned her and why on earth he'd gone out with her in the first place.

"…don't you just take him straight to him?" the red haired man was asking.

"Because I don't know where he is," explained Bellatrix, as though talking to a very small child.

"I thought you were supposed to be one of his most favoured?" pointed out the man. "You can't be that close to him if he doesn't even trust you enough to tell you where he is."

Harry could almost see the look on Bellatrix's face, even though she had her back to him. "I've got someone out asking around for him," she said through gritted teeth.

"Who?" asked the girl called Allie.

"Can't you guess?" said the man, in what Harry thought was a rather amused voice – the man seemed determined to wind Bella up. "Who's the one person that it would really gall Riddle to have as Bella's ally?"

The woman thought about this for a second and her answer, when she gave it, made Harry's blood boil and threw his thoughts into turmoil.

"Snape?"

Julian Lloyd pushed open the door to Brandon Manor and noticed with a smile that the lanterns were lit. So someone was here, at least. The smile left his face, however, when he saw who that person was.

"Morning, Ju. Rather brave of you to be here, isn't it? Or is it stupid?"

Julian sighed, closing the door and walking to the foot of the stairs Katherine was sitting on.

"Is the Master here?"

Katherine gazed meditatively at him, twirling the pen she was holding absently. "Upstairs. Why?"

"I have something to tell him," answered Julian, frowning at her. She was trying to use Legilimens on him and if he didn't find an excuse to get past her soon, she was going to succeed.

"What is it? I've already given him the status report from Diagon Alley. Fourteen dead, one DE injured. What else is there to tell?"

"Who got injured?" asked Julian, trying to use idle curiosity to bypass her questions. He didn't recall anyone getting hurt.

"Bella," answered Katherine calmly.

"No she-" began Julian but Katherine cut across, softly but with the force of a tidal wave.

"She will be."

"And I thought you were putting on a front when you said you weren't going to hurt Potter," said Julian, sneering slightly, more out of force of habit than a wish to make the woman in front of him any more angry than she already was. Katherine arched an eyebrow, doing superiority so much better than him.

"Potter? What's Potter got to do with anything? Bella tried to kill Remus – I'm going to use Jack Horner on her." She said it in a matter of fact voice, as though she was commenting on the weather and it made Julian's blood run cold; the look in her eyes alone would make a Hungarian Horntail flee for its life. "Do you know where she is?"

"No," said Julian, and Katherine grinned dangerously.

"Liar," she said softly, almost playfully, but there was a look of triumphant in those startlingly blue eyes that told Julian he hadn't been quick enough. The slight flicker in his eyes when he'd lied had been enough of a crack in concentration for Katherine to get through; Bella was going to kill him. On the bright side, she might very well not be able to if Katherine got to her first.

Katherine stood up, and folded the newspaper she'd been reading. Not the Daily Prophet, Julian noticed absently. Not a wizarding newspaper at all, in fact. The pictures weren't moving and Julian could see the headline was about something called global warming, whatever that was. Probably some new muggle idea thought up by some crackpot who wanted to put the scarf industry out of business. Bloody stupid idea in his opinion – if the world got warmer all the icecaps would melt, wouldn't they? And all the low lying areas would flood – although on the bright side, that would wipe out a considerable amount of muggles. Somehow he didn't think the idea would catch on.

Julian caught Katherine's eye as she stood up and pocketed her pen. He wondered why she was reading the paper – it was clearly full of rubbish. She grinned at him, shrinking the paper so it fitted easily into her back pocket.

"The crossword's better," she said pleasantly, and descended the stairs, walking right past him and out into the street.

Severus Snape sat on the white leather sofa in Nicola's living room, reading a book he'd found in the bookcase. Well, perhaps reading wasn't quite the right word; he'd been looking at the same paragraph for over half hour now and he still had no one idea what it was about. He tried again, concentrating this time.

"…Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them…"

Severus sighed and put the book down, rubbing his face with his hand. It was no use, he just wasn't in the right mood to read. Besides, the speaker in the book was sounding far too much like Katherine for his liking and she was the very person he was trying not to think about.

He thought about that last sentence again, and decided the character was probably Katherine in another life. Katherine changed everyone – friends and enemies alike. She'd changed him certainly, though Severus wasn't quite sure which he was to her anymore. Not quite a friend, but not quite an enemy either.

The sound of the door opening brought him out of his reverie and a moment later Nicola entered the room, tossing her cloak over a chair and smiling at him.

"Hey – you all right? I was going to make chicken salad for lunch – want any?" Severus shook his head, his eyes falling once more to the discarded book. Nicola followed his gaze and frowned. "Good book?" she asked, coming to sit beside him.

"I thought it was yours," answered Severus, glancing up at her.

"Nope, not mine. I don't go in for George Orwell much," she said carelessly, leaning back into the soft leather and closing her eyes. "Must be Kat's. Doomed cynicism is more her area of expertise than mine."

"Our world isn't as bad as that," said Severus quietly, eyeing the book thoughtfully. "Not yet."

Nicola opened one large brown eye and gazed seriously at him. "Maybe that's why she likes it."

Severus nodded vaguely and steeled himself to ask the question he was dreading.

"Have you seen her?"

"Katherine? Not since breakfast, no. Been a busy morning – Death Eater attack on Diagon Alley. Rumour is Potter got snatched," answered Nicola, shifting in her seat, trying to get comfortable.

"She hasn't been caught?" asked Severus, a little too quickly to go unnoticed. Nicola opened both eyes and gave him a long look.

"No one's been caught. Is that why you're so edgy?" she asked, propping herself up and gazing at him. "You've really got it bad, haven't you?"

"I don't know what you mean," said Severus testily, picking up the book again, intending to resume the pretence of reading, but Nicola snatched it away, raising one fine eyebrow in reprehension. Severus tried to outstare her but knew he wasn't going to win. He sighed, dragging a hand through his black hair that still hadn't grown back properly. "The attack was at half ten and I haven't seen her since. I just thought she would've come home by now."

Nicola glanced at the clock; it was one o'clock in the afternoon.

"She's a big girl," she said carefully, setting the book down on the table. "She can look after herself. She's probably just gone for a walk or to see Lupin, or something. Nothing to worry about."

Severus half smiled at this, though it was tinged with bitterness.

"I don't think it's possible to honestly say that there is a single moment of the day when Katherine isn't doing something that we should worry about."

Nicola laughed, standing up and heading towards the kitchen.

"You're probably right," she called over her shoulder. "Knowing her she's probably sitting in a library somewhere, plotting the ultimate downfall of her father. The way she's been acting recently, I think she's mad enough to think it's possible."

Severus smiled absently, reaching for the book once more. Nicola was right – Katherine was probably perfectly safe – she'd turn up later, completely oblivious to the heartache she was causing and chastise him for not washing his hair. He flicked through the book, trying to find his page and his eye fell on a sentence, standing out on a single line in bold italics.

Thoughtcrime does not entail death: Thoughtcrime IS death.

He frowned and stared the line for a moment, thinking of Nicola's words. He knew she'd been joking but he couldn't help thinking she might have inadvertently hit upon the truth. And if Katherine was trying to bring down her father, she was in for a lot of trouble. The Dark Lord did not take kindly to would-be assassins – Regulus was proof enough of that. Katherine wouldn't be that stupid, would she? But then she had got engaged to Sirius and Gryffindors didn't call it stupidity, did they?

Severus shook his head, dismissing the idea as ridiculous and resuming the search for his place in the book. Besides, she had no chance of defeating the Dark Lord – only Potter could do that – the Prophecy had been very explicit on that account. Severus froze in the act of turning a page, the penny dropping at last with a resounding clunk.

The Prophecy.

Katherine knew the Prophecy.

Why hadn't he realised that before? The reason she'd never asked him about it when he'd let it slip was because she knew it already. Nicola had told him only a few days ago that Katherine had been a Unspeakable, and not just any Unspeakable, either – she'd been Head of the Hall Prophecy.

Mentally cursing himself for not making the connection sooner he tossed the book back down and went into the kitchen where Nicola was washing leaves for the salad. He was sure she'd said something earlier, but he'd been too concerned with Katherine's whereabouts to pay attention properly.

"Did you say Potter had been taken?" he asked, voice tense. Nicola glanced over at him, looking surprised.

"You didn't seem to care," she said, turning off the tap and dropping the wet leaves into a bowl.

"So he has?"

"Tonks seemed to think so," she shrugged. "She came in a while after the others and said his friends had seen him disappear. They're guessing someone grabbed him under a Disillusionment charm. Why do you ask? I thought you hated the kid."

"I do," said Severus gravely.

"But?"

Severus looked at the clock that hung above the sink. Two and half hours and Katherine still wasn't home. His eyes fell till they met Nicola's concerned gaze and he shrugged hopelessly.

"But Katherine's crazy."