Chapter 39 – Recovery

Harry sat quietly in his room at the Burrow, watching the sky outside lightening from grey to blue and marvelling once again at how determined the world was to defy your expectations and just keep marching on as though nothing momentous had happened. Opposite him, Ron snored softly, sprawled awkwardly across his bed, lost deep in a dreamless sleep. Harry envied him; every time he closed his eyes he saw green light and shadows.

He shivered and pulled the sheets closer around him, trying to remember exactly how they'd escaped. He vaguely recalled the Cup shattering, black shapes forming at the edge of his vision, the sound of hollow death rattles as the Dementors drew breath...and then Katherine was snarling something in an ancient language he couldn't understand, the anger radiating from her so fierce that even Avery had backed away.

After that everything was a little unclear. Somehow, one moment they'd been a couple of hundred feet under London and next thing he knew, they were standing in a deserted street somewhere in the capital, not quite knowing what had happened. He remembered Katherine looking slightly lost, the target of her anger suddenly removed and then Hermione had burst into tears, sliding to the floor as Ron crouched down beside her, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders. Harry had known how she felt – his own ears were still ringing with his mother's screams and the sound of Bellatrix's laughter as Sirius fell to his death – but he was determined not to let Voldemort win.

He'd destroyed a horcrux. He wouldn't let fear destroy him.

And then Katherine had turned to him, and he was forcibly reminded what real fear was; there had been no emotion in those blue eyes, no anger, no hurt, no nothing – just a cold sort of sanity that scared him more than anything else had that night. It had taken him a few moments to realise she was using Legilimency on him, but even when he had realised, he couldn't look away.

Robert had tried to talk to her but she'd only shrugged him off, glancing around to check everyone was all right and then disappeared – though he didn't think she'd disapparated, and he hadn't see a portkey. Robert had looked worried but Harry knew where she was going – back to the cave by sea and the ranks of Inferi that lay buried beneath the green water.

She'd only found her mother, after all.

He leant back against the wall and sighed, wondering where she was now. He still didn't trust her and he was certainly more wary of her now, but he'd started to realise that circumstance had dragged her into a life she hadn't really want to pursue, just as it had done to him. The only difference was that she was on the opposing side.

Most of the time.

x – X – x

It was drawing close to seven in the morning when Severus woke up. He lay in bed for a while, listening to the low hum of the shower across the hall and wondering whether Katherine had come home yet. She'd disappeared at around ten the previous morning and hadn't been in since. And then there was all that business with Saint Catherine's orphanage.

He turned over and wondered whether she'd tracked down a horcrux. Her and Robert together were more than a match for the Dark Lord and if she was helping Potter, which seemed likely given that stunt with Bellatrix and the McKenzies, then he was rather inclined to believe that their Master didn't stand a chance.

When he left his room half an hour later to get breakfast, the shower was still running. He frowned slightly, but shrugged it off. He'd never lived with women before but he was sure he'd heard that they spent hours in the bathroom.

Forty minutes later, he could still hear the water running. Surely the hot water would have run out by now? He put down the morning paper and headed upstairs, casting a glance towards Nicola's closed door. It was a Tuesday so she hadn't risen early to go to work and the silence emanating from her room was an occupied one.

That only left Katherine or a complete stranger, and despite the wards they'd placed on the house to prevent surprise visitors spotting a couple of Wanted criminals wandering around the house, Nicola still tended to avoid bringing people home. After a moments hesitation, he walked up to the bathroom door and knocked lightly on it, surprised and a little alarmed to find that it gave way under his knuckles and swung open. A cloud of damp air rushed out to greet him as he peered inside.

"Katherine?" he asked softly, eyes settling on the small figure hunched on the floor by the bath. She didn't move so he edged in softly, reaching behind her to turn off the shower which was spouting icy cold water onto the white tiles and crouching down beside her.

Only when he extended a hand to touch her shoulder did she move, flinching away as though burned. He raised an eyebrow in confusion and she blinked up at him, right hand going protectively to the shoulder he'd touched and looking rather lost.

"Severus?"

"Yes, it's me," he said quietly, looking into those dazed blue eyes and trying to suppress the feeling of dread that was seeping through him. "Are you all right?"

A stupid question, he knew, but he couldn't think what else to say. He'd seen that look on her face so many times before but had never thought he'd see it again. He'd thought she was past that phase. What on earth could have happened to trigger it again?

"No." The word was whispered so softly that he nearly missed it.

"What's wrong?" he asked as she looked bemusedly at him, those brilliant eyes were faded and almost childlike as they stared hazily at him.

"I hurt my arm." She pulled her shirt down from her left shoulder and seeing the dark purple bruises that surrounded the swollen joint, he realised why'd she'd flinched earlier.

"I think I've got some ointment that'll reduce the swelling," he said, examining the shoulder with light fingers. "What did you do?"

"Dislocated it," she answered sleepily, resting her head on the edge of the bath and studying him lazily. "You're a good friend, Severus."

He smiled tightly and hurried back to his room to find the right potion. She was still in the same position when he returned, knees huddled up to her chin, eyes staring listlessly into middle distance. He had the feeling that more had been hurt by her latest adventure than her body, but he could do very little about that. Physical injuries he could deal with – psychological ones were beyond his area of expertise.

He treated the wound as best he could and tied a support bandage around it then sat back on his heels and looked into her vacant eyes, wondering just how much of this she was taking in.

"He wasn't there," she said after a while, not meeting his worried gaze.

"Who wasn't?"

"Dad."

"The Dark Lord?" he asked, a frown creasing his forehead. Had she gone after Voldemort? Or did she mean a horcrux? But now she was shaking her head and his frown deepened at her next words.

"Not Tom. My Dad. My real Dad. He wasn't there." She looked up, eyes a little clearer now, but the kind of clarity that he had learned long ago to be worried about. When Katherine had been sixteen she'd had that look in her eyes a lot – that cold sanity that had allowed her to get on with life and pretend she wasn't being torn apart inside. During their fifth year at Hogwarts he'd seen her go from mild tempered to irate and back again in a matter of seconds nearly every day, till those final few weeks before she'd cracked when anything anyone said was met with harsh words and a furious glare.

That was the time when they'd learnt to be scared of her and decided to make sure they never got on her bad side. Except for Evan, of course, who'd never really paid her much attention because, he suddenly realised, she hadn't sought it. Nicola had befriended her with the hope of getting to know some of Leon's mates a little better and Cassandra had already been on good terms with her; Robert she had known from missions and he himself she'd practically enlisted to help her with work, but she'd never approached Evan or Daemon. She hadn't needed them.

"He wasn't where?" Severus asked carefully, as she sat up a little straighter, eyes hardening.

"Nowhere," she answered shortly, working her shoulder joint gingerly. On an impulse he slid her wand away from where it lay on the floor beside her and held it behind his back. She stopped moving her arm and looked sharply at him. "Give it back."

"No."

"Give it back, Severus. I need it."

"You're in no fit state to be doing anything, Katherine. You need rest."

"I will rest. Right after I've paid Tom a little visit."

"You pay the Dark Lord a visit now and the only resting you'll be doing is the eternal kind," he answered, looking archly at her.

"Severus Ruchbar Snape, give me my wand."

"No. I will not let you get yourself killed."

"It's my life – I can do what I like with it."

"Not while I'm alive, you can't. I happen want it intact, if it's all the same to you."

"Severus, if you don't hand over my wand this instant, I'll-"

"Thump me? Break my neck? You couldn't do that, Katherine," he said with a sigh, looking tiredly at her. "You know that."

She glared at him, eyes blazing, her hands balled into fists and then her lip trembled and suddenly there were tears rolling down her cheeks. He stared at her, not quite knowing what to do and was grateful for the soft voice from the doorway.

"What's going on?"

He looked up into the dark brown eyes of Nicola and thought he'd never been so relived to see anyone in his life. He stood quickly as Katherine buried her face in her hands and shook silently, wrapped inside her own private nightmare.

"Can you stay with her?" he asked Nicola quietly. "I'm going to go and see Lucius – he's been sent to the South of France for a few weeks and he leaves today. I'll see if I can persuade him to take her with him. She needs to get away from here for a bit – if she meets the Dark Lord in this state she's going to end up doing something she'll regret."

Nicola nodded, dark eyes filled with concern. "Go then. I can take care of things here."

He smiled thankfully and with one last look at Katherine, headed off to find his oldest friend.

x – X – x

The coach rumbled over the bumpy road as Lucius Malfoy looked at his latest companion. She hadn't said a word to him since Severus had dropped her off at the airport, though she had taken the plane tickets forcibly out of his hands at check in and dealt with the woman at the desk herself. He didn't particularly care – he wasn't much good at muggle things and was extremely dubious about the whole airplane concept in general but there was no other way to get to France without arousing Ministry suspicions.

Luckily, although they kept an eye out at muggle hotspots, the Aurors didn't expect a couple of Death Eaters to actually use muggle transport and Lucius had the added protection of the Polyjuice Potion Severus had brewed for this mission. Katherine, of course, could change her appearance at will and he hadn't been altogether surprised to learn that Severus had found several muggle passports among her belongings, each with a different picture.

She was currently masquerading as Caitlin Murphy, a slim brunette with light grey eyes and, apparently, not much of a desire for conversation. He glanced sideways at her, wondering exactly what had happened to make her so introverted all of a sudden. Severus hadn't been very explicit, but Lucius rather thought that this was because he hadn't known.

Which undoubtedly meant that Katherine had been doing something she shouldn't have been with no thought for the consequences and had left others to pick up the pieces. Not that Severus had minded, he thought. That man would follow her to the ends of the earth no matter what she did to him. People did foolish things for love, even Severus Snape.

"Where are we?"

He started, looking sharply at Katherine who was gazing out of the window.

"Bordeaux," he answered after a momentary pause.

"France?"

"Yes." He hesitated as she fixed a pair of clear grey eyes on him. "You remember the plane, right?" She shrugged.

"Vaguely."

"Caitlin, we only got off it half an hour ago," he said, frowning deeply. She shrugged again.

"Everything's a bit hazy. Did I hit Severus?"

"I don't know. Don't think so," he said carefully, studying her curiously. She sighed, running a hand though her hair and frowning when she saw it was brown.

"Oh. I'm supposed to be helping you, aren't I?"

"That's what Severus told your father," he said, noticing that she scowled at the reference to the Dark Lord. "However, I'm under strict orders from him to make sure you rest. Don't want you going completely off your rocker, do we?"

She gave him a disparaging look and gazed out of the window again.

"So, what were you up to?" he asked as the silence threatened to stretch out.

"None of your business."

"Ah, not mental enough to forget you hate me, right?"

"I don't hate you."

He arched an eyebrow, gazing at her with an amused smile and kept quiet, knowing full well that if he got any more truthful answers out of her while she was in this state, he'd pay for it later; she didn't take too kindly to being taken advantage of – Leon's little Russian adventure was proof enough of that. He sat back in the cramped seat and longed for the old armchair that had sat in his family's Manor for as far back as he could remember. Why did muggles put themselves through this? Surely there had to be easier ways to get from place to place. Even long distance Flooing was better than this – at least that was quick, even if you did tend to smell of soot for days afterwards.

Next to him, Katherine was gazing dully out of the window, thoughts retreated somewhere he couldn't follow. He was only taking her with him because Severus had asked and when Severus asked for something, he usually meant it. It took a lot for someone as proud as him to admit he needed a favour. Then again, it was he who was in Severus' debt at present anyway – Narcissa had told him what his oldest friend had done for Draco while he was in prison; making sure the love of Severus' life got back to normal again might go a little way towards repaying that debt.

He wondered if she knew how much Severus loved her – how he cared for her more than anything else in his life. He'd been devastated when she'd died – had refused to believe it despite common sense and his own better judgement. Lucius had thought he'd been in denial, and maybe he had, but he'd been right and Lucius had been forced to admit that he'd underestimated Katherine yet again.

He glanced at her as her right hand curled around the snake pendant that he remembered Severus had bought for her as a Christmas present in their last year at Hogwarts and frowned as a new thought struck him. She had that necklace – now, after Azkaban – yet she wouldn't have been allowed it in prison and he knew her things would have changed hands numerous times after her supposed death, so why was she back in possession of it? Had she tracked it down?

He frowned deeply, and mused privately. He knew Katherine better than to suppose she was simply particularly fond of a mere piece of jewellery, but was the alternative really possible? Could she like Severus – love Severus? Could Katherine Riddle, who had gone out with Leon Wilkes and Sirius Black (who, if Narcissa's opinion was anything to go by, were two of the handsomest men of their generation), be in love with Severus Snape whose own mother would hesitate to call fair?

He sighed and shifted a little in his seat. Well if she was, Bella was going to be most disappointed; she'd thought the person Katherine cared most about was her cousin. He smiled wryly to himself; knowing something his fair sister-in-law didn't always made his day a little brighter.

x – X – x

They arrived at the villa at around half six in the evening, just as the sun was setting and while he went to unpack, Katherine wandered off. He found her a little while later, sitting on the patio that overlooked the port, watching the great ships sway to and fro in the dark water and singing softly under her breath.

He sat down next to her, placing a glass of fruit juice on the flat stones beside her and listening to the faint roar of the waves in the distance and the soft, sweet tones of her voice. From what he could make out of the words, it seemed to be some sort of nursery rhyme, the sort that loving parents are meant to sing at night to lull their child to sleep, but then again he didn't have much experience of such things so he wasn't much of a judge. She fell silent after a while and gave such a wistful sigh that he looked at her in concern.

"Are you all right?" She shrugged.

"Just thinking."

He looked into her eyes – back to their usual blue again – and noted that she was almost back to normal; tired and upset to be sure, but the real Katherine was in there somewhere and she'd recover properly given time.

"What was the song?"

"Just something my mother used to sing to me," she answered, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her head on them. "About two friends who grow up together and go to war, then one ends up saving the other's life. I used to think they were so brave, now I just think they did what they could. You can't get heroes in war."

"Not even bold Mr Potter?"

"Him? He's a scared kid striving to stay alive, just like the rest of us. All we really want is someone to hold us and tell us everything's going to be all right."

"Even if it's a lie?" She looked at him, blue eyes looking infinitely sad in the waning light.

"I'd be happy to believe it. Wouldn't you?" He smiled faintly, a touch of a smirk creeping into his expression.

"Ah, see this is where we're divided you see, because you really are going to be all right. You've got some kind of guardian angel watching over you, don't give me that look, you must have the amount of scrapes you've managed to wriggle your way out of, whereas I have to rely on instinct alone. It's quite unfair." She smiled softly, blue eyes lightening a little.

"Maybe I'll have a word with my angel then, see if it's got a mate who can look after you for a bit."

"Or you could lend me yours," he pointed out, looking out over the dark expanse of the ocean. She chuckled derisively, the sound muffled because she was hunched up to keep warm.

"No chance. I need all the help I can get."

He smirked and sipped the glass of red wine he'd been holding. On reflection, maybe this trip wasn't going to be as bad as he'd first thought. At least Katherine was being civil – friendly even.

"Thank you." He glanced up, surprised.

"For what?"

"This. Looking out for Severus. And, well, you know, last time."

"Gratitude accepted for the first two, but I didn't really do anything last time," he said meditatively, swilling the red liquid around his glass.

"You could have stopped me," she said quietly. "You could have told Trix or Leon I was leaving, but you didn't. You let me go – let me sort myself out. I'll always be thankful for that whether you choose to accept it or not."

"Point taken," he murmured, tugging his cloak a little tighter around himself in the night breeze. "And while we're on the subject, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, as long as I'm under no obligation to answer." She looked at him interestedly, and he wondered idly how she managed to look vulnerable and resolute at the same time, and then asked the question that had gnawed at him for nearly twenty four years.

"Exactly what did you do with that baby?"

x – X – x

Reviews and confused questions are welcome. :)