A/N: Right, I think it's time for Harry again, since this is a HP fanfic and he's been noticeably absent for a good six chapters or so...
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Chapter 51 – Calvaria House
Harry walked quietly along the wooden paneled corridor, careful to keep the cloak in place. Ron and Hermione were keeping watch outside - Hermione just outside the main gates and Ron hidden in the shadows by the door, concealed with a Disillusionment charm.
They'd found this place a few weeks ago and if their source was right, it was a notorious Death Eater hide out. The snake head on the knocker certainly added to the veracity of the information, as did the name: Calvaria House. According to Hermione, Calvaria meant skull, and since Hermione was rarely wrong, he was inclined to believe her. In truth, he didn't really believe Voldemort kept Nagini here, but it was now the beginning of February and a place to start looking was the most important thing right now.
He turned a corner and saw light spilling out from a doorway; there was someone here. Cautiously, very conscious of the fact that the cloak didn't quite reach to the floor, he crept forwards and peered into the room.
It was painted a pale sky blue, contrasting violently with the dark mahogany of the corridors and the light came from a mass of twisting silvery threads that hung in the air over a desk. They seemed familiar somehow, but he couldn't quite place why. He was not allowed to dwell on this thought for long, however, because there was a movement behind the desk and he found a pair of eyes, that he had absolutely no problem remembering, watching him.
"Whoever you are, if you don't show yourself within the next three seconds you'll be spending the next year in Saint Mungos," said the figure, fingers curling around her wand. Harry abruptly pulled off the cloak and Katherine's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question," retorted Harry, stepping into the room and frowning at her. Katherine looked at him for a moment, leaning back in her chair, and a vaguely amused expression crossed her face.
"Yes," she said slowly, slightly narrowed eyes glinting sardonically. "A Death Eater hanging around in a Death Eater hide out. I can see where you're having problems with that one."
Harry glared at her, but she only grinned.
"I was thinking, if you must know," she sighed, and when Harry gave her a confused look she gestured to the twining threads of silver before her.
"They're memories?" asked Harry, realising. "But they're not in a pensieve."
"They are, actually," said Katherine nonchalantly. She smiled faintly and waved a hand around at the room. "This whole room is a pensieve. Little experiment of mine – working in the DoM gets you thinking about things like that. Works surprisingly well."
"The DoM?" asked Harry blankly, looking dubiously at the walls. Could you really turn a room into a pensieve? What about the symbols she'd said you needed… "That how you knew how to make a pensieve?" he said suddenly, looking directly at her. "Back at that house? You said you knew the spells and stuff? Because you'd already made this?"
"Very good," grinned Katherine, giving him an approving look. "You're getting better at this. And the DoM is the Department of Mysteries." Her smile turned a little wistful and she gazed at the churning mass of silver. "The great mysteries of life."
"What?" Katherine looked up, arching an eyebrow.
"You never wondered where it got its name?" She rolled her eyes, and Harry was suddenly realised that this was a new side to her he was seeing. Not talking-to-Remus Katherine or hunting-horcruxes Katherine – this was Katherine in her own environment, talking about her old job, in complete safety. This was probably as close to the real Katherine as he was ever going to get and right now she was watching him with a shrewd expression on her face. "What are you staring at?"
"Nothing," he said quickly. "What were you saying about the name?"
She looked at him for a few more seconds in meditative silence and he knew she was trying to work out what he'd been thinking, but then she shrugged, shoulders relaxing once more.
"Department of Mysteries – there's the basic ones like life, death, time and space. Then there's prophecy, but of course you knew about that one all ready, love and hate. Entire wings dedicated to the human brain and thought processes." She leant further back in her chair, now considering the ceiling with an apparent air of thoughtfulness. "The supernatural and the mundane – now that's an interesting department – load of whackjobs those guys, I swear, and there's someone coming up the stairs so I'd best put that cloak back on if I were you." Her gaze flicked back to him as he stared at her and she raised one eyebrow questioningly. "Well? I wasn't joking."
Harry hurriedly pulled the cloak over him as footsteps sounded in the corridor outside, and retreated to the corner of the room. A moment later a man with thick curly hair and a fair amount of stubble strode into the room, wand outstretched.
Harry saw Katherine glance up, looking for all the world as if she'd only just noticed the man's arrival.
"Mulciber? Can I help you?"
"Riddle?" The man lowered his wand, though his face still held a suspicious look. "I didn't know you were here."
Katherine's innocuous smile put Harry on edge and it wasn't even directed at him.
"Why on earth would you suppose you'd know I was here, Jack?"
Mulciber wisely decided not to try and answer this question and went on the defensive instead.
"Thought there was an intruder, that's all. Can't have just anyone lurking around, can we?"
"No," said Katherine calmly, turning her attention away from her companion and back to the memories still drifting in front of her. "Well if I see any intruders, Jack, I shall be sure to inform you, though I very much doubt there can be any, given the protection that's been set up. Even Snape can't break a Fidelus charm and he can do just about anything, so what chance do outsiders have?"
"Snape already knows about this place," said Jack, frowning a little. Katherine sighed very quietly and let her gaze find his.
"I was merely illustrating a point. No outsiders can get in, Jack. They do not have the means or expertise."
"That why you're here?" asked Jack, leaning against the door jamb and eyeing the silvery memories with unguarded interest.
"The idea was to get a bit of peace and quiet, yes," said Katherine in a level voice, though Harry could hear the meaning behind it. Either Jack Mulciber could not, or he chose to ignore it.
"Heard what you and Snape did."
Katherine's gaze sharpened considerably at this new topic and Harry wondered if it was because she knew he was there.
"Alex?" she asked quietly, and Jack nodded. "How is James?"
"Better now he's got some closure, I reckon. Carr's on the warpath, though – hell bent on giving you two an earful. Thinks you should've waited for instructions or something."
"Not broken into the Ministry and nicked a body out of their morgue, then?" supplied Katherine, a faint smile playing across her lips. "Too risky, perhaps."
"Just a bit."
"We didn't get caught."
"You could have done."
"And then what? Azkaban? I broke out before, Jack, I could do it again," said Katherine easily, shrugging.
"The Aurors have instructions to kill you two on sight," said Jack, a touch of something like admiration in his voice. "After the Dark Lord, you're public enemies two and three."
"Oh I don't know – Bella would be most put out if she wasn't ranked higher than me."
"She hasn't led the Aurors on quite as merry a dance as you have," said Jack, with a slight grin. "I reckon they'd much prefer to bring you down. 'Specially that grey haired loon."
"If you're referring to Alastor, he isn't quite as mental as everyone makes out. After all, it's not paranoia if everyone really is out to get you." She smiled, and poked the writhing memories with her wand. Abruptly the silver cleared, forming what looked like a roughly circular window in the air.
Harry stared into it and saw a room and a man that he'd seen so many times before: it was Dumbledore's office and sitting behind a desk was Dumbledore himself, though with less grey hair than he'd had when Harry had known him. He was saying something, but there was no sound – either Katherine had silenced it, or you could only hear when you were inside the actual memory.
As Harry watched, Dumbledore stopped speaking and a girl stood up, a girl with long black hair and a fringe that fell into bright blue eyes: it was Katherine, though she looked younger than Harry had ever seen her. She must have been sitting in one of the chairs before his desk, which Harry had failed to notice, being far too intent on his old headmaster to pay attention, and from the looks of things she was far from happy. Even without the sound, he could tell what she'd just said.
By the door, Jack Mulciber laughed, bringing Harry sharply back to the present.
"That's a rather colourful vocabulary you have, Riddle," he said, grinning at Katherine. "How old were you?"
"Sixteen," answered Katherine, a wry smile on her face. The teenage Katherine in the memory had just stormed out of the office and Harry as watched the scene flickered black for a moment before fading to silver. Mulciber, however, hadn't noticed; he was still smirking at Katherine, saying something malicious about Dumbledore.
Harry stared at Katherine as she exchanged a few final words with Mulciber and he left. Only when he heard the front door close downstairs did Harry remove the cloak; Katherine was staring idly at the silver surface before her and didn't make any move to restart their conversation.
"You modified that," said Harry, after he'd stood in silence for a good two minutes. Blue eyes fixed on his face and Katherine smiled lazily, though there was an air of melancholy about it.
"What makes you think that?"
"I've seen one before," said Harry, thinking back to Slughorn's incomplete account of his conversation with a young Tom Riddle. "That flicker of black at the end – you hid something."
Katherine sighed again, rubbing her jaw thoughtfully and gazing back at the silver threads. "That would be the part where Remus runs after me."
"Remus?" asked Harry, confused. He hadn't seen Remus in the office, but then…there had been two chairs in front of the desk. Had there been someone in the other one?
"Jack's not the sharpest knife in the rack," said Katherine softly, prodding the memories again. "He doesn't see things he doesn't expect to be there." The memories shifted again and Harry saw the office once more, with Dumbledore behind the desk, only this time he could hear what he was saying.
"…has he asked you to join anything?"
The sixteen year old Katherine slumped in a chair in front of him was frowning, blue eyes narrowed dubiously and looking very much as though she didn't want to be there. Then Harry heard Remus' voice, sounding younger than it did now, but recognisable nevertheless.
"Tell him, Kat."
But Katherine didn't appear to share her friend's opinion; she was watching her headmaster with a look of growing suspicion and dislike and Harry heard her say quietly:
"You already knew."
In the chair beside her, Remus leant forward, and Harry saw his sandy blond hair fall into his eyes as he frowned at her, but Katherine had eyes only for Dumbledore.
"You knew and you didn't tell me?"
"I confess I had my suspicions, but I couldn't be sure-"
"Like hell, you couldn't."
The teenage Katherine had got to her feet and this time there was absolutely no mistaking what she called Dumbledore and Harry heard Remus' sharp intake of breath as his friend almost fled the office, wrenching the door open so hard, Harry was surprised it wasn't pulled off the hinges.
This time there was no flash of blackness and Harry was allowed to see what happened next, to hear Remus' hasty apology to Dumbledore and see him run from the room and down the spiral stairs, to catch up with his friend in the corridor below.
"What did you do that for? Come back, he can still help-"
"You heard him, Remus."
Even from where Harry was standing, he could see the fury and hurt on the young Katherine's face.
"He knew about Tom – he's probably known for ages."
"So?"
"So? So why didn't he tell me?"
"Would you have wanted to know?"
"I'd have preferred it to come from him – least then I might have been prepared when Tom finally did show up."
"What difference would it have made?"
"What difference? Maybe the difference between me being a stupid naïve little girl and a stupid but informed, little girl. Maybe the difference between having a normal life and having this bloody thing tattooed on my arm."
She was pulling up her sleeve now, and Harry saw the black skull and snake emblazoned there, saw Remus' uncomfortable wince and Katherine's sulky glare.
"Come back upstairs, Kat, we can still sort this out-"
"No we can't. It's too late, Rem."
"It's not – he can help. He got me into Hogwarts, he can-"
"He can't work miracles, Remus. He's not that good."
Harry saw a look of disgust cross her face and she tossed long black hair over her shoulder, looking Remus straight in the eye.
"I wouldn't go back in there if you gave me all the gold in Gringotts and believe me, that's a lot of gold if Dad's vault is anything to go by."
"You don't need his money-"
"No, I don't. And I don't want it either, but you know what I want even less? To be lectured by that old fool up there."
"He's not a fool-"
"I don't care, Remus! You're welcome to think of him as the greatest man that ever lived, but I'm not going anywhere near him!"
"You'd rather be around your loving father then?"
"At least he doesn't lie to me."
"No, he just makes you join his stupid cult and-"
"He didn't make me, I chose to."
"You don't know what you're doing at the moment, Kat. You're not being rational."
"You'd rather I was like your idol? He's rational, isn't he? Messing about with people's lives like this is some giant chess game and if you can only control their moves, you can win-"
Katherine stopped abruptly, and a moment later Harry realised why. Dumbledore was standing behind Remus at the foot of the stairs. The three of them stood motionless for a moment, the hatred on Katherine's face very nearly palpable, and then she was gone, striding away down the corridor and this time Remus wasn't running after her.
Harry stared silently as the memory faded back to silver again and then looked at Katherine. She wasn't watching him, just gazing absently at the wand she still held in her hands.
"So that's why you don't like Dumbledore," said Harry eventually, when his voice had finally returned to him. "Because he didn't tell you Voldemort was your father?"
"Pretty much." Katherine glanced up at him, a vaguely sardonic look on her face. "Seems a little childish when it's put like that, but yeah. I blamed him for everything that went wrong."
"Blamed?" questioned Harry, noting the use of the past tense.
"Well, blame, I suppose," shrugged Katherine tiredly. "Still think he should have told me, but, well, maybe I've just stopped caring. No point dwelling on the past, is there? This is my life, and I'm stuck with it. Maybe things would have been different, maybe I'd have been killed as soon as Tom found me if I'd been told who he really was, who knows? My life's not so bad – I'm still here, and so are a lot of people I care about. Things could be a lot worse."
Harry couldn't think of anything to say to that, so he settled for another question instead.
"Why did you show it to Mulciber?"
Katherine smiled slightly, gazing at the ceiling again. "Because he's friendly with Bella – and when I say friendly, I mean that he'll happily pass on any information that comes across his path if it gets him in her good books – and if he thought I was hiding something, you can be sure as hell Trix'd be down here in a flash, demanding to know what I was up to." She flashed him a grin. "I thought we could rather do without that complication."
"And then you showed me because…?"
"You'd have asked," she shrugged.
"There's more than one memory there," said Harry, a thoughtful look on his face. Katherine narrowed her eyes slightly, watching him.
"There is."
"Why'd you show that one?"
"It was the least incriminating," said Katherine, though she was still studying him carefully. "Everyone knows I didn't like Dumbledore and all Jack saw was me yelling at him; it wouldn't occur to someone like Jack to ask what it was about – he probably thinks I did it on a regular basis."
"Did you?"
Katherine gave him a stern look. "It wouldn't occur to him to ask that, either." There was a pause in which Harry continued to gaze questioningly at her, then she rolled her eyes. "Only when he started on about Tom again, and I didn't really yell, I was just…" She hesitated, searching for the right word. "Impolite. What are you doing here, anyway? I meant what I said about the Fidelus charm – you've got an inside man, haven't you?"
"Even if we had, I wouldn't tell you," said Harry firmly, but Katherine smirked knowingly.
"No need, I can guess, but let's not mention names – it only complicates things."
"Yes, like Snape."
Katherine looked mildly confused, though Harry was pretty sure it wasn't sincere. "Severus complicates things? Well that's true, I suppose, but only if you spend a lot of time around him."
"That wasn't what I meant," said Harry firmly and Katherine smiled sourly. "Mulciber mentioned him – what was he talking about? You and Snape stole a body?"
Katherine was quiet for a moment, considering, then she sighed heavily and shrugged. "Oh, what the hell – it'll be in the papers anyway, unless the Ministry hush it up. They were holding the body of Alexandra McKenzie. They've had it at least a month now, and James was in a right state – she was his twin sister, see, and she deserved a proper burial, so we decided to do something about it."
"So you broke into the Ministry and stole it back? You and Snape?"
"Me and Severus, yes. Couldn't very well ask Avery or someone, could I? He works at the Ministry – don't want him losing his job, and I'm supposed to be feuding with him at any rate."
"Feuding?" Katherine waved a hand carelessly.
"Long story – trust me, you don't want to know. Oh hell, he's not back again is he?" Harry frowned at this remark, but then realised he too could hear footsteps echoing up from somewhere in the house.
"Bellatrix?" he asked quietly, but Katherine shook her head.
"No, believe me, if it was Bella, you wouldn't hear her coming. Sounds like a couple of people, actually…"
And then Harry realised. "Ron and Hermione – I've been gone ages, they're probably wondering where I got to."
"So they decided to come looking?" asked Katherine, giving him a vaguely amused look. "Oh that is so very…Gryffindor. If they were Slytherins, they'd have done the sensible thing and run off while they had the chance."
"You didn't leave Alexandra McKenzie," said Harry quietly, and Katherine gave him a long look.
"That's different."
"How?"
"It just is."
Harry heard the stairs creak as someone climbed them, and heard the telltale muffled whispers that indicated people trying not to be heard.
"Tacipede is a good charm for silencing footsteps," said Katherine after a pause, still watching him with a shrewd expression on her face, sapphire eyes boring into his. "You and your friends better head home – Jack'll be back in a minute."
"What?"
"He's the…caretaker, shall we say, of this house. If someone without a Mark crosses the threshold he knows about it."
"But if I set it off, why'd he think you were the only one here?"
Katherine smiled darkly. "Because you don't question me if you want to continue life with all your limbs in tact. Besides, I'm notorious for using unconventional methods of entry and he probably thought I'd done something that interfered with the wards. Now go on, off with you - it's not here, trust me."
Harry looked sharply at her, but she'd turned back her memories and he knew he shouldn't really be surprised that she'd guessed the reason for his presence. He was about to leave when she spoke again, in an almost offhand sort of voice:
"You might want to look up the works of JH Raine." Harry glanced back to meet the familiar sapphire gaze. "Just an idea," said Katherine softly, smiling faintly. "And Raine's got an 'e' on the end."
"Thanks," he said quietly, giving her a careful look.
"Don't mention it. Oh and tell your friend to make sure he knows what he's doing. Treachery isn't exactly the wisest career path."
"Snape chose it," said Harry, scowling at little. Katherine smiled faintly, an amused gleam in her eyes.
"Yes, he did, but he can stick with his decisions." Harry frowned at her, but she only grinned and waved a hand at him. "Go on – I'll deal with Jack."
Harry lingered in the doorway for a moment longer, then left to find his friends. If Mulciber really was coming back they didn't have much time, and Nagini wasn't here – he trusted Katherine on that, at least, he just wasn't sure if he should believe anything else she said.
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