A/N: Just a quick reminder that this story is being put on hold as of the end of this chapter. It's a good place to halt, and rest assured, the story will be finished. Just not for a while.
I'd also like to say thank you to Slythy & Nys who beta-ed this chapter for me. It is greatly appreciated.
And now, on with the story, and what has got to be my favourite chapter to date. It's been a long time coming...
For Slythy & Remquo
who spotted this long before I did
Chapter 55 – Devilish Streak
Severus Snape peered at the black text of the book he was reading and scowled. The tome claimed to give a detailed account of the various effects of Murgrass on the human body, and so far it was doing a worse job than most of his fifth years had managed.
He sank back into the dark leather of the seat and looked up at the ornate ceiling. He'd taken refuge here after Nicola had brought a very enthusiastic companion home after work, and had planned to catch up on some reading. He sighed, tossing the book on the table and gazing idly at the dusty gold leaf above him.
Anything to distract him from the fact that Katherine had been missing for a week now, and no one had seen hide nor hair of her. Robert was getting jumpy, and Severus got the impression that something big was going to happen soon; Katherine hadn't told him how many horcruxes they'd managed to destroy yet. One? Two? Six?
A soft tap on the door made him leap to his feet, wand in hand.
"Who's there?" he demanded, dark eyes suspicious. He'd chosen this hideout because it was rarely used anymore and very few people knew about it; just his luck that someone had decided to investigate it tonight.
The door was pushed open and lamplight fell on glossy dark hair and a surprisingly tanned face.
"Evening Sev."
"Katherine?" asked Severus, lowering his wand to stare at her. She was leaning against the door jamb, wearing a white shirt, faded jeans and a very familiar grin. "Where the hell have you been?" he demanded, trying to glare at her, and failing miserably under the blue eyed gaze.
"Australia," she answered, and he heard the faint twang of an accent as her grin widened, blue eyes positively impish.
"Robert's been going frantic."
"I know - I went to see him an hour ago. He's fine now."
"You disappear to another continent for a week, then you get back and go and see Robert," sighed Severus, sinking back into his chair. "Should I be offended?"
"I had to see him about something," she said calmly, still eyeing him with that strange look in her eyes. "I knew it wouldn't take long, and I wasn't intending on leaving once I got here, so..." She shrugged, as though that explained everything, and smiled again. "Did he tell you?"
"Robert? He hasn't said anything. Why? What's going on?"
"War's ending tomorrow," said Katherine, and Severus suddenly understood his friend's panic.
"He didn't seriously think you'd run off, did he?" he asked incredulously, smirking.
"Think he thought Tom had found out, actually," answered Katherine, smiling faintly.
"He'll find out tomorrow," said Severus quietly, gazing at her with intent dark eyes.
"Yes," she agreed, meeting his gaze and Severus had the sudden urge to say something stupid like: 'Don't fight' or 'Run now, while you've got the chance'. It wouldn't do any good, he knew, but it didn't stop him wanting to, didn't stop him hoping she'd listen, didn't stop him wishing that what she said next wasn't true. "My last night."
"And you're here," said Severus, finding it suddenly difficult to look her in the eye.
"Everyone always says you should spend your last hours with the people you love," Katherine said softly, and Severus' gaze snapped back to hers. "You may notice I'm not with Remus."
Severus stared at her, outright shock on his face, and something in that sentence clicked into place. "You've been talking to Nicola."
"She did mention something, yes," said Katherine, a slight grin on her face. "And you were right; when it comes down to it, I really do only care about one person."
"You do?" asked Severus faintly, wondering where his ability to form coherent sentences had wandered off to.
"I do," agreed Katherine, blue eyes gleaming playfully. "And it's not Sirius Black."
"No?"
"No. He was lovely and everything, but..." She shrugged, the movement making her dark hair shimmer in the low light. "It's not him. And it's not Remus Lupin, either, so you were wrong there."
"Leon Wilkes?" tried Severus, raising his eyebrows in mock seriousness and Katherine laughed darkly.
"Ah, sweet Leo. Best mistake I ever made." She smiled, detaching herself from the door frame and coming to sit on the table before him. "But somehow I think the fact that I murdered him kinda crosses him off the list too."
"So that was deliberate," smiled Severus, leaning forward a little in his chair. "I did wonder."
"'Course it was," grinned Katherine, sapphire eyes glittering. "He was nasty to me. I could hardly let him get away with it, could I?"
"I suppose not. You never could let things be," said Severus, swallowing hard and thinking absently that he couldn't tear his gaze away from those mesmerizing sapphire eyes, even if he'd wanted to.
"Never give up," said Katherine softly. "My new motto."
"What happened to 'we who are about to die don't want to'?" asked Severus, arching an eyebrow and trying to regain some of his self control.
"Tied up all my loose ends," answered Katherine, bending forward, a wicked grin on her face. "Save for one."
Severus stared at her, into eyes the colour of sapphires, and over the thumping of his own heartbeat he heard himself whisper three words he'd never thought he would say to anyone.
"I love you."
Katherine's eyes glimmered with amusement, lips quirking into a delighted grin, their faces inches apart.
"Damn right you do," she whispered softly, and kissed him.
x - X - x
Severus opened his eyes and stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling as the events of the previous night came back to him. He frowned and sat up, looking around the room. Had that really happened or was it just his over reactive imagination?
Severus stopped, shaking his head. Since when had he had an over reactive imagination?
The door swung open and Katherine appeared, wearing the white shirt she'd had on yesterday and twirling the serpent necklace he'd given her in their seventh year around in her fingers.
"'Morning," he said quietly, and she glanced over at him and grinned.
"You're awake."
"I am. What happened to wanting to be around me?"
"I needed the toilet," answered Katherine with an impish grin, climbing on top of the bed and kissing him. "And I am quite capable of making that trip unaccompanied."
"How long do we have?" asked Severus, thinking of the plan she'd told him late last night. She sighed, lying down next to him and resting her head on his chest.
"Four or five hours. Told Potter to yell when he requires our presence."
"Went to see him, too, did you?" asked Severus, smirking as she rolled over and gazed up at him, a supremely innocent expression on her face.
"Save the best till last," she assured him, reaching out a hand to ruffle his hair. "I think I like it short, you know. It's even relatively clean," she added, a mischievous grin curling her lips.
"I washed it yesterday," said Severus, giving her a mock glare. "I do wash it, you know, despite what certain-"
Katherine put a finger over his lips and grinned. "No dwelling on the past," she chided, blue eyes glimmering wickedly. Severus pulled her finger away and frowned, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand.
"Does that include telling me what in the world you were up to in Australia?"
"Hunting," replied Katherine cryptically, leaning back into the pillow and grinning up at the ceiling.
"For what?"
"Arcadia Belle."
"Arcadia- Your mother?" asked Severus, sitting up and staring at her. "I thought you said she was dead?"
"Tom said she was dead," answered Katherine, shifting to get comfortable and then looking up at him with clear sapphire eyes. "Kelly said she was dead too, but they were both lying, and Kel owned up in the end." She smirked, biting her lip. "You're not allowed to hate Potter anymore."
"Because he's going to end the war?"
"No, because he told me where Cady was."
"Cady?"
"My mother - short for Arcadia." She frowned, twisting the necklace around her fingers once more. "Don't think I'm quite ready to call her Mum. Won't ever be ready now."
Severus couldn't think of anything to say to this; denial of the fact would sound insincere, and accepting their fate would ruin the few hours they had left, so he remained quiet for a while, enjoying the peace of the early morning and Katherine's presence beside him.
"What's she like?" he asked eventually, twirling a lock of her soft black hair around his finger. Katherine smiled, her expression a little wistful.
"Not Tom."
Severus smiled, because she wasn't being flippant or brusque, she was being honest; to Katherine, her mother being nothing like her father was the best thing about her.
"Potter told you where she was?"
"Kel left the address with him. I guess he figured we were bound to run into each other sooner or later," answered Katherine, shrugging.
"And you waited till now to check it out?"
"I didn't get the address till last week," said Katherine, grinning at him. "You really think I've got enough self control to stop myself searching for her if I'd had the address earlier?"
"Kelly Hunt died last August, Katherine."
"Which just goes to show that Potter is smarter than you lot and has actually listened when I've told him not to trust me," said Katherine blithely, and Severus scoffed.
"Potter is not smart, Katherine."
"He's not James, either."
Severus glanced at her, saw the very slight look of reproach in her dark eyes and chose to ignore it, opting to change the subject instead.
"How did you find her?"
"Cady?"
"Yes."
"Unintentionally," frowned Katherine, but there was a wry smile on her lips and Severus put an arm around her and pulled her close, breathing in her musky scent.
"Tell me."
x - X - x
Jericho, Australia - Eight days previously
Callum Jones turned the page of the newspaper and sighed. More bad news from England; it never seemed to stop nowadays, and he was willing to bet things were much worse than The Prophet was permitted to print. He glanced up at the clock on the wall and flicked his wand at the kettle, which obediently started to boil.
It was just as he turned back to the open paper that the clock flashed green. He froze, staring at the emerald glow for a few horrified seconds, then leapt out of his chair so fast that it tipped over and hit the stone tiled floor with a crash.
"Jude!"
There was no answer.
No sound at all.
Heart in his throat, he made for the stairs, and that was when he caught sight of the note stuck innocently to the mirror.
Gone to visit Maddie. Back in ten minutes.
Jude
He snatched it up, crumpling it in his fist as he headed for the front door and hesitating for a second before deciding that keeping his wand out was a necessary risk. He had to find his son, had to warn his wife, had to get away.
He hauled open the front door and looked out, coming face to face with a pair of very familiar sapphire eyes and an equally unfamiliar woman, who seemed just as surprised to see him as he was to see her. She stared at him for a long moment, the blue eyes he knew so well wide in something like fear, and then footsteps sounded across the street, and Callum saw his son walking towards them, hands in his pocket, rusty brown hair falling into his eyes.
The woman looked around too as Jude cross the road and glanced at her, seeming a little confused.
"G'day," he said uncertainly. "Can we hel-" He stopped, brushing the hair out of his bright blue eyes and staring at the stranger with unabashed shock. "Who the hell are you?"
He looked at his father, eyebrows raised in inquiry and Callum had just opened his mouth to say something when the woman bolted, taking off down the street as fast as she could.
"Wait!" yelled Callum, and glanced at Jude who was eyeing the wand in his hand tentatively.
"Uh Dad, what are you doing? You know we're not supposed to use magic in front of muggles."
"She wasn't a muggle," muttered Callum, casting an eye around the street restlessly. "Look - go inside and lock yourself in your room and for heavens sake keep your wand on you."
"What?"
"Just do it," demanded Callum, starting off in the direction the woman had run. "Now, Jude."
"But Dad-"
Callum left his son's protests behind and caught up with the woman a few yards along the next street. She hadn't gone far, despite her desperate flight, and was leaning against the side wall of a house, eyes closed, face turned upwards, basking in the heat of the morning sun.
"What happened to Hunt?" he asked quietly, coming to stand in front of her. One brilliant blue eye opened and gazed at him with a guarded look before she answered.
"He was murdered." The other eye opened, and she considered him critically. "How did you know I was there?"
"Who said I did?"
"You usually leave your house armed?" she questioned, arching an eyebrow in an expression so reminiscent of his wife it made him smile.
"Hunt installed an alarm; lets us know if there are Death Eaters about. The darker the hue, the more there are," said Callum carefully, eyeing the wand held casually in her hand nervously. If he let her get away, Cady would never forgive him. "Come back to the house."
"What?" She seemed genuinely surprised, and he thought that if she hadn't already had her back against a wall, she would have backed away.
"The house," repeated Callum, grey eyes calm. "Come back."
The woman tilted her head to one side, eyeing him with not undue scepticism. "Let me get this straight: you've just established I'm a Death Eater, and now you're inviting me back to your house. Is it just me, or is your logic a little bit faulty there?"
Footsteps clattered round the corner, and turning Callum saw his wife, her short hair falling about a face that was so like the one before him it was disturbing.
"Jude said-" she began, then her eyes fell on the woman and the breath caught in her throat as she stared.
"Mum, what's going on?" demanded Jude, appearing by her side, the sunshine highlighting the reddish tint to his hair. He followed her stunned gaze, finding the mysterious woman once more, and frowned uneasily. "Mum?"
Callum looked from his son to the woman who bore such a striking resemblance to his wife, and saw with a flicker of unease that her eyes had narrowed, some emotion he couldn't quite make out hidden in their depths. What if she wasn't who he thought she was? Or what if she was and it didn't mean anything to her?
And then her gaze slid from Cady to Jude and she smiled sourly. "Not so very unlike your brother after all," she murmured, eyes on Cady again. Callum saw his wife raise her eyebrows at this, moving forward slightly.
"You've met Thomas?" she asked, and Callum heard the fear in her voice. "Look, whatever he said, it wasn't true."
"That wasn't what I was referring to," said the woman quietly, blue eyes settling on Jude, who was studying her from a distance, looking severely uncomfortable. Cady frowned, fine eyebrows drawing together in confusion.
"Faye?" she asked slowly, sapphire eyes dark with thought, and Katherine smiled bitterly.
"Secrets and lies," she muttered, though Callum noticed that she didn't look away; he didn't think she could. "Should have expected as much."
"No, it's not like that," said Cady quickly, taking a few more steps towards her, hands reached out in supplication. "I thought you were dead – the papers said you died, Kelly said you'd died. I'm not ashamed, I would have told him, but-"
"You're still a Slytherin."
Cady blanched, lowering her hands, and gazing at her with an expression that tried and failed to hide her hurt. "So are you."
"I'm not trying to pretend I'm not."
Cady was quite for a moment, then asked softly: "What's Tom told you about me?"
"That you were dead," said Katherine quietly. "That was pretty much it. Your brother, on the other hand, was only too happy to fill me in."
"I told you, don't believe anything Thomas said," said Cady fiercely. "He is-"
"Was."
"What?"
"He's dead." There was a slight pause before Katherine added with a slight reluctance: "Natural causes."
"How do you know?" asked Cady warily, and Katherine smiled grimly.
"Faye told me."
"You know Faye?" Cady's voice was laden with breathless hope and Katherine nodded. "Is she-?"
"She's fine."
"And you?"
"Dead. Like you said," replied Katherine, averting her gaze from Cady's face and looking at the ground.
"No you're not," whispered Cady, but the flicker in her eyes belied her anxiety. "You're not."
"I will be."
"No," said Cady, scowling now. "No, I won't let him take you away from me again. I'll hide you, I can help-"
"Oh yeah," Katherine muttered, looking back up at her and smiling mirthlessly. "You're good at helping out Death Eaters, aren't you?"
"Who?" asked Cady carefully, a genuinely puzzled look on her face as she tried to work out what she meant. This did not appear to be the right question, because Katherine arched an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed.
"There's a list to choose from?" she asked, but shook her head before Cady could say anything more. "I was referring to Murphy."
"Theo? Wait, you mean that stuff in Bulgaria? I couldn't help that – he would have told Tom I was still alive if I hadn't helped him – would have used the information to bargain his way out of Azkaban." Cady looked hard at her, at the daughter she'd thought she'd lost long ago and willed her to believe her story, unable to do anything more than hope that she would.
"Why were you there at all?" asked Katherine, shifting uncomfortably, as though she half wanted to believe her but couldn't.
"There were a couple of students transferring from Durmstrang and I had to sort out the paperwork," said Cady, shrugging helplessly. "Look, I know it sounds-"
"Who?"
"What?"
"The students. What were their names?" demanded Katherine, no longer lounging against the wall, but upright and alert.
"I…can't remember exactly, it was ages ago. Something Scottish, I think. McDonald? McKegan?" Her expression cleared, and she shook her head. "No, McKenzie, that was it. They were twins."
"Alex and Jamie?" Katherine asked, eyes eager.
"You know them?" asked Cady in surprise, and Katherine nodded, wrapping her arms around herself, self-conscious once more. Cady vaguely noticed Callum move towards Jude, and say something quietly to him, but the majority of her attention was fixed on the woman before her, who was still gazing at her with that peculiar expression on her face, and Cady suddenly realised what it was. Fear.
For all her bravado and accusations, Katherine was absolutely terrified.
Now that Cady stopped to think about it, so was she.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, eyes suddenly filling with tears that she couldn't hold back, because even though the fierce sapphire eyes watching her were identical to her own, she could see traces of Tom in the fine cheekbones and pale complexion. How much more had she inherited from her father? How much nonsense had he managed to fill her head with over the past forty years?
"Sorry?"
"I should have been there," said Cady hoarsely, swallowing hard. "I should have protected you, I should have…" She trailed off, speech failing her and shrugged helplessly. "I thought I was acting for the best."
Katherine studied her with intent blue eyes, eyebrows drawn together in a frown that didn't seem angry but more…curious?
"But you did," she said at last, tilting her head slightly to one side, the frown remaining on her face.
"I know," agreed Cady quietly, wondering if she would ever be forgiven for abandoning her daughter, but Katherine was shaking her head, a slightly impatient look on her face.
"No, I mean you did what was best." She smiled faintly at Cady's confused expression and gave a one shouldered shrug. "Letting me go gave me sixteen years of a normal happy life. That's the best gift anyone's ever given me."
"You're serious?" asked Cady, staring at her, and Katherine grinned a little.
"Yeah."
"You're not angry?"
"Angry? At leaving me with two of the most wonderful people I've ever met? 'Course I'm not; that'd be stupid."
"But then why-" Cady began, and hesitated, thinking. She'd been about to ask why she'd run off if she wasn't angry, but given what she knew of her errant daughter from Kelly's letters, that perhaps wasn't the best idea. Would she admit to being scared in front of three people who were essentially complete strangers to her? "Why are you here?" she asked quietly, trying a different approach.
Blue eyes considered her for a long moment, then Katherine ran a hand through her hair and shrugged helplessly. "I wanted to see if you were still around."
"So you take off before you find out?" asked Cady, raising an eyebrow, and receiving a scowl for it.
"I didn't have to meet you to know you were alive," said Katherine archly. "Your son's not very good at Occlumency."
"Is my daughter?" Cady didn't know what prompted her to say it, and apparently neither did Katherine, because she looked slightly taken aback. There, you've done it, you've said the dreaded D word. It's up to her now.
"She's very good at lots of things," murmured Katherine eventually, holding her gaze with wary eyes. "Staying alive, mostly."
"But not family reunions?" asked Cady, keeping her tone light with a fair amount of effort, and Katherine smiled sourly, tilting her head forward slightly so that her eyes fell into shadow.
"The last two didn't go so well."
Cady winced; she'd walked right into that one. She could only imagine what Katherine's first meeting with her father had been like, and she knew her brother too well to suppose that any encounter with him would have been much better.
"I'm not like Tom," she said gently, gazing earnestly at Katherine. "I wasn't into all that stuff he came out with, and I certainly didn't agree with some of his methods, but I didn't realise just how serious he was about it until it was too late."
"Sounds familiar," muttered Katherine, looking down with a bitter smile, twisting the silver band on her finger absently. "Can't see past the charm."
A gleam of blue caught Cady's eye and she glanced at the ring on her daughter's finger, at the glittering sapphires studded around it.
"You kept it," she said softly, and Katherine looked up, momentarily startled.
"What?"
"My ring." Cady stared at her, into eyes that were both familiar and alien at the same time and felt her own eyes begin to fill. "My Kate."
"Kate?" Katherine's gaze was questioning, but not annoyed.
"Sorry, everyone calls you Katherine, don't they?"
"Usually, or Kat for short," said Katherine quietly, smiling a little. "Kitten if you have death wish."
Cady laughed, and Katherine grinned too, surprising Cady with the difference it made to her face; suddenly she didn't look so very like Cady anymore, and the traces of Tom vanished completely, drowned out by the impish gleam in her eyes and a broad smile that had never graced his face, and through the mists of time Kelly's smooth voice piped up in the back of her mind, laced with humour as he answered her demand to tell her more about her absent daughter.
'She's very like you, and she's very like Tom, which makes her, of course, completely unlike anyone else I've ever met…'
Looking at her daughter now, standing before her in the sunshine, she finally got what he'd meant.
"So what should I call you?" she asked quietly, and Katherine's fiendish grin faded as she thought about it.
"Kate's fine," she said after a while, and smiled a little in response to Cady's beaming face.
"Kate it is, then," agreed Cady, holding out her hand once more, and this time, Katherine took it.
x - X - x
"So?" asked Severus, as Katherine stopped talking, gazing into middle distance with a melancholy air. She shrugged, twining a strand of hair round her finger.
"So I stayed. We talked. It was good."
"Why did you run?"
"Scared," murmured Katherine, burying her face in his chest. "I only meant to check - to see if she was still alive, and all of a sudden there's this kid looking up at me with her eyes - my eyes - and…I panicked. She obviously was still there, had a family, a son, and then her husband came out and I bolted because I didn't want to meet her."
"But you're happy you have," pointed out Severus, and Katherine shrugged, raising her head to gaze at him.
"I guess so. I didn't want to meet her because if I did, I thought maybe I wouldn't want to come back," she admitted quietly. "Or maybe she wouldn't live up to my expectations, or I wouldn't live up to hers, but it was...strange. A little awkward, but, ok, you know?" She gave him a half grin and settled back beside him. "And I've got a little brother. Half brother, admittedly, but a blood relation all the same."
"How did he take the news?"
"That his big sister's the spawn of Satan?"
"Among other things," agreed Severus, grinning at her, and she laughed.
"Pretty well, actually. I think he thinks it's quite cool to be related to a convicted criminal."
"Definitely your brother, then," said Severus firmly, and received a sharp poke for his troubles. He grabbed her hands to prevent further injury and propped himself up on one elbow, looking seriously at her. "Would you really have stayed there? If she'd asked you to?"
"She did ask," said Katherine quietly, chewing her lip distractedly.
"But you came back anyway?"
"Had to."
"Because of Potter's plan?" he asked, and she smiled, and shook her head.
"No, he could have coped without me if he'd had to."
"So why, then?"
"Because she was so happy," said Katherine, leaning back into her pillow and gazing up at the ceiling above them. "She really loves Callum, and he loves her - I mean, she was straight up with him about Tom and everything before they got involved, and...he didn't care. He loved her just as she was. And, well, I got to thinking that...I've been an idiot." She gave him a rueful smile, tracing a finger across his jaw line and sighing softly. "'Cause I've had the chance for that kind of relationship for the past twenty years and I've never done a thing about it, because there was always some sort of excuse - I didn't want you getting hurt, I didn't want to ruin our friendship - and then there was Sirius, who I never intended to fall for, but..." She trailed off, shrugging helplessly. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" he asked, gazing at her, surprised to find that the mention of Black wasn't conjuring up the usual feeling of anger and bitter resentment.
"Hurting you. You see, I thought I was keeping you safe, that maybe things turned out for the best, but..."
"But?" prompted Severus, raising an eyebrow as she gazed into middle distance, a pensive expression on her face.
"But I still loved you. And I would have dropped him in an instant if you'd ever told me that you loved me too. 'Course, that may not have lasted very long, 'cause Remus would have murdered me, but...well, you would have been worth it." She smiled wryly, kissing him softly, and adding: "You are worth it. You're what I came back for, and I don't care what happens later, because I got to tell you that, and right now I'm the happiest I've ever been in my entire life. I love you, Severus Snape."
Severus smiled, pressing his lips to hers once more, and reminding himself this was real. Two decades of forlorn hope, of watching from the sidelines while someone else held her or the newspaper headlines delighted in her misfortunes. Two decades of anger and loneliness culminating in this moment, a few stolen hours while their borrowed time ticked away.
It wasn't fair, but he'd never thought life was, so he didn't dwell on it.
"I love you, Katherine," he whispered, not feeling stupid or soppy at all. It was a fact and there wasn't anything he could do about it, and that wasn't through lack of trying.
"Past death, till the end of days," cited Katherine, smiling faintly at his bemused look. "It was a line in some ancient Prophecy," she explained, settling down next to him. "Only it was talking about loathing. 'And yea they shall despise one another forevermore, through earth and water, wind and flame, past death, till the end of days'."
"Seriously?"
She grinned. "I may have embellished on the 'yea' bit."
"Who was it referring to?"
"No idea. Could apply to just about anyone."
"Sounds a bit like you and Evan," remarked Severus, face carefully placid, and Katherine hit him round the head.
"Ha ha," she said dryly, but she was grinning all the same, and a voice from so long ago sounded in Severus' head - Katherine's, yelling at him for not telling her he was signing up, saying caustically that at least Black made her laugh. He looked down at her, at the brilliant eyes that gazed up into his dark ones, and smiled.
She'd never said Black made her happy.
x - X - x
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