Author's Notes:

Big THANK YOU to these reviewers: Aphrodite-Venus-u.k, cameron1812, Gaeleria, Nightandstarsandmoon, Phoenix Rebel, rebelsaurus29, Samolly, SlytherinPrincessxXx, and 2 Guests!


~.~.~

"What are we waiting for?" Katie finally dared to talk to Marcus.

He'd spent the last hour watching her, silently, and occasionally trading looks with Cassius that spoke of his impatience to be away.

"Eager to be alone with your new 'master', cousin?" Cassius teased, snickering. He gave Marcus the once over and smirked. "He is quite the specimen, I admit. Have you tried him out before?"

Marcus said nothing, but he did slowly climb to his feet from the crouch he'd maintained against the wall. The move had 'menace' written all over it, particularly given his rather impressive size. He was six feet, three-inches of tall and built like a bear, all burly muscles now that he'd reached full maturity, and yet surprisingly, he moved gracefully. He positively dwarfed Cassius.

What had he been doing over the last four years since she'd last seen him to end up looking like that? Katie wondered.

Her slimmer, less impressive cousin blanched and kept his mouth closed, much to her amusement.

"Maybe you ought to spend less time antagonizing people, Cas," she advised, "and a little more time finding your long, lost conscience."

Cassius glared at her, but was careful not to insult her again, she noticed.

"So, are you going to answer my question?" she asked, turning back to Marcus. "What are we waiting for? Why are we here?"

"That's three questions."

It took her a moment to realise her new 'master' had made a joke.

Letting go of Oliver's hand, she made her way over to Marcus and got right up in his grill. "I'm serious, Flint." Hands on her hips, she frowned up at him, determined not to let his hulking size inspire fear or awe in her. "I thought Death Eaters enjoyed reveling in the rape, humiliation, torture, and murder of their slaves, so why aren't we with the others?"

"Do you want to be?" he asked, throwing her objection back in her teeth.

She stomped his foot, but it only ended up hurting her, as he was wearing the equivalent of steel-toed boots, apparently. "Don't be daft, you know what I mean!"

Marcus shot a look over her head to Cassius, whose sigh was long and bemoaning.

"Isn't there's an antechamber somewhere in here," her cousin said, and she could practically envision him shooing them off. "There always is in one of these places."

Before she could move to get away, Marcus had one solid hand wrapped around her arm and he was tugging her after him into the aforementioned antechamber, where they'd be alone. Her struggles to prevent that were useless, but she made them nonetheless.

By the time the side room's door closed behind her, Katie was feeling a bit claustrophobic and more than a little terrified. Marcus had always been unpredictable, and they hadn't seen each other in years, since their…moment. She didn't want to be here in this small chamber, alone and without witnesses, especially when he was touching her.

To get Marcus to let go, she punched him in the shoulder as hard as she could.

He released her immediately, but the pain in her knuckles that followed had her swearing up a storm. "Jesus, fuck! What have you been doing over the years, Flint—weightlifting Erumpents?"

Shaking her hand out, she whimpered from the ache, sure that was going to leave a serious bruise.

Colour her surprised when Marcus reached out and gently took her injured hand in his. He ran careful fingers over the hurt, then extricated his wand and cast a healing charm over the area. Instantly, a cool wash of curative magic came, and with it instant relief. Katie was thankful, of course, and she said as much a moment later, but she was also weary of the kindness. Marcus had never been known for doing something for nothing, Slytherin as he was to the core.

"Why are you doing this?"

He glanced at her. "Doing what?"

"This. The healing. The waiting." She extricated her hand from his cold one. "Why aren't you…hurting me? Like the others are doing to their 'slaves', I mean."

He searched her face for a long while before he replied. "Because I don't want to."

"Why not?" she demanded, her anger renewed. He hadn't seemed to ever be bothered by the idea before. "I'm a member of the Order, a friend of Harry Potter. That makes me your enemy."

He snorted. "No, it doesn't."

"Yes, it does," she persisted. "I'm everything you've been told to despise: I'm Gryffindor, I'm a half-blood with a Muggle mother, and I'm a woman. Your all-boy network sees everything I am as beneath you, barely human."

"Bellatrix is a woman."

She sniffed. "Barely. Besides, she's insanely loyal to the cause and probably shagging your Dark Lord to boot, which is why he keeps her around at all. Otherwise, your entire movement is made up of sexually repressed, closeted pricks and their brainwashed trophy wives."

It shocked her when Marcus' lips curled with a hint of a genuine smile at that.

"You're a part of that group, too, so I wouldn't laugh if I were you," she warned him.

"I'm not married-"

"Women all over the world are rejoicing at that fact, I'm sure."

"-yet."

That one word shut her up, made her reconsider her next jibe very carefully. "What do you mean?" she asked instead of continuing to taunt him. Her voice sounded to her ears unusually small with caution…and a little fear, if she was being honest.

He was silent and searching her face again, carefully considering what to tell her, she knew.

"I have a wife in mind."

Katie tried to ignore the way that bomb made her feel a little bit miserable. "I pity her."

He laughed at that, and the sound was warm, almost merry—something she'd never have expected from him, given how utterly serious and cold he'd always been. Well, except that one night…

"Will she know about your participation in the revels, or will you keep your raping a secret from her?"

Just like that, his amusement was snuffed out. "I don't touch prisoners," he growled at her. "Not like that."

Well, that was good to know at least.

"And we're waiting here for Snape."

The tiny room was suddenly a whole lot smaller.

Katie's former Potions professor had always intimidated her. When it had been revealed that he'd been the one to kill Dumbledore and when he'd taken over Hogwarts as its new Headmaster, though, he'd gone from 'horrible' to 'terrifying'. He'd become one of the monsters.

Over the last several years, under Snape's guidance, Hogwarts had become the training grounds for a new generation of Death Eater. The screams of the 'unlucky and impure' echoed through the Scottish countryside when his school was in session, for it had become a thing of pride for a wizarding child to learn well how to torture Muggles and Muggle-borns, and how to cast Unforgivables.

She hadn't seen Severus Snape in years, but the thought of it now had her knees shaking.

"Why?" she asked, not sure she wanted to really know the reason. "What's he to do with any of this?"

Marcus frowned at the tremor in her voice and limbs. "He's to help get you away."

That had Katie so scared, she nearly puked up the bread and water she'd been given for breakfast. "Where?" The thought of being handed over to one of the Carrow twins for classroom 'practice' had her swaying on her feet.

The feeling only worsened when Marcus turned away and refused to answer her question.

Frightened of the unknown future and of her unclear fate, she did what all Gryffindors did when facing uncertainty: got angry and let her mouth run away with her. "I asked you a question, Flint. You look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Unfazed by her ire, but clearly curious as to what she'd do next, Marcus turned back. His expression remained impassive in the face of her mounting fury.

And didn't that just vex her even more.

"What do you want from me?" she demanded through gritted teeth. "Why am I really here?"

He didn't answer either question, remaining tight lipped and unruffled.

The palms of her hands stung from where her nails were digging in as Katie fisted them at her sides. "Fine, if you're going to kill me, then just do it! End it quick, you mangy bastard!"

Marcus' silence was unnerving, and only upset her worse.

"Do it, Flint, I dare you! Do it now! Clean up our unfinished business once and for all!"

That finally got a reaction from her captor, but not the one she'd been expecting. Returning to her side, he leaned forward until their noses were almost touching. "That was the plan," he told her. "To fix the biggest mistake of my life."

Cold fear shimmered up Katie's spine.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, having to work to keep her voice from sounding as meek and fearful as she was feeling just then. Not to mention hurt.

Was he saying he regretted and resented being with her, too? She had good reason to feel as she did; he'd joined the team that was trying to exterminate her. But if he was implying that he was ashamed of having bedded her, as if she was something beneath him… Talk about shredding a girl's ego!

She'd kick his arse if that's what he'd meant!

"Well?" she demanded, getting her back up again. "What did you mean?"

He ran a single finger down her cheek, and she felt his touch brand her in ways that made her traitorous heart pound.

"You won't be running away from me again, Katie," he told her very succinctly and assuredly. "This time, I'm keeping you."


TO BE CONTINUED...


Author's Notes:

Right, so I just have to know some things about you, dearest readers, like: Have you ever read this rare pairing before? Do you like how they're portrayed here, or are they not the Katie & Marcus in your head-canon (how do they differ)? Have you seen the banner I made for this story (URL at the bottom of last chapter, if you need to review it again). What do you think of the models I picked for Katie & Marcus - are they what you expected, do you like them? My curious mind wants to know your thoughts!

Please review, if you would!

XOXO,

- RZZMG

.

Preview of next chapter:

Did he want her, or was he toying with her, like a snake with a mouse? Obviously, he wasn't going to kill her yet, if at all. He wasn't going to rape her either, because he'd have already done so if that had been the plan. She knew he couldn't perform Legilimency, or at least he hadn't been able to four years ago, so ripping Order secrets from her head didn't seem to be in the cards for tonight, either.

Unless that's what Snape was for… Mind magic or a drop of Veritaserum—either was a possibility with the former Potions professor.