A BIG THANK YOU to the following reviewers for last chapter: Aphrodite-Venus-u.k, creativelymundane, frekles, It'sHardIKnow, Phoenix Rebel, rebelsaurus29, SlytherinPrincessxXx, susiequeen300, zoesheppard, and guests!
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"You're remembering."
Katie blinked in surprise to see Marcus had moved while she'd been lost in her head, so now he was right next to her on the bench.
He leaned his mouth towards her ear. "I think of that night, too. All the time. Can't get it out of my head."
"Don't," she whispered, and her voice shook.
No, she couldn't end up there again with him, no matter the attraction she still felt for him. He'd chosen his path, and it hadn't been fighting at her side…
Marcus paused, his lips hovering over her ear. "I won't hurt you."
Her heart thumped hard under her ribs. "You will. You did," she insisted. "You wouldn't come with me when I asked you to! You chose this‒" She grabbed his left forearm, knowing well where the Mark was branded. "‒over me!"
The pain of that betrayal stabbed at her again.
That next morning, after they'd spent an entire night in each other's arms, learning every secret the other had to offer, she'd pleaded with him to come with her when she'd left. He'd refused…and so she'd turned his wand on him, knocking him out and quickly escaping his room, afraid he'd hold her captive forever if she didn't make a break for it right that minute.
She'd run then, as fast as her feet could fly to return to the Order, and spent the years since fighting, hopping across the whole of Britain from safe house to camping in the wilds. Yes, she'd done her share of visiting other men's beds during that time, too, but it was all in an attempt to forget all about Marcus Flint.
Futile, she now knew, sitting next to him and feeling all the things she'd worked to repress come to the surface once more. All the hours crying silently into foreign pillows or behind her hand to stifle the sadness that had never stopped stalking her since she'd left his room, all the times she'd avoided casting the Killing Curse at her enemies, just in case one of them was him hiding under the metal disguise, all the praying she'd done whenever deaths were announced after a skirmish, fearing she'd hear his name… Futile.
That did not, however, mean she wasn't bitter.
"You stayed to serve the enemy," she accused him again. "You're still wearing their masks, attending their meetings, fighting their war for them!"
His forehead fell to her shoulder and rested there. "For you," he maintained. "It's all been for you."
She pulled away, stood up quickly and put space between them. "Rubbish! How has any of this-" She pulled at the collar around her next and waved a hand towards the opposite end of the house. "-been to my benefit, Marcus? Explain it, because all I see is you dressed in Death Eater robes and claiming to be my new master as if I was a thing to be bought and sold."
Pushing a frustrated hand through his short, dark hair, he also got to his feet and began pacing the length of the small room. Four up, four back was all that his long-legged stride allowed.
"I-"
He paused, clearly torn up as to what to say. Marcus had never been the eloquent type. That didn't mean he was simple or cowardly, though. Maybe he'd never be book-smart like Hermione Granger or witty like Charlie Weasley or as brash as Alicia Spinnet, but he was perceptive and he was sly, and his wand arm was fast and vicious, she knew. He was Slytherin to his core, with layers she was only just then beginning to truly fathom.
"I wanted you safe," he finally settled on. "I wanted to help your cause."
"Help my‒?" Katie was feeling all sorts of cynical about his claim. "How? By killing my friends?"
That seemed to get him angry. "I've never killed."
"No, you just stood by and watched," she snarled at him, pointing towards where they both knew the raping and reveling was occurring right then in the same house. "You watched and said nothing!"
"I've had to!" he yelled, and that was the first time she could recall him ever raising his voice to her. It shocked her, especially to hear the anguish beneath the fury. "I've had to be silent…for you!"
Resolved to prove himself, he pulled the sleeve of his right arm up to show her what lay beneath. With a tap on the skin by his wand, the glamour charm that had been covering up a set of ropy, reddened scars faded away to reveal the permanently marked skin underneath. It was the pattern of someone who had taken an Unforgivable Vow. "I bound myself to a death oath for you!" he said with a growl and marched over to her to thrust his arm out for a closer look. "I spy for you!" He grabbed her long hair then, thrust his fingers through it and tilted her head back so she would look him in the eye. "I betray everything I know for you, Katie."
Spy?
Katie's mouth dropped open.
What was he saying? He wasn't a spy. He couldn't be! It had to be a lie because she hadn't heard anything of the sort.
…Then again, she'd thought the same thing of Theodore Nott before he'd openly defected to their side three years after the war had gone into full swing. She'd even heard a rumour that Nott was currently working with a spy or two within the Death Eater ranks to get the Order vital information about Voldemort's plans.
Was Marcus one of Nott's spies, then?
"Are you saying you're a turncoat?"
He nodded once.
That was hard for her to believe…and yet, a small flame of hope lit up in her chest at the possibility.
"How is that possible? What do you get out of it?" Their eyes locked, and in them, she read the truth. "Me? Why?"
He shrugged and slyly smiled. "You're hot and play Quidditch. What's not to want?"
She scowled at his joking. "Be serious."
His expression shifted as he did as she asked. "What do you want me to say?"
"The truth. It'll get you further."
"You mean you want more truth."
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
"It is."
"Not if you ever want me to trust you again," she stated.
"Will it get me back into your knickers?"
She slapped his arm, which was like hitting a solid brick. "Try it," she advised, shaking her hand out. "You never know."
Again, his big shoulders jerked as he shrugged them. "I knew the minute I saw you in that tunnel that it was a sign. Knew it was time to get out then."
Katie rolled her eyes in disbelief, for she knew how she must have looked, lying there on the cold, hard ground, covered in dust and blood. "I'm just that charming while unconscious, I suppose?"
His gaze dropped to her mouth. "No, you're just that beautiful."
TO BE CONTINUED...
Author's Notes:
So, yea, Marcus confesses part of his truth at long last! BUT how will Katie respond, and what's the rest of his explanation for the things he's been doing all these years? Kick him or kiss him? What's your vote?
Please review, if you would!
XOXO,
- RZZMG
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Preview of next chapter:
"I don't understand," she admitted, poignantly aware of the hard ridge of Marcus' arousal suddenly pressing against her belly. Maybe he hadn't regretted or resented having slept with her in the past, as she's assumed because there was clearly no denying that he was still attracted to her in the here and now. "Are you saying Snape's a traitor to your Dark Lord, too, that he's been working with the Order all this time?"
"He's the one who recruited Nott and me, and…others."
Recruited. So he really was a spy for the Order, then!
