Katrina exited the muggle bus before the Leaky Cauldron and hesitantly entered. She made this trip once a year to mail off the grades to Hogwarts. She always came without her daughter and this year was no different. Although, this year, it was because Maggie had left with Severus for Hogwarts that very morning.

Katrina followed a young couple through the brick wall that hid Diagon Alley from the muggle world. Her first stop, as always, would be to Gringotts bank to withdraw money from a special account. The money would then be converted to muggle pounds that she would later deposit in the bank. The account was a small portion of her parents' estate, which had been willed to a "distant cousin" upon Katrina's "death". The rest of the estate had gone to Severus.

Glancing around, she remembered how uncomfortable she always felt when she came here. She was, for all intents and purposes, a squib and she was treated as such. There was an undercurrent of prejudice that, while not always spoken of or acted on, nevertheless remained.

As she only ever had two stops – the bank and the post office – her visits to the alley were always very short. She made her way to the bank, keeping her eyes down so she could avoid the scornful glances she was accustomed to receiving due to her muggle clothing.

Griphook the goblin attended to her immediately when she entered Gringotts. He knew her true name and identity – one of the conditions of banking here – but he was always careful to address her by her assumed name while in the bank's opulent lobby. He led her down to her personal vault and waited patiently as she extracted enough money to last Maggie and herself for the following year. Returning to the lobby, she converted the vast majority of the money to British pounds, leaving just enough sickles to mail the three letters in her pocket.

Leaving the bank half an hour after she entered, she hurried to the post office where she paid for the delivery of the three letters to Hogwarts. One letter contained the students' marks and was addressed simply to the Headmistress, another was a letter to Severus reminding him that they had agreed on a dinner date when Maggie came home, and the third was to Maggie telling her how much Katrina missed her. Satisfied that her letters would be promptly sent off, she exited and began heading back to the Leaky Cauldron so that she could head back to her home.

Paying more attention to the ground in front of her feet than to her surroundings, she was startled when a hand descended on her arm and roughly pulled her to the side of the road. She spun to face whoever had assaulted her and promptly froze as her eyes met a pair of steely gray eyes framed by straight, white-blond hair.

"Well, well, Katrina Stonesmith. I had heard you were dead," the smooth, aristocratic voice purred.

There was no point in pretending she didn't know who he was. Lucius Malfoy had been a year ahead of her in school. He and his parents had also been frequent dinner guests of her parents. "A pleasure, Lucius," she responded smoothly, tugging her arm out of his grasp, feeling exceedingly glad that it was a cool day and she was wearing long sleeves. "And rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated." She racked her brain for how much Lucius might know about her and Severus and realized she had no idea what Lucius might or might not know.

His eyes skimmed her body, "Obviously they were. I see that life has treated you well."

She smiled slightly, wanting nothing more than to run away, "I managed to avoid the war and its… repercussions. I know many of our classmates weren't nearly as lucky."

"Indeed," he said coldly. "I'm honestly surprised your Gryffindor sensibilities didn't force you to take part in the war."

She quirked an eyebrow, "And which side should I have joined? That of my classmates or that of my parents? I know my parents died following Voldemort."

"So instead you did nothing? You surprise me." He glanced at the ground a moment, his snake-headed cane tapping a quiet cadence on the stones of the alley.

She shrugged as he glanced back up at her, "I saved my own hide. I decided that remaining neutral was the only way to survive, no matter who the victor should be."

"How very Slytherin of you."

"I will take that as a compliment," she responded with a smile, sensing that she was about to be able to walk out of here unscathed. His hand reaching up to brush her cheek didn't register until a moment too late. She froze, her eyes wide, as she recognized the exact moment the truth of the matter hit him. His hand whipped back to his side as though he'd been struck.

"Perhaps the years haven't been as kind to you as I thought," he said, his voice sharp enough to cut glass. His eyes were cold, calculating,

Katrina inched backwards until her back hit a wall. His wand was suddenly out and pointed at her and she froze. She didn't hear him speak, but she immediately knew she had been hit with the Imperio curse. A wall went up between her conscious mind and her body's actions. She would have screamed had she been able to. As it was, she could only helplessly observe as he pocketed his wand and ordered her to follow him. Her body mechanically complied. She wondered if she would ever see her daughter again.