Katrina woke to an insistent knocking on the door to her room. She quickly stood, the previous day's events rising like bile in the back of her throat. She pushed the thoughts away for the moment and approached the door. As she walked, she drew on a dressing robe that she had set out the night before.

She put her hand on the knob, not expecting it to turn, but it did. She pulled the door open and came face to face with Voldemort. She stepped back a step and pulled her robe more tightly around herself. The man was immaculately dressed, with a tea tray hovering beside him.

"I thought you would like sssome breakfassst," he said smoothly.

She frowned slightly, wondering what the point of all of this was. The smell of food made her stomach growl and she decided that if he wanted to poison her, there was nothing she could do to stop him. She also knew that she had no idea how long he intended to keep her here and she should eat when she could. "Yes, thank you," she said softly, moving back into the room so he could enter.

She watched him enter, directing the tray to rest on the small table. He gracefully moved and sat at one of the chairs at the table, gesturing her to do likewise. She slowly approached and before sitting she eyed the food suspiciously.

"It isss not poisssoned," he hissed with a smile.

Nodding slightly, Katrina sat and reached for the goblet of pumpkin juice. She met his eyes, raised it in a small salute, and took a sip. It tasted exactly as she remembered and she closed her eyes for a moment, savoring it. It had been years since she'd last had it. She opened her eyes and met his. She gave a small smile in thanks before reaching for some of the pastries on the tray.

"You were in Gryffindor, weren't you?" he asked, startling her slightly.

She finished chewing the bite of food in her mouth before speaking, "Yes, I was."

"It isss obviousss. No other would be asss trusssting asss a Gryffindor."

Her eyes widened slightly and she placed the pastry in her hands back down, "The pastries?"

"The juiccce," he responded.

"You said it wasn't poisoned," she said, her voice shaking.

"And it wasssn't. Veratissserum isssn't poissson."

Tasteless and colorless, veratiserum would force someone to tell nothing beyond the truth when questioned. Katrina's hand shook as she picked the pastry back up. The damage was already done, she knew. She may as well finish what she was sure would be her last meal.

"Ssso, why did you asssk Dumbledore for that ssspell?"

As he spoke, it seemed that something was triggered and her conscious mind separated from her body, similar to the feeling of being under an Imperious. "I left because my parents were Death Eaters and I refused to join them." What the hell, she wondered. That wasn't the truth at all! Well, her parents had been Death Eaters, but they weren't the reason she'd cast the spell on herself.

"Why wouldn't you join them?" he asked her, apparently satisfied with the truthfulness of her prior response.

"I fell in love with a muggle man," she found herself answering. "My parents would have killed him." Katrina was astounded at the words coming from her mouth. She realized that this had to be the result of a spell. Nothing else could account for this strange occurrence.

"Did you marry thisss man?"

"Yes," she replied, the tone of her voice changing to one of sadness. "He died many years ago."

"Did you have any children?" Voldemort asked, leaning slightly forward.

"I was pregnant, but I lost the child… It was a boy… My husband was distraught. He… he never recovered from the loss." Well, damn, Katrina thought. She knew there was only one wizard who could have planted these false memories and the trigger for them. Dumbledore seemed to have thought of everything.

The questioning continued in this vein for another couple minutes and Katrina made sure to memorize the details of her 'past'. As she came out of the slight haze created by the veratiserum, the direction of his questioning changed.

"Luciusss sssaid you are pure-blooded. Lissst your linesss," he demanded.

Listing ones family lines was a common practice among full-blood families when meeting for the first time. It required going back three generations to prove the lines were pure. It was one of the first things children of aristocratic families learned. "My father was William Stonesmith of America. His parents were from the Stonesmith and Walton families. The Stonesmiths trace their ancestry back to Slytherin himself, as I'm sure you know." The Stonesmiths were first cousins of Salazar Slytherin. She gave her father's line back the requisite three generations, listing many well-known pure-blood American lines. "My mother, Emelie Prewett, was born in Scotland. Her mother and Lucius Malfoy's mother were sisters." She continued her mother's line back, crossing through many powerful families; the Blacks, the Crouchs, the Goyles. Had she gone even farther back, her lines would have crossed the Malfoys, the Potters, and the Princes.

He gave her a polite nod when she finished. "Your linesss are indeed exccceptionally pure. It isss rare to find one with ssso pure a heritage."

Katrina knew that those words were the highest praise among pure-blood families and although she hated it with every fiber of her being, she would not insult him by not answering. "Sir," she said with a slight bow of her head, "You honor my family and myself with your praise." The words were perhaps a bit antiquated, but she could see that she had said the correct thing. Perhaps she had avoided another day of torture and death?

"You are well ssschooled in tradition," he commented, rising from his chair. "Mossst excccellent."

Katrina rose with him, standing stock-still. She watched him banish the remains of breakfast.

"I will have untainted food and drink sssent to you. I will ssspeak with you later." He swept from the room and once the door closed, Katrina curled up on the bed. She forced her mind clear of all thoughts and drifted off to sleep.