Fragments of Us

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Warnings: None for this chapter

Chapter 43 – Surveillance by the Sea - Part 1

St. Mungo's identified the deceased witch as Prudence Castleberry from a small, quiet neighborhood in Bristol. She had been taken to St. Mungo's after being found huddled in the doorway of a High street shop, crying piteously and claiming to have seen the LeStranges lurking in a nearby coffee shop. While she couldn't remember the name of the "kind stranger" who had found her and brought her to hospital, Prudence felt that he was a "kind lad" as he had even paid for a private room in the Spell Damage Ward. As soon as the Healers found a way to permanently remove the azalea plant that was growing from her navel, Prudence vowed that she was going to look up that young man and repay him for his kindness. Regrettably, that was never to happen. Earlier that afternoon, when the Healer had gone into her room to take more cuttings for testing, she found Prudence lying flat on the bed, her eyes wide open and seemingly fixed on the azalea blooms resting on her chest. The cause of death was proven to be the Avada Kedavracurse.

Kate and Kingsley watched the medi-witch guide the sheet-covered stretcher down the hallway and into the hospital's "Room of Remains", where it would be preserved until its release to the Castleberry family for interment.

"A bit more straightforward than Bode, wouldn't you say?" Kate commented. "Using an Unforgivable rather than a deadly plant moves things up a notch or two."

"The azaleas were a nice touch," Kingsley said, wryly. "I'm thinking that this is Spear's way of thumbing his nose at us by mocking the specifics of Bode's death."

Kate shook her head and began the walk toward the basement elevators. "Shall we go back to the office and see if they've made any progress locating Spear?"

Kingsley looked at his watch and shook his head. "It's after 6. You've more than put in your time. Why don't you call it a day and I'll stop by on my way home to give you an update?"

Kate smiled gratefully. "Thanks. I think I'll take you up on that. Don't forget to stop by Headquarters, though. I know that both Remus and Sirius will want to brainstorm ideas."

Kingsley nodded. "I'm counting on that."

They parted at the front entrance of the hospital and soon, Kate was walking in the front door of Grimmauld Place. She paused at the staircase heading to the kitchen, but heard no sound coming from below. Kate walked up the first flight of stairs, poking her head into the library, but finding no one there, either. Shrugging, Kate went along to her own room, where she finally found another life form.

Sirius lay sprawled out on top of her bedcovers, face resting comfortably on her pillow and arms and legs spread-eagled over the comforter. From the sound of his soft snores, Kate knew that he was out like a light and therefore she proceeded quietly to the shower.

Emerging refreshed some fifteen minutes later, Kate was amused to see that Sirius had not moved and that his snoring had gotten slightly louder since she had first entered the room. She briefly wondered what had exhausted him to the point that he required a pre-dinner nap. Dressing quickly and brushing her hair, Kate was heading for the door when a sleepy voice stopped her.

"Hey, Katie-girl. Is that you?" Sirius' voice was somewhat muffled as half his mouth was still pressed into the pillow.

Smiling, Kate retraced her steps and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Now, who else do you think it would be?" she asked him, smoothing his tousled hair back from his face.

Sirius snorted and turned his face far enough to see her. "Dunno. Could have been Molly. You'll remember that mistletoe incident at Christmas."

Kate laughed out loud. "My competition, eh? Maybe I'll have to work from home just to keep my eye on the two of you!"

Sirius flipped onto his back and pulled her on top of him. "I love the 'work from home' idea, but I want you to remember that you have no competition, my love."

Kate lowered her face and kissed him tenderly. "I missed you today," she whispered.

Sirius returned the kiss. "I'm glad to hear it because I missed you, too. You're home later than usual," he said, glancing at his watch. "Bad day?"

Kate nodded. "Bad day. Kingsley's coming by in a bit to give me an update. We want you and Remus there to weigh in."

"Sure." Sirius stroked her cheek. "You ok? Stomach behaving itself and all?"

"I'm ok," Kate leaned down and kissed him again then rubbed- their noses together. "Hungry, though. Did you eat dinner?"

Sirius shook his head. "Waited for you," he said. "Come on. Let's see what we can rustle up downstairs."

Kate slid reluctantly onto the mattress. Sirius rose and extended his hand to help her up. Kate took his hand, but wound her arms around her neck once she was upright. "I love you," she said, kissing his lips, then his cheek before kissing her way along his jaw line to his earlobe. "I love you," she whispered into his ear then circled the rim with the tip of her tongue, loving the shiver that ran through Sirius' body.

"Katie," he murmured. "I love you. So much." He tilted his head to give Kate greater access to his neck. "I thought you were hungry," he whispered, smiling then caught his breath as she found that delicious spot, just below his ear, that always made his heart race.

Kate gave his earlobe one last nibble then brought her face close to his. "See? I'm eating," she whispered, kissing him deeply. Sirius groaned and brought his hands up to tangle in her hair, holding her exactly where she was as he returned her kiss with an equal passion.

"Kingsley," Sirius said when they broke for breath.

Kate opened her eyes and looked at him in mock horror. "Katie," she said, pointing to herself.

Sirius gave her behind a light pinch. "No, Kate. Kingsley. He's coming here tonight, isn't that what you said?"

Kate nodded. "Yes but I doubt he'd walk in here unannounced."

Sirius smiled and kissed her cheek. "I agree. But if we don't postpone this until later, we will be in no fit condition to see him at all."

A loud growl from Kate's stomach put an end to further debate and with one final kiss the couple left the room, hand-in-hand, to fix themselves some dinner.

XXXXXXXX

Remus came into the kitchen as they were heating up leftovers and happily joined Sirius and Kate for their meal. As they ate, Kate filled them in on the day's events, neatly side-stepping her visit to St. Mungo's, confident that Kingsley would do the same when he arrived. Both Sirius and Remus sat with fully loaded forks in hand and mouths agape as she told them about Malodros Spear's duplicity and probable responsibility for the murder of Prudence Castleberry.

When Kate paused to magically warm her own plate and finally eat dinner, the two wizards realized that they, too, had neglected their meals and quickly finished. Kingsley's timing could not have been more perfect as he arrived just as Remus was bringing the dishes to the sink.

"Good evening, folks," Kingsley said as he entered the kitchen.

"Kingsley," Sirius greeted him, shaking his hand warmly. "Have you eaten?"

"No, actually," he said, smiling.

"Sit, then," Kate said. "We'll fix you a plate and then we can talk. I've already brought Remus and Sirius up to speed with everything that happened earlier."

As Kingsley finished his meal, Remus brewed tea while Kate excused herself to retrieve her briefcase. Returning to the kitchen, she also had a box of peppermint tea bags. At Sirius' raised eyebrows, Kate gave him a rueful smile. "Holdover from my days in the States. I developed a taste for this stuff and I've missed it." Sirius rose, kissed her cheek and, teabag in hand, prepared a mug for her.

Once Sirius returned to the table and was seated, Kingsley looked over at Kate and began to bring her current on what had happened since she'd left.

"We've located Spear, courtesy of the Tracking Monitor," he began. "He's currently located in a small house in Totland."

"The Isle of Wight." Kate interjected. "If I'm not mistaken, there's nothing in his history – or that of his family – to suggest that he has ties to the area."

Kingsley nodded. "So, it seems to fit in with our theory that he's working on behalf of someone else."

Remus gave him a grim smile. "It also puts him close enough to London to be useful, but far enough away to make access that much more complicated. I'm guessing you've checked out the area."

"Yes. Using the coordinates provided by the Tracking Monitor, Tonks and I Apparated to Totland this evening. He's staying in a small stone house in a fairly out of the way area of the Bay." Kingsley looked at the group around the table. "As you might expect, there are some protection spells on both the immediate property lines and, as far as I can tell, on the house itself. Some contain varying levels of dark magic, but others are fairly rudimentary concealment and protection spells any witch or wizard would know. I'm certain that the less sophisticated spell work was completed by Spear."

"Do you have anything specific on the more advanced spells?" Sirius asked. "As you know, my father's library is rather … extensive. With enough detail, we might be able to figure out the counter-spell or another way in."

Kingsley smiled at his friend. "Can't say I didn't think of that, Sirius," he said, pulling a piece of parchment from his pocket. "I've got some detail on the spell work here, taken from the 'Specialis Revelio' we cast. I've also got a descriptive of what happened to Tonks when she tried to take down the first level of wards."

Remus' head snapped toward the Auror. "What happened to Tonks?" he asked concern evident in his voice and demeanor.

Kingsley smiled. "Well, it was a bit of an accidental attempt, in truth. She tripped over a tree root and crashed into an invisible barrier. Bit of "elastico" in that one; obviously one of Spear's efforts. Tonks hit the barrier and … well, 'bounced' and landed on her bum a good distance away, in a mud puddle. The girl has a lovely vocabulary!"

Kate had been quiet, but now spoke up. "Kingsley, why would we want to break down the protection wards and other spells and bring Spear in? Wouldn't it be more advantageous to begin our surveillance efforts there? We're fairly certain that Malfoy is his contact – whether or not Spear is going along with it. The Tracking charm remains intact, so we'll know if he moves. I think that we'd probably do better taking advantage of an unanticipated surveillance opportunity than to tip our hand and try to apprehend him," she reasoned.

"I hesitated to bring this up before," Sirius said. "But the existence of a working Tracking charm doesn't necessarily mean that Spear is conscious or, well, even still alive. Kingsley, you didn't spell the charm to deactivate if Spear died, did you?"

Kingsley shook his head. "I didn't. We would still want to recover his body, so I put no restrictions on the spell."

Sirius nodded. "Better for us, but possibly more dangerous. We could spend valuable time and risk detection if we worked on the protection spells. Using this as a surveillance point to see if we could link Malfoy to the site seems a better use of the unexpected lead."

"Kingsley, we should revise the schedule we worked on for tomorrow night's Order meeting. We'll need to add Totland to it and I might suggest that there be three people assigned to that detail," Kate said. "I would also suggest that we put a third person on the surveillance detail at Malfoy's estate in Wiltshire. That way, if we see that he's on the move, the third person can Apparate to Totland to warn that team and provide additional coverage."

"Excellent, Kate," Kingsley said, jotting notes on the parchment draft of the schedule Kate had handed him. "We will need to put those teams in place quickly. Remus, are you up to taking a shift with Kate tomorrow during the day?" The latter in deference to the full moon which had only recently passed.

Remus nodded. "Of course. We need to name our third team member."

Kate cast a sidelong glace at Sirius, who was decidedly staring at the table, his expression neutral, but a muscle near his jaw twitched ominously. "Kingsley, what would you say to having Bill Weasley assigned to my team? He's trained in curse breaking and is damned good at it. If the protection charms and wards contain dark magic and are intricate enough to really rebound on us, I think he's the best chance we've got to neutralize them."

Kingsley smiled. "No objection here. Remus?"

The werewolf shook his head. "None. I think Bill's an excellent choice."

Sirius remained silent, and, unseen by the others, Kate leaned over and placed her hand on his knee. "May we still use your library, if we need to? I think it would probably give us a good base of operation for the mission."

Sirius placed his hand over hers and, although his voice was tight he said, "Of course."

"Kate, we should plan to get out there as early as possible tomorrow morning," Remus was saying.

"Kingsley, I'm assuming you'll cover for me at the Ministry," Kate stated. "How will we get to Bill?"

"I'll handle that, too. He's staying in Hogsmeade at the moment. I'll Floo him from home," the Auror confirmed. "I'll have him come here tomorrow morning at 6:00?"

Remus and Kate agreed and Kingsley added. "Fine, then. I'll go so I can notify Bill before it gets too late. You two had better get some sleep. It's going to be a long day."

Remus smiled and walked out with Kingsley to take care of the wards once he had left.

Sirius squeezed Kate's hand and then rose from his seat. He brought the dirty dishes to the sink and then headed for the doorway. "I'm going to the library to see what I can find for spellbooks that might help you. You should get some rest," he said.

Kate went over to him and wrapped her arms loosely around his waist. "I'm sorry that…"

Sirius cut her off. "Don't, Kate. I know what you're going to say and there's nothing to be done about it. I can't go and it makes me feel useless and as much a prisoner here as I ever was in Azkaban. I don't want anyone's pity, especially yours. I just need to go and do what little I can do and be by myself for awhile. There's no need to have everyone infected by my poor temper."

Kate tightened her embrace and leaned up to kiss him gently. "I love you."

Sirius gave her a sad smile. "I know that, Katie-girl. I love you, too. Get some sleep now, yes?"

She nodded. "You'll be along later, though?"

Sirius nodded and kissed her again. "I promise."

They didn't speak again until they reached the library and Kate squeezed Sirius' hand as she stepped away from him.

"Kate?" Sirius called softly to her.

She turned. "Yes?"

"I know that you think I worry too much but I hope you understand that it's not because I don't think you're a capable Auror. You are and I know that. You are also a powerful witch. The reason I worry is that sometimes it doesn't matter how strong or how powerful you are. Sometimes, you come up against someone who is a split-second faster, a slight bit stronger, a bit more intuitive. That's what I worry about, Katie. So, be careful and be sure to come home to me, yeah?" Sirius smiled and turned to go into the library.

Kate watched him, knowing that she could say nothing in response, but grateful that at least he was voicing his feelings rather than holding everything in.

Sighing softly, she turned and went into her bedroom to hopefully get the rest she'd need to face the Mission now so close at hand.