The Hidden Marauder (Harry Potter FanFiction)

Trust

“A ‘feeling’?” Moony raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Said Katherine, grimacing, “Sounds lame, right? I mean what am I, a seer? I just don’t know how to explain it…”

The foreboding angst that had been the true source of Katherine’s pessimism was increasingly obvious, and where before, she’d simply thought she was in a bad mood, she realised now that it was actually an odd sense of over-looming fear. Fear wasn’t something Katherine ever really liked to admit feeling – and she supposed that stubbornness had been part of the reason for her sorting into Gryffindor. To Katherine, fear was a sign of weakness, and it was something she protected herself from at all costs after the death of James.

“Hey,” Said Remus, who’d moved onto the sofa next to Katherine to snap her out of her ruse, and Katherine realised from her rapid breathing that she’d begun what had seemed to be the beginnings of a panic attack, “It’s okay-“

“No, it’s not and you know it.” Katherine rambled, before creasing her face up, “Or maybe you don’t. I don’t know – maybe someone in my family was a seer or something, but the last time I had this… feeling, Lily and James died, Remus. What if someone is currently dying?”

Remus’ face was pale. “How much do you know about your family?”

“Obviously not enough.” She replied, leaning into Moony whose arm was around her shoulders, “I didn’t like them. They wanted me to be something I hated. I ran.”

“Like Black?”

“Yeah.” Katherine looked up, confused for a moment, “Haven’t I told you this before?” She sat up further, and looked as Remus incredulously, “And since when do you refer to Sirius as ‘Black’?”

“Since… Probably forever, actually.” Said Remus, grinning a very un-Remus-like grin before standing and stretching his arms above his head. “And, nope; don’t think you have told me this before. Bit of a shame, actually- if you’d told me you were a potential seer before, I probably would have turned up for you a bit earlier…”

Katherine froze, her eyes wide and focused on the malicious version of Remus that stood in front of her. “Wh-who are you?”

“Oh, ouch.” ‘Remus’’ hand drifted to his chest, an off-putting, teeth revealing grin crossing his face, “I’m wounded. Really. I know it’s been a little while – you really are a slippery git when you want to be, Kate, but it’s really no excuse to forget-”

“V-Vince?” Katherine stuttered, the familiar nick-name driving her long forgotten and heavily buried memories to the forefront of her mind.

“You do remember!” Said Vince – still embodied as Remus – as he clapped his hands together, his grin frozen onto his face. “I knew you wouldn’t forget… Sibling bonds and all that jazz; you know the stories-“

“You’re one of them?” She blurted, interrupting Vince suddenly, “You- You turned into-“

“A Death-Eater?” Said Vince, loftily, “Oh, yes! Yes I did!”

“Why?”

Vince’s grin wavered momentarily. “What do you mean, why?”

“You were going to run with me-“ Katherine stood bravely, ignoring the horrible natural urge that her legs had, to begin shaking wildly. “You said- You said we were going to run together; escape it all-“

“Yes, and you did a bloody good job of it, didn’t you?” Vince snapped, his grin firmly back on his face and a direct – particularly scary – oxymoron to the sharpness of his tone, “Ran away, leaving little ol’ me with the endless curses; the torture; the ruddy Lord of Darkness, right? You got to run away with your prissy little Gryffindor friends and live a life as a bloody queen of innocence, din’tcha?”

“I-“

“Right!” He said, not bothering to listen to Katherine’s reply. “You did!”

Katherine’s head, meanwhile, was spinning. Her brother, her older brother, someone she’d completely forgotten about was standing in front of her and blaming her – partially correctly – for his becoming of a Death-Eater. When she’d been young, she hadn’t ever considered how running would affect the rest of her family; she simply thought they wouldn’t care; but from Vince’s reaction, she realised that she was sorely mistaken. To make matters worse, the only logical part of her brain she had left had absolutely no idea about how to rectify the situation.

“See,” Vince continued, not visibly noting how Katherine’s legs really had started to become weak at this point, hands shaking slightly, and face paling to the largest degree. “You gave up on me; suppose you expected big brother to be able to take care of himself, hm?”

A large, calloused hand – Remus’ hand – attached itself to Katherine’s arm. “The rest of the family have given up on you… Know that? You’re the reject – not me! But I’m also no hypocrite…”

“What are you saying Vince?” Said Katherine, sharply, managing to gain some of her confidence back as she realised what Vince was implying. She shook her arm slightly to try and free it, but his grip was steely.

“I’m saying-“Vince tightened his grip, “Would you stop that struggling? Worse than a cat you are… Ha! Your Patronus is a cat so I suppose it’s only to be expected!”

Katherine complied, for fear that Vince’s fingers would tear through her skin, and he rewarded her with a satisfied grin.

“Good girl! See, Kate, this might work! Or not… Where was I? Oh yes, hypocrites, right!” Vince’s brain worked at one-million-miles per hour, and the erratic behaviour of it put Katherine’s mind at little ease. “See I refuse, wholeheartedly, to be a hypocrite and follow in your footsteps… Honey. So here’s what’s gonna happen… You’re gonna come with me- willingly, unwillingly, I don’t care; and you’re going to stand by my side, as my loyal little sister until the day you drop, down, dead. Because unlike you, I’m going to prove that you’re still capable of being a damned Mercer.”

“But why, Vince?” Katherine asked quickly, in a last ditch attempt to remain where she was. “Why can’t you just stay here – run from it all? Why didn’t you?”

“I lost the only bravery I had, Kate.” Said Vince, his voice eerily serious for a moment, expression suddenly stoic; scarily remnant of the brother Katherine had once known. “I wasn’t in Gryffindor for a reason. You were the voice of good, and brave, and pure and you fucking ran. Now, I’ve got this traceable piece of ink on my arm because I was tired of being cursed, and whipped, and I was too bloody cowardice to do anything about it.”

All of a sudden, the Vince Katherine had remembered was, once again, gone; in his place, the grinning Death-Eater creation that seemed almost bi-polar in nature.

“Right, that’ll be all then? Come on Minion, we’ve got places to be, people to see – curses to receive, no doubt!”

Vince began to tug her towards the fireplace, supposedly so that he could floo away with her in tow, but Katherine couldn’t help but attempt to struggle away, as futile as she knew her attempts would be. She hurriedly took the Wolfsbane from her pocket and threw it at the sofa so that Moony wouldn’t have to suffer in her absence, before beginning to shout in a useless manner; hoping to somehow be saved.

“SIRIUS-“She shouted, now dangerously close to the fire-place, her eyes wide on her brother’s hand, which had just grabbed a handful of floo-powder to toss into the fire, “I KNOW YOU HATE ME BUT GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE OTHERWISE I SWEAR YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE A FATE WORSE THAT AZKABA-

“MERCER MANOR!”

In an explosion of flames, a malicious grin, and a wide, fiery eyed expression, Katherine’s fate was in no-ones hands but her own.