-CHAPTER NINE-
Discovery
"Who does he think he is?"
"Oh, come now. Let the boy have his laughs. Does it really matter whether or not he's run off? You know he'll be back."
"But when?"
"Well... If he doesn't return soon, I'm sure the Lord won't be most impressed. His mark will burn; then he'll be back like a snitch."
"D'ya hear that?"
Vince – now with the face Katherine remembered - snarled in her general direction, face cold with an emotion she couldn't describe, as they floo'd into an unfamiliar room. It was too much to hope for that she would have been able to recognise her surroundings and plot an escape – Katherine knew that now. She distinctly recognised that one of the voices that had been speaking before was her father's; the other, too, scarily familiar. Katherine was reluctant to, and therefore refused, to name the other for fear that she may be correct.
"Sounds like they're thinking about telling mouldy that I've done a runner!"
Vince clapped his hand tigher around Katherine's shoulder and began steering her out of the room that they had been stood in and down a lavish looking hallway. She decided not to struggle, as that clearly didn't help her before, and simply assisted in making herself appear weaker than she wished to be perceived.
"I wonder if they'll be impressed..." Vince was now muttering to himself at this point; resigned to the fact that Katherine herself was currently mute. "Doubt it. Curses are probably in order... I wonder which one's they'll ch- Ah! I guess we'll find out!"
One of Vince's large, calloused hands rested heavily on a large oak door.
"Right about... Now."
The door swung open, clattering against the wall, and in front of Katherine stood an abnormally extravagant sitting room; decorated in silvers, creams and emerald greens.
Slytherins.
Eyes lifting from the furniture, Katherine found herself met with two surprised expressions – one more amused than the other – and another, less surprised, more stoic glance.
The two surprised expressions belonged, one, to her father – who looked much the same as ever; dark auburn coloured hair much like her own dusting his neck as it fell messily above his grey eyes and pointed nose. He looked slightly more gaunt and wrinkled than she remembered, but Katherine supposed that it would only have been expected from someone who worked alongside the Dark Lord.
The stoic glance belonged to Lucius Malfoy. Katherine looked away from him quickly, for he was never someone who she had felt comfortable around – eyes darting towards the remaining person; the appearance of whom made her heart sink in her chest.
Standing there, his black eyes wide with what she assumed to be a mixture of both horror and shock, was Severus Snape – old foe, newly found friend and ally.
Katherine didn't blame him. It was unbeknownst to many Death-Eaters and wizards alike that a Mercer girl existed, let alone for it to have been Katherine. Their surnames? But an unlucky coincidence, perhaps some distant relation. Even whilst Katherine had lived with her family, her outlandish spontaneities made it so that her parents kept her existence quiet, and that was simply made easier as Katherine exiled herself upon sorting. In fact, the only people who truly knew of her existence was the Mercer's themselves, Lucius Malfoy, and whoever Katherine had told – friends, teachers and associates.
She hadn't, however, quite gotten around to telling Snape.
"There was reason for my absence!" The loud booming voice of Katherine's brother came from behind her as his hand left her shoulder and came back down on it in a clap – a possessive gesture? "I found Katie!"
"You bought back the reject child?" Her father's shock suddenly deteriorated into disgust at the mention of her name. "You idiot boy! I don't want her!"
"Be calm for a moment." Said Lucius, his expression not changing from the blank mask that was almost becoming of his aristocratic features, "perhaps her presence here will have it's uses."
"No." Her father said sharply and suddenly, Katherine's breath releasing itself from where she didn't know she had been keeping it held. "I don't care how attracted to her you are, Lucius, she's still... Related... to me – and for the sake of genetic perseverance, nothing of... That nature can occur."
Lucius' expression contorted into one of disgust for a split-second before settling back into his controlled, rehearsed guise. If Katherine hadn't been watching closely, she wouldn't have noticed the small change. But she did, and she did not take offence to the response. She was nothing but relieved.
"Nothing of any sort, can occur."
Katherine's eyebrows shot up at the statement, for it has come from not who she had expected. Instead of the somewhat smarmy potions master watching out for her wellbeing, it appeared that it was her brother supposedly defending her.
"Vince-" Her father spoke, voice gravelly with an unspoken threat. "This... Traitor, cannot be treated with anything but contempt!"
"Yet, as you just, politely, pointed out-" Vince's hand lifted from her shoulder to pat Katherine lightly; condescendingly, on the head. "She's still my biological sister."
Katherine didn't know where the conversation was going, and that had her extremely wary. She daren't trust her brother too much, for fear that he would turn his back on her and either leave her to whatever Lucius, her father, or even Severus would dream up – and she couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't throwing her a life-line. After all, he had – only moments before – disguised himself as her best friend, kidnapped her and brought her, like a mouse, into a den of angry lions.
Ironic.
"Nope." Vince broke the silence that had fallen, wrapping an arm around Katherine's shoulders before leading her through the room. "She's a new recruit. I'll teach her the ways; she'll be one of the best, and then the Dark Lord will see what fools you've been for hiding her existence – never bothering to look."
Katherine's heart sunk, once more.
"Come along, minion." Said her brother, giving her no choice in the matter and simply opting to lead her from the room, "You've got someone to meet!
*
Remus rubbed his head, waking up to, and then waiting for, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place to form. His wand was clutched tightly in his strong hands, his expression morphed into one of distain as he stared angrily at the builds; tall, innocent enough, yet foul looking. Of course, it wasn't their fault that he'd been assaulted whilst he was simply out to buy the daily prophet from a news-stand, as his owl was elsewhere, and he wasn't a subscriber. It wasn't the building's fault that he'd found himself waking up – faced down in an alley way – although he was absolutely fine, bar being a little crumpled and having had a pretty terrible headache. Nor was it the build's fault that a clump of his hair was missing, and a churning feeling let itself wreak havoc on his stomach.
No. The buildings were not to blame for Remus' uncharacteristic bad mood. But he had a terrible feeling that whatever did was on the other side of the door to Twelve Grimmauld Place.
Marching up the path with heavy footsteps, Remus muttered a rather grouchy 'Alohamora' and proceeded to swing the heavy entrance door open, regardless of the creaking noise it made as it did so, the loud 'bang' that the door made as it hit the wall, or the sound of Sirius' mother beginning to screech for dear life.
"SIRIUS- I KNOW YOU HATE ME BUT GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE OTHERWISE I SWEAR-"
Remus panicked, hearing Mane's somewhat frantic shouting, and he began walking towards the sound – hurriedly, yet cautiously.
"YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A FATE WORSE THAT AZKABA-"
"MERCER MANOR!"
A loud voice shouted over the top of Mane's yells, and Remus stopped in the doorway only a moment later, in time to see the dying out of green flames that her certainly been caused by floo.
For a moment, Remus was confused. The voice, which has definitely been male, was familiar, yet he couldn't put a name to it. And if the voice was familiar, why did Katherine sound so frantic?
"Curious..." Remus muttered, before he suddenly clamped a hand over his mouth, eyes, all of a sudden, wide with terror.
"The voice-" He murmured, although his hand didn't stray very far from her mouth at all. "How could it have been mine? Unless-"
Remus' hand drifted to the bald spot on his head, in the process revealing his mouth which was slightly open in realisation.
"Oh dear Merlin, SIRIUS!" Remus bellowed, his eyes unwilling to accept what was in front of him – refusing to believe his suspicions. "Get down here, NOW!"
"What?" Sirius shouted back, sending his door flying open as he almost ripped it from its hinges with his bare hands. "What do you people want from me?!"
"Mane's gone, you git!" Remus yelled back angrily, his voice dropping to a murmur as Sirius' shuffled footsteps came close and he appeared at the top of the stairs.
"What do you mean she's 'gone'?!"
"Did you not hear her shouting? She's gone, Sirius- floo'd. Sounds as though she was strugglin-"
By now, Remus has been cut off – the lapels of his jacket grabbed by Sirius – and slammed against the wall, as Sirius was oblivious to his head injury.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Mane was probably taken by force."
"What evidence do you have?!" Sirius seethed, still unaware of Remus' pain in the sheer terror that his suspicions had been confirmed. "How can you be so sure?!"
"Apart from the obvious signs of a struggle?" Remus replied scathingly, his hand drifting to the patch of baldness that was increasingly painful, "What about the patch of hair that is currently missing it's place on my head?!"
Sirius' eyes widened, and he jerked Remus' head forwards quickly to observe it for himself. As he did, he let out a string of curses and a loud roar, turning suddenly and knocking an, almost certainly expensive, family heirloom off its place. He watched it fall and smash against the floor, his eyes practically red.
What had it been? A vase? Did it even matter?
Sirius stormed angrily into the sitting room, taking in the broken pot of floo powder and the roaring fireplace, which continued to crackle loudly, regardless of the recent loss that had befallen 12 Grimmauld Place.
"Where did they go?" Sirius asked, suddenly solemn, "Did you catch it?"
Remus had followed him in, his own expression one of anguish.
"No." He replied, "I caught 'manor', but the word in front was lost to the flames."
Sirius stared at the fireplace for a few moments before eventually opting to collapse onto the sofa behind him and bury his head in his hands.
"What have I done, Moony?"
Silence ensued as for one, Remus' anger belayed logical thinking. He blamed Sirius – he could have saved her; Merlin, he blamed himself. If he hadn't gone to get that blasted paper-
"It's both of our faults." Said Remus, turning away from the fireplace to sit next to Sirius and catching a glint of purple from the worn brown fabric of the sofa.
"What the-" Remus began, but quickly silenced himself. "Oh, Mane..."
"What?" Sirius' neck snapped round at the name.
"Wolfsbane." Remus replied, grabbing the bottle from the sofa and rolling it between his fingers. "Looks like it was thrown."
"Her priorities are so bloody skewed." Sighed Sirius, exasperatedly, returning his head to his hands.
"Sure." Replied Remus, "She's one of the least overtly caring people I know, but she's undoubtedly selfless once she likes you."
This, strangely enough, did not make Sirius feel any better.
*
Katherine grimaced, muscles sore; head groggy. For a moment, as she opened her eyes, she had no idea where she lay. The carpet, a faded blue, walls an outdated egg-shell pink... She realised with a sigh that she was in her room. Well... Katherine considered that it was as much hers as a room could be after her previous exiling.
That's when she felt it.
A dull ache in her arm – her left arm. All of a sudden the pain increased tenfold – becoming burning, an agonising, blinding pain.
Katherine grit her teeth and growled, fighting the feral instinct that she has to scream and tuck herself into a tight ball. Her breathing became rapidly heavy, fast intense breaths ripping through her lungs.
As soon as she could force them open from where they had been screwed shut in agony, her eyes snapped to her arm; in fear of what was causing her such intense pain.
Katherine's scream was nothing to do with pain.
"Hey, minion, would you mind shutting up over there?"
Her muscles sagged, shoulders falling after the huge release of emotion. Never in her life before had Katherine felt so defeated, but as memories of the night before flooded into her mind, her resolve cracked.
The brave, fearless, strong lioness that was Katherine Mercer had fallen.
"That's a good little kitten, aye?" Vince pet her head, as if adding insult to injury. Katherine flinched at the contact, partly from pain and partially from disgust. "Oh, yeah. Wicked hangover like thing, right? Yeah... I remember that after my first Imperius curse; that'll take some getting used to. The aches from the Cruciatus? You'll have to learn to live with those-"
"What... Have... You... Done... To... Me?" Katherine ground out, panting with exhaustion, expression murderous.
"Only what I promised!" Vince raised his hands innocently, but his eyes held poorly hidden malice, mixed with some sick kind of amusement. "Welcome!"
"Wel... come?" Katherine questioned, refusing to give any unnecessary attentions to the pain in her ribs.
"Yep." Said Vince, "Welcome to 'The Other Side'. Now get some sleep. Something tells me you've got a lot to learn, and at the moment, no energy to do it with."
Katherine's head slumped back to the floor where it had begun, her eyes unable to drift from the glaringly obvious black mark, raw with pain, that now marred her pale skin.