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"Voldemort killed his father?" Katie gasped.

"Yes," Harry told her. "And his grandparents too."

There was a sharp shushing from behind a tall bookshelf. Katie, Harry, Hermione and Ron were gathered around a table in the library and Harry had just told him what he had found out only the night before during one of his lessons with Dumbledore.

"But how did he get away with it?"

"Stop asking so many questions!" Ron snapped, earning himself a harsh elbow in the ribs from Hermione and a glare from Katie.

"It's been over a month, can't you get over the fact that Draco and me—"

"No, I can't," Ron said flatly. "I don't understand what you see in the git."

"And I don't understand what Lavender sees in you." Katie snarled.

Ron opened his mouth furiously to argue back, but Harry spoke loudly, drowning the two of them out.

"Tom Riddle framed his uncle, Morfin Gaunt, for the murder, Morfin went to Azkaban and Tom went on with his life." he explained.

"And Morfin just let himself get taken to Azkaban?" Hermione inquired, and Katie took notice of how Ron didn't have a go at her for asking questions.

"Dumbledore says that Riddle modified his memory. But there's more," Harry leaned across the table, cast his eyes around to ensure that no one was eavesdropping, then said very quietly, "Dumbledore showed me a memory of Professor Slughorn's..."

And Harry went on to explain how Slughorn had taught Tom Riddle, how Riddle had asked him about something called a Horcrux and, according to Slughorn's memory, received no answer. However, this memory had been tampered with, and Dumbledore had set Harry the task of retrieving the authentic memory from Slughorn.

"How're you supposed to go about that?" Ron asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I dunno," Harry shrugged. "I suppose I'll just have to charm him, won't I?"

Katie snorted. "Harry, you have about as much charm as the giant squid."

"You went out with me." Harry pointed out, sounding half offended, half amused.

"Lucky you." Katie smirked, to which Harry responded with a joking sneer.

Katie looked down at her watch, her heart missed a beat, and she sprung to her feet and swept all her books into her bag.

"I've to go meet Draco," she announced, and Ron gave an annoyed grunt that Katie chose to ignore. "See you later."

***

"Katie! Katie! Wake up!"

Katerina's eyes snapped open. She was lying on the stone floor of the Potions classroom, drenched in cold sweat, with the entire class (although it was only eleven people) standing over her). Her head was pounding, the light was blinding her, and despite her confusion, the memory of what had just happened came trickling back to her and she leapt to her feet, ignoring her sudden dizziness.

"Miss Blair!" Professor Slughorn cried weakly as Katie stood up abruptly. "Please sit back down! You shouldn't stand up so quickly after fainting—"

"I have to see Professor Dumbledore!" Katie cut across him rudely, but formalities did not matter now. This was a life or death situation.

Slughorn stared at her in perplexity.

"I beg your pardon?"

Tears were obscuring her vision. "Please, Professor Slughorn,"'she wailed. "This is urgent!"

"I — I'm afraid I don't understand—"

"MY BROTHER!" Katie shouted. "HE'S DYING!" And, without warning, she burst into tears. "You have to let me go, Professor, he's the only family I've got left!"

At this, a series of both confused and terrified whispers rippled across the classroom, while an extremely pale Slughorn goggled at her, apparently stunned into silence.

"I'll take her," Ron said promptly, stepping forward. "I'm a prefect. I know the password to Dumbledore's office."

Without waiting for Professor Slughorn to permit them to leave the classroom, Ron took Katie's hand and steered her through the door, and soon they were rushing through the dungeons.

Ron did not ask for details on the situation, which Katie was most grateful for, and they reached the seventh floor in no time.

"Acid Pops!" Ron yelled as they reached the entrance to Dumbledore's office. At once, the stone gargoyle sprung aside, revealing the winding staircase. Instead of waiting for the staircase to rotate and slowly lift them upwards, Katie and Ron raced up the steps, which created the most peculiar spinning sensation as the stairs began to move.

Once they got to the top of the steps, Katie pounded hard against the great doors but did not wait to be granted entry before throwing the doors open. Dumbledore was sat in his high-backed seat with the look of someone who had just been harshly awakened from a deep thought. As soon as Katie burst into his office, he sat upright and alert.

"Professor Dumbledore!" Katie said, an intense breathlessness to her panicked tones. "Sorry to intrude but it's my brother, sir — Chris, he's in trouble. The Death Eaters have him."

In an instant, Dumbledore was on his feet. With a wave of his wand, a stream of silver shot out the end, silver that took the form of a magnetic phoenix almost identical to Fawkes, who was sitting on his perch as usual. Dumbledore said something to the Patronus that Katie could not hear and it took flight, disappearing through the window. Dumbledore then rounded on Katie but, she noticed, did not pocket his wand.

"Where are they, Katerina?" he asked urgently. "The Murray's bakery?"

"Yes," Katie answered quickly. "The window is all smashed and — Professor, can't I go with you?"

For Dumbledore had just seized and handful of Floo Powder and thrown it into his fireplace. Green flames erupted inside the mantle and, after telling Katie and Ron to stay put, hr stepped into the fire and disappeared.

An intense feeling of hopelessness and despair washing over her all of a sudden, Katie sunk to her knees and cried uncontrollably into her hands. Ron dashed to her side and crouched down.

"What's happening?" he asked. "What did you see?"

"Death Eaters," Katie choked out. "They stormed the bakery, Stunned Niall and his family, and started torturing Chris for — for information."

"Information about what?" Ron asked while he rubbed soothing circles on her back.

Very slowly, she looked up at him, her eyes wide with horror and her bottom lip trembling.

"Me."

There was a rush of footsteps and Professor McGonagall, whose hat was falling from her head, rushed into the office, followed closely by Hermione, Harry and Professor Snape.Her eyes quickly danced around before she spotted Katie and Ron slumped over on the floor and hurried over.

"I just received Professor Dumbledore's message," she said, her voice alive with fear. "What's happened? He said something about Christian..."

"The Death Eaters have him," Katie told McGonagall as she and Ron helped her to her feet. "They're torturing him. Professor, I—"

"Take a seat, Miss Blair." McGonagall said. She sounded weak, like she was going to faint, but she led Katie over to a chair by Dumbledore's desk.

"What are you doing here?" Ron asked of Hermione and Harry.

"Dumbledore requested that I bring them along. He's also alerted the Order. They should already be on the scene." McGonagall explained. The news that Dumbledore and the accompaniment of the Order of the Phoenix had rushed straight to Christian's aid reassured Katie somewhat, but as the clocked ticked on and minutes turned into an hour, a feeling of mingled anxiety and dread began to stir inside her.

No one spoke and no one moved. They all say around the desk waiting for the green flames to explode in the fireplace, the silence filled only occasionally by a low note whistled by Fawkes or a choked sob escaping Katie.

At last, after what felt like a lifetime, there was a roaring of green fire and the towering figure of Dumbledore and the much shorter Chris Blair stepped out onto the carpet.

Relief flooding through every inch of her body, Katie let out a cry, sprung from her seat and ran straight to her brother, who welcomed her with open arms and hugged her tighter than he ever had before.

"Merlin's Beard, Christian," Katie sobbed. "I — I thought you were... dead, I—"

"I'M all right," Chris assured her feebly. "I'm all right."

"What happened, Albus?" McGonagall questioned shakily.

"Remus, Nymphadora, Alastor and Kingsley arrived precisely at the same moment as I. The Death Eaters, the faces of whom I did not see, Disapparated at once. The others are still at the bakery, repairing the damage and tending to the Stunned Murrays," Dumbledore delineated. "Mister Blair has been wounded, but both he and I believe he will not suffer any lasting damage. I brought him here so he could see Madam Pomfrey and," Dumbledore rounded on Chris, "I will request that you go to her at once."

Chris nodded. He was trembling all over and still twitching — an after-effect of excessive use of the Cruciatus Curse — and Katie also noticed a deep and bleeding gash on his lower left cheek. Chris squeezed Katie's shoulder once and then left the office, accompanied by Professor McGonagall.

Dumbledore now looked directly at Katie. "Would you like to see Madam Pomfrey and have her give you something to help with shock, or are you all right to stay?"

Katie shook her head. "No, I'm fine." she said thickly. A large lump in her throat made her statement sound very unbelievable, but Dumbledore did not press her, instead requesting she return to the seat she had been sitting in before while he sat himself in his usual high-backed chair.

"You understand, of course," Dumbledore began gently, "that I am going to need you to recount everything that you saw?"

Katie nodded slowly. She had been expecting this.

"Yes, Professor."

"Very well, then," Dumbledore leaned forward in his seat. "Proceed."

"I was sitting in Potions," Katie started her story. "All of a sudden I got this burning pain in my head. Next thing I knew, I was in the bakery. There were four Death Eaters, they'd smashed in the windows and Stunned the Murrays. Then they started asking Chris all these questions about... me."

Dumbledore shifted slightly in his seat when Katie told him that the Death Eaters were seeking information on her, and she heard four shuffling pairs of feet behind her, but no one said anything.

"What kind of questions?" Dumbledore inquired.

"Where I'm saying during the summer, times that I'll be out of Hogwarts, like, Hogsmeade trips, that kind of stuff," Katie told him. Dumbledore nodded but said nothing on the matter, and Katie took her chance to ask a question that had been burning in the back of her mind for so long. "Professor — why does Voldemort want me on his side so bad?"

For a split second, Katie was sure she saw a glimmer of fear flash through Dumbledore's eyes, then he said, very slowly, "I can not be certain."

"But he knew, Professor," Katie persisted. "He knew that I was going to be a Slytherin when I was only a baby. You told me I was sorted into Slytherin because I'm determined and self-preserved and ambitious, but I'm also brave, and loyal, and stubborn, and selfless, I could've just as easily been a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff, so why, Professor, am I in Slytherin?"

Dumbledore said nothing. Katie could feel white-hot anger bubbling up in the pit of her stomach.

"I want to know why I can talk to snakes, why I'm an Occlumens, I want to know why Voldemort wants me on his side so bad," Everything that Katie was saying was a demand, but her tone was filled with so much desperation that she did not sound dominant at all. After a deep breath and a short pause, Katie said, much more quietly, "Voldemort knows who my father is, Professor, and you do too... I know you do. So please, just tell me."

Dumbledore hesitated for a brief moment, a moment in which his eyes flicked over Katie's shoulder and towards Snape.

"I can only speculate, Katerina," Dumbledore said calmly, though there was a firm undertone to his voice. "I can't be certain. One thing that can be certain, however, is that Lord Voldemort wants you by his side very badly, and tonight we learned the measures to which he will go to achieve his goal. You, Miss Blair, are in danger—"

Katie yet out a yell of frustration, making Harry, Ron and Hermione step back. Snape shifted ever-so-slightly. Dumbledore, on the other hand, did not so much as flinch. There were footsteps as McGonagall returned, but Katie paid no mind to this.

"I am not in danger!" Katie shouted. "I am the danger!"

Everyone fell completely still and silent. Even the portraits lined around the walls had frozen stiff and were staring at Katie with bulging eyes.

"There's a reason Voldemort wants me on his side," she continued to yell. Raw anger was pulsing through her veins and her heart was beating very fast. "I don't know what that reason is, but I do know that..." she hesitated. "I know that I'm capable of killing."

There was a sharp intake of breath from behind her and Dumbledore actually shifted a little.

"Last year when my mother... when she murdered Leo," Katie's voice cracked as she said this. "I wanted to — I tried to kill her, and I would have done it with no remorse if Ron wasn't there to stop me."

There was a short pause, and then Dumbledore said softly, "You were very upset. Your brother had just been—"

"That's not the point!" Katie bellowed. "The point is that I'm capable of killing — not only physically, but I can handle the emotional toll that comes along with taking someone's life!"

Another pulverising silence ensued, filled only by a saddened coo from Fawkes, and then, out of the blue, Katie was crying again. She got to her feet and stumbled back away from Dumbledore, shaking her head violently.

"I have to leave this school." she breathed weakly.

"Don't be foolish," McGonagall said curtly. "Of course you don't—"

"How could you keep me here?" Katie yelled at both Dumbledore and McGonagall. Each of them now looked quite startled, while Hermione had been reduced to tears. "You expect me to just walk around with hundreds of other students when Voldemort can get inside my head... when I'm capable of murder!"

"But you're an Occlumens," Harry spoke for the first time since he had arrived well over an hour ago. "You can push him out."

Katie shook her head. "No, no, I have to recognise that he's in my head to be able to push him out, and when he's showing me things like Chris being tortured, all I can think of is the fact that someone I care about is being hurt. I don't stop to think that he's inside my head."

"But you've just said it," Dumbledore said serenely. "Voldemort can get inside your head. How do you know that, when you tried to kill Maria Blair, Voldemort was not possessing you?"

"I'd know if I was acting on my own free will, Professor." Katie said shrewdly, her eyebrow quirked in bemusement.

"Ah, you misunderstood me," Dumbledore said. "What I meant was that, in the moment when you were prompted to kill your mother, it was not you acting, but the piece of Voldemort that lives inside you—"

Dumbledore seemed to realise too late that he had said too much, because he abruptly cut himself off, his expression showing blatant horror. Katie could feel the blood draining from her face and an alarming rate.

"What do you mean the 'piece of Voldemort that lives inside me'?" she asked cautiously, though the concept of an honest answer terrified her.

Dumbledore was still for many moments.

"Goodnight, Katerina." he said at last.

"Professor—" Katie started angrily.

"You heard the Headmaster," Snape cut in coldly. "Now, get to bed, unless you would like a month's detention."

***

Chris was let out of the hospital wing the next morning. After saying a very teary goodbye to Katie, he was escorted to the Burrow by Professor McGonagall, where he and Niall would be staying until the bakery had been fixed and secured with the most advanced defensive magic.

All morning, in every class, Katie was prodded with questions. The news about her collapsing in Potions and waking up screaming that her brother was dying spread awfully fast — as gossip often did at Hogwarts — and opinions on the matter were quite mixed. People either thought that Katie had officially lost her mind, or that she was someone powerful to be admired and, obviously, both of these common views were terribly incorrect.

Of course, the only people who knew what had really happened were Katie herself, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Chris, and Katie shared the minor details with Draco, though she kept out the fact the Dumbledore had said that a part of Voldemort lives inside her.

Quidditch practice was most eventful. The team was so distracted with throwing glances at Katie every few seconds to check that she hadn't collapsed again that they were all hit with a Bludger they didn't see coming at least once. Katie had to yell at them on four separate occasions until they finally stopped looking round at her every ten seconds.

From constant check-ins to everyone whispering about her, Katie had honestly thought that her day couldn't possibly get any worse, that was until she had been on her way to dinner and Professor McGonagall poked her head out of her office.

"Miss Blair, I'd like a word, please."

Ignoring the nervous sensation pricking at her skin, Katie stepped inside the office and found that McGonagall was already reseated and pouring two cups of tea. She nodded to the chair opposite her and Katie understood that she was telling her to sit down. Katie obliged and found a steaming cup of tea and a plate of biscuits being pushed towards her.

"I don't know how best to say this, so I suppose I should just lay it out plainly," McGonagall said, despair evident in her voice. Katie took a sip of her tea so she wouldn't need to respond. "Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape and I discussed this matter for quite some time, and we have all decided that it would be best, for your own safety, that you did not attend Hogsmeade any more this year."

Katie choked on her tea.

"Excuse me?"

McGonagall frowned. "I'm sorry, Blair, but this is a matter of your security, and I'm sure you're aware that the safety of students at Hogwarts is our top priority."

"Your top priority, is it?" Katie sneered, not caring that she was being disrespectful to a teacher. "In that case, then, you should be chucking me on the train tonight and sending me home."

"I do not believe that you will attack any of your fellow classmates." McGonagall stated simply; apparently the fact that a student was being snarky with her did not bother her at all.

"And Muggles don't believe in Unicorns, but would you look at that!" Katie pointed towards the Forbidden Forest, where it was known that a herd of Unicorns lived.

McGonagall pursed her lips, shut her eyes, took a deep breath and then said, "I'm sorry, Miss Blair, but you are no longer permitted to attend Hogsmeade visits, and as for Quidditch—"