La Paz del Mundo

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"How the hell can I have a sister?" Harry questioned, looking at the woman who was now in Kate's condo, looking around at her surroundings in a kind of stupor.

"Beats me," Kate replied. "Harlequin, ¿dónde nació?"

"En España. Crecí en Sevilla, con un hombre se llamó Riddle. Él me dijo sobre mi familia, que fueron matados por un mago, Dumbledore..."

"Kate, Dani, what's she saying?"

"Harry, does the last name Riddle mean anything to you?"

"Yeah, but I thought you'd know, with your research divisions and all that shit."

"Potter, don't dick around; who's Riddle?"

"It was Voldemort's name, Kate, before he came to power."

She whistled. "This is gonna be harder than we all thought. Harlequin won't help us."

"Why the hell not?"

"She thinks Dumbledore killed your parents, Harry. She's not gonna understand why we're going after who she thinks is the good guy." Kate turned back to her. "¿No hablas nada ingles?"

"Sí, hablo un poco. Señor Malfoy me enseñado. Sé cómo a decir me llamo, y más."

"¿Puede usted demostrarme lo que usted aprendió?"

Harry watched the woman who was supposedly his sister as she cleared her throat and prepared to speak.

"Hello, my name is Harlequin. I am working for Mr. Draco Malfoy." The woman stopped, looking nervous. Kate smiled at her.

"Bien hecho, Harlequin. Perfecto."

"Gracias, señorita."

"No me llamas 'señorita'. Ahora, eres mi amiga."

Harlequin gave her a smile and nodded. Kate turned to Dani.

"Dani, talk to her some more; God knows your Spanish is better than mine." Her eyes traveled to the rest of them. "While Dani does that, the rest of us are going to get some lunch, then head for some where secluded. We need to come up with a counter to whatever Draco's planning."

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2 Hours Later

Beach Front of an Abandoned Hotel Project

Kate led the way down the beach, looking for the right spot. Matt followed behind her, sad that this wasn't an occasion that called for a swimsuit. He shook his head and paid attention to what she had to say when Kate started to speak.

"Okay, from what Dani found out, Draco is regrouping here for the summer. His father's ill as well; he's expected to pass before the summer ends."

Kate let that hang in the air. Jarrod took the bait.

"By his own hand or old age?"

"Well, last the HQ heard of Lucius, he was mildly ill. If he's gotten this bad in a few months, I'd say the best bet would be that he's doing it on his own. I'm going with arsenic in his tea every morning. Any other guesses?"

Lauren grimaced. "I'd bet Draco's doing it; he might be family, but I wouldn't put it past him to kill his own father to get all the power."

Kate smiled. "That's why I love you, Lauren; you put as much faith in your extended family as I do mine." She turned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "But let's get to the real reason behind our little trip to the beach. When you get to Americana, you'll find that in addition to your regular studies, you'll be trained in many fighting forms, and part of that will be martial arts. Two are offered, the more traditional tae kwon do or, capoeria, a mix of acrobatics and fighting." Kate saw Hermione's slightly green tinged face and grinned. "Personally, Capoeria is more fun and you work up more of a sweat, but that's just me. Would you like a demonstration?"

Harry was the first to speak up. "Sure, why not?"

"You want to compare capoeria to tae kwon do, or do you want to see two of the same face each other?"

"How about capoeria on capoeria?"

"Okay, that works. Chris, let's go; Benny conjure up the musicians and everything else we need." Benny did as requested, and a band of musicians appeared with a number of strange looking instruments, and formed a circle. Kate looked to the rest. "Close up the circle."

They went to do as Kate asked as she and Chris knelt in front of the center musician, almost as if paying homage. They glanced at each other and did what Hermione could only describe as a tucked in kind of cartwheel into the center of the circle. When they began to actually fight, they were fluid, low to the ground, and were performing stunts that were bordering on dangerous... But the entire fight was done with a smile. You could even hear them teasing each other.

"C'mon, Chris! You're nearly 6'11, and God knows how long your arms are; why haven't you taken me down yet?"

Just then, when Kate was off her guard, Chris delivered a quick, high kick somewhere Kate's temple; she ducked the kick but was knocked off balance and hit the sand, with Chris standing over her.

"You were saying, m'dear?"

"I was just wondering," she said, "why you haven't taken me down yet."

"Look again babe, I think yo' ass is covered in sand." Chris turned to leave, when Kate kicked him in the back of his knees, bringing him down in front of her.

"Check your knees, doll." She laughed and helped him up.

"I'll get you back for that, Morgan."

"You said that last time; I'm still waiting." She turned to Harry and the rest. "Was that enough of a demonstration for you, or do you want to see more?"

"No, that was fine. What's the difference between capoeria and tae kwon do again?"

"Capoeria is more acrobatic; tae kwon do is more traditional. Both are pretty much equal, after that."

Harry nodded and considered this. "I've always been up for a challenge. Capoeria. Ron?"

The redheaded boy shook his head. "I'm a chicken shit. Tae kwon do."

"I agree with Ron", Hermione said ruefully. "I'm not willing to break my neck."

Kate smiled at her. "Neither was I, at first. But then I got so friggin' bored with it, I switched; I've always had a bit of ADD. You can switch over at anytime, if you want." She was suddenly business again. "Okay, Harry, work with Chris and Benny; Hermione, Ron, see what Shannon and Lauren can do. I'll be by in a few to check your progress. Dani, Matt, Aeneas, Adonis, Nikola, this way please."

They followed her about 100 yards down the beach, and sat at the foot of a small dune facing Harry, Hermione, and Ron as they worked on their training. Kate gave a small laugh as she watched Benny demonstrate a basic, but tricky kick; Harry went to try and landed flat on his ass.

"What do you need, Kate?" Dani looked worried. She was probably reliving the pain in the ass their first break in of the Malfoy penthouse had been.

"We need to be back at Americana for start of term in September, which is currently 3 weeks away. Now I don't know about you guys, but I'd like to have a few weeks of swimming, tanning, and barbeques with my family before I go back to the daily grind."

They all nodded.

"Good, we're in agreement then. Now, I say we do this next Friday... that's what, 8 days way? We have enough time for it."

Adonis cleared his throat. "Kate, from a strictly strategical stand point, should we really give him that much time? I'll bet any money that he's mustering fighters as we speak, and that he'll probably come after us at the hotel if we wait to long."

Kate just had a relaxed look on her face as she turned sun ward. "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus. Never tickle a sleeping dragon, honey. If we move to fast, we'll provoke him; and he won't come after us at the hotel. I've put charms up to protect us and the Muggles staying there. Eight days, and we go."

"But Kate, a plan might be good."

"Since when have we ever had an actual plan? We've only had a brief outline at least." She lied down on her back, and apparently when to sleep. Matt leaned over her, shaking her gently.

"Morgan, don't bullshit us now. It was bad enough when we ran off with out telling the others what happened. We're not going to do that now, not when having all of us know the plan depends on if we get home or not." She still wouldn't open her eyes. "Kate, wake the hell up!" Then he leaned down and whispered in her ear. Her eyes snapped open and she sat bolt up right, narrowly hitting Matt as he tried to get out of the way.

"You wouldn't dare!"

"I did that one night..."

"Matt!!!" Kate's squeal even got the attention of the trainees down the beach.

"What, dear?"

"You're insufferable."

He just shrugged. "Too bad. I thought you were beginning to like me."

Nikola cleared her throat. "I thought you wanted us to come up with a plan."

Kate nodded. "Right. Any ideas?"

Aeneas smiled. "We came in the front way the first time, right?"

"Yeah." Kate wasn't sure where he was going with this. "What's your point?"

"Well, they'd probably expect us to come in the same way. But we all know that lightening never strikes the same place twice. So we come in the back. I mean, late at night, if we can use invisibility cloaks and charms, we should be able to fly up to their balcony, right? And if we can talk Harlequin into helping us, we can really make it a sneak attack. She'll know when they normally sit out there, and if they have guard shifts or not." He looked around at all of them. "Kate, is 8 days enough to turn Harlequin?"

"Yeah. I can make it happen. It looks like we have our game plan."

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