Children of Fate

The weekend after Josephine's departure, Kate made herself scarce. She missed Peggy "in labor" and Robert's confessions of "hopeless love". She spent most of her time at Ron's, making love and forgetting all her problems. On Sunday, though, Ron sat her down at his small kitchen table, a solemn expression on his face.

"You have to go back sometime. Malfoy will begin to miss you soon and so will your mother," he said, placing his hand over Kate's.

"I probably won't be able to come back, Ron. My mother won't want to risk another pregnancy, and she knows that Draco has fallen in love with me. No one would ever need to know about the plan. This could be the end of us." Kate's eyes pleaded with Ron's.

Ron dropped his gaze to the bowl of fruit on his table and he removed his hand. "Kate," he said slowly, as if he were trying to remember a long and well prepared speech, which he no doubt was, "I love you. You know I do. I proved that these past few days...But I won't be 'the other man'."

Kate's eyes narrowed. "What am I supposed to do, then? Leave my family and run away with you? Live in a dump like this while you try and finish school and get a good job?" She would have raged on, but the look on Ron's face made her stop cold. "Oh, Ron, I didn't mean it like that."

Ron just glared at Kate. "Yes you did. You meant every word of it. I always thought that you were different from your sisters, that you didn't need money to impress you. You never seemed to care that I didn't have a lot, and I loved that. But then you came back from France, all happy and in love with Malfoy, and I wondered just how he had won you over." Ron sneered at Kate, something she had always thought he was incapable of. It made him seem too much like Draco. "So how much money did it take, Kate? I assume you both fell in love in a fancy restaurant and the next morning you woke up with millions of gifts. I'd fall for a guy like that too, Kate."

Kate opened her mouth in protest. "That wasn't why-"

"Kind of makes me wonder what else he bought for you," Ron said, cutting her off. "Or what he bought from you."

SMACK!

Ron reeled backwards, an imprint of Kate's hand on his face. "How dare you!" Kate cried, standing and grabbing her purse. "Don't you ever dare to show your face around my manor! The one my fiancé owns! It's a whole lot better than this dilapidated flat and I'll never have to worry about where my next meal is coming from!"

Kate turned on her heel and stormed out of Ron's apartment--angry tears were beginning to trickle down her cheeks--and ran strait into an elegantly dressed woman. The woman fell over, giving forth a cry of surprise, and the three men who had been following her around rushed to help her up. Really, though, they only made things worse and all four fell to the ground again.

"Get off me you idiots! Get off me!" the woman cried, shoving all three men away. She crossed her bony arms over her thin chest and sneered. "You three go down to the bakery across the street, and fetch me a jellyroll," she snapped, and there was something familiar about her drawl.

"But Mrs. Verafux-"

"Beat it Luc!" the woman snapped, and the men did so. Onlythen did the woman turn her beady gaze on Kate. "Tiff with a lover, dear?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.

"What?" Kate asked.

"I didn't want to say anything in front of my assistants but I did hear you and that man arguing." At Kate's look of embarrassment the woman held up a light blue gloved hand. "Oh, I only heard the last few lines, when you said you'd never have to worry where your next meal is coming from." The woman gave Kate a kind smile. "My name's Pernilla Verafux. I own this entire block, or at least all the buildings on it, and every six months I stop by to check up on things. You aren't the first woman I've heard have a fight." Mrs. Verafux gave Kate a knowing smile. "You'll find a better man, darling. If that silly little boy wasn't smart enough to notice what a nice girl he had then you're better off without him."

Kate couldn't help but smile. This woman reminded her of what her mother had been a very, very, very long time ago. "Thanks Mrs. Verafux," she said, and she began walking towards the stairway. "Thanks a lot."

Mrs. Verafux smiled, nodded, and watched as Kate disappeared through the door. As soon as the door slammed shut, though, a fourth assistant appeared. "Mrs. Verafux?" he asked.

Mrs. Verafux turned on the young man, her gray eyes narrowed. "Oh, what is it?"

The assistant gulped before replying, "We just got an owl from your brother. He wants you to have Christmas dinner with him and his family, and your nephew's fiancée."

Mrs. Verafux's annoyed look changed to a faint smile. "Oh, Lucius is so sweet about inviting me over all the time, especially since Philius died. Tell him that I'd love to see Dracoagain, and I that I can't wait to meet Kaitlyn Lowell!"

***

When Kate arrived back at L'enfer she found Miranda waiting for her in her suites. Her sister was sitting in Kate's favorite armchair, humming softly and reading a trashy romance novel. She barely looked up when Kate slammed the door to her suites, though a faint smile crossed her lips.

"Mother's been looking for you," Miranda said as Kate threw herself down on the couch. "She's quite cross that you haven't been to see Peggy yet. Draco's been looking for you too. He left a package here for you an hour ago." Miranda extracted a small pink box from the stack of books she had by the chair. "He said it was very important that it was opened as soon as possible."

Kate took the box from her younger sister, though the last thing in the world she wanted to do right then was open a gift from Draco. Despite what Mrs. Verafux had said she still felt terrible. There were certain lines that she and Ron had never crossed. Draco Malfoy and money troubles were two of them. Both subjects were the starters of the few fights she and Ron had ever had, including the one that ended their relationship.

Kate sighed wistfully to herself. She had to admit sometime in the near future that she and Ron would never get back together again. It was a depressing thought. Ron had been the first man ever to look past her sisters and see her for a truly beautiful individual. Ron had been the first man to ever tell her that she was worth her weight in gold, and he was the first man ever to kiss her. And after she had lost her virginity to him...Kate felt tears welling up in her eyes again. Ron had honestly hit a nerve when he hinted that he wasn't her first...But Kate's ears finally caught up to her and she looked up sharply, staring at Miranda.

"Say what?" she asked.

Miranda rolled her eyes and pulled out a stack of letters from the stack of books around her. "I said that Ron's owled you thirteen times since you left his flat, and he's owled me five times to see if I could get him back in your good graces." Miranda reached down among the books one last time. "He also," she said, shoving another box--this one wrapped in brown butcher paper and twine, "sent you this. It's kind of heavy."

Now Kate was intrigued. She was not going to read the letters--not yet, anyway--but the packages, both of them roughly the same size, were a different matter. "Which one should I open first?" she asked her kid sister.

Miranda pointed to Ron's. "How about his? I've been dying to see what's in there." She paused a moment and then shrugged. "But it doesn't really matter. Both of them have shaken before."

Kate stared at Miranda. "I beg your pardon?"

Miranda gave her sister a witty grin. "It's just like I said. They've both--Hold on! See, Kate? Draco's present is shaking! Hurry, open it up!"

Kate grabbed Draco's present--the package was actually moving in her hands--and tore the pretty paper off. For a moment she was too in awe of the pretty music box she found under the wrapping to actually open it. The box was made of a deep, wine-red sort of wood and incrusted with rubies there was an opal plate in the center of it all. The box shook again, though, so Kate opened the top quickly and let out a shriek of surprise when she saw what was inside: a small, three-inch tall woman dressed in an elegant tutu. Kate was enough in style, though, to get over the shock and know what this box actually was.

"Merlin!" she gasped, and Miranda was now breathing down her neck. "It's a faerie box! That woman's a faerie!"

"I most certainly am!" the faerie cried, finally succeeding in jumping out of the box and down to the floor. Once there she dusted off her pale blue tutu and looked defiantly up at Kate, anger gleaming in her blue eyes. "Well, go ahead! Make a demand of me, why don't you? That's what your lover-boy wanted you to do, wasn't it?"

"Goodness," Miranda hissed in Kate's ear. "Have you ever got a fiery little one."

"I heard that!" the faerie screeched. "You'd be 'fiery' too if you'd just been taken from all you'd ever known and stuffed in a box and told to obey someone who had bought you! You're fiancé is no prince charming, missy. When you see him again tell him that I hopes he chokes on his dinner tonight!"

Kate couldn't help but stifle laugh. No one had ever spoken that ill of Draco, not even Ron. "Listen," she said, grabbing the struggling faerie off the ground and bringing her up to eye level. "You just say whatever you want, okay Tinkerbell?"

The faerie looked outraged. "My name," she all but shouted, "is not Tinkerbell!"

"Maybe not," Kate smirked, "but it's your new nickname. Tinkerbell was a faerie in a muggle book called Peter Pan. Maybe you'd like to read it someday."

The newly christened Tinkerbell snorted with disdain. "While the name is rgarded with only vile disgust, the offer of free speech has not gone unnoticed. I suppose you expect me to give you something in return?"

Miranda was barely containing her gales of laughter now, but Kate kept a straight face. "Well, if you're offering..."

Tinkerbell snorted and tugged on her tutu. "I suppose I must...Very well, I will dance only for you and your children. You fiancé seemed very confidant that he'd give you some in the near future."

Miranda snorted, but she yelped in surprise when Ron's package began to shake again. "Lord almighty!" she gasped. "Go ahead and open that one too."

Tinkerbell arched a fair eyebrow. "Who's this from?" she asked, and Kate saw the faint traces of a grin on the faerie's face. "A present from a secret lover?"

"Ex secret lover, you mean," Miranda whispered. "And a real big emphasis on the ex."

Tinkerbell shot Kate an admiring look. "Well, Kate," she said. "It seems that your dirty laundry has been aired. So you've been having a secret affair and it all blew up?"

Her smirk turned to a worried smile when Kate burst into tears. "Oh, come off it!" Miranda hissed, swinging a pillow at her older sister.

"But we were so in love!" Kate cried, clutching Ron's package to her chest. "And I know that it's over--the fight might not have been so big but it destroyed all the sparks and turned everything into reality--but it still hurts. I loved Ron, and..." She trailed off, and so did her tears. "Oh, I'm sorry, Tink. You must think I'm an emotional basket case!"

Kate began to work on unwrapping the package while Tinkerbell leapt onto her shoulder. Finally, after wrestling for a few minutes with the unbreakable twine, another box lay in front of Kate, though this one was obviously handmade. A few, well smoothed rocks had been set in the wood, drift woof of some sort, and a picture of Kate and Ron in July was enchanted on the front of it. The box shook again, and Kate opened it carefully, gasping at its contents. There, dressed in much simpler clothes than Tinkerbell, was another faerie.

"It's about time you opened this thing up!" this faerie cried, with as much passion and outrage as Tinkerbell had a few moments ago. "I damn near suffocated in that box!" Then she caught sight of Tinkerbell. "And who is this pixie?" she asked, and, if Kate wasn't mistaken, she thought she saw a glimmer of hatred in the new faerie's eyes.

Tinkerbell threw her nose up in the air, a haughty look on her face. "My name is Tinkerbell, I'll have you know, and I'd never curse like that. It's terribly unladylike."

The new faerie sneered. "Unladylike? Humph! What a lot you know, you blonde ditz!"

Tinkerbell gasped in outrage, but she held in the insults that she so desperately wanted to fling. Instead she turned to Kate and asked in a curt tone, "Well, what are you going to call this one? If I have to be named after some faerie then so does she!"

Miranda grinned. "Well, the only other faerie I can think of is the Sugar Plum Faerie. How about Sugar Plum?"

The new faerie sneered. "Why, that's a ridiculous name!" she muttered, but Kate was already smiling.

"And we can call her Sugar. That's real cute, isn't it?" she asked. Miranda nodded, Tinkerbell smirked, and 'Sugar' fumed. Just then, though, there was a knock at the door.

"Kate, darling? Are you in?"

Kate and Miranda froze. "Draco," Kate whispered, and Miranda nodded.

"You hold on to Tinkerbell and I'll take Sugar and Ron's box and hide them until he's gone," she whispered.

Draco knocked again, but this time Kate stood and threw open her door. "Draco!" she cried, but she was cut off when Draco leaned in and gave her a nice, long kiss. When they parted Miranda cleared her throat uncomfortably and, after kissing Kate on the cheek, she took her leave, Sugar and Ron's gift hidden safely in her bag of books.

"So," Draco began once he had closed the door to Kate's suite and made himself comfortable, "where've you been these past days? I've been looking like mad for you all over the manor and its grounds, but you were never in the usual place. I have surprise that I wanted to give you." He flashed Kate a charming grin, though she could tell he was rather hurt by her long absence.

"Oh, yes! The surprise! I got her already, and I think we've hit it right off!" Kate smiled and sat down on the same couch as Draco. "The little imp should be around here somewhere."

Draco waved his hands in the air. "Well, she was a gift--actually, my mum thought that one up--but I have another bigger surprise. If you'd like I can take you to see it."

Kate didn't want to ruin Draco's good mood--she was going to be spending a lot of time with him now--so she smiled and said, "Of course! Is it on the grounds? Should I grab my cloak?"

Draco smiled, helped Kate up, and shook his head. "Use mine," he said, grabbing his cloak off the coat rack and slipping it on Kate's shoulders. "We'll be in the carriage most of the time, Kate, but after that...Well, you'll see soon enough." With a wink and a sexy smirk Draco was out the door, leaving Kate to follow after him.

***

Draco insisted on blindfolding Kate with a green scarf. "I don't want to ruin the surprise," he had said a few minutes into the carriage ride. Luckily the carriage ride wasn't too long and soon Kate found herself being helped out of it and into the cold winter evening. She listened to the crunch of the snow under her boots as Draco led her over a winding path. "We're almost there," he said, and Kate could feel the cloud of mist that his breath made on her neck.

Finally, it seemed, Draco stopped. "Can I take the blindfold off now?" she asked.

"Let me do it for you," he replied, and, when he tugged the scarf off and Kate saw what the second surprise was, she nearly fainted.

Draco had taken her to the place where they had had their picnic back in the summer. They were standing atop the hill that overlooked the lake where Kate had almost drowned but they were facing away from that. There, down the hill, through an orchard, and across a great, grassy lawn was a gigantic house, as big as L'enfer. Like L'enfer the manor was made of stone with large windows that reflected in a way so that you could not see inside. No gates surrounded the house or the grounds of this new manor so Kate assumed that heavy-duty protective charms had been placed up instead.

"Oh, Draco!" she all she was able to murmur. "It's gorgeous! Will this be ours?"

Draco smiled--he was obviously pleased with her reaction--and kissed her on the cheek. "Of course it will be!" he whispered in her ear. "As soon as we got back from our trip I asked father if I could have the land as an early wedding gift. Other than that I paid for most everything, and it was no small task getting a whole manor built in a little over three months, but I wanted to give it to you as an early Christmas gift."

Kate wrapped her arms around Draco's neck and buried her face in the folds of his robe. Suddenly all the splendor of her new home had evaporated only to be replaced by a sick, dreadful feeling. This was what her life was going to be like. Big, huge, flashy gifts would be given on every possible occasion. At first there would be thought behind these gifts, such as a heart shaped diamond necklace for Valentine's Day or a beautiful new wardrobe on her birthday, but after a few years the gifts would just be a guilt gift given because he couldn't make it home for their children's birthdays or because he just didn't want to be trapped with her any longer. For a while he would still love her, and he would fight great battles to stay away from all the pretty, young women that caught his eyes, but one day all the pressure would be too much, and he would begin to have a long chain of scandalous affairs.

Such had been the way of Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy's relationship, and the old saying always went, "Like father, like son."

But would things have been any better than if she had chosen to stay with Ron? They would have had to run away--very, very far away--to hide from the wrath of Kate's family. Money would be scarce, and what with them both finishing school there wouldn't be much time to develop their relationship. At first, though, they'd both try and live off the chemistry they had once had. Ron would remember the precious moments he and Kate had spent together in Salazar Harbor while Kate would reminisce about all the sweet nothings that Ron had once given her in abundance. But, sooner or later, reality would rear its ugly head, and all the dreams of a happy future would go up in smoke. Ron would be attending college, and no doubt a few college girls would attract his attention. It would be the same as it would be with Draco. Study night and study night, woman after woman, until things imploded...

"Kate?" Draco asked quietly. It suddenly occurred to Kate they must have been standing like that for a while.

"Yes?"

"Do you want to go inside? We haven't got all the furniture--my mother wanted to help you pick that out--but we do have the bedroom furnished." Only a fool could have missed the suggestive lilt in Draco's drawl.

Normally Kate would have ignored the hidden innuendo, especially after sleeping with Ron. But tonight, like the night that Josephine had left, she needed love. She wanted someone to tell her how beautiful she was, that she was silky to the touch, that she was desired above all others. And she wanted to forget Ron, and forget him she did.

As she led Draco into the large bedroom there was no one further from her mind. As she allowed Draco to undress them both on the grand, four-poster bed every moment she had ever spent with him evaporated. And finally, when Draco slid gently into her, if you had asked her who exactly Ron Weasley was, she wouldn't have bothered replying.

***

The next few days were, sufficient to say, the happiest of Kate's young life. It wasn't that she hadn't had a wonderful time with Ron--he had always known how to make her laugh--and indeed, before then, she had always considered her moments with Ron to be the most wonderful. It was simply the complete ignorance she had displayed in those days. In the months following the five days after her breakup with Ron Kate always wondered how she could be so stupid. How she could have not known the impending doom that was closing in on those she loved.

As she had gotten to know Tinkerbell and Sugar, and as she had begun to notice their little quirks--for instance, Sugar loved quoting famous people--she should have been watching Peggy more closely. She had barely noticed the hurt look in her older sister's eyes when she finally stopped around her rooms the next morning.

"Where were you?" Peggy asked, setting the little girl--she was named Amber-Lynette--down on the changing table. "This is the first time you or Miranda have stopped by."

Kate sighed deeply. "I was with Draco-"

"Last night," Peggy finished. She was now changing a wailing Amber-Lyn's nappie, though ever once and a while she'd shoot Kate angry looks. "You were only with him last night. You know, I could've used some help around here, what with an infant to take care of. It isn't like Robert is going to be of any help. He doesn't want anything to do with little Amber."

But Kate hadn't really been listening. She had been too busy thinking of what Draco had told her that morning.

"Things always make more sense when they come in threes," he said earlier that morning after a nice, pleasant breakfast in bed. "Therefore, to make the gifts I gave you yesterday even better, I'd have to give you one more tonight." After kissing her on her cheek he had taken his leave, saying nothing other than to meet him that night in L'enfer's ballroom. It became so apparent that she wasn't really listening that Peggy snapped at Kate to "get the bloody hell out!" and to "take Amber with you!"

Kate hadn't minded that much, really. She loved being with Amber-Lyn and so did the faeries. Miranda joined the party and she, Sugar, and Tinkerbell had begun to prod Kate.

"So, honey," Tinkerbell had said in a coy voice while doing her stretches, "where were you last night?"

"Yeah," Miranda said. "Neither you or Draco were back here by the time we all went to bed. Mr. Malfoy walked around muttering things like, 'That's my boy--the ladies love him!' all night." She shot her big sister a knowing smile. "I think someone has a secret. What about you, Sugar?"

"There must be some narrowness in the soul that compels one to have secrets. Quoted by Henry David Thoreau in 1842," was the only response that the faerie could muster. Since Kate had arrived back in her rooms Sugar had managed to remember five quotes to throw into the conversation, said by people such as Ardaous Fernandez (a famous poetic wizard) and William Shakespeare.

"Yes," Tinkerbell said. "There must be some narrowness in your soul, Kate. What happened last night?"

"Let every man mind his own business," Sugar said, cutting in. "Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1743."

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Tinkerbell cried, waving her tiny arms in the air and causing Amber to laugh. After shooting the infant a smile she turned back to Sugar. "Why do you always quote people?" she asked.

Sugar shot Tinkerbell a vain smile. "While some of us primp away in front of the mirror others study many a book a memorize things worth repeating."

"Well, then," Tinkerbell said, "if you're so smart then why do you only say things that have already been said? Haven't you any experiences of your own to draw from?"

Sugar blushed. "I prefer reading to exploring," she explained, more to Kate then Tinkerbell. "I can learn things faster than I can explore them."

Kate just smiled as the two faeries bickered on. She bounced Amber-Lyn up and down upon her knee and closed her eyes. She felt so at peace, so happy.

"Hey, Kate!" Miranda said suddenly, interrupting Kate's thoughts. "Last night these two asked me about the Light. I said that you could explain it better than I, and I promised them that you'd be all to glad to relate the story of the Light's origin." Miranda, Sugar, and Tinkerbell all looked pleadingly at Kate. "You do tell the story so well, too!"

Kate sighed and patted Amber-Lyn on the head. "All right," she said, much to the joy of her sister. "Here it goes! The story of how the Union of the Light came to be begins long ago, when magic had just begun to take its roots in the world. In the beginning all the magical folk of the world gathered together and formed clans, dividing the land up based on how many people were in each clan. Now, each clan had sub-groups, referred to as tribes, so that the whole clan did not eat all the food in one certain area. Tribes usually settled into different climates such as the ocean, the mountains, etcetera. The clan that eventually formed the Light originally settled down in the area that on day became France. There were four tribes in that clan--the Bois, the Terres, the Montagnes, and the Fleuves--but one of the tribes, the Bois, turned to the Dark Arts.

"The Bois and the Terres merged to form one tribe, and so did the Fleuves and the Montagnes. The Bois and Terres changed their name to L'Obscurité, or the Darkness. The Fleuves and the Montagnes changed their tribe name to L'Lumiére, or the Light. For the next twenty-six years the two tribes fought amongst themselves--the Bois wanted to use their Dark Magic to take over other clans throughout what became Europe--the Darkness always led on by someone from the family of Zaveron and the Light always led on by someone from the family of Mayor.

"In the twenty-fourth year of the battle things were looking pretty grim for the Light. They had just suffered a massive loss of soldiers in a surprise attack by the Darkness, and their previous leader, Sylvain Mayor, had died then as well. Sylvain Mayor had been the Light's greatest leader since the beginning of the civil war, but he had been young as well, and he had had no chance to have children. The only other living Mayor at the time was Sylvain's illegitimate half-brother Thélo. The members of the Light had little faith in Thélo--he had, after all, been born to one of his late father's mistresses--but they were desperate enough to give him a try, and thank Merlin that they did.

"You see, Thélo was very much in love with one of the D'Aurélle sisters, the second to youngest, Liana. Liana loved him as well, but their relationship was not to be, for another man had his eye on Liana as well. His name was Dorien Zaveron, the current leader of the Darkness. Liana wanted nothing to do with him though, so Dorien lured her eldest sister, Nell, into his clutches instead. He got Nell to spill all sorts of secrets about the Light, and she pledged her loyalty to him instead of returning to the Light's headquarters.

"However, Nell had been Liana's closest companion, and so she coaxed her younger sister into a clearing one day where a band of Dorien's henchmen were waiting. They forced themselves upon her, and not too much later Liana found herself pregnant with a little boy. Too ashamed to return to Thélo, Liana fled into the wilderness, but not before leaving six final prophecies with another of her sisters, Belina. Two of the six prophecies told of how to defeat Dorien Zaveron and the Darkness, but the other four were meant for the future, when something much worse than the Darkness would arise.

"Liana's prophecies were of great use, and eventually the Darkdefeated, but not without great consequences. Many of the remaining people in the Light tribe were killed, including Liana, who had been too weak from giving birth to defend herself or her son, Elfric. Nell too was killed, but not before having the child of Dorien Zaveron, a young girl named Marzella. Both babies were brought to a heartbroken Thélo, and it was only after looking upon their faces that Thélo decided that everyone, including himself, would change the spelling of their names, to signify a new start. After christening himself Télo Maire, he changed the names of Marzella Zaveron to Marzel Xaveron. He renamed Elfric D'Aurélle Elaric Lowell, and he raised both children like his own.

"Eventually the other four sisters had children, but they too had changed their names from D'Aurélle. Belina was now Belina Audric, Germaine was now Germaine Helluwitz, Iva was now Iva DeSanders, and Marian was now Marian Merlow. With the help of Télo they formed the Union of the Light, also known as the Sisterhood and Brotherhood of the Light. Many of the ex-Darkness supporters--mostly people who had once belonged to the Montagne tribe--were invited to join, but not many took up the offer. The Union of the Light was formed in memory of the mistakes made in the civil war between the tribes of the once proud clan, and in memory of Liana and Nell." Finally Kate stopped talking and took a deep breath. "Well, Miranda," she said. "There it is. How the Light came to be. But you tell Sugar and Tinkerbell about how to become a member of the Light."

Miranda nodded, obviously pleased with the responsibility, and began where her sister left off. "The Union of the Light was formed specifically so that those who had once belonged to the tribes of the clan that fought could always have protection from other clans and enemies. Télo Maire said that it was the new clan, but that, to prevent another waould be a completely unified clan. He found the town of Lumière et Amour as a protective place for any of the sisters or brothers of the Light."

"How would one go about joining the Union of Light?" Sugar wondered aloud.

"There are two ways to join the Light, by the way. The first is to be born to a parent who belongs to the Light, like Kate and I were. As you might have noticed, Elaric Lowell was our ancestor. Our great-great-great-great-great grandmother moved from France to Britain and raised her family here after her husband died. She disliked the Maire who was leading the Light at the time--someone from the family of Maire has always been head of the Union of the Light--and wanted to escape his tyrannical ways. Her sons liked it here so much, however, that they staid put."

"I suppose that your mother was part of the Light as well?" Tinkerbell asked, and Miranda shook her head.

"Not through birth, like us. She joined because she married into a family that belonged to the light. A powerful family at that. The Lowells have always had great power because of Liana's prophecies. Our friends Lisle and Chevalier belong to the Light, through the families of Audric and Merlow, so they come from one of the original families as well. I suppose their very, very, very distant family, but hundreds of years have destroyed any similarities between us. And those are the only two ways of joining the Light--through birth and marriage."

"But even if you're born into the Light you aren't an official sister or brother of it until you turn sixteen and awaken the Light within you," Kate added, snuggling up to Amber-Lyn. "Many people assume that the people guarding the gates of Lumière et Amour are mely Kneazle anamagi, but they would be assuming wrong. You see, among other things, all the original people who joined the Light obtained the power to shift into the form of a Kneazle so that they could sense when something wasn't right about a person's aura. They passed it on to all their offspring, and so on and so forth, but the power to shape-shift into a Kneazle can only be awoken when one turns sixteen. And even then you have to pass a test--don't ask me what I had to do because it's a total secret--to awaken to Light. I can change into a Kneazle if I want, but I don't often do so because, since I'm so young, it takes up a lot of my energy to stay focused and stay in that form."

"But what about your mum?" Sugar asked. "How did she awaken the Light within her?"

Miranda answered that question. "The power of marriage vows are so strong that our father was able to transfer to her a little bit of the Light. She had to pass a lot more tests than Kate or I would ever have to because she had less of the Light to work off of, but in the end she succeeded in joining the Sisterhood of the Light."

"And what about 'the family of Maire'?" Tinkerbell inquired. "What's the deal on the current head of the Light?"

Miranda giggled and Kate smiled. "Silas Maire is his name," she said, "and he's somewhat of a family friend. He's Amelia's age--twenty-five years old--and he only just took up the position three summers ago when his father was murdered. He used to come around to out summer home in France a lot but ever since he took up his position he never has the time. He married a friend of ours too, a girl named Bianca."

"How nice," Sugar said, but it was clear that her mind was on something else. "But what about those prophecies that Liana made?"

Kate would have answered the small spite but at that moment Peggy stopped by, a large tote bag slung over her shoulder. "I'm taking Amber out," she said, smiling hopefully. "You're welcome to join us."

"No, no," Kate said, a little disappointed about the interruption. "I sorry, Peggy, but Draco wants me to come down to the ballroom in just a few hours. I'll go along with you on a walk tomorrow, though."

But the damage had already been done. Kate's fate had already been set. Of course Peggy tried not to act like she was hurt, and of course Kate tried to assure herself that she hadn't seen a gleam of hatred in her elder sister's eyes, but neither one did a good job of doing so. And as much as Kate wanted to forget the way Peggy had looked at her when she took little Amber-Lyn, she couldn't. It stayed in the back of her mind all night, nagging her. It was almost as if it were trying to alert her to something...But even though she couldn't forget her sister's odd behavior, she did have other things to do.

A house-elf stopped by not ten minutes after Peggy left, an invitation clutched in his shaking hand. "Master Draco says Yipsy is to give his pretty lady this card," the house-elf, Yipsy, squeaked.

"Thank you," Kate said, standing and taking the invitation. "You may go now."

The house-elf squeaked again and bowed once before disappearing down the hallway. Once he was gone Kate turned her eyes to the invitation. It read, in fancy script, 'Kate, I wanted tonight to be private but my mother got a wind of things and insisted on throwing a ball. Everyone is coming, even on such short notice, and I didn't want you to be surprised. Father will announce you at eight-o-clock so try not to be late. Love Always, Draco Malfoy'

Miranda snatched the invitation away from her sister the second that Kate was done reading it. When she read it herself she squealed with excitement. "Oh, he's throwing you a ball! How far you two have come! And he wanted it to be private, too!"

All questions about the Light had been forgotten.

Tinkerbell grinned. "Isn't that romantic! Do you have a nice dress to wear for all those high rollers?"

Kate shook her head. "I have some nice dresses, and I even have ones that I'd wear for those high class snoots, but tonight I want to be beautiful for Draco and no one else."

"I believe I might have a solution."

Everyone turned to stare at Sugar.

"You?" Tinkerbell asked. "You have a dress that Kate could wear?"

Sugar sent Tinkerbell an acidic glare before turning to Kate. "I have, stored somewhere near here, an entire wardrobe of gowns. They were sewn as a gift to me, before my band was taken, when I was your size." She pointed to Kate and continued on. "If Miranda was up for a walk through the woods then I could show her where they were stashed. I believe there are a few that would very much become her."

Miranda stood and scooped up the tiny sprite. "Sure, I'll go," she said.

Two hours later she and Sugar returned with a large box. Miranda seemed to be quite worn out from dragging it all the way to Kate's room, but when she unlatched the box she gasped. "Oh, Kate," she murmured. "These are the most beautiful gowns I've ever seen!"

And they were. The gowns were made of every fine, expensive material imaginable and with every type of gem in the world sewn onto them. The colors were intensely dazzling, and Kate wondered how in the world Sugar ever came upon such finery. There were headdresses too, and necklaces, and bracelets, and brooches, and tiny trinkets that Kate had never even heard of or seen before.

"How did you come across such finery?" Miranda asked. Even Tinkerbell seemed in awe.

Suagr just shrugged, traces of sadness on her face. "That does not matter," she said. "Just consider it a gift from me to you. I even think that there's a few gowns in here that would fit Miranda."

Tinkerbell, ever the nosey little imp, grinned. "Yes, and she no doubt she herself has a lover who will be attending the ball."

Miranda blushed deeply, but she warranted a response. "Oh," she said, and it was Kate's turn to smirk, "he's far too worldly and wise to ever consider me."

Now even Sugar seemed interested in the object of Miranda's affections. "I'm assuming that, by that, you mean that this man is older than yourself."

This caused Miranda to blush even more. "Yes, he is older. I'm not quite sure but I think he's the age our father would be if he were alive today."

Kate's eyes widened. "But that means he's--Oh, Miranda! This man's at least thirty-one years older than you!"

Tinkerbell was all the more intrigued now. "You've fallen for a man much older than yourself? And he's worldly and wise? Just who is this man?"

Miranda was so red with embarrassment now that Kate thought she would explode. Even her hands, usually a pale cream color, had giant pink blotches upon them. "I have only met him a few times, so maybe it isn't really love, but I know that I desire him and his company." She turned to Kate. "I've envied you very much because you have two men, and I envied you even more when I found that they both loved you. This man--you too know him--does not hold the female sex in high regards. Tell me, how would I ever win such a man over?"

Kate sat down beside her sister and draped her right arm over her sister's shoulder. "Any man," she said, "would be luckier than anything or anyone to be loved by you. That is all I can say, Miranda. You need to find love through your own means, as did I." Kate smiled then and stood. "But what man can resist beauty? Come on, Miranda. Choose out a dress and we can both get prepared together!"

Tinkerbell shot up from her relaxing position on the arm of Kate's favorite chair. "I might be small, but I remember how to apply makeup."

Kate smiled. "Well, then, let's get started!"

Having said that she and her sister began to dig through the gowns--there were about twenty--searching for the perfect one. In the following months Kate wondered if she would have liked to know then what she found out later on. She often pondered if she would have preferred to know how short her happiness would be then, but she always told herself no. She always treasured each last happy moment she spent with her family, and besides, ignorance was truly bliss.

***

Originally it had been a little idea in the back of Draco's mind that had been nagging him ever since he had actually fallen in love with Kate. He had wanted to make it clear to her that he loved her, that he really did want to spend the rest of his life with her. He wanted to be able to tell his children that the 'arranged' part of the marriage had been totally forgotten. And so he had decided to propose and make things official.

His only mistake had been to mention the idea to his father a few nights back. Mr. Malfoy, of course, mentioned it to his wife, and she had, unbeknownst to Draco, alerted all the wizarding socialites. Now it was to be some big, fancy gala event. Even the Parkinsons had been invited, though all they did was send Draco scathing looks. Pansy herself looked as though she had been crying something awful. Her best friend--Blaise Zabini--comforted her in the corner.

"Ah, Draco! There you are!" Lucius came up behind his only child and hit him heartily on the shoulder. "I have just been informed that your young fiancée has arrived. I wanted you with me when I announced her presence."

Draco nodded and followed his father to the middle of the crowd. Everyone sensed that something important was about to happen, and within seconds the whole ballroom was quiet. Narcissa elbowed her way to where he husband was and the three Malfoys stood tall, arrogant, and proud in front of the high-class society of the wizarding world.

"Welcome, all, to our little get together," Lucius began. "As you well know, this ball is dedicaed to my son and his fiancée, Kaitlyn Lowell." He paused and allowed the guests to clap lightly before continuing on. "Of course, it would be only right to give a lady of such wonderful qualities a proper introduction, so, without further ado, I present to you the future Mrs. Draco Malfoy: Kaitlyn Lowell!"

All eye whirled to the top of the stairs, and many a guest gasped. The girl--no, make that the woman--standing on the stairs surely wasn't the one they had met at the masquerades! For one she was much more pretty--her hair was more shiny--and done up so attractively--her skin seemed clearer and less blemished, her smile was radiant--directed only to Draco--and confident. Her stature was more proper and boasted of her high nobility. The gown she had on only added to her appearance.

It was much different than the gowns that most of the women at the ball had donned. Instead of a skirt the billowed out, hers floated gently around her legs, and the bottom had been enchanted to float around her feet. The color of the dress was an impossible shade of blue, the exact same shade as the sky on a wonderful summer morning, and tiny purple gems had been sewn along the neckline. In her hair was a tiara with the same purple gems set in it.

Kaitlyn Lowell was perhaps at the height of her beauty that night. She might not ever look that wonderful again, but having Draco look at her with such adoration fully compensated that. She was willing to bet her wand that Pansy had never earned such a loving stare. She reached the ballroom floor and began to walk to the Malfoy family, but Draco ran to meet her halfway there. He looped his arm around her waist and kissed her lightly on the lips.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he cried, turning to his audience, "I have asked you all here toniht to witness a milestone in my engagement with Kate." He paused and waited for the murmurs to die down. "As you all know, my engagement to Kate is arranged." Draco felt Kate tense and heard Pansy give a triumphant snort. "But as of tonight I'd like to abort the arrangement and make this marriage one of our own free wills."

Draco now dropped to his knee, fishing a small, black velvet jewelry box out of the front pocket of his tuxedo jacket. With one quick flick of Draco's hand the top of the box was popped open to reveal a stunning but tasteful engagement ring. The ring was rose shaped, with a diamond in the middle of the silver blossom and tiny rubies set in the petals. The band of the ring, which twisted and curled much like a stem would, had small emeralds set in it as well.

"Kate," Draco said, and he felt the eyes of every man, woman, and servant present boring into his neck, "will you do my the greatest honor and marry me?"

Tears welled up in Kate's eyes, and she was able to squeak out a happy, "Yes." Draco slipped the ring on her finger, and kissed her with as much passion as could be allowed with so many present. When they finally broke apart Mr. Malfoy told the band to strike up an engagement march. Draco and Kate waltzed together, whispering sweet nothings and giggling like the love struck teens they were.

For one vague second Kate felt a pair of eyes burning into her neck, but when she turned around she found no one had been looking her way. As she brushed aside the incident, and posed for a picture she could have had no way of knowing that Ron had snuck into yet another of the Malfoy's parties, hoping to gain her forgiveness. He left, though, when he saw how happy Kate was. There was no way he could ever make her tear up like that...No way at all...

***

The first time Kate started getting sick was seven days after her engagement ball. Draco had gone away with his father the day before to conduct business in Germany or some country in that region, but not after sharing a bed with her two more nights. Their wedding date had been set soon after the engagement ball--February seventh--and she was just beginning to make plans, so she didn't bother telling anyone that she had thrown up. She threw up the next two days, but by then she was so swamped with buying Christmas gifts--Christmas was just five days away--that she didn't even pause to let herself rest up.

But then her period was late. Kate didn't realize, until two days before Christmas, that she should have gotten her period a whole week ago. Her blood ran cold when she thought of the possibilities. She supposed that Mr. Malfoy and her mother and Draco would be overjoyed if she were pregnant--their parents might be miffed that they didn't wait until they were married but they'd be overjoyed all the same--but there was a fifty percent chance that the child wouldn't be Draco's.

All the wizarding birth tests she bought...They all told her the same thing. That she was indeed with child. But those tests could all be wrong, Kate told herself, so she went to the nearest hospital to get a solid answer...

***

"I'm too young."

Miranda barely glanced up at her older sister. That was the eighteenth time she'd said something like that in the past twenty minutes. She'd long ago given up on asking Kate what it was she was too young to do--as well as Tinkerbell and Sugar--and gone back to playing solitaire.

"I'm way too young," Kate continued. "I shouldn't have had to drop out of school! I shouldn't be engaged." A dry sob escaped Kate's throat. What had once been annoyance turned to concern, and Miranda rushed to hold her sister, who was rocking back and forth. "Miranda," she cried. "I slept with them! I slept with them! And now I'm pregnant."

Miranda almost recoiled from her sister her shock was so great. "What?"

Kate pulled away from Miranda, covering her face. Tinkerbell and Sugar, both of whom had been arguing loudly a minute ago, were sitting silently in the corner, eyes wide with surprise. "I was with Ron the entire weekend," she began. "We slept together a few times, then broke up. I slept with Draco the next day and..." Kate trailed off. "And I'm a pregnant whore." She began to cry again.

Miranda sighed and looked at the faeries for help. When none was offered she sighed again and took Kate's hand. "Now Kate," she said, "I'm not going to pretend that what you did was respectable or smart in any way. You just spent little over fifty-hundred-thousand galleons of the Light's money getting Josie, Oliver, and Jesse out of the country. Now you've gone and gotten yourself in the same position." Kate looked amazed at her sister's boldness but listened all the same. "What in the devil's name were you thinking? Sleeping with two men in two days?" Miranda shook her head. "But we can work through this. There's a fifty percent chance that this kid is Draco's, so maybe it'll turn out all right."

"But what about this Weasley fellow?" Tinkerbell asked. "What if this kid pops out and looks like him? Kate will be in deep trouble!"

"Ever heard of spells that can change appearances? There are some out there--certain charms--that'll make someone look like someone else. We could just make the kid look like a mix of Draco and Kate." Miranda squeezed her sister's hand. "It'll all work out, Kate. Things will be easier this time around. You won't have to hide your pregnancy."

Kate could barely return her sister's smile. She had that feeling again--as though something weren't quite right. If only she had known...

***

Draco--contrary to the popular belief--loved Christmas. It was the only time he ever really got to see his beloved aunt, Pernilla Verafux. Her husband had been murdered eighteen years ago, along with her infant son, Philius Jr., and her twin daughters, Octavia and Luciana, just three months before the first fall of Voldemort. Draco had always suspected that his Dark Lord and future Master had had some hand in this--Philius Verafux had been a moral man and had abandoned the Dark Lord that his father had so readily followed--four person murder, but he had never dared to ask his father or aunt. There were just some things that weren't questioned in the Malfoy household.

Lord Voldemort was one of them.

Mrs. Verafux--she insisted that everyone but Draco, Mrs. Malfoy, and Mr. Malfoy should call her that--always arrived Christmas Eve to have dinner, and then spent the night. She was an avid globetrotter, and so she always had gifts from all over the world. However, Draco had not been home at Christmas time for the past two years and therefore he hadn't seen his aunt in a very long time. He really hoped that she liked Kate.

Speaking of Kate, Draco thought to himself, she looks troubled. I wonder what's the matter...

Indeed, Kate looked troubled, nervous--even a little bit queasy. She kept shooting him strange, unreadable looks and rubbing her belly as though she had something precious stored there. She looked wonderful, though, dressed in a flowing red gown with a billowing skirt and off-the-shoulder straps. The dress opened up upon golden petticoats and whenever she turned around Draco could see a flash of ankle. It was surprisingly arousing to him. Maybe he'd luck out tonight and get a special Christmas gift...

"Draco! What the devil are you smirking at?"

A smack to the head and his father's sharp reprimand brought Draco back to the present. He turned to see everyone staring at him, especially his mother's best friend--those attending the Malfoy's Christmas Eve get together were from a selected crowd--Mrs. Violet Guardill.

"Oh, did I miss something?" Draco asked, earning an angry sneer from his father.

"Violet was just telling us how her cousin just died in childbirth. That's a wonderful thing to smirk and chuckle at, isn't it?" Mr. Malfoy's tone was very, very dangerous. He made careful note not to stick to his father's good side for the rest of the evening.

Luckily for Draco his aunt arrived just then, setting his father in a very, very good mood. Out of his seven younger siblings Pernilla had always been Mr. Malfoy's favorite, probably because they were born only ten months apart. Even though she has shied away from him after the death of her husband and children--all the more confirming Draco's suspicions--she and her elder brother were on relatively good terms. After hugging her Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy, and a few other relatives Mrs. Verafux finally reached her nephew.

"Merlin's wand!" she cried in mock shock. "Lucius, your boy's grown up! He looks just like his father now!"

Mr. Malfoy nodded curtly, though Draco could have sworn he saw a proud gleam in his father's eyes. "He does, doesn't he?" he asked before turning to Draco. "Go and fetch Kate, Draco. I want your aunt to meet her now."

But Kate had already heard her name and broke away from where she was talking with Miranda and Jeanette, her sisters. "Mr. Malfoy? You wanted me?" she asked, apparently not seeing Mrs. Verafux.

"Yes, Kaitlyn--this is my sister and Draco's aunt, Pernilla Verafux. Pernilla--I say? What's the matter with you two?" Mr. Malfoy had stopped talking and was looking in between his sister and Kate, both of whom were staring at each other in unabashed amazement. Kate, who before had looked somewhat ill, now looked as though she were going to be sick all over the marble ballroom floor. Mrs. Verafux looked as though she was thinking at an extremely fast rate, making connections and realizing one thing after another. "Well? Have you met before?" By now they had attracted much attention.

Before Kate could possibly answer Mrs. Verafux nodded. "Oh, we've met before," she said, annunciating her drawl and causing Kate to turn a nasty shade of green. "This is the very girl who helped me carry my bags from the bookstore out to my carriage a few days ago. I tried to pay her, but she insisted that it was Christmas and therefore a time to help others with no expectation of a reward in return. A wonderful girl you've got here Draco, a wonderful girl!" Mrs. Verafux said this with such passion that not even her brother thought the unlikely story to be untrue. Kate looked a good deal less sickly, and she actually managed to smile.

"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Verafux. But really, my father taught me always to help out someone in need," she murmured, and only one person present detected the waver in her voice.

"I noticed that you bought 'Of Witches and Warlocks', by Cynthia Gray. She's a favorite author of mine. Lucius, would you mind if I stole this young dear away and picked her mind about the book?" Mrs. Verafux asked, but she had already linked arms with Kate and was leading her towards the stairs. Again, only one person noticed the urgency in Mrs. Verafux's step...

***

"So, young miss, was my nephew not good enough for you?"

Kate was too nerve racked to answer. Never in a million years had she thought that she'd see Mrs. Verafux again. She had been terribly surprised when she heard that Mrs. Verafux was not going to betray her secret, but she was also suspicious. There had to be a hidden motive. Malfoys always had them.

"I believe I asked you a question."

They were striding through the darkened hall of L'enfer now, and Mrs. Verafux had a painfully tight grip on Kate's arm. "It's a long story-"

"I think I know how it went," Mrs. Verafux said. "You came from France a shy, bashful, spineless young schoolgirl. You didn't like Draco, he didn't like you, and so you both sought consolation in the arms of another. The only difference is that you fell in love with this young man, and Draco dumped his mistress. Eventually you fell in love with Draco, but you slept with the first man. Then the first man got tired of being the second man, you broke up, and now you and Draco are doing just fine. He even proposed, of all things!"

Kate gasped. "How did you know?" she asked.

Mrs. Verafux shot Kate a coy smile. "It's the exact same thing that happened to me, with the exception of me coming from France and getting a proposal. The other man's name was Sal Hartman, and I was fool enough to let him--my one ticket out of this dark hell--get away. Now you have too."

Kate couldn't believe her ears. "Aren't you mad?" she asked.

"Annoyed is more like it. Draco's a good boy, and he doesn't deserve to be cheated on, but I did the same thing--I know how you felt--so I'll let it go and forget about it." Mrs. Verafux gasped in surprise when Kate gave her a giant hug.

"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you so much..."

Around the corner, cloaked in shadows, an eavesdropper chuckled silently. "Yes," Peggy hissed. "Thank you...Thank you!"

Never had there been such a devastating betrayal in magical history then when Pegatha Lowell turned her sister in to the Dark Lord.

***

Mr. Malfoy couldn't believe his ears. He didn't want to believe his ears. How could that French tramp have betrayed them so? And how could her mother have encouraged it? Fury was building up in his every muscle, and his face must have looked dreadfully frightful for Peggy stepped back.

"I swear on my father's grave that all this is true. Back in June, when we first came, my mother wanted Kaitlyn to pursue the affections of Ron Weasley, to make Draco jealous, but Kaitlyn fell in love and slept with Ron. I'm sure of it." She shot Mr. Malfoy a cold, calculated look. "Kate's nothing more than a mudblood-lover and is no longer my sister!"

Mr. Malfoy still looked outraged. "Son of a bitch!" he cursed. "That damn whore will break my son's heart! And your mother! Both of them will burn in hell for this!"

Peggy didn't look the least bit unfazed as Mr. Malfoy said this all. Somewhere between having young Amber-Lyn forced upon her and being shoved out of the Kate-Miranda-Peggy circle she had snapped. She wanted revenge, and now she knew had had it. Now Kate had lost not only Ron's love but Draco's as well. Oh, but wasn't this grand?

"Go get your mother and sisters! On the double! And fetch my son as well. I'll deal with my sister later, and I need to alert the Dark Lord. Maybe I can turn this catastrophe around!" Mr. Malfoy sneered into the dying embers of his study fireplace. "We just might have a key to the great Harry Potter!"

***

"Mrs. Lowell," Mr. Malfoy began, and his voice was so venomous that Mrs. Lowell shivered in her thin cotton nightgown.

She stood in front of her eight daughters, all of whom were shivering too, and tried to hold her chin up high. "Yes?" she asked.

"It seems that you have been keeping things about young Kaitlyn from me," he replied, smirking evilly when he saw her eyes widen. "You have traitor among your ranks, it seems. This pretty young mole has just fed me a good deal of information that lands you and one daughter in particular," he turned his penetrating glare upon a stony Kate, "in a heaps of trouble."

Draco, who had been rubbing his eyes by the fireplace, suddenly perked up. "What's all this father?" he asked. "What have Kate and her mother done to anger you so?"

Mr. Malfoy sneered. "Mrs. Lowell has been overseeing your 'fiancée's' secret affair with none other than Ronald Weasley. In fact, my dear son, I do believe that your sweet rose has been around the garden a few more times then she'd like you to believe."

Draco looked horrified. "Father, how can you believe that? It's absolutely not true! Kate was a virgin when we first had sex!" His very bluntness made Kate's cheeks burn in shame, and she felt every eye of every sister upon her. "Tell him Kate! You never had a secret relationship with Weasley, you were a virgin when we first slept together, and you never loved another man..." But Draco trailed off once he saw the ashamed look upon Kate's face.

The realizations hit him like a ton of bricks, and every little emotion he felt right then was written upon his face. Pain, confusion, betrayal...Draco felt all that, and yet he didn't once raise his voice. "All those long absences, all those dreamy looks into the sunsets...You were really just imagining Weasley was in my spot!" In many ways the softness of his voice was a million times worse than if he had raged on at her. "I should have known," Draco continued, "that when I made love to you, and you gave me those electric smiles, that you were really just seeingWeasley!"

'Oh, lord almighty!' Kate prayed. 'Don't let him cry...Don't let him cry! I couldn't bear that!'

But it was too late. Two large, wet tears were already falling down Draco's pale cheek. Thankfully, though, he only allowed those two tears to escape before clamming up and turn steely. "You're a slut," he hissed. "The biggest damn whore I've ever known. Just how many thorn pricks have you had, little rose?"

Kate tried to open her mouth in her defense but Mr. Malfoy cut her off. "I wondered that myself, Draco, but it's time for you to go. You and Pegatha go and wait in the library. The Dark Lord shall be here tomorrow evening, and I assume that both of you will be joining his leagues shortly. Am I correct?"

Draco didn't even look at Kate when he said, "Yes, of course father."

Peggy, however, cast a bored look at her mother and sisters before asking, "What's their fate going to be?"

Mr. Malfoy shot Peggy a 'do-shut-up-and-stop-asking-questions' look. "They'll be dealt with adequately. And well, I suppose Marlene should go with you as well. She's had no real role in this, I don't think, and besides--she's engaged as well! So off with the three of you before I change my mind!"

Draco shot Kate one last look--his eyes were filled with cold disgust--before throwing the doors to the hall open and storming out them and to the library. Peggy followed him post haste, and Kate noticed that she was trying desperately not to look back and see the accusing eyes of her family. Marlene was just glad to escape whatever unspeakable dooms her mother and sisters had been sentenced to, and so she plain out ran out of Mr. Malfoy's study. Now only Mrs. Lowell, Amelia, Sophia, Kate, Miranda, Keri, and Jeanette were left. Mr. Malfoy looked them all up and down before turning to face the fire.

"You shall all be kept in the dungeons until tomorrow evening, when the Dark Lord arrives. Don't be fooled--it's damn near impossible to escape from the Malfoy dungeons unaided--and you'll be closely guarded by the Mr. Robert Davies and his father. You will receive no food, water, or bathroom breaks. Having been informed of this you are dismissed." Mr. Malfoy snapped his fingers. Mr. Davies and his son, Robert, Pegatha's fiancé, strode in, tough looks on their faces. Without a word exchanged between any of them the two men led the seven women down to the dungeons, though Robert stopped the procession once and asked Kate what the hell she thought was so funny.

She seemed so amused with herself that she could not give him a straight answer. Only Miranda seemed to be in on the joke. All the way down to the dungeons the two kept muttering about how lucky they were that Sugar had snuck along and that she would get help...

***

It was late Christmas Eve--perhaps even Christmas Day--when a light rap-tap-tapping on Ron's window awoke him. Actually, it wasn't his window. Harry and Hermione, being the dears that they were, had asked him to spend Christmas with them in Godric's Hollow. Ron had been all too happy to accept the offer. Hermione was just barely beginning to show her pregnancy--she was three and a half months along--and all Harry and Ron had done Christmas Eve was joke about how bloated she would come to be. Strangely enough, though, Lee and Cho had been invited to dinner. Cho was two months pregnant, but Ron suspcted she was the type of woman who never showed their pregnancy until the last minute. They had taken to the small cottage not too long after Christmas Eve dinner was over.

Ron rolled over in his bed--it was right up against the window being tapped--and gasped. There, standing on the small ledge outside his window, were two faeries. He recognized one of them to be the one he had so luckily captured for Kate, and the other was probably a gift from Malfoy or something like that. Both faeries looked chilled to the bone but at the same time terribly urgent. Ron slid open his window as quickly as possible, and they fell onto his bed, trying desperately to get warm again.

Once they had managed in knocking all the icicles off their bodies the blonde faerie, the one that Ron did not know, looked up at him. "She's in great danger, Kate is. And it's all your fault!" Her bright blue eyes were darkened by anger and fear in such a way that Ron didn't even bother to question if she was lying.

"How's it all my fault?" he asked, frowning deeply. "I haven't seen Kate in days! How could this be my fault? What mess has she gotten herself into now?"

The second faerie, the one he had sent Kate, kicked the first faerie and gave Ron a strained smile. "Hello, Ron. My name's Sugar and my companion here is Tinkerbell. Now that the formalities have been done I believe we can get down to business. The point is that, as Tinkerbell said, Kate's in great danger. You see, her older sister Peggy betrayed her and told Mr. Malfoy about the various fiascos that you two had had earlier on in her engagement to Draco. He was furious of course, and he's locked Kate and her mother and five of her sisters down in his dungeons. The two of us left for help before we could here much else of his plans, but we do know that Voldemort is on the way and that he should be arriving tomorrow evening." Sugar took a deep breath and looked at Ron expectantly. "Well?" she asked, and she seemed oddly eager. "What are we going to do?"

Ron could only stare. "We?" he asked. "What's 'we'?"

Sugar's face dropped and 'Tinkerbell's' face was overcome with a surprising fierceness. "Oh, come on now!" the blonde faerie howled. "Don't you go backing out on Kate now! She needs you more than you'll ever know!"

"Just like I needed her all those times she was off frolicking with Malfoy?" Ron asked, his voice dripping with disdain. "Listen, I sympathize with Kate--I really do! But she hurt me bad, and I can't just forget that!"

Sugar had regained her composure, and she rolled her eyes. "Oh, and I supposed knocking a girl up without proper protection is nothing for her to bitch about?"

Ron's face, as well as his arms and neck, turned as red as his hair at the crude comment. Tinkerbell blushed as well, but before she could reprimand Sugar for her brusqueness Ron had opened his mouth to reply. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"It's supposed to mean that Kate's pregnant! Don't you see the risks now? If you abandon her now then you're not only giving her the death sentence but also her unborn child!" Sugar looked utterly outraged at Ron's lack of care for Kate.

"But what about Malfoy? It could be his kid too, you know. They've been together, and even you two can't deny that!" Ron too looked outraged. "Listen," he continued, waving his hands in the air. "If you want a hero go find my big brother Bill. If you want a risk taker then my big brother Charlie is your man. If you want two great strategists then why not ask my twin brothers Fred and George? Even uptight Percy could come up with a brilliant rescue plan! I'm not my older brothers, though, so don't ask me to try and do what they've already accomplished!" With that he flopped down on his bed and turned his back away from the window.

"If you're willing to give up that easily then you're the biggest coward I've ever met!" Tinkerbell hissed, but Ron didn't even turn to face her.

"I'm no coward," he replied quietly. "I'm just being smart."

Tinkerbell shook her head in disgust. "This one's no good!" she muttered to Sugar. "Now we should go and find the Lights. I think that they'll help us rescue Kate and her sisters. Let's Warp to France--they originate from there, and I believe I know of a few leaders whom could be of assistance." Having said that she hoisted herself onto the windowsill and spat defiantly at Ron before snapping her fingers and disappearing into the whirling blizzard.

Sugar, however, staid behind, and it was only when Ron turned to close the window that he saw her. They stared at each other a few moments before Ron sighed and asked, "What else do you want?" Sugar only crossed her arms.

"All men," she said, letting icicles form in her hair, "are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty." She paused and gave Ron a look bordering between a smile and a glare before saying, "A man named George S. Patterson Jr. said that, and he was right. If you don't see what effect losing Kate will have in the battle, and if you let your fear of risking your own neck for the sake of love overcome your sense of duty, then you are a coward, and may you always know that." The small sprite rubbed her arms and added, "Also remember this: To face despair and not give into it, that's true courage. Even if you don't see yourself as a hero I know someone who does, and she could care less about what your brothers have done."

And with that Sugar was gone as well...

***

It was pitch black down in L'enfer's dungeons. Kate had been locked in a jail cell with her mother, her youngest sister Jeanette, and her eldest sister Amelia. Kate reckoned that it was about six-o-clock in the evening on Christmas Day, and in the fifteen or so hours that they had been held prisoner in the Malfoy's home not one of them had gotten any sleep. Amelia's loud, pitiful wails had kept her three cellmates awake, and Mrs. Lowell had done nothing but comfort her eldest daughter, ignoring her other two. Though Kate had never been that close to Jeanette she had been the only one there to soothe her silent sobs. Eventually Jeanette had stopped crying and started to whisper with Kate about everything from what must be going on upstairs to boys she liked back at school. The one good things that could ever come out of their imprisonment was that Kate had gotten to know dear Jeanette better. If only she had know how similar she and her youngest sister were; now she feared it was too late to ever form a proper bond...

"Kate?" Jeanette asked suddenly, causing Kate to start. Jeannette had been pretty silent for the past twenty minutes, and she had almost forgotten about her.

Her mind was focused on other more pressing matters, like the whereabouts of Tinkerbell and Sugar. It had been just plain luck that the two small imps had chosen to sleep in Kate's bathrobe pockets that night. When it had started to become apparent that Mr. Malfoy knew Kate's little secret and that things were turning ugly the two imps had suddenly disappeared, though Kate knew where the must be heading: to get help. She remembered that one day, not too long ago, Sugar had mentioned that faeries were able to, with or without their bands, warp themselves until they were practically nothing. Then all they had to do was imagine themselves somewhere different and viola! They were there! But she couldn't tell Jeanette that--she couldn't let her little sister get any hope when there was none.

"What is it Jean?" Kate asked, taking great care to make sure that her mother did not overhear her.

"Are you afraid?" Jeanette asked.

Kate sighed and looked down at her sister, who had snuggled up the ratty hay that had been thrown in the dungeon cell. "Afraid of Mr. Malfoy? No, not one little bit. That man's too afraid of us--I don't know why, but he is--to take any sort of action against us. He's not so worried about 'mother' and Amelia and Sophia as his is about you, Miranda, Keri, and I. I think I might know why he's afraid of me, and maybe even why he's apprehensive around Miranda, but you and Keri haven't had any part in this yet, so I'm not sure why he'd dart away from you like he did in the ballroom this evening, when you brushed up against him on your way to the punchbowl. Am I afraid of the Dark Lord? Maybe. He's powerful, and he could easily kill those we love. Am I afraid of the death sentence we're probably facing? Oh yes, without a doubt. I'm not ready yet, and with my death there are other lives at stake...Truly, Jeanette, I cannot give you a strait answer."

Jeanette couldn't help but stare with admiration at her big sister. "You sound so much wiser than you did when we first came over from France in the summer. You sound like Madame Maxime, you are!"

Kate grinned inwardly and was glad that the shadows were hiding her light blush. She had always wanted her little sisters to admire her as she had admired her older sisters, and it was a nice feeling. "I've seen too much not to have grown wiser," she replied, and then she lay back against the damp stone wall, eyes closed in one last hope to get some shut eye, when suddenly there was a rustling in the hay. Jeanette gave a small yelp, muttering fearfully something about rats, and the two sisters back away from the wall.

Mrs. Lowell and Amelia noticed the shaking hay too and for once Amelia stopped sobbing. "What is it?" she asked, scampering into the corner farthest away from the hay. "Is it a rat?"

Kate shook her head. "It's too big," she whispered, and suddenly the last tiny spark of hope she had got a breath of fresh air, turning into a small flame. "Oh, Jeanette!" she hissed. "I think it's a...Oh, yes!" Kate barely contained her glee. "We're saved! It's a Kneazle!"

Sure enough the creature that had been rustling in the hay was a Kneazle, chocolate brown and very slender. She had just barely fit through the small hole in the stone wall, and when she tumbled out of the hay she shook herself clean before transforming back into her human form. Kate gave a cry of joy when she saw who it was: Felicite!

"Friend," she murmured, putting a cap on her mouth so that the guards would not hear her. "Thank you for coming to rescue us."

Felicite smiled softly. "I'm not the only one here," she said quietly, and no sooner had she said that then two more Kneazles squeezed through the hole. One was snow white with just a stripe of gray on its back, and the other was a deep charcoal black. Within seconds Silas Maire, the leader of the Light, and his wife, Bianca, were standing before Kate and her family, grim looks on their faces.

"Kaitlyn," Silas murmured sadly. "Ze faeries 'ave informed me about what exactly 'as gone on in zis place since you arrived. I do believe zat I'll 'ave a few choice words with Mr. Malfoy when all this is zrough, and we'll find out whom ze father of your child is." He said this quietly enough, though, that Mrs. Lowell and Amelia and Jeanette did not hear. "And do not worry; only those of us on ze rescue mission know of your pregnancy, though your family will find out soon enough." He gave Kate a warm, reassuring smile and turned to Bianca, who was comforting Jeanette, Amelia, and Mrs. Lowell. "Darling?" he asked. "Any ideas on 'ow 'oo get us out of here?"

Bianca--who was from the States--stood and shook her head. "There's no way we can get this little one out," she said gloomily. "She's far too young to have gained the power needed to awaken the Light. And you know, Silas, that the only way out of here is through that little hole." She sighed sadly. "And, while I'm not totally convinced that the mother and eldest sister wouldn't leave, I can sense that Kaitlyn won't move an inch without her little sister."

Silas hung his head down and made an angry catlike noise in the back of his throat. "Damn!" he cursed. "What would my father do? Of course, 'e would not 'ave let things get zis far. Kate and 'er family never would 'ave been thrown in ze dungeons if 'e were alive."

Kate wanted to reach out and comfort him, but then the door opened and there was a scream of anger...

The following ten minutes was nothing but chaos. In the end Kate could discern only the cold hard facts, leaving all the details to fade away with time. She knew that it had been Mr. Malfoy, Draco, and two Death Eaters--all suited up in Death Eater garb--that had opened the door, but she couldn't tell who had screamed. She knew that Amelia had been the only one to change into a Kneazle fast enough to escape through the hole. Kate remembered being herded down the dungeons passageway, and she remembered three other people joining their group, but it wasn't until later that she knew who it was.

The one thing that always staid clear in her mind, however, was being shoved out of the dark dungeons and into the fading sunlight. She remembered being, if only for a few seconds, completely at awe with the brilliant purple and daring orange that painted the evening sky. And then somebody had kicked the back of her knees, and she had gone sprawling, face first, downwards, suddenly finding herself at the hem of someone robe.

Kate knew whose feet she was at, even if she hadn't looked up into his face yet. There was an invisible evil in the air, a sort that could only be found in the presence of Lord. Voldemort.

"Well, if you aren't the pretty little one," Lord Voldemort murmured, bending down and taking Kate's chin in his cold, scaly hand. Kate wanted desperately to jerk her head away, but all control of her body parts had flooded her and she remained immobile in his grasp. "And a tramp as well, if I'm not mistaken." The infamous dark lord chuckled cruelly at his own joke, and his followers were quick to join in with their own nervous laughter. "But all that will have to be laid aside. First we must get down to business; Lucius here tells me that you had an affair with a man by the name of Ronald Weasley. Is this true?"

Kate opened her mouth but no words could come out. She was trembling in fear by now, and she felt like she was trapped in a pit of hissing snakes what with all the Death Eaters encircling her and the other prisoners.

"I asked," Voldemort said, and he sounded angry, "if that was true! You will answer me or you will pay!"

"Yes," Kate replied, finally regaining control of her voice. "That's true."

Voldemort smiled in a way that wasn't really a smile but more of a threatening jeer. "Good," he hissed, and Kate could have sworn that, when his tongue darted out of his mouth, it was forked. "Keep answering my questions and I might let you live." Kate's blood ran cold when he said this, and her eyes widened. Voldemort saw this and sneered maliciously. "After all," he said, and there was so much malice in his voice that Kate shivered, "you wouldn't want to end up dead like your sister, would you? Her name was Sophia, I believe."

Kate could only gasp in shock. True, she had never loved Sophia as a sister, but her death was still terribly saddening. Maybe it was just because she had already lost two sisters this evening, and though Peggy and Marlene weren't dead, they had betrayed her too greatly to ever be forgiven. Behind her Kate heard her mother begin to sob in despair, and even headstrong Miranda was crying softly. Voldemort seemed to thrive of the Lowell's grief, though, and his eyes--red as the fires of hell--shone brighter as the weeping grew more miserable.

After a while, though, he continued his task of interrogating Kate. "Surely if you knew Ronald Weasley," he said softly, "you know Harry Potter."

Kate didn't hesitate to reply, "I do." She paused and then added, "But I haven't a clue as to where he lives."

Voldemort's nostrils--if those two slits could be called nostrils--flared. The dangerous gleam in his eyes made Kate gulp. She had lied, of course, and he knew it. "Oh, but don't you?" Voldemort asked. "Surely your beau took you to visit his friend."

Kate knew that, by lying, she had destroyed any chances of escaping L'enfer alive, but she didn't dare tell Voldemort about Harry. He was the wizarding world's only hope, and she wished with all her might that he would defeat this evil, foul creature standing in front of her. "No," she said, and strangely enough she felt her courage returning to her. "Harry always met us somewhere."

Voldemort's foot flew out and caught her in the stomach. Kate slumped to the ground, but now that she saw that the 'all mighty' Voldemort could lose his cool to a little 'tramp' such as herself, she wasn't so afraid. "Talk wench, or die!" Voldemort hissed, and Kate prayed for a painless death.

"Never," she muttered, and she almost winced when Voldemort brought his wand from out of a hidden fold in his robe.

He lifted it up high in the air, red eyes gleaming with anger, and cried out, "Crucio!"

Kate braced herself for the blinding pain but it never came. It took her only a few minutes to realize that the screams echoing throughout this hall were not hers but those of a Death Eater. The Death Eater fell to the ground and writhed in agony, but his screams were growing weaker. Voldemort, though he knew he was not torturing Kate, kept his wand trained on the mystery Death Eater. He looked so intensely pleased with torturing the poor soul that it made Kate sick. It had only just hit her what kind of monster she was dealing with. Finally, it seemed, Voldemort jerked his wand away from the man--Kate knew that no Death Eater would risk his neck like this man had done for her--and sneered.

Turning to one of his dark minions he ordered, "Remove that mask! I want to know what fool would die for this little filly."

The Death Eater wasted no time in ripping the mask from the man's face. Kate gasped in utter horror when she saw who exactly her rescuer was: Ron Weasley. His normally kind and sweet face was scrunched up in pain and he clutched his side. No one stopped Kate when she scrambled across the floor to her beloved and cradled his head. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she stroked Ron's face gently, soothing him and whispering words of comfort. Ron just smiled softly, closing his amber brown eyes peacefully.

"Ah, so Mr. Weasley does still care about you," Voldemort hissed. "He thinks himself to be a hero, a brave savior, and he must be. Not many grown men would take the Cruciatus Curse willingly." Voldemort sneered disdainfully. "But I wonder just how heroic and brave you really are. Could you survive Azkaban, I wonder?"

Ron's brown eyes shot open, and he tried to sit up while Kate clutched his hand painfully hard. Almost exactly one year ago Voldemort and his Death Eaters had raided Azkaban, releasing all the criminal scum and locked away Death Eaters of the wizarding world. The dementors had sided with him as well with the offer of having many new, young people in their jail. These people would have more happy memories to devour, more soul to suck away, more life to destroy. Now Azkaban was ten times as worse as it had been before. Everyone who angered the rising Lord Voldemort was thrown in there and never seen again.

Voldemort smirked. "I didn't think so. But let's see how you'd survive anyway. Crabbe! Goyle! Dispose of him!"

Two burly, masked figures started out towards Ron, wands raised, when all hell broke loose. The Death Eater that had been standing directly behind Goyle launched himself at Goyle, while another stepped out from the crowd and hoisted Kate up onto her feet by her waist.

"Come on," he whispered, and Kate recognized Lee Jordan's voice. "Ron's a big boy, and he can handle himself. What matters now is that we get you out of here."

Kate was too surprised at the sudden rescue to protest. She watched as three more men, all tall and dressed as Death Eaters, herded her siblings and friends towards the double doors that led out into the wrap around balcony. It was not difficult to get outside despite the number of Death Eaters present. There were now ten rebel Death Eaters--friends of Ron's and Harry's, Kate supposed--but the real Death Eaters were having great difficulty determining which was which. Crabbe and Goyle had, much to Kate's delight, managed to confuse each other with the enemy and knock themselves out. Voldemort was going mad with rage. He began screaming for everyone to remove their masks but by now everyone was too caught up in the battle to listen to anyone--even their Master.

Bianca, Lisle, Chevalier, and Silas all staid behind. Felicite tried to tug her secret husband along with them, but he shook his head fiercely. "Felicite!" he cried. "Zer is not enough men 'ere 'oo 'old zem off! We will meet you in five days at ze Connecting Six!" Before Felicite could protest any further Lee grabbed her arm and pulled her along.

As soon as everyone was outside they pelted down the stairs and into the beginnings of a snowstorm. The wind had only just begun to pick up, and the hail and icicles that whirled about the runaways, leaving shallow bruises on everyone's skin, were only the size of small pebbles. Everyone followed Lee--he had shed his mask and hood--but suddenly Jeanette stopped dead in her tracks.

"Miranda!" she cried. "Where's Miranda?"

Lee turned around briskly and gave one last, long stare at L'enfer. "Bloody hell!" he muttered. "I guess I'll have to go back for her then. Kate, I'll find a way to get to this Connecting Six place with Miranda, all right? Now listen, Cho and Hermione are waiting-"

"No," Kate said. "I can't let you do that. Miranda is my sister and so I will be the one going back. Please, Lee, take my sisters and mother and get to the Connecting Six. Miranda and I will join you soon, all right? Felicite, you're strong enough to call upon the Elders, right?"

Kate turned and looked at Felicite with commanding eyes. Felicite could only nod. She wanted to help her friend, but it would have been wrong. She knew--and felt--that Kate was the only one who needed to go back. Lee felt it too for he turned back towards the forest and began walking again, his step tired and weary. Before he disappeared into the woods Lee called out, "Good luck!"

It didn't take the others long to trail into the woods, and Mrs. Lowell even managed to send her daughter one last scornful look, as if everything that had happened in the past forty-eight hours was her fault. Kate tried to ignore the sting that her mother's degrading look gave her, but it was no use. After all this the only person who could really tear Kate up inside was her very own mother.

Shaking her head Kate banished all thoughts of her mother and started back towards L'enfer. The snowstorm was now shaping up to be a blizzard, and Kate was dressed only in a thin nightdress and an equally thin green bathrobe. As she neared L'enfer, cloaked by the darkness and white flurry, she could hear screams echoing throughout the hall in which the combat was taking place. At first she thought that they were battle cries, but then, with a horrible sinking feeling, she realized they were cries of victory. In the course of fifteen minutes her rescue party had lost their fight.

Tears flooded Kate's blue eyes. Chevalier, Lisle, Bianca, and Silas...She had know them all since childhood. And what about Harry and the masked men whose identities were a complete mystery to her? What was to happen--or happening--to them?

"So we meet again."

Kate's head whipped up. There, standing before her, was Harry Potter. A strangled sob escaped Kate's throat and she began to cry as she hadn't since her father's death. "Miranda and Ron," she gasped. "What happened to them?"

Harry's head dropped and he clutched the Death Eater mask. "Only three of us escaped with our lives. The others were captured by Death Eaters and given to Draco Malfoy to do with as he pleased. He left two minutes ago to dispose of them somewhere." There was an uncharacteristic bitterness in Harry's voice that made Kate stop crying. She wasn't the only one in pain that night...But now Harry was hugging her. "Ron asked of me one thing before we came here tonight," he said softly, holding Kate back at arm's length. "If anything were to happen to him I was to watch over you, and I plan to keep my promise." Harry's mournful expression turned serious. "It hurts me too that they're all gone," he told her, "but we need to get moving before anyone sees us out here. Fred's hurt pretty badly, Kate. We need a warm place to lay low for tonight, and then we'll talk about what we're going to do."

Kate got a hold of her emotions--there would be time to mourn properly later--and pulled her green robe tightly around her body. "I'm headed to the Connecting Six, as is Lee and the others. It will take us time to get there, but I have friends there that will shelter us until things die down."

Harry sighed and looked back to two figures straggling along behind him. They both had fiery red hair like Ron's and one was draped over the other's shoulder. "I mentioned before that we'll need a warm place to bed down tonight. Have you any idea of a place that no one's likely to use for the next forty-eight hours?"

Kate nodded slowly. "Come with me," she whispered. She could take them to the manor that she and Draco had almost shared. They would have to stay in the servants' cabins, of course, but she knew that the kitchens were always kept well stocked and that there were some clothes that she could change into. As the four figures crept along--actually, one of the red heads had being carried by the other--Harry whispered the formalities.

"Kate," he said, "this is Bill and Fred Weasley. Fred's stomach got gashed by Mr. Malfoy's dagger, I think. And boys, this is Kaitlyn Lowell. Her sister was the girl who had Oliver's babies, but she was sent away to a Swedish convent." Harry continued to mutter things like that, and Kate began to think that it was a way of reassuring himself.

They ran into no trouble until they reached the woods. Harry, Bill, and Fred had all gotten safely into the woods when there was a loud cry from across the lawns. Kate made the mistake of turning around to see who was outside in the whirling snow with them, and she gasped as a large beam of light cut through the storm and fell illuminated her figure.

"There's another one!" someone screeched, and Kate began to run as fast as she could away from the woods, despite Harry's yells for her to come back.

The blizzard was out of control now and getting worse every minutes. The icicles no longer bruised Kate but gave her painful cuts. Her feet were bloody and numb and her nightdress was torn and ragged. Kate didn't know where she was running or how far behind her the Death Eaters were. She had only just begun to realize how freezing she was and she was almost out of breath. Finally Kate felt that she could give herself a small break and she slumped down behind a lone clump of bushes. She must be near the stable, where such bushes grew. Maybe if she made it a few more feet she could find the stables and get some horses...

"I'm sorry."

For the second time in thirty minutes Kate was surprised by an unexpected person. This time it was, of all people, Amelia. Her skin was an unhealthy blue color and her lips were so cold that they had turned purple. Kate noticed with a sickening feeling that her sisters feet were black. They might have to be amputated when they got to the Connecting Six.

"I'm so sorry, Kate. For betraying Josephine and following mother so closely." Amelia's voice was so quiet that it was almost lost in the roaring wind, but the words were so surprising that Kate heard her perfectly well.

"What?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, Kate, and that's what. This whole business was a mess, Kate. You don't know the half of what's going on, and I don't think mother does either..." Amelia was rambling on, now, and the shouts of the Death Eaters were getting closer. Suddenly Amelia stopped talking and looked over the bushes. There was a strange gleam in her eyes. "Give me your bathrobe," she hissed.

"Are you cold?" Kate asked.

"Of course, Kate! But if they see someone in your bathrobe run in the opposite direction that you run you might have a chance of surviving." Amelia grabbed Kate and tried to tug the green bathrobe off.

Kate, overly shocked by her big sister's act of selflessness, was too amazed to fight. "You'd do that for me?" she asked.

Amelia sighed deeply. "No," she said. "I may be sorry but I'm still self-centered. I'm doing this to redeem myself and try to make up for all the bad I've done. I don't think it'll get me into heaven, but it's worth a shot."

"You won't die!" Kate said. "Just come with me and-"

"Kate, if you ever see Josie again then tell her that I was just afraid of what might happen. It'll answer an important question she once asked me." And with that Amelia was gone, racing off into the distance. Kate heard people begin to yell again, and then one, long, agonized scream that had to have been her sister's. Slowly she stood and moved towards the faint outline of a stable...

***

"Will he live?"

Kate's voice was soft, and Harry could tell that she had been crying. He hadn't expected her to return to the forest--not with so many Death Eaters after her--and he had charged out after her, leaving Bill and Fred safely hidden behind some shrubs. The whirling snowstorm had covered up any tracks and, under normal circumstances, Harry very much doubted that he could have found Kate. But something that night had guided him across the grounds of Malfoy Manor and to the stables, where he had found Kate saddling up three horses.

"Mr. Malfoy hates the horses--it's his wife's real passion though--and I doubt they'll notice if three of the servants' horses are missing," Kate had said hurriedly. "And the servants wouldn't dare complain about losing three strong horses. Mr. Malfoy would curse them from here to the States if they lost such a big investment of his."

Both Harry and Kate had mounted their horses and galloped back to the woods where they found a half-frozen Bill and a barely alive Fred waiting for them. After helping Bill hoist Fred up onto the third horse Kate guided the three men to the manor that the Malfoys had given Draco and she. Currently the four of them were bedding down in a cabin that had been built for the servants, and Kate had only just returned from retrieving clothes and food and making sure the horses were all right. Harry would and should have gone with her but Bill had insisted that he help him fix Fred's wound up.

"Yes, he'll live, but I'm not sure for how long. Tell me Kate, how long will it take to get to the Connecting Six?" Harry asked.

Kate shrugged, wrapping a thick, ermine trimmed black cloak she must have gotten from the manor. "I'm not sure. You see, the Connecting Six is an enchanted place where the remaining six Old Rivers flow into one small lake. It was set up by the Light--I'll tell you more about them later--as a sanctuary for those in great need, among other things. The Connecting Six has no real location, actually. There's no map to tell us how to get there."

"What?" Harry asked, eyebrows arched. "Then how can we find it?"

Kate, for the first time that evening, regained her old smirk. "Oh, Harry," she said, looking out the window and into the raging storm outside, "we don't find it. It finds us. When our need to be at the Connecting Six is great enough then we will be magically transported there."

Harry snorted. "Well, Fred's pretty hurt. I'd say that that was a good enough need--to get him healthy and fixed up."

Kate looked down and the floor and then at the fire, tears misting over her eyes. "I don't control these things," she said, and now tears were streaming down her pale face. Harry had only just noticed the painful cuts and large bruises on her skin, no doubt souvenirs of the storm. "I'm so sorry, Harry," Kate whispered, and he hugged her instinctively. Harry could sense that the breaking point of her grief was soon, and no one knew better than him how healing a good cry could be. "I miss Ron, and Miranda, and Chevalier and..."

But then Kate burst into the most mournful sobs he had ever heard. She rolled loose from Harry grip and began to rock back and forth, her face buried in her hands, her whole body hunched up into a tight ball. From the back room of the cabin came a crashing noise, and Bill came rushing out.

"Heaven almighty!" he gasped when he saw Kate. "Harry, we've got to calm her down! The baby--she might harm the baby! Or she might hurt herself!"

"Bloody hell, Bill! I don't know what to do! She's lost half her sisters and her lover in one night! What could we say to calm her? That Ron's in a better place? That her sisters are watching over her?"

Bill threw his arms up in the air. "Well, Fred's in bad shape too. Harry, he lost too much blood! And now that Kate's gone off the deep end-"

"Don't say that about her! How would you feel if two of your brothers turned you in to Voldemort and two more were killed, all in the course of twenty-four hours? Kate's lucky that she's been able to keep it together for so long!"

"Well, Harry, I haven't lost just two of my brothers--I've lost four! Ron, George, Percy, and Charlie were all taken by You Know Who, remember? But you don't see my going mad on everyone!"

Between the angry yells, Kate's grief-stricken cries, and the crackling of the fire no one noticed that the blizzard outside had suddenly gone quiet. Just when things were reaching an explosive end the door to the cabin burst open and three people ran in. The first dove for Kate, pinning her down to the ground. The other two ran for the back room, where Fred had been left unguarded. Harry's first reaction was to jump the person--it was a man--pinning Kate down. Bill gave a wild howl and charged into the back room, only to come shooting out again.

"Harry," he cried, trying to pull Harry off the struggling man. "Don't! It's just Lee! These people only want to help us, Harry! That's just Orfay and Hermione in there!"

Harry stopped long enough to take a good look down at the man he was 'fighting'. Indeed, it was Lee Jordan. With a look of bewilderment Harry climbed off Lee and looked out the open door. It was summer outside the small cabin, and there was no snow, much unlike the environment they had just left. Birds flew along lazily in the deep blue sky and, in the distance, Harry could see a large lake.

"It worked, didn't it?" Harry asked. "Our need to be here--to get help for Kate and Fred--was so great that we were transported here, just like Kate said."

Lee stood up, brushing off his robes--they were made of brown velvet, Harry noticed--shrugged. "I wouldn't know how you all got here. Felicite said there were many ways, but we called upon the Elders of the Connecting Six, and they summoned us here. That was two hours ago, though. Where have you all been? And where's Miranda? And everyone else?"

Harry's head dropped and he heard Lee gasp in horror. "They're dead, all of them," Bill said, looking out the window. Though Bill was not crying like Kate was, Harry was sure that their grief was equal. Lee must have sensed this too for he bent down to pick Kate up.

"She's lighter than she looks," he muttered to himself. Turning to Harry he said, "I have to go and take Kate to her family's home here. Bill, you mum's here--we rounded up all the Weasleys--and she'll look after Kate. Mrs. Lowell--she's the coldest woman I've ever met--locked herself in her room half-an-hour ago and Keri and Jeanette are both asleep. Sugar and Tinkerbell are off lollygagging around, and Felicite's asleep too, but she has her own home." Lee paused. "Did you know she was married to Chevalier? And that she's pregnant too? Three months, apparently. She and I had a big soul talk...She and her husband had so many dreams, you know."

Harry could only nod. "We all did Lee. We all did..."

***

Life from then on was, for lack of a better word, bittersweet. The first week after Kate's arrival at the Connecting Six was all a massive blur, and all she remembered from that time was an unbearable grief. Felicite and the Weasleys and her sisters mourned too, but no one could have possibly cried as much as Kate. She had not only lost her lover but her sisters as well--five of them to be exact. Now all she had was Keri and Jeanette. Their mother was too far gone by then--perhaps the pain of losing both Amelia and Sophia was just that overwhelming--to actually be considered a functioning member of the family.

In the end Kate had decided that it was hatred that had saved her, though she never admitted that to anyone. She had felt such a great hatred towards Voldemort, for taking away so many that she had loved. She had hated Hermione and Cho, for having husbands to love and care for them and their future children, and she hated Peggy for betraying them all. But most of all she hated herself for being the one to get everyone into this mess. The hate was enough to keep her alive, as sick as that might seem. The hate was enough to keep her sane, as well.

However, she spent so much of her time hating that her detest for everything soon burned out, and she began to love again. She had once despised the idea of having a child, but now she embraced the idea. This little girl growing inside of her, this little life that she had created, became her new reason to live. Mrs. Weasley, Ron's mother, adopted Kate, Keri, and Jeanette as her own. For the first time in her life Kate knew the unbridled love a mother felt for her children, and she promised herself to love her daughter like Mrs. Weasley loved her remaining children.

In the beginning it had been decided that they would just stay in the Connecting Six for few days, until Kate and Felicite and Fred were well enough to travel, but days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Kate knew that Harry had somehow gotten an owl to Dumbledore informing him that all was well and that they were in a safe place. It was eternally summer at the Connecting Six, and so, as the stomachs of Kate, Felicite, Hermione, and Cho swelled in pregnancy, they all enjoyed the everlasting rays of the sun. Orfay Weasley was the perfect midwife and kept them all up to date about their children.

Months passed and all four women gave birth to their babies. There were two boys and two girls: Jeffrey James Potter was the eldest, then came Adrian Chevalier Audric, and then Elizabeth Denise Jordan. The youngest of the four babies was Kate's, and the hardest labor of the four was Kate's as well, but when Orfay had handed her the little bundle--her own flesh and blood--Kate knew every second had been worth it.

Kate named her daughter Liana Mandolin Lowell, after her ancestor, the famous Seer, but called her Ana. She watched Liana grown to a year old, heard her say her first word, saw her take her first step. Orfay once performed a genealogy spell, to find out who was the father, but Kate never shared the results, and perhaps that was just as well. All the Weasleys--Molly, Arthur, Bill, Fred, and Ginny--doted on Ana without reserve, barely caring whose bloodlines she had. Things were good. Too good, maybe. Kate often wondered why they never got letters from Dumbledore, or whether the Death Eaters were still looking for them, but one day all her questions were answered...

***

It was Elizabeth's--or Liza's--first birthday. All the inhabitants of the Connecting Six had gathered to celebrate this event, and the lucky birthday girl had been flooded with presents all day. She and Ana--the two were damn near inseperable--had been giggling in their playpen for the past ten years while Tinkerbell and Sugar watched over them. Harry had taken Jeffrey--or Rey--and Adrian fishing in one of the six Old Rivers for food that night when he saw them.

There were about a hundred men dressed in dark robes with hoods and masks. Harry knew that they were Death Eaters almost immediately--he didn't have time to question how they had gotten into the universe of the Connecting Six--and that they outnumbered the people of the Connecting Six one to three. Harry gave a warrior's cry, alerting the rest of the Connecting Six community, and ran with the babies...

***

"Kate, Felicite, Hermione, Cho, Ginny, Keri, Jeanette, Bill and a man named Sabien were the ones who drew the straws to take the children and jump back to the real universe. Tinkerbell and I were in Kate's side pocket when the nine of them all came back to here. It was late fall when we arrived back, and for a week or two we were totally disoriented. I don't remember much of back then--we all got very sick, and Sabien died--and soon we came to the conclusion that we could not take care of the babies and that we should give them to people we trusted." Sugar finished her story with a deep breath.

"I thought my mother hated Mrs. Davies," Ana said, sitting up and picking blades of grass of her arm.

"She did," Sugar said quietly. "Actually, we left you all in the care of an old friend of Hermione's, Lavender Brown. Lavender was getting married to a man named Seamus Finnigan soon so there was no need to worry that she'd be overwhelmed. Kate gave Lavender a box of things, too, filled with some of her old possessions. The boxes that Tinkerbell and I came in were in there." Sugar paused for a long time. "She really loved you, Ana. She really did, and leaving you almost killed her. She wanted to keep you so badly--you were her world, you know--but she knew that it would be wrong. She and her friends were still weak and sick, and taking care of you not only endangered yourself but the rest of them as well."

Ana was very quiet. So many of her questions had yet to be answered. Where was her mother now? Why wasn't she with Lavender Brown and her husband? Why had Sugar called her the Savior?

Sugar seemed to read Ana's mind for she said, quite quickly, "Death Eaters found out where you were two days after Kate had dropped you off. They raided the Lavender Brown's household, murdered the poor woman, and knocked Tinkerbell and I out cold. That's the last thing I remember, until yesterday, when I woke up in the box Ron sent me to your mum in. I was in these woods, and at first I thought that it was the next day or something. Then I wandered through the trees and came upon a row of cabins. I was drawn to yours--I suppose that was fate--and when I saw you I knew for sure that you were Kate's child, her daughter. I don't know where your mother is, and, truthfully, I don't know how you ended up with your aunt, or why Pegatha Davies never turned you in. Maybe she thought that your powers could help her, but maybe she doesn't know what you're meant to do..."

"There you go again!" Ana cried, frowning deeply. "You keep talking about all this 'powers' business and saying that I have a destiny and that I'm a 'Savior'. What's all that about?"

Sugar stopped muttering to herself and ran a hand through her dark hair. "I guess that's the second part of the story; the part I left out. Kate, you now know about the Light. Do you ever wonder why you were named after your ancestor Liana?"

Ana shook her head. "Maybe my mother liked the name," she said.

Sugar gave Ana a cryptic smile. "Or maybe she knew that you were Liana's heir."

Ana arched an eyebrow. "Liana's heir? Wasn't that Alaric or whatever his name was?"

"Elaric," Sugar said slowly, "was male, and men can't ever be true Seers. Liana's heir was to be the sixth daughter of the first string of girls born to the Lowell name. And Ana, believe it or not, for the past thousand or so years, no girls have been born to the Lowell name. And you are the sixth of your parent's daughters, right?"

Ana still wasn't buying into all this 'Seer' stuff. "Well," she said skeptically, "even if I am Liana's heir then that doesn't mean that I'm a Savior."

Now Sugar was giving Ana a look of great respect and awe. "One of Liana's prophecies, Ana, went something like this: Silver and red upon their head, destiny awakens. One will father the chosen while the other was born to die. A crescent moon will mark the chosen, and she will save them all. I have marked my heir, my namesake, and she will be the downfall of all the darkness. Don't you have a crescent moon birthmark? I've seen it myself so don't bother to lie."

Ana rubbed her chest where there was indeed a moon like birthmark. "It's more in the shape of a cloud," she lied. "I'm no Savior. I'm only a maid in the house of my backstabbing aunt."

Sugar shook her head. "No, Ana, you're much more than a maid. When your mother saw the birthmark she called Tinkerbell and I into the tent. Felicite was in there too--she's your godmother--and your mother told us all of an ancient prophecy that had been passed down from generation to generation of Lowells. She said that she had forgotten all about it until she saw the birthmark, and she told us all that we were a part of the prophecies as well."

"Does that mean my father's Draco?" Ana asked. "I mean, Ron's the one who died."

"I'm not sure," Sugar replied. "Did Ron's death have any purpose? Kate never told me who the father was, but I know that it was him that she truly loved. And as I was saying, your mother swore us to secrecy. It was only then that she began to record her diary. I'm sure that Tinkerbell told you a whole bunch of lies about why she was they key to the diary, but the truth of the matter is that Kate asked her to help you when you learned of your real heritage. She asked me to unlock the letters, though."

"Letters?" Ana asked.

Sugar nodded and walked over to the diary. She stood stop it much like Tinkerbell had normally done and soon the diary lit up the darkening clearing. When the glow from the small purple book faded Sugar stood there, four letters clutched in her hand. "One," she said, "is for now. The others will be a gift on your thirteenth, sixteenth, and eighteenth birthdays. I'll leave now if you want to read them in peace. I'll just get our things ready, because we do need to leave soon."

Ana nodded and took the letter that Sugar had extended to her. It was written on nice, golden paper and, even after eleven years, it smelled like jasmine perfume. Ana wondered to herself if it was her mother's scent. Upon opening the letter Ana was greeted by her mother nice scrawl. Slowly she began to read the piece of paper, which was dated a week after her first birthday.

Dearest Ana,

It's nice and sunny out, but then again it's always sunny here. I'm sitting on the rooftop of my home here in the Connecting Six, watching Keri and Jeanette wrestle down in the grass. You're lying peacefully in your cradle, and I am stuck, not for the first time, how much you resemble both of the men who could be your father and myself. You have my eyes, and my hair, and I'd say that you look exactly like me, but you have Draco's lush lips and Ron's adorable expressions. You have Draco's smile as well, or at least a more innocent version of it.

I'll find out who you father is, my daughter, and I will add it into the letter you will receive on your eighteenth birthday. By then, I know, you will be much wiser, and you will be able to use your father's identity to your advantage. I laugh along with the others, pretending that we'll always be happy like this, but I know that one day all our newfound happiness will be shattered. I know--and it pains me to write this--that I will not see you very much as you grow up.

You are Liana's heir, the Chosen One, the Savior. It is my belief that everything that has happened to me in the past few months was all part of the master plan. I'm sure that Harry Potter, the boy who lived, is a part of it too, but you, my darling, are to deliver us all from evil, with the help of Harry's son, Rey. Liza Jordan and Adrian Audric will be along for the ride, too, and you might even find love in Rey or Adrian. I am leaving Tinkerbell and Sugar--you must know them well by now--as your 'faerie godmothers'. They'll guide you through your journey, Ana, and answer all of your questions.

As of now, that is all I can tell you. I know that all this has been quite a shock--Voldemort is probably very powerful now--and I hope you know how much I love you. In case something goes terribly wrong in the future there are some things I want you to have. I'll leave it with whomever we find to look after you, and maybe the things in there will give you some clues. I love you so much, Ana, and I hope we meet again soon. Good luck, be good, and listen to your 'faerie godmothers'.

Love Always,

Kaitlyn Lowell

Ana folded the letter and put it in the front pocket of her apron. Sugar was back, now, and moving about the clearing. She was covering their footprints and sprinkling a bag of dust about the ground.

"What's that for?" Ana asked.

"It's pepper," Sugar replied, "and it'll throw off any dogs or magical creatures that are trying to follow our trail." Seeing the worried look on Ana's face Sugar sighed. "Those men who were looking for you yesterday didn't sound as if they were going to give up too easily. They might not come this far into the woods, but I don't want to take any chances. They probably don't know how powerful you're going to become, but obviously you have something that they want. Now would be the good time to make off for the coast. I can tell you my theories on why Rey and Liza were placed in homes, too."

"That sounds like a good plan, but in this letter my mother mentioned a box that contained some old things of hers," Ana said. "I think I know what my mother was talking about. There's a box of things in the attic of Davies Manor, and I'm going back to get it."

Sugar looked up from sprinkling pepper on the ground and gave Ana a strange look. "Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing," she said, "it's always from the noblest of motives. Oscar Wilde, an excerpt from 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. I'm sure you mean well, Ana, but honestly--I would have expected better judgment from you. Your mother's things might hold sentimentality to you, but what's more important? The box or your life?"

Ana, somewhat hurt by Sugar little quote, was far from discouraged. "I know that manor like the back of my hand. Mrs. Davies--or Aunt Peggy or whatever I should call her--has no real security charms up. I could sneak in, get to the attack, and grab a few things from the box. I don't have to have everything but it'd be nice to have something besides this diary to remember my mother by."

Ana gave Sugar a pleading look, but the small faerie staid as stubborn as ever. "No, Ana! If there are any Death Eaters around--and even if they weren't--Davies Manor then you could get into a lot of trouble! It's a bad idea and I won't let you do anything of the sort!"

Ana's eyes narrowed. She wasn't going to be told 'no' by any three-inch wingless faerie. "It's not as if you have a choice," she pointed out, reaching down to scoop Sugar up. "Don't worry. I'll be careful, and we won't get caught! Have faith, Sugar. After all, I am the savior."

Sugar was seething now, but, as Ana had said, there wasn't much she could do. She didn't talk as Ana began to leave the clearing, taking the path that they had used last night, but she could only think of the horrible sinking feeling in her stomach, and how much trouble might be waiting back at Davies Manor.