Easier To Run

A/N : Uh, this idea just sort of hit my in the head, so I'm writing it now.

P.S. I just found out from Best Buy, that I will not be getting my laptop back for another month. They need to determine whether it fits the qualifications to be replaced under the "No Lemon Law". Funny that they didn't tell us beforehand about needing backup proof, eh? And I would assume that having it crash three times, having the modem replaced three times and getting a whole new system board put in, all in under a year of owning it, would be enough for their "qualifications". I happen to think it does. Ugh. Stupid condescending....won't finish that thought. Go on and read and review! That'll cheer me up! : )

****

She walked through the woods, wand outstretched in front of her.

"I can hear you!" she shouted, "I'm armed! Don't think I won't hex you into next week!"

Her heart rate sped when she heard a branch break up ahead.

"Hello?" she called.

A figure walked out in front of her. Cloaked in black from head to toe, she couldn't see who stood before her. She kept her wand pointed at the figure, but now her hand was shaking.

"Just let me pass," she said to the figure, "I'm not part of the Order. I just want to get back to the village that I live in. Its not far," she said, her voice wavering.

"I know you're not, child," the hooded figure said, and she realized that the voice sounded familiar somehow, "You're far more important."

A second later, she was surrounded by cloaked figures. She spun around, tears staining her cheeks at seeing no escape.

"I'll take that," the hooded figure said holding out his hand and Katie watched as her wand was magiced from her hand and into the cloaked figures, "You won't be needing it."

Katie fell to her knees. "Please, I beg you. I have no information that would be of use to you. I am merely an orphan in this world, with no allegiances."

"An orphan?" the cloaked figure said, "You parents promised that they would give you a good life when I let them go," he said lowering his hood.

Katie looked up and gasped. "Lord Voldemort," she said softly.

The man, if you could call him that, looked impressed. "Brave enough to say my name, but not to tell me the truth. What of your parents, Kathleen Bell?"

Katie choked back a sob as she looked up at the figure before her. "They abandoned me before my fifth year. They said they never wanted me and that I was a mistake. They left me with nothing but the few possessions I had and fled while I was at school."

The figure kneeled before Katie. "I was an orphan too, did you know that?"

Katie nodded. It was common knowledge that Voldemort's father walked out on his mother before she gave birth and that his mother died giving birth to him, leaving him orphaned.

"I made your parents promise me that they would give you the life I never had. A family life. Only then did I allow them to leave my service. When your mother became pregnant, they promised me. Are you saying they lied to me?" he said with ease, still kneeling.

Katie nodded and looked up at the figure kneeling before her. "I'm sorry they lied to you, I am."

Voldemort nodded. "They will be found and killed of course," he said simply, "But what of your godfather? He was also in my service."

"I have no knowledge of him, sir," Katie said, hoping that politeness would let her escape with her life.

"Pity, Severus was always one to accept his duties. You would have liked him, my child," he said standing, "Now get up off of your knees, Kathleen. You'll dirty your robes."

Katie stood shakily to her feet. She prayed to the gods to let him take mercy on her. A fellow orphan in this horrible world.

"You will come with me, Kathleen. It is always good to have hostages to tempt the Order with," Voldemort said simply.

"If I may, sir, my life will get you nothing with the Order. I pray of you, please let me pass. I will tell no one of this meeting, not that I have anyone to tell," she said.

Voldemort walked right up to her. "Than perhaps you shall join us, my child. I can give you everything you've always wanted. My loyal servants are the only family I have every had, and I am sure that you would feel the same."

"I have no talents with which to offer you," she said, trying desperately to earn her escape.

Voldemort seemed to be thinking her plea over. "Do you wish to leave my company, Kathleen?"

Katie decided to be honest with him. "I simply do not wish to die, sir."

"Have you something, or someone to live for, my child?"

"Only myself. No one else."

Voldemort looked around at the other cloaked figures and nodded. They all took two steps back and disapparated. Voldemort turned his eyes on Katie again. He twirled her wand in his hands before holding it out before him.

"Take it, my child," he said, waiting for Katie's shaking hands to take the wand from him, "I will let you go. If you change your mind, you are welcome to join me and be part of a real family."

Katie nodded, and wiped the tears from her cheeks with her still shaking hands. "Thank you, sir."

Lord Voldemort raised his hood and disapparated without another word. Katie sank to her knees and cried for a few long moments before standing again. She lifted her wand shakily and concentrated on her destination before apparating.

She appeared in an airport. She pulled her ticket from her robes as she broke off into a run, heading for the gate. A cry met her ears as she spotted the gate that matched her ticket.

"Mommy!"

Katie ran and scooped the crying little girl into her arms. "Oh, Adriana! I never thought I'd see you again," Katie said bursting into tears again.

She set the little girl down reluctantly and was embraced by her husband.

"Oh, Kate, sweetheart," he murmured as he hugged her, "I was so afraid-"

Katie cut him off by kissing him passionately. The man returned the kiss with fervor. He pulled away when the intercom announced that boarding was beginning. Katie looked down and saw a baby carrier next to his feet. She leaned down and picked the baby up out of it.

"Cedric!" she said, holding the baby boy protectively against her.

Her husband picked up the baby carrier and took Adriana's hand. "Come on, Kate. We can talk more once we get in our seats," he said looking at her, is brown eyes still filled with fear.

"Don't worry, Oliver, I'm coming," she said, adjusting her hold on Cedric and following her husband, "I think we'll be safe now."

****

Katie woke and sat up in bed, breathing hard. Reaching up and touching her face, she felt a wetness there. Had she really been crying? She sniffed, and it felt like she had a very bad head cold. Oh yeah, she'd been crying.

"What that hell was that?" she murmured, running a hand through her tangled hair.

She looked down at her wrist and squinted in the dark to make out the time. Sighing upon seeing the time, and threw her legs over the side of the bed. The early morning sun streamed through the windows. Katie hastily grabbed a sheet of parchment, one of her new quills, and a nearby book. She sat in one of the window alcoves, taking advantage of the light, and wrote every detail of the dream out. Every moment had felt so real to her, as if she were watching some event from the future take place before her eyes. When she got to the part about Oliver, she smiled. 'Well, if anything,' she thought, 'I'd like that part to happen.' The only thing she couldn't get over was the fact that the baby's name had been Cedric. Katie felt her heart tighten uncomfortably in her chest. If anything happened to him- No, Katie didn't want to think about it.

****

She went down to breakfast and sat in an uncomfortable silence. Something had happened. She could feel the tension, and Dumbledore was not smiling. Finally, not being able to take it anymore, she looked up from her plate.

"What happened?" she asked calmly.

The next moment, a letter was dropped next to her plate. She picked it up and pocketed it, looking at Dumbledore expectantly. The letter could wait.

"There was an incident last night at the Quidditch World Cup. Death Eater activity occurred, involving the exhibition of muggles, and the Dark Mark was sent up, though no one was killed."

"The what?" Katie asked, honestly perplexed.

She knew little of the Death Eaters, and she wondered idly if the information from her dream was actually true.

"The Dark Mark is an image that was conjured by Death Eaters to float above the houses where they had committed murders," Snape said, brandishing the Daily Prophet at her, "That," he said pointing to the front page picture, "is what it looks like."

Katie picked up the newspaper and looked at the glittering moving picture of this Dark Mark hanging above a clump of trees. She blinked slightly and handed the paper back to Snape, who sat it aside, watching Katie's expression.

"Was anyone hurt?" Katie asked, thinking about the many people she knew who went to see the Cup played.

Off the top of her head, she remembered Lee, Oliver, The Weasley's and possibly Harry too, had gone to watch.

"No, no one was hurt. But the fact that former Death Eaters felt the need to," Snape said, choosing his next word wisely, "celebrate, the way they did, has many people worried."

Katie read between the lines. He was very worried. She could see it in his face and read it in his eyes. Katie tried to control her breathing. That didn't mean that Voldemort could come back, did it? Her mind went back to her brain, and she pulled the parchment from her pocket. She held it in her hands, and looked at Snape.

"This," she said handing him the papers, "is a dream I had last night. I just- Excuse me," Katie said, not being able to sit there anymore.

She walked from the Great Hall and out onto the grounds. She needed to think, so she went straight to her rock.

*

Severus looked at the parchment in his hands and then to Albus.

"Well, read it old boy. She must be frightened by it or she wouldn't have written it down," Albus said, trying to tease the younger man.

Severus looked back at the parchment and read through it quickly. When he finished, he set down the pieces of parchment and put his head in his hands.

"Merlin," he mumbled, lifting his head, "that was like reading a piece of fiction."

Running a hand through his hair, he looked at Albus. "She dreamed everything I never told her about her parents."

Albus looked at him suspiciously. "What didn't you tell her, Severus?"

"That her mother and father were involved in the Death Eaters and had left before I joined," Severus said, putting his head in his hands again, "But that," he said pointing at the pieces of parchment, "seems to be an event that would take place in the future. And brilliant acting on her part."

Albus picked up the parchment and read through it quickly. When he finished, he placed the parchment back on the table. "Perhaps our Miss. Bell has some slight Seer abilities, like her father," Albus said gently.

Severus looked up and looked straight at Albus. "You don't really believe that, do you? Seer's usually see things in the immediate future."

"Her father never did either. I believe it may run in the Bell family. We may have to question Miss. Bell on that. See if she ever had strong feelings of dread at times, only to find that something had happened. It is an ability coined by muggles called precognition. Although, she may just be very intuitive, Severus," Albus said kindly.

Severus nodded, and looked toward the doors to the Great Hall. "Where does she go?"

"I believe Remus told me that he once discovered her on a rock, out by the lake. A good thinking spot, if I may say so myself."

Severus stood and walked from the Great Hall. He had to check on Katie.

*

Katie sat up on her rock, looking out at the sun as it rose higher and higher over the lake. Her dream had initially scared her, but now, it terrified her. She had had incidents in the past that resembled ESP. A gift that muggles and wizards alike could have. The letters stood for Extrasensory Perception. She had read up on these things after having a dream about a fight between her parents and the waking up to it. After hearing it word for word as she did in her dream, she knew that she had some gift of mind. Precognition was the closest thing she found to what had happened. Katie had read that precognition was knowledge of events before they happened. And so when the event did happen, the person had an extreme case of déjà vu. Katie had just experienced that the night that Sirius Black had been on the grounds. The night Remus had transformed and Peter had escaped.

Shaking her head of the thought, she looked back over the lake. Maybe she did, and maybe she didn't. She only hoped that nothing in her dream ever became a reality. Hearing footsteps approaching behind her, she turned her head and saw Snape walking toward her. She said nothing, and turned back to look out over the lake. She heard his footsteps falter, until finally stopping beside the rock.

"Katie, there are things I haven't told you," he said, and Katie noticed that he was standing very rigid.

"What I dreamed was real wasn't it? About my parents anyway," Katie said watching him carefully.

Snape looked up at her. "Yes, your parents were the only people who were released from Voldemort. And I'm sure that if he ever regained power and found out what they've done to you, he will kill them."

Katie looked away from Snape and back over the lake. "Good."

She could feel him looking at her, but she refused to return his stare.

"Are you sure you'd be happy about that?" he said carefully.

"Yes. Positive," Katie said evenly.