Between These Walls and Darkened Halls

PROLOGUE

January 15^th, 2008

Order of the Phoenix Safehouse

Undisclosed Address, County Cork, Ireland

"What is your progress? Have you found him yet?"

"I'll remind you once more, Miss Smith, that you are not privy to such details until the operation has been completed."

"Don't give me that! I'm handing you every smallest detail of my life's work! The least you could let me know is whether or not he's alive!" Kiora Smith raged at the auror who had walked into her room for one reason or another.

"And again, Miss Smith, what you deserve and what you are told is not my decision," he responded, not budging on the issue. "But you are needed in the Council. There are a few more questions that need to be answered."

"Like hell there are! I'm not answering anything until my questions are answered! I'm not moving from this spot until someone starts talking!"

At that, the tall, bulky auror simply sighed, stunned her, and easily lifted Kiora in all her lanky boniness to take her to the council the only time efficient way. He ignored the screams of protest from the two who had been sharing the room with the woman over his shoulder and left holding them back to the guards that were permanently stationed at the doorway. After descending to the ground floor of the house, he proceeded to another guarded door and through it once one of the guards opened it for him.

"Where should I put her?"

"That chair right there should be fine. Thank you, Kingsley. Was she too much of a trouble this time?" Dumbledore asked as Kingsley Shacklebolt walked around the table to sit in his normal seat.

"Not once I stunned her. Are you ready for me to lift the hex? She'll be screaming, no doubt, once she can speak again," he asked and the stunned prisoner glared at him as much as one stunned could glare.

"Just do it, we haven't the time to waste," the young man at Dumbledore's right side ordered and Kingsley lifted the hex.

"How dare you treat me like this? Might I remind you that I had absolutely nothing to do with the man whose death you celebrated until so recently! And that I celebrated as gleefully as the rest of you for his death!" Kiora was, surely enough, shouting and looked as if she'd be cursing them all if she managed to get her hands on a wand.

"We have a few more questions to ask, Professor, um, Miss Smith, rather," Hermione Granger informed her politely.

"That's just too bad, isn't it? I'm not answering anything more until a few questions of mine are answered."

"Might I remind you, Miss Smith, that we have enough on you for several life sentences in Azkaban and then some? I hardly think you're in the position to make threats or demands," the young man on Dumbledore's right reminded her quite seriously.

"That's where you're wrong, Mr. Potter. I am in the perfect position to make any threat or demand I wish. You very obviously need information that cannot wait much longer. I very likely have the exact information you need. Veritaserum has already proven useless on me, thanks to the True Lord's 'inhumane' practice of forcing his unmarked to build immunity to it, as Miss Granger coined the process..."

"He was steadily poisoning you over the process of three years! One drop too much and you would have died a slow, painful, irreversible death! How is that anything but inhumane?!" Hermione interrupted before being silenced by Dumbledore.

"If I may continue?" Kiora waited a moment as she and Hermione glared daggers at one another. "As I was saying, you have no way to force the information from me, Mr. Potter. Your only hope, it would seem, is within the kindness of my heart. You will tell me what I want to know or I will never answer another question of yours again. You can torture me all you want. Send me to Azkaban, kill me, set me up on a date with a dementor - it won't matter. You are entirely at my mercy."

"She's right, Harry," Remus Lupin noted wearily from his seat at Dumbledore's other side. "What is it you want to know, Miss Smith?"

"Aren't you always the kind one, Remus? To this day trying to keep James from attacking me," Kiora observed, smiling a little at the surge of anger very obviously felt by Harry that she dare mention his father. "But since you asked so nicely, I desist. I want to know if you found him yet and if so, where he is."

"According to our most current reports, Draco Malfoy has taken to Malfoy Manor. His Death Eaters seem to be keeping the place well guarded and warded," Hermione informed both her and the council quite coldly and formally.

"Not the Malfoy brat, you twit! I couldn't care less where he took his mindless tattooed toadies! I am an unmarked! Regardless of blood, that tattoo on his arm puts him well beneath me. I want to know the whereabouts of the True Lord," the bony woman spat at her, disgusted at the thought she'd even care about Draco Malfoy.

"The True Lord?" Hermione asked, flipping through papers uneasily. "Malfoy has claimed himself the Dark Lord, but I don't have any information on a True Lord..."

"Perhaps you could give us a name, Kiora?" Dumbledore asked kindly, looking at her apologetically.

"I have been speaking of him since I first started answering your questions and you know it! Don't play games with me, you old coot! You know damn well who it is and I will not state his name aloud for your records! That is one piece of information I will never confirm nor deny for you!" she was on her feet, looking ready to attack someone until Kingsley stood again to push her back down into her chair with a warning she'd be restrained the next time.

"Very well, Kiora. Your True Lord has been found. His body was discovered on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forrest near Hogsmeade this morning," the old man answered serenely, watching to see her reaction.

"No it wasn't. I would know if he's dead, I would have felt him die. You haven't found him yet at all, have you?" the one hysterical woman was suddenly very poised, unsettling a few present.

"A body was found of his height and stature with a serpentine face and the Dark Mark emblazoned upon his arm. I identified it myself," Severus Snape spoke up, looking very pleased to tell her this. Kiora, however, started laughing.

"You fool! You never saw the True Lord, only his servant! His face wasn't serpentine at all and he never had the Dark Mark himself - only the fools unworthy of his elite ranks took the mark! Those and the fools who followed that demented twit of a pureblood, Ignatius Zambini, like you, may I add. You're all still looking for Voldemort, but there's one problem with that. Harry Potter killed and defeated Lord Voldemort over two years ago," Kiora was beaming with victory looking at Snape's sudden fury.

"You lie," the man hissed, his hand itching to take his wand and wipe the smug smile from her face.

"You know I do not," she argued, smiling wider. "You haven't found the True Lord; you haven't even heard a word about his whereabouts. That can only mean he's watching. He's watching all of you and has no doubt followed one or more of you here. He knows where you have me hidden and he will come to get me."

"I find that highly unlikely," Hermione started, but Kiora interrupted.

"Thank you for the information. I won't be answering any questions tonight. And don't try again tomorrow. I'm finished with your questions and have nothing else I want from you," she stood and smiled at all of them maliciously. "You had better start watching your backs. All of you. None of your lives are important for our survival. He is watching and he will come for me. That's a promise."

Kiora then turned and left the room, letting the door slam closed behind her as she headed up to the third floor room she was being kept in. The guards looked at her strangely, but didn't argue about opening the door to lock her up once more.

"Could they tell you anything?"

"Not directly, but they wouldn't need to. None of us will answer another question. Don't even speak in front of them, not a word. We are the last of the unmarked and we will no longer shame our ranks in this manner. Instead we will continue on as we have been trained - silent and prepared for anything once captured. We sleep in two hour shifts until we escape. Remain prepared to go at any moment."

"You have a plan?"

"I don't need one," Kiora assured them and smiled into both their faces. "He is coming for us."