The Hidden Marauder (Harry Potter FanFiction)

Discovery

-CHAPTER NINE-

Discovery

"Who does he think he is?"

"Oh, come now. Let the boy have his laughs. Does it really matter whether or not he's run off? You know he'll be back."

"But when?"

"Well... If he doesn't return soon, I'm sure the Lord won't be most impressed. His mark will burn; then he'll be back like a snitch."

"D'ya hear that?"

Vince – now with the face Katherine remembered - snarled in her general direction, face cold with an emotion she couldn't describe, as they floo'd into an unfamiliar room. It was too much to hope for that she would have been able to recognise her surroundings and plot an escape – Katherine knew that now. She distinctly recognised that one of the voices that had been speaking before was her father's; the other, too, scarily familiar. Katherine was reluctant to, and therefore refused, to name the other for fear that she may be correct.

"Sounds like they're thinking about telling mouldy that I've done a runner!"

Vince clapped his hand tigher around Katherine's shoulder and began steering her out of the room that they had been stood in and down a lavish looking hallway. She decided not to struggle, as that clearly didn't help her before, and simply assisted in making herself appear weaker than she wished to be perceived.

"I wonder if they'll be impressed..." Vince was now muttering to himself at this point; resigned to the fact that Katherine herself was currently mute. "Doubt it. Curses are probably in order... I wonder which one's they'll ch- Ah! I guess we'll find out!"

One of Vince's large, calloused hands rested heavily on a large oak door.

"Right about... Now."

The door swung open, clattering against the wall, and in front of Katherine stood an abnormally extravagant sitting room; decorated in silvers, creams and emerald greens.

Slytherins.

Eyes lifting from the furniture, Katherine found herself met with two surprised expressions – one more amused than the other – and another, less surprised, more stoic glance.

The two surprised expressions belonged, one, to her father – who looked much the same as ever; dark auburn coloured hair much like her own dusting his neck as it fell messily above his grey eyes and pointed nose. He looked slightly more gaunt and wrinkled than she remembered, but Katherine supposed that it would only have been expected from someone who worked alongside the Dark Lord.

The stoic glance belonged to Lucius Malfoy. Katherine looked away from him quickly, for he was never someone who she had felt comfortable around – eyes darting towards the remaining person; the appearance of whom made her heart sink in her chest.

Standing there, his black eyes wide with what she assumed to be a mixture of both horror and shock, was Severus Snape – old foe, newly found friend and ally.

Katherine didn't blame him. It was unbeknownst to many Death-Eaters and wizards alike that a Mercer girl existed, let alone for it to have been Katherine. Their surnames? But an unlucky coincidence, perhaps some distant relation. Even whilst Katherine had lived with her family, her outlandish spontaneities made it so that her parents kept her existence quiet, and that was simply made easier as Katherine exiled herself upon sorting. In fact, the only people who truly knew of her existence was the Mercer's themselves, Lucius Malfoy, and whoever Katherine had told – friends, teachers and associates.

She hadn't, however, quite gotten around to telling Snape.

"There was reason for my absence!" The loud booming voice of Katherine's brother came from behind her as his hand left her shoulder and came back down on it in a clap – a possessive gesture? "I found Katie!"