Cherchez la Femme

Disclaimer: Except for an OC, the characters here and the world they live in are the creation and property of JK Rowling.

Halloween was chilly but clear that year. Katherine Apparated to a small town and inspected what was left of the small house she found there. Trick-or-treaters were walking up and down the streets, ringing doorbells and knocking on doors. Katherine, in her work robe and hat, was hardly noticeable under the circumstances. She smiled at a stray happy memory of her own childhood and then sighed.

She found the house. She assumed it was the right place, since half of it was caved in. It was originally a nondescript cottage, the sort of house that in some places would be called a "starter home." The couple who had last lived here were just starting out, for all that they also ended their lives here. If there were only some way of finding out for sure...

"What are you doing here?" a voice asked her with hostility. She turned to see Severus Snape.

This was not Severus Snape as she had known him on two previous occasions. This man was angry or upset and more than a little drunk. He stood away from her, legs spread to keep his balance and arms folded. He was trying to sneer down his nose at her, but she was too close to his own height. He tipped his head back slightly, only to realize it was compromising his balance in his current state. He folded his arms tighter and glowered. Katherine couldn't fail to notice that his wand was firmly grasped in his wand hand.

"Good evening, Headmaster. I'm here at the behest of the Head of the Muggle-born Registration Commission."

He grimaced with further annoyance. "Why on earth would Dolores send you here?"

"It's part of my job in tracking down Undesirable Number One. At least twice a week they send me someplace that they hear he might have gone."

"They expected him to be here?" The rage was fading from his face as they spoke. Soon all that would be left was a bland annoyance.

"Tonight is the anniversary of his parents' death and this, I assume," she waved at the ruined house, "would be the site of their death."

As she spoke and waved her hands, she must have tripped the mechanism that caused the notice board to appear. She read it silently.

"Yes, this was their home." She looked back around and he was still standing there, exactly as before, staring impassively. "So, what brings you to Godric's Hollow?"

He took a step toward her and pointed his wand at her. She slipped her own wand out of her sleeve. "How dare you ask me that question?" There was rage and... anguish... in his face.

"Never mind. I didn't realize it would be considered impolite." Katherine looked down to put her wand back. She looked at him again, fascinated.

"It's none of your business." He stood with his arms folded again, glaring at her. She had never seen him looking so stiff or unyielding.

"I was going to ask you where your broom is tonight, but after your charming repartee, I think I know."

"Impertinence."

She looked away to stifle a giggle. There was a crack in the air, and when Katherine looked up she was alone. Her supposed quarry was not at his parent's ruined house, so she continued on through town. The young families were headed home, leaving the teens and young adults to pursue their revelries. She had heard that the graveyard was right near the church and scanned the town for a bell tower. She sighted it and walked toward it. Katherine went through the gate and looked through the various gravestones.

She passed various Peverells and Bagshots and even saw a couple of Dumbledores. She didn't stop until she came to the double grave of James and Lily Potter. Their son was no where to be seen in the cemetery, but she drew closer to the graves and leaned down, anyway.

Someone had placed a basket of flowers on the side indicated as Lily's grave. Nearby was an empty Ogden's Old Firewhisky bottle. Katherine stood and looked around the area, again. An idea came to her, and she wondered.

Katherine finished her surveillance of Godric's Hollow and went back to the Ministry. After sneaking into the archive room, she dug through several boxes destined for a new filing room called "Pretenders." No one had bothered to alphabetize, having simply yanked the folders from the drawers in which they belonged. She finally found a file labeled "Lily Potter (nee Evans)."

She was not surprised to discover that Lily Evans was at Hogwarts during precisely the same years as Severus Snape. She looked through the class records and found that her N.E.W.T.s classes were almost identical to those she recalled had been taken by Snape. What surprised her, when she read the file more carefully, was learning that Lily Evans had grown up in the same mill town as Severus Snape.

There were two photographs attached to the file. The first was of a charming pre-teen with dark, reddish hair and lively green eyes. It must have been taken when she was a first-year at Hogwarts. The second photograph was taken at the time of her Apparition License and showed a strikingly beautiful girl just on the edge of womanhood. With a deep sigh, Katherine realized the young woman in the picture did not live another five years after it was taken.

It was already late at night when Katherine had returned to the Ministry. After the things she learned tonight, she would not be able to sleep. There was too much to figure out. After reviewing the file on Lily Evans, she sat in her office well into the morning, going over the files and her thoughts.

Katherine couldn't tell Kingsley what she had discovered except in the most round-about way. It was a difficult matter. They met in the woods near the Quidditch Pitch where the World Cup had been held a few years earlier. After their meeting, Kingsley would join some other resistance workers in broadcasting a new wireless show.

"I think he's on our side and has been almost all along."

"You think?" asked Kingsley. "Are you sure that it's not that you want him to be on our side and now you're readjusting the facts? I've never had a chance to watch you work a case so closely before, but I have to say that you seem to be losing your objectivity."

"I'm basing my assessment on facts, thank you," Katherine snapped. "If you had seen him the same way I did the last time..." She let that go, since she had not mentioned meeting Snape at Godric's Hollow to anyone.

"I heard about your dinner with him. It sounds like he knows how to captivate his audience. I never heard... Did he show you his etchings?"

"I'm sure it was in my report that I was only in the Great Hall and not taken anywhere else in the castle. Remus thinks there might be some disagreement he's having with the portraits."

"I know about the hypothesis involving the portraits. That's not what I meant."

"Let's skip over what you meant, although he was a perfect gentleman and I assure you I behaved like a lady. It's not an issue. At any rate, I came across something else, perhaps the missing item."

"So you're sure you have some great evidence? Let's hear it."

Katherine looked embarrassed. "I can't tell you."

"Why the Bludger not?"

"A variety of reasons: I might be wrong... it's not my secret... or the fact that if irrefutable proof of his loyalty came out, he could be in danger, and if he is captured or killed, it could ruin everything... the usual issues."

"So Snape tells you his little story and you fall all over it?"

"No, that's just it. He, er, let something slip at a moment he may not have realized. I noticed and I followed a trail."

"Why should I believe you instead of thinking it's just because you're falling for him?"

Katherine looked up with a rueful grin. "Because if I'm right, then whether or not I'm falling for him probably doesn't matter."

"So is he a friend or foe?"

"I think he's a friend. Have you seen how he has been handling discipline at Hogwarts?"

"What do you mean?"

"There have been complaints at the Ministry about his insistence on keeping discipline consistent with the way it was done during Dumbledore's time. Some of those working with him would like to see darker practices used on the students. The Carrows use Unforgivables anyway, but whenever he intercepts a detention or other punishment, he changes it to something else."

"So we want him exactly where he is?"

"For the students' sake, and also for the possibility that he's still the best-placed spy that the resistance has against the Tedious One."

"You had better not be wrong about this."

"Believe me, I know what's at stake. The first time I fail to satisfy the terms of a contract, my reputation will be completely ruined. I don't know if the Goblins will be content with simply ending our contract or if they will hunt me down, too. Plus, I'll have to return the deposit on my services that the Ministry has paid me."

"I know as well as you do that you can afford to lose it. You are certainly wealthy enough to live very well for the rest of your life without any further cases."

Katherine looked up with a wistful smile. "Yes, I'm wealthy enough, but what would I do in all that time?"

A/N: Thanks to those who have been giving this a look. Feel free to tell me what you think. Thank you to Trickie Woo, who beta reads tirelessly.