The Next Encounter

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

The remainder of the year was spent looking for Harry Potter in all the places that informants thought he might be. The Ministry expected her to follow up every lead within England and many in Scotland. Usually there was no trace of Potter wherever Katherine went to look for him. Occasionally she did stumble upon a place he had been, but he and his friends left a very cold trail. Dolores Umbridge railed weekly about Katherine's lack of success, but never went so far as to fire Katherine.

Her year-end audit of her personal Gringotts account took place on the morning of New Year's Eve. As one elderly goblin talked her through her assets management and tax loopholes, Katherine kept half an ear on the party that had already started in the next room. It seemed the goblins were celebrating the various ways in which they had tricked or fooled the witches and wizards for whom they worked.

"...The absolute best this year would be the day we got that sword." Laughter broke out. "Here, Snape thinks he's bringing us Gryffindor's sword, supposedly one of the finest pieces of goblin-craft ever... but anyone can tell at a glance that no goblin ever ever touched the thing he had until it was brought here... The sword we're protecting in one of the highest security vaults in London is a fake!" The laughter became riotous.

Another voice broke in. "Don't let the Lestranges know they have a fake in their vault, though. That Bellatrix..." The room became silent. Someone piped up, "As if any of us would tell..." The laughter started again, and they moved on to a Boggart that had moved into someone's vault, instantly taking the shape of making the vault look empty whenever the customer entered.

Katherine finished her audit, signed her paperwork, rolled up her own copy and thanked the goblin who helped her. She left Gringotts with a smile and walked to the owl post office. She had two messages to send.

Proudfoot,

xxxxx

K,

Having sent every student home, the Death Eaters threw a gala ball for pure-blood society at Hogwarts on New Years Eve. The Great Hall was filled with dress robes, elegant gowns, and pricey jewelry. Katherine walked straight through the masked dancers and tapped on the shoulder of one buxom witch in garnet red and a wealth of black hair who was dancing with a wizard in a fine robe worn over a tuxedo.

The couple turned to look at her. She had worn her hair down so that it floated in a cloud around her. Her gown was a silk sheath with a sheer beige overlay that had been sewn with hundreds of crystals and sequins. Snape smirked while Bellatrix glowered.

"I'm cutting in," Katherine said coolly to the two.

"How rude! By the way, this is a masquerade," said Bellatrix, looking pointedly at Katherine's bare face.

Katherine shrugged. "I'm actually crashing the party. Manners aren't at the top of my list this evening."

"The song is over, Bellatrix. We can continue our conversation at another time, if you like." Snape turned to Katherine and said, "Well then, shall we?"

Couples around them were squaring off to dance and they did the same. At first they followed the steps of the dance, stepping and spinning. Katherine looked up into Severus's eyes with the expression of a school girl on a crush. "It doesn't add up."

Severus twirled her and then pulled her close again. He looked deeply into her eyes. "Pray tell, what does not add up?"

Katherine danced around her partner and stepped close to his back. She whispered into his ear as she unfastened the white tie at his collar. "I heard a curious story today while at the bank... about something that's fake..."

He reached for her hand and twirled her out again, and she saw something harden around his eyes. Her instincts were right. He deliberately took the fake sword to Gringotts. He kept her away for several measures and finally brought her close again.

She smiled once more and demanded, "The real one?"

He considered his answer before speaking. "I believe its rightful owner obtained it through an act of valor and great need just this last week." He dipped her and lifted her back up. "Who else heard?"

"I was the only customer in the bank at the time."

He nodded, considering the possibilities.

She looked at him, pondering, and yet still smiling. "As I said, it doesn't add up."

The song continued and they continued dancing. Although he kept his hands where they belonged, Katherine recognized the change that showed Severus was exploring what he did touch. She didn't stop to wonder whether he realized what he was doing to her.

When he spun her around again, she spun back hard, her back to his chest, swaying and pressing against him. As they danced, she shimmied against him and noticed that he was feeling what she did. He took her hand and twirled her one last time, facing him. "Shouldn't we continue this dance with fewer spectators?"

Finding no argument in her eyes, he guided her to the door and then out into the entryway. They made their way to his office as quickly as possible and then stared at each other. He shed his outside robes and started working on the buttons of his coat, never taking an eye from her.

She shrugged and the dress fell to the floor. She was wearing nothing now but panties and a pair of dangerous-looking high-heeled sandals. He finished with the tuxedo coat and started working on his shirt. She stepped forward and pulled it apart, causing studs to fly in all directions, and then stepped into his space.

Their coupling started as a power struggle. Neither wanted to submit to the other and neither did. They kissed savagely and dropped to a couch where their first passion was spent. They moved from there to the stairway up toward the Headmaster's bedroom and finally the room itself. What began as a quick search for release continued through the night. At some point they realized, once again, that they were evenly matched. From there the struggle shifted from taking pleasure to sharing it.

Only once did they speak. Early in the evening, as they lay gasping for air and sizing each other up, Snape asked, "Have you taken any precautions..."

Katherine quickly said, "There won't be a child." He heard a trace of bitterness in her voice, but she was looking at him again with an expression he had already learned. He couldn't resist that look, and the bitterness was forgotten for the moment.

Katherine wandered through the Headmaster's bedroom the next morning. He had gallantly let her have the shower first. She finished and didn't require much time to dress, as her only option was the dress she had worn the night before and her winter cloak over the top of it. She was quickly finished, deciding that she would take the time to more thoroughly dress when she went home. She used the few minutes she had snooping around.

She found what she was looking for on his nightstand. It was only half of the picture. The other portion had been ripped away. A lovely young woman with reddish hair and green eyes was laughing up at the camera, her eyes straying occasionally toward whatever had been ripped away. The Lily Evans in this picture was not very much older than in the picture in her file, but she had experienced a great deal of trouble in the intervening three or four years. There was a new maturity in the face in the snapshot.

Katherine turned her head as her host walked into the room and waved a hand toward the picture. "She's very pretty. You must love her dearly."

A look of pain crossed his face. "She was never mine."

"In some ways, she was always yours and still is."

"That's nonsense."

"You fell in love with her years ago. You still love her, and you still mourn her when others have all but forgotten her."

"You already knew?"

She kept her tone of voice light. "I pieced a few things together." Katherine turned away from the nightstand while avoiding Severus's eyes. "I should be going."

"You're jealous."

"It's nothing to me." Katherine reached into her handbag, pulled out her sunglasses, and put them on. Only then did she look up into his face.

Snape folded his arms and looked at her. "Then why are you hiding behind those glasses?"

She shook her head and bit her lip.

"Never mind." He changed the subject. "Can I trust you?"

"I haven't told anyone what I suspected, and no one would believe it, anyway." She fished through her handbag and found her lipstick, which she applied as she looked into a mirror. "Now that I'm halfway human, I need to go home to properly prepare for the day." It took three tries to get the lipstick back into her handbag.

"Do you wish to use my fireplace?"

"I think the walk to the gate will do me good." Eluding his grasp, Katherine sped out of the bedroom and down through the Headmaster's office. The Headmaster could hardly follow her, as his only garment was the towel he had fastened around his middle upon leaving the bathroom.

After dressing more properly for the day, Katherine met Kingsley at the apartment in the port city.

"Nice dress," said Kingsley, tossing the Daily Prophet across the breakfast table at her.

"Thank you," responded Katherine with as much bravado as she could muster.

"So at what point did following a suspect into his quarters and spending the night with him become standard Auror procedure?"

"I'm not an Auror."

"You're falling for him."

"I'm n..." Katherine decided to change the subject slightly. "It's useless. He's in love with another woman, a woman with impeccable loyalties. No one could love her and be a true Death Eater."

"So why didn't he spend New Year's Eve in bed with her?"

"Let's just say she's not available to him."

"So he's in love with a woman he can't have. Who's to say he wouldn't turn to the Death Eaters, hoping they would help him get her?"

"It wouldn't work. Please just believe it. He's in love with her."

"Where does that leave you?"

"Now that I understand why he was loyal, it leaves me wondering why he would kill Dumbledore."

"I meant, where does that leave you since you're falling for him?"

"If I were falling for him, it would leave me very much out in the cold. It's a good thing I'm not. I'll be all right."

Neither Kingsley nor Katherine believed the last two statements.

A/N: Thank you to beta reader Trickie Woo.