The Ministry Archives

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

A smartly dressed witch presented herself at the front desk of the Ministry of Magic during the first week of February. Her hair and eyes shone, and her curves had become lush. Pregnancy had given her a her look of beauty with a sense of contentment that emanated from her. Most of the men who looked at her took a second glance.

As it happened, it was also a day that a certain famous trio were meeting with the Minister. The distracted clerk behind the counter glanced at the note Katherine Snape showed to him and waved her toward the records archive. Katherine thought to herself with a huff that she needn't have worked so hard to look presentable. Flip flops and any old robe would have done.

Late in the afternoon, the witch's husband found her, hard at work. What had been a shine in her hair had become stringy greasiness, and her robe had been tossed over the back of a chair during a hot flash. Her face was a bit blotchy where she had blotted at sweat, and exhaustion had made the corners of her eyes look red and watery. She bent over a work table and scribbled notes furiously, which was probably the cause of the black stain on her right forefinger.

"You need a rest." He sat across from her and shifted a stack of scrolls so that he could see her.

"I can't figure it out," she answered.

"How far have you gotten?"

Suddenly chilly, she shivered and reached for her robe. Pulling it around herself like a blanket, she shook her head. "I'm not sure I get on at all."

He stood and walked around the table. "You're just tired. Why don't I take you home and tomorrow you can come back and make a fresh start?"

She stood up. "If you think so. I've been looking at the records of so many wills that I can't think straight."

"Wills?"

"I decided to work my way back through Gringotts Annual Report until I can find the first instance of this legacy."

"How far back did you get?"

"Seventeen ninety-six. So far all I've learned is that it always goes to a magical male heir, but the pattern is crazy. It crosses family trees and occasionally jumps to a line that I wouldn't have thought was even connected. The heir never actually inherits the legacy, either. They are given ten percent of the principal one year after the death of the previous legatee, and then ninety percent of the interest until their own death."

"Who controls the principal?"

"It's invested in blue chip stocks and bonds by the goblins, who get five percent of the interest every year without fail. The actual principal has a vault of its own, somewhere near the very center of the Gringotts stronghold."

"Just how much money are we talking about?"

"It covers half the Gringotts operating expenses each year. What they make from the rest of us is mostly profit to them."

Severus whistled. "That's a pile of money."

He put an arm around Katherine's waist to support her as they walked to the lift. "Yes," she said. "It's quite a bit of money." She looked at him carefully. "What brings you here to find me?"

"I received an owl from your uncle. He wants to know how you're doing." Katherine groaned, and he smirked. "Don't carry on so. He won't be home from Italy for a few weeks yet. You have time to prepare to interrogate him."

"Hmm..." She stood a little straighter. "He promised me a story. I should have some questions ready so that I can direct things if he gets off topic."

Severus chuckled in a way that went down her spine, and Katherine felt new energy. "I suppose I can come back tomorrow and trace it a bit further."

"That's my girl."

Katherine looked across the coffee table Severus had purchased for her and assessed how the Malfoys were taking her information.

"So there's no telling exactly where the money will go?" Lucius frowned.

"I wouldn't say that," she answered. "I found the first instance of the bequest, along with a copy of the will, made out by an Elijah Prince, that was probated in 1654."

"How did he hide the money from Cromwell?"

"That's just it. The Prince Legacy, as it was known in the nineteenth century, is an entity of its own. Since the money did not belong to a person, and because of some magic that Elijah and the goblins worked out, the Lord Protector couldn't touch it."

Lucius chuckled. "I'll take a Slytherin over a Roundhead any day."

Katherine smiled. "This particular Prince was a Hufflepuff, as it happens. Sometimes what's wanted is the persistence of a badger." She went back to her notes. "At any rate, the legacy was established by a charm mixed with an Unbreakable Vow. It appears that Elijah was hoping to skip over one of his children in an effort to get the money to a favorite grandchild.

"The exact wording of the charm and legacy are unclear, but it appears the money must go to the straightest line male descendant who is more than half magical blood. He himself married a Muggle-born witch, whom he loved dearly, but his oldest two sons were disappointments in his opinion. One of the two redeemed himself enough to marry a pure-blood witch, so the oldest son of that match inherited the legacy."

"Amazing," breathed Narcissa.

"Yes," answered Katherine. "From that grandson it went to his son, but then crossed to the great-grandchild of one of Elijah's daughters. It's jumped around the family tree for the past three and a half centuries, now."

"So who has it now?" asked Lucius.

"No one has received it at the moment. It will be bestowed a year after the death of the last heir, the accrued interest simply rolling into the principal."

"So it will come to me."

Katherine looked at Severus and bit her lip, not wanting to fudge the answer. "I think it's most likely, since I think you're the purest-blood descendant in the most direct line. However, I would like your permission to work on this a bit longer. As I traced the legacy back in time, I discovered it went into some family trees I never would have guessed were connected." Katherine wouldn't mention it to the Malfoys, but she wasn't sure she understood the grins the goblins gave her when she went to confirm her notes. Severus agreed that until she had all of the facts, she shouldn't get Lucius's hopes up or down.

Narcissa leaned forward. "How much longer will it take?"

"A few more weeks, perhaps two months. It may also involve more travel."

Lucius smirked at his host. "Naturally."

Severus looked him evenly in the eye. "Most of the work can be done here at the Ministry, but to fill in some branches of the tree, she will need to go abroad."

"I can't say I'm thrilled to be financing your extended vacation, Snape," said Lucius.

Severus growled and started to speak, but his wife patted his hand. "Truly, we needn't bother, after all," said Katherine, who was becoming uncomfortable after sitting for the duration of the discussion. "You will either receive the money or you won't. It's only until next November."

The Malfoys looked at each other. "Circumstances make it such that we ought to find out as soon as possible," said Narcissa. "Lucius will need to make certain decisions..."

"I see," said Katherine. "I'll get right on it, then."

A few weeks later, Severus Snape again made his way to the Ministry archives. Katherine's head and arms were sprawled onto the table. She was asleep, and he was tempted to leave her that way, but she couldn't be comfortable in that position.

"Madam..." He tapped her on the shoulder and quickly leaped back as in one fluid motion she jumped up and pulled her wand out. She saw it was him and relaxed.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have fallen asleep."

"How much more is there?"

"It's done. Everything that I need to do here, that is." She pointed to a pile of parchments on the table.

Severus took them and rolled them up. "Let's take them home, then." He slid the papers into his pocket and put an arm around his wife.

"I'm positive that Lucius is the heir," she said. "There are just a couple of branches left. One of the sisters in the first generation moved to France, and there's a small branch that went to Italy."

"He'll be gratified that you saw it through."

"Yes," she said, "it's done. I just can't get over the sense that something else is going on with it, though. I think there's something looking me in the face, but I can't, for the life of me, figure it out. It would be so much easier if the goblins would tell me how it works, but they just smile mysteriously and disregard my questions. It's almost as bad as working with centaurs."

He chuckled and kissed the side of her head. As he did, something caught his eye, and he quickly pulled her behind a bookcase as a flash of light went past and hit the clock just above the door. Springs flew everywhere as the clock shattered. The archivist on duty slipped from behind the desk and ran out the door.

"What was that?" Katherine said. Her wand was back in her hand and her alert position belied the lassitude with which she had allowed her husband to guide her seconds earlier.

"Simple Reductor Curse, I think. The clock wasn't anything special, just Ministry standard."

"So it was an ordinary wand."

They looked at each other for a long minute.

"That much we can be grateful for, then."

There wasn't much time for gratitude, as another Reductor Curse was cast at their book case. Katherine pulled Severus out of the way as an entire shelf full of books and files fell to the floor. "Did you see who it was?" he asked.

"No, but we're between whoever it is and the door," she answered.

A blasting curse came next, turning the shelf itself into a pile of rubble. Severus pushed Katherine down the row of shelves. "Take cover, will you?"

"We need to catch this person. I'm tired of hiding!"

"I need you to be safe." He breathed a sigh of relief as she lightly dropped to hands and knees and crawled down the row of book cases. He kept an eye out for whoever it was, only to realize his wife was crawling along the row of book cases ahead of him.

"Will you stop that?" he said. His wand swung around and the book case at the end turned on one side like a gate, closing off her passage.

Katherine looked up with narrow eyes and made her way back down the path she was on. When she reached the wall, she scooted down along it as far as she could go and saw a cloaked figure making its way up the main aisle of the archive room. "Gotcha," she breathed as she sent a silent Body-bind across the way.

The figure turned and parried the curse, then cast something of her own. Katherine ducked around the flash of light that made the paint on the wall behind her ripple and cast a tripping jinx. Her opponent cast a shield charm but had to stretch her arm to do it, causing her hood to fall back from her face.

"Silvia!"

"He should be mine, Katherine! Severus and all the money should be mine!" She cast a spell of ugly brown intensity and smiled when Katherine's shield charm didn't stop it. "Your reactions aren't what they once were. Marriage must not agree with you." Katherine avoided the curse by sliding behind a bookcase and tried an Incarcerus.

"You know that since I'm an Auror that won't work on me," said Silvia. "I was willing to just borrow him long enough to get what I wanted. After I got the money you could have had him back. Now I see that you will have to go." She cast the brown spell again, and Katherine ducked and ran through the bookcases.

"Flagrate!" came from the other side of Katherine. She peeked around and saw her husband. "Stay down, will you?" hissed Severus. She looked up and saw a snake of fire extend from his wand as he walked toward Silvia. She cast spell after spell in his direction, but they all burst into nothingness as the snake hit them. Severus walked down the row of book cases. He passed Katherine and continued on his path toward the other witch. Soon the fiery snake would be touching her.

Silvia smiled. "I'll take care of you yet," she said. "We'll be together, soon, Severus." Then she turned and was gone.

Katherine made her way to a standing position. She saw the way her husband looked at her and didn't move otherwise. He peered down along the wall and then made his way back to where she stood. "What possessed you to engage her?"

"I want this over, Severus. I didn't realize..." She shook her head sadly. "She was right. My reactions aren't as quick."

"We'll talk about this at home." There was a banging sound from the direction of the main door into the archive. He looked toward the center aisle. "If we can get home. Is it too much to ask that you stay behind me?" After a rather dispirited shake of her head he said, "Let's go then."

He led her along the row of book cases as they made their way to the center aisle. He peered around the bookshelf and then stepped into the aisle.

A well known voice asked, "Where's Katherine?"

"Down here, Sonny."

Severus stepped all the way into the aisle, bringing Katherine out, too. Walking toward her from the door was her uncle and a couple of wizards who looked like they ate whole livestock for dinner. "Katie!" said Sonny as he saw his niece. "I was at home, taking care of some business with my friends here, when another of my friends..." he looked over to where the archivist had returned to his desk "...visited and said you might be having some trouble. We thought we'd drop by to see if you needed some help."

Katherine swallowed hard. "We're fine, no thanks to me. I seem to be pretty useless these days."

"Not in the least." He pulled her into a hug and kissed her cheeks. "You're busy doing other things. Take care of that great-niece of mine. Did you see who it was?"

"Silvia Greenlee," said Katherine as she extracted herself from his embrace.

"That's what I suspected," he said. "I learned a few things during our travels together, but not enough."

"What did you learn?" asked Severus.

"It appears that she might be responsible for the other attacks." He held up his hand. "She would talk about how smart or talented such a witch must have been...without being told it was a witch, mind you...and then when I would ask a question, she would just smile and change the subject."

"Do you have other reasons for thinking it was her?" asked Severus. "You must have had a reason to travel with her to begin with."

Sonny grinned. "I'm going to smile and change the subject. Let's get you kids home."

A/N:Thank you to Trickie Woo for beta reading.