E Pluribus Unum

A/N - There is abuse in this chapter, not graphic, because I think you are all smart enough to understand without my having to spell it out for you and draw diagrams, but just to warn you. Kate is posting her story at HUI right now, so go check it out under Moaning Myrtle, its great!

Zephyr - Draco and Lillith are in love, Draco just likes Hermione\'s brains and restraint. He also knows about her crush on Severus and thinks it shows great taste.

deblovesdragon - I adore the kids and think that they are an underestimated force by all the adults, even Kathryn forgets in the day to day just what all they have and and been through and what they are capable of.

Kateri - Every day, without fail, I post another chapter. I think I missed maybe two days on Sub Rosa due to illness, but if I am not dying I shall post. Neither sleet, snow nor...wait, that\'s the post office, sorry.

Helen - Rant away, I understand th eannoyance factor there. Should this happen again you can always e-mail me and I will send the chapter to you. Min and harry will get more screen-time later, it\'s hard to weave it all in right now because Sev and Kat have been demanding a lot of my time and energy. As for Draco, it\'s probably obvious that I loritiriting him, he\'s such a dear little prat.


Chapter 29 – A Wish for Christmas

Kathryn sat in the chair and watched his sleeping face. Relaxed, without his trademark frown, he was downright attractive. Nose aside, his face had character and a sort of granite strength to it that swept aside the normal rules of beauty. The nose added a touch of arrogance that she found rather charming; it was a sign of his character that he hadn’t used magic to rid himself of it.

She had spent the last two weeks divided between classes and here and she had learnt his face while sleeping to the point that she could sketch him from memory if she chose. Ryan lay curled up in her lap; he fretted if he didn’t spend at least a little time each day with his father and it seemed to do Severus a great deal of good as well to see the tiny face smiling up at him. At five months, Orion was a wriggling ball of energy and was deeply enamored of his own voice.

Kathryn sat playing peek-a-boo with him most of the time, which he never seemed to tire of. She set him down on the floor and watched him wriggle on the soft blanket. He raised his head, the mop of black curls and the pale gray eyes turned towards her and he reached for the ring of softly glowing balls that Filius had charmed for him. Pulling them into his mouth, he gummed them happily; they were sweet tasting and warm and he was vfondfond of them.

She turned her attention back to Severus, knowing that when Ryan wanted her attention he was quite capable of vocalizing his requirement. She smiled softly at the thought and heard an answering squeal from the floor.
Severus woke at the sound and met her eyes with that warmth which never failed to thrill her.

“Did you get any sleep?” He asked her, his voice rusty from disbut but still capable of sounding authoritative.

“Yes, Professor, I was good.” Kathryn replied in mock submission. He chuckled.

“Good, I would hate to have to give you detention.” Kathryn felt a tingle of wicked delight at the thought of detention with her lover.

“On second thought, I have been bad, very bad indeed.” She admitted with a broad grin. He laughed then, a full happy sound that dissolved into a wracking cough. In an agony of guilt, Kathryn fetched him water and, propping him up, helped him hold it in his shaking hands. “Oh love, I am sorry.” She kissed his hair as he finished drinking and set the glass aside.

“Don’t be.” He cut her off with a harsh gesture. “A little laughter won’t kill me.” She trailed kisses down his face and captured his lips with tender affection. He kissed her back and something that she had feared she had lost forever was suddenly so sweet it brought tears to her eyes.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again.” She whispered against his temple, her hand stroking his cheek.
“You know that there are no guarantees, Kathryn.” He countered. She buried her face in his shoulder and breathed deeply of his scent, calming herself.

“I’m sorry, I know better than that.” She acknowledged with a soft exhalation.

“Stop apologizing, woman. I felt exactly the same when you were in my position; it doesn’t matter how smart we are or how well trained. When it is personal, all the training in the world is useless.” His hands clutched the front of her robes and drew her back into a kiss. His hands trembled and he was weak but the power of his mind was not in the least bit diminished.

“I felt so helpless, watching you twitch and burn like that.” She confessed and crawled onto the bed to curl against him. A quick glance at Ryan showed that he had dropped off to sleep on the blanket and she snuggled against Severus still needing the reassurance of his continued breathing to make her feel at ease.

“Kathryn, how did I get back to Hogwarts?” The question caught her by surprise.

“I don’t know, Severus. Hagrid found you by your usual apparation spot; we figured you must have gained enough consciousness to get there at least.” His eyes were full of puzzlement and he shook his head slightly as though he were trying to shake his thoughts back into order.

“I don’t remember.” His soft sigh and the way he tightened his arms around her let Kathryn know he was disturbed by something. But he said no more, simply holding her and staring out at the privacy curtains with a distracted air.


Kathryn sat in her office, sipping a cup of hot tea and thinking over the events of the last year. Christmas vacation started tomorrow and all Kathryn wanted for the holiday was her beloved to be well and whole.
She had always felt happiest when surrounded by books. The circular tower room with its interior surface coved in bookcases enclosed her in an informational womb. The warm fireplace and the tea relaxed her and the weeks of little sleep and lots of worry finally caught up with her.


She was on a filthy street, thatched roof huts tilted precariously all along what was really just a muddy path. Dirty ragged children ran past her to play in the dirt and muck. Smoke rose from holes cut in the thatch and scrawny dogs roamed the street. A ragged man in tunic and breeches waded through the refuse and walked right through Kathryn. She realized that she had no form here; she was a ghost and this must be a dream or vision of some sort.

A small girl, perhaps four or five, scurried from the nearest hut and slipped in the filth, falling to her knees, sobbing. Kathryn reached for the child but her hands passed through her like smoke. The girl looked up and Kathryn looked into tear-filled eyes of blue. The child’s hair might have been blonde had it been clean and she had a lovely face hidden beneath the dirt and blood.

“Brinna! Ya slattern! Come ’ere!” A huge man, stocky and built like a wall emerged from the hut and grabbed the child by a handful of hair. The villagers and other children ignored the pitiful state of the girl and continued on their ways without a backward glance.

“No, Da, no, please!” She child sobbed as she was dragged into the hut. Kathryn dove after them, trying futilely to grab the little girl. She reached for her wand to hex the man but it was absent from her sleeve and she cursed inwardly at her helplessness.

The interior of the hut was as filthy as the street outside and the detail of the place made Kathryn realize that whatever was happening here had happened hundreds of years ago. The iron hook from which a pot hung over a dung fire, the straw-stuffed mattresses and rough woven blankets, they all told of a far distant past.

The child continued her litany of begging and weeping as the man tossed her on the rough blanket and pushed up her skirts. Kathryn turned away, unable to watch as the man brutalized the girl. The sounds alone filled her with anguish and horror. She wept for the little girl and only could turn back after the man had pulled up his breeches and stormed out of the hut.

Kathryn went to the bed and knelt by the little girl; she wanted to hold her and soothe her, she wanted to help her clean up and heal the bruises and cuts. The child’s sobs were heart-breaking and she wept with her.

“It doesn’t matter, you know. It was a long time ago.” Kathryn looked up from the pallet and there was the girl, standing there, looking down at her younger self. She was clean now, dressed in blue robes the same color as her eyes. She was older, perhaps twelve, and her eyes were blank and hard. “She probably deserved it.”

“It does matter!” Kathryn cried out and the girl looked at her in surprise. “It matters and no one deserves this! She’s just a child! Children should be protected, loved, cared for, not have this…this horror heaped on them.” The older version was looking at her with a puzzled expression, a look of confusion as though she couldn’t quite understand.

“I killed him.” She told Kathryn, gesturing after the absent man with a casual air.

“Good.” Kathryn nodded to her. “He needed to be stopped.” The girl on the bed had sobbed herself to sleep.

“She’s weak.” Spat the older one with a look of contempt.

“She’s a child, he’s an adult. She couldn’t have defended herself from him. She’s not weak; she’s strong to have survived him.” Kathryn insisted. She didn’t know why this conversation was important, but she knew that it was.

“Strong?” The girl looked at Kathryn with surprise; something was stirring in her eyes. “She was strong?” Blonde ringlets glowed in the light from the dung fire, blue eyes went from flat to fathomless and Kathryn felt as though there was some moment of significance in all of this.

“Yes, she was strong. She said no, she fought him, and she did more than many children would have. She is not to blame for this, she is innocent.” Kathryn insisted, reaching a ghostly hand to stroke the child’s sleeping face. She wanted nothing more than to wrap the little girl up in her arms and carry her away from this.

“You love him don’t you?” The voice was ageless, yet somehow young and vulnerable.

“More than anything.” Kathryn didn’t know how she knew that the girl was speaking of Severus, she just did.

“Then don’t be afraid.” The girl’s eyes glowed with blue fire, Kathryn was swept away from the scene, and she woke with a start on the couch in her tower.

“Brinna.” She whispered to herself. She had a name, the true name of a demon.