Shooting the French

"I do NOT want you mucking up my friendship with Vincent," She told him fiercely, poking him gently in the chest, "You got that? I don't know how to explain this to him as it is when this is over if she gets caught. I've never lied to him. Ever. Just like I've never lied to you. You'd better not do anything to hurt him, or Robert Andrew Dent, I swear..." Her voice trailed off. She sighed in utter frustration. "You'd better get Jen to do this right if she's going to do this. I do NOT want this mucked up. " She knew she was not ever going to win on this. Ever. She actually had looked forward to someone paying attention to her for awhile. And then she caught herself in her thoughts. God, she really was turning into Narcissa. It made her even more angry--now at herself as well. "If I agree to keep my mouth shut on this for now, you do owe me, Rob. Really big time. I refuse to be a Malfoy for anybody. Not even you." She grabbed her father's suit jacket lapel to pull him down to be face to face with her so she could bore an angry stare into his eyes.

"And as for you! I expect you to know me better than this! You'd better make the best damned polyjuice you've ever made in your life. Don't you dare make a mess of my life," she hissed at him, furious.

She let go of him and went over to the counter. To hell with the wossy peppermint tea. She poured herself a large mug of French Roast. She needed her coffee to steady her nerves.

Robert looked at Rob, "I think that went rather well, don't you?"

"Just don't sashay," Khaat said simply. "I can't do this unless I have a purpose. It'll feel staged. I'll be right back." She gave herself purpose. She went into the kitchen and had Lizzie make a platter of really good cheeseburgers for everyone, with a massive platter of loaded fries on the side, done up American style. After all, Americans did make the best burgers. In the meantime, she grabbed an apple out of the walk in fridge and walked back out. She was noticing her own walk was more smooth than Jen's. There was no sashay to it.

"Natural fabrics--always," she told Chris. "Preferably silk. Jewel tones, white, and black primarily. Heels. I love heels...."

"You're pregnant. I'm going to toast those damned heels, I swear," Robert said, finding that a sore spot between them. "Flats. Not heels, Chris. Elegant flats. Her heels are always very dainty styled, barely there, Jimmy Choo sorts of styles. That's her favorite shoemaker. That's why we're arguing. There is not enough structure around some of Choo's high heels to support a pregnant woman, no matter how graceful she might be.

"Jeans only on weekends or days off. Tan suede boots when the weather is cold. With jeans and a plain white cotton shirt, always well pressed, sleeves rolled up to 3/4. thin brown leather belt. I have a tan suede bomber's jacket that I wear when its a cold weekend. Jen, I always carry two wands. Mine and Remus's. Remus's is always tucked in my boot. Always. It's a little harder to disguise when the clothes arent as layers. Vincent knows that. Or at least he should, if he remembers correctly. I'll have to loan you Archangel. He knows I would never go to Hogwarts without him. "

"Chris--clothes need to be straight lines, not ostentatious. Tailored blouses--never ruffles--never ever. Muggle makeup, not glams. Nightwear at home is usually spaghetti strap silk gowns with matching robes. Jewelry is always, always yellow gold because of the necklace I wear. Usually just gold hoop earrings, unless its a dressy event. Oh, and the ankle bracelet Rob gave me at our wedding. Simple and elegant. That's basically it. What questions do you have?"

"The necklace is enchanted. It won't come off unless I'm beheaded," Khaat said. "It has to stay. I can't even take it off. Its permanent. That's why all the jewelry is gold. The only reason. If you can successfully match other shades of gold, like white and rose gold, I'm good with it. "

Lizzie brought out two massive platters stacked high with food. One held American classic bacon cheeseburgers with all the trimmings, and the other held fries, loaded with cheese. She put them on the table at the booth.

"No burgers for the dog," Khaat glared at the labrador. "If he wants a burger, he can be human enough to join us. No fries either They give dogs gas. Chris, would it be easier if you saw what I actually do have? You can come look in my closet if you like. "

She walked over to her father again. "This is never going to work, and you know it," she hissed in a whisper at him. "She doesn't even want to do this, and we both know that's half the battle of the whole thing. How much are you paying her to do this? Honestly?"

"Khaat," he reprimanded sternly, "She'll be fine. "

"The 'bump' is my daughter," she hissed back, objecting to feeling like they were dissing Abbey. And as a mother, she wasn't liable to put up with that.

"Remember, Vincent is a very powerful auror and a very powerful leglimens. Don't give yourself away to that," she told Jen. "He's a quick study in people, and with him first impressions are everything. He has a brilliant, strategic mind, and most of the time he doesn't have a lot of warmth towards anybody. It's just his way. He doesn't have any use for anything muggle whatsoever. He can be very ruthless when he's pushed to it. Do not ever make the mistake of underestimating him. And right now, he perceives he is vulnerable. He needs allies there, and he would expect me to side with him if push came to shove. And depending upon who we were up against, he might be right. What he seems to like about me is, first, I have never, ever lied to him. Second, I think he likes the verbal sparring we sometimes do. He does seem to respect that. And he will notice the slightest change in my normal appearance. He notices everything.'

She thought a moment. "You'll have to learn to drink French Roast coffee. Black, no cream, no sugar. Lots of it. You can dodge some of it because of Abbey, but don't ever choose tea over french roast when offered. Turn down just really bad coffee--period. You love walking and running, but running is becoming a bit more difficult now. Stress makes you have no appetite and makes you an insomniac. Both. You'll have to learn about Remus, unfortunately, and what made me love him. You'll have to be a devoted niece, daughter, and wife, and too much of a workaholic. You'll have to know that Rob and I have not been getting along, but that you're devoted no matter how angry you get at him." She glared at the dog. He was curled up in the booth, and she was the one who had been threatened with a bomb and made to do surgery on Emof.

"Khaat likes any sort of exercising," Robert said. "She likes to stay in shape. She is a loving mother to all those kids in her house, and she loves animals. If you really want to be Khaat, you need to think, walk, and carry yourself like a princess. She just has always been very sophisticated."

She looked at Chris, "Do you want to see what I do have and what my favorite pieces are? The ones he would know?"

"I do drink tar, and I like it, " Khaat replied calmly, refilling her cup. "It calms my nerves. The sign of a true coffee afficianado."

"You're a damned caffeine addict," Robert clarified bluntly. "Call it like it is, Khaat."

"You're right. And, by the way, I do like firewhiskey, but I can't drink more than a tiny sip of it on very rare occassions without harming Abbey. And I dont' like smoking. Never have. Stinky habit, actually. Besides, you're in a school. You won't be allowed there. Its all about setting a good example for the kiddies, you know. You can get by with walking instead of running, but I do always walk between 3 and 5 miles a day when I get a chance to walk, when I'm not pregnant. That's been cut to 1-3 miles now.. I doubt you can keep up with that on a daily basis, or you'll stove up and give yourself away. If you do, make sure you have really excellent sneakers.

"Oh, and for the record, if anybody is going to tie up Rob naked and beat him, it'll be me," she said. She took her bag and drew out both wands. She walked over and handed Jen one of them. "This one is mine. Pretty barebones, I know. I've been meaning to get a more stylish one. This one,..." she drew out a decidely more decorative, masculine wand, "is Remus's. I would never, ever let anything happen to his. I could replace mine. But I can't replace his. I'll try to find you a couple of duplicates.

"You'll have to borrow Archangel's duplicate of my necklace. We can enlarge it magically, but we need to make it so that you cannot take it off yourself. Remus had them both made by Nicolas Flamel before I was born. The stones are sister stones he created, and they are magical. The only one that ever had the power to remove my necklace was Remus. That's why I'm stuck with it now. The stone protects from werewolves. Remus never wanted to accidently change in front of me and harm me. When I was born, he figured he would never father a child, and I would be the closest thing to a daughter he would ever have. He planned most of his life around caring for me. He put the necklace on me within just a few minutes of my birth, and its been there ever since. We need to enchant the duplicate so you can't remove it. Otherwise, it won't be authentic. We will reverse it the moment you're out. I promise. We can't risk any chance that it could be blown on some little detail like that.

"And, as I said, Vincent notices everything. You might want to brush up on your healing skills. I know you won't be working as a healer, but you never know when you mght be called upon to heal someone. Jen--take this one piece of advice as seriously as a heart attack. If he finds out you are not me, he WILL kill you, with as much ruthlessness as he has, and that is a very ugly side of Vincent. That's a guarantee. You are very good at what you do. I'm not saying you're not. But he is decidedly more powerful than you are. Daddy is the only one that I know of who is has an even chance of matching him. Do not ever, ever underestimate that. To do that would be a fatal mistake. You'll be on your own and extremely outnumbered. He's filled the castle with death eaters. He has promised they will not harm me and that they would protect me. However, if he ever finds out you are not me, you are a dead woman." She did know that Jen was very, very good. She trusted in that. But she did want Jen to not underestimate that Vincent would outpower her. Out and out.

She wasn't surprised when her father yanked out several hairs from her head, and then she watched her father apparate out, presumable to formulate the polyjuice potion. Not many people knew he always kept the base for it on hand because it took so damned long to make. She knew he would tweek it now to what he wanted. "Let's see you not be Jen," Khaat told her. "Let's see you walk without sashaying for starters. Rob, can I trust you to help her get the walk right while I let Chris rifle through my closet and my drawers?" She looked at Rob, hoping to hell he knew what he was doing. "And you better have a very good reason for me to give him for explaining why I didn't run to him right now and rat you all out to him. Because he knows damned well I would. I would never do this to him, never allow it. My just keeping my mouth shut isn't ever going to be good enough. You come up with a reason I'm not able to tell him the truth. And then be prepared. He will come for you. All of you--with a vengence. You have no idea what you're stirring up here."

She knew Vincent liked to eliminate his enemies, and if he thought they were out to hunt him or hurt him, he would strike back, and hard. They were sticking their necks out unnecessarily, as far as she was concerned. She didn't like any of it. She hated it--far more than Jen hated it. "Let's go, Chris," she sighed heavily.

Khaat was tired of Jen's arrogance. She knew Jen was capable, but arrogance where Vincent was concerned would only get Jen killled. Well, she had warned her, hadn't she? And Rob still hadn't given her, really, good enough reason why she should go along with this in the first place. She resolved to quit talking to them at this point. Personally, she didn't like Rob's tatoos all that much, but he did, so she had never said anything. She wasn't excited having a walking tatoo for a partner. It wasn't that the art wasn't good. It was. But his tats masked his otherwise handsome and muscular physique. And she had really liked his skin just as it had been--a virtual showplace for his well toned form. Bare, clean skin was more exciting to her than tattoos.

She went over and refilled her cup again. She sat down at an empty booth not far from the coffee pot and sighed heavily. She kicked off the stupid shoes again, and curled up in the booth alone. Her feet hurt, and they were swelling. That just was perfect, she sighed heavily. This day had basically stunk. She didn't want Jen portraying her anymore than Jen wanted to do it. And she would not lie, ever, to Vincent. She didn't know how Rob intended on keeping her from just apparating home and blowing her whole little act. But it made perfect sense to her to do so. Let Rob and his crazy friends deal with whatever Vincent decided to dish out--and that included her father, who was just as bad as the rest of them right now. She was so angry she didn't know what to do with herself. She was feeling completely used.

Her father apparated back, with his large leather tote, Archangel on his shoulder. He went to Jen and handed her a large glass vial of indigo blue potion. And a smaller flask of it. "This should keep you." He handed her Archangel's necklace in his hand, enlarged to match Khaat's. And, he also had a wand in his hand. "This is Remus's first wand. I will loan it to you, but ideally, I'd like it back. It is identical to the wand Remus was using at the time of his death that Khaat carries now in almost every way. It should still serve you. Ollivander owes me a favor or four. I'll get him to either duplicate Khaat's wand, or I'll get her a new one, and you can take hers."

Archangel flew over to Khaat's shoulder. He nuzzled her gently, sensing her mood. She pet him softly, glad for his presence always. It would never work unless Archangel knew to respond to Jen the same way he responded to her. Rob was out of his bloody mind, and no one seemed to realize it.

She watched her father hand over quite a lot of stuff to Jen and then saw him make his way over to where she sat alone with Archangel. "You're still angry," he said. "You're right. I am," she said. "And I'm tired. This will never work unless she loses her arrogance, and she doesnt know how to do that."

"Relax. She'll get it. Give her a bit. Learning how to be another person takes time."

"Being sober would have helped her there," Khaat said.

"You are tired. You're being very critical tonight. That isn't generally like you. You want me to take you home?"

"No. I still remember the address. I might just go back to St. Mungos. I'm not much help here. And the more she drinks, the less we'll accomplish."