A/N: This is my first fic, hope you like it.

AU and way distorted timeline.

A tall woman with light red hair dressed in blue jeans, a dark flannel, and a small crossbody purse that reached her hip, quickly slipped around a corner into an alleyway at night. She looked around for a moment, pulled out a wand, aimed it at a large grate in the side of a building, and flicked a bit. The grate cover came off and she crawled inside. With another flick of her wand the cover went back into place. Inside the vent the woman laid on her stomach with her head facing the exit.

She then reached into her bag and pulled out a small device that resembled a cylinder. It was a muggle recording device. She had tampered with it a bit so that it could still function properly even with magic present or being used around it, which she did a good job of considering she was in Knockturn Alley.

When she heard two sets of footsteps approaching she pressed and held down a button with her thumb. She knew that Death Eaters liked to have "secret" chitchats in this alley. The owners of the footsteps checked the alleyway to see if they were alone. And they thought that they were, they started talking.

"Narcissa you shouldn't do this. You've already fallen from Dark Lord's good graces from the Ministry incident."

Narcissa narrowed her eyes at her sister and replied, "The Dark Lord doesn't have good graces, just people he hates considerably less. But if you don't like what I'm planning to do then go tell on me Bellatrix."

"But-" Bellatrix started.

"But nothing, Bella. He's my son. If I want to try to assist him, that is my business. Help if too want to, bit if you don't then leave. I'm going to do something at one point or another, anyways, Bellatrix."

Bellatrix glared at her younger sister. "Fine. Just make sure the Dark Lord won't know of it. He has been rather short, Shadow has been making things more difficult."

Narcissa spoke, "What do we even know about Shadow, other than that whoever it is has been leaking the Dark Lords plans to the Order, or interfering with them right then and there?"

Bellatrix looked annoyed as she replied, "Practically nothing. Just that whoever it is leaves that symbol behind but once it's been found, it's too late! They could be hidden as a follower of the Dark Lord, but who could possibly be a strong enough occlumens to hide that from him?"

The woman in the vent was smirking now. I am, she thought, and sometimes I do pretend to be one of Voldemort's minions. Though it's more productive to pretend to be a muggle, piss off some Death Eaters, and let them capture me. They think that they're going to kill me anyways so they leak stuff in an attempt to 'make me scared in my final moments'. Then I fix their memory and leave.

"Shadow's symbol, what does it look like?"

"How do you not- never mind, it's just a circle with a triangle inside. There's a straight line that runs from the top of the circle, runs through the triangle, and stops at the bottom of the circle. The circles all black but the triangle and line are white"

That's right Bellatrix.

"I should leave now Cissa," and with that Bellatrix spun on the spot and apparated away.

At the same moment the woman in the vent apparated to not to far from the alley where the two sisters had been in. I was friends with Narcissa, she thought, maybe she's desperate enough to accept help. While she had transfigured her clothes into something more witch-ey just before she turned into the alley. She saw that Narcissa was still there, and pulled down the hood from the cloak she had just transfigured for herself.

Neither of them moved a bit, Shadow was waiting for Narcissa to speak first.

"Pepper," she said, "I never expected to see you again. And how did you happen across me- if I remember correctly you hated Knockturn Alley," she said with a perfect pureblood mask on, even though the redhead- Pepper knew that she was annoyed.

"Well if I remember correctly", Pepper started, " you didn't care for it much either. And I heard your voice, you sounded a bit... distressed. I also heard your sister's voice, but I haven't needed to dodge any curses yet so I assume she left."

"She did. And what are you doing here, with me, I would have thought that you would be doing dirty work for the Order. Is it that you need something?"

Well I wouldn't exactly call it dirty work, she thought. "I don't do dirty work anyone," Pepper half-lied, "But do you need a favor? I heard your conversation."

"I don't need favors from anyone, especially you, could you imagine what would happen if the Dark Lord found out that I took favors from a possible muggle-born?"

The blond had given up acting indifferent by the time she had finished speaking. So she doesn't completely despise me, Pepper noticed, or else she would have just straight-up called me a mudblood. "Really Narcissa, blood-status? Dropped as a baby on the doorstep of a muggle orphanage doesn't necessarily mean mudblood, it could mean half-blood or, by a slim chance pureblood. And even if I am a mudblood, the hat put me in Slytherin, did it not? That has to count for something."

"That wasn't why I cut ties with you, it was the fact that you didn't trust me with that information. It was the fact that I found out six years later as a rumor, 'Did you know that your friend, Pepper Potts, is probably a mudblood?' And here I thought we had told each other everything, I told you everything."

Pepper recalled the memory of how she lost her first and, still, only real friend. "Narcissa I didn't know, not until we got back from Easter Holiday. I still don't know how it became a rumor before I got the chance to tell you. I really believed that I was born half-blood. I mean my parents told me stories- or lies I guess- of the day I was born or my first birthday." Pepper was near tears, gee whiz, she thought, I haven't cried in like 20 years. "And Narcissa they looked like me. When they told me over Break that I was adopted I didn't know what to do with that knowledge, the fourth day back at school I was going to tell you, I hadn't even really been able to say it aloud to myself, and when you just brushed me off that day, I didn't really know what to do. I tried to talk to you for the rest of the year but you didn't really give me a chance. You were a year ahead of me so once you graduated that year, I knew that my chance of being able to reach out to you was slim to none, so I just gave up. If I had known sooner then I would have told you."

Pepper had collected herself by the time she had finished speaking. She looked at her childhood friend who she realized wore a mix of sadness and guilt, the anger was gone though.

"But why wait four days? I sat with you on the train back to school, I thought you looked a bit off. But when I asked about it you said-"

"It's nothing," Pepper finished, "I was so careful with that answer. It was a wish too you know," Pepper recalled, "because I had hoped that after I got it off of my chest, that maybe after a tough week that everything would be right again. I was so scared. You were Narcissa Black, Bellatrix already didn't like me and I thought that that information might just push her off the edge, and she would tell your parents, and I was afraid that that would come between us. But that isn't what happened."

The two women stood in silence for a minute before Narcissa spoke, "I do need help. After the Ministry incident, the Dark Lord wants Draco to kill Dumbledore and somehow get a number of Death Eaters into the school. Bella thinks its an honor, but its a suicide mission. How could it not be when the Dark Lord himself has tried and failed to kill Dumbledore. Hows a sixth year supposed to kill someone that the most powerful Dark Wizard can't?"

"He can't, and that's the point of the task. I have friends everywhere, strings I could pull and favors I could call in, I'll see what I can do," Pepper offered.

Narcissa narrowed her eyes, "I remember how unusually powerful and smart you are, and that means that you also know that that answer was half-assed. So what are you really going to do Pepper?"

Damnit, Pepper thought. "Well... I-," Pepper started.

"Oh just spit it out already," Narcissa snapped.

"Fine. But you have to swear not to tell."

Narcissa agreed, and Pepper pulled her wand out, removed the concealment charm that she had covering a tattoo on the underside of her left wrist, and showed it to Narcissa.

"That looks like what Bellatrix said Shadow's mark looked like. Are you saying that you know Shadow well enough to call in a favor like this," Narcissa asked skeptically.

"To say that I know her wouldn't exactly be accurate," Pepper just to throw the towel in and flat out tell her, "I am Shadow."

Narcissa raised an eyebrow, "But you just told me that you didn't do anyones dirty work."

"Well the term dirty work implies someone asked me to do it. All officially do as an Order member is gather information. Anything else I do is because I see it as a fit course of action."

"I see," said Narcissa, "So is it safe to assume that you knew I was in this alley speaking with Bellatrix, and that you didn't just hear my voice and decide to help a childhood friend?"

"Can everything in this conversation stay away from the ears of the Dark Lord or any of his other followers," Pepper asked.

"Yes, fine."

"Then no, it wasn't by chance that I was here. Other Death Eaters frequent this alley when they want to have private conversations, I was hiding in that vent," Pepper explained as she gestured to the vent that she had been spying from.

"But then how did you get at the corner," Narcissa questioned.

"Too much practice. I apparrated a ways down the corner at the same time Bellatrix left. But know that I'm offering help out of concern. Not because I want more connections."

Narcissa nodded and repeated with a smirk, "More connections, so you already have some?"

"Can it still be considered as a connection if I lied about who I was and they took the bait?"

"I don't know," Pepper had done enough people-watching to know that she wasn't finished speaking, "You know Pepper I always knew you would never be happy as a housewife. But I didn't expect it to go this far."

"Well, it's fun for me," Pepper checked her watch, "Oh shit. I have to leave. I get back to you on Draco's situation. Good luck Narcissa."

"To you as well."

With that Pepper apparated from the alley to in front of Grimmauld Place.

-_-_In The Order Meeting Pepper Left To Go To_-_-

Pepper followed Tonks into the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, shut and sealed the door behind herself, seeing as she was the last one in.

"A bit paranoid from being out on the streets for weeks straight are we?"

Ugh, Snape already? "Nope, I just happened to notice a teenager with the 'I'm sneaky' look written all over his face, and decided that sealing the door wasn't a bad idea."

When they all took their seats Pepper looked to see who was there and where out of habit. Not exactly a full house, she noticed. There were only five other people there at the table; Moody, Tonks, Snape, McGonagall, and Kingsley. She never openly shared what she found out, like others did, instead telling McGonagall or Dumbledore in private. But attending meetings was how she got caught up after being gone. While everyone else was talking she went over for conversation with Narcissa on her head. Once the others had said their piece, Kingsley, Tonks, Moody and Snape left, leaving Pepper alone with McGonagall.

"So what is it that's occupying your thoughts, Pepper? I almost missed the usual unnecessary interjections."

Pepper wasn't surprised that McGonagall noticed how quiet she was today. "Well, I didn't pick up much this time, but there was this one thing. Voldemort is having the Malfoy boy try to kill Dumbledore."

McGonagall knew Pepper better than her other colleagues had during Peppers time at Hogwarts. So she was able to recall how close Pepper and Narcissa were at Hogwarts before they fell out and asked, "And you came across this information how exactly?"

"I'll skip the fine details. I heard Narcissa and Bellatrix speaking about it. It sounded like she was planning to go somewhat against what Voldemort had planned. So I offered some help, seemed like the right thing to do."

Minerva looked at her skeptically and asked, "Anything else you wish to tell me. Maybe about this help you offered?"

Pepper shook her head no and asked, "Anything I should be looking for when I go back out," she asked. She noticed McGonagall smirk a little, "What is it Professor?"

"Well Pepper, Dumbledore wishes that you stay here for the remainder of the Holiday. I'll pass word to him of what you have discovered. Goodbye, Miss Potts."

With that Minerva left the kitchen. 'The remainder of the Holiday.' Dumbledore wants me to do nothing for two months? Hogwarts went out like three days ago. What the hell am I going to do to keep myself busy?

-_-_Later That Night_-_-

She thought out loud while she set up her room. "What if I took on a protégée?" It sounded like a good idea. But who? "Someone with experience, talent, and still at Hogwarts- to make it easier to start and break habits. The Granger girl is staying here, and so are the Weasley's." She thought for a minute. Of those, only three are Hogwarts age. "The Weasley girl." She decided. Ginny, right, she was at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, and the youngest.

So she watched Ginny Weasley for the next two days, hoping that she could catch her alone. On the third day she noticed someone watching her.

"Yes Mad Eye," Pepper started. She knew that Aurors were trained to be discrete to a certain level, but in her mind, it didn't show.

"I heard you'll be stuck here all Summer, what are you going to do." See, she thought, never subtle. Well if he was going to be blunt, so was she.

"Ask Ginny Weasley if she wants to be my protégée," Pepper replied.

"You would have made a good Auror, you have this ability to become invisible and silent, want to teach that to Tonks."

At the end of Peppers Hogwarts career everyone was surprised when she didn't become an Auror. Among other things, Pepper just didn't agree with the methods of Wizarding imprisonment. But that doesn't mean that she thought that they should go unpunished.

So she started with small town justice, was good at it, got into bigger things, and made a name for herself (not that they knew her real one, so Shadow took its place).

"Well Mad Eye, Aurors have to follow too many rules, " They both knew that that was a half-assed answer, but the finality in her tone said that that was the only answer he was getting. And its was true as well, she did think that there were too many rules at times.

"If you'll excuse me, that's Ginny over there."

Moody nodded, and Pepper made her way over to where Ginny was.

"So, you seem to be sneaking around, what are you up to," Pepper asked.

Great, Ginny thought, who'd they send to babysit me now?

Pepper could tell what she was thinking by the look on her face. She understood it too, not a lot of people knew what Shadow looked like, even her gender, and she probably did look like a babysitter right now. Pepper was quite proud of almost no one knowing who she was. All most people knew about Shadow was the mark she left behind.

"I'm not here to babysit you Ginny, I do have an offer for you though, but can you keep a secret?"

Ginny was apprehensive but nodded. Pepper took out her wand and removed the concealment charm on her left wrist, showed it from Ginny and asked, "You want lessons? I'm here all Holiday."

-_-_After Lunch The Next Day_-_-

Ginny and Pepper were in an unused room in Grimmauld Place. It was sparsely decorated, with only two chairs, a sofa, and a nightstand.

"So the first thing we're going to do is find the most efficient way to clear the room. Any questions before we begin Ginny?"

"Yeah, what all am I going to be learning? And your sign kind looks like the Deathly Hallows, is that where you got the idea?"

Smart girl, learning what she's getting into before making commitments. "Yes, my mark is based off of the Deathly Hallows. And I'll teach you wordless magic, feeling the magic of potions, how to keep up with muggles, blending in, lying, how to catch liars, advanced spells, non-magic self-defense... all the basics," she saw Ginny nod and continued, "Anything else?"

Ginny thought for a moment then nodded. "So what exactly is it you do for the Order? I've seen you leave a meeting or two before, but we weren't able to hear anything from them," she said as though it was unexpected, Pepper noticed, "I honestly had no idea who you were."

How to word this. "Well, I gather information as to what the Death Eaters are up to by whatever means I see fit. Sometimes I just sit in the right bar for an hour and listen, flirt a bit, or even let myself get caught for a while, it all depends." Pepper paused while Ginny nodded, "And the way you said them suggests you can hear what's going on at some meetings, care to let me in on that?"

"No thank you."

"Ok then. And it would be nice if you could try to keep this from other kids, I'll handle telling your parents," Pepper paused and added, "Before you start your fifth year though, well drop some clues for your brothers, especially the twins."