Michael sat in the library. The book he held open was full of information about ancient runes and how to interpret them but he was not focused on it. Instead he kept staring at a drawing he had made, aparently in his sleep. The image was the same in every dream, a circle with two crosses in it and an arrow going straight through.

What could it mean? Nothing in the rune book could answer this question and the divination professor was likely to create an elaborate explanation as to why this happened without actually knowing. This had Michael questioning why he was dreaming about this and why was it connected to him. There was a sudden thud, a book had fallen over. Michael glanced over to the source of this sound and saw someone standing there.

Scarlett knelt quickly to retrieve the book she had dropped, purposely letting her glossy black curls tumble over her shoulders to hide the hot blush covering her face. What is wrong with me? she thought.

Scarlett had just been minding her own business up in the library when she happened to pass him and was stopped in her tracks by the sight of him. His hansome features were cast in lines of intense concentration, but his blue eyes had a sort of faraway look, almost dreamy. Without realizing it Scarlett had stood stareing at him for awhile. Her fingers went lax and she'd dropped the book she was holding.

And now here she was fumbling on the ground for it. As Michael turned distracted by the noise her falling book made, Scarlett stood, with her book in hand. She smiled at Michael and walked to where he was sitting, still blushing a little at her clumsiness. "Fancy meetin' you hear Michael. What have you got there?" With out thinking Scarlett's natural curiosity took over and she tilted her head to get a better look at peice of paper Michael was holding.

Michael gave Scarlett a grin and then just closed the book leaving the piece of paper over it so Scarlett could see it much clearly.

"I can't get that picture out of my head, and I mean that literaly. I've been dreaming about this symbol for like the past three days. At first I just thought it was a crazy coincidance but now...", Michael said and just sighed. He then looked at Scarlett and continued to grin at her.

"How are you? Anything new?", Michael asked.

"No, not really," Scarlett replied to his question, taking a seat beside him so she could get a good look at the drawing. She got her best marks in divination. It was just something that had always come easily to her. Scarlett could not see the future the way the Sil could, the way that her Grammy wanted her to be able to too, but symbols came easily to her. She studied the drawing carefully avoiding looking at Michael for his grin made it hard for her to concentrate. At first glance the circle with the line through it made her think of the muggle sign for "no" or "prohibited" and Scarlett wondered how that would apply to the two crosses. Then she saw that the "line" through the cirlce was tipped by a point on one end and fletching on the other making it look more like an arrow peircing a circle. "Could it mean 'shootin' the moon?'" she mumbled to herself, thinking of an expression that meant going all the way and holding nothing back.

Scarlett knew that dream analysis varied from person to person. What she saw in the symbols might have nothing to do with Michael's dream. And though it saddened her for some inexplicable reason she had to admit that she did not know him well enough to help him interpret it. So she began with the time honored phrase of many dream analists and shrinks "If this symbol is comin' to you in a dream then I guess the place to start is to ask you what these symbols mean to you. Do crosses and arrows hold any significance for you?"

Michael scratched his head for a moment and then looked at her.

"Not really, I mean my family crest has two arrows but none in the shape of that one. I have no idea about the crosses though. I just feel I've seen it somewhere before but no memory comes to mind. It's just...familiar", Michael said.

Michael stood up for a moment.

"I thought it could be a rune but it's not. The other possibility is that it might be a symbol used by a group of some sort or cult, but I don't know. Mom and Dad used to bring a lot of files with information on criminals and stuff, it might be in one of those that I saw this, but the reason as to why I dream about it now is just elusive at best", Michael said.

Scarlett listened as Michael spoke. Wow he has a family crest, she thought silently.

When he stood Scarlett her head tilted back so that she could keep watching his face. She agreeded that it was like no rune she had ever seen. She supposed it was possible that he could have seen it in a file or something, but she too found it puzzling that he would start dreaming about it now. "Michael when you were gone on that family business recently did you see anyone that would dredge up thoughts of the past? I have always thought that our dreams are the mind's way of dealing with things that can't be processed while we are awake, either because we can't bear it, done have time to deal with it, or for whatever other reasons we may have. But when we sleep all our barriers are down and the things we put wakin' walls around leak and what ever lies beneath the surface bubbles to the top. So if you saw someone that reminded you of one of those files that would be a reason to be dreamin' about it now."

"I remember something about a group of wizards who remained loyal to the dark lord. They had gathered and created an organization with the sole purpose of recruiting and training dark assassins so that when the dark lord rises again he'd have numbers on his side. But the thing is, the symbol was different back then...", Michael said and then looked at the symbol again.

"Maybe I should write my uncle at the magical lawenforcement department, I'm sure he'd have a better idea about this", Michael said. Suddenly there was a sound of glass shatering. One of the windows of the library had broken for no apparent reason. Michael stood up and walked to the window. There was a dark figure standing near the dark forest.

"Well, well, well what do we have here?", Michael said playfully. He then turned to Scarlett, "How do you feel about venturing into the dark forest right now?".

Scarlett listened as Michael gave her some background on some pretty nasty sounding characters. She was about to tell him that she agreed that he should write his uncle when glass shattering in the library made her jump. As she made her way to where Michael stood looking out the window she trod on something dark and lumpy. She took out her handkerchief and picked up the object. “Well I’m not really dressed for it,” Scarlett said indicating her trendy outfit returning Michael’s playful manner. “You know me, I am always up for a trip to troublesvilles no matter the cost to my wardrobe,” Scarlett replied trying to keep from grinning. This could be a very serious matter, but Scarlett had the typical Gryffy attitude, which dictated that there was no reason to wait for trouble if you could go straight to the source. “I am not sure, but I think this is what came through the window,” Scarlett held out what she had found for Michael to see.

“Bella,” she said to the cat that had also come to the window, “will you follow that dark figure into the forest. Michael and I will be down right behind you.” Bella wound through the glass of the broken window and out onto the roof of Hogwarts. Using gargoyle and drainpipes and all sorts of other decorative outcroppings the inky black cat made her way nimbly to the ground and off into the forest. Scarlett did not watch for she knew Bella knew her way around the inside and outside of the Castle. She turned to Michael and said, “Shall we?”

"Lets do it then", Michael said walking next to Scarlett and going out of the library. The dark staircase lit up only by the torches hanging on the walls seemed eternal. Once down on the first level Michael moved slowly, he knew the prefects and teachers were out doing their rounds and if they made a sound or took the wrong turn they could wind up face to face with one of them. Michael did not want to confront anyone just yet.

Serra his cat was out, Michael needed only but nod at her so she would distract anyone out there and keep the attention on herself rather than her master.

Once outside he could see the small shack that the dark figure had stumbled into once he went into the forest. Michael began walking towards it and when he reached it he looked at Scarlett.

"Well, I'll lead the way in. It seems it's getting darker, if we use lumos we might risk exposing our number so we should just try and not get separated from each other", Michael said.

Scarlett follows Michael silently through the halls of Hogwarts and out onto the grounds. She saw the flick of Bella’s tail as she followed the shadowy figure into a tiny hovel. She nodded to Michael acknowledging his reason for not lighting up wands and then took his hand. “This should keep us from gettin' separated,” she whispered and allowed him to lead.

Michael looked at Scarlett and grinned.

"I like that idea", Michael said and walked into the forest. The deeper they walked into it the darker it got. The night light from the moon was shut out as the trees were closer together everystep.

There was a wooshing sound ahead, the dark figure seemed to be running still. Michael kept following it until he saw light deep in the forest. As closer as they got to it they found a small entrance lit up by a fire that had no lantern nor torch, it was only floating about lighting it's small hallway that went down deep into the ground.

"These things usually have an exit on the other side. We might be walking into an ambush, and if that's the case then there's a trap waiting for us. The way I see it we got two choices, either we look around for another way in or we spring the trap and fend off whatever we find in there", Michael said.

"If it's a trap and we're ready for it then it is not much of a trap. Besides if we waste time lookin' for a way in we might loose our chance." As usual Scarlett was all for the direct approach. She reluctantly dropped Michael's hand and drew her wand. "Where you lead I will follow," Scarlett said gesturing Michael to go first.

"Point taken", Michael said grinning at her, he then made his way down the steps. The hallway lead up to a small room that branched out to a series of corridors, one of the had a chorus of men singing some ackward chanting and Michael then turned to Scarlett.

"I would advise not to confront directly but that just wouldn't be my style", Michael said and then proceeded to walk in the direction of the chanting. They ended up in a balcony overlooking a big room with six men standing in line infront of a statue of a hooded skull bearing the symbol that Michael had drawn.

"Well I can see it was no coincidance, but why lead us here?", Michael said. The men then turned and saw Michael and Scarlett on the balcony.

"Finally the enemy is here. The blood for the sacrifice", one of the men said.

Scarlett stared down out of the balcony at the figures gathered around a statue chanting. It bore the symbol that Michael had been dreaming about so they must be in the right (wrong) place. When the men turned and saw them declaring them the blood sacrifice Scarlett’s ran cold then hot. Why did it always have to be about blood? she wondered silently to herself. Why not snakes or spiders? Her heart began to pound and she could taste the metallic gorge that began to coat her throat. She readied her wand and prepared to follow Michael’s lead.

Michael just looked at them and narrowed his eyes. They were many, fighting was definitely the thing he wanted to do but then, being outnumbered wasn't exactly the best of scenarios.

"We're seriously outnumbered", Michael said as he looked at Scarlett and then back to them. "But I definitely want to know more about this".

Michael stood up slowly.

"If blood is what you want", Michael said and then briefly looked up seeing some stalacmites on the rock ceiling of the cave. "Come and get it then!".

He then fired a silent bombarda maxima to the ceiling causing several stalacmytes to fall over the men taking some of them out. If Scarlett did the same quickly the numbers might be reduced enough for them to take them together head on.

Taking her que from Micahael Scarlett brought the other side of the cieling down on about a half dozen of the robed men. Several were still advanceing. She fought to control her power for she wasn't ready to light these men up yet. She would of course if worse came to worse, but Scarlett didn't think it was quite that bad yet.

Michael smiled at Scarlett for her quick reaction was perfect. He then moved over to where the entrance was. He shot random stupefy and experlliarmus charms to the stairs that led to the room the bad guys were in. He then turned to Scarlett.

"We can bottleneck them for a while here. But we got to think of something to push through", Michael said.

"I can push us through, but you are gonna need to stand back," Scarlett said through clenched teeth. She stepped up so that she was standing in front of Michael. She gave into the searing feeling in the back of her throat. Blowing out so that the flame shot above the heads of the men blocking entrance to the room where the giant brooding statue loomed. The men were quick to hit the stone floor to avoid being insinerated. Scarlett figured Michael would be quick enough to neutralize them while they were distracted.

Michael watched as Scarlett lit everything on fire. The men who failed to jump out of the way in time were met with full body bind charms that he casted from the side. The two main men were running away from them. Deeper into the cave.

"We can't let those two get away", Michael said racing off to the door they went in, but it close when he finally reached it. "Damn it!"