Liam stood out on the Hogwarts grounds, shifting his weight from one foot to the other nervously. His eyes were turned up to the sky, staring up into the heavens. His luck had worked excessively well tonight. It was a warm night, and not a cloud in the sky to hide the stars and the full moon. The conditions couldn't have been more perfect, all he was worried about how he was going to do. He turned around to survey his handiwork. He had managed to get himself, the picnic hamper, and the wireless radio out of the castle without getting caught, and all the stones he had moved were sitting in a rough disc on a flat patch in the earth. He looked down at his watch: 11:45. He had asked Mel out here for midnight, and he knew that she wouldn't miss it but he still felt his stomach doing gymnastic routines.

"Calm down Liam, you'll be fine," he said to himself, running a hand through his hair, silver this evening. He flattened his black buttoned shirt, wishing he knew something about what the Muggles called an iron. He didn't think he looked bad, but he really wanted to make tonight something amazing. He stood staring up at the stars and the moon, thinking they looked like jewels in an enormous black silk tapestry. He looked down at his watch again. Ten more minutes. He took a deep breath, knowing that all he could do now was wait. And hope.

Melie wandered around her dorm room getting ready to go meet Liam. she was quietly trying to get ready, she didn't want to wake Mark or Dream, she knew that there had to be a pitfall of living with the prefect. Melie picked up her shoes and silently slipped out the door of the room. When she got down to the common room she slipped the black ballet flats on her feet. Melie adjusted her white sweater and jeans and absentmindedly fingered the necklace that she always wore, the one Liam gave her for Christmas. Melie left the common room and quickly made her way out to where Liam told her to meet him. As she got closer she could see him standing there, more dressed up than usual.
She ran the last few yards and threw her arms around him, glad that it was just the two of them tonight, and gave him a kiss.
"I'm so glad you wanted me to meet you here! I missed our times alone," Melie said to him as she pulled away.

Liam heard footsteps coming towards him quickly, and spun around to see who it was. He saw Mel running towards him and caught her in his arms, kissing her joyfully. What she said when they seperated was right though, he had missed the time spent just with Mel. It had been hectic lately for both of them though, so it was understandable. But he had decided that tonight was the night to change that. He smiled at her as he slid out of her arms.

"Thanks for coming down sweetheart, I've got a little bit of a surprise for you." He turned towards the circle of stones he had made, and stood in the middle. Pressing his hands against them, he imagined what he had planned, firmly focusing on the image in his head. Slowly the rocks seemed to melt together into a wide circle of smooth, glossy black stone. There were little white patches in it, and there were a couple of imperfections, but overall he was quite proud of his handiwork. He went to stand up, and stumbled a little bit. He looked up at Mel sheepishlu.

"Seems that took a little more out of me than I thought," he said, laughing at himself. He walked over to the wireless he had brought out, tuning it to a station that was playing some slow romantic music. He pointed his wand up above the disk of stone, letting loose a shower of crimson, gold and white sparks that hung in the air about eight feet up. He walked back to Mel and took her by the hand.

"So Melie, care to dance?" He grinned at her, blushing a little bit.

Melie watched curiously as Liam "did his thing" as she liked to call it and he changed the shape of the rocks. She had no idea what he had planned for them and was getting more confused as the seconds went by. she watched him set off some sparks and she was really lost then, not knowing at all what was going on, but once Liam set up the music to start playing and then asked her to dance, a huge grin broke out on Melie's face. She gladly took his hand
"Of course I want to dance!" Melie exclaimed. She had never had the chance to dance with Liam before, at the Winter Fest dance he had been away and Melie spent the evening with Scarlett. Melie walked out onto the "dance floor" and started to sway to the music with Liam. Melie smiled at him and then rested her head on his shoulder and just moved to the music, as if she didn't have care in the world, other than spending time with her boyfriend.

Liam couldn't help but grin as Melie pulled him out onto the dance floor. He had hoped she would react like this, and he was not disappointed in the least.

He wondered if this was what it was like to walk on clouds. Mel was quite a dancer, which was something he didn't know. He wasn't a bad dancer himself, he just tried not to advertise his dancing skills. He was rather self-conscious about it in front of other people, but he figured since it was just him and Mel out in the dark grounds at midnight, what was there to worry about? They both swayed and moved the music, the glossy black stone reflecting the magical sparks above them, with them seemingly dancing between two night skies. He had one hand on Mel's waist and one on her shoulder, but when she laid her head on his shoulder he moved his hand around to the back of her neck, holding her gently. The soft night breeze tossed her hair slightly, and looking down into her eyes he couldn't believe how lovely she looked. He couldn't really find words for the moment, so he just leaned down and kissed her forehead, still moving slowly and gently to the music.

Melie was off in her own little world now. It had been so long since she and Liam had done anything where it was the two of them. Everything going on lately always included others, and not that she didn't love her friends and spending time with them, sometimes she wished that she and Liam were able to just be by themselves. With everyone else around they weren't able to be lovey dovey because either people got annoyed or they were teased mercilessly (not that Melie minded but she just wanted to respect the others around her).
Melie gave a content sigh and closed her eyes, thinking about the day they had met on the train. He seemed to have her number from the second they said hello. He had been there for her through everything, always supporting her, they had never even disagreed about anything.
Melie lost herself in her thoughts and wished that they could stay like this forever.

It felt as though Liam had been dancing with Mel for... he couldn't even think of a time description for it. It was an amazing feeling. It had been way too long since he had done something romantic for her, and he thought that this topped anything he had pulled off before. He was rather proud of himself, but he knew that it was time to move on with the evening.

"So, fancy a spot of dinner by moonlight Mel?" He swept his wand towards the picnic hamper. He had been practicing this move for a week, and managed to get the blanket to unroll itself and lay flat and the food to spread out on its own. He had hoped for a slightly more arranged layout, but he wasn't quite as good at Charms as he was at Transfiguration so no harmed done. He had had to call in favors from a couple of the house elves to get this portable feast, and he was rather impressed. There was a pretty great selection of food. He didn't even know what they had packed. He took Melie's hand again and led her towards the blanket.

"So, what's your fancy love?" he said, grinning at her and bowing.

Melie came back to reality when Liam started to talk to her. She turned her head and saw the picnic hamper and blanket set up and Melie smiled. She was a little hungry. She had been so excited about Liams not to meet him here that she hadn't eaten much at dinner time.
Melie walked over to the blanket and sat down next to Liam and looked at the food. There was a Caesar Salad, a lasagna that Melie was pretty sure was homemade, and a blueberry pie for dessert. Melie took a slice of lasagna and picked some cheese off of the top and a popped it in her mouth.
"mmmm its yummy" Melie said and leaned over and gave Liam a kiss. "I take it you're not the chef though," Melie said teasing him with a smile, it didn't matter to her whether he had made them dinner or not, just the fact that he had even thought of plans was enough for her.

Liam chuckled as he helped himself to a slice of the lasagna and a bowl of the caesar salad. The thought of him cooking something half this good and twice as simple made him laugh.

"Sorry love, can't claim to be 100% romantic and amazing this evening. This is the handiwork of three of my favorite house-elves. But I have to admit," he said, between bites of lasagna, "they have certainly outdone themselves though. This is some of the best lasagna I've ever had. But then again, when most lasagna you've had comes from an Irish household well... Suffice to say it's not exactly what you'd call top-shelf." He moved closer to her, putting one hand around her waist. He continued eating as he and Mel snuggled up together on the picnic blanket under the stars. He finished his lasagna and felt his stomach almost nearly full and contented, and laid down so his head was laying in Mel's lap, looking up into her face. He smiled at her.

"Well sweetheart, I have officially yet to find an angle to look at you from that isn't your good side. Cheers. So, about the blurberry pie..." he wpndered, winking at her.

Melie leaned up against Liam when he pulled her closer to him and slowly ate her food. She got full pretty quickly but it was so good she had to take a few extra bites. She set the plate down beside her and started to absentmindedly play with Liam's hair when he set his head down in her lap.

Melie was thinking to herself about lucky she was to have Liam in her life, especially after her last boyfriends and all the insane (literally) problems that came with them. Melie was really walking down memory lane tonight, thinking about all her times with Liam, at the lake swimming, thats where they had their first kiss and Melie could still remember every detail about the day. His hair was aquamarine that day, and Melie had come up to him as he was getting out of the water. they chatted for a few minutes and then went swimming again. After they got out was when he kissed her, and Melie remembered how happy she was, the big grin on her face.

A smile played across her lips as Melie remembered all the good times, they had never really had a bad time, unless you counted the two hospitalizations one for Liam anf the superball incident (he still had the scar from that) and for Melie the squid attack, and Melie could only remember what happened after she had woken up from being knocked unconcious. Liam had stayed with her until she left the hospital wing, a full day later, a house elf brought him his meals and he ate with Melie and kept her company the whole time making her laugh.

Melie was brought back to reality when Liam mentioned the blueberry pie and she cut a piece slightly bigger than one person would normally eat, figuring that they could share it.
"You mean this?" Melie asked with a smirk as she put a piece on her fork and raised it to her mouth. "It does look awfully good doesn't it?" Melie teased him pretending to take the bite but then lowered the fork so he could have it.

Liam took the bite of pie of the fork, savoring it. "Well love, at least you know better than to tease me with food. Braver folk than you have lost hands that way." He winked at her then closed his eyes, lost in his current situation. 'Bloody hell,' he thought, 'I could stay like this the rest of the night.' A contented smile twitched at the corners of his lips as he lay there with his head in her lap while she played gently with his hair.

As he watched the night sky he too took a stroll down his own memory lane. He remembered how he met Mel, back on the first of September on the Hogwarts Express. It had been something of a catastrophe in motion, with Erin's exploding toad, and the appearance of all the other girls in the compartment. He still owed Scarlett one for that. With a bigger smile he remembered the first day that he and Mel had spent any serious time together, down by the Black Lake. It had been a rather amusing game of underwater tag, and they had had their first kiss right there. He could remember the kiss, but the sensations were beyond words, even the words within his own head.

His mind shifted quickly through other scenes with him and Melie: The flying leap out the window of Gryffindor Tower on their excursion to the London Zoo and Mel's expression as he jumped. Her coming to visit him in the hospital wing after the incident with the superball. Him sitting with the her for some amount of time he could not remember after she had been attacked by the giant squid. The amount of memories rushing through his mind were almost overwhelming, and he could not do anything but smile. He had loved his time with Mel so far, and he had no intention of that ending anytime soon. He loved Melinda Elizabeth Heartwood, completely. He looked back at her again, admiring every cute little quality of her face.

"So love, what are you in the mood for? Considering I planned this for you, it's your call."

Melie took a bite of pie for herself and thought about what they could do. It was such a beautiful night out Melie knew that she didn't want to go inside anywheres, let alone Hogwarts. Swimming was out, they did that much too often anyways. Melie had heard several rumors that the unicorns had a baby in the nearby forest, it may be called the Forbidden Forest but it definately wasn't going to keep Melie, or Liam for that matter, out of it.
"Well, now that you mention it being my choice...." Melie started and then rapidly started telling Liam what she wanted to. "Someone said that there was a new baby unicorn in the forest and I want to see him! Can we go looking for him? Please please please?" Melie asked quickly giving Liam "the eyes" that she used when she really wanted something. She knew that it most likely wasn't necessary but she did it anyways.

"Unicorn foals in the Forbidden Forest eh?" He scratched his chin, more for effect than anything. "Sounds like a great way to continue the evening love!" He sat up and, turning around, kissed her deeply. He waved his wand and the picnic set-up flew back into the basket. He tucked the hamper behind a nearby tree. He would come back for it later. Then turning back to his girlfriend he offered her a hand and pulled her up to him.

"Let's be off then!" He made towards the forest, then turned back to his girlfriend, silhouetted beautifully in the moonlight. It was tough to say anything when it felt like he had swallowed his tongue. Shaking himself out of it, he grinned at her and made a little beckoning motion. "Adventure doesn't wait for anyone Mel, especially adventure by moonlight!"

Melie was glad that he wanted to go look for the unicorns, not that she doubted he wouldn't want to. Liam cleaned up the picnic and Melie took his helping hand and stood up, but before she was able to even take a step he started teasing her for being slow as he headed for the forest. Melie smiled and followed behind him as they made their way through the forest. She caught up to him and reached forward and took his hand and continued to walk along.
"I'm not quite sure where they are," Melie said as they came up to a fork in the path. "Someone just said that they were here, but they never said where, I dont even know if they knew themselves. So which way do you want to go? Left or Right? We have a 50-50 chance of being right....or we could be in the completely wrong part of the forest and be wrong either way," Melie said with a laugh and smiled as she turned to face Liam.

Liam was laughing as Mel caught up to him, slipping her hand into his. He smiled at her in his attempt at being devastatingly charning. He knew he probably just looked like a fool. However, it was worth a shot, wasn't it? He heard her question about which way to go and their odds of success were. He winked at her when she turned towards him.

"So it's either a fifty-fifty shot or no chance at all, all with the usual halfway decent odds that we're going to be attacked by something? You know just how to make me feel special love." He looked to their left and to their right. Creepy-looking Forbidden Forest on both sides. Moonlight creating mildly frightening but fun shadows. 'This could be more fun than I thought,' he said in his inner monologue.

"May as well go left," he said, cocking his head slightly in that direction. He drew his wand out of his pocket again and cast the light spell, lighting up the forest around them for a few feet. He bowed to her cordially. "Your servant m'lady," he said, and started to walk deeper into the forest.

Melie followed Liam's lead and pulled her willow wand out of her pocket.
"Lumos" She whispered, not really knowing why and followed Liam left down the path. Melie wasn't a fan of the dark so she was glad that she had some light from her wand. She slowly walked down the path looking all around her to make sure nothing was sneaking up on her and when Melie looked for Liam she saw that he was far a head of her and she ran to catch up with him.
Just as she was about to grab his hand she tripped over something and fell forward.
"ouff!" she exclaimed as she fell hard to the ground on her stomach. She groaned as she sat up and dusted off her knees, her left one was throbbing a little. Why do you have to be such a klutz! Melie thought to herself as she slowly stood back up, pink in the face, thankful that it was dark and Liam couldn't see her blushing from embarrassment.

Liam heard Melie fall behind him and spun around. She was sitting dusting off her pants and he offered her a hand up but she must not have seen it in the dark, and stood up on her own. She looked quite embarrassed and he wrapped her in a reassuring hug.

"Don't worry love, it was just a tree root. The fact that you're a mite klutzy is cute. You're graceful where it counts though." He took hold of her hand and looked down the path they were on, shining his lit wand as far down as he could. "Don't see any more of them," he said, a laugh in his voice. "Looks clear all the same. We should be more cautious though." He headed off down the path with Mel, their hands clasped. They would be fine as long as they were together.

Melie blushed slightly as Liam teased her about there not being anymore tree branches up ahead. She couldn't believe how klutzy she was, always falling down or running into things. She took Liams hand and they started to walk down the path wands in front of them, so that they could see the way. After watching carefully for several minutes for anything that could possibly be dangerous for them Melie started to relax and started to look around a little less warily. she glanced at Liam and wasn't suprised to see him watching carefully to make sure that nothing would happen. Melie gave his hand a tighter squeeze and felt him squeeze her hand back, and she gave a big grin as they continued on walking silently down the path.

Liam returned Melie's grin with interest, but suddenly let go of her hand, spinning around. His wand was held at the ready, and he prodded it into the shadows just off the trail. Seeing something bolt off to his right he spun again, firing off a Stunning Spell. He had no idea what he was aiming at but he couldn't be blamed for jumping the gun, it had kinda jumped out at him. Seeing as his target had all of a sudden disappeared, he smiled to himself. There was probably some really shell-shocked deer somewhere that had just barely gotten away from being stunned into next week. He took Mel's hand again and headed off down the trail.

"Sorry about that love, guess I got myself into a bit of a state," he said, blushing a bit.

Before Melie had a chance to react to Liam, it was over and they were walking down the path a gave.
"Yea, maybe a deer," Melie said with a half hearted laugh, not quite sure it was a deer. She took his hand and every so often would look behind her, certain that something was watching them. She glanced over at Liam, glad to be there with him, she knew that he would make sure that she was ok. After a they walked a little while longer along the dimly lit path, there was another fork and Melie didn't stop to as Liam which one to pick. She headed to the right and tugged his hand to follow her. As she walked along in the darkness, she could feel her breath quicken and she picked up her pace slightly, partly from anxiety and partly from wanting to see the unicorn foal. Melie heard a twig snap and then a shiver went up her spine. Something wasn't right. She could feel eyes on her, and Melie didn't want to look at Liam and see that it wasn't him. The sound of the twig snapping came from the left of her, off the path, and Melie stopped walking.
"Did you hear that?" She whispered to Liam. After the little episode a few minutes ago, Melie was sure that something or someone was following them, she didn,t believe in coincidences.

Liam followed Mel down the right fork of the path, grinning at the fun of it all. Here they were in the Forbidden Forest which was enough trouble in general, but looking for a unicorn foal and here at night to top the whole thing off. He was quite glad for a girlfriend that would not only take part in adventures like this, but insist on starting them even. Suddenly he heard a twig snap and noticed Mel's hand tighten in his. Something around here wasn't right, he thought to himself as he held his wand up high, trying to spy the source of the noise.

"Yeah, I heard it. Keep your wand out love, I've got the feeling we're not alone out here." Just then something heavy struck him in the side of the head and he dropped down to one knee, lights flashing in front of his eyes and his world spinning. He tried to shake the feeling but he felt himself falling slowly down a long dark hole. He did his best to stop himself, managing to stay with it a little bit as he watched around him and Mel, trying to find what hit him.

Melie gripped her wand tightly wondering what it was that could be following them. In the forbidden forest anything was possible really. She looked around her, hand still gripping Liam's, trying to see what it was that was following them. Before she could even see what it was, something flew at them, hitting Liam in the head, and Melie in the shoulder. Liam went down to the ground and Melie looked around her , wand pointed out in front, but she couldn't see anything, and she didn't see where the thing went.
"Dammit!" Melie muttered under her breath and bent down next to Liam, her hand resting on his leg. "Are you okay?" Melie asked worried, she looked him in the eyes, which seemed to be drifting in and out.
"Liam you have to stay awake, don't pass out on me!" Melie said sternly, hoping that he would listen. "Here, sit down for a second. I don't know what it was, or where it went, but it hasn't come back....yet." Melie said worried, looking around them again, they were going to sit for a few more minutes at least, to make sure that Liam was alright.

Liam managed to keep himself conscious as he looked around, looking for whatever it was that had hit him in the head. He was thoroughly annoyed as he felt the lump rising on the side of his head but he could sense that whatever it was that had attacked him was gone. He got to his feet shakily and managed to stay standing.

"Don't worry Mel, I'm alright. Just a little annoyed with being smacked by the invisible troll that hit me." He took a couple of steps forward, making sure that he could walk. He took Mel's hand and headed off down the path, his wand in hand. He wasn't going to let the two of them get caught off guard again. Besides, they had come out here for a romantic evening and he was going to be damned if whatever-it-was was going to ruin it for them.

Melie breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Liam was alright and went down the path behind him, silently wondering if they should continue, since something was following them and attacking. She kept it to herself though and and silently walked next to him, her wand in her hand. She looked up at the sky as they silently walked along, and saw the moon, almost full, shinning bright in the sky, and the stars twinkling, as if nothing was going on, like any normal night. The moons light cast some strange shadows in the forest and Melie looked around at the calm forest surrounding them. Perhaps whatever it was that had attacked them had left, having gotten its fill of trying to terrify them.
"Do you think that we're even going in the right direction?" Melie asked, more at ease, a smile on her face now.

Liam shrugged when Mel asked him whether or not he thought they were going in the right direction. "No idea hun," he said. "I didn't know that we were really intending to find the right direction because to be honest," he gestured to the forest at large, "that covers an awful lot of open ground." He took a deep breath of the night air and let it out slowly, driving the worry of being attacked again out of his head. He was quite sure that whatever had struck him was long gone and now he was interested to find this unicorn foal that Mel was looking for. He took out his wand and laid it in the palm of his hand saying, "point me." It pointed off to his right, indicating the direction of north as off to their right. At least they weren't heading too much deeper into the forest. For one he didn't fancy the idea of getting lost and two he didn't suspect that the unicorn would be that far in. He took confident strides further down the path, his hand in Mel's. He was determined to get their date back on solid footing, and no more being attacked by shadows.

Melie headed off in the direction that Liam's wand had pointed them, keeping her eyes out for the unicorns. They walked along in silence for a few minutes and Melie started to lose herself in daydreams. Eventually they came across a small clearing. Melie could see something moving on the other side of it and she quickened her pace and looked at Liam excited that they had finally found the unicorns.
"I think that's them!" She said excitedly, trying not to talk to loudly and scare them away. She started to drag Liam through the clearing and at about the halfway point something caught her attention out of the side of her eyes. She whipped her head around and saw a dark cloaked figure slowly making its way across the clearing, not trying to hide the fact that it was there. Melie raised her wand at the figure and yelled, "Expelliarmus!" The figure, with a flick of his wand, dispersed of Melie's spell and silently sent another shooting at her. Letting out a small scream she ducked to the ground, yanking on Liam's arm, and the spell flew past her and hit a tree, causing it start smoking.
"What is that!" Melie hissed at Liam, as she crouched down in the tall grass. She stuck her head up slightly to see where the other wizard had gone, and Melie could see him, still standing there, looking for them.

"I have no idea," Liam growled, getting back to his feet from where Mel had pulled him down, "but whatever it is, it's toast now!" Liam got to his feet, firing one, two, three Stunners, one after the other at the cloaked, hooded figure, who managed to parry every spell. It fired one back at him, which Liam blocked by throwing a Shield Charm up around both him and Mel. He continued to exchange jinxes and hexes with whatever it was that was attacking them, and he began to think that this was also what had hit him in the side of the head earlier. He almost thought that it looked like one of the old Death Eaters, but there was no way that that was it. They had been gone for years, and he had severe doubts that they were making a return tour. He turned to Mel as he parried another Stunner.

"Mel, run now. I'll hold him off for now and meet up with you as soon as I can get away. I don't want anything to happen to you." There was nothing that he wanted less than to see Melie get hurt, and he had his hunch that he could hold off whoever this thug was long enough for her to get away.

After Liam put a shielding spell around them Melie stood up, not worried about getting hit by a spell at that particular second. When Liam told her to run she whipped her head around and stared at him, agog. She put her hands on her hips, completely forgetting that someone was trying to kill them at the moment.
"There is no way I'm running away Liam McCallister! A Gryffindor does not run!" Melie said angrily, instead she turned and fired another spell at the cloaked figure who quickly blocked it again, annoyed at the fact that her boyfriend even suggested that she run. Run! Is he serious?! What kind of girl does he take me for? Run. Melie scoffed angrily in her head.
"How is he able to stop ever single spell? I mean seriously!" Melie said angrily.

Liam could've laughed if he wasn't busy dueling. "Somehow I knew," he said, "that that was going to be your answer Ms. Heartwood. And I wish I knew how this thing was blocking everything, I'm running out of tricks here." He continued to fire off Impediment Jinxes, Stunning Spells and Disarming Jinxes at their opponent, who continued to parry all of their attacks. Suddenly it fired off some sort of spell that looked like a black lightning bolt that Liam tried to block but went around his wand and struck him in the chest. He felt himself slipping into unconsciousness and turned to Melie as he fell to the ground.

"OK, now run!" he said with his last breath before falling into the comforting blackness of unconsciousness.

Melie saw the black flash of light from the wand of the dark wizard hit Liam in slow motion and before he passed out told her to run. He can't expect me to leave him here! Melie thought angrily.
"Liam!" She yelled as he collapsed to the ground; she ducked down into the tall grass and crawled over to him. He was lying there, eyes closed, as if he were sleeping and Melie put her head to his chest and almost cried when she could feel his heart beat. Melie knew that she couldn't stay there, that she had to get out of there. Melie slowly peeked her head up out of the grass and saw the wizard being joined by another and started to walk towards where she and an unconscious Liam were. "Crap!" Melie exclaimed and grabbed onto Liams hand and tried dragging him behind her as she crawled away. She could hear them getting closer, not speaking to each other and Melie tried to move faster but her boyfriend wasn't exactly the lightest person at Hogwarts, and she had no intentions of leaving him behind.
Melie started to panic as she was moving, to slowly to be able to get away for sure, and she heard the men approaching. One of them grabbed the back of her hair and pulled her up.
"Ow!" She exclaimed as he held her hair tightly in his grip. She could smell his breath and it wasn't too pretty and she cringed as he put his face closer to hers. Melie looked down at Liam, willing him to wake up and the other dark wizard stood over him.
"What do we do with this one?" The second asked.
"We bring him too, could be useful for us," The one holding onto Melie said.
"But the orders were the girl, not the boy," the wizard argued as he levitated Liams body into the air.
"How about neither of us?" Melie cut in, even though she knew it wouldn't work and the one holding her turned to her scowling. "It was just a suggestion!" He lifted his hand and drew it back, then quickly and roughly slapped her in the face.
"Ow! Was that really necessary?!" Melie exclaimed through the tears that were welling in her eyes, she could feel some blood trickling down from her nose. She wondered who these men were, and why they wanted her. Melie drew back her foot and kicked the man his leg as hard as she could. He let go of her hair and Melie turned around to kick the other one but before she could, Bad Breath jumped on her from behind taking her down to the ground, hard, where she hit her head on a rock. Melie could see bright flashes of light behind her eyes and Melie fought to stay concious, at least she and Liam would have a chance, but instead she slowly slipped into the blackness that clouded her mind, trying to reach out to Liam as she went, hearing the laughter of the two men.

Liam woke up groggily, his whole body aching. He realized that he couldn't feel his arms. Trying to work his arms around so he could inspect them he realized that his arms were tied and he was in a straight-back wooden chair. "Well that would explain my less than comfortable wake up call," he said to himself, straining against the ropes that bound him. He was struck by a thought that ran through him like ice. He didn't know what had happened to Melie. He hoped that she had gotten away but that would have gone against everything that he knew about his girlfriend. He hoped that she had managed to get away from the creep that had knocked him out with some sort of crazy spell that he had never seen before. Straining further against his bonds he could feel the blood beginning to run down his wrists from pulling against the cords. He collapsed back into the chair, saving his strength as he tried to work up a plan on how to get out and figure out what the devil was going on. "Don't worry Mel," he said to the darkness surrounding him, "I'm coming for you baby."

Melie slowly woke from her nightmare and went to roll over and pull her blanket around her tighter, it was freezing in the dorm tonight, Mark must have forgotten to light the fire before going to sleep Melie thought to herself. Without opening her eyes she groped around for her blanket and after a few seconds of not finding it Melie opened her eyes. That was when she realized that it wasn't a nightmare that she had, it was real. Slowly she sat up, a sharp pain searing through her head, and she gingerly touched it, a good sized lump and she drew it back to see a small amount of blood on the tips of her fingers. Melie felt herself for her wand, knowing that she wouldn't have it anymore and slowly stood up. She was in a large, darkened room, almost like a dungeon. Slowly she made her way around it, trying to find anything that she could possibly use for a weapon or to help her get out of the room. She felt like she was missing something when suddenly it hit her.
"Liam!" Melie exclaimed in a low voice. What had happened to him? The two men had been arguing about wether they should even bring him or not and Melie prayed that they had left him in the clearing unhurt, the forest was obviously safer than where she was at the moment. Melie went to the darkest corner of the room and sat down, and started to think. She may not be as clever as some of her friends were, but she knew that she was going to get out this room, she had to get out of the room.

Liam growled as he twisted his wrists around and around. The person who had bound him had luckily done it wrong and he was slowly working his way out of the bonds. Suddenly he felt the loops around his wrists let go and go slack. He was free, technically, but still locked in the room. Just then, a voice came from where there was apparently a door on the other side of the room.

"Eh, you in there! Quit struggling or I'll shut you up myself!" the voice yelled, then there was a sound as though whoever it was had sat back down in a chair. Thinking to himself about how best to use this, Liam sat back in the chair, twisting the rope gently around his wrists to form two loops, for show and nothing else. Suddenly a plan came to him, and he waited for his moment to come. He was getting out of here, and if Melie was here, he was getting her out with him, no matter what the cost was.

Melie sat in the corner of the room thinking, well trying to think anyways. Her mind would wander every few seconds, wondering about Liam. She hoped that he wasn't down here somewheres with her.
"But wouldn't they have put us in the same room?" Melie thought out loud and then quickly rationalized them being in separate rooms, less of a chance of escape. Melie slowly raised herself to her feet and made her way around the perimeter of the room, trying to see if there was anything that she could either use as a weapon or to tell her where she was. When she was by the door she could hear someone just out side it, talking.
"Eh, you in there! Quit struggling or I'll shut you up myself!" she heard the voice say, and Melie's heart sank and soared at the same time. Liam was there, in the room next to hers. At least she wasn't alone. Before she had time to really react to the news someone threw the door open and Melie fell down into a heap on the floor. The man came in, grabbing her by the hair, and started to drag her out of the room.
"Ow!" Melie yelled to him. "Why the hair!? Why do have to keep grabbing my hair!" She screamed at him. He threw her down to the ground and Melie sat up and looked around. At least there was light now. She was in what looked like a room with for doors and a hallway. One of the doors was open and Melie knew that was where she had been, to the left was a door that looked the same and from the voice she had heard a moment before Melie knew that was where Liam was.
"What do you want from me?" Melie asked defiantly, looking at the man who had dragged her out of the room in the face. He looked down at her and gave her a gruesome smile showing dark yellow teeth. His hair was short, dark and balding and his eyes had a slight yellow tinge to them. "Gross," Melie muttered to herself low enough to not be heard by anyone.
"Well, since you asked so nicely 'n all, we's be holdin' you tryin' to ge' to your pa," the man said and evil grin on his face. Melie looked at him bewildered. "Ya see, he killed our leader, an' now he'd gota pay. We was sent to get you, din't plan on the boyfriend bein' with you, thought it'd be quick an' easy, like with your sis-er."
The man, along with another sitting in a chair nearby laughed and Melie stared at him, tears in her eyes thinking about her little sister. Still sitting on the dirt floor Melie balled her fists, picking up a fist full of dirt in each hand before throwing them in the face of the man and then lunging at his legs to knock him to the ground.
"Crucio!" The man who had been sitting in the chair shot the spell and Melie and she felt a searing pain through her whole body and doubled over in pain screaming, tears coming to her eyes. It seemed to go on forever and when it finally stopped Melie laid on the ground, panting and crying from the pain. The man she attacked walked over to her and grabbed her hair again.
"You try tha' again an' see 'ow far you get!" he dragged her back to the room she had been and roughly pushed her in and slammed the door, and Melie fell into a heap on the floor, crying.

Liam heard the sound like so much tinkling glass. Melie's voice, and not far away from him. His first instinct was to get up, kick down the door and get to her, but he knew that that wasn't going to work. Then he heard someone yell "Crucio!" and heard a blood-curdling scream that could not have come from anyone but Melie. His blood boiled knowing that one of the cads had the gall to hurt her, but he took a calming breath. Instead he started rocking his chair back and forth, the feet hitting the stone floor over and over again. Then he heard the voice come from the hall outside again.

"Oi! You in there! Enough struggling!" Liam kept at it, rocking the chair harder. Then he heard the noise he had been waiting for. The click of the door opening. The hooded man came inside, his wand raised. "Alright you brat, either cut the noise or I'm not going to make this pleasant for you," he yelled in Liam's face, spit and the reek of alcohol hitting Liam full in the face. With a wicked grin Liam brought his hands up over his head and brought them crashing down against the side of the man's head. Dropping to a heap on the floor, the man was completely knocked out and Liam quickly searched him. He found not only his wand, but Melie's as well. Taking a deep, easing breath, he formulated the plan in his head. He knew from the voices before that there was at least one other guard around. With effort he lifted his unconscious guard and tied him to the chair instead, and stood lurking behind the door. Soon his partner would come looking for him and then... Liam's face split into another wicked grin. Then, it was payback time.

Melie laid in the same spot she had landed when the man threw her back into the room, but she had stopped crying at least. Finally she sat up, and wiped the tears off of her face, smearing the blood and dirt at the same time. Melie slowly stood up and continued to look around the room for something to use, but the men holding them were smarter than they looked and had made sure there was nothing in the room. Melie sat back down the middle of the room and let out a frustrated cry. This was not going good at all. She was better than this, her father had taught her better than this. Melie flopped back on the hard floor and closed her eyes, tears streaming down the side of her face, wondering what she was going to do.

Liam stood in the darkened corner of the room, waiting for his chance. It should not have taken this long for the other guard to realize that his partner was gone, but that was relying on the intelligence of evil henchmen, which was never something to bet on in his experience. Just then, he heard a voice out in the hallway, and knew his moment had arrived.

"Oi, where are you at ya lazy git?" the voice called, looking into the room. Liam imagined the bloke seeing his fellow tied to the chair. The door was thrown open and the man rushed in. Straight into a kick from Liam that shattered the man's nose, and dropped him to his knees. Liam was on him in a second, holding him to the ground while his wand rested up under the man's chin.

"Alright mate, where is she? And don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about otherwise this place is going to get awfully messy, courtesy of a Reductor Curse from your truly. So, where is Melie?" He growled the words, prodding his wand harder against the underside of the guard's jaw.

"Arr, she's in the next room ya crazy brat," he said, trying to squirm out of Liam's grip, but Liam had a tight hold of him.

"Thanks," Liam said cheerily, then Stunned his captive. For good measure, he stunned the tied guard to make sure that he stayed where he was. Relieving the two of them of their wands he headed out into the hallway, locking the door behind him. He headed over to the next door, and opened it. He saw Melie sitting on the floor, looking a bit of a mess. Liam extended her a hand with a sympathetic smile. "Come on love," he said. "If you're alright then we'd better get out of here."

Melie sat up with a start when the door opened again. What do they want now? Melie thought with a mix of terror and indignation. She kept her eyes closed jsut wanting them to go away, but when a familiar voice spoke they flew open and Melie launched herself on Liam, completely oblivious to the pain that she was in. Her head hurt and there was a burning pain running the length of her back, from one shoulder down to the opposite hip.
"Oh my god! Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" Melie asked him rapidly, looking him in the eyes, he didn't seem hurt all that much other than what had happened in the woods, but she couldn't see everything and she wondered if he was alright. Melie gave him a long kiss, grateful to see him again. "How did you get out? We have to get out of here, we have to warn my dad and mum." Melie said to him worried about her family. She glanced out the open door and saw the room empty and made her way out of the cell.

Liam kissed his girlfriend back fully, then held her tight. "I'm alright love, I promise. Just a bit sore from being tied to a chair for some hours. I'm more worried about you," he said, giving her a once over. She seemed to have escaped the worst of what they could have done, but she was still in a state.

"We'll figure out how to get out too," he said, and headed out into the hall. The hall ended to their right, and went on to the left so he figured that that would be the way to go. "Come on babe, let's head that way" he said, indicating with a tilt of his head. "We'll find our way out of here in no time. I just don't know how many more of these gits there are around here. If we're careful we should avoid running into any of them." He headed off down the passage quietly, taking Mel's hand as he went.

Melie was relieved to hear that nothing had happened to Liam while they had been held in the dungeon.
"I'll be fine, a few more scars to add to the collection," Melie said, not trying to be funny. She held Liam's hand, not realizing how tightly, and followed him silently. Eventually they came upon a staircase and Melie quietly walked up the steps, listening for any sort of sounds coming from above. The place was silent and she had a feeling that they were alone in the house. Melie navigated them through the posh house and out the nearest door, ending up in a garden.
"Did that seem too easy to you?" Melie asked in a hushed whisper, standing outside in the light from the door. "Where are we anyways?" She looked around, there were no other houses close by, and no indications at all where they were.