Her dad had always told her not to panic: just take deep breaths and calm your mind. Somehow, as she dangled two hundred feet above the Holyhead Harpies deserted pitch, a place she'd previously had very fond childhood memories of, Lily Luna thought that breathing calmly might not help too much in this case. Yes, she decided, as the huge scaled creature looming over her tightened its painful grip on her throat: this was definitely a moment in which panicking was acceptable.

"We're coming, Lily!"

Michelle's frantic screams, too faint for Lily's liking, drifted from across the stands as the rest of the team rushed to try and fight their way to her. Whether it was the panic talking or not, Lily had little hopes that they could take care of their own advancing monsters and save her before she either suffocated or became a horrible mangled splat on the grass below. Or both.

Her feet scrabbled desperately in mid-air as they tried to search blindly for something to take her weight, maybe she could apparate to safety, but to no avail. The creature opened its terrifying mouth and roared, its rancid breath bringing more tears to her eyes. Blackness encroached on her vision and her thoughts began to slow.

Was this it? she wondered as her feet stopped their frantic dance and hung limply. After all the things they'd faced in the last three years, she was going to be taken down by a bloody Class Three? More tears seeped from her closing eyes. So this was it. She'd never see her parents again, never laugh with her brothers, see her cousins. She'd never kiss again, never love again. Her eyes finally closed on that thought.

Amy...

Michelle Wood, the team's senior catcher, emerged first from the stairwell, followed almost immediately by her second-in-command, brawny dark-skinned Bulgarian Aleksandar, who brandished his wand at the creature.

"There's no time to catch this one, we need to kill it!" he snapped.

"No, he'll drop her!" Michelle shouted, knocking him back. "Go around, break her fall! Now, Alek! And get Lorcan!"

He took off back down the stairs for the lower level as Michelle advanced on the monster. She finally caught sight of Lily and her heart dropped: she was unconscious, her head lolling back, lips tinged blue. She couldn't wait any longer, Alek should be in place by now and if he wasn't... well, Lily was dead anyway. She wouldn't feel any pain.

"Avada Kedavra!" she screamed.

The curse dazed the creature and it stumbled, letting go of Lily who dropped like a stone. The Killing Curse only served to make the demon angrier and it let out another blood-curdling roar as it lunged for Michelle, who parried quickly. She had no time to think about Lily's fate as she began her frantic duel with the supernatural being, its red eyes locked into hers, seeking her soul.

"Not today, mate," she hissed through gritted teeth. Her wand was straining; all of her effort went into focussing her magic. She heard a bang from behind her and another jet of light joined hers. The loud crackling of their magic hitting the dark force before them was enough to make her short blonde hair stand on end and Michelle risked a quick glance to her left.

"Nice of you to join us!" she called and Bogdana, Alek's cousin and third member of the team, answered with a small smirk.

Having grabbed their terrified intern on the long way down the stadium stairs, Alek burst out into the night air and took off across the pitch where Lily was lying, still unconscious and unmoving.

"What happened?" Lorcan managed to squeak out as they neared her.

"Class Three, dropped her from the twentieth stand, managed to slow her fall but something happened up there," the older Auror responded.

Lily's red hair was fanned around her pale face. Her right leg was bent at an awkward angle, clearly broken, and three deep gashes adorned both sides of her neck where the demon's claws had pierced the fair skin. Alek dropped to his knees beside her and checked for a pulse. It was faint, but at least it was there.

"Take her to St Mungo's and send for reinforcements," her said to Lorcan who was hovering uncertainly, "I've got to get back up-"

He was cut off by a huge bang as the massive creature crashed down to earth and landed twenty feet away, clearly dead. Glaring up at the stands above, he saw Michelle waving down at him.

"Sorry!"

"A little warning next time!" he yelled back, and turned to the frozen Lorcan. "Scratch the reinforcements. Go, go!"

Snapping back to reality, the young blond grabbed hold of Lily and apparated with a loud CRACK!

Alek sat back on his haunches and let out a sigh. Behind him he heard the crackling hiss as the demon's twisted carcass burst into flames, their unnatural green light illuminating the quidditch field. After a few moments Michelle and Bogdana joined him.

"She's alive?" Michelle asked.

He nodded. "Lorcan is taking her to St Mungo's."

Bogdana let out a relieved chuckle. "Poor boy. I don't think is what he was expecting when he was assigned to the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

Michelle joined in with the laughter, the adrenaline starting to slow. "He'll soon learn, it's all in a day's work for the Occult Task Force. C'mon let's get Horns over there dealt with."

A short introduction to my new story (yay). Please let me know what you think :)