As her eyes fluttered shut that night the uncomfortable weight of the day remained. It felt like her lungs were being squeezed by a vice causing her breaths to come out in short gasps.

She could see the way the others at the reserve looked at Martha, similar to the way one would regard a much-loved family pet or a favourite book.
Yes, she had been dreading this very moment since she had been introduced to Martha but the limited time she had spent with the beast could barely constitute the formation of a meaningful relationship.

When they had left Martha that night Rosie had still been quite mad at Charlie.
To her, knowledge was like a key that could be used to unlock realms of possibility thought otherwise impossible, an idea was something that should be nurtured and studied through its infancy until it could blossom into adulthood and be accepted as fact, or refuted as fallacy. She truly believed Hemlock was the best option for them, though she was sure when she relayed the story to Tabitha she'd scold her on her solely intellectual approach.

As Martha's last cry bellowed through her room she'd not been surprised, Martha had been on the cusp of death even before she had arrived; but that didn't stop her stomach from lurching – the same feeling she got when she took off on her broom too quickly.

Pushing her emotions into the back most corner of her mind, just as a good pure blooded girl was trained to do, she dressed quickly from the collection of clothing strewn haphazardly around her room. Her final outfit was a rather eclectic combination of red gumboots that stopped just before her knees, a large white tee shirt that could very well belong to a man twice her size, and her usual sleep shorts. She wasn't really sure what they were to do in this situation, would someone come and collect her? Was she allowed to go and inspect Martha herself?
Lowering herself to the ground, she wrinkled her nose in discomfort as the scratchy white carpet rubbed against her palms. She located her mediwitch supplies after some time and pulled them from underneath her bed, tucking her walnut wand into the waist band of her shorts as she stood. She was hoping to take some blood and tissue samples, particularly from the Lymph nodes and Fire glands.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

The noise reverberated around her room and the door shook threateningly in its frame. With a quick intake of breath her grip on the bag loosened, it fell to the ground with a soft thud as some gauze spilled out.
She turned quickly to the door, pulling out her wand in a habitual manner.

"W…Who is it?" she asked shakily, her mind conjuring images of the terrible beasts and death eaters that could be standing mere inches away. In an instant her door swung open, welcoming a gust of cool wind as it did so. She had dived behind her bed the second she had seen the knob turn with a loud squeal.

If she couldn't see them, they couldn't see her.

"Rosie?" she heard a voice ask, a rather non-threatening one at that. Peeking her head out for a moment she saw flaming red hair and shoulders so broad she knew it could only be one person (Unless Lynn had taken up bodybuilding in the last couple of hours).

"Charlie?" she said slowly, surprise lacing her voice. His eyes were wide and wild as he held his notably large ash wand at the ready, obviously on edge for some reason. What surprised her most about the situation was the current absence of sadness on his face, not even a sullen glint in his eyes.

"Get your wand and stay behind me" he said hastily, stepping out into the hall waiting for her to join him.

As she started for the door he frowned as he saw her try and gather her mediwitch supplies from where she'd dropped them.
"Leave it." She wanted to ask him why, and possibly scold him for the rude tone of voice he was using but by the way his jaw was tensing and the set of his shoulders she thought he'd snap at her again or worse, he'd not let her come at all.

Rushing after him, she struggled to keep pace. Though he was quite comfortable with a brisk walk she was jogging to keep the same speed. Stupid short legs. She couldn't help but be curious over his strange behaviour…why did he have his wand out already for instance, were they expecting trouble? Or was her notoriously over analytical mind making her worry for no reason.

"Charlie, why do we need ou…"
"Shhh" he turned around quickly, causing her to bump into his chest as he covered her mouth with a large hand. "I need you to stay behind me and not make a sound or I promise you, I have no issues sending you back. Clear?"

As she nodded vigorously he finally uncovered her mouth, further increasing his pace as he took off.
The cave through to the canyon seemed a lot scarier at night, the otherwise mystical looking stalactites hung in the darkness like daggers waiting to fall and pierce through their next unsuspecting victim. The faint blue glow did little to illuminate their path, rather, without its partnership with sunshine the cave was more of a dull deathly blue, like the lips of someone who had depleted their supply of oxygen long ago. It was just so…dark. Tabitha had told her such fears were childish, but that hadn't stopped her from leaving a small light by her bed in the night time- not that she'd admit to it.

Talk about brooding. She'd happily follow him if he'd offered her any tidbit of information but he'd chosen to leave in in the dark.

Nearing the end of the cave Charlie had pulled her behind him, rather roughly mind you. His head poked out as he craned his neck to survey the area before them.

"You're acting absolutely mental!" She pulled his shoulder back a bit roughly as she said this.
"Why are we sneaking through here like a pair of fugitives?" Absolute git. She thought the last part, or at least she hoped she did, nevertheless, the scowl on his face was rather nasty, a bit like she imagined Lynn's would be if you really tested her.

Sighing deeply, he trained his eyes on her.
"I promise I will explain when we get back to the living quarters, for now I need you to cooperate and be on alert. Deal?"

Regarding his tenseness and the way his eyes were imploring her to be amenable for the moment she swallowed her anger once more, inclining her head in such a way to imply agreeance. She didn't trust herself to speak without aggravating him further.

Noticeably relieved, he peeked out to survey the ravine once more before beckoning her to follow.


"I…It's gone?" Rosie gaped as Charlie ran his hands through his hair, kicking the rugged wall of the cave as he swore.

"No shit" he winced as his boot hit the wall once more. Wow. She thought that he wanted to sneak out and get good samples before the others could. Perhaps that he wanted to be the first to pay his respects to the beast. Not this. Wow.

Where Martha's remains should have lied in all their recently deceased splendour, lay a pile of bones belonging unmistakably to a dragon and a rather familiar looking welsh green pelt…but where was the rest of her?

Inching forwards slowly she ran her hands along the smooth bone, so much for collecting samples. There was nothing of use here, no blood work could be done, no samples from infected tissue, no autopsy. Nothing.

How could possibly help the next dragon if they still had no idea what they were facing?

As she turned to look back at Charlie she saw that he was slumped on the ground, his chest rising and falling rather erratically. His face was buried in his hands which were cut up and bleeding, a result of his earlier theatrics, she was sure.

What the hell was going on here?

"Charlie…" she walked toward him slowly, fully intending to heal his scuffed hands…and try and pry any information she could out of him.

As she slowly bent down to match his level his head abruptly snapped up. She stayed silent for a moment, just gazing into his eyes, trying to read his emotional state.

"Do you hear that?" he said finally, breaking her from her reverie as he stood suddenly, pulling out his large wand once more.
"Someone's coming up" he moved quickly towards the entrance dragging her forcefully behind him.

Pulling out her own wand she found herself hiding behind his large frame, her heart was beating frantically in her chest and her hands were shaking. What if it was the person that had done this? Maybe they were back for more and would kill them both! Oh goodness, she was still so young with a bright future ahead of her, was it really her time to die?

She could hear the faint whir of the podium as it rose, willing her to squeeze her eyes shut, her fingers white as she held her wand at the ready with unnecessary force. Charlies breathing seemed a lot calmer than her own, she didn't dare open her eyes again but she could imagine him at the ready, like a cat waiting to pounce on its unsuspecting prey.

Footsteps, hesitation, the faraway sound of the dragons as they hunted in the night. Her vision swam as she heard the gravel crunch under the shoes of their approaching guest. Would they use an unforgivable? Maybe they'd kill her slowly and painfully. Grabbing the back of Charlie's shirt, she pulled herself in closer, an action she would have regretted if she had been in her right mind.

Just as she thought her heart would burst through her chest in all its crimson glory she felt Charlie's shoulders relax as he took a small step forwards, putting some distance between the two of them.

"…Lynn? Jack?" His words barely registered, it was only after she heard the motherly voice of Lynn that she finally peeked her head out from behind Charlie.

"Charles! What did I tell about sneaking off! You didn't even think to come and let me know first?" she approached the two of them, wand still out. Her eyes widened as they landed on Rosie.

"And look, you've gone and pulled poor Rosie into the thick of it" She pinched his ear rather harshly pinning him in place with a glare.

"Never mind that Lynn" Everyone's eyes were drawn to Jack, where he had moved to the back most corner of the cave "would you look at that!" Jack's deep Australian baritone called for, or rather, commanded attention as he extended his wand arm out, illuminating the wall of the dank and musty enclosure.

Since she had been lead on this wild goose chase by Charlie her mind had become cluttered and unfocused; she fixated on the way her stomach had been engaging in some rather uncomfortable gymnastic manoeuvres, the way she had truly feared for her life not a moment earlier and the way Martha's body had been desecrated and dismantled in a way that would suggest foul play. On the far side of the enclosure an almost unrecognisable smear of blood adorned the cave. Almost unrecognisable. Ignoring the way rivulets of blood were streaming down the wall beginning to hide the image behind them she could make out a large skull with something serpent-like protruding from its mouth, a cruel parody of a tongue.

"Is that A…A…" the words were lost in her mouth as she spoke them, the hairs on her arms were raised, a Pavlovian response to an image that had frequented her childhood. One that she knew could only mean bad things.

So much for being a clear cut case. It had seemed like a difficult enough task when they were just dealing with the dragons, but she didn't even want to begin to decipher the implications of tonight. Someone owed her one hell of an explanation.

She wished she could channel the commanding presence of her father in moments like this. She'd stand tall and demand compliance. Rather, the shock of the image before her had rendered her speechless, mind you, she was not a woman of many words to begin with. No wonder she hadn't been a Gryffindor.

She was all but forgotten as Jack, Lynn and Charlie surveyed the scene.

"Just like last time, but they've left us a message this time" Charlie said as he joined Jack at the wall, tracing the outline of the mark with his finger.

With a few deep breaths - and a quick prayer to Merlin - she slowly approached the remains of Martha, crouching down to survey the dirt around her. They must've used an odd spell to manage this. The air felt heavy and strange, not like it had earlier in the day and she could still feel the tingle of magic in the air.

"You've got to be tugging my wand mate, that's the fourth one this month" Jack said in the distance as they continued their analysis of the wall.

Her eyes scanned the unsettled dirt by her feet, a collection of foot prints mingled with one another, some belonging to a large dragon, a much daintier pair belonging to her and a collection of large boot marks, like those belonging to the men of the sanctuary, could be seen all over. So in all, no remarkable or damning evidence – it was probably too much to hope the culprit would drop their wand and maybe even a couple of pictures of them at the crime scene, if only life were that simple.

She could see Charlie's large feet heading in her direction, but she didn't dare look up. It was embarrassing enough that she'd all but crawled inside his shirt to hide, but he'd also witnessed her reduction to a speechless and afraid 'little girl' as if he didn't already have enough fuel against her.

"Suppose you haven't seen Jennifer then? I 'ad her stationed here all night" She heard Jack say to Lynn, she didn't need to look up to know he was on the receiving end of one of Lynn's famous glares.

"You had Jennifer here? And you didn't tell me! Oh the poor dear, Jack are you trying to give me a heart attack?"


What a git, he was probably the one that'd done it in the first place, if not for Lynn maybe he'd have carved her up too.

Charlie had done his best to explain the situation to her on their short journey back to her room. According to Charlie, he knew she would never pass up the opportunity to stick her nose into his affairs making her the perfect companion tonight, a rather presumptuous assertion on his part, but between her shock and better judgement, she knew better than to correct him.
Plus, a bonus was that she was new so he could conclude she wasn't involved. Not a conclusion she would've come to herself. Maybe she was a cold hearted accomplice sent by Voldemort himself...maybe she'd been imperiused this whole time and was about to commit an unspeakable act (if she hadn't already), really, he'd left a lot of doors shut in his mental assessment of her character, but she'd rather not open them for him.

So someone had been stealing the bodies… and Jennifer, who was supposedly meant to be watching Martha's enclosure was yet to be found. Not to mention the dark mark at the scene of the crime. If she'd wanted to deal with deranged lunatics she'd have become an Auror, or studied divination!

Merlin, this was too much for her, next thing she knew they'd be digging into her family history and unjustly drag her off to Azkaban. Her mother would be so proud, finally joining the ranks of her families finest.

Needless to say, the rest of her night had been less than restful.


Sorry guys I've been really sick, I hope this chapter was ok and that you enjoyed it. If you have a spare minute, I'd love to hear any feedback!

Evangeline xx

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter