Hey, sorry about the wait, I was working on my other story and also having a bit of fun wasting time with the Microsoft Word feature that translates your stories for you. I was having the most fun with French and Italian.

And, please excuse any weird mistakes or word switches or something, I really wanted to finish this before 1:30 am, and was trying to get it done quickly enough before 1) I got too tired to keep going, and 2) my playlist on my iPod ran out.

You know the drill, reviewers get cookies and all that stuff. Actually, please do review, I kind of want to know how well I write at 1:30 in the morning. Please review? And make me happy?

Anyway, here it is:

Oliver

"No! No, you're lying. Tess isn't dead. I'll kill you!" Kate yelled, pulling out her wand. Lineal mirrored her, laughing when Draco stepped in front of Kate. "And who might you be? I'll kill you before any of them. You are much more of a threat to Skremmende."

"If you kill me, you won't kill her. I'll make sure of it."

"Ah, young love! You know what I'll do? I think I'll torture her," Lineal gestured to Kate, "and make you two watch it. Then I'll torture you," he flicked his wand at Draco, who was immediately bound by invisible ropes, unable to move, "Take this one," he turned to Oliver, then raised his eyebrows, surprised, "oh! You're the boyfriend, aren't you? Well, your girl isn't completely dead. I'll bring her up from the oubliette, torture you, and make her watch, then torture her, more," he added, "and make you watch. Then, I'll kill both of you, throw your bodies in the oubliette, kill Kate here, and finally, kill Blondie."

He flicked his wand once more, and before any of them could react, they were all frozen.

"And I'll take that," Lineal said gleefully, snatching Kate's wand from her and tucking it in is back pocket. He gestured to the door, and 3 hulking shadows appeared in the doorway, blocking it completely. Then, he levitated a grate open, set it down, and pointed his wand down into the pit underneath, raising it slowly.

Tessa's limp body came into view, then dropped cruelly onto the floor. She woke abruptly, crying out with pain. She was already emaciated looking, her bones standing out in clear relief.

"Lineal," Oliver snapped, "What have you done with her?"

"Well, I was hoping you'd ask that." Lineal raised her body into a standing position. "First, you'll see she's quite thin. That is not my fault; she refused to eat. Then," he walked over to her body and raised her shirt a bit, showing her broken ribs easily, "I kicked her in the ribs a few times. I think I was pretty successful, don't you? She also has many bruises, a dislocated shoulder," he tweaked her shoulder a bit and she screamed, eyes still closed, "a split lip, and a few cuts." The dried blood stood out quite a bit on her body.

Then without warning, Lineal pointed his wand at Kate and yelled, "Crucio!"

Kate collapsed, the binding spell removed. She writhed around on the floor, just missing the pool of blood that had come from Tessa.

"No, stop! Please!" Draco pleaded. Kate let out another terrible scream. "Kate!"

Lineal laughed and turned his wand upon Draco, who collapsed next to Kate, but refused to scream. Kate, recovering, stroked his hair. Finally, he lifted the curse, and turned to Oliver, but paused. Then, he cast another Unforgivable.

This time, it wasn't the Cruciatus. It was the Imperius. Oliver felt himself forced into an odd, dreamy state. He pulled out his wand, and found himself using the Cruciatus curse on Tessa.

Tessa

She thought she screamed. She didn't know. All she knew was this terrible pain, ripping through her, intensified by the injuries she already had. She looked up at Oliver, saw his clouded eyes, and wondered when it would end. "Please," she hissed, "Kill me. Now."

Lineal looked over at Oliver and removed the curse from him. He gazed down at her, met her pain filled eyes, and dropped to his knees. Her cuts had begun to bleed again, and she spat out more blood before he cradled her limp form in his arms. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he repeated into her grimy, knotted, hair, the shine gone from it.

"You know?" Lineal seemed to be having fun. "I think that you two could be quite entertaining for me. I'll put your friends in a separate chamber. I suppose the guards will have a bit of fun watching this."

He motioned to the guards, who stepped forward, yanked Kate and Draco up, and tugged them out of the room. They were both silent. Immediately, three more guards took their places. Lineal swept past Oliver, who still had a barely-conscious Tessa cradled in his lap. From her haze, she saw the new guards stepping forward and moving to wrench her from his grip, but he moved surprisingly quickly and stood in front of her. "Don't you touch her," Oliver snarled defensively.

The guards looked at each other, (which was slightly humorous looking, because actually only two looked at each other, but the last one looked toward the other two, not realizing that neither was paying attention to him) and tried to move around him, but impressively, he kicked the legs out from one of them, backhanded the other, and was just turning to face the last when a sharp fist reached out and punched him right at the base of his spine. He fell with a cry, smacking his head on the concrete and becoming unconscious. Tessa tried to cry his name but found she was unable to make a sound, from the curse or the broken ribs she didn't know.

Oliver

When Oliver came to, he was chained to a railing in a richly furnished room, Tessa barely awake next to him. Her eyes were at half mast, exhaustion showing easily through her slump. "This was the same room I was in last time," she whispered gratingly. Her hands were unchained. "Tessa," Oliver began, "how come you're not chained up?"

"Well, apparently, I'm less of a threat when I've got four broken ribs, a split lip, a dislocated shoulder, and a couple cuts." She spat out more blood to the side while the gashes on her collarbone and cheek trickled similarly.

"Oh, Tess, I'm so sorry about-"

"Shut up," she half laughed, half sobbed. "It wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was. But anyway, is there a possibility of you getting to my pocket?"

"What's in your pocket?"

"A Snitch. Just grab it, please, I'll explain later."

She dug around in his pockets a bit, finding his wand, a Honeyduke's toffee wrapper, a receipt from Quality Quidditch Supplies, and a Knut before finally withdrawing a Snitch. Before doing anything else, though, she picked up his wand, tapped the manacles around Oliver's wrists, and whispered, "Alohomora." They clicked open and Oliver's hands dropped, relieving the aching muscles in his shoulders. He quietly thanked her, and brushed a small kiss over her cracked, bleeding lips. She shivered in response, then drew away, handing him the Snitch.

He spoke clearly to it: "Draco Malfoy and Kate Sato. We are in the Solar, the same room as before. We're both relatively fine, no signs of Lineal yet. Are both of you all right, and what room are you in?" he finished, and the Snitch flew off to do its job."

"Where'd you get that?" Tessa asked.

"Dumbledore," Oliver said simply. He knew she'd understand. She did, nodded, and leaned down on her back. They waited.

About half an hour later, the Snitch came zooming back just as the door opened and Lineal slowly entered. Quickly, Oliver stuffed everything back in his pockets and held his wrists behind his back to make it look as though he was still chained. Tessa lay wearily on the ground, but her job took no acting. She really was as weak as she looked.

Lineal walked leisurely over to them, then abruptly kicked Tessa in the ribs yet again. She screamed, eyes flying open, and Oliver gritted his teeth against a wave of fury for the man who was torturing her.

"Get up," Lineal snapped at them, "unlocking" Oliver's shackles with a tap of his wand. Oliver stood up and knelt next to Tessa, who was repressing more cries with difficulty. He didn't want her hurt more, and helped her to stand very slowly.

She leaned on him for support as Lineal led them down to a large room, the Great Hall, he supposed. What seemed like the entire population of the guards of Skremmende was gathered there, with a few servants. There was a large clearing in the middle, where Lineal stood and spoke to the guards. "For a while now, all you have been bugging me for a bit of entertainment. Well, here it is." He gestured to Oliver and Tessa, who were now making their way to Lineal, who then flicked his wand at Oliver, who was immediately thrown back and placed in some sort of invisible cage, with a silencing spell placed on him.

None of the people in the Hall were looking at him now, and he used the chance to take out the Snitch and listen to what it had to say. Draco's voice came to him.

"Oliver, we're both fine. Kate's sleeping and I think we're being kept in the Buttery, that's what she said. It's supposed to be in the cellar next to the kitchen, that shouldn't be too hard to find."

The Snitch, finished with its work, curled up its silver wings and dropped back into Oliver's hand. He tucked the tiny golden ball back into his pocket and turned back to the middle of the Hall.

Tessa

Tessa swayed a bit without the support of Oliver. She didn't really want to be entertainment to a bunch of creeps, but it appeared she didn't have a choice. Lineal pointed his wand at her, and she braced herself for the pain.

He cast the Unforgivable non-verbally this time, and she didn't make a sound as she collapsed to the hard ground. The pain wasn't as bad this time; she supposed it was because she knew it was coming.

Tessa took refuge in the pain. She buried herself in it, trying to ignore the cheers and taunts from the crowd. Lineal seemed frustrated with her lack of screaming. He cast the curse again, and the pain doubled, forcing her consciousness out of it and back into the real world. She cried out, arched her back into the stones as the mass of gold and purple jeered and laughed. Then someone ran out from the horde, yelling, "Stop it! Stop!"

The pain stopped suddenly as Lineal turned to the lone figure. "What did you say?"

Tessa, getting up slowly, realized it was the maid from the Solar. "I said stop."

Oliver ran out of nowhere, tackling the girl to the ground as Lineal sent a killing curse toward her. It hit a guard instead, who crumpled easily. Lineal seemed to go insane trying to assassinate the maid, and was killing his own guards left and right as she ran quickly along with Oliver. Tessa staggered along towards the door as quickly as she could, the sharp stone digging into her bare feet.

Oliver was waiting for her there with the maid. "What's your name?" she asked her, closing the doors quickly with one hand to barricade the guards.

"Fletning," the girl said, "and where do we need to go?"

"The Buttery," Oliver said, helping Tessa along.

"Are you badly hurt?" Fletning was concerned about her. "I can't mend bones fully, but I can help you with that shoulder and can probably get your ribs to just cracked instead of fully broken like they are right now."

"Er, yeah, that'd be great," Tessa gasped, already short on breath. Fletning stopped and, instead of doing magic, grasped the other girl's shoulder. "This will hurt," she warned, and jerked her hands back. Tessa let out an agony-filled cry as, with an awful grating noise, the shoulder fit back into place. Then the pain was gone, and she could move her arm perfectly again.

"Thanks," she said in awe, and Fletning smiled before producing a wand from the back of her dress and pointed at Tessa's middle. She muttered a bit, and Tessa felt the pain recede a little and regained some of her breath.

Fletning then moved on purposefully, leading them to the Buttery. Oddly, Tessa still had to spit out blood from her lip. Apparently, all this stress was not helping it heal.

They reached a set of narrow stairs, which they quickly descended, finding Kate and Draco sleeping, arms bound to another metal rail. Oliver pulled out his wand (now that Tessa was capable of rational thought, realized it was what he had used to escape from the cage) and unlocked the shackles quickly, while Fletning shook Kate and Draco awake. They complied quickly, stood, and Kate went to hug her best friend. They embraced, and only then did they realize that Lineal had followed them down there. He looked quite insane.

He pointed his wand at all of them, and Oliver and Fletning were forced to drop theirs. Kate, while wandless, pulled the paintbrush from her bun, and it grew quickly into a shining sword. Before the madly laughing Lineal could react, she had reached out and sliced his wand into two pieces. He froze and a look of crazy outrage flew onto his face; he leaped at her but she dodged with Chaser's agility and held the sword to his throat.

"Where. Is. My. Wand."

"I'm not telling you. I'll never tell you!"

"Draco!" she called to her boyfriend, "your Veritaserum!"

Draco ran over, took out the tiny bottle and dripped a bit into Lineal's open mouth.

"Lineal," he said, roughly shaking the prince, "Where is Kate's wand?"

Lineal slowly raised his arm to point at Fletning. She looked surprised and raised her hands as if to say, "I never had it!"

"Where? Did you give it to her?"

"No," Lineal croaked pathetically, "I slipped it down her boot when she wasn't paying attention."

Sure enough, when Fletning dug around in her boot, she found Kate's wand. She took it, tucked the sword/paintbrush back into her hair, and stood up.

"Now, we've got to get back to Hogwarts."