A/N: OK, so it has been oh-so-long since I've updated. But I have excuses—eh—I mean I have valid reasons. Honestly, though, I've been beta-ing. lol, well not me, but I've found a beta. And, thankfully, now all my grammar mistakes are fixed. So I've gone back and replaced all my chapters so that I'm not slashing up the English language with all my bad grammar. Thanks a bunch of grapes and then some to my beta, Charlie! Writing is so much better with a beta. :-)

Also, I've been taking final exams for the past two weeks and two days ago…I graduated. High School was fun, and as soon as I turn 18, I'm sure college (university) will be even more fun! lol. But enough blabbing. Thanks to my reviewers for reviewing. And Charlie for beta-ing. And on to the story!

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- - - - Chapter 11 - - - -

Red sparks illuminated the night sky so far above them, the trunks of the surrounding trees barely lit up. Oliver sent up a couple more for good measure and then put his wand away. He looked back over to Angelina where she still sat with the unicorn. She was kneeling closer to its injured leg now, inspecting the gash that was there.

"Its magic is too strong," she said in frustration. "I don't think any of my spells are going to work."

She looked over to him and Oliver saw that her eyes held no more tears, just a fierce and determined gleam. She had taken the mysterious note quite well, displaying little emotion except a hardening of her eyes.

"You know," she had said, wiping away the last of her tears. "This is starting to get a little bloody old. Don't you think?"

Now she was huddled over the unicorn again, pondering the likelihood of one of her healing spells working on the magical creature. Her bent figure was illuminated by the glow of the unicorn's hide and she looked remarkably visible—and vulnerable. Oliver just wished the magical law enforcement would hurry up and get there.

As Oliver stood there observing his red sparks in the sky, a gust of wind brought the sound of rustling leaves from somewhere in the woods. Oliver knew the help crew wouldn't try to sneak up on them from the bushes. Everything in the clearing seemed to freeze as he listened carefully. He heard it again. The unicorn raised its head and let out a little whimper.

Oliver looked over to Angelina. "Stay here. I'm going to see what that was."

Angelina started to get up, causing the unicorn to whimper again.

"Oliver, wait, I'm coming too."

He pushed through the leaves and bushes encircling the clearing, leaving her behind.

"Oliver! Oliver, dammit!" she called again, but he was already rushing ahead.

Some distance into the forest, he stopped and listened. The sounds had stopped now and Oliver was about to rule it out to be night creatures. Suddenly, though, a wand was pushed into his face.

"Lumos," someone whispered.

The light from the unidentified wand shone brightly in Oliver's eyes, blinding him.

"Oliver?" the voice said again.

"Who is it?" he growled out.

The wand refused to lower.

"Get that bloody light out of my face."

The owner raised the wand high above, casting a small orb around the pair.

Oliver blinked and looked back at a crooked grin on a freckled face. Looking closer though, Oliver saw that the grin didn't quite reach the sharp eyes looking back at him.

"Sorry, mate," Fred replied, not sounding too bothered by it. "Couldn't have been sure."

"You found them, then?" A second voice asked, followed by approaching footsteps.

An identical face popped into Oliver's line of vision, the light from that wand adding to the little orb.

"Oy, Oliver. We were looking for you, mate. Where's Angie?" George asked. He then looked around the woods at the enclosing leaves and the thick tree trunks. The crescent moon shone high above and the stars twinkled romantically.

George's eyes took on a harder glint. "It's such a nice night to be all alone in the woods, though, Oliver."

"Oh but he's not all alone, George," Fred spoke up, taking a step closer to Oliver.

"True, he's not," George answered, taking his own step forward. "So where's Angelina?"

Oliver refused to feel uncomfortable as the twins boxed him in. He put on a bored expression and was still deciding whether to tell them to sod off or reveal Angelina's whereabouts when a series of loud pops and voices filled the nearby area.

"You didn't see the sparks then?" Oliver finally asked as the boys started looking over his shoulder towards the clearing.

"Oh, those sparks" one of them said as they pushed around Oliver.

"We figured it was something," the other said, following his brother.

"Used it to get here…"

"But we figured you were lost…"

"So we were going to let you stumble around for a while longer…"

Oliver swallowed his frustration and turned around to follow the twins back to the clearing. By now the ani-med wizards would probably have taken away the unicorn. He lengthened his stride and caught up with the twins. They all reached the clearing at the same time.

"What happened here?" one of the twins asked, letting out a low whistle.

There were a couple of witches and wizards poking around the clearing now. Some were taking samples of the silverish unicorn blood that still glowed on the forest floor. Others were using spells to search the darker areas of the clearing for more evidence. Some guy was taking pictures, probably for the daily prophet. Who Oliver didn't see, though, was Angelina. She wouldn't have gone back without him.

"Oh good, you're here," a booming voice called out.

Oliver looked over to see a portly wizard ambling over to one of the twins with his notepad out.

"The young lady started giving us a statement, but then just ran off into the woods. But never the mind, she said her boyfriend was there with her and could fill in any missing details."

Oliver started heading off in the direction the man had pointed to, all the while thinking that Angelina had called him her boyfriend.

He had just reached the edge of the trees again when he heard the twin stammer, "Well, actually…I'm not her boy…well to say, I wasn't with her. Oliver, here, was—"

But whatever he was supposed to be, Oliver didn't hear. At that moment,quite clearly, but still softly, he had heard a scream. It came from deeper within the woods and, for the third time that night, Oliver went charging into its darkness.

"Wait! But where is he going?"

Oliver raced forward until the sounds and voices from the clearing faded away. He remembered to light his wand and held it high above his head. He called out her name but the trees were so thick, he was sure the sound only traveled but a few yards. On his third yell he tripped over a raised tree root and would have gone sprawling onto his face if he hadn't grabbed onto a low branch. But that wasn't the only reason he had stopped himself from falling. Floating just several inches in front of him, at chest level, was a miniature scull and serpent. It glowed bright green and looked almost identical to the real Dark Mark.

Oliver leaned against the tree trying to catch his breath.

"Lumos Intentia," he whispered. His wand produced a brighter beam of light that lit up more of the area.

He didn't see anything at first and his heart pounded horribly as dread settled over him. Thoughts raced through his head. He had lost her right in front of his eyes. He shouldn't have left her. She had been abducted; he just knew it.

The crescent moon beamed down on him, the stars twinkled merrily, and the Dark Mark floated peacefully, mockingly. Within a second, Oliver swung around and punched the bark of the tree. He let out a cry of frustration, mixed with pain, as his wand rolled out from his fingers. He closed his eyes tight; his hand might be broken, but he didn't pay it that much mind.

When the silence stretched on again, he opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He checked his hand and saw that he could still move it. He bent down to pick up his wand, but stopped. The beam of his wand lit up a folded piece of paper partially hidden under a pile of leaves. Thinking it was Angelina's note from before, he made to just put it in his pocket. Something caught his attention though, and when he unfolded the paper, there was no blood-red ink or confusing poems. Just two sentences.

I've got what you want. Take the portkey and give me what I want.

Following the beam from the tip of his fallen wand, he saw what looked like an old, dirty soda can. On it was written 9:23. Oliver checked his watch and saw that he had less than a minute to spare. He picked up his wand and the soda can and held on to it tight.

His head whipped around in surprise when he heard footsteps and saw red hair and freckles emerge from the thicket of tree leaves.

"Where'd that come from!" Fred asked (at least Oliver figured it was Fred). Fred pointed towards the floating miniature Dark Mark.

Oliver sighed, wishing Fred would just go away. The second hand crept closer and closer to 9:23.

"They've got Angelina," he found himself responding, distractedly. "I don't really think it's a whole Death Eater crew, that mark is just a ghost of the real spell." Only a couple of seconds now. "They seem to want something. I don't know what, but I'm going to find her." Three…two…one…

"Me too."

And just as Oliver began to feel that familiar pull at his navel, a hand grabbed onto his and the two boys were whisked away into a blur of color and wind.

- - - - - -

He's mad. Insane.

She wasn't sure why it took her so long to see that, but now that she did, she could've kicked herself. Angelina smirked to herself as she remembered that she had kicked him a couple times before he had managed to tie her up with actual rope.

"And I had been watching you and him. Potter. I saw you two at that house." He let out a cackling laugh. "You didn't see me though. Oh no, no. No one ever sees me."

He wobbled around the small room in glee. Angelina admitted to herself that he disgusted her. He was a short little man who constantly glanced over his shoulders, or ducked down on the floor, as if he was being followed. He didn't look to be much older than her father, but his voice sounded aged and almost raspy. And surprisingly, he was exceedingly strong.

"I saw you two at the house, I did," he continued to talk to her although all Angelina would do was glare at him. "With the whole family of those red heads. I saw you two. Tried to blend in, did you?"

He cast a sharp look over his shoulder and then ducked down. After seeing that, indeed, no one was following him, he straightened up again and continued his gleeful pacing.

"Oh, but I had been following you, yes I have." He cackled again. "I've been doing exactly what master tol—"

Angelina got fed up with his story. "Look. What the bloody hell do you want with—"

Her words were cut off effectively as a hand made a hard contact with her face.

"Don't interrupt me, whore!"

The slap had wrenched her head to the side and when Angelina rolled her head back to the front, she saw him looking over his shoulder again. He started muttering to himself as he hurried over to the door at the far end of the room. He opened it and peeked outside; then he closed the door again. After a second he repeated the process, opening and closing the door for a while.

Angelina ignored the sting in her face and glared at the evil little man checking and rechecking whatever room lay outside the door. Bastard, she thought. If only she could reach her wand in her robe pocket.

Along with the sting in her face, there was also a dull ache in her foot where she had kicked a tree in an effort to escape the man abducting her. Her robes were ripped at the shoulders where he had dragged her further into the woods and her wrist stung where the rope bit into them.

She ignored all of that though, and focused her hardest on trying to reach the wand she knew was still in her left pocket. Her hands were clasped behind the back of the chair on which she sat. Her feet were bounded too. Now, more than ever, she wished she knew wandless magic.

The little man came back to stand in front of her. She took up glaring at him again, feeling disgusted when he suddenly broke into a smile.

"I've been doing exactly what my master told me," he continued as if there hadn't been an interruption at all. "Follow them, he said. Watch them, he said. I was so good!"

His voice rose in excitement and the sound seemed to scare him. He cast darting looks over his shoulder and ducked down again.

"But he didn't know I was doing more." He came towards her and leaned in close. Angelina willed herself not to turn away at the disgusting smell of firewhisky and sweat. "I saw him change himself," he practically whispered. "He changed himself so he could hide from me."

He turned away from her then, and Angelina let out the breath she was holding.

"He couldn't hide!" he shouted. Again the furtive look over his shoulder.

He lowered his voice, "I could see right through him. And I know that you two were out tonight planning my masters downfall."

He turned and gave her a sinister look then. And for the second time that night, he slapped her hard across the face. "Slut!"

"Dammit!" she growled out. "You're flipping crazy!"

"Crucio!"

Angelina experienced a blaze of pain, but it was short-lived and not as excruciating as she thought it would be.

He was too busy looking over his shoulders and ducking behind what little furniture was in the room (an armoire and a small table) to notice the spell wasn't very effective.

Angelina took deep breaths as the sharp pain faded away. He wasn't really good at spells. She had noticed this before when it took him three tries to make a portkey out of the old soda can he had brought with him. He also couldn't perform the right binding spell and had conjured ropes to tie her up instead. Angelina figured he was the worst Death Eater ever, and she just knew she could out duel him if she reached her wand.

He came back to stand in front of her.

"Where is Potter?" he demanded. His eyes grew wild and he bounced nervously on his heels. "Master will not be happy if Potter doesn't show up. I left him a portkey. Our Lord will not be pleased!" he wheezed out at last.

This man was crazy. Angelina was exhausted from the fight with him earlier on in the woods when he had tried to abduct her, and she was still throbbing and stinging from the abuse he laid on her during his insane ramblings. She fixed him with her sternest glare.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

His face contorted with rage. He looked like he was about to slap her again.

"Silence! You bitc—"

Angelina pulled her foot out of its binds and kicked up hard. She heard a sickening crunch as her foot connected with his groin. She watched as her captor doubled over in pain.

"Bastard!" she spat down at him. He rolled around the floor in pain, mumbling to himself between wheezes. She tried the rope around her hands again and wiggled her hands free.

She stood up and grabbed her wand but by this time he was crawling on the ground towards his wand. Angelina made a dash for the door and just got through as a spell bounced off the wall behind her.

She heard him give a tortured scream in the room behind her but she just kept on running. Her feet took her down a long, dark hallway and as she heard footsteps behind her, she dashed into one of the many doors lining the hall. This door led to another hallway and without thinking she let her feet carry her into the darkness.

- - - - - - -

Both boys landed hard on the carpet of a dark room.

"Nox" Oliver whispered, and his wand tip went out immediately. He turned to Fred, who was making his way to get up, and shoved him hard back onto the floor. Oliver stood over him menacingly.

"What the bloody hell'd you come for?" he asked in an angry whisper.

Fred stood up quickly, brandishing his wand. "Lay off it, Oliver," he said with a sneer. "You're not the only one who bloody cares about Angelina, you know."

Oliver was too angry to care. He pointed his wand directly at Fred. "What makes you think I give a flying fu—"

"Shut up, Oliver! Shut up will you," Fred whispered, cutting him off. "Listen."

Oliver clamped his mouth shut, but kept his wand up. At first he only heard his heart racing, but then he heard other sounds. Arguing.

He turned to look at the shadowy outline of Fred. The room they had landed in contained no windows and had only one door. Both boys crept towards the door, wands held out, and listened hard to what the argument was about.

"I. don't. care. Gobbo!" a harsh voice shouted. "Imbecile!"

Another voice could be heard mumbling something between weeps.

"But…but…master…please…"

"Shut up!" What sounded like a slap resounded through the door and the weeping increased.

"How many times must I tell you not to put on my Death Eater robes and mask?" the harsh voice continued.

"Master…master…please…"

"And you've lost her. In. the. house!"

"She got away…m…master. She was so strong. I've been…been…watching her and Potter tonight."

"Potter is at the Weasleys tonight, you lackwit. You were tracing the wrong guy."

"No…no master. He changed himself. He changed himself to look different, he did. I know. I saw him."

"Shut up! We must find her before she becomes a problem. She cannot get out of the wards I put up, but we must find her. She's seen too much, thanks to your stupidity." Another slap was heard.

"Yes…yes master," the other voice said after a while. "She…she ran into the vanishing corridors."

"She could be anywhere in the house. Check the upstairs."

"Yes…yes master…"

There were footsteps leading away from the argument.

"And Gobbo…don't disappoint me again. Or your punishment will be severe."

"Yes…yes master…"

Oliver looked over and saw Fred's taut expression and his tight knuckles gripping the wand. Oliver wondered if Fred's heart was beating as fast as his was. They had to find Angelina and soon.

They listened again as the last pair of footsteps left the room. All was quiet and Oliver looked over one last time to see if Fred was ready. He opened the door slowly and stuck his wand through first. Fred did the same, and then they both jumped into the room.

The room was bright, but empty. Only a few pieces of furniture were scattered around and black robes were lying discarded on the floor. The white Death Eater mask was nowhere to be found. Several doors led out of the room and there was no clue to which way the arguing pair had gone. Oliver looked towards Fred.

"We've got to find her, soon."

Fred ran agitated fingers through his red hair. "I know. But, dammit. Those bastards! Do you think they hurt her while she was here?"

Oliver swallowed as the more aching thought came to mind. "Well, they'll kill her if they find her before we do."

Fred swore under his breath. "What the hell are we waiting for, then. Let's go."

Fred made to run off through a door but Oliver stopped him.

"If we separate, we might not find each other again. We need a way to contact each other."

Fred paced impatiently. Oliver knew they were loosing precious seconds, but one of them might get left behind if Angelina was rescued and the other person couldn't be found.

Suddenly Fred snapped his fingers. He dug into his pockets, searching for something. When he finally pulled out his hands, a gold sickle rested in his palm. "Do you know how to do a protean charm?"

Oliver stared at the coin for a while. He remembered something of it, but it had been years since he's been in school. "I think I remember, but what do you need to do?"

"Well, last year in school, Hermione charmed all of the coins in the DA to mimic Harry's so that we'd all know when the secret meetings were." Oliver didn't quite understand what the DA was or how the coins would work but Fred forged on. "And if you can charm our coins to be connected to each other, we can use a simple searching spell to find the other one.

Realization slowly dawned on Oliver. It was an interesting piece of planning and Oliver was surprised—and impressed—that Fred had come up with it.

He reached into his pocket and took out his own gold sickle. With a definite plan in action, his mind was able to race back to the spell he had learned in the last weeks of his 7th year. He took the coins and placed them side-by-side on a table. Focusing his attention on the coins alone, he took out his wand and stood back.

"Proteus Dimidium"

Nothing happened for a second and then the coins rose into the air. They glowed an eerie red color and spun around themselves until their images blurred. Within a second, they were back on the table, each with a half of it cut out so that the other would fit. It resembled the ying-yang symbol, one coin being black and the other silver.

"Whoa. Now I wish I hadn't left the end of 7th year."

Oliver grabbed up a coin and stuck it in his pocket. "C'mon, we have to find her."

Fred picked his piece up and then looked towards the many doors leaving the room. Randomly he ran towards a door and disappeared behind it.

Oliver chose another door and opened it. A long, dark hallway lay beyond it and he let his feet carry him into the darkness.

- - - -

A/N: So what do you think? Review please. You'll get a treat! lol. This is Part I by the way. The second half to this section of the story is coming very soon. Summer vacation is here and it's wonderful. :-)

Also…thanks to evilevergreen for going back and reviewing all the chapters. I appreciate you're comments and insight on things. :-)

And of course, I always love the long reviews Angelface04 leaves.

But thanks to everyone for reading the chapters…whether you've reviewed or not because it means so much to me. >>:gets all teary:>> lol, but really. Reviews make my day, so thanks everyone!