Sable was floating, breathlessly, in a green jelly-like substance. It surrounded every part of his body. Whenever he moved, the substance would jiggle and shiver against his skin - but it would not allow him to escape. He seemed to be in some sort of pool - a tired, decrepit stone pool - carved into the ground in someone's yard. He could just barely see the tops of the wrought-iron fence posts as they rose above him.

The man struggled to shift his body, once again accomplishing nothing. He wondered where his wand had gone - and if he could perhaps manage a spell without it's use. He called up thoughts of blasting, breaking, unbinding - letting them fill his mind completely before trying to materialize them in the world around him.

The man could feel the power welling up within him. Using magic without a wand always brought about strange feelings. Whereas the wood and core of the thing would otherwise be the actual conduit between some distant, ethereal plane of existence and our own - without a wand the user's actual body was accomplishing this task. Even with intense concentration and practice, the only spells that could be accomplished using such methods were very simple ones.

When he felt sure that he had summoned up the most strength that he could muster, Frederick pushed the thoughts forward and out of his mind. He concentrated on the jelly-like substance between himself and the open air above the pool, trying to imagine it being ripped apart.

With a loud crackle, a burst of sparks and flame danced across the surface of the stuff. Just a few feet above the Auror, he could see his visualized spell become a reality. The green substance hissed as the energy made contact with it, sending thick puffs of black smoke into the air. The disgusting smell of burning flesh filled the air around the pool.

Frederick remained securely within, however. The spell seemed to have no effect beneath the surface, and he could only watch as it's energy slowly dissipated. He tried, once again, to push against he weight of the ectoplasma around him. It gave a slight wiggle, but otherwise held firm. He was trapped.

The Auror wondered how he was able to breath. The substance seemed to restrict movement completely, and had him otherwise completely sealed beneath it's surface. There did not seem to be any possible way that air could make it's way through such a substance. A large, dead-looking tree hung over the lip of the pool. He could see it's branches moving in the wind, but could not hear any breeze. The sounds from above seemed to be muted, as well.

Something cut through the strangely distant sound of the wind. A voice, ancient and fragile, rolled across the surface of the pool and then settled into it. The Auror could almost feel that words enter his body - they sent a chill down his spine. If there had been any room for it, he was sure that the hair on his arms would have stood straight up.

"He's after... my... key."

The words drifted away as quickly as the had came, and the world seemed to sink to a level of silence deeper than Sable had ever heard. He wondered what the voice had meant - was there a key to escaping the pool? Had someone else been trapped in this same position before?

The silence did not last long. Almost as soon as the thought had drifted from his mind, an ear-piercing shriek broke through the world around him. Frederick himself tried to yell out in pain, struggling to try and bring his hands up to cover his ears. His cries made no sound, and his arms made no movement. The scream sounded like something that would come from a dying, tortured animal. The amount of sheer hurt that was projected from it seemed to be impossibly high for a mere sound alone.

The green goop around the man seemed to hear it, as well. The whole block - the entire shape of the large swimming pool - seemed to constrict under the pressure of the scream. It gave off a slight, nervous vibration as it tensed up around the man within it. Frederick's brow furrowed as he felt further pressure to every inch of his body. The stuff seemed to be trying to crush the life out of his body. The intense scream intensified with every few seconds. The Auror's vision blurred and he began to grow dizzy - both from the pressure threatening to pop his body like a grape, and the mindbogglingly loud noise from above. He could feel his consciousness begin to slip from him.

Then, the source of the sound came into view. The upper body of a young man peaked over the edge of the pool. A thinly-built boy of maybe fifteen stared down at Frederick. Even through the sickening green hue of the substance between them, the boy's shockingly blonde hair was obvious. He seemed to be wearing Hogwarts robes, and his thin face was twisted into a horrified expression. Two silver rings stood out brightly on his face, catching the light at just the right angle.

The shriek seemed to be far too loud and piercing to be coming from the boy, but the expression on his face certainly seemed to match it's intensity. Suddenly, the young man's arms reached over the lip of the pool and began clawing at the substance within. Sable could feel it gently wiggle as the boy above tore into it. The stuff was now deep inside of him - his nostrils, ears, and mouth were all filling with it's pressure. He was now unable to blink or even look away from the scene above him, as the green goo pressed so intensely against his eye sockets, pushing his eyes backwards into his face.

Frederick fought, with every ounce of his being, against the substance drowning him. As his consciousness became a slowly tightening dark tunnel, a primal instinct took over and every part of him was active. Sparks sizzled across the surface of the pool as every last bit of his soul went into trying to use magic to fight his way out.

Soon, he could only see the boy screaming directly above him. His struggling began to fade, and he grew to except his impending doom. The Auror began to relax as the green substance and himself ceased to be different entities - becoming one as it burst through every orifice of his body and reconnected with itself within him.

The boy continued to scream.

The alarm clock continued blaring painfully in Sable's ears. His body twitched as if it had been hit with a bolt of lightning and he sat straight up in his bed, moving a hand onto his thumping chest. He was drenched and sweat and realized, suddenly, that he was alive. It had only been a dream.

Nothing about it had been dream-like, however, and he still felt sore in various spots throughout his body where the jelly had pressed against his flesh. Against and into his flesh.

For another moment, the man simply sat straight up in bed and let his thoughts drift back to the dream. The clock continued to roar next to him, but he pushed it's angry whine from his head and tried to focus his thoughts. It had been terrifying, but he needed to make sure he remembered every detail.

The old pool - where was it? What else could he recall about it? A wrought iron fence, bent and rusted. The sky above had been a somber grey color, cloudy - no sun. What else? Sable felt the images quickly fading from his mind as he struggled to stop them. There had been a boy. Screaming. The piercing shriek came back to him and he felt instant pain in the center of his head, hearing it again. The boy - he had been a student at Hogwarts. He could hardly recall more than that. A blonde-haired Hogwarts student had screamed for him.

Suddenly, the man remembered one final detail and everything clicked together for him. He quickly readied himself for work and was off, apparating in the central entrance-area of the building as he did every morning. He did this out of habit - many Ministry officials enjoyed taking a few moments to chat with employees of other departments before heading off to their own floors - and regretted it instantly. As he quickly walked through the crowded room, he received greetings from several of his friends.

Finally, Sable managed to get himself onto a lift and down to the second level. As he emerged, he realized he had almost forgotten his most important routine of the day. With a small popping noise, the man plucked his coffee mug from the air and inhaled a deep, hearty sniff of the brown stuff inside. Satisfied that it was as warm and as strong as ever, he began gulping it down quickly. At this rate, he was already three cups down for the day.

Turning the corner and breezing through the heavy oak doors of the Auror Headquarters, the man found the place nearly completely empty. He was earlier than usual, a quick glance at his watch reminded him, and not at all upset by this. Quickly and quietly he slipped through the room, careful to avoid the occupied cubicles, and ended up at his office on the far side of the room.

Sable had just tapped the door knob with his wand, silently unlocking it, when he was suddenly interrupted.

"Early morning, Sir!? What are we getting into today!?" Beth had appeared behind him. Her own massive, steaming coffee cup was already half-gone and clearly had gotten to her head already.

"I thought we could go over a few more of the Halifax witness reports, perhaps even go over the clues we found there. Have you gotten any more ideas about the boot? I have been researching the thing all morning, and I can't seem to find what brand it is.."

Frederick held up the hand with his coffee in it, extending one finger forward to shush his assistant. He realized that he was starting to make a habit of this gesture, and quickly tucked his finger away as she stopped speaking.

"Beth, do you know where we can find the family photographs we took from Agne's home?" The man popped his office door open and slipped inside, closing it quickly behind Beth as she followed suit. He was usually very open to helping out his fellow Aurors - almost always preferring to leave his door open, to show that he was available. He had no time for distractions this morning.

"W-well yes, but I didn't figure we would need to see them again. I think I have them in my cubicle." Beth locked eyes with her superior and brought her hand up to her glasses. In a second they were in-hand and being nervously wiped down against her maroon cardigan.

"Go get them, please. I think I may have something." Sable slipped his overcoat off of his shoulders and held it out towards the rack next to his desk. The thick, wooden beam bent itself down and out and plucked the coat from his hand. As it returned to a straightened, solid position, Beth quickly darted out of the room to get what he had asked for.

When she returned, Sable was waiting - standing just inside the closed oak door. He moved towards her quickly, grabbing the photos and closing the door as soon as she was barely inside the room.

"Sir, what's this all about? Have you - is this about one of those dreams again!?" Beth's face lit up with excitement as the Auror flipped through the photographs. She had always been intrigued, if not entirely convinced, by her boss's methods. The faces in the pictures smiled back warmly. The woman had apparently had a rather large family - or at least a rather large collection of photographs of someone's family.

"Have we spoken to any of her family?" Sable had lifted one photo from the pile and held it closer to his face, examining it closely.

"Well, yes. I think she has a son with a family that is like us - I mean, magical." Beth's cheeks warmed for a moment. She loved non-magical beings more than most, but still had a hard time wording it when referring to the differences between them and their wizard counterparts. In an eagerness to appear as non judgemental as possible, oftentimes things came out wrong.

"That's great. We are going to need to get ahold of them, quickly. I need all the information we can get on their son. Then I want you to reach out to Hogwarts, and have someone keep an eye on the boy until I arrive." Sable quickly slid the remaining photos into the top drawer of his desk, leaving the one he had picked out separate on the top of it. As he set it down, His assistant could finally see what it was a photo of. A young man - maybe 14 or 15, beaming into the camera from beneath a tree. He had brilliant blonde hair that sort of stuck up all around. In his nose, a pair of tiny, silver rings gleamed in the sunlight. He was wearing his Hogwarts robes, and it appeared that he was posing for school pictures.

"You are going to Hogwarts? When!?" Beth could not completely keep up with the situation. She lifted the photo he had dropped and turned it over in her hands. The boy inside it continued to smile at them, waving occasionally. On the back of the photo, there was a bit of writing. In the shaky, scrawling cursive of an elderly woman, it was a name:

Keegan A. Brightly,

5th year Hufflepuff,

Hogwarts.

Underneath it, someone else's handwriting - much larger, in plain block letters:

with love

- Kee

"Right now." Sable reached towards his coat rack and it bent down and delivered his double-breastedi to himself after he slipped it over his shoulders and pushed both arms into the sleeves, he waved towards a small cabinet behind him. A suitcase - bright purple, with silver stars twinkling across it - burst out of it and flew to his waiting grasp. He stepped passed Beth and opened the door to his office.

"Please, try and get ahold of the family - and Hogwarts, especially - as soon as possible. I'm going to discuss this with Pike, as quickly as I possibly can. Then I will be on my way." Sable paused briefly and looked down at the woman. He realized that, so caught up in the investigation lately, had been very short with her.

"Thank you, Beth. For everything."

She turned and looked up to him, and for a moment it seemed as if they may embrace one another. Her hands continued fumbling the photograph, nervously, as they locked eyes.

A second later, the man disappeared in a twirling of grey overcoat. Beth sighed, continuing to stare at the spot his eyes had been. After a moment of silence, she rolled her eyes and tossed the photograph onto his desk.

"...a right slag, that one."

The woman turned and left, slamming the heavy oak doors behind her.