"A wolf lying in wait."

Kira shoved the last shirt into her trunk and before she could latch it, the tattered book on the dressing table caught her eye. It had a brown leather cover and an intricate detailed latch the closed the book. It was Dhara Horne's diary. She had contemplated leaving it, but seeing it there, she could not leave it.

Getting up from her crouched position on the floor, she picked up the book. She sat back down, this time on her knees, resting her weight on the backs of her heels. She turned the book in her hands, holding it under the dim ball of light that hovered above her. She was searching for any indication that it was cursed or riddled with magic. Waving her hand over it, she wracked her mind for spells she knew for detecting magic. She found none and so she stuffed it inside her trunk and latched it shut.

She looked at the clock. Midnight. It was time to leave. She stood up and with another wave of her hand, her trunk lifted into the air and shrunk to the size of her palm. She slipped on her coat and opened the pocket, letting the shrunken trunk fall into it. Her wand was in there somewhere, but she did not care for it. She was more than capable on her own.

She reached her door and turned the handle as slow as she could to prevent any noise. She stepped out into the hall, her footsteps not making a single sound. She had perfected the art of sneaking around at Hogwarts.

She pushed open Aurelia's door across from her room and she was standing there, her own trunk already falling into her pocket. With a small nod she followed her out into the hallway, casting a non-verbal spell to hide the sounds of their escape.

They crept down the stairs and once they reached the bottom, they almost ran to the door. Kira reached for it but a bright red light hit the door before her hand could reach it. She pulled her hand back and whipped around, only to see Anna Horne standing there with a wand in hand. She almost breathed a sigh of relief. She was not fighting someone with years of experience of wandless magic, but she was fighting someone with a knowledge of dark spells.

She shot back one of her own, waving her hands in an arch before pushing them towards her, sending a flurry of wind and anything caught in it in her direction. She blocked the spell with a shield charm and sent back a curse of blue light that set of an explosion on the floor behind them, sending them crashing into the wall behind them.

Aurelia got back to her feet, whispering, "Reducto," sending a flash of blue light barreling towards a side table beside Anna and it exploding sending shards of broken wood towards her, but she blocked it with another shield charm.

"Careful," Kira hissed. This house was filled with ancient objects.

She sent back another curse that had the two of them jumping to the side to avoid it. It hit the wall and it exploded, sending them flying forward. Aurelia landed on the couch, and Kira, not so fortunate, hit the floor, her side bashing into a fallen over chair. Something from the blast hit her above the eyebrow, but she ignored the feeling of something running down the side of her face.

Bricks and debris were sent flying everywhere and before she could raise her hands to repair them, time seemed to slow. The bricks themselves were pulled back into place by the force of the house. She stared in shock and wonder before she gathered her senses and sent a jet of water towards Anna and it hit her. It wasn't Anna Horne anymore. She writhed around but her hair grew shorter, darker. Her features growing sharper until she was not Anna Horne, but rather a man in his mid-forties with black hair and a short beard. He grinned before hissing, "Avada Kedavra!" as he sent a jet of green light towards Aurelia.

Kira sent a bookcase flying to block the spell and got up, sprinting towards her. She grabbed Aurelia and tried to apparate but she could not. There was a spell preventing them. "Shit." She looked around and saw the window and pulled her forward. "The window!" she yelled, recieving a nod from her.

With a hand out she blasted the window into shards that froze around them as they leaped out of it. They hit the ground with a hard thump, rolling over. The glass shards reformed into a window. Kira gasped, trying to regain air, and got up. Aurelia followed and they scrambled down the hill, running as fast as they could until the reach an area where they could apparate.

They reached the beginning of town and she grabbed her arm, pulling her closer as they apparated out of there.

They landed in a forest. The only forest close enough that Kira could thinking of going to. The Forbidden Forest. She stood up and looked around, spotting the lights of Hogwarts in the distance.

"You okay?" She asked, glancing at her friend. She was bleeding from her left shoulder but there were no serious visible injuries.

"Yes. Who do you reckon will talk to us when we stumble into Hogwarts looking like this?" She chuckled. They both had dust and blood covering their clothes.

Kira herself had been hit on the head by what she assumed was a brick or wood from the blast. She raised her hand to the cut and hissed in pain as feeling flooded back into her body. She could feel the sticky blood that had run down the side of her face.

"What do you mean? We look fantastic." Despite the weakness in her legs and the aching need to collapse, she mustered up some energy and trudged forward.

Hagrid's hut came into view as they got to the edge of the forest. Her heart was pounding and her throat was dry. The duel and being thrown around in two explosions had taken a toll on both of them.

"Why does his house have to be on the top of the hill?"

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So it's been a while, but now I'm ready to continue writing and finishing this story

Hope you enjoyed and are willing to stick by me through this <3

- walkingmasterpiece xx