Snippet #1311910

"Likely a trick." Harry replied, taking a quick glance at the potion in Hermione's hands. He doubted very much that Kreazil would hand something like that over to them. Unfortunately, he wasn't adept enough at potions to really figure out if it was really what Kreazil claimed it was. They needed Alphonse to take a look at it before they could be sure.

"Perhaps so. But we won't know for sure until we can get our Potions expert to verify it." Hermione stated. ...With not much else to do, she simply sat down next to Harry, placing the potion in her robes for sake keeping as she wrapped her arms around her knees, placing her chin atop her hands.

---

Evelynne accepted his hand as he pulled her to her feet, rubbing the back of her head as she stood. she felt a little dizzy, but she doubted that was entirely due to the fall.

Eve raised her emerald eyes to lock with Ryu's own, "Don't worry about it, Ryu. I'll be fine." She said, smiling at the end to show that she wasn't angry. Her attention turned back to the music box and she hesitantly approached it, eyes inspecting the box and the ground around it for any clues or traps, "I don't see anything suspicious... Do you? I mean it could-" She stopped suddenly when she heard a low and rough growling in the forest, a sound coming from an animal she had never heard before. Well, that wasn't true, there was something familiar about the sound but she couldn't place it. All she knew was that it was a very terrifying and violent sounding animal that she didn't want them to meet face to face. While she was good with magical creatures, there were some that you just couldn't control and she had a feeling this may be one of them.

Ryu suddenly whirled around towards the direction of the sound.

"Ruddy hell." He spat, his upper lip curling up, keeping his wand up as well as one of his knives. "Now what...?" Keeping his weapons at the ready, the thief quickly cast another Protego charm around them just to be safe, although he wasn't sure if it would really do anything, before casting a Lumos spell to try to illuminate the woods nearby to see if he could cast a little light on the situation.

---

Natasha nodded, continuing to smile, "the Temple of the Elders sounds interesting." She remarked, leaning forward to close the space between their hands while at the same time she plucked the glass ball from the belt around her waist. She held the ball at her side, hoping she was right to think she only had seconds left. Her hand connected with the young boys and she gripped it firmly in her own, "I'm sorry to say, though, that my trip has been cut short. I'm going to go back now and you're coming with me, Dimitri." Her voice had lost the bright happy tone that she had been forced to use for the past hour, and her smile darkened considerably as she eyed the boy.

"What?" The younger boy eyes suddenly went wide.

"Actually, I'm not sorry to say that. I fucking hated every moment of being here." She dead panned and suddenly felt the pull from somewhere behind her belly button that alerted her to the fact that the port key was about to work. Natasha tightened her grip on the boys arm, not caring if it bruised the boy, and felt the sand beneath them suddenly vanish in an instead as the port key whisked them away from the beach.

Within half a second, which had really felt much longer, there was a loud POP! and they were on the castle floor in the middle of the living room at Lucius' feet. She stood up, still gripping the boy's arm, and tossed the glass ball at Lucius while holding Dimitri firmly at her side, "Merry Christmas, Lucius." She said with a half a smile, auburn hair curling around her face as she used her free hand to brush sand from her long pale legs.

The younger Nightwing, never having felt the pull of Portkey transportation before, also felt the pull of the magic from behind his navel. Feeling the sensation of whirling around in a vortex, he distantly felt the hard ground slam into his stomach--or he would have, if it weren't for the fact Natasha was holding him up. Slightly disoriented, he quickly came to his senses as he realized he wasn't on Dragon's Nest Isle anymore. Wherever this place was, it was cold--save for the feeling of warmth from the nearby fireplace.

Dimitri was rather frightened now. His brown eyes grew large with fear, his mouth hanging open--unable to form any sounds.

Smiling, Lucius raised his hand and efortlessly caught the trinket between two spindly fingers. A wave of his wand transfigured the sphere into an ornate silver key. "And a happy New Year, no?" he replied as he deposited the key in Natasha's hand. "West wing, third door on the right. I believe if you look there you'll find a rather generous holiday bonus. Unless, of course," he added with a smirk, "you want to help with the interrogations downstairs first."

Without listening for a response, Lucius turned to the little boy, who by now was trembling from head to toe with fear. "You must be him," the sinister man sneered, a cruel smile plastered on his face. "You'll do."

Sparing no pity on the terrified child, Lucius snatched the boy's wrist and yanked him down the hallway that lead towards the dungeons.

Almost immediately, Dimitri realized that this was NOT somewhere he wanted to be. Trying to yank away himself, the boy tried to struggle, but it was futile against the adult's superior strength. Quickly coming to the conclusion that he would be unable to overpower the adult on his own through pure brute power alone, he went for a more...underhanded option. ...By that, Dimitri bit Lucius--sinking his teeth into the dark wizard's hand as deep and as hard as could to get him to let go in order in a desperate attempt to open up a chance to bolt.