Reacting completely on instinct, Melanie caught her brother before he reached the ground. He was extremely heavy; he was completely relaxed, so she had to deal with his entire weight.

Even as she caught him, she scrambled to place another illusion over Blake, to disguise him. She abandoned the simply illusions that made observers glanced through the two of them and instead put a glamour up in their corner of the room. If Melanie had decided to knock a hole through the wall, then neither teacher would notice; their senses would not detect the damaged being down to the wall.

Melanie glanced back down at her brother. His sudden slackness could only mean one thing. Blake had another Vision.

Suddenly, Blake sprung back into life and sat up. He glanced around once before announcing, "We need to go."

"Could you be a little more specific? Such as who, what, and why?" Melanie asked, startled, as she watched her twin brother stand up.

"Harry Potter, is about to be captured, You-Know-Who wants him dead."

"WHAT?" Melanie exclaimed. "Where? By whom?"

"You're going to have to provide the where, Mel," Blake told her. "I'm not sure who the Dark Lord sent, but I know we'll be needed."

"Why?"

"Because we can do pathic magic." He glanced around, his eyes taking in the illusion she'd set up. Beyond it, only Pierson reminded in the office; Professor Moody must have left while Melanie was distracted. "We need to go. Now."

"Fine. Let's go." Melanie said. "Pierson won't even know we're here."

Sure enough, Pierson didn't give any indication that he heard them as they loudly crossed the room, opened the door, and left.

Blake hurried down the hall with Melanie on his heels. /Where's Potter? / Blake asked after they'd left the teacher's office hall.

Melanie concentrated. /He's in the common room./

The two of them ran into the next stop only to be forced into a fast walk when they entered a hallway occupied by Snape. /Think you could cast another illusion, Mel?/

/No. I can't concentrate./

After what seemed like a ridiculous amount of time, they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, which guarded the entrance to the Common room. "Juggernaut," Blake said, and the Fat Lady's portrait swung open. They hastily climbed inside.

The Common room was completely empty.

Melanie froze. She turned to her brother. "Where is-"

Suddenly, a yell came from the stairs, accompanied by the sound of sounding heavy rolling down the curved stairwell. A boy's figure, about the size and build of Harry Potter, appeared around the last curved.

"Mel! Stop him!" Blake urged her.

Startled into action, Melanie did the first thing that came to her mind. She took out her wand and pointed it and her open, left hand toward Harry. "Alia, Aeriel, Dittrias, Consistus Totallus!"

The pathic spell had crossed her lips before she even realized it. A stream of power, magnified ten times from invoking the Gods of the Darmian family's religion, jumped out of her hand, making her stumble back a step. It crashed into Harry right before he hit the ground, freezing him in the air. He was unconscious. Melanie quickly used her telekinesis to float him across the room to a couch.

They heard footsteps on the stairs. A man, half-shrouded in shadow, stepped out of the stairwell and into the Common room. Melanie could clearly see that the shadows were an illusion; every other second, it seemed to flicker, and she could see a face rimmed by black hair.

He had red eyes.

Blake was already moving. He raised his wand and shouted, "Errin, Dittrias, Impedimenta!"

Melanie saw the strange man, the unknown man who was so clearly a Darmian, wave his hand in an effort to redirect the spell's path with telekinesis. It was not a wise move on his part; only pathic spells could fight pathic spells. The man was thrown backwards against the stairs. He fell down a step or two before coming to a stop on the floor. Melanie noticed with worry that he'd managed to keep hold of his wand.

He got to his feet. Melanie and Blake kept their wands trained on him. "Well, well. Family members, at Hogwarts. How wonderful." His voice was as cold as ice. His raised his wand. "Errin, Dittrias, Avada-"

/Pathic Killing Curse!/ Melanie 'pathed to Blake. It would be powerful enough to take out twenty people at once, and he was aiming at them.

"No!" Blake said. He raised his free left hand. The rogue Darmian's wand caught fire, forcing him to drop it with a yell. The piece of wood crumbled into ash on the floor.

The man glared at them. He let out a growl of frustration before teleporting away, disappearing in a flash of light.

/He couldn't have gone far,/ Melanie 'pathed to Blake, /He can only teleport somewhere else on the grounds. The wards around Hogwarts would make sure of that./

/Find him./

Melanie closed her eyes searched for the rogue Darmian's mind. She drew up a blank. /He's blocking me,/ she said, astonished. No one she knew was good enough to block her Locating power. /It's hard to pinpoint-/ Her eyes widened. "Get down!"

She grabbed her brother by the arm and pulled him to the floor, just in time to avoid the blast from a spell. The rogue Darmian had teleported to the other end of the room.

Melanie and Blake quickly got to their feet and whirled around, but the other wizard was faster. Melanie whirled just in time to see him wave an arm. Blake soared backwards through the air, hitting the wall, ripping off a tapestry and crashing through a small table on his way down.

/Blake!/ Melanie cried, but there was no answer. She glared at the unknown wizard. /You son of a-/ she projected, loudly and forcibly, at his mind.

He staggered; evidently, he hadn't had any mental shields in place strong enough to withstand a mental shout. She didn't give him time to recover. "Erin, Darmaya, Alia, expelliarmus totallus!"

The spell was meant to disarm him, completely and totally, including not just his wand but any other weapon he might have been carrying. However, he chose to retaliate by teleporting out. Melanie could not let that happen; she was dead if she did. "Alia, Darmaya, finite transporto!"

It worked. He disappeared in a flash of light. The disarming spell hit the fireplace. A second later, he reappeared in the same spot as before. /You know quite a few pathic spells, girl,/ he said. /What's your name?/

/Melanie Mincent-Darmian./ Melanie said, refraining from telling him her whole name; that would give him power over her. /And yours?/

/Marek Smith-Darmian,/ he responded. /My master wanted me to bring him only Harry Potter, but I do believe he would be interested in having you as well./

"Your master?" Melanie repeated. "You're working for the Dark Lord, aren't you?" she asked, horrified. "Are you out of your mind! You're a Darmian! How dare you sink to that level!"

It all just spilled out. If she hadn't been so terrified at the idea of a Darmian being in league with Voldemort, she might have held back, because all it did was piss him off. He held up his wand and said, "Excrucio Totallus!"

It was the most excruciating pain Melanie had ever felt. She wanted to curl up into a ball on the ground but found she couldn't move a muscle. Her body was completely cramped with pain.

One minute, she was standing ramrod straight, and the next she'd landed on the ground on her back. She couldn't stop screaming. Every nerve in her body felt as if it were being burned or electrocuted.

"Finite Incantatem."

The pain stopped. She couldn't move. Her entire body felt like a giant bruise, and she had to gasp for breath.

Her body rose from the floor until she stood on the balls of her feet. She was held there by Marek's telekinesis. He held two books in his hands. "Have you ever heard of a book binding curse?" he asked her. "Probably not. I'm sure you've heard how the Dark Lord preserved his sixteen-year-old self in a diary. That was a partial book-binding curse, where a person's memories, experiences, their very being is merely copied into the pages of a book. In a full book-binding curse, however, the entire person is trapped inside the book until the book's owner wishes to release them. You're lucky I brought along two blank books, Melanie. Let me show you what happens."

Melanie watched, horrified, as Marek Smith-Darmian walked across the room to the couch Harry lay on. He used his telekinesis to reposition Harry's body into a sitting position before opening the blank book to the very middle and placing one of Harry's hands on each page. Marek pointed his wand at Harry. "Enervate."

Harry's eyes snapped open. He glanced around in alarm. "What-"

"Dittrias, Seiran, Alia, publicus mens mentis transporto, publicus legio somes transporto, transporto totallus!"

Harry was sucked right into the book.

The book fell onto the ground. Melanie caught sight of text filling every page before it snapped shut. Harry James Potter was written in gold cursive on the front cover.

Marek picked the book up with a grin. He turned around and headed back to her. He tucked Harry's book inside his robe and placed the second book, open at the very middle, on a table. He pointed his wand at Melanie. /Place your hands on the pages, Melanie,/ he ordered her.

She had no choice. Every part of her body protested as she slowly and carefully walked over to the table. She raised her hands and placed them on the pages.

/That's a good girl,/ he told her. She really wanted to hurt him. "Darmaya, Seiran, Alia, publicus mens mentis transporto, publicus legio somes transporto, transporto totallus!"

Her hands suddenly felt like they were glued to the book. Then, suddenly, the pages seemed to be rushing closer and closer to her face.

The blank pages filled with text and the book snapped shut. On the cover was Melanie's full name.

Marek picked up the book and glanced at the cover. "Melanie Gwendolyn Heba-annora Arien Mincent-Darmian," he read. "Let's see what you know."

He tucked the book into his robes along with his, Harry's, and Melanie's wands, then teleported to the Forbidden Forrest. Once there, he grabbed the broomstick he'd stashed there and flew away from the Hogwarts grounds. Once off of them, he teleported to his master, with Melanie and Harry trapped inside the books in his robe pockets.

Methos ran into the hospital wing and glanced around. Blake Mincent-Darmian lay unconscious on one of the beds. Beside him, on two of the other beds, lay Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Unlike Blake, who looked to be unconscious, Ron and Hermione appeared to be frozen.

Dumbledore, Flitwick, and Moody stood around Ron and Hermione's beds. They seemed to be trying a variety of counter curses, but none of them had any success.

Methos sidled up to Dumbledore. "What happened?"

Dumbledore stepped back from the group and motioned for Methos to follow him. They stopped a few feet away, just outside hearing range. "A group of students returning from lunch found Mr. Mincent-Darmian unconscious in the Gryffindor Common room. He appears to be unconscious and should wake up at any minute. Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger were found outside the hall that separated the Gryffindor dormitories. They appear to be under a full body-bind, but every counter-curse we have attempted has had no effect."

The hospital wing door opened again and Minerva McGonogall rushed inside. "I've just completed a head count. All students in Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin houses are accounted for."

"And Gryffindor?" Dumbledore questioned.

The Deputy Headmistress looked very distressed. "Mr. Potter and Ms. Mincent-Darmian are both missing."

That would explain why Mr. Mincent-Darmian was found along with Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger, Methos thought. It looked like all those stories he'd heard about Harry Potter's adventures were very true.

"Headmaster-" Madam Pomfrey called from across the room. Methos, Minerva, and Albus turned to see Ron and Hermione sitting up. The two of them looked dazed.

"What happened?" Ron asked groggily.

Hermione looked around the room. "Where's Harry?"

"We were hoping you could tell us that," Dumbledore said.

Ron and Hermione exchange alarmed glances. "That son of a b****!" Ron said,. He jumped out of the bed, much to the surprise of Madam Pomfrey. "He kidnapped him! He put that binding spell on us and he took Harry!"

"Who exactly took him?" Moody growled.

"We don't know," Hermione admitted. "There were shadows covering his face. And he never stepped out of them. It was as if they were supposed to be there."

They explained what had happened, about how the mysterious man had simply appeared out of nowhere, and about how strange his spell had been. "He used words I've never heard before," Hermione said. "I'm not even sure if they were words. Maybe names."

Blake stirred in his bed and he groggily opened his eyes. Madam Pomfrey left Ron and Hermione and went over to him. Blake glanced around. "Where's Melanie? And Potter?" he asked.

"They are missing," Dumbledore said. "I am sorry to tell you this, Mr. Mincent-Darmian, but I believe that your sister was kidnapped by the same man that kidnapped Mr. Potter."

Blake buried his face in his hands. He failed. Not only did he fail to stop Harry from getting captured, but his own sister was captured as well.

"Could you please tell us what happened?" Dumbledore asked gently.

Blake raised his head but kept his gaze on the blanket covering his legs. What should he tell them? "Melanie and I had skipped lunch," he began, "we had just entered the common room when we saw Potter fall down the stairs. It knocked him out. We got him over to the couch before this guy we've never seen before came down the stairs. He cast a spell that knocked me against the wall. That's all I remember."

Marek has returned, my Lord," Wormtail announced.

"Send him in," Voldemort ordered. Wormtail ducked out of the door and returned a second later with Marek. "You have something for me, Marek?"

"I do, my Lord," Marek assured him. He pulled out the two books and handed them to his master.

A wide smile appeared on his inhuman face. "Harry James Potter. You have done well, Marek. You will be awarded for this."

"Thank you, my Lord."

"Who is this?" Voldemort asked, holding up the second book. "'Melanie Gwendolyn Heba-annora Arien Mincent-Darmian?' She is one of your relatives?"

"She is, my Lord. She and her brother tried to stop me from binding Potter. I thought you might like to read her."

A pleased smile grazed Voldemort's lips. "You thought correctly. Yes, your award will be great indeed. You may go." Marek bowed and left the room.

The Dark Lord placed the two books on the table and sat down. He opened Melanie's book. All of the pages appeared to be blank, but he knew that they were far from it. He tapped his wand against one page. "Hello, Melanie."

Words appeared on the page below his wand.

"You have been bound. My servant did the binding, but only I know the spell that will release you. If you know what is smart, you will cooperate."

"Yes. Now tell me, Melanie: what do you know about the wards protecting Hogwarts?"

He waited for an answer to appear. "Melanie?"

The Dark Lord smiled. "If you will not tell me immediately, you will tell me eventually. There is a lot of damage one can afflict on a book…"

Ron, Hermione, and Blake were released from the hospital wing after Madam Pomfrey had made sure there was nothing wrong with them. Dumbledore told them to go to the Gryffindor Common room; they wouldn't have to go to any classes for the rest of the day. Dumbledore, Pierson, and Moody would contact them later once they'd discussed how to rescue Harry and Melanie.

The three Gryffindors walked together to the Common room, but once they were there, Blake left Ron and Hermione and went to his dorm room. It was thankfully empty; the other first-years were still in class.

He paced up and down the floor on the right side of his bed while he decided what to do. He still felt uneasy about lying to Dumbledore about his encounter with Marek Smith-Darmian, but it couldn't be helped; Dumbledore was the only one out of that group of teachers that he even remotely trusted.

He was very glad that none of them had seemed him wake up the first time. He'd awoken in the hospital wing when no one was looking. He'd taken in the teacher's failed attempts to remove the body binds on Ron and Hermione and had known that none of them would be successful; regular counter-spells never could remove pathic spells. He knew that he was the only one who could have helped Ron and Hermione, but Blake didn't want any of the teachers to know that.

Blake had cast an illusion that made him invisible as he got out of bed. If anyone looked at the bed, they would have seen an illusion of him lying there, still unconscious. He'd picked up his wand and went to stand between Flitwick and Moody as they tried another counter-spell. Blake had waited until they were actually trying it before reciting a pathic counter-spell.

It worked perfectly. Blake had gotten back into his bed. When he removed the illusions, everyone thought he was just waking up. None of them suspected that he had something to do with Ron and Hermione's recovery, although they weren't foolish enough to believe their counter-spells had caused it. They speculated that the body bind was only temporary and was supposed to wear off after a certain amount of time; none of them suspected that Blake had removed the body binds under cover of illusions. So that meant that only Blake, Melanie, Marek, and whomever Marek might have told knew what really happened.

Blake needed to contact Nola, Atalanta, and Atalanta's husband, Dante, and to do that, he needed to get off Hogwarts grounds. The three Darmians had taught him everything he knew about discretion and caution. Atalanta, like Melanie, also had the power to locate people with her mind. The four of them would then come up with a rescue plan.

With that decided, he stuck his head out the door and glanced up and down the corridor. It was, blessedly, empty; it wouldn't have done any good for a fellow Gryffindor to see a bright flash of light under the door when Blake teleported out of there.

He briefly considered telling Ron and Hermione everything, but that would have taken time, something he didn't think he had. With every minute that passed, his skin crawled with fear for his sister.

He shut the door again and changed into some Muggle clothes. Then he thought about the edge of the Hogwarts grounds just outside Hogsmeade, and teleported. Being a first year, he technically wasn't allowed in Hogsmeade, but being a Darmian he and Melanie had made sure they could get off the Hogwarts grounds as quickly and easily as possible.

He ended up on the edge of the forest. He hurried through the overgrowth until the roofs of the town of Hogsmeade became visible. Then he cast an illusion that would hide him from anyone he came across. As soon as he reached the first building, he reached out with his mind. /Melanie?/

There was no response. He hadn't been expecting one. If Melanie could have escaped, she would have done it. Instead of dwelling on that, he sent out a second thought. /Nola? Atalanta? Dante?/

They responded immediately. /Blake? Is that you?/ Although he hadn't heard it in at least a month, he easily recognized Atalanta's telepathic voice.

/Where's Melanie?/ Nola asked immediately. Out of all of Blake's relatives, Nola had always been the most perceptive. /Where are you?/

/I'm in Hogsmeade. I don't know where Melanie is. She's been kidnapped./

/Shit,/ Nola remarked. /Come over here now./

/Where?/

/Teleport to our living room,/ Dante 'pathed. /Cian's at school and we don't have any visitors right now./

So he did. He thought about the Mouton-Darmian's living room the way he remembered it and teleported across the Atlanta to Lafayette, Louisiana.

Atalanta Darmian and her husband, Dante Mouton-Darmian, were already there. Nola Darmian teleported into the living room only seconds after Blake.

The living room was an ordinary one. A television set and VCR sat inside an open cabinet in the wall behind Blake. There was a window seat to his right, beneath a large window that took up most of that wall. The furniture, he knew, was very comfortable and soft.

All three of his cousins were twice his age, and while there were times when they treated him like a little kid, they treated him with respect for the most part. Probably because he and his sister knew magic that the American Department of Magic and the British Ministry of Magic would never detect, pathic magic, and his cousins respected Blake and Melanie because they didn't abuse it.

Atalanta and Nola used to have a brother. The three of them had been triplets. Nola and Atalanta did look a little alike, but not that much. Both of them had an imperial air to them with everything they did. Since they'd had to lead other members of their family in the past, it wasn't all arrogance on their part. Nola tended to curse a lot. She only refrained if the person she was talking to was nine or younger; after that she figured they could take it. She started cursing in front of Blake, however, when he was eight, right after he'd had his first Vision. She could understand what having a Vision was like; after all, she had them herself. While Nola sympathized with Blake more, Atalanta sympathized with Melanie, because the two of them shared the Locating power.

Unlike Nola and Atalanta, who were purely Darmian, Dante was only part-Darmian. His mother had been a norm, the Darmian term for anyone who is does not have any of the Darmian powers. His father's parents had been a norm by the name of Mouton and a woman with the surname of Darmian. Whenever a Darmian married a norm, that norm always took on the surname of Darmian; there were no exceptions.

Consequently, since Dante already had a Darmian grandmother, he was already related to Atalanta before they were married. Another practice among Darmians was to marry relatives, and it didn't matter which ones. The inter-marriages only took place half of the time. Dante's Darmian grandmother was actually Atalanta great-great-aunt, but the ties could have been closer, although Blake shuddered to think of ever marrying Melanie…that just was not right in his mind of many levels.

One unique thing about Atalanta's sister Nola was one of her past injuries. Once, a traitorous member of the family had captured her and sliced out her tongue. She could still talk, but funny noises were usually all that emerged. Her only option was telepathy.

"What happened to Melanie?" Dante asked. No sooner was the question out of his mouth but he held up a hand. "Woah, there, Blake - that's a lot of information to process all at once."

He'd just sent them a telepathic visual of everything he thought was important that had happened over the past few months. He and Melanie getting a strange feeling from Professor Pierson; the two of them sneaking around the professor's office; Blake getting the vision; them trying to rescue Potter; Blake falling unconscious and waking in the hospital wing; all of it.

It took them a few moments to sort through it all. When they did, he could see the alarm in their faces. Nola seemed to be cursing to herself for a change, but from her expression Blake knew she was using some pretty bad language. She wasn't the only one. Atalanta was also using some having swear words, only she was muttering them.

Dante glanced from his wife to his sister-in-law before his eyes met Blake's. Both of them came to the same decision: much against their better judgement, they had to end at least one of the girls' tirades. "Atalanta…Can you Locate Melanie?"

Atalanta stopped cursing and closed her eyes. After a minute or so, she said, /She's not in England./ Like Melanie, Atalanta also reverted to telepathic speech whenever she used her Locator power. /I'll try further east… there. I feel her…but it's different, as if she's been transfigured into somethin'…/

"She's been bound into a book," Blake reminded them. "Her mind might…feel…differently because of it."

/Right,/ Nola said. /Where is she, Reina?/ she asked her sister. Reina was one of Atalanta's middle names.

/Melanie's in Romania,/ Atalanta announced after another minute.

/Then let's go./ Nola said. /Blake, you're comin', although you probably already knew that. We'll need a wizard, not to mention a pathic wizard. I'll be right back with some weapons./

She teleported away. Blake wondered where she was going. "Weapons?" he repeated.

Atalanta nodded. "We've got a few weapons closets here and there. The only way into them is through teleportation."

Nola teleported into a small three by four room located seven floors off the ground in the attic of a government building in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It looked as if no one had discovered it in the four months since the last time she'd been there, for which she was glad.

She grabbed a few handguns that would not to be cleaned before they left, along with plenty of bullets. She also grabbed a few daggers and Chinese throwing stars for herself. Most Darmians may be able to use their minds in ways most people couldn't, but they still had to relay on muggle weapons in fights, which many of them were trained for, for reasons not many people outside of the family knew.

When she was satisfied, she teleported back to Lafayette. She handed a handgun and a knife each to Atalanta and Dante. Blake held up his wand. "This and my pyrokinesis is all I need."

"Okay, then," Dante said. "We find Melanie and Harry Potter and get out. That's the plan?"

"That's the plan," Atalanta confirmed.

"Yeah, and if anyone runs into Voldemort, you'd do everyone in the wizarding world a favor by taking him out," Blake added.

/Let's go,/ Nola said. /Atalanta, location, please./

Atalanta projected a location to their minds, and the four of them teleported away.