I will run until my feet don't touch the ground

Charlotte ran. and ran. and ran. Her heart felt like it was going to burst in her chest. She desperately threw a hex over her shoulder, knowing it wouldn't hit.

They were chasing her. She didn't know how many of them were after her. But if they caught her, she was dead. She ran harder at that thought, tears streaming down her face.

This wasn't supposed to happen. They weren't supposed to find out. She thought she had covered all her tracks.

Charlotte could hear them behind her. They were catching up. She noticed a bit of light in the distance, which means she was almost out of the forest! Her heart soared. She knew they would never leave the safety and darkness of the forest. She would be safe. The leaves and sticks beneath her were deafening as she ran, panting. She was sure she awoke everything in the forest. She looked back over her shoulder for a fleeting second and almost tripped, but caught herself just in time.

She was a a few yards away... a few feet... Suddenly, a curse hit her back. She collapsed, just outside the woods. She whimpered and crawled forward, ensuring that she was away from the trees. She managed to shoot a bunch of red sparks out of her wand before everything went black.

Arsen had been strolling through the forest for a while now looking for some trouble. He was bored and nothing ever good came from him being bored. It was better to find a beast to fight than kill a human by mistake.

He had just given up hope when his ears picked up the sound of running feet coming in his direction. He moved to stand behind a tree out of sight so they would run straight past. And run straight past they did... And tripped.

He sighed and stepped out only to notice there was a reason she was running. Without a second to waste his arms sprang to life with fire causing a line of fire to rise before him blocking the men off from him. "This one is mine. If you want her you're gonna have to go through a demon first first." And with that his whole body sprang into life as he stepped through the line of fire towards the men.

Charlotte's eye's flickered open and she groaned, not sure what had happened. She was running, and then...? Nothing. She attempted to sit up, but a wave of naseau took over and she had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep from vomiting.

She reached around for her wand, but wasn't able to find it. She placed her hand over her eyes and whimpered, the full pain of whatever they had hexed her with finally setting in. Her whole body hurt. It felt as if she had been stabbed on every square inch of her body.

Attempting to sit up, Charlotte gritted her teeth and fell back again, not having the strength to do it. Her head started to pound and black spots floated around in front of her eyes, and before she could do anything else she was knocked out again.

Once he had the men running off, he turned back bringing back the fire he'd let out. He needed to save all the energy he could in the winter. Typical British weather didn't allow enough sunlight to get to him. Once he was certain he was cool enough for human touch he headed over to the girl that had collapsed.

"Hello?" He asked walking closer. He had no idea who she was but by looking at her robes she was definitely a slytherin. He turned looking around for someone, unsure what to do. Did he leave her for someone to find? Those guys would probably come back. Or did he take her somewhere safe and take advantage of having saved her life? The girl did owe him now.

One side of his mouth pulled up into a smirk and then he leaned down to scoop her into his arms. She wasn't too heavy. She was alot lighter for him than any human anyway. He carried her out into the school grounds back where no one but those attending the school could enter and placed her on the ground beside the grounds keepers cabin, sat down beside her and waited for her to wake up. He might aswell soak up what little sun was out there whilst he waited.

Charlotte was aware that she was moving. Was she... Walking? No, no, that wasn't possible. She tried to force her eyes open but her body wouldn't allow it. Suddenly, she felt the moving stop. She was on the ground again. The pain was starting to come back and she groaned, wishing it would stop.

She finally managed to wrench her eyes open, now fully awake from her previous state. She sat up slowly, her hand on her forehead. Looking around, she noticed the older boy sitting. She plunged her hand into the pocket of her robes but her wand wasn't there. Scowling, Charlotte realized she must've lost it when she tripped.

"Who are you?" she asked the boy warily, pulling her robe tighter around her body. The pain was slowly starting to decrease, feeling more like needles poking every piece of skin on her rather than knives.

"Oh good you're awake." He said looking at her as she sat up. "That's not important. Want some help with the head?" He asked holding his hand out. It wouldn't hurt to help her out.

"Why were those guys chasing you? Must be something pretty important, they were prepared to put up a fight until they got smart." Until they'd noticed he was half demon he added to himself. He loved being half human sometimes, it gave him the upper hand in situations like that.

Charlotte looked warily at his hand, not sure what he wanted her to do or how he could help her headache.

She shook her head and nervously ran a hand through her hair, pulling a leaf out of it as she went. "That's not important either. I... have something they want," She mumbled, glancing at him. "How'd you get them to go away?" She asked, her eyebrows knitting together with curiosity.

He shrugged. "Suit yourself." At least it saved him some energy. "What did you take?" He asked, his eyes lighting up at the thought of seeing something valuable. Deals could be made and that made his demon side rather happy.

"Let's just say they aren't a big fan of fire." He smirked.

Charlotte looked away, focusing on an owl that was flying towards the castle. "Hmm.. I don't know if I should tell you. I'm not exactly sure how it works, myself. All I know is that it's Dark... really Dark. So of course, I had to have it," She said, shrugging.

"I'm not the biggest fan of fire, either..." She said, shrinking away slightly, remembering the fire she had caused when she was younger that resulted in her family's home burning down.

He raised an eyebrow. "Dark? How dark we talking? Can i see?" He asked, eager now more than ever to see the object. If it was dark and there men were after it then it had to be important. "Where did you get it from?"

He smiled slightly, his eyes lighting up at her fear of fire. "Fire's never on any humans good side." He shrugged.

Annoyance spreading across her face, Charlotte turned to look at him. "I don't know how dark it is, I don't know exactly what it does. The man in the shop I stole it from gave me a vague idea... I'm not even sure why it was in the store anyway. He said it wasn't for sale and that I shouldn't be meddling with such things anyway," She said, a blank look on her face. "so I took it," she added.

"I guess you can see it if you really want... You can't touch it though. The man made that very clear. I think he said something about it being some sort of portkey? Except that it's always active, unlike a regular portkey... But that's all I know."

He smirked. "Typical Slytherin, nice. Maybe i can help. Evil is my first nature after all." He said holding his hand out for whatever it was she had. It must be good, whatever it was if they had come running after it. In numbers as well. It wasn't often you saw a group of wizards running after a girl drawing attention to themselves for something that meant nothing less then very valuable.

He held up his hands so they were clearly out the way. "Fine i won't touch. Just show me what it is." He didn't know why but the urge to see the thing was growing stronger and stronger and the longer he waited the more annoyed he got. Portkey? It had to take you somewhere place dangerous if it was where she'd picked it up, he wasn't willing to find out though. Not just yet.

Charlotte shrugged. "Hey, I'm not in Slytherin for nothing." She looked at him curiously, wondering why he so badly wanted what she had to offer. Did he want to use it, or was he merely interested? She stood up and brushed her robes off, ignoring the pounding headache that was threatening to come back.

"It's back in my dorm. But I don't think I should show you in there where there are so many people," she said, glancing up at the sky that was starting to gradually darken.

"You'd be surprised who they let in Slytherin now." He said thinking to some of the people he'd met this year. Some were truly pathetic Slytherin would be turning in his grave if he save some of the people in his house now. That, Arsen would love to see.

He smirked. "You may not know this about me but i have a gift that tends to get people to leave rather quickly. You get whatever it is and leave the dorm to me. I'll clear it out without problem." He said getting to his feet. "After you."

Charlotte snickers, picturing a few of the Slytherins she'd met this year in her head. Not many of them were fit to be Slytherins, in her opinion.

Looking at him, she nods, still wary about why she was trusting him with the stone anyway. After all, she was the one who stole it, why should she share it? Pushing the thought away, she decided it'd be fine and without another word, she turned around and headed back up towards the castle.

"Take it you've seen them too then?" He didn't think you could miss them, they stuck out like a beetle among a nest of ants in the common room.

He took off following her at a pace she considered normal, it was a little slow for his liking but it was her party so what did it matter? He just hoped whatever this thing was it was worth wasting his time over. It certainly seemed like it. People seemed to be wasting their time to be

(OOC: psssst. there's a new thread for this in the slytherin common room. goooooo!)