Harshing appeared in the middle of the room, his grandchild kicking and screaming in his arms. He whispered something and it fell asleep instantly. Jason was in his cot by the window, sleeping as Harshing had commanded. He moved over to Jason and placed the other child next to it.

"John-James," he said naming his other child. John James. After his father John-James Harshing, the great explorer and auror, the great man. The great man that he, Coldstone used to be compared to before he established himself as a great man himself. Jason and John-James.

"What a happy family," he sneered moving over to his potions set and mixing up a sleeping elixir. He fed it to both children, Jason considerably bigger than the other. Jason had had to be strapped to the bed to ensure he didn't escape, his walking was quite proficient.

He moved to his fireplace and threw some floo powder into it. He put his head in. "Gryffindor Common Room, Hogwarts."

*Melanie was sitting on the couch in the common room, studying for one of her oh-so-quickly approaching exams. She heard a blazing and crackling coming from the fire- the noise of someone using floo powder. She looked up in confusion, wondering who could possibly be flooing in at this time. Then she saw who it was- Harshing. She snapped her book shut, quickly transforming from perfectly calm to livid in a matter of seconds.*

Melanie:"Get out of here." *She demanded in a harsh tone of voice that was rarely heard out of her.*




~Mel

Harshing looked at her with the deepest loathing. If he didn't wish to use Mel he would have wiped that smile off her face a long time ago. She was a piece of filth, lower than filth. Filth was a monarch in the heirarchy of all things mucky.

Instead of retaliating he put on his silkiest voice. "Mark had learnt a new word..." he laughed "..cretin like his b*tch of a mother." Harshing smiled. "I have come to invite you to see Mark, we have had such fun but I think it is time you have him back."

"Just step into the fire..."

Melanie:"Mark!" *she exclaimed, jumping up off the couch in an instant reaction without even thinking of the consequences of doing this.* "MOVE OVER! Let me through!" *she waited eagerly to get through...to see Mark again. She started to cry just thinking about it. It was like a stream of electricity has just been sent pulsing through her veins. She needed to see him NOW. She was grinning ridiculously, not thinking of what condition Mark could be in, only knowing that she would be seeing him soon.*



~Mel

They both appeared on the other side and Harshing extinguished the fire with a water spell. He waved his wand and the room became instantly bright even though there were no candles or lanterns.

"He's just sleeping, he wont wake yet - my potion is impenetrable." Harshing smiled and sat down on a sofa and took out a bottle of whisky. He sipped some. "By the way, he answers to Jason now." Harshing smashed the bottle on the side to create a jagged weapon. He span it around in his hand.

"Of course, the real reason I invited you was not a family reunion but a friendship reunion. Theres someone who has been dying to meet you again Mel."

A door slowly opened to Harshing's wand and there was the sound of hard, manly steps. There was a stench of rotting and decay and the acidity of blood mixed with grime and disease. A man appeared at the doorway and leaned on the side, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. He winked at mel then laughed slowly. He was waring a patched top hat and rags.

"Perhaps you remember Grendal?" Harshing smiled.

*Melanie had hurried over to Mark at his bed as soon as she had noticed him. She kneeled down beside him and softly stroked his hair. She didn't care what she had to call him as long as she could have him back.

Then Harshing mentioned someone wanting to see her again. She heard the pounding of feet coming up the stairs and she turned to look at Harshing with a confused and worried expression on her face. Then Grendal appeared. Melanie backed away from the door. The ability to speak was gone, all she could do was stare at him, completely shell shocked and afraid. She wrapped her arms around her waist and held onto the bottom of her shirt as tightly as she could. It was a subconscious reaction.*




~Mel

Harshing's smile did not waver. He handed the smashed bottle to Grendal but raised a hand. Grendal kept dead still, his mouth drooling out thick slobber. He tapped the smashed bottle in his hands.

Harshing sat back down again and poured himself another glass of whiskey. "So, you will be the first victim of my new club, Mel. I feel that I wouldn't be the comic book villain you paint me as if I didn't explain my master plan before hand," he smiled, he was a cat playing with a Mel-sized mouse.

"I have reformed an organisation you may remember called the Neo-Death Eaters."

*Melanie was quickly looking from Grendal to Harshing- back and forth, trying to understand what was happening. The only solution she could find in her mind was to run. But Mark....Screaming would work. Someone could hear her and help her. Get her and Mark out safely. Screaming...was the plan. She was not going to be tormented again at the hands of the same two sadistic demons as so many times before. She took a deep breath and let out a ferociously loud shriek. She wouldn't stop until someone made her...or someone saved her.*



~Mel

Harshing took out his wand and flicked it to magically close Mel's windpipe. "Its no use screaming my love," he whispered, eyes swimming with watery pleasure-tears. "No one will hear you." He moved to Mark and picked him up, one spell waked him. "Now Mark, we are going to see your mother get hurt,"

He clicked his hands and Grendal lunged at Mel, scratching and biting and cutting like a vicious animal,

Harshing rocked the baby as if nothing was happening.

*A silent scream that no one could hear - how lamely metaphorical. She stopped screaming and tried to take a deep breath. She couldn't breathe...she started to panic...she needed air. She began crying again, but then Grendal lunged at her. Something she had learned over the past few years, though, was that thrashing around when you're being attacked only made the result worse. She sat there lamely, barely moving more than to shirk away in pain when Grendal scratched her particularly badly or to make another desperate attempt at breathing.

At this point, Melanie was certain that she was going to die. Her body could only take so much....At least I've seen Mark...at least I know he's alive. she thought desperately. She looked past Grendal and over at Mark sitting in Harshing's arms. She refused to take her eyes off of him.*




~Mel

Harshing allowed just enough air for Mel to survive through to her lungs, but not enough to empower her to fight off the monster that was Grendal.


Grendal committed several atrocities which I will not describe because I do not have the imagination to and it is against invisionfree rules....


Harshing watched, a sick smile slanted on his face, his eyes pools of deepest satisfaction. He cradled the silent Mark and tickled his stomach. Mark laughed and giggled. Harshing laughed as well but never took his eyes of Mel who was being horribly tortured.

Grendal leaped from her and stood against the wall. Harshing walked up to Mel's body and knelt down to where she lay. He kissed her baby's forehead before placing Mark on her bleeding body. "I told you Hunter, that I would remove everything you have, I would strip everything you hold most dear away from you and leave you as a subhuman. I have... changed Mark somewhat in our time together..." Harshing smiled.

"For some reason, I don't want to kill you both yet, I want you to be reacquainted with your mudblood son."

He moved back and waved his wand again. A cage of pure light formed over Mel's tortured body and Mark, just enough room to stand up in.

"And so the animals are caged."

*Melanie was still struggling with her breathing,,,what she was getting was substantial...but it was still little enough to be causing her to go dizzy. She had never wanted Mark to see her like this. No matter what, this right now, was the ultimate low point for her.

But she had Mark back....

She held onto him with all of the strength she had left, struggling to sit up because of her wounds- but she needed to. She needed to kiss him if it was the last thing she did. He needed to know that he was safe.

She didn't care if he had changed, she just wanted him back. He was what was keeping her alive. He was her life, as cliche and pathetic as it sounded.

With a struggle, she lifted her baby up to her so she could kiss him on the head. She was afraid that he wouldn't recognize her through all the blood...through how pale she was from how much she had lost. Through the pained expression in her face and eyes. Or if he wouldn't want to recognize her...she would understand.

He looked straight into her eyes and smiled, letting out Mel's favorite little laugh. He didn't even realize that anything was wrong.

Melanie smiled painfully, still unable to speak, but having so many things that she wanted to say to him. At the same time, silence seemed like the best reaction anyway.

She hugged him tighter than she thought was possible in her given state and began to cry harder. She would not let Harshing hurt him let alone kill him. Harshing could do anything he wanted to her, but he was never going to put Mark through anything like this ever again, no matter what she had to do to ensure that.*




~Mel

"There is nothing more fascinating," Harshing began, his eyes with a manic glint, "Than seeing the bestial stupidity of a mother and babe being reunited. Especially those who are blood-degenerate, I did not think it possible that two subhumans were capable of such an intellectual human bond..."

He paced around the cage, a glass of red wine appearing in his hand. He swirled it and sipped it. He calculated every move, every sip, every word.

"You see Mel, very soon we, the NDE shall bring a new order to the world. Valdez thinks he is safe, hiding behind the walls of Hogwarts, playing as the Ministry's puppet but he isn't safe Hunter, no one is safe. You see Valdez made a little mistake in usurping me as Headmaster. A big mistake."

Harshing cracked his wand forward and spat, "Crucio" at Mel and the baby together, still circling, his eyes pulsating with hideous shadows. "I could kill you now Mel and see what little Mark makes of your innards. But why do I need to? It is far more enjoyable watching you destroy youself by torturing your little mind over what I have done to Mark."

He sent another crucio at them both. Grendal laughed like a hyena in the corner.

*Melanie didn't care about what Harshing was telling her for the moment; She would worry about Valdez and his safety later. He didn't mean a thing right now.

Crucio?

No. Not on-

She didn't have time to finish that thought before she felt her pain intensify beyond what she thought was possible. Mark started screaming and crying, writhing horribly in her arms. The sound made her die inside. He should never have to hurt like this....

Crucio again.

Everything started fading. The body can only take so much pain after all. Mark's screams and cries wouldn't stop though. It was all she could hear. It made her feel more miserable than before...miserable that she couldn't protect him and better.....*




~Mel

Harshing turned his back and added a little bit of of whiskey to his wine at the table nearby. Next to his brewing section was a selection of sharp metal instruments ranging from a tomahawk to a thin metal knife. He took the knife and checked it was razor sharp. He took his wand in the other hand. He walked through the cage unharmed and slashed the knife across Mark's little toe then pressed the knife against Mel's neck.

"Time to see whats going on in there." He extended his mind and bored into Mel's performing his advanced mind magic to break down the barriers in her mind and see what had happened recently in Hogwart's and her life.

"Aww... the b*stard saw sense did he and abandoned his whore and his illegitimate...." He did some more magic that would rekindle the emotion of the loss of Liam and bring it to the front of her mind.

"And a new boy...Zeke..." He exacerbated the emotion of guilt that Mel must be feeling for having feelings for him. Then he twisted this together with her current physical pain to bring her to complete mental breakdown.

He withdrew from her mind and watched intensely.

"Grendal, finish her off then throw her back in Hogwarts with her precious son."

Harshing swilled his wine around his glass and walked out of the room.

Grendal lunged on her again and committed unspeakable atrocities, the baby screaming beside them.

*It was worse than anything she had ever felt before. The pain of her memories..the pain of her wounds...the pain of knowing Mark was hurt...how...disgusting she felt because of what Grendal had done to her.

She just wanted to go back...she wanted to go back so she could make sure that Mark was okay...she only wanted to be with Mark.*


OOC: Sorry, not much to do when she can't speak. lol.



~Mel

After he was finished Grendal lit the fire and mock-bowed at Mel indicating she should use it to get back to Hogwarts. His smile showed his black teeth and scaly tongue, he giggled. "Miss will be getting back will she?" He was trying to be as witty and as intelligent as Harshing but if failed and he looked confused for a second before laughing again.