My love, my love, take shelter in these trees...

[babylonmods]

The grove of Dreaming Trees is unusually clear of mist today, and strangely warm, too. The broken Arch glows with a ghostly sheen, and the trees themselves gleam bone white under the light of the near-full moon

Comments

[bestunrevealed]

This wizard hears only the reedy, struggling breath he fights to take, one after the other. He had

[onewomanrave]

Molly's jaw aches, teeth clenched hard together as Warden Morgan repeats, "He's a warlock, girl. Dresden deliberately killed another human being with his magic, and after that it's only a matter of time before he slips again. Then he'll be executed, and you with him."

All of her protests have been futile, and it isn't fair, to write Harry off. One mistake doesn't mean he's bad. Look at everything he's done, all of the times he's put his life on the line to help. And Harry has saved Molly multiple times over, taking her back from Arctis Tor, vouching for her with the Council, looking after her through all the events since. The younger wizard growls in frustration and prepares to gather up her power to fling at Morgan, magic to make him less hardened, more forgiving, more fair. He is wrong, wrong about Harry and wrong in the way he thinks

[bestunrevealed]

Scraping at earth, Snape could not bring himself upright. He hissed another rasping breath, each one harder then the next to take. But he coudl not die her. He could hear-- a voice. A woman.

He did not know this woman. Worse, he could not bring himself to lift his head to see her.

[onewomanrave]

The strangled breath next to her drew Molly's attention back from their surroundings, and she gasped in worry at the sight of the blood flowing freely from his neck. Molly looked down at her own clothing, huffed out a short sigh of frustration at the distinct lack of any spare fabric, and leaned over him so that he could see her face

[itazura_boy]

Genta had found the best hiding place ever. inside a locker in a deserted building slated for demolition -- not even Conan could find him here! The locker was dark and quiet, the voices of the others having long since faded away ... Never naturally patient, Genta yawned settling back against the side of the locker.

Conan better hurry up ... how long does he think I'm going to hide for? I could be home now, having my first after school snack ...

Thinking wistfully of the mochi at the back of the fridge, Genta wasn't even aware he'd fallen asleep until the light of the moon filtered through. Blearily, Genta opened both eyes and looked up. The seven year old was sprawled on his back in an unfamiliar clearing, looking up at the tops of the surrounding trees which framed the moon perfectly.

It took a few moments for the significance of his surroundings to dawn on Genta. "AH!" He sat bolt upright, heedless of his companions. "I've missed dinner!"

[onewomanrave]

Molly couldn't contain a snort of laughter at the exclamation to her right as she turned to look at its speaker. Priorities, huh?

Then she took the time to stop panicking about the situation and take in the identity of its third victim. Neither of her new-found companions seemed likely to be the party responsible, and Molly's heart sank as she realized just how young the boy was. Maybe her brother Harry's age, if that. She winced a little. "I'm sorry about your dinner," Molly told him seriously, as if it really were the grandest of the difficulties they now faced. She hoped that he wouldn't crack and be too badly damaged when the rest of the situation hit him. "What's your name? I'm Molly

[itazura_boy]

Genta hadn't waited for introductions before standing up, brushing grass off his shorts and t-shirt as he did. At Molly's speech, he stopped and stared at her with the lack of self-consciousness of someone who is unaware of how rude he's being.

What's with her hair? It's really weird ... "Molly? That's a strange name." Genta put his hands on his hips. He'd missed dinner and he was really not happy about being ... where was this place? He glanced around, pausing as he caught sight of Snape. Man, that guy over there ... he's seriously ill. Kinda like the time-- Genta swallowed. The prone man reminded him very much of the time he'd walked into a cave just in time to witness a gang of thieves hiding the dead body of their murdered comrade. "Is he dead?"

[onewomanrave]

"It's short for Margaret, but I like Molly better," Molly informed him, unbothered by any rudeness on his part. He was only around eight years old, after all. "Will you tell me yours?"

Molly stifled a wince at Genta's question, "No," she said firmly. "He's alive, and we're going to do our best to make sure he stays that way. He's hurt pretty badly and really sick right now, so it's a good thing we're here to help." She was reassuring herself as much as the little boy at this point.