Rhiannon marched over to the carriage, which still had the Night-mares hitched to it. With a solemn, determined expression on her face, she walked up to them, closed her eyes, and then grabbed the head of one, clasping her hands tightly on the sides of the animal's head. She then opened her eyes and stared into the horse-like creatures completely black eyes.

As soon as she did, a terrible pain ripped through her. It felt like white-hot flames were devouring her from the inside out. Her head spun and throbbed wildly, and she felt her heart leap from her chest to her throat as images flooded into her mind.

Kerensa was backed into a corner, deep gashes coves her left cheek. It looked as if a wild animal had slashed her face. Rhi watched helplessly, as the enormous beast approached her. She tried to run to her mother, curse the creature, or do something that would give Kerensa a fighting chance. But she couldn't. Rhi screamed, but she remained unheard. She threw spells and hexes at the thing, but they went right through it. She even went through it, when she had tried to physically tackle it.

The creature smelled of rotting carcasses and deteriorating souls. It towered over the height of any witch or wizard, and its skin was covered in deadly looking green scales. When its face came into Rhiannon's sight, she felt her stomach revolt against her, and her heart shudder and nearly stop. It was the face of a child, horribly disfigured and rotten, and the head was covered with wicked spikes of bone.

The beast continued to approach Kerensa, and in a burst of speed, it launched itself at her. The thing assaulted Rhiannon's mother in every possible way imaginable, and Rhi was forced to watch. The spell of the Night-mare had made it impossible for her to turn her head.

Rhiannon watched helplessly, tears streaming down her face, sobs racking her body, all the while telling herself it wasn't real, but unable to believe her own words. When it was finally done, it finally and mercifully killed her, and then tossed Kerensa's broken and battered body carelessly to the side.

A wild and painful scream tore itself from Rhi's throat, and her knees threatened to buckle, causing her to collapse to the ground. Instead, she sank her teeth into her lower lip and willed herself to stay on her feet. A second set of images rushed into her mind, just as terrible as the first.

An Austrian black-horned dragon was chasing Tynan, and he was sending spells and hexes over his shoulder at it. Each time though, the spell would wash harmlessly over the dragon, as if it were nothing more than water. Rhiannon watched, rooted to the ground, her mouth unable to form sounds or words this time, as the dragon snarled viscously before launching its colossal body into the air.

The dragon swooped and dove at Tynan, swiping at him with it's razor sharp claws, toying with him in the same way a cat would toy with a mouse before killing it. Rhi's father stumbled over the uneven ground and pitched forward, but was able to hold fast to his wand.

The dragon snarled and shrieked as it rose high into the sky once more, only to dive headfirst straight towards Tynan. Just before it slammed into Tynan and the ground, it pulled up, and raked its talons over Tynan's back, leaving deep gashes that bled profusely.

He stumbled to his feet and ran a few staggering steps forward, before the dragon was on top of him, snapping the wizard up into it's jaws, and shaking him like a terrier shakes a toy.

Rhiannon was now sobbing uncontrollably, after witnessing the brutal, violent deaths of her parents. Her throat was raw from screaming and crying, and it burned it just breathe.

Suddenly, she was slammed back into reality, and the Night-mare shook its head, and stared at her placidly, almost like a muggle-horse, with mild disinterest on its equine face. This time, her knees did buckle, and she fell forward, catching herself on her hands, breathing heavily, and squeezing her eyes tightly shut as sweat poured from her face.

Rhiannon rose to her feet unsteadily, and as she stepped up to unbuckle the harness of the magical equestrian, she stumbled and nearly went down again. As her fingers worked competently over the leather and brass buckles, Draco came rushing out of the manor to her.

"Rhi, what the hell are you doing?" he all but yelled at her. "You disrespect my parents, make me look like a fool, and now you're going to steal my father's horse!"

Rhiannon raised her face and stared into Draco's pale blue eyes, which were now icy with rage and disbelief. "I wouldn't need to steal it," she said, leading the animal from its place in front of the carriage, "if I had my broom, or the help of you father." She then turned from Draco, knotted the reins together and tossed them over the horse's head, grasped the animal's mane and swung herself up onto its bare back.

"Rhi, think about this and be your intelligent, thoughtful self. This is by far the stupidest thing you have ever done. This knocks beating the hell out of Pansy, and swiping McGonagall's hat. You could die if you leave."

Rhiannon stared down at Draco from the back of the horse. "And my parents could die if I don't go. Don't you get it Draco? No one has been able to find them, or who has them. No one, except for me. And if I don't go, they will die. That's something you should think about, because my family is my world, and the very thing that keeps me going. If they die, then I die, everything that you love about me dies. I become worse than Lockhart after he was the Defence teacher."

Draco's face turned cold and hard as he stared up at her. "Fine then," he said, backing up slowly, his arms slightly spread. "Do what you want, and see if I care enough to stop you."

For a moment Rhi stared at him with an emotionless look on her face. Then she raised her chin slightly, and turned the Night-mare from him. She kicked the horse into a canter, which smoothly transitioned into a gallop, and then the horse's feet began to lift off the ground and into the air.

Only when the horse was running through the skies, did Rhiannon let a single tear slip down her face. She would miss Draco terribly if things didn't turn out in her favour, but it was something that couldn't be helped. As painful as it would be to be without him, it was impossible for her to be without her parents.

Locking her legs tightly around the horse, Rhi's fingers relaxed on the reins, then let go of them completely. Sitting straight backed, she reached beneath her shirt and pulled a black velvet bag from the pocket of her robes. Rhi pulled open the drawstring top and dumped a rather large tourmaline crystal hanging from a silver chain into her hand. Using the soft fabric of the bag, she polished the surface of the crystal. She then pulled some fresh mugwort from the same pocket and rubbed it over the crystal, in the same motion she used when polishing it.

Rhi raised the crystal to eye level and kept her arm out stretched. Her eyes focused on her image, and then gazed specifically at the center of her forehead, where her third eye was. Her mind emptied, and she let all her thoughts flow from her mind as everything around her began to blur, and her breathing grew shallow.

The image on the surface of the stone began as small, indistinctive shapes and colours, slowly forming people and structures. It revealed her parents standing back-to-back and wand-less as Alistair leFae circled them, an evil smirk twisting across his face.

It took a moment for her to recognize the place to be in the forest behind her family's castle in Darlington. Slipping the crystal back into it's pouch, she leaned forward and gathered the reins in her hands, turning the horse towards home.