... Then suddenly they all hear the loud 'screeching' of a bird and the flap of wings. A large Peregrine Falcon flies down from above and knocks the Thing in mid leap, causing it to miss the two girls by mere inches!

Bird and Thing lock in combat and it is obvious this is to the death! Only one will survive, and possibly the fate of Hogwarts rests on the outcome.

They move in a blur, there is blood... but whose? They roll and roll, the sounds of screeching and growling become almost deafening.... Then there is only silence.

The body of the 'Thing' lies motionless on the grown, it's throat ripped open. And lying next to it is the body of a man! Blooded, cut and bruised.

It is Marcus! Nimue screams.

Morticia jumps off the tree and stumbles to her cat. "Gluey, stupid thing!" She lifts him up and carries him over to Marcus.

Frightened, she touches his arm. "Come down, quick, we have to help him!"

Glueclaws opens his eyes drowsily and looks up at Morticia. A soft meow escapes his mouth before he says, very loudly and clearly: "I still don't like you, mind you!"

It is hard to tell who's more puzzled, the cat or Morticia. Anyway, Glueclaws frees himself, meows some more, and seems to be frowning at Morticia and start to clean up his fur. "Gosh, must have been some magic that hit him when the Magic Eater hit him!"

Marvo looks shocked 'Did... Did he do that before?'

"What, talk? Certainly not! Cats don't talk, you know, that's one of nature's rules!" Morticia stares at her cat in bewilderment. "Gluey?"

The cat looks up, blinks and continues to clean himself. "Guess it was only due to some of the magic floating around here."

Niki is almost sobbing with relief, but she has no idea that their strange deliverer is. Hearing Nimue's scream, she looks more closely at the man. What on earth is going on she wonders?

Andy jumps back and the sight of the fight, but gets closer to see who the injured man is. Not recognising whom it is he grabs his wand and yells "Lumus!" (I think that's the correct spell) and the tip of his wands lights up. He leans forward to see if he knows the man, but unfortunately he still doesn't recognise him.

Ember had no idea who the stranger was, but..."An Animage?" she gasped. Then she shook her head, dismissing her confusion. "He saved our lives--" Dropping the tree-branch, she rushed forward to see what she could do to help.

"I think he's still alive...but I'm not a doctor. Can anyone help him? Please?"

Seeing that Nimue is too busy screaming, Kat jumps down from the tree, and runs over to see if Marcus is ok. She knew how much this guy meant to Nimue after they had shared thoughts in the magic experiment that Kat had led, and she wasn't going to let him die.

Kat checks to see if he is still breathing, which he is, just. Some of the cuts look quite bad, and infected, but Kat can see no breaks or severe trauma. The worst problem is the bleeding. She concentrated really hard muttered, waving her wand. Healing wasn't her strong point but she could stop the bleeding and disinfect the wounds. But as for the rest... Well she would hope. A light white smoke winds out from Kat's wand and splits as it heads for the bleeding wounds. Kat mutters again and it turns to a pale yellow and the watchers could see puss seep from the wounds. When all the puss had gone and the bleeding stops Kat looks up and say's "Nimue, I've done all I can..." She turns to Marvo, looking for guidance. "I just hope he can heal the rest himself."

Madison and Lee easily leaped down from their tree and ran to Kat and Marcus. "Who is this guy?" Lee asked. "Is he gonna be alright?"

"Well, the bleeding's stopped...good work, Kat..." Madison turned to the others. "Okay, what do we do now? We've go to get him somewhere safe...before we get attacked again by a rabid poodle or something...."

Nimue rushes over to the unconscious Marcus, tears in her eyes. She is far too upset to speak and just hold his head for a moment. She sniffs and looks at Kat 'I think he will be okay. But he needs to be taken somewhere safe.'

Achel and Marvo can both guess what Nimue is thinking and both step forward to protest, but she raises her hand before they can speak.

'You both know the power that I have over the Green, You know I can get him back to Hogwarts, and get back to you safely. Please. I have to do this. He just saved us all'

She rubs a tear from her eyes and stands. 'Just keep them safe until I get back'

With that she takes her wand 'Locomotor Mortis' Marcus' body begins to Levitate and slowly follows her as she walks out of the clearing. She turns to Kat and smiles.