*permission granted by Kyle Derook's writer for this post*

This summer wasn't meant to be special or significant. There hadn't been an intention to make it even memorable in any real way that might've mattered in the long term. Just an average summer that would feel endless with the freedom to spend as much time doing whatever they like, then sent off to camp to catch up with their friends, followed by returning back to school for yet another year. Perfectly regular.

Illowy and Kyle's plans weren't very vast. Kyle would do whatever Kyle usually does, Illowy planned to work on her advanced studies and research, perhaps they'd pepper in hanging out and getting up to mischief like when they were small children; there were even plans to take a week long trip to the family's country cottage just before camp. A nice touch of quality family time they hardly got to have anymore. Sean, Illowy's uncle, had even offered to help her practice her dueling a little and pass on a couple of tips. As lame as she and her cousin joked about the trip being, truly Illowy had been looking forward to it.

Its amazing and equally paralyzing how quickly life can change. How fast everything you know, everything that maintains some sense of stability in your life, can be taken away in mere moments and turn your world completely upside down and dark. Even scarier... is how quickly such a thing can change you as a person. One can never know when, or how, such a thing might happen, and often one thinks that such terrible, unpredictable things could never happen to one's self. That was something for those other, unluckier families, to worry about.

Even with the amount of terrible luck the family had had over the years, somehow even Illowy was convinced that it couldn't get that much worse.

The night before they were meant to leave for their holiday, Illowy stayed over at the Derook home. As per usual, the cousins were the last to bed despite the wee hours of night, and being expected to be up early in the morning. Ky was laying down, draped over the couch, still recovering from the most recent full moon. Illowy was tucked away in the armchair, reading up on the fifth year's charms. Keeping the light lazy and low was the fireplace, of which they'd promised the adults they'd put out if ever whenever they both finally went up to bed.

That moment wouldn't come.

At the most ungodly hour of the night, a loud banging came from the front door. Both teens were nearly scared out of their wits from the suddenness of it, turning and simply staring past the wall that mostly covered their view of the front door. Who could possibly be coming by at this time? Whoever it was banged again as Ky's parents came downstairs, seeming to be just as confused and unamused as the kids due to the late hour.

As her uncle reached to answer the door, Illowy rose to her feet, peering around the wall just barely. Something in her gut told her that whatever was about to happen, it wasn't going to be good. Something in her bones felt deeply, terribly wrong. Yet she found herself dropping her book in the seat of the chair and starting towards the door as it was pull open. Though her view was fairly limited, she could make out three men standing on the doorstep; one older man, bearing a Ministry badge, and two more men behind him, younger and large.

The older man spoke lowly to her uncle and she wasn't able to catch much of what was being said. What she did hear was, "Kyle Derook.... accused... arrest... Azkaban." her heart started pounding, she could feel her face flushing as she backed away slowly. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

The young witch looked back at her cousin, and the look on her face must've said enough because he stood, his body tense and his eyes hard as the flicked from her towards the door. Kyle had never been the sort to back out of trouble. He didn't have a 'fight or flight' instinct, just fight. This wasn't going to be a fight he was going to win. They'd drag him out kicking and screaming and then.... that would just be it.

Illowy gave the faintest shake of her head at him, "Run." she whispered. Like a bullet, the pair dashed from the parlor to the back of the house towards the kitchen, aiming to get through the back door. The noise must've caught the men's attention because she could hear their boots pounding through the house behind them. Kyle manage to pull the door open as the cousins tore through out into the back yard, towards the woods.

What a sight it must've been; two cursed teenagers, one being girl in her night clothes, the other a boy in just his sleep pants, neither with shoes nor their wands, sprinting desperately off, searching for sanctuary in the trees. Swerving this way and that, sharp turns, anything that might throw their pursuers off. Never minding the sharp stones or the thistle catching their clothes as they ran; they just kept going until Kyle suddenly stopped, catching her by the wrist to stop her with him.

"Caithfidh tú fanacht anseo." he ordered. ^{"You have to stay."}

Illowy stared at him in disbelief, "Níl." she said firmly. ^"No."

His steel blue eyes were hard. Everything in his face told her that he wasn't giving her a choice, "Tá tú ag fanacht anseo, Magpie." he reiterated with a reluctant firmness, starting to back away from her. ^{"You're staying, Magpie."} Illowy felt like an iron cloth was wrapping itself around her heart and lungs, hot tears stinging her eyes and blurring her vision of him.

As if testing the waters to see if she would actually heed him, his hand slowly released her before she caught his hand, holding fast, "Na fág mé." she begged, "Kyky, ná fág mé i mo dhiaidh." ^{"Don't leave me. Kyky, don't leave me behind."}

He slipped through her trembling hold, "Fan anseo." ^{"Stay here."} it was almost a whisper before he was suddenly gone again, into the darkness of the trees... leaving her behind. Pale eyes searched through the darkness for him before she tried sprinting off again in the same direction, trying to find him.

"Ky! Kyle!" she shouted through the trees, trying to find even a glimpse of him. In her single minded focus to find her cousin, she didn't even hear the thud of boots coming up behind her as one of the men from the house took hold of her and she screamed. Though knowing she wasn't a match for such a man, she still kicked and screamed and fought the entire way as he took her back to the keeping of her aunt and uncle.

Her auntie guided her back to her room in a haze of adrenaline and exhaustion and put her to bed, the child still in tears.

Kyle wasn't found that night... truly she wasn't even entirely sure what they wanted with him, but she knew it was bad. The Ministry worker wouldn't say much on the matter. Come the next morning, everyone seemed to be living in a daze of confusion and uncertainty. Illowy gathered her things in the understanding that she was going to be sent home, having been told she was lucky to be just 'a silly little girl, with no grasp of the severity of the situation' and was taken enough pity upon to get off with a warning for having tried to escape with her cousin.

As she passed Kyle's room on her way to leave, she couldn't resist a moment to let herself inside. Ghostly eyes swept around the room at the lad's collection of various quidditch memorabilia that covered the room, along with the usual touch of mess that adorned any young teenage boy's room. His school trunk was haphazardly tossed in the corner, not even really unpacked from school yet, the room still waiting for it's young occupant to come to bed. Her eyes fell to his jacket, hanging off the back of his desk chair, still relatively new from her gifting it to him on his birthday. On his desk, left from getting ready for bed the previous night, was the leather cord necklace he always wore of a howling wolf's head and a wolf rune etched into the silver.

Perhaps it was the need to keep him close until he came back, or the hope that she'd see him soon enough to give his most beloved things back to him. Either way she couldn't help herself as she slipped the leather cord over her head, tucking the charm beneath her shirt. Then carefully folding up the jacket, she stowed it away in her bag. With a final look around the room, she pulled the door shut behind her.

She would find him. She would make sure he's okay. And she would figure out a way to prove his innocence.