Noah and Eva.

I can do this, Eva decided. I can make it. Be brave.

"It can't be that far, right? Let's go. Charge onward!" Her words came out halfhearted and weak, but she had tried, at least. She didn't plan on going back at this point, even though she had a nagging suspicion that something was wrong.

Noah frowned, chewing on his lip. He reached out and grabbed Eva's hand. Squeezing it. "Let's go then," He said with a weak smile.

Noah's hand was comforting, and took away some of Eva's inhibitions. They walked towards the light, Eva noting that Noah started to look a bit uneasy as well.

Noah frowned as they got closer to the light, he was starting to feel somewhat what Eva had been feeling. Though he couldn't say exactly what he was feeling, he couldn't name it. It just felt off. He wondered how long it would take to get to the light, he somewhat wanted to turn back. But also didn't at the same time.

They reached the light, and Eva wished they hadn't.
The light was an opening, illuminated by a hole in the ceiling. However, Eva and Noah didn't notice that--what they noticed was all the blood.

There was the stench of something wrong in the room, with a freshly dead wizard bleeding on the ground. Eva stepped back. The body looked as if it hadn't been dead for long. Why hadn't they heard any screams?

Even more importantly, what had killed the wizard?
And what if it was still there?

Eva looked to Noah. "We should probably run," she whispered.

Noah was curious for one second, before he saw the blood. And then, then he was sickened. His eyes widened and he gagged slightly, overwhelmed with the feeling of wrong in the room and the smell of dirt and death. Noah turned to look at Eva and nodded hurriedly. "That would be a good idea," He whispered back, as if by whispering they'd stop anything else happening.

A low growl came from the corner of the room, just beyond the point where the stench of decay and rotting flesh became unbearable. Eva automatically grabbed Noah's hand and started backing up slowly. "Don't move too quickly or suddenly. Something is there, and monsters and animals tend to attack at sudden movement." That was the last thing she wanted.

Noah nodded slowly, his eyes looking into the corner, though it was too dark to make anything out. He swallowed, feeling throw-up sick instead of just somethingfeelswrong sick. "Okay," He whispered back taking a small slow step backwards. He did not want to be attacked by some weird animal or monster when no-body knew where on earth they were.

Eva was nervous. What on earth were they supposed to do? She backed up slowly, hoping to cause as little noise as possible. What was this thing? Should she risk light?
"What do we do?"

"Get out of here, and tell Dumbledore," Noah hissed back his eyes still staring unblinkingly at the corner, as if it would pounce if he closed his eyes for even a moment. "How we get out of here I don't know," Slowly moving his arm he curled his hand around his wand.

Eva breathed slowly. "What if... What if we try some sort of attack spell? Something wide-reaching, that would but us a little time. Just enough to get into the tunnel again. We can figure out what to do from there. Explode the tunnel and trap it in, if nothing else."

"What if we miss?" Noah replied quietly. "Why don't we get out of here, and attack it if it moves any. Then try and collapse the roof?"

"Okay. But we have to be careful. If we turn our backs to run, it could creep up when we were not looking. We need to watch out for that," Eva said. "But exploding the roof should help some with that.

"Oh!" Eva had an idea. She summoned her patronus, whispered something in its ear, and sent it off. "Those things are so handy. I just sent a message to Dumbledore."

"So, just walk backwards then, and don't trip. Cause it might pounce." Noah watched Eva cast her patronus and whisper something to it. "Good idea!" He said softly with a weak smile at her. Hoping that Dumbledore got there soon and did something about the creature in the corner. Noah was not enjoying himself.

With Eva, walking backwards and not tripping was more difficult than it sounded. She crossed her fingers and hoped she could manage--she was not exactly the most agile person. However, she hoped it all worked out. She clutched Noah's hand and started to walk backwards. "Let's hope he hurries."

"He should," Noah replied lifting his foot up and carefully placing it behind him. It was agonizing going this slowly but any faster and he knew he would fall over. "I mean, you would hurry if you'd found out students had found something like this." He put his foot down awkwardly nearly tumbling to the ground. But stopped himself in time.

"Crap."
Eva tumbled backwards to the ground. The tunnel was barely lit, even with her wand lit, and she did not see the rock on the ground behind her. She went to put her foot down, trying to be as careful as possible, but her foot slipped, she lost her footing, and she tumbled backwards, hitting her head against the wall. Her wand went out, and she lost consciousness. Her head was bleeding faintly, which was a bad sign. The last thing she saw before she could no longer see was a flurry of movement.
"Dumble..."
She was out.

Noah spun around at Eva's words and watched her tumble into the ground, hitting her head against the wall. Making a noise in the back of his throat because he knew that that would hurt. He made another noise and turned around quickly ducking down next to her as she hit her head, seeing as blood started to seep out of it. "Eva," He said softly as she fell out of consciousness. He heard footsteps turning to see Dumbledore halting a stop, his wand raised at the creature that leapt out of the corner at Noah and Eva.

"Ow," Eva said.

Wait. She was talking. That must mean she was conscious? She vaguely remembered fading out of consciousness, and the fact that she was still alive was reassuring. Her head really, really hurt, though.

She didn't seem to be in the secret passageway anymore, though, she realized as she tentatively opened her eyes.

"Where...?" she began

Noah could hardly remember what had happened, Dumbledore was there, the creature had been flying at them, and then, it wasn't anymore. Dumbledore had fired something. Noah had no idea what, he had been sitting there, hovering protectively in front of Eva. Then Dumbledore had taken them back to the school, to the hospital wing. Saying he would be back later. And then he left. Presumably to go deal with the dead wizard and that weird creature. "Eva," Noah said his voice cracking slightly when she came around. "Are you alright? Stupid question. But yeah.." He shrugged awkwardly.

"Urgh," Eva said. "Noah? Where the heck are we? I'm tired and sore and we are not in the tunnel anymore. Sorry I dragged you into that. It was such a stupid idea. I'm sorry."

"We're in the hospital wing Eva," Noah said in a soft voice. "The matron's getting something for your head, she'll only be a moment." he glanced around the room, looking for the matron who had disapeared through one of the doors, looking for something for Eva's head. "it's fine," He told her. "It was an adventure," He smiled softly. "I don't mind. Nothing went too badly wrong."

"Th..." Eva started, but the pain in her head forced her to stop for a second. "Thank you. For everything. For looking out for me. For not giving up on me. For agreeing to all of this in the first place. I cannot thank you enough. If you weren't there... If you weren't there, I would not be alive right now. There is not a doubt in my mind about this." She cautiously moved her hand to find Noah's. "Thank you."

"I-a-i-a-i-," Noah stumbled over his words, having no idea what to reply. He flushed, and shut his mouth. Trying to assemble his words before he started again. After a few moments he nodded and tried again. "It's fine Eva," He said with a small smile at her. "I mean, other than the whole, nearly being attacked by some weird creature, it was, it was, well." He flushed again, as he stumbled over his words. "I had a nice time." He took Eva's hand in his own, and squeezed it, smiling softly.

It might have been because Eva was partly delirious, having hit her head hard enough to knock her unconscious, but she realized she had never noticed before how absolutely adorable and sweet and surprisingly attractive that Noah was. Her cheeks flushed pink a bit as she held Noah's hand, waiting for the matron to come along. "Thank you," Eva said again.