Orion Black. Orion Black was stood there in the doorway, leering at them with that horrible glint in his cold grey eyes as Charlus slowly pulled away from Euphemia, feeling her shake beside him whilst his own hand gripped hers tightly, squeezing it gently in an apologetic and comforting manner - if he hadn't kissed her, they wouldn't be in this predicament so it was his fault that they were now busted, his fault that their plan might be ruined.

"Isn't this romantic? Discovering my fiancée snogging another man on our wedding day!" Orion gave a twisted smile, looking disgusted as his cold, grey eyes landed on Charlus and Mia's intertwined hands. Charlus felt uncontrollable anger rise up within him at just the mere presence of Orion, remembering all of the things that he had done to the girl he loved, the girl who was now trembling in the company of her cousin.

"Orion, if you want to have all of your limbs intact for your wedding day, I'd suggest for you to walk back out that door," Charlus practically growled through gritted teeth and a gleam of a dangerous challenge shot through Orion's eyes as Euphemia felt physically sick to her stomach.

"Is that a threat, Potter?" Orion laughed shortly and Mia's grip on Charlus' hand tightened, "Flea, don't aggravate him," she whispered in a pleading tone. Charlus squeezed her hand back but, unbeknownst to Euphemia, drew his wand with his other hand, "Funnily enough, it is, yeah. I'm glad that you haven't lost all of your brain cells yet, Orion. Still a few hanging in there, eh?" he taunted.

Mia closed her eyes as she saw the change in Orion - he had only been simmering earlier but now he was bubbling over the top with anger and he advanced towards Charlus, whipping his wand out and pointing it in his face, "Don't you dare insult me, Potter. I am a Black, a respectable pure blood which is more than I can say for your traitorous family. You don't know what I'm capable of...." Orion hissed.

"Actually, I do," Charlus responded in a rather casual fashion, as if they were simply discussing the weather, "My girlfriend does tell me things, you know," he shot an innocent smile at Orion before realising that he had just referenced to Euphemia as his girlfriend, which she hadn't been for many months. All of the Orion business aside, what if she didn't want to be his girlfriend anymore? Maybe it had just been a fling?

However, one look at Mia where she was stood off to the side (Charlus had pushed her gently away from the confrontation, not wanting her to get hurt) dismissed all of his negative thoughts from the dark recesses of his mind. Euphemia had allowed a happy smile to flit across her face for a few moments, seemingly delighted momentarily that Charlus still wanted her, even after how cruel she had been.

"She broke up with you for me," Orion snapped, his knuckles whitening around his wand as his hand shook slightly with rage, "And yet you still have the audacity to saunter back in here, on MY wedding day!" his voice rose and Mia felt fear pump through every vein in her body, flowing through her bloodstream. She was reminded of all of the times Orion had raised his voice at her, of all the times of abuse that had resulted in her constant fear of her fiancée.

Before Charlus could respond with another smart remark, however, Orion slashed his wand in a diagonal movement and cut off the boy's speech, sending an invisible punch curse to his stomach and, as Charlus gasped in pain and tried to retaliate with another spell, Orion sent another curse in his direction which slammed Charlus up against the wall and made Charlus' head bang backwards, the contact with the wall sending him into an unconscious heap on the bedroom floor.

Instantly, Euphemia was hit with another wave  of fear that submerged her within its depths, making her feel like she was drowning as she attempted to rush over to her boyfriend, her fright being displayed through the sudden tears that pooled in her eyes, "Flea!" Mia cried before whirling around to face Orion, anger surging through her body and mixing with the fear, "What have you done to him?!"

"Nothing irreversible," Orion dismissed Euphemia with a restless wave of his hand, seemingly uninterested by the fact that he had just knocked Charlus out cold. Mia glared at Orion from where she was kneeling on the floor beside Charlus, her hand slipping into his cold one as she tried to think of positive things - he wouldn't be dead, he couldn't be dead....he was Charlus and he was strong and brave.

Orion didn't seem to care that his fiancée was clearly upset and angry, in fact - he seemed to relish in it, feeding off her fear like it was a source of energy and smirking at Euphemia's dishevelled state on the floor. Mia's hair was still rather mussed up from when they had been kissing earlier and Charlus had ran his hand through her hair; her recently re-applied makeup had traces of tears snaking down her cheeks and her wedding dress pooled around her, making her look like some sort of broken goddess.

"Well, now that rubbish is out of the way, shall we proceed with our pre-marital plans, Euphemia?" Orion smiled coldly at her and Mia felt a shiver ripple through her body, chilling her bones and causing her to grip Charlus' motionless hand even tighter, as if hoping that her unconscious boyfriend would somehow wake up before Orion attacked her again.

"I didn't make any plans with you, Orion," Euphemia told him with an air of forced calm as her heart pounded underneath her wedding dress bodice, practically bouncing off her ribs. Orion simply smiled maliciously, "Perhaps not, but it'd be a shame for the bride's dress to go to waste," he said, his eyes scanning her body and an idea suddenly zoomed into Mia's head.

"You know," she started slowly and casually, getting up from the ground, "It's bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding, Orion," Euphemia said as calmly as she could muster and she moved away from Charlus quickly, moving to the other side of the room whilst clutching at her skirts in order not to tear or step on them in any way.

"I think I'll take the risk...it's not life without a little risk," Orion responded coolly and it was obvious that he made no intention of moving from Mia's bedroom doorway which only made the pool of dread in Euphemia's stomach grow even more, until it was practically a lake residing there, bubbling with panic as she tried to make conversation to distract him from whatever he was planning on doing.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready down there anyway?" Mia gestured in the direction of the open window, where there was a perfect view of everyone getting ready for the dreaded wedding, the wedding that would seal Mia's fate forever. In a strange way, she really wanted the wedding to start now, before Orion could do anything cruel or she at least wanted a distraction caused by the wedding, like Cassiopeia arriving or something.

"I thought I'd have a little fun first," Orion smiled creepily and Euphemia was aware of him looking her up and down again as her hands clutched around her wand, which had been luckily on the desk behind her, the furniture that she was leaning against as she tried to move as far away as was possible from her fiancée.

Mia didn't say anything, in case she angered him even further, but she prepared herself for a beating, for a quick torture spell - it was nothing she wasn't used to, after all. Orion hadn't been physically violent towards her for a while so he probably wanted to get all of that anger out, leading Euphemia to close her eyes momentarily.

Nothing could've prepared her for what happened next.....Orion moved towards her and Euphemia felt her heart beating faster and faster in her chest as he grabbed her wrist tightly, the arm that didn't have the hand which was clutching her wand, and pulled her closer to him so that she practically choked on the overwhelming scent of his cologne.

He was so dangerously close now and he hissed in her ear, "You know, as soon as you're my wife, I can do anything to you and you won't be able to escape....anything," Orion cackled and stroked her cheek as Mia shivered involuntarily, not having the courage to push him off as that would only result in her getting even more hurt than she already was.

It was true, she was getting married to him very soon and this was obviously what Mia would be enduring throughout their marriage so she thought she might as well get used to his abuse now. Euphemia found herself cowering away from him, flinching and shutting her eyes as Orion moved closer but, instead of the forceful kiss that she was anticipating, a grunt of pain escaped his mouth which caused Mia's eyes to fly open.

Orion had collapsed onto the floor, holding the area between his legs where he had obviously just been hurt and relief flowed through Euphemia, spinning around as quickly as was humanely possible in her long, elegant dress to see Charlus standing there, his wand pointing at Orion's groin as a large purple bruise decorated the right hand side of his forehead from where he had been knocked out.

"Sucks for him, it hurts like a bitch when you get hexed or kicked there," Charlus chuckled at the groaning form of Orion on the floor before holding his hand out to Mia and pulling her towards him quickly. "I'll remember that for next time that you annoy me," she smiled faintly but panic was still surging through her, especially when she saw Orion begin to stand up again.

Sensing her fright, Charlus grabbed the rucksack that Euphemia had packed earlier, shoving it onto his back and he placed his arm around her waist to help her up to the windowsill, where Mia assumed their escape help was waiting. True to her thoughts, there was a broomstick hovering outside of the window and Charlus hurried her onto the broomstick, shooting a panicked glance over his shoulder at the disoriented Orion.

"No! You can't escape!" Orion yelled, reaching for them as Charlus leaped onto the broomstick, his foot getting caught in Orion's grip as he did so. Euphemia let out a yelp, the broomstick wobbling dangerously beneath her as she wasn't very skilled at flying and, added to that, her dress was extremely cumbersome and made it difficult to sit on a broomstick safely.

Charlus held onto her and tugged his foot from Orion's hold after a lot of fighting, the former eventually just kicking off his shoe, which flew through the air and hit Orion in the face. With a bitten back laugh, Charlus pushed off from the windowsill and flew through the air, the wind blowing his and Mia's hair as the broomstick flew far away from Euphemia's bedroom.

A mixture of relief and disbelief rushed through Mia as she wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's waist, pressing her face up against his back and sighing, a sigh that released all of her emotions. But, her momentary feeling of ease was soon unsettled as Charlus took a nosedive and swooped over the crowd that was assembled for Orion and Euphemia's wedding, flying behind a massive tree that had once been the girl's base when she had been playing Hide and Seek with Marius.

The bridesmaids were huddled at the end of the aisle, looking impatient for the wedding to start, evidently chilly in their skimpy dresses as the sun had faded for a while and Cygnus, Orion's best man, was checking his pocket watch and yawning at the front whilst all of the wedding congregation craned their necks to look for Mia, who they were obviously expecting to arrive any time soon.

"Flea! What are you doing?" Euphemia hissed at him and Charlus muttered, "Looking for my dad. Do you see him? He said he'd be hiding amongst the crowd," out of the corner of his mouth as his eyes scanned the faces of all the people. Mia didn't have the time, effort or heart to tell Charlus that she didn't know what his father looked like because she was far too panicked at the close proximity of all her family members and wedding guests when all she wanted to do was escape from this hell.

"No, I don't—" Euphemia suddenly cut herself off with a terrified gasp as she raised a shaking hand to point at what had scared her, "But, Flea, look!" Charlus directed his eyes to where his girlfriend was pointing and his heart slammed in his chest when he saw Orion running down the aisle, his nose bloody from when Charlus had kicked his shoe at his face.

Orion was waving his arms and yelling, "She's escaped! She's jilted me!" after nearly sending all of the bridesmaids toppling over when he rushed down the aisle. There was immediate commotion and chaos and Charlus and Mia both seemed to freeze on the broomstick hovering above the wedding party, hoping that no one would look up (they were hidden quite well behind the tree, to be fair).

Charlus was evidently torn between finding Henry and getting all three of them out of there and simply taking Euphemia to safety whilst assuming that his father, who was a trained Auror, would be capable of escaping from this wedding, unnoticed. Mia was near to hyperventilation as she watched the chaos down below - she just wanted to leave.

"Okay, we're getting out of here," Charlus said suddenly, like he had made his decision and, even though Euphemia was on the verge of a panic attack if they didn't fly away at that moment, she still found herself asking, "But what about your dad?" which Charlus simply replied to by explaining that Henry was a fully trained Auror and could easily escape, if he hadn't already had the initiative to do so already.

As they swooped out from their hiding spot, there was a cry from down below and Charlus, his stomach sinking, saw Arcturus Black pointing up at them and he mumbled, "Hold on tight, love," to Mia as her father yelled for everyone to 'grab the girl.' Euphemia tightened her grip around Charlus' waist as he suddenly gained speed and zoomed off into the distance, dodging through people's waving arms and the bright jets of spells that were shooting through the air.

"GET THEM!" Pollux Black screamed and he aimed his wand at Charlus' broomstick, which the boy only dodged by a millimetre, swerving sidewards at the last minute as Mia squealed and held on for dear life before realising that there would be more close calls like that if she didn't contribute to this escape route, causing her to bring out her wand and start shooting defence spells back at her family.

In the midst of the chaos, Euphemia's eyes caught Cassiopeia's, who wasn't joining in with the fight, as her mother stood to one side, her arms crossed tightly across her chest. She looked rather as if she was going to cry before she nodded her head at Mia, her facial expression saying all she needed to say - she approved of Euphemia leaving with the person she loved instead of marrying a person she hated.

Alphard, Callidora and Charis were also not fighting, whereas the rest of Mia's family members were shooting spells at the flying broomstick, which kept swerving sidewards as Charlus dodged hexes and then backwards as curses from the Black family dragged it back, the constant movement making Euphemia feel sick.

As Charlus flew up towards the sky, his broom tail was set on fire by Orion's mother, Melania, and a cheer rose up from the crowd as the broom began to burn, the fire spreading towards Mia and Charlus as she screamed, trying to grab her dress and save it from the flames that were licking their way up the broom but Charlus let out a sound of despair, "It's not going to make it," he groaned and, sure enough, the broomstick fell through the air, causing both Charlus and Euphemia to tumble to the ground, sprawled amongst the wedding guests.

For a moment, everyone looked around in confusion as if wondering where the couple had disappeared to before a mob of angry wedding guests and Black family members descended on the blood traitor and definitely disowned Black daughter. The couple in question were scrambling for their wands as Charlus kept a tight grip on both the rucksack with Mia's precious possessions in it and the girl's hand itself.

"We're going to have to run," Charlus whispered to Euphemia as they started blocking spells and shooting hexes back at the duelling guests and family. Mia looked at him in fear, her greyish blue eyes widening as she shook her head, "Have you forgotten that I'm wearing a wedding dress, Flea?" she pointed out in frustration and Charlus cursed before stunning a few of the oncoming attackers.

Orion suddenly appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Euphemia, causing the girl to struggle in his grip and cry out in pain as Charlus was distracted with duelling Mia's Aunt Irma and Cygnus Black at the same time, unable to help his girlfriend. "He's got her!" Arcturus yelled triumphantly and there was a cheer that rose through the crowd as Orion tightened his grip on Euphemia, his hand closing around her throat as she struggled to breathe.

Distracted by the spells coming his way, Charlus felt his heart break as he saw the pain that Mia was in and he knew that this same scenario (Orion hurting Euphemia, not the angry mob of wedding guests) must've played out millions of times. It physically pained him to know that the girl he loved had been put through so much pain and he hadn't been able to stop it.

Charlus was suddenly struck down by a spell, the fiery hot curse slicing down his shoulder and causing him to fall with a gasp of pain as Irma cackled in triumph before turning her attention to where Orion was pulling Mia towards the front of the ceremonial display, evidently about to force her into marriage before she could escape.

Charlus cried out in pain, needing to get to Euphemia and, suddenly, he felt someone lift him up and place his wand into his hand as another person wrapped some sort of ribbon / satin around Charlus' bleeding wound, trying to stem the heavy bleeding. Charlus glanced around for his saviours and saw Alphard and Charis smiling at him, the latter tightening the makeshift bandage and the former patting him on the back, "Go save her, mate," he said encouragingly.

And then Charlus was running, he was running faster than he'd ever ran in his life and he shoved his way through the crowd, ignoring the annoyed yelps and angry cries as he knocked people over but he had to save his Mia and just get out of this hellish nightmare. Suddenly, Charlus was grabbed by someone and, thinking it was another pure blood supremacist trying to hurt him, he struggled before realising that it was in fact his father, Henry Potter.

"I'm going to go and grab her and I need you to run at me as soon as I have her, we'll disapparate," Henry told his son in an urgent whisper, evidently seeing that Charlus was in no fit state to be physically saving Euphemia, no matter how much he wanted to. The patriarch of the Potters stormed towards where Orion was hurting Mia, hearing the gasps as everyone in attendance noticed the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Department.

Without a word to anyone, Henry leapt forward and stunned Orion with a quick swipe of his wand before grabbing Euphemia and catching her as she fell into his hold, signalling to Charlus to move quickly as the crowd began to understand what was going on, many of them drawing their wands quickly....but not quickly enough.

As soon as Charlus reached his father's side and made contact with Henry's hand, the Auror span on the spot and disapparated, his grip tight on both of Mia and Charlus' hands as the world started spinning, the scene of the wedding disappearing into a blurriness as it was soon replaced with the setting of a cottage in Godric's Hollow, all three pairs of feet landing safely on the ground outside.

There was a moment of silence before Euphemia staggered away from the group, her wedding dress filthy and ripped and her face ashen from the events of the wedding and the quick journey from London to Godric's Hollow as she quickly threw up in a nearby bush, evidently from the shock and the trauma. "I'm sure Bathilda will love that, darling," Charlus teased her gently, regarding her with a great degree of concern and worry.

"Don't worry, she won't care," Henry assured Mia and, upon getting no reaction from the obviously traumatised girl, he clapped his hands, "Come on, let's get you cleaned up and sorted out, Mia. You're lucky that Everleigh and the girls are out....no questions, at least for a while, anyway," he said with a twinkle in his eyes as he opened the door, glad to see a glimmer of a smile on Euphemia's face at his amusing remark.

Charlus wrapped his arm around Mia as they crossed over the threshold, her face still extremely dazed, "I told you I wouldn't give up on you," he muttered affectionally in her ear before placing a kiss on her cheek and ushering her up the stairs, where the sound of running water beckoned Euphemia towards the bathroom.

"Thank you," Mia whispered hoarsely, looking like she was going to cry and Charlus embraced her tightly, relishing in the feel of her touch and the fact that she was here, safe in his arms and away from any malicious Black family members that could hurt and damage her even further.

"I love you," Charlus said simply, smoothing her now matted and slightly burnt hair down and Euphemia closed her eyes with her head against his chest, hearing his heart beating and feeling soothed, "I love you too," she whispered, feeling completely safe for the first time in her life.

I'm currently swamped in mock exams and revision which has been the case since New Year so I'm terribly sorry that I haven't updated but I've had to focus on my education.

Thank you for 34K reads and I hope you all have a wonderful 2020!