A Proposal (Invite only)

Richard Romain breathed in deeply, in and out, mechanically to stop himself from forgetting to breathe. His nerves had formed a lump in his throat and it refused to be moved by any amount of water. Shifting nervously he looked around at the Scottish countryside around him, the wind picking up lightly to ruffle his hair, as if to reassure him. He sighed a little and closed his eyes tightly as he stuffed his hand into his pocket.

As his fingers grasped the little box in his pocket he felt as if the edge had been taken off of his nerves. Of course he was nervous, afraid even. Afraid of rejection. Hell, he was afraid of what acceptence would mean. He'd be engaged! He'd be getting married! And because he was one for spur of the moment things he'd set up a secret ceremony for two weeks from now in Venice.

He let out another sigh, this one of contentment. It was with the realisation that he was getting married that Richard smiled and finally felt free of his nerves. He was sure of himself and his reasons, after all he loved Briony more than anything in the world. So, with that comforting and calming idea in mind, he leant against the side of the Shrieking Shack and tried to relax as he waited for Briony to show up.

Briony wrapped her long army jacket against her body and made her way out to the village of Hogsmede, Richard had sent her a note to tell her to meet him there today and she wondered why. He could always come and knock at her office, she was there most of the time, Briony wondered a little bit if it was to do some more training so she had worn loose fitting trousers and a tight tank top just in case.

Creeping down the jagged path in the woods Briony made her way into the surroundings of the Shrieking Shack, and once again the thought crossed her mind, why here? The dodgiest place he could think of to train. Sighing lightly she walked until she spotted Richard and smiled gently at him.

"Hello Rich, what's the occasion?"

Briony asked curiously.

Richard jumped a little at the sound of her voice before he took a deep breath and turned to face her with a nervous smile. He leant forwards and kissed her lightly on the lips,

"Morning Briony..." he smiled a little, "It's time for the surprise I promised you."

He chuckled a little,

"And you'll understand why I'm so nervous in a minute..." he coughed nervously before nodding to himself, "Right... show time."

Pulling himself together, Richard took her hand in his left hand and looked her straight in the eyes,

"Briony Blake... from the day I meant you I have thought of no one else. You dominated my thoughts so completely that I thought at first I was losing my mind." he smiled a little, "And then I decided to go with the flow..."

He smiled a little more and slowly fell to one knee,

"And I decided that I wanted to keep thinking of you first for the rest of my life." he smiled even wider, "And to that end..."

Pulling his right hand out of his pocket he held up the small black ring box before slowly cracking it open to reveal the ring,

"Briony Blake... will you marry me?"

(OOC: Ring is this one )

Briony's heart began to beat a little faster as Richard took her hand in his, she had bee wondering if this meeting was to do with something a little more romantic and his nervousness and the holding of the hand all began to make it click into place. The hints from Annie as well made her mind start reeling with possibilities.

As Briony saw Richard bent down onto one knee and a sort of weird choking noise escaped her lips, now she knew what was coming and of course, Briony knew the answer. She had known it for a while now.

"Rich...oh Rich...of course I will!"

Briony threw her arms around Richard's shoulders and buried her head in his neck, she was so happy right now and she didn't think anything could ruin this moment. Everything was perfect. Briony didn't care much about the ring even though it was beautiful. She cared about Richard and that he loved her enough to do this.

"I love you Richard Romain."

Richard's heart swelled with joy and he scooped Briony up in his arms and swung her round as he laughed happily, tears of joy threatening to roll down his cheeks. Laughing still, he threw his head up to the heavens,

"SHE SAID YES!" he shouted as loud as he possibily could, completely over the moon. He put Briony back down on her feet and kissed her thoroughly, "You have no idea how happy this makes me Briony!"

He laughed a little more before holding the ring up,

"Let's make it official..." he took her hand and slid the ring onto her ring finger. He beamed at her, "I love you... Briony Romain."

Briony laughed loudly along with Richard giggling as he picked her up and swooped her around, she found it hard to believe that he would have thought she would have answered in any other way. After all, they were practically married anyway.

"Of course I did, you didn't think I'd reject you did you?"

She asked a little shocked, before she smiled and planted a soft kiss on Richard's lips.

"It's a beautiful ring, how much did you spend on it...? I hope not much."

Briony muttered warningly with a smile on her face despite her mock glare.

"Boy, does that sound strange, I don't have alliteration any more."

Richard grinned widely,

"Well forgive a guy for being nervous!" he teased before kissing her again, "I wanted everything to go smoothly... I'm glad that it has done."

He looked away and sheepishly scratched the back of his head,

"Well... the ring was kind of the last one made by that company... and I had to outbid three other millionnaires for it... so..." he looked even more nervous than before, "Yeah... it was quite expensive."

Shaking his head he grinned again and kissed her,

"Besides... you're worth it!" he told her before smirking, "And the wedding and the honeymoon cost more anyway. And yes, I have already organised both. I like to plan ahead."

He chuckled,

"Surely that's a small price to pay..." he leant in close and kissed her softly, "To be Mrs Romain."

Briony wrapped her arms lovingly around Richard's neck once more, she lay her head on his shoulder and sighed happily, Briony had wondered when this was going to happen and now that it had she was the happiest woman in the world and her eyes seemed to dance with the love she felt for Richard.

"What?! The wedding? A honeymoon? On top of the ring? Richard..."

Briony tried to be stern but she couldn't her face broke into a beaming smile and she kissed Richard's lips softly, she was just so happy she couldn't be angry at all! It was impossible!

"Oh Rich...you really are too good for me, and of course, it will be a delight, to be Mrs. Romain."

Richard laughed happily and hugged her,

"Yes..." he looked up at the sky, "Briony Romain... Briony Romain..."

He smirked and gave her a kiss,

"Yeah... I like the sound of that." he told her with a wide grin, "It's not too bad is it?"

Stepping away from her a bit he grinned,

"Well picture this..." he waved his hands out in front of him, "It's in Venice! I found this lovely chapel and-"

Something hit Richard in the back, like a dull 'thump', which staggered him forwards a few steps. Not only that but he felt something thump out of the front of him, just above of his right leg, and splash something onto him. Confused, he brought his fingers down to the place where something had splashed out of him. His hand came back covered in blood. Frowning a little he knew that his body was going into shock but he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. It was just a little bit of blood right? Going to check, he leant forwards to inspect his hip.

Two more thumps hammered dully into his back, each one slightly higher up his body than the last so that the highest one slammed into his just bellow his ribs. His eyes widdened as some of his blood splashed forwards onto Briony in a light spray of gore. His legs suddenly gave out and he found himself on his knees, looking disbelievingly up at Briony with wide eyes. Slowly, he looked down to see blood blosoming across his shirt from three very angry looking splashes of red. His throat dry and uncooperative, he opened his mouth to speak. Immediately blood welled up his throat and he coughed it out onto the ground, the cough causing more blood to force its way up his throat. Leaning back a little, he reached a hand out to Briony, silently trying to take support from her.

Cobalt sniffed the air a little bit from his perch on top of the Hog's Head about a mile away from the Shrieking Shack. Catching the distant smell of blood in the air, the invisible man nodded grimly to himself and lined his eye up with the scope of his rifle again.

Looking through the scope he could see that Richard had fallen to his knees from the first three shots, even if they had been pushed away from his spine by the wind. Sighing a little he took out his wand and poked the loading breach,

"Portus." he muttered, his voice masked completely by a silencing charm. He cocked the round, which he had just made into a portkey, and took a deep breath as he watched the two through the scope. If he timed it just right then Briony would have to watch as her dying husband-to-be was sucked through the portkey and across the world.

Briony smiled she was getting so excited about what was going to happen with the wedding and it only increased when Richard told her that it was going to be in Venice. When she saw Richard step forward Briony opened her arms for him so that he could hug her, but, when she focused she saw a blossoming patch of red.

Briony's hands flew to her mouth and she watched helplessly as Richard got hit three more times with something she couldn't see, something she couldn't do anything about. As he thudded to the ground Briony dashed forward to take his hand, to comfort him, what was happening? Was this a dream?

"Richard...oh God...Richard..."

Briony's heart was hammering in her chest, she applied pressure to the wounds while she thought of something to do, she took out her wand and began to mutter healing spells, not knowing what had happened she couldn't fix it.

"Richard, hold on. It'll be ok. I promise!"

Her throat closed over and she placed a silent kiss on his lips.

Cobalt took his eye from the sight for a second as he thought about what he was doing.

He was cutting down a man in his prime, a man who had suffered greatly and was only now getting some happiness back in his life. He was separating two lovers with the intraversable screen of death. He was killing the man he'd once offered the position as his apprentice. The one man he'd not killed for trying to stop one of his hits. A man he'd once called friend, his only one since childhood, and been happy to share with.

On the other hand... he was doing his job.

He was getting paid to kill a man, regardless of his own feelings, and he was halfway there already. That was what separated assassins from murderers. With a murder it was all about intent and emotion. With assassination it was cold, it was devoid of feeling and it was rewarded with money.

Regardless on how he tried to rationalise it, he knew that the reason he'd taken the first three shots was because it was what he did. After a long life of killing for money, it had become as natural to Cobalt as breathing. And just as a man cannot live without taking a breath, an assassin could not live without doing his job and taking a life for the gold in his pocket.

Taking another deep breath he put his eye to the sight again and steadied himself. Down the sight he could see Briony desparately trying to keep him alive, causing a lump to form in his throat,

"Mother forgive me..." he croaked out in a hoarse whisper as he took the shot, sending the portkey bullet through Richard's shoe and into the bone of his foot. As he watched, the transfiguration professor was twisted away by the portkey. Letting his head slump a little, Cobalt began to shake. Setting the gun down so that it wouldn't roll down the roof, he took a cigarette out of his jacket with shaking hands. Fumbling, he finally managed to lit the thing and just sat there, taking long and soothing drags from his cigarette.

The soft scent of distant blood wafted over on the wind and he sniffed at it instinctively. It didn't soothe him as it once had. This blood... the smell of it left a bitter taste in his mouth that not even the calming nicotene from the cigarette could displace. Throwing the cigarette away with contempt he picked up his rifle and paused for a second.

Richard Romain's scent was already fading.

Cobalt closed his eyes tightly for a few seconds before he silently apparated away.

Richard clung desparately to Briony's hand and tried to gasp out a word, or even some noise, to let her know that he loved her. After all, this might be his last chance to do so.

But even as he knelt there, bleeding his life blood out onto ground, soaking the green grass a sickening crimson, he was thinking. He was thinking about his bucket list, of all things. He'd completed it only moments before. The last item on his list had been to propose to Briony and he'd done that. But now that he had...

He didn't want to leave her.

He knew he would never wish to leave her even after only a few days with her. But to know it and to feel it were two different things. The faint tugging at his very core was something that he could feel very clearly. It was a part of him that tugged him towards Briony, cheered when he held her and whispered her name into his ear while he slept. And he was agreeing with the voice in his core.

He didn't want to leave her!

He didn't want to leave like this!

He wanted to live to a ripe old age with her by his side!

To see Annie, and any other children, grow up and have their own lives!

He wanted to be a doting grandfather and a loveable great-grandfather!

He wanted a Briony as his wife, as his soul-mate.

He wanted a family with Briony.

He wanted a fulfilling life of being a proud husband and father.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he vaguely registered a burning pain shooting through his foot. Something jarred the bones of his foot and he cried out in pain. The tears didn't fall, they welled up in his eyes even as he felt the tugging start at his navel. A portkey.

He looked up into Briony's eyes through the clouding of his own tears, his grip loosening on her hand,

"I don't want to go..." he whispered as the tears began to fall and the tugging at his navel increased urgently to twist and turn him away from Briony and his chance at a normal, happy, life.

Briony looked kindly down at Richard, she clasped his hand to her cheek with a smile on her face, she was trying to reassure him, he was loosing a lot of blood but she would be able to take him to hospital, they would fix him, everything was going to be alright.

She began to panic when Richard was struggling to say something Briony placed another kiss on his lips and tried to stop tears from falling down her face, she did some more healing spells trying to clear up the worst of the cuts but they didn't seem to be working.

"Richard, just hold on alright? I'm going to take you to St Mungo's, they'll fix you up yeah?"

Her tone of voice was desperate and frantic, and when Richard spoke those words to her Briony reached out to take his hand again, but he wasn't there. He had gone. Not died. Just vanished.

"Rich?"

Briony called out, hoping this was his idea of a sick joke.

"Rich where are you...? I can't very well go to Venice on my own can I?"

She laughed a little hoping that he would pop out from behind a tree happy, healthy and alive, she waited, and waited, Briony waited for about 5 hours there by the shrieking shack, tears constantly rolling down her cheeks. She had everything she could have wanted, she had someone she loved more than anything, then it had been taken away.

Briony screamed to the sky, unable to stop her body being racked with grief, Briony curled up on the floor and sobbed until the sky turned black around her and she had to go back to the castle. She couldn't stay here any more. With one last look at the place her love had died Briony choked back a sob and walked slowly back to the castle, with every step her heart broke a little more until by the time she reached the old building.

There was nothing left of it.