Their voices were hushed and serious as they filed into the room. They were met with a familiar sweetness. Rivka pressed her handkerchief to her mouth and tried to prevent the nosy neighbor from peeking in. She already felt nauseated.
The thing on the carpet must once have been a human.
The neighbor screamed. She had never before seen a corpse. And certainly not in her next-door apartment.
"Get her out of here," Kevin growled. He couldn't stand screaming women. "Floo Mack from her apartment. Nobody touches anything until he arrives, understood?"
The trio of Aurors that had arrived with him, rolled their eyes at their boss' remark.
"We're not Franky Firstyear."
Kevin huffed and pretended not to have heard the reply.
It wasn't long until Mack arrived. Duncan Mackenzie, or Mack, was the Department's researcher. He Floo'd in with his corduroy vest unevenly buttoned over his pajamas, his hair disheveled, his face unshaven. The look in his eyes, however, was one of acute alertness.
"Oh, this one's dead all right," Mack said. "But that's probably not why you Floo'd me at seven a.m. I reckon you need my invaluable skill to determine the cause of death?"
"Something like that, yes," Kevin replied shortly. He wasn't in the mood for Mack's witticism.
Mack bent over the victim and immediately started collecting samples, as far as it was possible.
"If you don't mind me saying, Sir," Morrigan objected, "I don't really understand why the Auror department is called to investigate. This was an elderly, solitary No-Maj. She could have died of a stroke for all we know." He tried to hide his annoyance. This was not the kind of flashy, interesting case he had signed on for. Obviously, his talents were wasted here.
Kevin shrugged. "I know. But Mrs next-door is a Squib and she didn't know whom else to contact. I agree that this seems like a waste of time. But, for the sake of things, let's follow protocol."
Morrigan sighed.
"Come on, let's do this and let's get it over with."
Artemis set up her camera, determining angles to get the best shots. Wilkinson had been against what he called No-Maj nonsense at first, but even he had been swayed by the purpose and practicality. The camera had proved a great asset in Auror investigations. Now they no longer needed to to memorize every single detail of a crime scene, which saved time and made the chance of erring considerable smaller. She had found she liked this much better than up-close investigation.
"I'll go and ask around whether the neighbors noticed anything strange," Percival said and disappeared almost instantly. Anything to be out of this stench.
That left Morrigan and Rivka to investigate the apartment.
Percival's round was a short one though. Mr Gambetti of number twenty-six proved to be blind and loved his jazz music too much to have heard anything out of the ordinary. Ms Leung of number twenty-nine didn't speak English and Percival didn't know any Chinese. The Nottinghams of number twenty-eight were on holiday. That left only Mrs Roberts of number thirty. As she had been the one contacting the Auror office, he doubted he would hear anything new from her. He was right. The victim, Mrs Ethel Abrams, eighty-four, had lived an unremarkable life. She had lived solitary but for her cats. It had been days since Mrs Roberts had last seen her. She thought she had heard a thud last night, although that might just have been the cats. Ethel had no family or friends that she knew of. Percival thanked her for her help, and left the apartment.
He looked around the hall. It was a rather desolate place and he wondered whether all No-Maj lived in these conditions.
"Nothing interesting from the next-door neighbors," he announced as he reentered the room.
Kevin nodded. "All right. And did you…"
"Of course, Sir. They'll remember suits and uniforms, not cloaks."
"Mulloy, Finkler, have you found anything of importance?"
Rivka shook her head. "It's difficult, Sir. As you can see, the victim is in a terrible state due to, well, cats."
As if on cue, the victim's cats stared at her with an almost defiant look, which made her very uncomfortable.
"Unfortunately, there's cat hair everywhere," she continued. "We've took samples, but… the site is contaminated. I reckon we won't get much out of them."
"Well, so be it. We'll just make do with what we've got. Cullen, you've got all the pictures?'
"Yes, Sir."
"Including some residue pictures?"
"Yes, Sir."
"All right, start packing up people. Let's wrap this case up as soon as possible."
"What do we do with the body?" Morrigan asked. "It won't fit through Mrs Roberts' fireplace."
Kevin flicked his wand. The body started rising in the air. "Zero gravity spell," he explained to the others. He flicked it again and a bubble formed around her. "We'll now be able to take her with us when we Apparate, without having to touch her."
This was met with approval by his staff, as no one had been looking forward to touching the decomposing body.
"Apparate, Sir? Artemis said confused. "But it's impossible to Apparate inside MACUSA."
"Not if you have one of these," Kevin replied curtly.
He showed them his Head of Department Apparition Permit, and told them to hold the small cerulean chain that would lead them through the anti-Apparition spells at MACUSA. In the blink of an eye they found themselves inside his office, the bubble containing the body hanging between them.
"Mack, could you take her to the basement and run some tests?"
"Finkler, please provide Mack with the samples you and Mulloy took from the apartment. Cullen, I need you to develop those pictures. Mulloy and Graves, you're on paper duty."
Mulloy and Graves groaned. Paper duty meant registering their findings and interviews and putting them into the system and as suspected, no Auror favored this task.
"We'll get together again tomorrow. I reckon we will then be able to close the case. Any questions?"
They shook their heads.
"Let start immediately then."
The next morning, there was a tap at Kevin's door. It was Mack.
"Sir, I think you need to see this," he said and held up two vials. One held a crimson substance, the other a magenta-colored one.
"What am I looking at?"
"This is the basic blood test for Ethel Abrams. This," he held up the vial with the crimson substance, "is her blood before I ran the test. And this," he held up the vial with the magenta substance, "is her blood after I ran the test."
"But isn't magenta…"
Mack nodded. "Yes, it is."
Kevin shook his head in disbelief. "Are you absolutely sure?"
"Positive. I doubted the outcome myself as well, so I ran the tests several times. But the results were the same every time. Our Ethel Abrams was a pureblood witch."
Kevin sank back in his seat. "Well, that changes things," he muttered. "I'll call in the others."
Morrigan, Rivka, and Percival arrived moments later.
"You wanted to see us for a briefing, Sir?" Morrigan inquired.
"Yes. It's about Ethel Abrams. Mackenzie has run the blood tests and it turns out our victim was not a No-Maj. In fact, she was a pureblood witch."
They were silently processing this news.
"But… her address wasn't connected to the Floo network," Percival said perplexed. "It isn't in the Index. I checked before we went there. If it had been connected, we wouldn't have needed to use Mrs Roberts fireplace."
"Maybe she denounced magic?" Rivka opted, but she didn't sound convinced.
"Maybe she was a Squib like her neighbor but they never knew about each other?"
"Maybe. We don't know. Graves, you said her address was not listed in the Index. Did you happen to check if she herself was in the registers?"
"No Sir, once I learned that she was a No-Maj, I thought it unnecessary to check the Registerium. But I can go check later today."
Kevin nodded. "Please do. It might shed some light on this case."
Artemis entered his office, her face flustered.
"I wanted to await the photo results before I came, Sir," she explained herself.
"And, did you find anything? We were just discussing the fact that apparently our victim was a pureblood witch."
"Hmm that would explain some of the photos," Artemis said pensively, "but not all of them. Sir, from the residue photos it becomes clear that there is a lot of magical residue surrounding her. Strangely enough, there was no magical residue whatsoever in the apartment."
"None?" Kevin echoed surprised. "None at all? So despite her being magical, she never practiced magic insider her apartment?"
"None at all," confirmed Artemis.
"So she is a Squib then," Morrigan said, satisfied with himself.
"It could still be someone who denounced magic," Rivka objected.
Artemis shook her head. "No, in both cases there would have been contact residue. On the furniture, on the carpet, on the cats… Even if you don't actively use magic, you leave a bit of residue on everything you touch if you're of magical blood. There was nothing. It's almost as if our victim didn't live in this apartment. In addition, the photos also show an impact of dark magic on her body. An impact that isn't mirrored in the apartment."
Kevin looked up, alarmed. He looked at Mack and saw that the same thought had crossed his mind. They stared at each other as the implications of Artemis' words started to reach the Aurors' minds.
"You don't think…, " Kevin said.
"I hope not."
"What is it, Sir?" Rivka asked, looking curious from her boss to the forensic examiner.
"This is starting to feel like Glenmorgle."
"I've read about that case," Morrigan said thoughtfully.
"Of course you have," Mack replied indignantly. "It's only one of the most notorious cases of the past decade."
"Yes, I remember now! A No-Maj body was found in a wizard's house. At first the wizard was suspected to have killed the No-Maj. That was, until the wizard was found dead at a No-Maj's house. That's the case you're referring to, isn't it?" Rivka asked.
Kevin nodded.
"But that was a monumental case! Lots of memories had to be erased afterwards!" Morrigan exclaimed.
"That's right."
"And you think this could be alike?" Morrigan continued. "Isn't the killer currently imprisoned?"
Kevin confirmed this. "It might be a copycat. Or it might be something else entirely. Either way, I'm upgrading this to a class-four murder investigation. Defer any other cases you might be working on to one of your co-workers. This will require your full attention."
Morrigan felt elated.Now this was more like it. This might prove to be a case worthy of his time after all. This was why he had signed up for the special investigations team, to work on possibly high-profile cases.
Kevin sensed his vibe of excitement. Finkler wasn't the only one. Mulloy, Graves and Cullen were equally thrilled. He recognized the feeling. He had been young too, full of ambition and drive to solve complex cases. Now he mainly worried if there really was a copycat on the loose. He needed to inform the President.
Seraphina looked up when there was a knocking on her door. To her surprise and joy Kevin Wilkinson entered.
The Head of the Auror Department cleared his throat. "Good morning, Madam President."
"Oh, don't you Madam President me," she chided him. "You trained me. Without you, I wouldn't be were I am today. You of all people should know to just call me Seraphina when there's no one else around."
"Yes, I know," he said. "But it still feels weird after having you called Picquery for so long."
She laughed. "Not as weird as being addressed as Madam President by my former mentor. Sit down. What can I do for you?"
"I've come to inform you of a case we're working on."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I need your assistance with a class four."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Sorry, let me start at the beginning. Yesterday, a Squib contacted us because her No-Maj neighbor hadn't been seen in a couple of days. She feared for her. We found a body in the apartment; by the state of it she'd been dead a couple of days already. And she had cats… Why the Squib neighbor didn't contact the No-Maj Police I don't know, but I'm glad she didn't, for it turned out the victim was a pureblood witch. There was residue of black magic on her person, but not in her apartment."
Kevin rattled off his story and Seraphina nearly smiled. He hadn't changed a bit. What he told however worried her.
"There is of course a possibility that the No-Maj in question is no No-Maj at all, but for some reason preferred to act like one. However, that still leaves us the impact of dark magic. In the best case scenario, we're still looking at murder in a No-Maj environment, either by someone who intentionally killed a No-Maj, or by someone who intentionally killed a pureblood posing as No-Maj. In the worst case scenario…"
He paused, but she could fill in the blanks.
"You think it could be another Glenmorgle," she said softly.
He nodded. "Yes. Apart from her neighbors and her cats, she didn't have anyone. She'd be a textbook victim."
They both remained silent. Seraphina tought back on the case that had made her instantly famous. In a way, solving the Glenmorgle case had helped her become President.
"Well, I think the most important action right now is to determine the identity of the victim," she eventually said.
"I already got Graves on it. He said that the address wasn't in the Index. Of course, if she opted out of the magical community, or is she was a Squib, that could be the reason, but I doubt it. I think that the Squib neighbor would have recognized her as a witch had she been one."
"That makes sense." She hesitated. "I hate to ask this of you, but seeing as this is a potential breach of the Statute, I need to be closely involved in this case. I... might need to speak to the team directly."
"I know. That's why I came to you in person, I didn't want you to hear it from anyone else."
"I appreciate that."
"Well, now you know," Kevin said. There was an awkward moment of silence.
"I'd better be going. I'll alert you if anything comes up."
He walked out of the door, but Seraphina called him back. "Kevin?" She felt she needed to say something else.
"Yes?"
"I'll try not to interfere. This is your case and it must be uncomfortable to have to report to your former pupil."
Kevin contemplated whether or not he could be honest. He decided he could. "It does feel a bit awkward. But we're both professional enough to get over that. I thank you for your confidence in me."
When he had left, Seraphina let herself fall into her chair. Auror-Seraphina would have rushed down to the archives to dig up every piece she could find about the Glenmorgle case. But she was President-Seraphina now, and as such she could do no such thing. And besides, she had given Kevin her word that she wouldn't interfere. She had to do with what she could remember of the case and wait for more news on this case.
A/N: This is written for the One Character Only Competition on HPFC. My character is Seraphina Picquery. For this round, I have to write a threeshot in omniscient person (the other two chapters will follow shortly after). The optional prompt I used in this chapter is cerulean.