Round 6 Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition

Position: Beater 1

Prompt: Crime (category)

Optional Prompts:

1. (dialogue) "So… what exactly is that?"

3. (opening sentence) Time was running out.

To Save a Life

Time was running out. The Auror Department had already been on the case for three days and they were no closer to solving the mystery and getting justice for the girl's family. Much longer and they wouldn't be able to get any justice for Erica Johnson.

Draco slammed his hands down on the table, bringing the murmuring aurors to silence. "Has anyone got any ideas about how this happened? It's been three days! We should have the perpetrator locked up already!" His eyes blazed in fury at the elusive would-be murderer.

Ron sat with his elbows on his knees and face buried in his hands. This murder attempt had hit too close to home for him. "Angelina was requesting that we give her an update, boss. Erica is her niece. Is there anything I can tell her without compromising the case?" He raised his bloodshot eyes to Draco. He had stayed with Angelina and George at St Mungo's the past two nights. Derrick, Angelina's brother, and Norma, his new wife, were on their honeymoon. They had left Erica with George and Angelina. Derrick was devastated Erica had been targeted by this psychopath, and Norma agreed that they would come in on an International Portkey. Unfortunately, instead of being back in country the day it happened, the fastest they could get a portkey approved had them coming in today.

The group shifted their attention to Ron. Ron was run haggard from the stress and the team could tell that the ten year old's fight for her life was wearing on him more than he wanted to let on.

Draco sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "We don't have any leads. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a-" he cut off as his eyes widened. "Can you get a hold of Potter?"

Ron leapt to his feet, rage in his voice as he requested, as politely as he could, "Can we speak?" He glanced around the room before glaring at Draco. "Privately, Captain?"

Draco flicked his eyes across the room. The gathered aurors stood as one and filed out of the room. Draco cast several privacy wards and waited for Ron to continue.

Ron turned and kicked his chair over before he started pacing back and forth the length of the room. "Harry doesn't want to be dragged back to this world, Draco," he finally said as he stopped his pacing to glare at his boss. "You assured that when you and Granger decided to break his heart. I won't let you turn this case into a 'get-back-together' scheme. Not when it's this close to home. Not ever."

Draco flinched back at the accusation. "I wouldn't do that! I-"

"Oh, shut up, Malfoy! You tore his heart out when you and Granger decided to sneak out behind his back. I don't want to hear any excuses. He was always afraid you would leave him for a pureblood arranged marriage. He never thought you would go behind his back with his best, muggleborn, female, friend. Even better that Granger split with you right after he ditched the magical world." Ron spun on his heel and walked to the door. Before he opened it, he said over his shoulder, "I'll get in contact with him, but you will have zero contact, in any form with him. I will liaise between the two of you. You will not set eyes on him. He deserves that after what you and Granger did to him." He opened the door and walked out, slamming the door behind him.

Ron waited until he was at home, safe within his wards to send a text to Harry through the mobile he'd gotten on one of their jaunts out into muggle London before Harry started living and working there full time five years ago. 'I have a really bad case. Can we meet? I wouldn't ask, but it's family.'

His mobile buzzed in his hand almost immediately. 'Off work in thirty. Just pop into my living room.'

Harry was sitting at his desk in the Islington Police Station, waiting for the clock to wind down so he could go home for the day. It had been a slow week, which was good in his opinion, but the message from Ron that he had received a little less than twenty minutes ago had him worried.

"Glad it's Friday, yeah?" Bianca said as she read his case report over his shoulder. Bianca had been his partner for the last year or so, and he was glad for it. He had a string of partners before her and the bosses had been threatening him with a transfer if he didn't make his next partner last. Luckily for Harry, or maybe unluckily depending on how you look at it, Bianca was a spitfire and would regularly kick his arse in hand-to-hand practice if he was being a prat. "I'm glad we only had a couple purse snatchers and a pickpocket collared this week. No big cases to make me worry incessantly over the weekend." Bianca patted Harry's shoulder with a grin, "Wanna get in some practice before we leave?"

Harry grunted in reply as he typed up the last bit before saving and shutting down his computer. "It makes for a slow time, but I appreciate that we didn't get anything too serious this week." He gulped when he finally caught up to the last question and hastily stood up, causing Bianca to laugh. "N-no! I don't want to practice!"

Bianca grinned. "That's fine, I really wanted to ask if you want to go out with Kody, Laura and I to celebrate our felony-free week? We were thinking about going to the Ministry."

Harry paled, "What?"

Bianca continued on, not seeing Harry's reaction, "The Ministry of Sound is said to be one of the coolest places to go. Have you been?"

As she elaborated, Harry took the time to calm down and take a few breaths. "N-no. I haven't. I think I'll pass though... I'm meeting with an old school friend and need to get home soon to be there when they arrive."

Bianca sighed as she scrutinized her partner. "Ry, if meeting this friend takes you back to how you were when I first started..." She trailed off, her threat clear.

Harry nodded sheepishly. "I'll text you as soon as I'm done. Maybe meet you and the others at... the Ministry, was it?"

Bianca fixed Harry with a narrowed gaze. "Phone me as soon as you are done. I want to make sure you are alright."

"I will. Now go! Laura is glaring at me for bailing again. Tame the beast and I will phone as soon as I can. Later, love." Harry hugged her, then watched her head out of the building with Laura and Kody. As soon as the door closed behind them, Harry started grabbing his things in a mad dash to get home. He slung his jacket on as he left the building to run to his Parkview flat.

When Ron received the message from Harry, he changed out of his robes and into a pair of jeans and a chocolate colored jumper with a pair of comfortable trainers. He grabbed the file with everything he could get on the suspect and the things done to Erica and apparated over to Harry's from inside his wards directly inside Harry's wards into his living room. He had enough time to get a pot of tea started and get the file sorted on the coffee table when Harry unlocked the front door and stepped in.

"You weren't followed?" Harry asked as he hugged his friend.

"No. I came over directly from mine to yours so no one could trace me." Ron ruffled Harry's hair and smiled tiredly. "I'm sorry, Ry, but I really need your help. You remember Erica? Angie's niece?"

Harry sat on the couch and motioned for Ron to do the same. "Of course. George brought her over on one of my weekends with Teddy. They hit it off. What's wrong with Erica?"

Ron sat down and waved a hand at the parchments spread on the coffee table. "She was attacked. It looks like it may have been a muggle or muggleborn person. There are no traces of magic, besides Erica's latent magic, at the crime scene or on her person."

Harry flinched and started going through the paperwork. He blanched when he saw the ugly bruises marring the caramel toned girl's face in one of the photographs. It was a still frame that he enlarged to view the details of. "No. No way." He dropped the photo and jumped up, digging his mobile out. "I need to have my partner look at these. I think the Butcher may be back in London. Erica is a little lighter than his normal victims which may be why he didn't kill her outright. Is she awake?"

Ron shook his head. "She's in a coma...and not a magically induced one either. She hasn't woken since George found her."

"Where did the attack take place?" Harry typed a short message and sent it to Bianca.

"About a block away from King's Cross. George and Angie were taking photos while Erica was looking at a shop window. Next thing they knew, she was gone. They heard her scream, and several people converged on the alley where the perpetrator had dragged her."

Harry's mobile chimed. He looked at it, nodded and put it back in his pocket. "Bianca;s on the way. Did you get anything from Erica about the attacker?"

Ron stood and started pacing. "The only thing we got was this." He tapped a parchment with his wand. The parchment projected the crime scene above it in vivid detail, including Erica's prone body before she was moved to St Mungo's, allowing the wizards to manipulate it for their purposes. "Eri-" Ron coughed, "Erica was already passed out when she was found. She hasn't woken up at all and they are afraid to get a legilimens in to check her memory. The healers say that it could make her end up in the Janus Thickey Ward if they try."

"Bloody hell, Ron, I'm sorry. I know one Master Legilimens, but he's out of the country."

"So...what exactly is that?" Laura's voice carried over from the door as she, Bianca and Kody walked in and took in the tall redhead pointing a stick at a section of a floating alleyway, making it bigger to view more details.

Harry blanched and Ron trained his wand on the group in the door. "Friends, Harry?"

"Shit." Harry murmured. "Uum. Which part?"

"You mean I have to choose between the pretty floating crime scene, the stick in your friend's hand or the 'Legal-uh-mens' to be confused about?" Incredulity flooded Laura's voice.

Kody snorted. "Harry Evans? Bloody hell. You're Harry Potter! How did I not know this?"

Harry stumbled back a few steps to fall in line with Ron. "Excuse me? What did you just say?"

Ron took a step forward. "Who the fu-"

Kody put his hands up, "Sorry, sorry! I'm childhood friends with Hermione Granger. She told me all about you two. How you-"

Harry's face lost all color as Ron's went red with rage, "How dare you bring up that lying two-faced bi-"

"Ron, it's fine...just...leave it." Harry shook his head. "I don't want to hear about Gr-Granger. I called Bianca to get to the bottom of this." Harry waved his hand at the floating crime scene. "The Butcher is back, but his latest victim...is still alive."

The three non-magicals walked forward to look at the crime scene. "That-that's impossible! He never lets his prey live!" Laura gasped.

"I think the only reason she survived is because she's a witch. A ten year old witch with a powerful magical core that helped to keep her alive. If not for her magic, her case would be in your office instead of mine," Ron spat, still glaring at Kody Harper.

"Then let's work together to nail this bastard. You can kill me later for knowing Hermione. Right now, that little girl is our top priority," Kody responded.

Bianca was looking at the crime scene while Ron and Kody were talking. "Guys! Shut up! I think I found something." She pointed at the sigil carved into Erica's cheek. "Is that... that looks like-"

"No," Laura said. "Brent wouldn't do something like this...would he?"

"That lying, backstabbing, sonofa-" Kody growled. "Get the Captain on the phone, and call everyone that has been working on the Butcher case since it's start two years ago. Anyone that had any contact with the case- medical examiners, forensic scientists, detectives, all of them. He won't get away with this. We will crucify this monster."

Laura and Bianca pulled out their phones and started making calls.

Ron took a closer look at Erica in the crime scene, "Her body was staged. He thought she was dead...he doesn't know that Erica is alive. If she wakes, we can use her testimony to lock him up for good." He glanced at Kody, then turned to Harry. "Do you think I can make a case to get him thrown in Azkaban?"

Harry watched Kody over Ron's shoulder. He watched the color drain from Kody's face. He watched Laura as she quietly questioned Kody on his well-being and Bianca rolled her eyes at the attention Laura was giving him. "I don't know. I think... I'll have to talk to Malfoy."

Ron inhaled sharply, "Are you sure?"

"Not really, but what choice do I have? If it comes from you, he'll just question it. You'll be there to back me up, right?" Harry's voice wavered.

"Of course I'll be there. Whenever you are ready."

Kody, Laura and Bianca watched, eyes wide as Harry grabbed Ron's arm and they disappeared with a loud crack. When they looked around the room, the 3D model of the crime scene had vanished, and they couldn't find the case notes that had been on the table. "Can someone tell me just what the hell just happened?" Bianca groaned as she flopped on the couch.

Kody sighed. "I think we just have to wait for Harry and Ron to get back."

"How do you know about Harry and Ron anyways, Kody?" Laura asked.

"It's a long story," he snapped.

"Not like we're short on time here," Laura snapped back. "We're just going to be sitting here waiting until they get back."

Kody groaned and slumped into the armchair in front of the fireplace. "It really is a long story."

"One I'm sure we all want to hear," The fireplace flashed green and a pretty redheaded female stepped out. "I don't remember ever hearing about you from my brother and his best mate while we were at school."

Laura shrieked and fell backwards, Bianca yawned and Kody glared at the newcomer.

"And you are?" Kody drawled.

"Ginevra Weasley. Sister to Ron and ex-girlfriend of Harry. Best female friend, in the wizarding world at least, of Harry." Ginny's chocolate eyes shifted to Bianca. "B! Did you get the candies I sent you?"

Bianca laughed, "Gin, you're scaring the mundanes. Now we'll have to explain our relationship."

Ginny shrugged and flopped into Bianca's lap. "It's obvious, isn't it?"

Bianca shrugged. "We've got time. We're waiting for Harry and Ron to get back. They went to talk to 'Malfoy'?"

Ginny snarled, "Bloody Malfoy. I should have hexed him when I had the chance."

A loud crack resounded through the room as Ron and Harry popped back in. "You may get your chance, Gin," Harry sneered. "Bloody ponce tried to jinx me when we appeared."

Ron sat down. "Are you going to help us with the case, Gin?"

Ginny nodded, "Erica is a sweet girl. She deserves to have justice. Even with magic, she'll always carry that nasty scar on her face. To think he used a Rune like that on a child!"

"A Rune?" The group asked as one.

"Yeah. Didn't you know? He carved the Rune for Silence over the Rune for Destruction. Erica is lucky to be alive. She will most likely become a squib because of those Runes."

"Bloody hell," Ron cursed. "How can I tell Norma and Derrick that?"

Ginny shifted. "I just study Runes. I'll look and see if I can find a Rune to counteract the ones placed on her, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to find anything."

"Even if you don't find anything, we still appreciate you helping us, Gin." Harry said softly.

"So what's the plan?" Kody demanded of the wizards and witch.

"We wait." Ron grinned wickedly. "A few friends are coming to help us."

TBC