Accusations & Visitors
"Severus, didn't you hear that scream?" Kingsley asks, We should check it out."
"No," Severus says.
"We're not going to find anything here."
"I don't care."
"Stay here if you want Severus but I'm going to make sure everyone else is okay."
As Kingsley heads down the stairway and to the hall. As he walked off the last step he sees that an argument is getting very ugly. From that distance he could clearly see Molly gaining in on Tonks and clearly seeing that this was not going to end good. Kingsley didn't even have to get closer to the scene to hear what they were now saying.
"Where were you? Where were you?" Molly shouted at Tonks.
"I told you I was with Remus!" Tonks venomously said.
"Where? Doing what?" Molly asked.
Remus and Tonks look uncomfortable. Molly begins to circle around them like a hawk until Arthur pulled her back.
"You want to know what we did Molly?" Tonks exclaimed, "You really want to? Then watch this!"
Tonks turns around her hair turns red-orange and she grabs Remus's face and kisses him. This goes on for a minute and then they finally stop shocking both Remus and the rest of the crowd.
"Fine," Molly says, "Then explain why you were walking alone in the hallway. Explain why I found this torn piece of your shirt by the door covered in dried up blood. Explain it all away if you can!"
"Oh, so now I'm the killer?"
"So you're confessing to the murders."
"Unbelievable," Tonks says throwing her hands in the air, "You, Molly, one of the few other people I confide in, think I'm a bloody murderer. I can play the same game and start accusing you of being the murderer! Don't you remember that Dumbledore said that anyone of could be the murderer so for all we know you could be the murderer as well."
"By the way, has anyone heard from Dumbledore recently?" Kingsley asks.
Everyone turns around in shock and shallow gasps. Arthur steps forward and is the one composed enough to speak.
"As far as we know he's still in the ballroom."
"Yes but wouldn't you think that Dumbledore would have called us to him in the room or made something known that he have thought of and would be useful to us," Kingsley says.
"True."
"Then lets go to the ballroom," Remus says aloud.
"What about Sirius?" Molly asks.
"And Severus," Kingsley added.
"Forget them," Remus said, "They can come if they want."
So everyone went and followed Arthur and Kingsley to the ballroom only to find that the door has somehow been locked from the inside. Arthur tries ramming the door down, Kingsley does the same, and on a third try they ram the door together hoping that their combined weight will cause it to open. When that fails Remus barges his way through points his wand at the door and it immediately opens.
They all file into the room and only see one thing lying on the carpet. Everything else looks normal though, everything except...
Dumbledore lying flat on his face with his head turned facing the left wall where the wide window was.
Molly was the one went over to him and laid her head on his chest after checking his wrist for a pulse.
"He's dead," she says.
They all bow their head in silence and mourn this great man. As they find places to sit the take turns commenting about Dumbledore. Kingsley sat in the great armchair, Arthur and Molly on the sofa, Tonks sitting on the sofa opposite the other one and Remus sitting on the arm of the sofa Tonks is on. Some time of this mourning Tonks notices something sticking out from under the sofa. She gets up and kneels down to pull it out.
"Kingsley?" Tonks asks, "Do you think you can get this out?"
Kingsley replies that he can and kneels besides Tonks.
"Do you know what it is," asks Arthur.
"I don't know but I can say that its heavy," Kingsley says, grunting to get the thing out.
Finally Kingsley drags it out and as he holds it in his hand everyone gathers around to see it. No one could stomach it. The again who could handle the sight of a dismembered leg.
Hagrid's leg.
"Someone check to see how Dumbledore was killed," Kingsley ordered, "Maybe he was killed the same way."
Remus does so and gently turns over Dumbledore so that he's facing the five of them. To Remus' surprise, no mark was found on him.
"There's nothing," he says, "Not a mark, not a scratch, nothing."
"The Killing Curse?" says Arthur.
"Could be but seems like it could be something else."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. It just seems to me Avada Kadava wasn't used."
"Where's the rest of the body?"
"Good question Tonks," Kingsley said.
"And there's something else to consider. If the body was carried here from the kitchen and the next moment it disappeared, how did the person get past Dumbledore? How did they get in and out when no one can enter a locked room."
"We also have three other people who are growing more and more suspicious," Arthur added, "Sirius..."
"Mad Eye," says Tonks.
"And Severus," finishes Kingsley.
"Yes but don't forget the weapon," says Molly, "Where's the knife used on Hagrid as well as Kreacher? Then there's the weapon that killed Albus."
"Its most likely in this room," said Remus.
Something catches Molly's eye, something that gave off a little glimmer, and it was near Tonks.
"What's that in you purse Tonks?"
"So now we get back to the accusations," Tonks says annoyed, "Fine! Here take my purse! Take it!"
And she tosses it to Molly. As she catches it something falls out. A bright, shiny, bloodstained knife. Everyone, from Remus to Kingsley stare at Tonks in shock. She tries to defend herself.
"I swear I didn't do it. I didn't kill either Dumbledore or Kreacher!" Tonks explains.
"Then explain the knife in your bag," Arthur says.
"It wasn't there when I last checked! The last time I checked it was right before me and Mad Eye went into the basement and then again when I was with Remus earlier."
"I'm going to ask you again Tonks," said Molly, "Why were you in the hallway alone before you claimed to have met up with Remus?"
"You think I'm lying? Damn it, I was looking for Remus! We agreed to meet up later but I needed to talk to him then!"
"It explains the torn bit of her shirt covered in blood," whispered Arthur to Kingsley.
"God! So you're all against me now," Tonks exclaims as she gets up and walks to the door, "Burn in hell."
And so she leaves and Remus quickly sticks up for her and says:
"Aren't you all forgetting that there are three other people missing now? Aren't you all forgetting that anyone of us could have killed the three victims and all of you are choosing to blame Tonks."
And Remus leaves as well chasing after her into the dining room.
Back in the room everyone begins to split up once more and continue their investigation. Not long though a loud thunder shakes up the whole house and more lightning strikes cause the power to go out once more, perhaps even for the rest of the night. In that loud thunder the faint sound of the doorbell rings then, to those close enough to see it, a familiar bright green light flashes, and an echoing thudding sound of something hitting the floor.
The first ones on the scene was Sirius and Mad Eye.
"Ron," Sirius mouths as he picks up and carries the body to wherever anybody is at.
He shouts for somebody to come here and help him. In just a few moments Arthur hears Sirius and sees the body in his arms.
"Is that...Is that...Ron," choked Arthur.
Solemnly Sirius says yes.
"One of you killed him! Which one of you?" Arthur screamed and made a choking motion with his hands.
"So just because I spent time in Askaban accused of murder makes me the murderer of your son," Sirius retorts.
"I was with him Arthur," Mad Eye says coming up behind Sirius, "He didn't kill your son. Sirius, hand him his son."
So he does and they decide to out his body with Dumbledore's and the leg of Hagrid. Mad Eye told Arthur it was pointless laying Ron that way.
"Dead bodies can't see a dismembered leg," was all he said.
So the three of them exited the room and went in search of Molly. Hearing the news she burst into tears joining her husband's salty ones. Kingsley said that it was a terrible and unnecessary loss when Severus was seen finally coming down the stairs.
"Where have you been?" Kingsley asked.
"Don't try to accuse me Kingsley you're not so innocent either. Nothing's more suspicious than one who doesn't seem it," Severus retorted.
Severus and Remus lock their eyes on the other's and they walk up to each other as if a fight is about to begin.
"Where have you been lurking Snivelus?"
"That's none of your concern. I see Moody is with you, where's his brat of a protege or your wolf of a friend?"
"Lets just say things have been interrupted," Mad Eye says and he leads them to the study not far away.
In the dining room Tonks confides in Remus and tries to wipe her tears and stop anymore from coming.
"I didn't...I didn't kill them," she sobs, "I don't know how it got in there."
"Well we know that no one could have gotten in, "Remus says as he walks to the to the china hutch where all the elegant dishes, glasses, and cutlery were. He opens the drawer of it to see if there's a napkin to dry Tonks' tears, "And whoever is up to this would want to convict the wrong person of this crime."
Tonks nods but she still can't stop the few tears that were falling down.
As Remus gets the drawer open something else comes out besides more dinnerware.
"Tonks," he whispers, "Come here."
"What is it?" Tonks whispers back as she walks over to him.
"This," he says as he points with his hand to the opening drawer.
It opens wider and wider until its about the size of a large rabbit hole.
"A tunnel," she says.
"Lets go."
"Alright."
The tunnel was very dark and very cramped but somehow the managed to both fit in it. Tonks was ahead, with Remus behind her and both their wands were out preparing for whatever was coming.
Slam, went the drawer door.
Both of them gasp and say together, "Lumos."
It was too dark to see what the walls were, what slimy, sticky substance covered them. It was also too dark to tell what the ground was made up of. Was it tile, earth, rocks, what or maybe a combination of them all?
"Where do you think this tunnel will lead us Remus?"
"I don't. At best it will lead us to another clue and we'll have two more clues working in our advantage."
"And worst case scenario this leads to the killer and we're dead."
"Exactly."
Tonks stops and holds out her free hand for Remus; he glad take it and they continue along the tunnel.
"Hagrid probably knew too much or did something he shouldn't have."
"Correct," Remus agreed, "And there are too many reasons for the death of Dumbledore."
"But who do you think among us would want him dead? What's their motive? Who had the time, the opportunity to kill him?"
"Well I think we're about to find out, I think we're coming to a dead end."
The two of them pushed the door open and found what it lead to.
"The ballroom," Tonks said as she stood in on place taking it all in.
Remus kneels by where they just exited. It was the fireplace and it was in a weird position as if it were an opened door. Tonks stands right beside him tapping her fingers on the mantle.
"Hmm. Someone has found another way to travel by fireplace besides the floo network," she says, "Interesting."
"A passageway between the dining room and the ballroom. This is the way the killer has gotten around," Remus says.
"One of them. It probably isn't the only way."
"You looked like your aunt a bit when you made that face."
Which one? The weak one or the mental one who's out to get me?"
"It doesn't matter. We need to tell the others."