After the students had returned from their winter holiday, three students were having a meeting in one of the unused classrooms. "Okay," Elizabeth said, slamming her hands down on the desk in front of her. "We know that Rose was killed by poison, but how was Joyce killed?"
"She fell five stories," Kiara said, "from the girl's bathroom window. Even with the snow, it isn't possible that she could have survived."
"So, she was pushed or she jumped," Helena concluded.
"She didn't jump," Kiara stated flatly. "Not on Christmas, with Catherine waiting for her in the common room. It doesn't make any sense."
"The two don't have anythin' in common, other than bein' first year girls," Elizabeth said, "so why would they be targets? I'm assumin' that if our serial killer's gonna be killin' people, there has ta be somethin' that links them all. There ain't a link between the two victims."
"Maybe the killer is just killing to… kill," Kiara suggested.
"Then that would mean we're dealin' with someone that ain't good up in their head," Elizabeth stated. "An' that could be even worse. At least with a serial killer that has some form of organization usually also has some emotional grudge. Well, at least most of the times."
"But, what if they are actually suicides?" Helena wondered.
"Serial suicides?" Elizabeth asked, raising her eyebrows. "Nope. That's stupid. I've watched A Study In Pink enough times to know that it's never serial suicides." Elizabeth continued to pace and mutter under her breath before she snapped her fingers and smiled. "A Study In Pink! That's it! How could I forget? Our killer could be bein' sponsored!" When the two other girls showed no sign of understanding, Elizabeth sighed. "The killer coulda been paid ta do all of this stuff. People do all kinds of wacko stuff ta get money."
"Like you?" Kiara asked.
"No, not like me," Elizabeth replied. "Black market, illegal importation, an' more illegal stuff ain't considered wacko."
"If the killer is being paid, who's the sponsor?" Helena asked. All of them silenced as the question loomed over.
After a long pause, Elizabeth cut in with, "I don't wanna know. So let's assume our murderer is freelance. They're killin' random young girls and makin' it look like a suicide. From what we can tell, our killer is also really well versed in muggle objects."
"And they stayed over during the Christmas break," Kiara said.
"We could ask Headmistress McGonagall for the list of students that stayed over," Helena suggested.
"That would make us look really suspicious," Elizabeth said, shaking her head. "We can't risk that."
"We could use that memory thing to see who was in the Great Hall during Christmas," Kiara offered.
Elizabeth thought for a moment. "That'd be a good idea," she mused, "but not everyone might be in the Great Hall. There are a load of reasons why someone wouldn't go, whether they were fastin', not hungry, or just not in the mood. The smartest idea, like Helena had said, would be ta get the list of people that stayed at Hogwarts from one of the teachers. We'd have ta lie and come up with a good excuse so we don't look too obvious. Anyway, do ya guys have any idea who we're dealin' with?"
"I would think it's a girl, since both times, the killer struck at a girls only area," Helena said, "but it still could be a boy that disobeyed the rules."
"Probably someone older too, since they seem to know a lot," Kiara continued. "Or at least enough to perfectly cover up their tracks."
Elizabeth took out a sheet of parchment and jotted down everything they had said. "If they had killed Rose," she said, drawing a rough map of the Hufflepuff dorms, "there are several ways the could have escaped. Through the trapdoor, the regular exit, or some other magical means, whether it be portkey or teleportation. Not apparition, since that doesn't work within Hogwarts. They could have cast a Disillusionment Charm, but the cats there would have sniffed them out. So, portkey?"
"That's fifth year and up," Helena said, "Though I have read some theories on it, I'd never try it out."
"And there are a few people I know that are like me, so we can narrow it down to fifth through seventh," Elizabeth claimed. "And they have to be daring enough to go against the Ministry rules. If we can get our hands on the list, we'll gain a significant lead."
Suddenly, the door opened and a Ravenclaw prefect looked in. "What are you-?!" Before he could utter another word, Elizabeth had whipped out her wand and pointed it at him.
"Obliviate!" The prefect's eyes rolled back into his head and he crumpled to the floor. "Well then," she said, nudging the boy with her foot, "we should probably get goin' before anyone else starts lookin' for us. Oh yeah, take this." Elizabeth handed Helena and Kiara both a roll of parchment paper. They opened it up and inside was a script of everything that had just said, along with the date, time, and classroom written at the top.
"It'll turn super cold when I decide another meetin' an' the date will change," Elizabeth explained. "An' it records everything we say. Ye'll only be able to see it if ya say the password, which is 'This is illegal, but I'm doing it anyway.' And don't roll yer eyes at the password, Kiara, because it was the only thing that I knew teachers wouldn't say. To turn it blank again, just say, 'I broke the law and it was fun.' If ya want ta see the past meetings, say, 'How many times have I broken the law?' Fred gave me the idea, when he was mentioning somethin' about a map an' a galleon or somethin'."
"There were tons of other things you could've made the password. Honestly, Elizabeth, I thought you were better than this."
"It's my creation," Elizabeth retorted, "I get to do whatever I want with it. It ain't like you know how ta make this, so ya can shut yer ungrateful little mouth."
"Honestly, with the way you two squabble, it's a wonder you get anything done." Helena muttered, loud enough that they could hear.
"We get plenty done!" Kiara exclaimed, "Elizabeth just likes being an emo idiot so much, that we argue."
"Why are you usin' emo as an insult?" Elizabeth asked, "Being emo is, like, a persona. That I don't have. Weeb is a proper insult. But don't use weeb, since ya don't even know what it means."
Kiara merely shrugged. "One, you are an emo. Two, I don't care."
"There are these times where I think, 'wow, Kiara is decently smart,'" Elizabeth said, "and then there are theses other times where I think, 'wow, Kiara is ridiculously irrational and doesn't know half of the things she's sayin'.' This would be one of those times. Especially since ya listen to alternative rock yerself, which falls under 'emo.'"
"Woah! You think I'm smart!?" Kiara asked, ignoring the last parts, and grinning cheekily "I am so honored, I didn't know you thought that about me."
"No, actually, I just think yer annoyin' most of the times. Like…" Elizabeth paused for a moment, thinking. "Yer like the impersonation of when yer browser is loadin' and just as ya hit the exit, it boots up, an' ya spend the next ten minutes wonderin' what yer doin' with yer life."
"And yet, you still hang around," Kiara pointed out, smirking, "You wouldn't do that unless you liked me."
"Yeah, I am startin' to question my morals," Elizabeth replied. "I should start talkin' to people that're actually in my grade. I heard Lilith was single. Maybe I should ask her ta coffee sometime. But I figured she probably liked Arina instead, so maybe we'd just be friends. But honestly, like, the one lesbian in Slytherin an' she's got hots for someone else."
"You're a lesbian?" Kiara asked, looking confused, "Weren't you just talking about some boy the other day? Benedril Cucumber or something?"
"Nah, I ship Ben with Martin Freeman," Elizabeth said, waving her hand. "And, no, I'm not lesbian, I'm panromantic."
Helena looked between them, confused, "What? You guys were just yelling at each other and now, you're talking about pans? You have a pretty confusing friendship."
"If ye could call it a 'friendship,'" Elizabeth scoffed. "It's more like… See, Kiara doesn't have, like, any friends aside from me in Slytherin. So I, bein' the sympathetic an' nice person I am, take it ta me and I talk ta her. I could probably find a better partner in crime, though, since she's an awful sidekick."
Kiara didn't seem particularly offended, though she did retort with a, "Ok, first of all, you're the sidekick. Second of all, the only reason I don't have any other friends in Slytherin is the fact that I don't like anyone in it. Take Natalia for example, she's horrid. I was rather astonished that our house had such bad members."
"I actually quite like Nat," Elizabeth quipped. "She's got a super philosophical view on life an' when she talks about the deeper meanin' of beein' alive, ya kinda just get sucked in an' yer mind gets blown. She talked about how everythin' around us was a hallucination this one time, and Jesus, I was questionin' myself for weeks. An' Florence makes the best dick jokes in the century. Her an' Nolan, who makes innuendos for a livin', make the best duo in terms of sex jokes."
"You know, Kiara," Helena started, "I think if you were a little bit nicer-" She didn't finish her thought, instead covering her ears and whining at the sound of the, as she called them, D and S words.
"Jesus was never reborn, he was a real person, but never reborn, first off." Kiara started, "And second, don't use those words. There are innocent minds here!" Kiara said, patting Helena on the shoulder.
"Dick an' sex?" Elizabeth repeated, shooting the two a questioning glance. "What? They're that bad? That wipes out over half of my vocabulary. And ya don't gotta go all religious mojo on me. I wasn't, like, goin' against religion or whatever."
"Well, you said something about Jesus and my Jewish mind immediately went, 'nope,'" Kiara huffed. "And yes, don't curse in front of Helena. She's too precious."
"What the hell happened ta our conversation?" Elizabeth asked aloud. Suddenly, she froze and patted the inside of her pockets. "Shit, one of my deliveries just came in. See y'all later." And with that, Elizabeth left.
"Shipments?" Helena asked aloud.
"You don't need to know," Kiara stated.
A week or so later, Helena sat in History of Magic, listening with fascination as Professor Binns droned on and on about the witch revolt in the early first century. Out of the blue, she let out a slight yelp. Everyone in the classroom turned towards her, confusion on half of their faces. "Uh- um, there's a wasp!" she said hurriedly, pointing towards the window.
Liz didn't say it was this cold! Helena thought, shivering slightly. I feel like the arctic tundra is growing in my pocket! When no one was focused on her anymore and continuing to fall asleep during the professor's lecture, Helena took out the ice cold sheet of parchment and unfolded it. "This is illegal," she whispered, "but I'm doing it anyway." In elegant calligraphy, the words Tonight, 22 o'clock, the Kitchens wrote itself across the top. Right under it, in hastily scrawled cursive, were the words:
Elizabeth: Helena, there's a hidden trapdoor next to the big sunflower rug. Kiara, just wait for me in the common room.
Elizabeth: I got my hands on the list.
Hours later, Kiara sat in the common room, arms crossed and sitting on the couch, long after everyone had gone to sleep. "What's taking her so long?"
"I got caught up with some business." Kiara whipped her head around and saw Elizabeth shrugging off a winter coat and snapping her fingers, causing it to vanish. "What?" she asked, "Yer lookin' at me funny."
"I'm not sure which is more surprising," Kiara said, "the fact that you're dressed up in muggle attire to do 'business' or that you just did wandless and nonverbal magic. Or if it's surprising at all, considering it's you."
"I'm a smart cookie," Elizabeth laughed, making her way over to the fire place. "I'm know a lot." She pushed the wall a bit and, much to Kiara's surprise, the wall began to turn, like a revolving door, revealing a set of stairs on the other side. "Leads ta the outside of the kitchens," Elizabeth explained. "Found it last year when I was floo talkin' ta my brother in my first year." Elizabeth took out her wand and the tip light up. The two ventured down the stairwell, with Elizabeth leading the way. After a few minutes of walking, Elizabeth tapped her wand on Kiara's head to cast a Disillusionment Charm. Kiara felt as if someone had cracked a head on top of her head and the whites covered her whole body. All in all, not an experience she would want to go through again. Elizabeth pushed open a fake wall before pointing her wand at herself and disappearing too. The two made their way to the painting of the fruits before entering the kitchens
"Hey!" Helena said, waving as she bit into a manchester tart. "So, you got the list of students that stayed during Christmas?"
"McGee's got awful security," Elizabeth stated, pulling out a sheet of parchment and laying it on the table, "Fontaine's was two times harder ta break into, and he found out a few hours later and gave me an award for being the first since he became principal. Oi, Quincy, can ya get me a coffee?" After Elizabeth had got a steaming mug of caffeine, she began to read the list. "Marceline LeBlanc. That's Isla's friend, one of the Ravenclaw prefects. She's innocent. Max Walterson. Anyone know him?"
"He's a Hufflepuff," Helena said. "One of the older ones. He's really nice and he bakes cookies in Muggle Studies for all of us."
"Okay, we'll mark him as innocent. Maybelle Cooper?"
"She's a Ravenclaw in Lauren's year," Kiara said. "They're friends."
"Probably innocent as well, with that kind of name. Rex McGovern?"
"He's a really rude Gryffindor, but I don't think he'd kill anyone," Helena said.
"I'm gonna put him down as maybe. But probably not, since that would mean he killed one of his own. Cain Sullivan. I know him, an' he doesn't know bat shit about no-maj stuff, though he's smart."
"Don't say that word," Helena protested.
They continued to go through all of the names and marking which ones they thought were innocent. "Mary Knight?"
"I have no idea who that is," Kiara admitted.
"Neither do I," Helena agreed.
"Okay, she's maybe. Do any of ya guys know Chelsea Mason?"
"Nope."
"I might have seen her," Helena muttered.
"I feel like I've seen her at some point in the hallways," Elizabeth mused. "We'll mark her as maybe too. Michael Duncanson?"
"Innocent," Helena said immediately. "There's no way he'd murder someone."
"I haven't watched that many movies," Kiara asked, almost to herself, "but aren't the so called 'innocent ones' always the murders?"
Helena shook her head. "That's a movie trope. Besides, I'm sure Michael would never kill anyone."
"In theory," Elizabeth mused, "that could technically be true. Facades can easily fool, trust can easily be broken. However, like Helena said, it is a heavily used movie trope, since surprises are meant ta shock the audience. If we finish investigatin' all of the 'non innocent' ones, we can move on ta the safe people an' take a look at them. But if we suspect these people more, it'll be safer ta check them before the others. In my mind, at least."
"Also, how exactly are we going to investigate these people?" Kiara asked. "None of them are in first year, and we can't exactly follow anyone around, to see if they're secretly murders."
"I guess that would be where my power falls inta place," Elizabeth shrugged. "I've got peeps in high places that'll be completely willin' to help. All else fails, there are certain ways ta watch their movements from afar, or ta subtly sneak them inta conversations without givin' too much away."
"Unfortunately, subtlety is not my strong point," Kiara pointed out, "I'll figure something out though," She paused, "Hopefully."
The three stayed up until midnight working on the list. There were an abundance of older students that had stayed over, majority of which they didn't know. Most of the people, they deemed innocent, but the rest were all unclear. However, there wasn't a single name where they were absolutely sure that they were the killer. With almost no leads, the three parted their ways, Helena through the trapdoor and Kiara and Elizabeth back through the stairwell.
The next few days went past with no particularly interesting or notable events. Without a certain Hufflepuff to spectacularly fail in each one of the classes, the subjects became dull and repetitive. Each night, the three would meet somewhere new to discuss the case, but didn't manage to get any leads.
One night, Kiara was having a rather calming sleep, lulled into the bizarre land of her dreams. She was walking along the side of the River Thames, the city noises around her like the voice of the teacher from Charlie Brown. Suddenly, it began to rain, but instead of the normal clear droplets of water, the rain was an odd shade of bright purple, gathering in little clumps on the streets. Her dream began to fade, turning hazy until a blurry humanoid shape replaced it and continuously said something that she couldn't understand. The voice was muffled and oddly contorted, like the person was speaking underwater. Kiara looked at the odd shape, furrowing her eyebrows. What's it trying to say? she thought. Sand… dances… bowling tonight? Now that she thought about it, the person in her dream vaguely resembled Rose-
A loud BANG tore through the air, jolting Kiara awake and scaring the wits out of her. Immediately after that was incoherent screaming from upstairs. In a dazed confusion, Kiara padded her way up to the older girls' dormitories and reached the third year room, the door ajar. She pushed her way open and immediately wished she hadn't.
Mortified students were the first thing Kiara saw. Blood was the second. Then, she saw the girl lying on the floor with an old model of a handgun pointed at her head.
Elizabeth.
(Author's Notes)
Dear Reader-
Ho shit man. I killed off my favourite character just because I thought she was being to useful. I am one evil person. I'm also super glad Lupus and I wrote chapters in advance, since we've basically given up drying to write the next scene and we've taken a week long break. If you're reading this and you're super good at writing action sequences, PM us. We need help. (If I like you a lot and you're a registered beta, I'll make you the official beta reader!) Also, happy late Thanksgiving!
I've been listening to an awful lot of indie-pop this week. I like "Medusa" by Kailee Morgue and "COPYCAT" by Billie Eilish. (I also have Blood/Water by grandson stuck in my head)
-Luna
(P.S. I'm soo sorry this is like a week late. Lupus had problems.)
