Chapter 8
Of all my options, Miss. Chang was the one I had the best access to.
At present, she was with her family, sturggling to deal with what had happened to her. I could look at the documents made during her interview, photos of her body (I know! She isn't dead, but the photos are essential) samples of clothing.
Due to the fact that it is so cool, the dungeons are the best places to situate the freezers and forensic evidence. Severus had to guide me to them and as he unlocked the door to Dungeon #6, I began to wonder why he would want to teach in a place like this; not only was it dark and chilly, it was also damp and musty.
"Do you think McGonagall could have played a part in these?" I asked Severus once we had stepped inside the dungeon. "Although you haven't told me how she came across Cho Chang...." I stopped for a moment before suddenly another thought came to my head. "And why had the murderer just left her? Wouldn't he have finished her off straight away so that no evidence could be brought up against him...?"
"Ah, well, at least *one* person thinks along the same lines as me," Sev shrugged. "McGonagall, however, seems so unlikely, that..."
"You're going to give up on prosecuting her?"
"Isaac, stop putting words in my mouth! When will you ever just listen to me and what I have to say!" He glared at me. "It really is very annoying."
"I'm sorry," I replied honestly.
"Good." He sighed. "Well, let me show you the robes as worn by Miss. Chang on that same night:" from a dark case, he took out a simple black robe. The case steamed as he opened it. "Voila."
"She was in her school robes?" I asked.
"Now here's the funny thing," he began, still in that sarcastic tone, as if the whole case were a student who was no better than it ought to be, "they all were. Every single one of them, the robes were either ont he person or underneath, or over. As in covering them."
He began to count off his fingers, "Crabbe - wearing his robes; Creevey - on top of his robes despite the fact that he was in his pyjamas; The Patil twins - also lying on their robes; Each of the Ravenclaws - covered by their robes-" (I found it quite sad that even Severus didn't know their names off by head. It's quite depressing) "-yes, if I were your average quack, I would say that our murderer had something against the school in general. Although, on that subject, none of the Hufflepuffs have been targeted."
"We could investigate the older Hufflepuff students," I remarked seriously.
"Yeeees, it has crossed my mind.... briefly though."
"Well," I sighed, "Let's have a look at this cloak...-"
"*And*," Severustook out several test tubes from the case as well, "everything we've collected off the goddamn thing."
I had expected a ripped item of clothing, you know, your typical victim's article. All mangled or something. However, apart from the usual wear and tear, it was very well kept and had been cleaned and sterilised, every hair and tissue and alien fibre picked off it.
There wasn't, in truth much to look at.
So we turned our attention to the test tubes.
In several, were cat hairs. Two tabbies, a ginger and tortoise shell. One contained some of Miss. Chang's own hairs (cleaned and with no traces of blood or any other bodily fluid), another with what had been loosely identified as semen (McGonagall's accomplice? Sev gave me an exasperated look when he saw my face and snapped, "We don't even know if she had anything to do with it, Isaac.") and four tubes containing several other human hairs.
"Brunette, *dark* brunette," I breathed.
"*Or* brunet." Severus shrugged impatiently.
Bastard.
"Let's take a look of the photos then," I replied. Severus nodded.
These had been taken during a drug induced sleep (Can you imagine asking a possible muder victim to just stand over there in the corner, please and let us take a few pictures of you...). Like the other shots, you got the feeling that the person was not quite of this world. That a sort of... sheen was between them and this life. That they weren't part of the picture. Like they were disappearing...
"Now you'll *have* to tell me what you're seeing."
I turned to see a grinning Severus.
"What?"
"The photos... just *tell* me, for fuck's sake. What you notice about the pictures.... Any unusual thing... effect..." He leaned closer to me, his breath causing the hairs at the back of my neck to creep. "Anything," he whispered sensuously. I could feel his lips so close to my ear and his hand was very gently moving over mine.
"I-I-It's like... like the p-person isn't there.. I-I I mean, not quite... part of it..." I managed to stutter.
He moved away and became matter of fact again.
"Thank you." He examined the pictures again, seemingly nonchalent. "I must say, I found that intriguing about the pictures myself. It's very odd." He frowned.
"Yes."
He grinned roguishly again. "I'm sorry about that Isaac... did I scare you?"
"Shut up. Now these other victims, who found them?"
"Miss. Chang was discovered outside the library at 11:56 pm by a kitchen bound Professor McGonagall who was on her way to get some hot chocolate... for her insomnia, you understand."
I raised my eyebrows. Severus looked at me and added, "Oh no, she really is an insomniac. Practically never gets any sleep." He ran a hand through his hair. "I can't count how many potions I've made to help her, since I was in my fifth year: too many times."
"Oh, man." I sighed. "We have hairs, personal fluids.... no trace,... why?"
"We can identify them as human but," Severus frowned, "Nothing else comes up. It's like a complete blank.
"It's the same for the other victims: You know that Creevey was found in his bed, the hangings drawn. Crabbe was discovered in the snow by Hagrid; he had lain there for approximately a week, as he was discovered nine days after the announcement of his disappearance. The murderer may have already killed him, felt it too risky to just leave him and dumped him maybe a day after. The tests show he was in the snow for six days...
"Now the Patil tiwns.... *they* were found a little way off from the library, by Flitwick in the early hours of the evening on a Saturday, so I wasn't there. Soon after dinner, I believe. Zabini Blaise - the first one to be killed - found *in* the library by none other than the librarian, Madam Pince."
"What about the Ravenclaws?" I asked.
"Found in the library as well. Each lying horizontally parralel to the gates of the restricted section."
We stood there, in the silent gloom for a while. In Chronological order, it went: Blaise, the Ravenclaws, the Patil twins, Crabbe and Creevey with Miss. Chang the very last. The muders seemed to be orientated around the library, except for Creevey and perhaps Crabbe. It seemed as if the muderer not only had connections with Dragonsalt dealers, but also with Dark Magic.
"Do you think we'd be able to have a look at the locations where each body was found?" I asked.
"Oh yes," he replied sarcastically, "and a damn lot of good that'll do. Any evidence would have been spread round the school by now with all the students running around the place."
"Fuck it," I muttered.
* * *
As we made our way to the library entrance, I flicked through the transcript of McGonagall's given interview. If she was guilty, she had done very well to cover up her tracks. However, despite the fact she was a likely candidate, I began to doubt whether she did do it.
There was Flitwick's as well, but I had never truly suspected the tiny man of doing it. As illogical as it is, you just have a feeling. Severus agreed with me too, so it couldn't have been *that* illogical.
"Now then," Severus began, twisting some knobs on a camera and clicking something. "This camera... well, think of it as an infra-red camera, only with magic. It's particularly sensitive to AntyChrophsyllia - the substance that appears in the air when magic has been done. This way, we can identify what sort of magic has been practised: as you know, Dark Maegick takes a different amount of energy to what we normally associate with Light Maegick and even if the differences aren't as obvious, the AntyChrophsyllia will lead us on a trace."
I nodded. Some of the students were looking our way. Eventually Severus growled, "Stay away from here or fifty points wil be taken away automatically from each house for every minute you linger."
They hastened away. You've got to admit, Sev *does* have a way with kids.
"There," he gestured towards the actual entrance of the library, "is where we found a cloak covered in what we thought to be blood. Again, we couldn't trace it." He took a few shots of the outer doors and the hallway. I chipped off a few pieces of the wooden panelling.
Holding me by my wrist, he led me into the library. First, he led me to the restricted section and took a few shots of the doors. "They were closed when each was found," he gestured to the markings on the floor by the doors. "And bizarrely enough, each one was placed in exactly the same way, head to toe placemenat, even their hairstyles were the same; Mary Basaigner keeps hers always down, but when she was found, her hair was in an elegant plaited bun, the same for the following two, LeAnne Ryman and Helga Brunt."
On taking out a very small, plastic bag I placed a few samples of the wood and the carpet.
"I've got a few samples myself but I haven't had the chance to look at," he said. "Come now, I'll show you where Blaise was found."
We walked onwards from the restricted section to the Eastern side of the regular library. Severus stopped at a corner that on one side was filled with books about...
"...Erhum, Kites and their Magical Uses by T. Edyos." I glanced at Severus who was smirking slightly.
"If you keep on looking, you'll find more," he said helpfully.
"Oh, God... Forecasting methods and Kites.... Divination and Kites... An Olde Historie of Kytes.... How to Fly a Kite... Kites and their Magical Uses.... Interpretating the Mundane using Kites... Oh holy fuck," I muttered. "Men who loved Kites too much?"
Severus began to cackle.
"*Anyway*, Isaac," he said, obviously trying not to smile, "There isn't much you can take note of here, I'll just take a few pictures-" he altered the setting as in this corner, it was much darker "-and we'll move on outside where the Patil twins were discovered."
I followed, still pondering about the fact that something as grotesque as a muder in the fashion it was committed could have been carried out in a section of the library devoted to none other than Kites.
Hogwarts.
We bumped into Miss. Granger on our way out and she smiled politely at me. I smiled back, but Severus just ignored her. Well, what did you expect?
Anyway, we only had to walk a few feet before Severus stopped. "There, right against that cache in the wall." At this, I looked at it. Two people couldn't lie alongside one another in the limited space. Severus saw my face and said, "They were... in a standing position. Floating slightly."
"Normal magic?"
"Yes." A few extra shots.
"Well, something we recognise. Should we get a few more pictures of this corridor, in case we find the place Crabbe was killed.... if he was killed around the library, like the others *apart* from Creevey..."
"Which gives arise to another dilemma," Severus sighed. "Only a Gryfindor would know the password to their chambers. So rather than looking closely at the older Hufflepuffs, we could concentrate ont he Gryffindors. We can't say no to the possibilty of an internal argument amongst members of a certain house. Though extremely patrotic Hufflepuffs *may* have an excuse..."
Yes, Severus had told me about the Triwizard cup that had taken place and how Harry Potter had been selected (illgally) as one of the school champions, up against the other champion, a Hufflepuff named Cedric Diggory, the legal champion who ended up dead, killed by Voldemort.
Anyway, Severus complied and did take a few pictures of the corridor, as well as different close ups of suspected areas.
*
I had yet to see a Quidditch match take place at Hogwarts. From the courtyard - at the Eastern corner - you can see the tops of the stadium towers.
We crossed the courtyard and towards the Greenhouses. Severus stopped and pointed at a certain, rectangular area that had been closed off by an iron fence. Crabbe had been found here. I couldn't help smiling slightly. "Stop it, Isaac," Sev grinned in return.
*
Okay, Merry Christmas to you all! Thank you for reading! This chapter took me ages (kinda weird for one so short) for some reason, so enjoy! Thank you so much for bothering to review, and for those of you that haven't, you suck!
Yay!
Of all my options, Miss. Chang was the one I had the best access to.
At present, she was with her family, sturggling to deal with what had happened to her. I could look at the documents made during her interview, photos of her body (I know! She isn't dead, but the photos are essential) samples of clothing.
Due to the fact that it is so cool, the dungeons are the best places to situate the freezers and forensic evidence. Severus had to guide me to them and as he unlocked the door to Dungeon #6, I began to wonder why he would want to teach in a place like this; not only was it dark and chilly, it was also damp and musty.
"Do you think McGonagall could have played a part in these?" I asked Severus once we had stepped inside the dungeon. "Although you haven't told me how she came across Cho Chang...." I stopped for a moment before suddenly another thought came to my head. "And why had the murderer just left her? Wouldn't he have finished her off straight away so that no evidence could be brought up against him...?"
"Ah, well, at least *one* person thinks along the same lines as me," Sev shrugged. "McGonagall, however, seems so unlikely, that..."
"You're going to give up on prosecuting her?"
"Isaac, stop putting words in my mouth! When will you ever just listen to me and what I have to say!" He glared at me. "It really is very annoying."
"I'm sorry," I replied honestly.
"Good." He sighed. "Well, let me show you the robes as worn by Miss. Chang on that same night:" from a dark case, he took out a simple black robe. The case steamed as he opened it. "Voila."
"She was in her school robes?" I asked.
"Now here's the funny thing," he began, still in that sarcastic tone, as if the whole case were a student who was no better than it ought to be, "they all were. Every single one of them, the robes were either ont he person or underneath, or over. As in covering them."
He began to count off his fingers, "Crabbe - wearing his robes; Creevey - on top of his robes despite the fact that he was in his pyjamas; The Patil twins - also lying on their robes; Each of the Ravenclaws - covered by their robes-" (I found it quite sad that even Severus didn't know their names off by head. It's quite depressing) "-yes, if I were your average quack, I would say that our murderer had something against the school in general. Although, on that subject, none of the Hufflepuffs have been targeted."
"We could investigate the older Hufflepuff students," I remarked seriously.
"Yeeees, it has crossed my mind.... briefly though."
"Well," I sighed, "Let's have a look at this cloak...-"
"*And*," Severustook out several test tubes from the case as well, "everything we've collected off the goddamn thing."
I had expected a ripped item of clothing, you know, your typical victim's article. All mangled or something. However, apart from the usual wear and tear, it was very well kept and had been cleaned and sterilised, every hair and tissue and alien fibre picked off it.
There wasn't, in truth much to look at.
So we turned our attention to the test tubes.
In several, were cat hairs. Two tabbies, a ginger and tortoise shell. One contained some of Miss. Chang's own hairs (cleaned and with no traces of blood or any other bodily fluid), another with what had been loosely identified as semen (McGonagall's accomplice? Sev gave me an exasperated look when he saw my face and snapped, "We don't even know if she had anything to do with it, Isaac.") and four tubes containing several other human hairs.
"Brunette, *dark* brunette," I breathed.
"*Or* brunet." Severus shrugged impatiently.
Bastard.
"Let's take a look of the photos then," I replied. Severus nodded.
These had been taken during a drug induced sleep (Can you imagine asking a possible muder victim to just stand over there in the corner, please and let us take a few pictures of you...). Like the other shots, you got the feeling that the person was not quite of this world. That a sort of... sheen was between them and this life. That they weren't part of the picture. Like they were disappearing...
"Now you'll *have* to tell me what you're seeing."
I turned to see a grinning Severus.
"What?"
"The photos... just *tell* me, for fuck's sake. What you notice about the pictures.... Any unusual thing... effect..." He leaned closer to me, his breath causing the hairs at the back of my neck to creep. "Anything," he whispered sensuously. I could feel his lips so close to my ear and his hand was very gently moving over mine.
"I-I-It's like... like the p-person isn't there.. I-I I mean, not quite... part of it..." I managed to stutter.
He moved away and became matter of fact again.
"Thank you." He examined the pictures again, seemingly nonchalent. "I must say, I found that intriguing about the pictures myself. It's very odd." He frowned.
"Yes."
He grinned roguishly again. "I'm sorry about that Isaac... did I scare you?"
"Shut up. Now these other victims, who found them?"
"Miss. Chang was discovered outside the library at 11:56 pm by a kitchen bound Professor McGonagall who was on her way to get some hot chocolate... for her insomnia, you understand."
I raised my eyebrows. Severus looked at me and added, "Oh no, she really is an insomniac. Practically never gets any sleep." He ran a hand through his hair. "I can't count how many potions I've made to help her, since I was in my fifth year: too many times."
"Oh, man." I sighed. "We have hairs, personal fluids.... no trace,... why?"
"We can identify them as human but," Severus frowned, "Nothing else comes up. It's like a complete blank.
"It's the same for the other victims: You know that Creevey was found in his bed, the hangings drawn. Crabbe was discovered in the snow by Hagrid; he had lain there for approximately a week, as he was discovered nine days after the announcement of his disappearance. The murderer may have already killed him, felt it too risky to just leave him and dumped him maybe a day after. The tests show he was in the snow for six days...
"Now the Patil tiwns.... *they* were found a little way off from the library, by Flitwick in the early hours of the evening on a Saturday, so I wasn't there. Soon after dinner, I believe. Zabini Blaise - the first one to be killed - found *in* the library by none other than the librarian, Madam Pince."
"What about the Ravenclaws?" I asked.
"Found in the library as well. Each lying horizontally parralel to the gates of the restricted section."
We stood there, in the silent gloom for a while. In Chronological order, it went: Blaise, the Ravenclaws, the Patil twins, Crabbe and Creevey with Miss. Chang the very last. The muders seemed to be orientated around the library, except for Creevey and perhaps Crabbe. It seemed as if the muderer not only had connections with Dragonsalt dealers, but also with Dark Magic.
"Do you think we'd be able to have a look at the locations where each body was found?" I asked.
"Oh yes," he replied sarcastically, "and a damn lot of good that'll do. Any evidence would have been spread round the school by now with all the students running around the place."
"Fuck it," I muttered.
* * *
As we made our way to the library entrance, I flicked through the transcript of McGonagall's given interview. If she was guilty, she had done very well to cover up her tracks. However, despite the fact she was a likely candidate, I began to doubt whether she did do it.
There was Flitwick's as well, but I had never truly suspected the tiny man of doing it. As illogical as it is, you just have a feeling. Severus agreed with me too, so it couldn't have been *that* illogical.
"Now then," Severus began, twisting some knobs on a camera and clicking something. "This camera... well, think of it as an infra-red camera, only with magic. It's particularly sensitive to AntyChrophsyllia - the substance that appears in the air when magic has been done. This way, we can identify what sort of magic has been practised: as you know, Dark Maegick takes a different amount of energy to what we normally associate with Light Maegick and even if the differences aren't as obvious, the AntyChrophsyllia will lead us on a trace."
I nodded. Some of the students were looking our way. Eventually Severus growled, "Stay away from here or fifty points wil be taken away automatically from each house for every minute you linger."
They hastened away. You've got to admit, Sev *does* have a way with kids.
"There," he gestured towards the actual entrance of the library, "is where we found a cloak covered in what we thought to be blood. Again, we couldn't trace it." He took a few shots of the outer doors and the hallway. I chipped off a few pieces of the wooden panelling.
Holding me by my wrist, he led me into the library. First, he led me to the restricted section and took a few shots of the doors. "They were closed when each was found," he gestured to the markings on the floor by the doors. "And bizarrely enough, each one was placed in exactly the same way, head to toe placemenat, even their hairstyles were the same; Mary Basaigner keeps hers always down, but when she was found, her hair was in an elegant plaited bun, the same for the following two, LeAnne Ryman and Helga Brunt."
On taking out a very small, plastic bag I placed a few samples of the wood and the carpet.
"I've got a few samples myself but I haven't had the chance to look at," he said. "Come now, I'll show you where Blaise was found."
We walked onwards from the restricted section to the Eastern side of the regular library. Severus stopped at a corner that on one side was filled with books about...
"...Erhum, Kites and their Magical Uses by T. Edyos." I glanced at Severus who was smirking slightly.
"If you keep on looking, you'll find more," he said helpfully.
"Oh, God... Forecasting methods and Kites.... Divination and Kites... An Olde Historie of Kytes.... How to Fly a Kite... Kites and their Magical Uses.... Interpretating the Mundane using Kites... Oh holy fuck," I muttered. "Men who loved Kites too much?"
Severus began to cackle.
"*Anyway*, Isaac," he said, obviously trying not to smile, "There isn't much you can take note of here, I'll just take a few pictures-" he altered the setting as in this corner, it was much darker "-and we'll move on outside where the Patil twins were discovered."
I followed, still pondering about the fact that something as grotesque as a muder in the fashion it was committed could have been carried out in a section of the library devoted to none other than Kites.
Hogwarts.
We bumped into Miss. Granger on our way out and she smiled politely at me. I smiled back, but Severus just ignored her. Well, what did you expect?
Anyway, we only had to walk a few feet before Severus stopped. "There, right against that cache in the wall." At this, I looked at it. Two people couldn't lie alongside one another in the limited space. Severus saw my face and said, "They were... in a standing position. Floating slightly."
"Normal magic?"
"Yes." A few extra shots.
"Well, something we recognise. Should we get a few more pictures of this corridor, in case we find the place Crabbe was killed.... if he was killed around the library, like the others *apart* from Creevey..."
"Which gives arise to another dilemma," Severus sighed. "Only a Gryfindor would know the password to their chambers. So rather than looking closely at the older Hufflepuffs, we could concentrate ont he Gryffindors. We can't say no to the possibilty of an internal argument amongst members of a certain house. Though extremely patrotic Hufflepuffs *may* have an excuse..."
Yes, Severus had told me about the Triwizard cup that had taken place and how Harry Potter had been selected (illgally) as one of the school champions, up against the other champion, a Hufflepuff named Cedric Diggory, the legal champion who ended up dead, killed by Voldemort.
Anyway, Severus complied and did take a few pictures of the corridor, as well as different close ups of suspected areas.
*
I had yet to see a Quidditch match take place at Hogwarts. From the courtyard - at the Eastern corner - you can see the tops of the stadium towers.
We crossed the courtyard and towards the Greenhouses. Severus stopped and pointed at a certain, rectangular area that had been closed off by an iron fence. Crabbe had been found here. I couldn't help smiling slightly. "Stop it, Isaac," Sev grinned in return.
*
Okay, Merry Christmas to you all! Thank you for reading! This chapter took me ages (kinda weird for one so short) for some reason, so enjoy! Thank you so much for bothering to review, and for those of you that haven't, you suck!
Yay!
