When Kiara opened her eyes again, she found that she was in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express. What the hell? she thought, staring at her surroundings in confusion. She tried to move around, but an invisible barrier held her down, only allowing her to move her head. Then, the compartment door opened, and Rose and Elizabeth walked in, both with cats in their arms.

Kiara nearly jumped out of her clothes when a loud, familiar American and slightly Irish voice started narrating the scene. What surprised her even more was that it wasn't coming from the outside, but rather from Kiara's head. "Journal," Elizabeth said in her usual tone of voice, "Hey, it's me. Elizabeth. I sound stupid already. But I managed to buy you at a flea market and work some magic on you so that you can replay everything I write as a memory. Rose gave me the idea to work with pensieve, and I just tweaked her idea a bit so it would create this. Now, yeah, I know this is totally illegal, but I honestly don't give a fuck anymore. I also managed to store some old memories here, all the way from when I still went to Ilvermorny. Cool, eh? Anyway, I met these two girls on the train ride. Their names are Kiara and Naomi."

Kiara watched in awe as the train scene replayed itself around her, with Elizabeth narrating in the background. All of them introduced themselves, played the wizard equivalent of Bean Boozled, and fought off Nadia, all while Elizabeth's awful jokes and sarcastic jabs were in the background. Oh my god, Kiara thought, If I need to hear one more of these jokes I'm going to kill a man. She watched some more, until she caught her name, "And that Kiara girl, I know she's going to be a Slytherin. Just like how I know Rose is going to be a Hufflepuff. It's like a sixth sense. Maybe Kiara could help me work with more illegal shit." Kiara smiled at that statement, seeing as, in reality, that had come true. "Nothing much happened today. I offered this Gryffindor girl a chance to use the RoR for wifi and stuff. That's about it. Signing off, Liz."

The next day that played appeared to be later in the year, seeing as the trees had begun to wilt slightly. Through the windows, Kiara could see the sun begin to sink beneath the horizon. When she looked around, Kiara saw Elizabeth glancing around as she walked hurriedly through the halls. Her figure was ghostly, so faint that it looked as if she weren't there in the first place. Kiara was dragged along with her as she winded around through corridors Kiara didn't even realised existed. Elizabeth finally confronted a painting of a witch with shackles around her wrists, sitting in a cell. Perhaps if Kiara had paid more attention in Professor Binns' class, she would've known what the painting was depicting, but Kiara was completely clueless. Elizabeth tapped the painting in an intricate pattern before swinging it open and climbing through.

"Journal; Today was the night I met up with Ethan. He managed to get his hands on everything I need for the deals, and we decided to split the money. It's a good deal. I found an abandoned sitting room with vintage furniture and a lovely fireplace. It's behind a Pendle Hill Witches Trial painting, and you just have to tap out the syllables of the founders in each of the corners. I might use it for something else in the future, but probably not. I like it and I want to be the only one to know about it. That way, I can use it for myself. I tidied it up a bit and I figured it be a good place to use as our meeting area. Smart, yeah?"

On the other side was a dark room without a single person inside. Elizabeth clapped her hands and every torch in the room suddenly burst into flames, lighting up the entire room. The elegant couches were arranged around a white wood coffee table with intricate gold designs. The fireplace had a roaring flame, comfortably heating the room. Elizabeth sat down at a loveseat, lounging and taking up the entire couch in an arrogant manner. Suddenly, the fire in the fireplace turned green and a boy wearing the typical blue and red Ilvermorny robes stepped out holding a bulky bag. Kiara squinted at him, trying to figure out who he could be. Oh! she finally remembered, That must be Ethan.

"Nice place," the boy, Ethan, commented.

"Obviously," Elizabeth scoffed. "Now, you got the stuff?"

"Yeah." He dumped all of the contents of the bag onto the coffee table; boxes, more bags, and a few printed out pictures. Some of the pictures had blocky white text and others had captions above them

"Wow," Elizabeth marveled, picking up one of the pictures. "The memes thing was a joke. But these memes are really dank."

"No shit," he said, rolling his eyes. "I got them from r/dankmemes." Kiara watched as the two exchanged light hearted banter, nudging each other and making sarcastic jabs.

"He's still trying to convert me from tumblr to reddit. It isn't working. Why does everyone try doing that? I know personally that Tumblr is a piece of shit in terms of a website, and that Yahoo was kinda stupid buying her for 1.1 billion dollars, but I can't escape. You can't escape hell. Tumblr is like something that's so disgusting, you have to look at it. Haha, I'm joking. Not really. But tumblr's a cool site. That's about it for today. Signing off, Liz."

Kiara's vision went dark and it was replaced with the same exact room, only Elizabeth and Ethan were wearing sweaters; Ethan's reading "Brace Yourselves: Christmas is Coming" with a badly photoshopped grinch, and Elizabeth's reading "Fleece Navidad" with a sheep covered in fairy lights. On the coffee table was a white cat with a slightly longer lock on the side of his face, a flag of norway ribbon wrapped around his neck. Lukas.

Oh my god, Kiara thought, Those sweaters are hideous, the fact that they're for christmas makes it worse.

"Journal; Ethan got me a present for my birthday. He's a white cat, and he looks like a Norwegian Forest, too. Just like Ellie. I named him Lukas. Fitting, right? I'm not even joking, he looks exactly like neko Norway." Is everything about Hetalia for her? Kiara wondered. What even is neko?

"I found him at the base of the Leif Eriksson statue in Boston," Ethan explained as Elizabeth stroked the cat. "Figured you'd might want to take him in."

"I'm surprised you're actually being nice to me," Elizabeth laughed, picking Lukas up gently and placing him in her lap. Kiara was shocked to see that the cat didn't protest, or even fidget, when Elizabeth took him in her hands. In fact, Lukas looked pleased, as if he actually enjoyed the presence of the two siblings.

"I brought him to the common room and he took my pen and wrote out messages to me. I swear on my life, Lukas is magic. I made him a mini typewriter so he can talk to me without using up the ink in my pen. He reminds me of Pizzicato, from 'Zita the Spacegirl.' And don't laugh, I read that years ago."

Kiara watched as the sitting room morphed into the Slytherin common room, late at night. Elizabeth and Lukas sat on the couch with Elizabeth III, the three of them having a pleasant conversation and Lukas translating everything between them. Kiara had a faint recollection of waking up in the middle of the night and trudging the common room, only to hear Elizabeth's laughter and immediately return to her bed.

The scene faded and was replaced with Elizabeth on her bed with a typically tarot reading set up. Her hands were shivering as she arranged cards in front of her and flipped them over. Divination? God, I can't believe she actually trusts those things. Kiara scowled to herself. "Journal," Elizabeth said, her voice obviously quivering, "I drew a Death and a 10 of Swords today. Both were upside down. Someone's going to die. It could be me or anyone else, but someone is going to die. These cards have never lied to me. I've predicted meeting Kiara and Naomi, Rose failing her classes, the Quidditch tie, and Lukas. As much as I hate to admit it, I predicted Rose's death. And that Huang girl's death. These cards aren't wrong. I have to be on the lookout. I'm going to start carrying the ČZ vz 27 around with me. I can't risk it. They call it paranoia until they die. Signing off, Liz."

The next day was in the same exact spot, only Elizabeth was standing in front of the window facing towards the great lake. Her hair was ragged and out of it's usual sleek ponytail, falling across her face, and she clutched her pistol in her hand. It's barrel was pointed at her temple and Elizabeth's arm was visibly shaking. What startled Kiara most was that the voice that narrated hadn't started with "Journal." Instead, it directly addressed herself.

"Kiara," the voice said between sharp inhales, "if you're reading this, I'm gone. I won't be coming back. I drew a Seven of Wands, along with another Ten of Swords and Death today. I'm going to die. I won't let the murderer get me. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that the cards are giving me an irrational fear and suicidal thoughts. You're wrong. Those cards are real. Divination is real. I'll fall into the killer's hands if I don't do it myself. And they know what they're doing. They won't leave a single trace behind. If I- If I kill myself, the murder's plans will be ruined. Just the slightest, but still ruined. I'm leaving you with everything I have that you can use to help you. The rest, you'll have to do on your own. Best of luck, Elizabeth."

Just as Kiara's mind began to fade, she saw Elizabeth squeeze her eyes shut and pull the trigger, the loud BANG ringing throughout the dorm. She caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure recoil in the corner of the room before the scene went blank, and Kiara was back on her bed with the trunk opened in front of her and the notebook in her lap. Kiara stared at the notebook, hands shaking slightly. She had known Elizabeth had died but this made it all the more real.

Suddenly, she stood up, angrily throwing the notebook across the room, red splaying her vision. Kiara didn't know if she was mad at herself, or Elizabeth, or the killer but it made her hands itch with the urge to punch something. She stayed like that for a while, clutching her sleeves in an attempt to control her burning hands, and just sitting there seething at the world.

Finally, Kiara picked herself up and walked across the room to retrieve the journal. She opened it back up and watched the scenes over again until she finally got to the suicide. Paying close attention, Kiara waited until she saw the figure again, and mumbled "Does this thing pause?" As soon as the word "pause" left her lips, the scene came to a standstill.

Elizabeth's voice rang out in her head, but instead of narrating the scene, she said, "You can move, but you can't touch anything. Say play to continue, and shout out a date to skip through passages." Hesitantly, Kiara tried walking towards the figure, her body passing through the solid objects as if she was a ghost. She couldn't make out too many features, but she could see that the figure looked tall enough to be in one of the older students, at least over third year.

"Play," Kiara mumbled, still processing the information she had gotten. She had already come to the conclusion that it must have been the killer. Elizabeth was right. Her suicide was able to mess up the killer's plans, even if just the slightest. As soon as she was back in her dorm, Kiara took out the list of kids staying over break, along with Elizabeth's detailed list of people. There were three that fit the criteria of the killer perfectly (Mary Knight, Chelsea Mason, and Amber McKoy) along with a wild card (Riley Emerson).

Kiara quickly jotted down the list before she got up and left her dorm, exiting the Slytherin commons and venturing out into the halls. She walked through several corridors, watching carefully for any prefects or teachers patrolling the halls, until finally, she reached the tower she was most familiar with. A sing song voice ran out through the opening. "What can you catch but not throw?"

"Can you not be so loud?" Kiara hissed, looking around to make sure there weren't people around.

"What can you catch but not throw?" the door repeated, but quieter.

"A cold," Kiara said, remembering the answer from a riddle book she had read. The door swung open and Kiara entered the Ravenclaw common room.

At first, no one looked at her as she entered, probably assuming that she was a Ravenclaw that had come in late from dinner. Then, someone glanced and narrowed their eyes suspiciously before whispering to the person sitting next to them. Hunching her shoulders awkwardly, Kiara looked around for Naomi, but couldn't find her amongst the crowd of students in the common room.

"You're not a Ravenclaw." Kiara looked up to find a moderately tall girl with dark hair looking at her with an inquisitive and slightly accusing expression

"Good observation," Kiara remarked, "I also have blonde hair."

"Well, then what are you?" she demanded, "And why are you here?"

Kiara was about to tell the girl that anyone with eyes could tell she was a Slytherin but quickly realized she had taken her tie off and traded her school robes for something more casual. "I'm a Slytherin," she explained briefly, "and I'm here to see Naomi O'Hanigan. Do you know where she is?"

"Slytherins aren't very trustworthy, in my opinion," the girl said, narrowing her eyes. "One almost killed me before. Why would you want to see Naomi anyway? To murder her or something?"

Kiara sighed, resisting the urge to roll her eyes and laugh at the girl's choice of words. Pfft, murder, she thought. How ironic. "Naomi's my friend. I need to talk to her."

After one last suspicious glance, the girl huffed and said, "Fine. Naomi's in her dorm. I'll show you the way. I'm Siena, in case you wanted to know."

"Elli," she said in way of a response as she followed Siena through the tower. The Ravenclaw lead her to the third year dorm and gestured inside, where Kiara saw Naomi hunched over a stack of papers.

Naomi turned and looked at her friend with a questioning glance. "You aren't supposed to be here," she said, concern lacing her voice, "it's past curfew and this isn't your house."

"Look," Kiara said urgently, glancing around to make sure no one was listening. Thankfully, Siena had left and the rest of the third years were in the common room. "I need your help to find a serial killer."

Naomi stared at her friend. After a long pause, she replied with a confused, "What?"

"There's a serial killer on the loose and I need your help," Kiara rephrased.

After another equally long pause, Naomi broke into a small grin. "That's pretty funny," she said, laughing slightly. "Thanks for that. I was drowning in the stress from all my homework and you lowered it a bit. Now, go back to the dungeons before someone finds you and gives you a detention."

"I'm not joking," Kiara huffed, her patience waning despite the fact that Naomi was her friend. "Rose, Anna, and Elizabeth all died because of the murderer."

Naomi's eyes widened, finally realising that Kiara wasn't joking or pulling her leg. "What?" she repeated, this time more shocked than previously. "There's- they- that can't be possible." However, as Naomi recalled her previous classes, she remembered that Elizabeth hadn't been in any of them since a week after the holidays. "No way…"

"I'm not really sure how to go on with this, and you're the smartest person I know," Kiara continued, "I figured you might know what to do. None of the staff has mentioned anything since all of the deaths look like suicides. Elizabeth left a bunch of things for me that she thinks will help, but I don't know how to use half of them. Oh, and I have this." Kiara took out the slip of parchment she wrote all of the suspects names on before Naomi could even think about commenting. "Do you know any of them?"

The third year blinked for a second, still trying to process her words, before craning her head to look at the parchment. "Mary is an older Ravenclaw," Naomi said as she inspected the list. "She's a prefect and is the only one of them that works directly with the staff other than the Heads." Kiara nodded, jotting down the information. "I'm not sure what house Cynthia is in. Probably Hufflepuff. She's average in all of her classes. Not bad, but not excellent either. She's really good at transfiguration, though. Amber is a Slytherin, I think. I heard from other students that she's a huge prankster and knows all of the secret entrances and areas. Riley's a Gryffindor. He's the best student in his year and I think he takes every single elective."

"Thanks," Kiara said, smiling slightly. "That's really helpful. If I need to talk to you again, I'll go up to you during the meals."

"That would be better," Naomi agreed. "You should leave now, before it's too late." Kiara nodded, shoving the paper into her pocket before quickly exiting the tower and making her way through the halls as quietly as possible. She turned onto the second hall away from the dungeons and breathed out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, Kiara collided with something else and she fell back, hitting the stone cold floor. "Ow…" she muttered, rubbing her back and looking up to see what she had collided with. What Kiara saw made her freeze and caused all of the blood in her face to drain. Professor Brown, the divination teacher and Kiara's least favourite staff member, stared down at her in surprise and slight anger. However, it faded into a smug smile as the professor crossed her arms. Of course it had to be her, Kiara thought bitterly, because the world doesn't hate me enough, huh? Maybe this is Elizabeth getting her revenge from that one time I called her loud and stupid. I'll make sure to kick her stupid ass in heaven. If she isn't in hell, that is.

"And what do we have here?" Professor Brown said, feigning shock. "Perhaps if you would start counting your unlucky days, Miss Blackwell, or simply follow the rules, you could have avoided this. However, I'm afraid I will have to give you a detention, along with a loss of fifty points from your house. Tomorrow afternoon, and make sure you aren't late."

(Author's Notes)

Dear Reader-

Ahhhhh filler chapter again. ^^; sorry don't come for me

Anyway, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Lupus' birthday was a few days ago and mine's coming up. (Don't you dare gasp, I'm still older than her by a year.) It's snowing already over here and it's so pretty I wanna cry. (Not really but it's super pretty.)

Also, I spent $135 dollars on chocolates and an extra $10 on bags and tissue paper for my friends. I go to lots of lengths for friendship.

...

And yes, Lupus is getting one too.

Don't you be lookin' at me like that.

-Luna

.

CHOCOLATE! One of the only perks of knowing Luna, if you ask me. (Plus she said she'd get me a Hanukkah, and if she actually does it I'm gonna start crying.) And yeah, my birthday was this week, so that was nice. I got a new pair of roller-blades and tons of cash. (I want to buy myself a laptop when I get enough money.) Luna thinks she's really special being older than me by that much, but all my friends are at least a year older than me so...

Yeah, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! We're getting sort of close to the finish. If we ever do finish that is. Luna and I are sort of stuck on the next chapter. Well, I wrote an amazing paragraph about beating the killer with a magical rainbow steak, but apparently that wasn't good. Whatever, Luna's loss.

Book recombination of the week: The Magnus Chase Series

Happy Holidays!

Lupus