I'm back! I wasn't dead, just swamped with work. Well, here's the next chapter for you all. Also, to answer a curious questioner, Harry was fighting for his life in that graveyard, he wouldn't have paid attention to an old rundown mansion. Rundown is the keyword, since the house was moved it was restored and so looks different. That's why Harry didn't recognize it at first. (Sorry if this is short, but I've been so...unsure of where to take this investigation.)
The group followed the sounds to the grand dining hall where the students had been watching a formal meeting enactment. However, the spirits wanted out it seemed, and so lashed out at the actors and students. Luckily, it stopped as soon as they entered, chants to banish the spirits on their lips. "I everyone alright?" Harry was the first to ask, helping the distressed actress playing Lady Riddle up from the floor and into a nearby, delicately carved mahogany chair.
No doubt an original from the house. "The spirit lashing out was male, looked horribly ill, and seemed to want to focus on the actors Lord and Lady Riddle." Masako stated as Monk helped up the man who had makeup on to give him a closer look to the actual man.
"So the spirits are angry at the Lord and Lady, who bear enough resemblance the spirits are confusing them with the nobles who once owned the house. We really need to go through those old records to narrow down who it could be." Mai stated, slightly upset by the fact.
Naru was writing things down. "We are not even definitively sure it is only one spirit Mai." The teen stated.
"But at least one would give us a clue as to who others could be. And what time period we could be looking at." Mai argued.
"None of the sprits are under twenty years of being in this house. If I set up the same ward I used at Crabbe Orphanage, then I could get a more definitive read on the ages of the spirits, gender, and faces. Which would help tremendously." Harry offered.
"We should observe more first, build a definitive file. And we need to figure out why the spirits are lashing out, hold off on the ward, but prepare to set it up in case of need of immediate action." Naru finished that part of the conversation.
"We need witness accounts, so sorry to interrupt your trip like this. But a brief description of what you saw and experienced could help us with the case." Mai addressed the students and teacher, and the house staff.
While her, Lin, and Naru dealt with the witness accounts, Harry and John accompanied Masako on her walk of the house, while Ayako, Luna, and Monk returned to the base to watch the recordings to see if any other activity occurred while they were preoccupied. Masako pointed out the most active areas, which were quickly marked down to be closely monitored, but these spirits seemed to move and mask their presences. They spent the better part of an hour going over tapes after that, and finalizing set up of the base.
Once they were all back together, and information had been properly filed, they all sat down with tea or some other drink to discuss their next moves.
"So, the game plan has changed, this floor plan is obviously missing quite a few areas, who wants to come with me on a hidden passageways, rooms, entrances and more hunt? It will be fun." Harry asked, setting out the house floor plans.
"We still need to get the other supplies from the shop and scope out the nearby town though." Mai interrupted that train of thoughts.
"So we'll do that tomorrow first off, then search for the hidden areas. We also haven't surveyed the grounds very well, there could be clues along the sides of the house."
"And there are still more witness accounts to collet from previous attacks, and security feed footage to go over for that very reason as well, previous instances of activity." Yasuhara spoke, sighing at the end of his statement.
"Well there is definitely much to do then. Ri, what can you tell us of the Riddle family?" Naru asked.
"The last generation of the family, bar Tom Marvolo Riddle, were killed sometime around 1943. This includes Tom Riddle Sr., his wife, and his parents. Plus, who knows how many servants could have died in the house, if Luna's insinuation of abuse of servants here is true. The Riddle family was a small noble family stationed in Little Hangleton, England. Their mansion was situated right next to the Little Hangleton Graveyard, which from my memory of fourth year, is very large near the Riddle house. Other than the fact the locals did not like the Riddle family much, their mysterious actions and horrid attitudes towards others, there isn't much on them. Oh! They were very obstinate to witch craft, and even had a few burnings of young children and teens who exhibited what sounds like signs of accidental magic. Very Protestant family." Harry gave what little was known of the muggle noble family.
"That isn't much." Naru admitted.
"That's sadly all I have unless you want me to pop over to Little Hangleton. Everyone who knew the Riddle family is dead by now, what with Voldemort having staged a wide scale attack that burned the town to the ground for the most part, probably why the mansion was moved, it was one of the surviving parts of the town bar the graveyard." Harry told the other teen.
"Luna, how about you and I go into town with Yasu and get those supplies needed. There is still a few hours of daylight, and searching at night would help to avoid disturbing the educational tours that go through here." Mai reasoned, Luna and Yasu stood up after Naru gave permission.
They returned an hour later, while Harry had scoped the house with John and Monk to search for hidden areas in the house. However Naru wanted to go over the servant records, and so Harry fetched them from the library and set them out on the tables.
"So, any likely suspects as to who so far?" Monk asked after two hours of searching the multiple servant accounts.
"All the spirits in the house are older than twenty years old, which doesn't say much. But I have looked closely at all the records of the men, and found a few that match the description of the ghost we encountered earlier. Some have pictures, either sketched or old style photographs, attached to names. Until I get that ward, then it is a no go. I have crossed off anyone who hadn't been fired or had any vendetta against the Riddle family, I have included Merope and the murdered paternal family of Tom Riddle Junior as possible suspects. Turns out Lord Riddle had been ill, he could be one of the spirits." Harry noted.
"Also, any who were cremated on holy land have been crossed out of the lists we rewrote to preserve the original records." Naru added.
"Right, fire purifies spirits when done right..." Yasu muttered, quickly going over his share of the files and crossing out any new names on his copy of the list.
"That still leave hundreds of servants and generations to search over. Any insight, Mai? Luna?" Monk asked the two clairvoyant girls who had been going over the aura of the house.
"We'll have to wait, I am getting nothing right now." Mai denied.
"Same here, it is odd, but I feel I am close to a hint to the time period our ghostly friends are from." Luna answered.
"Don't strain yourself, Luna. We just need another clear look at one of the ghosts to place their time period by clothing style. Brits, especially higher class ones, cared greatly for fashion and appearances." Harry pointed out, closing up his files for the night, ready to turn in.
"Then we shall look out for spirits tomorrow morning and then on." Ayako finalized, John agreeing with the Shrine Maiden.
They turned in for the night.
Early next morning Harry was up first, he went through his morning routines, and threw on his exorcism robes. The traditional wizards style in all black may invoke spirits if they had seen the same style Tom was wearing. If he was their killer or had seen Merope Gaunt, maybe some other wizard. Luna was up next, and upon seeing Harry in his robes, dressed in hers. Mai dressed as well in the ones Harry gifted her, Luna wearing similar ones with her own special touches of course. Naru and Lin dressed in suits as usual, Masako in a decorative kimono, Ayako relents and dressed in her robes. John wore his after some convincing, and Monk came dressed in his. Yasu, the last to meet them in the dining hall for breakfast, wore a plain suit so as to look uniform with Lin and Naru.
The staff came down for breakfast, the servant staff serving everyone before sitting down to have breakfast themselves. It was Japanese of course, they weren't on business hours. Masako and Harry had their senses wide open, beckoning spirits to come take a peak. A few curious ones, docile at the moment, passed by. Masako quickly gave descriptions which Harry wrote out with a quill with flourish on parchment, the heavily protestant family had used fountain pens and thin parchments only, he used thick parchment and traditional quills. They'd tear apart the abnormality if it was them. At the end of breakfast Harry profiled some of the clothing and sketched it, getting the definitive from Masako. "This is from before Tom Riddle's time, I'd place it in the late 1800's of British fashion as a whole. Also, while searching out auras, no ghosts are older than 3 centuries, which narrows down the records. These sketches, we can compare to descriptions and photos, giving us names. Hey, Masako, is this the one you saw yesterday?" Harry pointed out a familiar profile.
"He is."
"Passed by with no problem this morning, odd." The wizard muttered.
"Wonder what could have set him off." Mai commented.
"No use dwelling on it. Let's go narrow down those records, shall we?" Monk asked.
"Wait! I found something in the library you might find useful. Medical records, of the family and the servants from the family physicians and coroners upon deaths." A staff member came up to them, the butler from before.
Naru handed the records off to Harry and sent the group off to start over the files, Lin staying behind in case an attack happened and left Naru defenceless. Harry holed himself up with said records and his lists, crossing names off and noting the most possible suspects. Though, he was seeing the pattern around the time frame. Around the third last generation of the family, the daughter of the lord, his first child, had been poisoned by a jealous servant. The girl had been beautiful, if the records and photo proved anything, uncannily she shared features that one Tom Riddle had. This caused the Lady of the house to become enraged and distraught, she started ordering whippings and beatings of servants who got too close to her children after his eldest was murdered. That maid had been killed quite harshly in secret by the family, five hundred lashes, then a tiger bench treatment which broke her legs horribly, the rack to break her back, and then she was continually cut in shallow strokes until her large injuries killed her from blood loss. She was the prime suspect ghost, having been the one with the worst death in the house records.
Sheila Drescott, an African slave.
It hit Harry, he studied the photo of the Lady of the House at the time, and the photo of the actress. That clinched it for him, this was a revenge seeking ghost that had been awakened when the house was moved. She'd been killed in the dining hall, a spectacle to make an example to the other servants, to show what would happen if they disobeyed the lords and ladies of the family. Harry continued building his case while the others did other tasks and monitoring around him. "Harry, it had been eight hours." Was suddenly cutting his thoughts.
"What!?" He shot up, and immediately sank back down in pain, the extreme stiffness being disturbed that fast was not good for him.
"Yep, what has got you so focused?" Ayako asked without any joking expressions.
"Take a look for yourself. Once again, Luna hit the nail on the head. Hey, how long has Mai been asleep?" Harry answered her.
"Three hours, she decided to try and get a vision under Luna's guidance. Judging from Luna's pleased expression, Mai has done it and is keeping cont- this is? These records? Are they true?" Masako suddenly froze up.
"Yes." Harry answered without any doubt, he'd cross-referenced too much for any of it to be fake. Plus, the paper and parchment, the ink, how much anything had faded. It was authentic, you can't fake quill scratches or ink blotting of a classic, old make feather quill.
He'd taken a look at every prop in the house, all of them were fake. And not an actual ink well in sight, not a single one. Plus, magical scans make everything easier when judging the age of an artifact. "I haven't seen her around the house, you don't think...it could be any of these servants who came through during her time and died."
"So, that is exactly 122 servants, who experienced the horror in the Riddle House after her daughter was poisoned by Sheila Drescott. Seeing as the crazy old bat died in 1903, poisoning. How ironic, hmm?" Yasu commented.
"Enough to try again with the current actress?" John spoke up, Naru's eyes widened.
"Harry, were any injuries leading up to her poisoning glass related?"
"She threw cheap china-...at the servants leading up to her poisoning."
"Did any of them die?"
"Only the butler, who was struck on the head with a heavy pot in the kitchen by her. A china pot." Harry answered, holding up the page with the servant.
"That's the sickly old man I saw yesterday throwing the china!" Masako cried out.
"Joseph Misell...One of our definitive ghosts of the house then." Monk practically sighed.
It was handy information, but it didn't tell them why they were attacking students and other staff to, or why they hadn't done anything more than throw things around yet. They decided to join a tour and see what happened, they all wore regular clothing in order to blend in a bit. They saw a couple people acting things through, and when they got to the dining room, Masako tensed. (Mai and Lin had stayed in the base, Mai still under a vision and Lin to watch her and the equipment.)
Harry opened his senses and found a few spirits hovering just beyond them, he didn't dare reach out however, it could scare them off. Sheila Drescott and Joseph Misell, the two main vengeance seekers. Then another, a chef from the uniform, was whispering with them. Pulling his file out he scanned through the chefs, Janett Misell, younger sister to Joseph, also the servant who poisoned her brother's killer by china, and a servant who was burnt to death for 'practicing witchcraft.' "So we have three spirits, all from the same time period." Masako commented upon seeing them.
"Yes, Sheila Drescott, Joseph Misell, and his sister, Janett. All had hands in the murder of the Lady and Heiress Riddle murders." Harry confirmed.
"Is this all of them?"
"The malevolent ones. The rest just need minor blessings." Luna piped up.
"Then shall we move on with the final phases then?"
"No. We still have to investigate the town. We don't know if the house is the cause, or if the town will get worse if we don't clear it up first." Ayako denied.
"Then we will just plan out the house solution, and try and seal those spirits temporarily to stop further incidents for a day or so." Naru concluded.
"Want to send them away for now, Monk, Lin?" Harry asked.
Lin whistled, and the little white manifestations of spirits called Shiki came to his call, to which they started circling the other spirits to keep them contained for the time being. "Rest for the rest of the day. Tonight we move towards the town to investigate lightly." Naru ordered.
SPR and associated partners marched off towards the base and rooms.