Hello, welcome at this hot weekend. I don't know how the weather is whereever you live but we have had a really hot day for our area. I bet the open-air swimming pools made a killing. Well, here is the update for my story. Thanks to those that left reviews. Happy reading.


Little Detectives

Harry sat at the breakfast table. He was reading the local part of the newspaper where an article informed about a series of robberies. A couple of thieves, one man and a woman were stealing red gems. They didn't take any of the other valuable pieces of jewellery, only the red stones. It was a mystery.

"Anything interesting in the paper?" Sirius asked coming into the room, his hair still wet from showering.

"There is this series of thefts of red gems. I don't understand why they would only steal the red gems. It doesn't make any sense. I mean, even if they were after something special, why would they direct attention to that? The police will only increase guards around all red gems now." Harry said shaking his head.

"You're right, that is strange. What are your plans for today?" Sirius asked while taking a piece of toast from the basket on the table and buttering it before putting a slice of cheese on it.

"I want to take Shinichi and the other kids to that exhibition of famous detectives that is currently held at Beika Museum. The kids wanted to go there and Mrs Yoshida asked me if I would accompany them. I don't mind, I wanted to see the exhibition anyway." Harry said putting the paper down.

"Okay. How is Shinichi's training coming along?" Sirius wanted to know.

"Very well. He's a fast learner. I really hope we can cut down the amount of time we need to get him to his full power. I don't know how long Voldemort will keep things at their current level in Great Britain. As long as MOB lives he'll probably not go for the big coup, taking over the Ministry, but there can be no doubt that that is his ultimate goal to rule the country. We are concentrating on Shinichi's practical skills as you know. I think we can push the stuff up to fifth year into him by October if we can concentrate on Charms, Defence, Transfiguration and Duelling. Everything else can wait until we have found a way to turn him back to normal." Harry said taking a piece of toast for himself.

"How are your experiments concerning that?" Sirius asked after taking a bite out of his toast.

"Not that well. I might have an idea what happened from analysing Shinichi's blood, but I have no experience how to counter something like this. I first need to collect more information. It could be similar to a shrinking solution, but there are no components in Shinichi's blood that indicate it. Just the effects are similar. When we brewed the Potion in Snape's class, the correct potion shrunk Trevor, Neville's toad, back to a tadpole. I will research that idea more in depth soon." Harry informed Sirius.

Then the doorbell rang.

"That's probably Ayumi. I told her to come over after breakfast so we could go together and then meet the other three." Harry said and stood up to open the door.

"Good morning, Harry." Ayumi greeted him smiling.

"Good morning, Ayumi. I see you are ready to go. Are you looking forward to the exhibition?" Harry asked smiling at the little girl.

"Yes. That will be really interesting. Perhaps we can learn something more for the Detective Boys." She said.

Harry chuckled. The kids were really cute. They had founded a junior detective club and pulled Conan to be a member. Well, so far their cases were mostly lost cats. He let her come in and led her into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Ayumi." Sirius greeted the girl.

"Good morning, Mr Black. Are you coming to the exhibition too?" She asked.

"No, I have to look over some reports from work. We have an important project at the moment." Sirius said and emptied his cup of coffee.

He had already written coffee onto the shopping list. It had gone out after Harry had brewed the pot for the morning.

"Okay." Ayumi said smiling.

Harry drank the rest of his coffee and then went to get his coat.

"I'm ready, Ayumi. We can go." Harry said.

Ayumi nodded and both put on their shoes. The said goodbye to Sirius and walked to the meeting point they had agreed upon with Genta, Mitsuhiko and Conan.


They arrived there ten minutes after leaving the appartment.

"Good morning you three." Harry greeted.

"Morning, Harry. Are you also so excited to see the exhibition about all those great detectives?" Genta asked.

"Yes, I am. So let's not waste any time and go there." Harry said.

The kids, well those that were kids, cheered and walked towards the Beika Museum. Once there Harry paid the entrance fees for them all and they started exploring the exhibition. It was really extensive and showed methods and history of fictional and real detectives all over the world. Then, after one and a half hours of exploring the exhibition two masked people started shooting in the air. Harry looked at them and saw that they had knocked out the receptionist. Many visitors started screaming in fear and tried to run away, but a second shot was fired which made them stop.

"Shut up! Everybody listen! This is a hostage taking. We have closed off the entrances of this museum. We have placed bombs all over the building and if you don't follow our orders, we will blow up this museum. We have a simple demand. With all of you being so interested in the detective exhibition, one of you surely can solve a little riddle for us. If you can, we will simply take one hostage with us to cover our escape. If not, well, hope that the police isn't stupid enough to come here." The man with a mask said.

The second one was a woman.

"You know what to look for." The man said while keeping his gun pointed at the visitors, the woman nodded and left the room.

It took thirty minutes before she came back with a bag full of gems.

"I got them. But from what I saw the right one isn't here either." She told him.

"Damn, well, we still have our option that there is a smart one here to solve the riddle. Listen up; we will now have you come here one by one to solve the riddle. Pray that one can solve it." The man said.

One after another the visitors were forced to look at the riddle and think about the solution. Harry knew he couldn't use magic in front of this many muggles. So he would need to find another way out of this situation. But first he needed to get the hostages to safety or the two criminals somewhere else. He discretely did a screening charm on the whole building to see if there really were bombs or if they were bluffing. The charm found rectangular objects in three places that didn't seem to belong there. The problem was without being close he couldn't really do a thorough check. Those could be fakes. Outside things got noisy when police sirens were heard.

The man now grabbed the closest person to him as a direct hostage, which sadly was Ayumi. She cried in fear.

"You will be my leverage to make sure the cops don't do anything stupid little girl." The man said. "Nobody does anything stupid or she is dead." He shouted. "Keep them under control, I'll tell the cops to buzz off."

"You don't really think the police would just go away now that they know that you are keeping hostages here? Show me that riddle. I'll solve it and you let everybody go." Harry said stepping forward.

"Oh, and who might you be that you are so sure you can solve that riddle?" The woman asked.

"I'm Harrison Black, I'm a detective." Harry stated, knowing that if he got them to concentrate on him Shinichi would be able to move more freely.

"The Hawk? That must be our lucky day. Yes, you could probably solve the riddle for us." The man said. "Lock the others in here. We take that detective to solve the riddle for us."

The woman nodded and motioned Harry forward with her gun.

"I want you to let the girl go. I should be more than enough as a hostage." Harry said.

"Such chivalry. But why not? The police will be even more inclined to not risk their precious high school detective than this little girl." The man said.

He let Ayumi go who ran to the others. Harry was held at point of the gun and led out of the room. The woman locked the door behind them all. Many people sank to the floor, shaking in fear. Ayumi too was scared by the experience, but she tried to be strong.

"What are we going to do now?" Mitsuhiko asked Conan.

"We will find a way. Harry made sure that the criminals concentrate on him. We need to look around if there is another way out of the museum. The door they locked leads to the main entrance. All the exhibition rooms that the museum has are on this side. And if there really are those two, we could get everybody to safety. Harry is no idiot and knows how to deal with dangerous situations." Conan tried to assure them.

"Okay. Let's first look around. Do you have your detective badges with you?" Conan asked.

The other three nodded.

"Good, then we will split up. The first one to find a door to the outside informs the others." Conan instructed.


The kids ran off to look for another exit. Shinichi knew that if they found a way, he could easily open the door magically. As long as nobody saw him using magic, it wouldn't matter. Officially he was seventeen. His birthday had been just two weeks ago. Of course things hadn't been easy; he had been involved in a bombing case with a culprit that held a grudge against him. Ran had nearly become a victim. He was really glad that it hadn't come to the worst. The event had made him push even more effort in his training. He didn't want to be in such a situation again. If he had been able to get the door opened magically he might have got the people that were locked in the foyer of the cinema out of there before there was any danger of the bomb exploding.

Shinichi looked through all the rooms, but so far there were only high windows. Nothing he could use to get the other people out. He would need a door or a window closer to the ground. The only door he found was on the second floor and led to a terrace. Nothing he could work with without a ladder or some ropes, which he didn't have.

"Conan, I have found nothing." He heard Mitsuhiko over the micro remitter in the badge.

"I also didn't find anything." Genta said.

"I have a door, but it's locked." Ayumi told them.

"Where are you Ayumi?" Conan asked.

"The room with the famous villains." Ayumi informed them.

"We are coming, stay where you are, Ayumi." Conan said.

Soon the four kids saw the door Ayumi had found. On a map that he had found on the way here Conan had looked up the location of this door and where it led. It was an emergency exit that the employees of the museum could open with a code. It made sense that they had been disabled before the hostage taking. This way the visitors had no way to get out.

"Good work, Ayumi. I think I can work out the code. Can you three go back and get the other people here so we can get them out of the museum?" Conan asked.

"Yes." They said and ran back to get the other visitors.

Shinichi waited until they were out of sight and looked around the room to see if there were any cameras that would film him while using magic. Sadly there was one and he couldn't risk it. Though when he looked at the pad he snorted. The numbers that were used for the combination were lighter than the others. Four seven and eight were used regularly. He tried the first combination and failed, with the second try he got the door to open though. The two criminals must be really stupid to think such a simple thing would keep anybody inside.

He opened the door and looked around. There was a short corridor with another door from where he saw light. He put a stopper under the door and walked to the door that led outside. This door was a normal door and was easily opened with the key that was hanging on a nail next to the door. When he looked on the outside, he saw that there was a number pad like the one he saw inside. Seemingly the two criminals had bluffed with the bombs. At least here were none. He heard footsteps coming closer. Obviously the others had got the visitors that were caught with them.

He motioned them over and told them all to be quiet to not alarm the hostage takers. He just hoped Harry would be able to deal with them.


Harry meanwhile was led to a small room with a table and forced to sit down. He was given a piece of paper and a pen and told to solve the riddle on the paper. Harry looked at the riddle. There were some drawings, some letters and some signs that looked suspiciously like runes. There was the rune for diamond and the rune for trap. Then there were the chemical signs for elements. The elements were in no logical order that corresponded with the periodic system of elements. The rune for diamond was connected with the sign for copper. The rune for trap was connected with lead. Just what did this mean?

"And, any idea, master detective?" The man asked nastily.

"If I had some more information it would be easier. Who set up this riddle for example? As you can't solve it, it must have been somebody else." Harry said calmly.

"Our former boss, but he was about to cheat us of our share of the massive haul we made some time back. So we gave the police a little hint where to find him. But the bastard hid it all away and only left the riddle as the key where he hid it." The woman said angrily.

"Did he have any specific hobbies?" Harry asked. He had an idea, but he needed confirmation.

"Not that we know of. Though he had this astrology tick and always read his horoscope." The man said.

Harry nodded. That confirmed his theory. Now he just needed to play for time.

"I need a book on planets and our solar system and the date of the birthday of your boss. If I'm right I have an idea where it could be." He told them.

The man nodded to the woman and she went to get the book. They had seen that the museum had that kind of book in the information area. Ten minutes later she returned with the book and Harry looked up the planets of the solar system. Of course he already knew this from his studies in Astronomy, but he had to keep appearances. As long as the man pointed his gun at him, he couldn't really act. And no matter what, Shinichi still needed to find an exit for the hostages first. He took his time to write down his conclusions. He drew connections, crossed out connections and finally decided that he had wasted enough time. He silently cast a spell to reveal human presence in the museum and was very happy when he only got the answer that he and the two criminals were the only ones left.

"I know where the hiding place is." Harry said turning towards the two criminals.

"Where is it?" The woman asked eagerly.

"Well, the whole riddle is based on the old belief which element is connected with which planet. Let's look at the signs; there are the signs for quicksilver, then copper, silver, iron, lead and tin. Under the symbol for copper there is something that looks like an old rune. Though I would need a book about old runes to say what it means. The next rune is under the symbol for lead. So those two metals have an important meaning.

"The sequence of the elements is the same as the planets of our solar system. Quicksilver is Mercury, copper is Venus, silver is the moon, iron is Mars, tin is Jupiter and lead is Saturn. As the note is ripped after that, I guess there were the elements for Neptune and Pluto following. If you can find out which rune means what you should find the haul you spoke about somewhere like a planetarium either at the Venus or the Saturn." Harry explained.

"Very good. That was the one place we didn't really look. Now you will come with us and be a good boy. After all, we don't want that the police arrest us. And if you don't cooperate, we will blow up the museum with all the hostages, including those kids you were trying to protect." The man said.

Harry nodded. Though he had a plan. He just needed to wait until he was in a good position and that gun not pointed at him. Finally the man pointed his gun away from Harry and he used that short moment to shoot a stunner at the man wordlessly. The woman was shocked to see her partner fall down like that. As Harry had been directly in front of the man, he had hit from a real short distance and the red light of the spell hadn't been visible. Harry quickly kicked her gun from her hand and caught it.

"End of the hostage taking. You are going to follow me outside to get the police. And then you can also tell them just why you only stole red precious stones." Harry said. "Put your hands above your head and leave them there."

The woman looked angry, but followed the commands. Harry took a copy of the detective boys badge from his pocket and activated it.

"Conan, tell the police they can come inside. I have overwhelmed the two criminals." He said.

"Understood, Harry, I will tell Inspector Megure." Conan answered.

"How did that brat get outside?" The woman asked disbelievingly.

"My cousin is a smart child. I guess he found an emergency exit and got the rest of your hostages out of there." Harry said.

"But the only door here has to be opened by a code. How would he have known that without an employee of the museum?" She asked.

"You forget that those codes are mostly three numbers for exiting the museum and if the door is used regularly, the numbers will be bleached out somewhat. Guessing the combination isn't that hard after that. There are only a limited number of combinations with the known numbers. Six to be precise. Not that hard to guess even for a primary school student." Harry said.


The two thieves and hostage takers were arrested and Harry informed the police about the meaning of the riddle and that it was the clue to where the boss of the two thieves had hidden the haul from their last big theft.

They went to the planetarium the boss had worked at and searched the Venus. They found a hidden compartment in the planet where a sack with jewels that were probably worth several hundred million yen was stored. When Harry informed them about a trap at Saturn, they also took care to disable it.

In the following questioning the two said they had stolen red jewels all the time because the boss had always said the key to the treasure was the flaming stone which they thought was meant to be the colour red.

Harry snorted hearing that. That was something an astrology freak would come up with.

"Do you know what that clue means, Harrison?" Inspector Megure asked.

"Yes, I do. Venus isn't only a planet, but was also known as the Roman goddess of love. You associate with love the colour red and fire. If they had not taken that hint to mean a jewel, they might have got the solution earlier. Additionally the temperature on Venus is much higher than on Earth. So calling it a flaming stone makes sense. If they had considered that their boss was big on Astrology they could have figured it out on their own." Harry said.

Megure nodded. He was just glad that this case didn't cost anybody his life.


That's it for today. I hope you liked it.