Chapter Twelve

In Which Some Pieces Fit Together

Sunday dawned bright and sunny despite the cold. Students were seen outside the Castle, taking long walks or playing Quidditch and enjoying the out-of-season weather. Many fifth years were seen studying, laying on the grass with their books, preferring to wrap themselves in warm clothes rather than having to study in the library. O.W.L.s would take place two weeks before the end of the year, but teachers gave them so much homework that weekends were hardly enough to keep up with it and have all taken care of by Monday.

However, at least seven fifth year students were not focused on their studies right now. Last night's feast lasted long and they had agreed to go to sleep and have a good night's rest and meet up for breakfast the next morning. So they had a quick run by the breakfast table, grabbing whatever they wished to eat and then walked outside and sat under the tree by the lake. They were less likely to be heard there than at the Great Hall and students had more things to do than notice seven fifth year students having breakfast together.

"Okay," Lestrade said, once they sat under the tree, eating cheerfully. "It appears that everyone has good news or at least news. Who starts?"

"There was a robbery at Hogsmeade." Anderson interjected. "The whole school knows about it by now."

Lestrade nodded.

"Let's start there, then."

Sally, Mike and Anderson related all that had happened the day before; the strange cloudy smoke, the disappearance of the quills and how little information they had. The teachers had made all students return to the train straight away and with everyone on board the trip back to Hogwarts ensued, without any of them being able to make questions. The Daily Prophet should have news on the next day about it, but there was nothing they could do for now. Asking teachers was a waste of time, they decided, because this was not connected with Hogwarts, it was Hogsmeade business.

Sherlock was impatient and almost made a fuss when Molly asked him about his research, because he wanted to hear what they knew about the red string, but when neither Molly nor Lestrade bulged – more to make him furious than anything else – he complied.

"Well, Victor Trevor was being charmed. I am not sure he was killed with magic, though; most likely, from what we saw at the Owlery – and he pointed at himself, Lestrade, Anderson and Sally – magic was not used in the actual death."

"What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"I mean…" The subject was a bit gruesome and Sherlock spilled it at once. "There was a rope hanging from the ceiling, a rudimentary pulley system. The rope was of Muggle fabrication, and I don't know any wizarding artefact that looks remotely like that. There was blood on the floor, as you all know, and from the way I imagine Victor must have been hanged I can only deduced they cut his throat."

Everyone seemed nauseated by the thought and they stared at Sherlock in silence for a moment, unwillingly imagining such atrocity.

"So, the crime was perpetrated by hand and obviously, since I didn't see Victor Trevor's body, I don't know exactly how. But his blood contained a lasting curse. Which means he was not killed in his last moments with magic; he was cursed and he was dying of that. It was pretty clear on the reaction I had with his blood and Cruor."

"So," Lestrade asked. "You mean someone cursed him, and they were killing him like that, but then decided it was taking too long and just murdered him?"

"I am not sure they ever intended to let him live until the curse killed him by itself. I think that whoever did this was experimenting and then, maybe Victor confronted them with it and they knew they had to get rid of him. Or maybe they wanted to get rid of him from the beginning and took the chance to try out the curse before doing it."

"But, how? I mean, wouldn't anyone notice if he was being charmed? Wouldn't he notice?"

"Depends on the charm. But most likely Victor could go on like that ordinarily and then one day, when the curse took over his body, just die as if he had been cursed that very moment. Or he may have started to feel sick, or even faint before the curse was irreversible. There are many types of magic and I can't know which one was used with him."

They looked at each other. What a horrible thing to do; they just imagined Victor Trevor, healthy, without even realising he had been cursed.

"Wait, but how could he have been charmed like that? I mean, how can you charm someone over time like that? Wouldn't the person feel?"

"Well, there are many options."

This time it was Molly who responded and they focused their attention on her. Sherlock nodded as she looked at him, urging her to continue.

"Even if he felt as he was being cursed, they could have used a memory changing charm. Or they could have put him under the Imperius curse and have no one realising it, though I find it very unlikely, if we are almost certain it was a student who cursed him. Both the Imperius curse as the Obliviate charm are very advanced magic. Another way to do it is to curse something he would wear or use often. That would do the trick a lot better and no one would notice either. Not even Victor himself. What really isn't fitting well here is why they killed him off in the end. So, maybe Victor did realise something. Maybe the curse was affecting him in any way."

"Did he have enemies?" Sally asked.

It was John who answered.

"Not that I am aware of. He was usually friendly. Everyone on the Quidditch team liked him and we used to hang around once in a while. I never heard of him getting into fights with anyone, to be honest. "

Sherlock waited for John to finish speaking and then faced Molly.

"Now it's your turn. What did you find?"

Molly and Lestrade exchanged smiles and Molly started. She removed a paper from her pocket and began to narrate what they had found the day before at the Restricted Section.

"The red string you found is a mark."

"A mark?" Sherlock asked, frowning.

"Yes. Its name is Digiti Signum; It's dark magic, it's very old and rarely mentioned. When someone wants to leave a mark somewhere they conjure a charm." Molly looked into the parchment. "The charm is 'infigo' and it's very advanced magic. Basically it creates a fingerprint, with the person conjuring it being the holder. The mark by itself is not very important. What's important is that the more marks you have in a place, the more powerful you become in that place, making your magic much more effective. But, the more marks you have spread about, the more you can become more powerful in more places. You have to perform some act to leave the mark: the first string is big, because it was created with Victor's death; the second smaller, because it was created with the theft of the scroll, which is a much smaller act."

Sherlock frown was still there as he made the question.

"Can you destroy the marks? I mean, can we destroy the marks and their power by destroying the red string?"

"It is not destroyable, but erasable, yes. There's a charm 'Deleo' but it is apparently highly difficult to learn and I didn't find any reference with techniques to learn it on any book."

"But why would you want to leave those marks? What for?"

Molly sighed.

"Sherlock, if anyone is planning on taking on the school, they'd have to fight it off. The more marks you have at school, the more powerful you become in that place, because it 'recognises' you. This is very old and very secret magic. I only found a small chapter about it."

Sherlock thought about the weight of her words.

"So you think someone is going to attack Hogwarts?"

Molly was not used to be the one to answer those questions, even less made by Sherlock.

"I think that someone is planning something in that sense, yes. Basically the place where you leave the marks recognises you, and it gives you more power. I don't know in which sense exactly, but I suppose it makes your magic more powerful."

"Like if you had to fight off some of the most powerful wizards."

Molly nodded, and she and Sherlock shared a look.

"We have to go back to the library." Sherlock said, staring now at the ground, thinking.

"Why?" Lestrade asked.

"Because someone broke into the library the night John and I did and they may have left a mark there as well." He said. "And we need to go to Hogsmeade as well."

"Do you think they might have left a mark there? I mean, shouldn't they be focusing on one place alone?"

"I would think so, yes." explained Sherlock, answering Sally's question. '"But it's a very big coincidence after all this happened; the murder, the robbery at the Ancient Artefacts Room, the lamp at the library and now Hogsmeade. We should treat this as related incidents."

And then a thought strike him.

"You said," He said, pointing at Sally. "That they stole all quills in Hogsmeade. Of course!"

He let the words out with a gasp as the idea took a clearer form.

"What is it, Sherlock?" John asked, grabbing his arm.

"They are going to curse students."

And his words clicked in the mind of the others and it did make sense. All students needed quills; the school had a supply as well. There was no easy way to do it, if you wanted to fill the school with cursed objects, than quills. Sherlock got up.

"We have to check all quills at school. New quills have to be thrown away. We have to talk to students; if anyone was offered a quill they have to throw it away."

"But if they have new quills wouldn't they be cursed already?" Mike asked.

"If they are using objects to curse people, it takes time. The longer they are exposed to the objects, the more powerful the charm becomes, until it's too late. If removed in time – and the quills were just robbed yesterday – the curse can't be yet too powerful, so hopefully they will still be fine. As long as the object is removed in time they'll be okay. If they'd been exposed for long, there are usually antidotes, but we'll need teachers for that and I am not even sure they would believe anything of this without an actual proof. Plus, we'd get into a lot of problems if they had any idea what we all have been up to. So let's hope we can at least avoid any more deaths until we figure who is behind this." He paused. "Although, if we could get our hands into someone who had been cursed and died of it that might help a bit…"

"Sherlock." John interjected. "No research is worth a dead student."

And Sherlock got out of his maniac trance and acquiesced.

"Get to work all of you. Talk to students, ask but try to sound inconspicuous about it. We don't want whoever is doing this to know we are on their trail."

They all got up and mumbled an agreement.

"John and I are going to the library; I want to see if we find more of… hum…"

"Digiti Signum." Molly reminded him.

"That. You split up. Ask Mr. Adair if he has received any new shipment of quills and go around and ask if anyone has received any new quills from someone or picked them from somewhere. Check classrooms as well, the quills might have been replaced. We'll check for that at the library as well. Last night was the Halloween feast; everyone was at the Great Hall so I wouldn't be surprised if they did what they planned already inconspicuously."

"You do realise it is more likely that they just actually replaced the quills from classrooms and so on, rather than calling attention to that and give students new quills. I mean, if anyone asked, as we are about to do, that would put them in their track. That's a bit of an amateur job." John pointed out.

"Then let's hope they made an amateur mistake of the sort. That's all we can do for now." Sherlock answered.

And with a last nod at the others he and John walked into the Castle, followed by the others.