Apologies if you got two emails saying that chapter 29 was up. The first time I uploaded I put in the wrong document.


High Stress

Penelope Clearwater, victim number six, was Muggle-born. Seeing as the most likely explanation of her death was poison, Gibbs did not want to wait for the parents to start the autopsy. Clearwater had been the first to show signs, but it didn't mean she was the only one with a deadly concoction running through her body.

It had taken a lot of smooth talking and convincing from Jenny to get the staff to leave the Great Hall and allow NCIS to do their jobs. Even then, not all of them left until Dumbledore announced that he would personally go fetch Mr. and Mrs. Clearwater and left that the entirety of the staff had cleared out of the massive room.

The team was in overdrive. Ziva took pictures like there was no tomorrow. Tony made record speed on sketches, and Abby, McGee, Gibbs, Fornell, and Colonel Mann were bagging and tagging more than had ever been bagged and tagged before. Every goblet in the room was swabbed. Every piece of food shoved into a plastic bag. And once all that was done, every plate and glass would be dusted for prints. If there were two sets on one item, questioning would need to be done.

"Alright, Mr. Palmer!" Ducky said heavily, "Come along, we must get the external exam done before this poor girl's parents arrive!" Ducky and his assistant lifted Penelope into a body bag, and the body bag onto a stretcher. Then, with an armed Director as their escort, left the hall.

With days full of work ahead of her, Abby placed as many bags as she could into a back-pack and was accompanied back to headquarters by Ziva to start on things.

Gibbs looked around. They had only made it through one table. The investigators had a very long night ahead of them.


Things in the staffroom weren't any better than things in the Great Hall. Filius Flitwick had been reduced to tears by the second death of someone in his house. The chairs that were normally scattered around the room had all been put into a circle in the center of the room to allow better conversation circumstances.

"This is just outrageous! Pure outrageous!" Pomona Sprout declared. "That was right under our noses! How did we not see?"

"We haven't seen anything that's happened!" Madam Hooch was quick to defend.

"But this was in the Great Hall during the Halloween feast, for crying out loud!"

"What could have caused such a thing to happen, though?" McGonagall asked, "She coughed up so much blood…" Flitwick let out a loud sob at the statement.

"There are several potions that could have caused that to happen," Snape said smoothly, "but why suddenly use a wizard's way to kill?"

"Oh, don't you start investigating, Severus!"

"You were just doing so a moment ago, Minerva!" Snape retorted.

"Don't start fighting now. It'll only make things worse," Lupin sighed. He was so far down in his chair only his neck was leaned against the back.

"I d-don't understand! How could a s-student be so cruel to another?" Flitwick gasped between sobs.

"If this doesn't stop, we'll be in exactly the same situation as last year!" Sprout said, clearly frustrated.

"We already have a threat of closing Hogwarts over our heads," McGonagall admitted. This was true, though the threat had only just been made the day previously.

"No!" several of the staff members exclaimed.

"Albus says he'll be able to keep it just a threat as long as he possibly can…"

"And how does he plan on doing that?" Sprout huffed.

"He said I'd rather not know the reason he's going to hand to Fudge."

"Because it would upset you? Or frighten you?" Snape asked.

"I don't know. I just hope that this will end soon. This culprit is moving much faster than the Heir of Slytherin. If it takes all year to catch him…"

"We'll have no students left to teach," Sprout finished the thought.

"Oh, heavens!" Madam Hooch said, looking out the window. "Dumbledore's back already!"

"With the Clearwaters?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes."

Professor McGonagall pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and dabbed her eyes before leaving to warn the agents.


"That's two tables down!" Tony said encouragingly.

"Shut up, DiNozzo!" Ziva snapped irritably.

"Is it someone's time of the month?"

Ziva threw a shoe left behind by someone at her coworker.

"Say no more!" Tony said sourly, rubbing his thigh.

The doors opened just enough for Jenny to squeeze through. She shut them behind herself. "Gibbs! They're here!"

Gibbs finished writing on a bag, threw it at McGee, and then headed towards the door.

A woman that had the same curly hair as Penelope and a man with the same eyes stood in the hall with Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall. Dumbledore led the way up to his office, let everyone in, and then closed the door.

"Is Penelope really dead?" Mrs. Clearwater suddenly choked.

"Yes," Gibbs said quietly.

Mrs. Clearwater covered her face with her hands and leaned forward, now past talking.

"We were told she'd be safe here!" Mr. Clearwater raged, turning to glare at Dumbledore.

"I can offer you no explanation, Mr. Clearwater," Dumbledore admitted.

"Penelope was the sixth victim of a serial killer that's come to light," Jenny told the couple.

"Serial killer?" Mr. Clearwater's stance changed.

"Yes."

"She never told us about any serial killers!"

"It only started about three weeks ago," Jenny said.

"But why wouldn't she tell us? She sent us letters every week!"

"I don't know, Mr. Clearwater."

"Where's the Head of her House? What's his name? Flitwick?" Mr. Clearwater asked Dumbledore and his deputy.

"Professor Flitwick sends his deepest apologies," McGonagall assured. "But he's not feeling well at all right now."

"I don't give a damn! Get him over here!"

"Mr. Clearwater, please," Jenny called his attention, "Did Penelope say anything about any enemies at school? Can you think of anyone who may have done this?"

"No!"

"P-Percy Weasley!" Mrs. Clearwater took several deep breaths and straightened. "She and him were dating for a while. She ended it about a month ago, said he wasn't happy at all."

"Did he threaten her at all?" Gibbs masked the eagerness in his voice at the possibility of a lead.

"No," Mrs. Clearwater admitted, "But she did say that he hadn't spoken to her since. Like I said, he was very upset."

"Do you know why she and he broke up?" Jenny pushed the matter further, hoping just as much as Gibbs for a legitimate lead.

"Penelope said he was getting too self absorbed. He was focusing on his coming career, and not much else. She was tired of being ignored."

"Did you know Percy well?" McGonagall asked. She, unlike Gibbs and Jenny, was hiding rage. Percy Weasley was an idiot, sure, but he was her Gryffindor, and she knew him well enough to know he wouldn't dare kill anyone.

Mrs. Clearwater shook her head. "We only knew what Penelope told us."

"Then why do you think Percy might have done it?" Gibbs questioned.

"He's the only person I can think of that had anything against Penny. She loved talking about Hogwarts. She told us about everyone she knew."

"But she never said anything about an enemy," Mr. Clearwater said firmly. "Penelope didn't make them very often."

Gibbs sighed inwardly. Their only lead was the Head Boy of the school that was focused on his career. Things didn't look good.

His phone rang. He excused himself and went just outside the office door. "Duck?"

"Whenever you're ready," Ducky said.

Gibbs hung up, walked back into the room, and nodded at Jenny.

"Would you like to see Penelope once more?" Jenny gently offered.

The Clearwaters nodded and allowed themselves to be led through the many hallways of Hogwarts until finally reaching the door to the Room of Requirement. Gibbs showed them to the morgue where their daughter lay on a cold slab. He waited outside with everyone else.

"Abby has started looking for the poison," Ziva informed as she came out of the lab. "I was just dropping off more evidence," she explained before heading out the door again, back down to the Great Hall.

"Is that what you think it is, then? Poison?" McGonagall queried.

"Yes," Ducky said from the bull pen. "She had no bruises, no cuts, and no puncture wounds from a needle. It had to have been something she ingested. You should get her friends in here, Jethro. Knowing how long the poison had been in her system will help Abby narrow things down."

"Once the Clearwaters have gone," Gibbs said. He looked through the window of the morgue doors. Mrs. Clearwater was crying once again, and her husband was hugging her to him, tears sliding down his own cheeks.

"If you're going to punch a wall again, fix the hole you made first," Jenny said blankly.

"It doesn't fit," Gibbs said suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Jenny asked.

"It just doesn't fit! The pattern was half, pure, Muggle. Now it's suddenly turned to half, Muggle. It's not right!"

"We don't know that there was a pattern to begin with, Jethro!"

"There's always a pattern!" Gibbs huffed. "Something isn't right!" He stomped off to the lab.

Ducky sighed. "One of those gut feelings, again."

"I hope his gut's wrong," Jenny said, sitting down at Ziva's desk.

"We don't even know what his gut's telling him this time."

"You don't," Jenny told Ducky, raising an eyebrow at him. "You've apparently forgotten how to speak Gibbs."

Ducky smiled. "Well, it's a very complicated language, Director!"

Jenny grinned back briefly. "Jethro doesn't think that it's the same person."

"You… you don't mean two killers?" McGonagall gasped.

"If Gibbs is right – "

"Which, unfortunately, he usually is, - "

"Then yes," Jenny said heavily. "There are."

"Which doubles our workload," Ducky sighed.

"What makes you think that there are two culprits?" Dumbledore questioned, sounding saddened, but fairly calm.

Ducky leaned forward on Tony's desk and folded his hands. "As Jethro said, there's the lack of pattern. Secondly, I can't think of a poison that would cause a girl to cough up so much blood in such a quick amount of time."

"We don't know how long the poison had been in her, though!" Jenny pointed out.

Ducky looked thoughtful for a moment. "The other day," he said to the teachers, "we went through a potions class. What kinds of things do the children do in that class?"

"The students learn about items that have magical properties and how to properly use them in making potions," Dumbledore patiently explained.

"And what can these potions do?" Ducky continued inquiring.

"You can find a potion to do most anything."

"Include poison someone?"

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Elaborating on my first point of breaking pattern," Ducky said, "why use a method to kill that is used in both worlds? Thus far, there have only been our methods used. Shooting, stabbing, drowning, and who knows what was supposed to be in store for Miss Madley. Also, poisoning is a hands-off method, usually used by women as opposed to men, who seem to prefer hands-on killing."

Jenny took it in. Ducky had a valid point.

Gibbs came out of Abby's, looking unhappier than he had before. He slammed himself down into his chair. "Nothing yet. Are the Clearwaters gone?"

"No," Ducky answered, "but this isn't exactly something one can rush, Jethro!"

Gibbs stood up and began heading towards the door. "If they're not done in five minutes, get them out!" The door slammed shut before Ducky could argue.

Professor McGonagall hissed in displeasure.

"Minerva," Dumbledore cautioned.

"I don't care, Albus! I'm tired of it! That is what you've been making me put up with the past three weeks!" McGonagall seemed to burst at the seams. Her lips went so thin they almost disappeared, and her eyes blazed as she glared at her boss.

Jenny and Ducky glanced at each other across the bull pen.

"This is something we shall discuss later," Dumbledore came back with.

"That's what you've said every time I've brought it up! I – "

"Enough!" Dumbledore said forcefully. Anger flashed briefly behind his half-moon spectacles.

Professor McGonagall huffed and crossed her arms, but didn't say anything more of the matter.

"I know it's not as good as the real thing," Jenny began, "but I apologize on Gibbs' behalf. He's not very good with people once they get into and beyond the teenage years."

McGonagall scoffed. "He does well with children, then?"

"Oh, you have no idea," Jenny said seriously.

Ducky looked at his watch and then heaved himself out of his chair. "I do hate walking in on moments like these," he sighed. The man straightened his lab coat and walked into his morgue to convince the grieving parents they had to leave their daughter's side.


Author's Note

Next Chapter - Poison

You know... I had a really long author's not typed out, but I decided to erase it. Why? Because it took away the mystery of things! So i'm just going to skip straight to asking you to review! :D