AN: one shot written for the QLFC season 8 round 9

Position prompt: BEATER 1: BEATER 1: [Joining a team] Your character doesn't want to do this alone! They've joined a team that could use their unique skill-set to further their goal/s (whether this is good, evil, or neutral is up to you

Additional prompts used:

Prompt : [character] Bellatrix Lestrange

Beta-d by: B. Weasley; Aya Diefair

WC: 2189

Written for Hogwarts Auction: serial killer AU!

Serial Killer AU! And Muggle AU!

Warnings: description of murder crime scenes.

M.O. : Modus operandi (killers signature)

Hermione looked at the pages in front of her, once again she had a mountain of cases in front of her and she had to pick the next one to go and help. Hermione loved her job and had been happy to advance to team leader, especially at such a young age, but she had underestimated the amount of paperwork. Declining cases was harder than expected.

Just as Hermione was about to open the next file, her phone started to ring. "Hermione Granger speaking."

"Hello Hermione, it's Penelope here. I've just had a call from London. Have you looked at the case file they sent you yet?" The voice on the other side said.

"Hi Penelope, you mean the one in central London? I've got it right in front of me." Hermione opened the folder as she spoke. Her eyes quickly skimmed the pages. "Three murders. One in April, one in August, and one in October. Looks like things are escalating."

Hermione heard a "hmm" from the other side of the phone. "Have you seen the second page yet?" Penelope asked before Hermione could make any further comments.

Hermione, who was in the process of lifting the page, raised her eyebrows. Penelope didn't usually ask about cases they didn't pick up yet unless she wanted them to. When reading the second page, she realised why. "Possibly nine previous murders between 1972 and 1980. That's 25 years ago. Why do they think it's the same person?" Hermione asked, quickly skimming through the next pages.

As Penelope started to answer, Hermione saw Harry Potter walking in the direction of her office. It didn't take long for Hermione to manage to catch his eye and wave him over. Hermione closed the file as Harry entered the office, passing the file over. Quietly grabbing the folder, Harry took the folder and sat down. Hermione could see his eyes widen as he read through the file.

"We'll leave in the morning, I'll let the team know. Can you let the London team know?" Hermione finished her conversation and hung up the phone.

"So, Potter. What do you think?"

"I'm thinking I need better pictures of the crime scenes."

Hermione nodded, but just as she was about the answer, her mobile phone rang. She received it when she started the job, but occasionally she wanted to bin it. Ever since being available all the time, people phoned and expected her to answer all the time.

"Hermione Granger," She answered the phone while holding her hand up to stall Potter. "Yes, we were planning on leaving tomorrow morning, arriving around 10."

"Now? Okay, we're on our way." Hermione hung up her phone and put it in her bag. "Change of plans, we're leaving now." Potter stood up and grabbed the folder, already making his way to the door to grab his bag.

"Weasley!" Hermione called from her office door. "Be ready to leave in 5." Without waiting for a reply, Hermione went to grab a quick toilet break and a strong coffee to get her through the ride to London.

*hphphp*

She knew the bodies had been found, but she just cackled. One more practise murder and her sister would die. The black-haired woman looked at the scene from afar. This murder had been perfect. With a last look at the house, she turned around and disappeared into the surrounding darkness.

*hphphp*

Despite the late hour, Hermione spotted the house where they had to be immediately. The blue and red sirens were a dead give-away. Slowly parking as close as she could possibly get. As soon as the car was at a stop, both agents Potter and Weasley got out of the car and started heading towards the crime scene. Hermione got out at a slower pace and looked around. More often than not, criminals would stay to watch the chaos they created, so Hermione had learned from early on to observe the observers.

A tall man with dark blond hair made his way to Hermione. "Are you Agent Granger?"

Hermione nodded. "My team members, Potter and Weasley, are looking around."

This time it was the males turn to nod. "I'm PC Diggory. Thanks for coming so quickly. We were prepared for another murder soon, but not this soon," he replied. "I'll show you the crime scene, any questions feel free to ask."

Hermione nodded, but followed quietly.

The downstairs of the house looked normal. Every single item was in its place and Hermione couldn't help but notice the keys hanging from a hook next to the front door. It was the first thing Hermione had changed when she started to study crime, her keys never hung by the front door anymore. As Hermione followed PC Diggory upstairs, she started to notice the smell of cleaning liquid. It didn't look like DNA would be a big help on this case.

As Hermione arrived at the bedroom door, she could see the amount of people were limited. Good, less people to mess up evidence. She also noticed the medical examiner closing a second body bag.

"Two bodies, the documents only spoke of one body at each scene," Hermione inquired, looking around the room. The bed covers had been removed, and at the four corners of the bed, ropes were fastened. Long ropes at the foot end, but short ones were at the top where the arms would be. Splatters of deep red blood were slowly turning brown on the floor. Facing towards the bed was a chair with duct tape on the front legs.

Diggory nodded. "In the previous murders, the husbands were found drugged but alive. Dr Abbott, our medical examiner, will have to tell us if this was an accident or on purpose."

"But the rest was the same?" Hermione inquired.

Diggory nodded once again. "Both feet were chopped off, and the husband was placed so he would have seen everything. What we don't know is if the husband was still alive to witness everything or if he had died before his wife."

"Thank you. Once my teammates have finished looking around, we'll leave you to it for tonight." With a nod, Hermione left the room. As she wandered around the house, she could hear Harry and Ron talking not too far off. Hermione wasn't too worried about not hearing them, they would update her in the car. Hermione ended up making her way to the front door at the same time as her two teammates came down the stairs.

*hphphp*

Her knife had to be cleaned, she liked the colour red, but after so long it turned brown. The red of the blood made her eyes shine. She would get revenge on her sister. The knife was held under the water for a second time, more stains came off the knife, turning the running water into a light red colour that she liked to watch swirl around before it went round the drain.

With her knife clean, she finally put her kit away, she would need it again soon. One more practise and her sister would die. The murder would be perfect, and the husband would die. It was, after all, his fault that her sister left.

*hphphp*

Hermione, Ron and Harry sat in a small room, just off the big work area.

"So, what do we have up till now?" Hermione asked as she looked at the whiteboard on the wall filled with all their information.

It was Harry who started them off: "Looking at the crime scene photos from now and 25 years ago, I would say it's the same person. We have the same M.O. of the feet being cut off. Where we notice an increase of effort in the first nine murders, we see a decrease now, but if it is the same person, they have aged 25 years. They are likely to be weaker now. The amount of torture seems to have stayed the same, just been applied differently.

"The M.O. has totally changed as in the murders used to happen somewhere unlocated, but staged in a motel. Now, both the murder and the staging is happening in the couples own home, but that could just be strength issues," Potter finished.

Ron nodded. "I agree, I'm seeing things that are pointing to the same person but with an age increase. By not moving the bodies, the killer is making it easier on him or herself. It is half the work.

"The first nine victims were in the start of their twenties, easy to move, but unlikely to have a home for themselves. However, I feel like we're missing something about the victims. What connects these victims to our nine previous victims?" Ron asked.

Hermione looked over the profile of the different victims in front of her. "All 4 new victims had an older and a younger sibling? Is it the same for the victims from 25 years ago?"

Ron and Harry quickly leafed through the notes in front of them, nodding as they went.

"Yes," They both replied at the same time.

"Every single one of them?" Hermione asked, not believing that this had been previously missed. She got a nod from both guys.

Hermione walked up to their profile board. "Okay, so this is what we have: most likely over 50, probably has two siblings. Most likely that they are either both older or both younger. The way the killer has always gone for the middle sibling means they are probably transferring their anger."

Harry looked over his notes. "Looking at these pictures, the killer was escalating and then they suddenly stopped. That doesn't feel like a voluntary stop. I would hesitate to guess that they were forced to stop for some reason."

Ron nodded. "I think we need the blood report to see if anything was present in the bodies and we need to figure out if our killer is male or female. I would guess female at this point. Our next step would be checking out who wasn't around for the past 25 years and just returned, either voluntary or involuntary."

*hphphp*

The house was empty. People made it so easy to enter. She would have no problem getting the drugs in. Why people had a routine, she didn't know, but it worked to her advantage. In 20 minutes the couple would arrive home, the female would grab a glass of water before bed and the male a glass of wine. Drugging the water and wine bottle was just so easy.

The sound of the key in the front door made her pay attention again, she had her tape ready and her knives set out. Patience was all she needed now. Slowly let them come upstairs, let them go to bed. Only a few more minutes and they will be asleep. Not long before her knife would be dripping in red blood again before she saw the fear in the husband's eyes as the light left the eyes of his wife. Served them right.

*hphphp*

Hermione's phone rang, just as she was about to take her first sip of the day's coffee. "Hermione Granger speaking.

"Yes?

"Coming."

Hermione shook her head at her colleagues as they were about the grab breakfast. "No time, sorry. We've got another murder."

With a quick look at the breakfast buffy, both boys followed Hermione to the car.

"Diggory said it's basically the same as last time. He can't see any differences. But he has promised not to move the bodies until after we arrive."

As they were staying in London, it didn't take them long to arrive at the crime scene. Most of the house lay in the same position and everything was nice and tidy. It was only in the bedroom that it was obvious that something was wrong. A female from around the mid-50s was tied up on her bed, her feet lying on the floor just below where they should have been. Red blood lay in a pool around the feet. The husband was tied up in a chair, watching the bed. His eyes were wide open, and the pupils were wider than expected. Hermione wasn't sure if it was fright, pain, or drugs that had caused the effect, but she did know that she would need to find out soon. This had been the Second murder in November, and if the killer's past had any significance, someone would be killed in December.

The main question would be, is the killer going for his or her intended victim next time, or would it be another random victim to stand in for the true object of anger. Hermione hoped she wouldn't need to find out.

*hphphp*

The murder had gone perfect. She didn't need any more practice. The last two murders had gone off without a hitch, and no differences. She had found out how she wanted to murder her sister.

Next week is her wedding anniversary, the day everything changed for her, the day she got trapped because her sister ran away. On the day that ruined her life, she would take her sister's life.