Title: Strings of Fate
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Being raised only by his Aunt, Harry comes to Hogwarts not only knowing about the Wizarding World, but with a kind of training no one at the school is expecting.
Amelia has set up her Command Centre in one of the abandoned Staff Offices. Senior Auror Moody she kept with her to help organise the operation, and to keep him from completely freaking out the Students. The crime scene had been completely contained and two of the Investigations Aurors were still at the crime scene, along with former Auror and Ghost Alphonse Nestor, collecting evidence. The remaining ten Investigations Aurors were split up searching the Students Dorms, along with the four Trainees. Three Aurors and a Trainee were assigned to search each of the Slytherin and Gryffindor Dorms with two Aurors and a Trainee assigned to Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. West, Smith and Tonks were assigned to the Hufflepuff Dorms, as even now the Secret of the Hufflepuff Dorms was still paramount to all the former Hufflepuffs, Amelia included. The remaining two Aurors, both from Intelligence Division, were researching what could possibly have caused the petrification effect.
Amelia and Moody were reviewing the testimony from the eyewitnesses when two of the Hogwarts Ghosts floated through the wall into the room. The Ghosts were former Auror Kennith Southerland and Helena Ravenclaw.
"Director." Southerland began. "We believe that there may be a few students who are able to assist in your investigation."
"They're kids." Moody said grumpily.
"They are very intelligent and have been working on the problem for a month." Helena replied. "Director Bones, these are not just students, they are your Niece's friends."
"Who, specifically?" Amelia asked.
"Hermione Granger, Padma Patil and Daphne Greengrass." Helena replied.
"Two Ravenclaws and a Slytherin." Amelia mused. "Alright, once they clear the search, we'll hear what they have to say."
"All of Mr Potter's circle of friends were the first to volunteer to have their belongings searched." Southerland replied. "Apart from some school contraband in the Weasley Twins belongings, nothing serious or illegal. Dung-bombs, some intriguing products to get out of class, but nothing to worry about or that could cause this."
"Alright, Moody and I will review what they got and then, if nothing jumps at us, we'll assign them to research with Jones and Teller." Amelia ordered.
Hermione, Padma and Daphne were sitting in the library across from Aurors Jones and Teller, with Director Bones standing off to the side, leaning against one of the bookcases, watching as they worked.
"After the attack on Mrs Norris, the first thing we eliminated was Potions. We had both Professor Snape and Madam Pomphrey perform a full panel for every possible potion or combination of potions. This was always unlikely as a possibility due to the timeframe of the attack. This was confirmed in the most recent attack as Sir Nicholas was petrified and potions take up to five times longer to work on Ghosts, due to ectoplasmic phase differentials." Hermione was explaining.
At the end the two Aurors were looking confused.
"Ghosts aren't quite 'here' so potions take longer to affect them." Daphne explained. "Wells, try to cut down a bit on the hard science stuff, even we have trouble following it at times."
Hermione shot Daphne as glare while Padma simply shrugged at the two Aurors.
"Next we considered Runic Arrays…" Hermione tried to continue, but Padma held up her hand to stop her.
"I don't think they need a blow by blow, Wells." Padma said, gesturing to a stack of papers two-foot-high that they had put in front of the Aurors. "They have our research notes. In the end we figured it was a magical creature. We have narrowed it down to either a Gorgon, Cockatrice or a Basilisk, though it would seem more logical that the culprit is a Basilisk over the others."
"Why do you think a Basilisk is the more logical than the others?" Teller asked.
"I thought you said they were smart." Hermione said, looking at Amelia Bones, before turning back to the two Aurors. "Gorgons are fiercely territorial, once they reach maturity they set up a lair and never leave it, relying on drawing their prey into their lair. The two attacks so far have happened in different locations, so a Gorgon is out of the question. A Cockatrice would never enter a building willingly, nor can they be coerced inside, and both attacks have occurred inside the Castle. Also, Salazar Slytherin was a noted Parslemouth, so it is logical that it would be a Basilisk."
"How did no one notice a ruddy great snake moving around the Castle." Jones asked.
"How do you get anything done?" Daphne asked Amelia.
"You have had a month to think about this. Give them a chance to absorb the information." Amelia replied.
The two Aurors began looking through the information in front of them for a few minutes.
"Wait a second." Jones said. "Teller, pass me that report on the first attack."
The three Schoolgirls just sat and smiled as Jones read quickly through the report.
"I think I got it." Jones said. "The first attack happened just outside a bathroom. Second floor, girls' bathroom. If it is using special pipes, then that would explain how it moves around unseen, especially if it was set up by Slytherin himself."
"Ok, so we have decided that it is a Basilisk." Amelia declared. "Thank you, girls, we will take over from here."
Hermione, Padma and Daphne stood up and started to leave, only for Hermione to turn back as they were about to exit.
"You might want to involve Harry in whatever you are planning." Hermione said. "Not in the operation itself, but the Castle talks to him so he may have insight into any protections that may be around the Chamber."
With that the trio left.
"Are you bloody kidding me?" Amelia asked, looking around the formerly abandoned room close to the Great Hall.
The room was occupied by a number of Aurors poking around piles of objects in different parts of the room. Each pile contained items confiscated from students, clearly tagged and labelled with who the owner was, and separated out by House. This was not items banned by the School, this was items banned by the Ministry and based on the reactions of some of the Aurors, some of the items were beyond merely banned. It did not surprise Amelia that the largest pile was confiscated from Slytherin, but two things did surprise her. The first was how big the piles were, the Slytherin pile being waist height down to the Hufflepuff pile which was ankle height, and second was that Gryffindor's pile was the second largest by a significant margin.
"Director?" One of the Aurors asked.
"Never mind." Amelia said, rubbing her temple. "Ok, I want Proudfoot, Moody, Symons, West and Teller to start going through this pile, the five Patrollers can assist them. I want a summary on the confiscated items, broken down by House and owner when they are done. I see most of this being confiscated permanently, but some may require further action. I want the rest of the Aurors in my headquarters. We know what is doing this, so we need to plan how to deal with it."
"What about the Trainees?" Moody said.
"You can have them here, if you want them." Amelia replied, shaking her head as she walked out.
TBC…