Lucius enjoyed his afternoon delights with Hermione, and it hopefully ensnared her to his plans. Severus once again became suspicious of Lucius' attentions toward her, and unfortunately, Lucius and Hermione's engagement caught the attention of the wrong person. Another student was attacked, thankfully this time not fatally, and Severus took a direct approach to trying to find the elusive miscreant. Will he figure it all out in time?

Murder, Magic, Mayhem, and Madness

This is a murder mystery—but this time I gave you a reprieve. No one dies in this chapter.

November Dwindles

When Severus entered the staff room, there were a several angry faces. Professor McGonagall tried to speak to him first. "Not, now, Minerva," he said, sweeping up to the front of the room.

He began sticking the parchments to the wall as he spoke. "There has been another threat to a student, one that thankfully was found before the student was harmed. The writing was in a book, in red ink with a double broad tip." He turned and faced everyone, setting the book down on the table so they could see the writing. "These are all written with either a thin or medium quill tip. The ink on half of them is the same type of ink. The writing is the same on a few of the messages, but slightly different between all of the examples. Nevertheless, I still think that the same student wrote them, or had someone else write the ones that are different. I have reasons to believe this student is in sixth- or seventh-year, but could very well be a gifted fifth-year, although I doubt that. Each page has notations: what type of ink, quill size, where it was found, and…" He laid a roll of parchment flat on the surface of a small table. "Here is a breakdown of my own comparisons. I want you to examine them, and if you can identify the writing, I want to know who it is. And no, you are to tell me, not discuss this with the student. I want to know—even if it's speculation. I want this student stopped before another is hurt or dies."

"You really think a student is doing all this?" Minerva asked, nearly drowned out by the other professors' remarks.

"I do not believe the vandalism and these riddles and threats were perpetrated by any of you or an Auror, and I certainly didn't do it. The Portraits and house-elves assure me that there have been no intruders in these halls, and that they haven't seen anyone suspicious. Anything unusual they do see is brought to my attention immediately. I have increased the wards to allow only staff and students to pass through the major doorways to and from the castle, or to enter the Great Hall, common rooms and the library. It is why I enacted the strict dress code that students must wear their school robes at all times, the only exception being their common rooms, and insisted that you all wear your professional teaching robes with the school crest on them. The wards I placed on the castle and doors recognize the school badges; they are the same spells the Dark Lord used that only recognized the Dark Mark. Only Mr. Anderson, Mr. Rolfe, Mr. Greenwich, and Mr. Khalsa have been given school badges, the other Aurors have to be allowed to pass. Now only you here know of the spells, and of course the few Aurors assigned to the school, and they have been sworn to secrecy."

He leaned forward, his hands pressed firmly on the table. "So yes, I believe that it is a student doing this. I want this student found and stopped. I need you to look very carefully at the writing and compare it to the students' handwriting. I need your help if I'm going to catch this killer."

Pomona sank into a chair, gaping at him. Three others looked at him as if they couldn't believe a student could possibly do these things. Professor Flitwick moved a chair closer to the wall to examine the handwriting, and Professors Scythe, Perrimont, Vector, and Hooch leaned around him to examine the parchments as well.

Professor McGonagall studied Severus' parchment on the table. "You know there is a spell to change one's writing," she said softly. "I could look up the detection spell if you like."

Severus smiled at her. "Dumbledore already told me about it and I've checked. The narrowed writing on the lyrics to the song Scarborough Fair, and the writing on the story of the boy in the well were disguised by the spell. Several of the messages or riddles were written the same ink. I'm certain that whoever is doing this has written all of them."

"Headmaster," Miss Perrimont said, turning around, "I recognize this one. The, er, poem…"

Severus turned around to face her. "Yes?" She was pointing to the chorus of the song, One Tin Soldier.

"It's one of the Slytherin first-years, Micheline Brigstock; I recognize her writing." Severus walked over as Miss Perrimont spoke. "She's a shy girl, one of the Muggle-borns in Slytherin. Her mother is an herbalist. She says she doesn't know who her father is. She comes to my office frequently, but she's a sweet girl."

"With whom does she hang around?" Severus asked.

"Charlotte Travers," Miss Perrimont stated. "They are thick as thieves, those two. You'd think they were sisters."

Thaddeus Travers' daughter, friends with a Muggle-born? "Are you sure?" Severus asked.

Miss Perrimont nodded. "Oh, yes, I'm sure. I recognize her handwriting."

Severus thanked her, asking that she keep a close eye on the girls, and addressed the others in the room. "Please let me know if any of you recognize the other handwriting. I'm sorry to have delayed you from your classes." He watched as the professors left, a few giving the parchments a final scrutiny before going.

Micheline… Micheline… wasn't that Thaddeus Travers' mother's name? he thought as he mentally filed the new information away, reminding himself to read the girl's file more carefully.

As the professors began to file out for class, house-elves began popping in, filling the staff room. Severus looked up, amazed. "We finish searching the rooms, Headmaster, sir," a stout male elf said with a bow.

"We checks everywhere, just as you askes us to, sir," a large female stated.

Severus nodded. "And did you find anything?"

"We did, Headmaster, sir!" another female answered. "We finds the ink like you asked us, sir." Ninety hands shot up in the air, each holding the pretty ink bottles.

Severus groaned as he shook his head. That meant that slightly more than one third of the female student body had that ink. I have to narrow this down. "Those of you holding up your hand, how many of those students who have the ink I asked you to find also use red ink? Please keep your hand up."

Half the elves lowered their hands.

"How many of those students that have the ink I'm looking for are fifth-year or above? Keep your hand up," he tried next.

Thirty-three elves still had their hands held straight up in the air. "All right, those who have your hands down, you may go. Please make sure that the ink is returned to the exact place you found it and that the student's things are where they should be. Those of you who still have your hands up, please stay."

The room suddenly sounded as if someone had set off wizarding popcorn. The remaining thirty-three looked at Severus with varying degrees of anticipation, as if he was playing a game with them.

"Now, if you will please group yourselves by house," Severus said, then started pointing to the corners of the room, "Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin."

Fifteen elves scattered to the corner he'd pointed to when he'd said Gryffindor, five had hurried over to the Ravenclaw corner, twelve to Slytherin and one to the Hufflepuffs corner. Severus pulled a fresh piece of parchment from his pocket. He pointed to the lone elf standing in the Hufflepuff corner. "Which student had the ink?"

The elf came forward. "Tully knows she is a prefect, sir, in sixth-year. Her bed is by the door, sir." Severus made a notation and looked up at the Ravenclaw corner.

One elf scurried over to him without needing to be asked, and the other elves quickly formed a queue behind him. "Inise finds this in the sixth-year girls' room, second bed from the door. Inise doesn't know the girl's name," the elf said, her ears drooping. "Inise will punish herself as soon as she returns to the kitchen, Headmaster, sir."

"That won't be necessary. Professor Flitwick can tell me the girl's name by what you've given me." Severus looked up. "Each of you just tell me what you can. Anything will be helpful."

The next elf stepped forward. "Quince finds this in the sixth-year girl's room too. Her bed is the third bed on the right. Quince knows she plays Quidditch and has a Puffskein, sir. Quince thinks her name is Victoria Secret, Headmaster, sir. She stitches it in all her knickers, sir."

Severus suppressed his smirk and wrote down the relevant information. As the elves came forward, Severus quickly jotted down the name, if the elf knew it, the year of the girl, location of the student's bed, and any other tidbit that seemed useful. He would compare this information with each Head of House and check the student files, after he returned to Minerva's office to check the school registry again. He knew that he could eliminate every student on the list who was a Muggle-born or who had fought in the war defending the castle from the Dark Lord. At least now he had somewhere to begin his search.

~oo0oo~

The next afternoon, Severus was sitting at Slughorn's desk, reading through of a stack student files. The Aurors had thirty on their list of suspects, Severus had narrowed his list of suspects down to nineteen: twelve from Slytherin, four from Gryffindor, and nine from Ravenclaw. He was considering whether any of the Slytherins could be discounted as likely suspects when Mr. Arnold Dorsey walked in and handed Severus a page from a Potions book.

"Door was open… Anyway, I found this tacked up on the frame of the bunch of ballerinas on the seventh floor, just off the stairs," he said.

Severus recognized the page as being the directions of an old unused Fertility Elixir. Copperhead snake venom, which was listed as a main ingredient, was circled in iridescent black ink. "Did any of the students see this?" he asked.

"Don't think so," Mr. Dorsey replied, shaking his head. "I'd just been to the common room, and had walked the corridor earlier. I was on my way back down when them ballerinas came looking for me. They were in the Fat Lady's frame… I didn't see it on my way up, so it was placed there while I was walking my rounds."

"Did the ballerinas see who did this?" Severus asked, looking at the knife the Auror had placed on the desk. Another potions knife.

"Nah. Said they was tying their slippers. When it hit their frame, it made them all look up," Mr. Dorsey stated. "Whoever did this probably used a Repelling Charm or Throwing Hex. That's my guess."

"Thank you," Severus said, setting down the knife and page to add to his growing pile. "Ask the other paintings if anyone was seen on the stairs."

"Did that. The only ones seen on the stairs beside myself were the students from Gryffindor, Professor McGonagall, and a large, fluffy, bandy-legged cat."

Disillusioned, perhaps? "Go back and ask if they heard anyone leaving the scene. Question each painting," Severus said, trying to keep his irritation from showing. "This is in the middle of the day. Someone must have seen, smelled, or heard something." He stood to follow the Auror out of his office. "I'll have Minerva talk to the cat."

~oo0oo~

Hermione had been walking down the crowded corridor wondering why everyone was snickering at her. She had tripped twice on the stairs leading down to the sixth floor, again on the stairs to the fifth and fourth floors, and if it hadn't been for her friends she would've had a horrible fall each time. It was like she had a Tripping Hex on her, but Ginny checked and didn't detect one. Hermione was sure that the other students were snickering at her, a few were even pointing. That and the charm on her bracelet was still vibrating. She had stopped to look at her back in a windowpane and there wasn't anything stuck to her. The Sneakoscope on her bracelet had been humming softly since she'd started to descend the stairs, so she knew something was up. She cast a reversal spell to dispel any disillusioned items on her and still saw nothing. Hermione waved her friends on, opting to go to the loo before class to look at her back properly in a mirror, even though Margery and Ginny had tried to assure her there wasn't anything tacked to her back.

As she neared the loo, a second-year girl tapped her on her arm, blushing when Hermione turned to face her. "Pardon me, Miss Granger, but did you know you have a snake stuck to your shoe?"

Hermione looked down. It was a snakeskin; perfect and undamaged as if the snake had simply slithered out of it as if it were a sock. A whole skin, about two and a half feet long with what would be the mouth, clamped firmly to her heel. "Thank you," she said trying to shake it off.

"No problem," the girl said, smiling. "Bye."

Hermione scowled at the childish prank, but she couldn't remove the skin from her shoe. She slipped off her shoe and tried pulling the skin off and felt a gooey substance inside, recognizing bubotuber pus. She vanished the pus away easily so she wouldn't get any on her fingers as she struggled with the skin. The normally fragile skin was surprisingly resilient and strong, and she couldn't even tear it. "Problems, Miss Granger?" the soft velvety tone of Severus Snape made her look up.

"I seem to be the target of a prank," she replied, dropping her bag so she could use her wand more easily on her shoe. The corridor was emptying as everyone hurried off to classes.

Severus chuckled and took her shoe from her grasp. "Allow me," he said confidently. However it took several spells to dislodge the skin. "This is a copperhead."

Hermione looked up confused by the tone of his voice. "Pardon?"

"The snakeskin, it's from a copperhead… When did you first notice it was attached to your shoe?"

"Right here. Just now. Another student was kind enough…" she answered, distracted as a few students hurried by, running late for lessons.

"Do you have any idea when or where this prank originated?" he clarified his question drawing her attention.

"I was attracting attention on the stairs because I tripped a few times, but I thought it was a Tripping Hex. I only noticed the snakeskin because it was pointed out to me…" She paused and stared at him, noting the grave expression he was trying to conceal. "It's more than a prank, isn't it?"

He turned his head to watch the last straggler run past, and Hermione inhaled sharply. "I first noticed the snickers when I was walking down the six floor corridor."

"From?" he asked, obviously wanting more information.

"The common room. Why?" she asked, holding out her hand for her shoe.

Severus nodded. giving her the shoe but kept the snakeskin. "May I keep this?"

Hermione bent over, nodding as she put her shoe on, and Severus inhaled sharply. Hermione looked up realizing that he was staring at her, and noticed just how close she'd been leaning toward him. He quickly looked away, but she saw a slight flush to his usually pale cheeks. When she stood up, Hermione momentarily lost her balance, and Severus pulled her to him in his strong grip, helping to steady her on her feet, and she grasped his robes. Seconds ticked as they stood there, holding onto one another, looking at each other in surprise. Hermione could feel the tingle in her skin and the rush in her blood as her heart quickened just from being this close to him. Everything else around her just seemed to fade, except for him.

For a brief second, Severus hands loosened his grip on her arms and almost seemed to caress her, before he pushed her back at arm's length. "Hermione, I can't…"

"I miss you," she said, knowing that at this moment she wanted him, this unattainable wizard.

He looked at her face, and his eyes darkened. "I…"

"Need you," she finished for him, trying to rise on her toes to kiss him. It was brazen and bold, being in the middle of the corridor, but she didn't care. She had feelings for him she'd forcibly suppressed ever since those days in the hospital, but at this moment they were flooding through her. This was the wizard she'd come to know, care about and love. Their eye contact became a connection, tangible and real, with unspoken words and feelings passing between them. Not knowing who leaned into whom or who kissed whom first, their lips crashed into each other's in a desperately needy kiss.

She hissed from the sharp pain that radiated from her hand to her neck and into her skull.

"What is it?" he asked, shoving her away at arm's length, this time in concern.

"My ring, it burns," she replied, gripping her wrist and shaking her hand.

He saw the elegant engagement ring on her finger. "When did you get this?"

Hermione gasped as the pain seemed to pulse. "Last weekend—in Hogsmeade. Lucius met me…"

"Lucius?" he asked, his tone suspicious.

"Yes, my fiancé," she admitted.

"Since when has he been your fiancé?" he asked angrily.

Hermione was surprised at the sharpness of his anger and had to think a moment to answer him. "Since the twenty-eighth of August, actually."

"And when did you and Mr. Malfoy—senior—start this affair?" he asked sharply.

She looked up to her right, deeply contemplating, stammering, "After… I remember… the week after—no, that was only dinner. It was… Oh yes, he asked me on the eighteenth of August," Hermione said, and then lowered her head. "Just after…"

"You started dating Lucius Malfoy on eighteenth of August?" Severus asked incredulously. "Were in a serious dating relationship with Lucius Malfoy before I was released from the hospital?"

"NO! I'd only seen him twice before that. We bumped into each other a few times," she said, suddenly realizing how quickly her relationship with Lucius had progressed.

"But you became engaged on twenty-eighth of August?" he asked again, his brow creasing like it did when he was concentrating on a problem.

She shook her head to concentrate on his question rather than the adorable way he looked when deep in thought. "We—I accepted his proposal, so yes, we were betrothed. He made it formal this last weekend."

His eyes narrowed into a scowl. "You were betrothed to him in only ten days? You started to see him socially—two days before I was released from the hospital? Only two days after you and I…"

Hermione looked up at him, startled. "The day you shot me down! Yes! I love you. You were always telling me you had no feelings for me and never would. I told you I loved you and bared my soul to you, and you sneered at me for it! You said I was wasting my time pining for you like some idiotic schoolgirl with a crush, and you had no intent of feeding into my delusional fantasy. You said I was the bane of your existence, an insufferable irritation, the thorn in your side. I thought I could change your mind, make you see that I cared for you—you! That I love you. And then you hexed me—me! You said you wanted me to leave you alone and tried to literally throw me out. You hexed me out of your room. SO I DID! I left you alone!"

She tried to turn away from him and he grasped her arm. Without thinking, he yanked her to him and kissed her, pressing her against the wall. At first she stood rigid; her arms were held firmly to her sides, being that she was pressed between him and the wall. But then she was hungrily kissing him back, her hands grasping his waist since that was as far as she could considering how he had her pinned. Their kiss deepened, became passionate, then desperate as he embraced her. She wrapped her arms around him, and then she cried out in pain again. He leaned back, seeing real tears of pain in her eyes.

"My hand, my finger… is inflamed! It hurts so, let me go!" she cried out, clutching not her hand but her head.

"Take it off," he ordered, in his most demanding professor's voice as she cried in agony. "Take your ring off."

She tried to remove the ring. "I CAN'T! It's shrinking!"

Severus felt a wave of fear, deep concern, and he hoped he was wrong in his conclusions. "Come with me," he said, grabbing her wrist and dragging her to his quarters. He pulled her past the gargoyle and into his office. He ignored her protests and questions, determined to discover what curse had been put on her ring. The portraits began chiding and reprimanding him, but Severus wasn't listening as he dragged Hermione up to his private quarters. He deposited her in a chair before he went to retrieve his Dark Arts tools.

He returned carrying a rock engraved with hundreds of ancient protection runes and what looked like an Archeologists tool roll. He placed the rock on the coffee table and told her sharply to place her hand on the rock. The moment her hand touched the rough surface, she exclaimed with relief that the vibrating stopped and the ring seemed to become the right size again. Severus nodded grimly, knowing what that meant. The ring was cursed, and not just the Adulterine, Unfaithful-Detection, or Philandering-Impeding Charms either. "Retectum," he said, sharply flicking his wand. Shite. Nothing? "Retexi Incantatem," he said with more determination. The Celtic pattern on the band shifted and Hermione jerked her hand away in pain. What the fuck?

Hermione gasped in alarm at the varied rods, instruments, and probes as he unrolled his Dark Arts implements.Severus selected a fourteen-inch implement that resembled a divining rod. He took hold of her hand, placing it back on the rock, holding the shaft of the rod with the other so the forked branches hovered over Hermione's hand. "Comperio… discere," he said, his soft, velvety voice melodious. Severus saw within the Celtic design were the words: Mine, blood, body, heart, mind, and soul. He suppressed his reaction as he looked to see if Hermione had seen the words, and smirked at her stunned expression. "You have a binding spell on you as well as the curses of the ring."

She looked up at him worried. "Is it… can you?"

"Yes, I can." He selected from his tool roll a particularly gnarled rod that was made of both the horn of a graphorn and a blackened twig, grossly intertwined and interwoven. "This will hurt, but remain still and trust me," he said sternly as he knelt down in beside her.

Hermione nodded, terrified.

"Adulterare Impietas—atis: Proditio—onis…" Severus muttered softly as the rod glowed as it passed over the ring. "Dissolvere IncantatemFinite Devotum."

The dark red surrounding the rod intensified. The ring vibrated. The color of the glow around the rod became the brown color of dried blood and changed to a sickly puce color. The ring tightened and heated. Hermione cried out in pain, but Severus pressed her hand down firmly onto the rock. The ring shuddered, and Hermione screamed again. Severus forced his entire concentration on maintaining the spell and on Hermione's reactions. One slip, and the spell would rebound, and his own counter-curse would hit both of them with horrible effects. He watched as the sickly glow now engulfed her entire hand up past her wrist, and she reached out with her other hand to grab his forearm. He focused his entire attention on the ring, holding the force of the spell on the one object, the ring, as she screamed again and again. Her screams nearly echoed in the room but he forcefully directed his energy toward one particular point of purpose.

Sweat beaded on his upper lip and forehead. She tied to pull away with all her might as she screamed in pain, and he clamped his hand down on her wrist with all his strength as he forcefully maintained the spell's magical connection between the rod and the ring. Hermione lurched back again, the table was jarred, the room was beginning to spin, but he didn't allow it to distract him. Too much was a stake. With one final scream of agony, this time from both the ring and Hermione, the glow changed, this time to a soft blue, and she slumped onto the table.

Severus struggled to release the spell slowly, forcing it to subside while watching the glow still pulsating on the graphorn horn and blackroot rod. He set down the rod, his shoulders aching, his body drenched in sweat and feeling as if all his strength had left him. He picked up her hand and the ring slid easily from her finger.

Severus fell back against the sofa, gasping for air.

"What happened?" Hermione gasped, practically falling on top of him.

He didn't know how long he'd sat like this. His legs were going numb. "Go," he breathed, unable to say more.

"What?"

"Go. Now," he said as the room begun to spin. "Hermione, please."

As soon as the ring had screamed and the glow had turned blue, Hermione felt the release. It could only be described as the lessening of the pain following childbirth. Not that she knew what that was like, but she'd read about it. She had slumped onto the coffee table, her hand still held firmly by Severus. When he slumped back against the sofa, she'd sat up, looking at him, worried by what she saw. She had tried grabbing Severus as he collapsed, but his weight took her down with him. He order for her to leave was strangled and so soft, as if it took all his effort just to say those few words.

"Please, wake up! Can any of you in the office hear me? I need Madam Pomfrey!" she yelled to the portraits below. "Please, can anyone of you go get her?"

She summoned a house-elf, praying one would appear, nearly wanting to hug the tiny female when she did. "I need Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall. Oh, and do you know Justin Fletch-Fletchley, the Head Boy in Hufflepuff?" she asked and the elf nodded. "I need him desperately, and Ginny Weasley, too, please. Hurry!"

She struggled to prop Severus up, straightened his legs, but he still grasped her hand tightly, and she couldn't break his grip. She could hear Professor McGonagall's voice in the office below just before the elf reappeared, holding onto Justin and Ginny's hands. "Ginny, there was an infidelity curse on my ring. Severus broke it. He said, Adulterare Impre… Impietatis, I think, and Proditonis…" Severus muttered softly, and she looked at him, then turned her attention to her friends. "The spell he used to break it was Dissolvere Incantatem and Finite Devotum. I need to know what they are so I can know if he was hit with a rebounding effect. Can you help me?"

"What if they are in the Restricted Section?" Justin asked.

Professor McGonagall stepped into the middle of the room. "Then I'll have to give you a pass. But I don't think they are. Those sound like Dark Charms or Dark Arts… ones Severus used to help Dumbledore before." Everyone turned to look at her. "I heard what you said, Miss Granger, and I appreciate your level-headed, quick thinking. You three start researching, and I'll see Headmaster Snape to bed."

November continues ~

~~oooo0oooo~~

Author's Notes:

In one interview JKR said that there were 1000 students at Hogwarts, and in another she said there was about 600. However, she also said at one point that there were 40 students in Harry's year.

So, okay, I used a calculator and figured that with 10 to 12 students each year per house, possibly as many as 13, there were at least 70 to 91 students per house per year.

Using this logic, there might be somewhere between 40 to 52 students per year at Hogwarts, times 7 is about 280 to 364 students attending Hogwarts.

If half of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were Muggle-born, and say a third of Ravenclaw were, then there were about 35 to 45 Gryffindors returning, the same number of Hufflepuffs, and 23 to 30 Ravenclaws returning. If they all returned, that is.

That means 373 to 484 students in Hogwarts, plus those graduated seventh years who might have returned to retake their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s in Defense and Muggle Studies. So I used the higher number and rounded it up to a good even 500 students for this story.

The source of the Latin used: . site Any mistakes in the Latin are my own.

retexi – retectum: to uncover, reveal, open, disclose.

comperio: to find out, discover, gain certain information of.

discere: to learn, get to know, to receive information, find out; to become acquainted with, learn to recognize.

proditio –onis: betrayal, treason.

impietas –atis: undutifulness; impiety, disloyalty.

devoveo -vovere -vovi –votum: to consecrate, devote. esp. to a god, or to death; to curse, execrate; to bewitch, enchant

Many thanks to my betas, Pookah and MadBrilliant, for helping me clean up my many mistakes. I really appreciate it more than you can possibly know. I'd be ashamed to show my story to anyone without your invaluable help.