Harry and Ron were sitting at the back of their Transfiguration class the following day, not listening to a word Professor McGonagall was saying. Neither of them wanted to be there, having to listen to McGonagall, and learn things. Both of them were staring out of the window at the Whomping Willow, when there was a loud knock at the door of the classroom.
'Enter!' McGonagall called.
The door opened and in came a tall witch with short auburn hair pulled up into a tight bun. Harry recognised her as one of the three people who he had seen coming up to the school earlier.
'I'm Inspector Semaphore, I was wondering whether I could borrow Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley for a minute?'
'Of course, of course.' McGonagall muttered, waving her hand at the door absent-mindedly. 'Off you go Potter, Weasley.'
Harry and Ron got up from their desks, and followed Inspector Semaphore from the room. They were led to an empty classroom, which Ron was ushered into.
'Please may you wait here, Mr. Weasley. I need to talk to you and Mr. Potter separately. My colleague, Trainee Constable Dunst, will look after you.'
Ron noticed for the first time the young wizard sitting in the otherwise empty room. He couldn't have been much older than Bill, Ron's eldest brother. He was a short, round, cheerful looking man with hair of a similar colour to Inspector Semaphore's, but much messier. eH
Harry was led off to a different room, which had been set out a bit like a Muggle police interview room. There was a solitary table in the middle of the room, and all the other desks had been stacked against the walls. On one side of the table was one chair, and on the other side two. The other witch that Harry had seen from the Gryffindor common room already occupied one of these two chairs.
'This is Sergeant Titus, another of my colleagues.' Inspector Semaphore introduced Harry to Beth Titus.
'No need to ask who you are!' Sergeant Titus joked, looking at Harry's trademark scar, round glasses and messy black hair. Sergeant Titus herself was a tall woman, with long black hair that was plaited down her back. She made Harry think of a female Professor Snape, only much more friendly.
Inspector Semaphore told Harry to sit opposite Sergeant Titus, who she sat down next to. Harry did as he was told and faced the two witches.
'I, Harry, am Inspector Anastacia Semaphore, in charge of the case of Miss Granger's murder. I have heard that you were quite close to Miss Granger. Is that true?'
Harry nodded. 'Yes.'
'How close?'
'We were good friends… very good friends. We had occasional fall-outs, but all friends do.'
'Would you say you were best friends?'
'Yes, I would. She and Ron were my best friends.'
'Can you think of anyone who would want to kill her?'
'Not that I know off, she wasn't the most popular girl in the year, but she wasn't the least popular girl either. She didn't get on well with most of the Slytherins, but then again, neither do I, and none of them have ever tried to kill me!'
'Did she have a boyfriend?'
'Not that I know of. She got quite friendly with Viktor Krum last year, but he's from Durmstrang.'
'So he wasn't on the Hogwarts Express at the time of the murder?'
'No.'
'Did Miss Granger have any particular enemies? I know you said that you can't think of anyone who would want to kill her, but was there anyone that particularly disliked her?'
'Well, she never got on with Malfoy… sorry, Draco Malfoy, he's in Slytherin, our year. Neither do I, or Ron. Come to think about it, the last time he saw her before she died, he threatened to kill us all.'
'Us? Who else was there?'
'Um, well, there was me, Hermione, Ron, Fred, George and Ginny Weasley. I think that was it, yes, it was.'
'And can you remember exactly what Mr. Malfoy said to you?'
'Um… I think it was something like, "You're dead, all of you, you're dead". I would never think he would go through with it though.'
'Thank you, Mr. Potter. You can go back to your lessons now. Beth, could you go and get Mr. Weasley?'
Both Beth Titus and Harry left the room. A minute later, Beth came back with Ron. Inspector Semaphore asked Ron the same questions as Harry, and got practically the same answers. Ron also mentioned Draco's death threat.
After Ron had gone, Brad appeared. He was told what his two colleagues had found it. 'Shouldn't we talk to this Malfoy guy?' He asked when he had heard everything. 'I've heard about his father, nasty piece of work, used to be a Death-Eater during You-Know-Who's reign.'
'We can't judge the boy on his father's history. I agree that Harry and Ron's stories match perfectly, but I think we need to talk to the other people in the train compartment. Beth, can you go and find…' Anastacia looked down at her notes. 'Fred and George Weasley. Brad, can you get…' She looked at her notes again. 'Ginny Weasley. Can you bring her here; we'll talk to her first. Beth, take the others to the other room, then come here. And Brad, you can sit in on this one.'
Beth and Brad left the room, and Anastacia flicked her wand in the direction of a stack of chairs by the wall. The top chair from the stack flew across the room and landed on the floor next to the two chairs on one side of the table. A minute or so later, Beth and Brad came back, along with a small, red-haired girl.
Ginny was interviewed, as well as Fred and George, and they all said the same thing – Hermione was best friends with Ron and Harry, no-one would want to kill her, but she didn't get on with Draco Malfoy, who had threatened to kill all of them.
'I think it's time we had a talk to this Mr. Malfoy.' Anastacia said once George, who had been interviewed last, had left the room. Beth and Brad nodded in agreement.
