"Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, please sit down. You should know why you are here." Percy said, looking down at the two boys.
"Why?"
"We suspect that both of you are involved in the Lisa Turpin murder case and we hope you will cooperate with us."
"Of course we'll cooperate."
"Good. Well, we have a theory here, Mr. Potter, and it goes like this. You and Malfoy have planned this murder for a few months already. During this time, you, Mr. Potter, learnt the desino curse and made the Polyjuice potion."
"I don't know what you're talking about. I did not learn the spell. It's not even taught in Hogwarts."
"That is why you used your invisibility cloak and took the book from the restricted section of the library. And because it's such a highly complicated spell, you took months to learn it."
"How do you kow I have the invisibility cloak?"
"Ronald Weasley provided the information. Ok, Mr. Malfoy...you went back home during the Christmas break to give the green silk cloak to Lucius Malfoy and told him to go to Hogwarts on 26 March to watch the quidditch match. You also told him to stay on 25 March, am I right?"
"Yes."
"You took a strand of Lucius's hair and silk and put it on Lisa Turpin's body after you killed her, and you wanted Lucius to be in Hogwarts on 25 March to provide a killing motive, am I right?"
"No." Draco replied coldly.
"Ok, lets continue. Both of you chose a random student..."
Harry, him.
No...he's too big. You won't be able to carry him.
What about that girl? The short one?
No...she's...she's an orphan.
Harry, do you know what random is? This can't work if you keep on..."
Ok, what about that one. The girl with the black hair.
Perfect.
"Both of you decided that your victim would be Lisa Turpin, and for the following weeks, you learned about her behavior, her activites, the names of her friends so that no one will suspect when you disguised as her."
"How?" Harry asked, too calmly for Percy's comfort.
"That's will come later on. Ok, on 25 March, the day before Lisa Turpin died, and the day Lucius came to Hogwarts, that's when you executed your plan."
"Pansy, I'm sick, I don't think I'm going to eat."
"Are you all right, Draco?"
"I'll be fine. I just need some rest. Don't bother about me."
"You pretended that you were sick, and when all the Slytherins went off, you sneaked out to meet Potter. At the same time, from Ronald Weasley's statement, Potter left early, though he was still late for supper."
Harry hid under his invisibility cloak, his wand in his hand, knuckles turned white from his tight grip. As Lisa Turpin walked towards the library, he casted a spell, and the girl slumped to the ground, unconscious.
"That was a very brilliant move. You did not kill Lisa Turpin at that time, because you knew that Lucius Malfoy was in the Great Hall and had witnesses. You then carried Lisa Turpin to the same room where you had prepared the Polyjuice potion."
"You are late."
"Sorry. I took some time to persuade Pansy to leave."
"Drink this."
"You took some hair from Lisa Turpin to complete the Polyjuice, and Malfoy drank it. Then both of you went to the Great Hall separately. Nobody knew that Lisa Turpin was already missing because Malfoy pretended to be her. Nobody noticed anything strange about Lisa Turpin because both of you studied her carefully weeks ago and Malfoy acted really well."
The corridors were filled with students as Draco tried to find his father. He suddenly spotted Lucius and walked nearer to him. He then tripped and knocked into him, and carefully lifted Lucius's sleeve up a little bit, enough to make him feel threatened.
"After the display, you vaguely told Miss Patil about Lucius having the dark mark to set up a killing motive for Lucius Malfoy. Brilliant acting, Malfoy, and you stayed in the Ravenclaw drom throughout the night, knowing very well that your friends wouldn't dare to disturb you, so they won't find out that you were missing."
"The Polyjuice potion only worked for an hour." Draco retorted.
"That is why Lisa Turpin kept on waking up in the night. In order to keep up with the disguise, you kept on drinking the potion from the bottle during the night. That is why Potter stole a lot of ingredients from Snape. You needed a large amount of the potion to make the disguise last. Then the next day, you told Miss. Brocklehurst that you were sick and did not want to go to the quidditch match. After that, you sneaked out to the quidditch locker."
"Draco, I thought you're still in bed! I didn't saw you wake up."
"I came early. And you slept like a pig, Vincent."
"After supper that night, you went to celebrate with your friends because Slytherin won the quidditch match. At the same time, Potter left supper early with Ronald Weasley to play quidditch, am I right?"
"Yes, you are right." Harry nodded.
"You let Mr. Weasley try your broom, and you sat at the benches. But you did not stay there for long. You drank the Polyjuice that you had kept all along by your side and disguised into Lisa Turpin. Malfoy told you the Hufflepuff password during the day so you were able to sneak into bed and tricked everybody into believing that Lisa Turpin was still well. Later, you told Miss. Brocklehurst that you wanted to go to the library."
"I was at the quidditch pit the whole time. Ron saw me."
"Who Ron saw was a different person. It was actually Colin Creevey. You told Colin Creevey before supper that you're going to fly your broom, knowing very well that he was going to watch you play. You left before Mr. Creevey came. It was dark, so Ron though that Colin Creevey was you, and Colin thought that Ron was you. Brilliant, I must say. You came up with this yourself?"
"Even if I wasn't there, there's still no prove that I killed Lisa Turpin." Harry snapped.
"But that makes you a big suspect, Harry. You lied. So, after you told Miss. Brocklehurst that you wanted to go to the library, which was at 9 P.M, you went to the room where you hid the real Lisa Turpin. Then, you killed her. You lived in the muggle world, so you're more used to using muggle methods compared to magic. You strangled Lisa Turpin to death."
"NO! I didn't!" Harry stood up abruptly, the chair falling to the floor.
"At the same time, Malfoy left the Slytherin dorm at 9 P.M, and he went to the kitchen to get some drinks. But he didn't return after that. He went to meet you."
"Draco, your hair."
"Here."
"Where are the drinks?"
"Here. Is she dead?"
"Yes. She's dead."
You took Malfoy's hair and changed yourself into him, then you returned to the Slytherin dorm with the drinks at 9.30 P.M. This provided witnesses for Malfoy as he carried the body to the forbidden forest in your invisibility cloak. You, Potter, can't go out because for your safety, Headmaster Dumbledore had specially placed a ward that will tell him whether you are in the castle or not.
Draco walked to the forbidden forest, his breathing heavy and his shoulders aching from the weight he was carrying. He couldn't use magic because it would activate the wards. Dumping the body onto the ground, he rested for a while before running back. He only had a few minutes left before the rest of the wards were up.
"When you strangled her, you wore gloves, and then you put the body into a trashbag. That was why we couldn't get fingerprints. And Malfoy had to dump the body before 10 P.M because since Sirius Black got through Hogwarts's wards, they have increased the security and nobody was allowed to step a foot out and into Hogwarts after 10 P.M. At 10 P.M, you, Potter, went out to return the cups and then went to the quidditch pitch, and the real Malfoy came back at 10.15 P.M. By then, Colin Creevey was already gone, and when Ronald Weasley finished flying, you were already there. That was how you murdered Lisa Turpin."
"What about Lucius? He committed suicide." Harry said, as he sat down again.
"He didn't commit suicide, Harry. You killed him. Malfoy owled his father that Lisa Turpin told the Ministry she saw him having the dark mark, so he ran away. Malfoy knew where he was hiding and told you, and you killed him using the desino curse."
"You can't prove that we killed Lisa Turpin and Lucius Malfoy. It's all theory. There's no evidence at all. And why would I work with Malfoy? I hate him."
"This, Potter, is the evidence."
Harry and Draco looked the photo handed to them. It was a photo of them.
"You lied, Harry. You know Draco. Both of you were friends since a year ago. This photo was taken by Colin Creevey last year."
"Even if we know each other, that doesn't mean anything." Harry said, his eyes flashing with anger.
"Penelope, take Mr. Potter to the other room and try to talk some sense into him."
As Penelope led Harry out of the room, Percy turned to Draco, who was looking down, his hair covering his eyes.
"Draco, we know that both of you did this. Don't try to lie. Harry killed Lisa Turpin and your father, you only helped. According to the wizardry law, the person who murdered someone would be sentenced to death. But you didn't kill anyone. If you cooperate with us, I promise that I'll help you."
Draco looked up, his grey eyes staring back at him.
"I'll cooperate."
"Very good. Tell me everything you know."
"I killed Lisa Turpin and Lucius Malfoy. Potter was never involved in this."
Percy closed his weary eyes, feeling like his head had just been slammed into the Egypt pyramids. Suddenly, he felt a cool touch on his forehead and when he opened his eyes, he saw a cup in-front of him.
"Cold chocolate milkshade." Penelope smiled.
Percy thanked her and gladly took the drink.
"Pen, what did Harry say?"
"He said that he did everything and Malfoy was not involved in it. Yours?"
"The same."
"Why?"
"I don't know..." Percy sighed.
"Are you going back tomorrow to question them? The only thing we can do now is to wait for one of them to give in."
"Actually, both of them already admitted they murdered someone, but the problem is that both denial the fact that the other person was also involved in it, which is impossible, because the murder must be done by two people!"
"We're going to question them again tomorrow, right?"
"Yes. And I'm going to get an answer this time. I want to know why they did it."
Harry, we can't run away from this anymore.
Don't worry, Draco. I told them I did it. They won't hurt you.
No! Don't! You are not going to die...you won't...
What did you tell them, Draco?
I told them I did it.
You idiot! You stupid, idiot... Why? Why? You never killed them.
I don't want you to die, Harry. I don't want you to die.
I have to pay for what I did. I should go to hell.
Let me go with you. Don't leave me behind. Promise me.
...I promise.
Penelop ran into the office, slamming the door open.
"Percy...they...they killed themselves last night."
"What?"
"They cut their wrists. Excessive blood lost."
"Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" Percy shouted, slaming his fist into table.
"Percy, they admitted it. They left a note."
"I don't care about that."
"Then why are you so mad?"
"They left...and I never got to find out why they did it."
"Percy...I was thinking...what if they were lovers?" Penelope asked timidly.
"What?" Percy stared back at her.
"What if they were lovers? Draco was scared that his father would kill him if he found out that he was with Harry, so they killed Lisa Turpin to frame him."
"And how do you know that?"
"Well, you saw the way they behaved when we interrogated them. Both tried to take the blame and said that the other wasn't involved in the murder. And did you take a closer look at the photo? It's actually very...beautiful, the way they smiled and laughed at each other, and...they're holding hands."
"I never thought of that." Percy mumbled, as he slowly saw the possibility behind Penelope's explaination.
"It's just a guess. Maybe I'm wrong."
"So...we'll never know why they killed Lisa Turpin and Lucius Malfoy..."
"Well no matter what, I have to say that they are really very clever. This murder is perfect. Brilliant. And you're really brilliant too!" Penelope smiled.
"It's just luck that I hate cabbages. If not, I'll probably miss the smell too."
"Well, I'm going for lunch, want to come along?"
"Oh course, Mrs. Weasley."
"I told you before not to call me that while we're working!"
"Oh come on, no one is listening."
Harry, did I tell you before that I love you?
No, you didn't.
I love you.
And I love you too, Draco. Go to sleep.
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