Dear Diary,

She has been discovered.  The teachers seem to think it was an accident, so must of the students think so too.  Even I didn't believe they were so stupid.  I have even managed to fool Dumbledore!  I am afraid that some of the students are not as gullible.  They are the ones I am going to have to watch out for.

~~~~

The next day, Harry, Ron, and Hermione found Madame Pince and she let them into the library.  When they walked into the library, they couldn't help but notice that one of the large, heavy, mahogany bookcases had fallen in the far corner.  They walked over to the fallen bookcase.  The floor was cluttered with books.  Ron picked up one of the large, dusty volumes.

"Wonderful, the History of Magic section!" he groaned as he threw it back down.  Dust flew everywhere, causing the three to sneeze.

Harry, Ron and Hermione started the long, dull search under what seemed to be endless plies of dusty books for any clues.  Many tissue boxes later, they still had not found any promising clues.

"This is hopeless!" Ron exclaimed as he dropped a particularly boring book called "Demons! Demons! Demons!"

"Maybe we should look for clues in other parts of the library," suggested Hermione as she sneezed once more.

"Sounds good to me," said Ron.

"You two go ahead," said Harry.  "I can keep looking here."

"Ok," said Ron.  "As long as I don't have to look here anymore, it's fine with me."

So Ron and Hermione looked around the other sections of the library.  Harry continued to search through the multitude of books, this time looking more at the books themselves than underneath them.

"I think I found something!" shouted Hermione.  Harry and Ron rushed over to her.  "It's Cho's wand!"

"Look at that!" exclaimed Ron.  "Bloody murder!"  The other two stared at his like he was crazy.  "What?  It's just an expression!"

"Well, this rules out suicide," said Hermione.  "She couldn't have done the Silencing Charm herself if her wand was halfway across the room."

"Then somebody must have killed her," said Harry, pointing out the obvious.

"But who?" asked Ron.  "And why?"

"I don't know," said Hermione softly.  The words were foreign to her lips.

"Who was missing from dinner Saturday night?" asked Harry.  "I wasn't there because I was sleeping."

"Cho was gone," said Ron.

"Well of course!" exclaimed Hermione.  "We all know that!"

"Neville and Dean were the only other Gryffindors missing that night," said Ron, blushing slightly.  "I personally would rule out Neville as a suspect though."

"Yeah, I agree.  I think he lost his wand.  I remember he was looking for it the whole day.  He couldn't have done the spell without his wand."

"Oh," Ron thought out loud with his eyes downcast.  "I was thinking more along the lines of his inability to do spells, especially difficult charms."

"You both have a point," Harry understood.  "It's pretty safe to eliminate him.  On the other hand, Dean would definitely have a motive.  Jealousy and love can get out of hand."  Hermione and Ron silently nodded their heads in agreement.  "Was anybody else missing?"

"I don't remember seeing Francine," said Hermione.  Francine Smollett was a brainy Hufflepuff seventh year.

"Me neither," recalled Ron.  "She could have done it easily.  She's so smart that Silencing Charms must be a breeze."

"What about a motive?"

"She could have done it to become Head Girl," said Harry.

"Right," agreed Ron.  "I think I remember someone else who wasn't at dinner.  Alexandria Wilcox wasn't there."

"Alexandria?" asked Hermione.  "Isn't she a chaser on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team?"

"That's right, she is," said Harry.  "She's a talented player too."  Harry paused.  "She might have killed Cho to become Quidditch Captain of the Ravenclaw team.  Is that everyone who was gone?"

Hermione and Ron sat trying to remember.  A minute or so later, Ron jumped up and practically screamed, "THAT BRAINLESS IDIOT DID IT!"   The other two looked at him blankly.

"I take it that you remember someone else," responded Harry.

"NO KIDDING!" yelled Ron.

"Well, can you tell us who?"

"THAT BLOODY GIT DRACO MALFOY!" 

Hermione gasped.  "Surely you don't think he definitely did it?" she said.  "There are a lot of other suspects that could have done it.  Why do you think he would kill her anyway?"

"Quidditch," simply stated Harry.  "Draco plays seeker for Slytherin.  Cho used to play seeker for Ravenclaw.  He might have gotten rid of her to decrease the competition.  He's also Captain of the Slytherin team.  Getting rid of Ravenclaw's Captain would also weaken their team."

"Well, that may be true, but I don't think we should jump to conclusions.  Every suspect seems to have a good motive."

"Fine," said Ron.

"It's starting to get late," said Hermione.  "Perhaps we should get to bed and think about this overnight.  Then tomorrow we can interrogate our suspects."

Ron and Harry thought that was a good idea too.  The three students walked to their dormitories, pondering the mysterious events that had happened over the past few days.