The following day, Severus appareted to the Ministry. The ministry officials in the arrival hall noticed his appearance with interest. It was not normal for someone like him to walk through the Ministry. After about fifteen minutes did he find the Department of Mysteries. He was greeted by Seamus Finnigan.

"Good morning Professor. Mione told us that you'd come. Everybody's already there. We're talking in the second briefing room on the right. I'll show you where it is." Severus nodded once at the now full grown man and followed him.

Thoughts were swirling through his mind on the way.

~What do I do if it's really him? I can't let him kill random people, now, can I? But he would never kill innocent muggles… At least that's what I think. He did kill both old Malfoys and the Lestranges… he is capable of killing. And he likes it… to some degree. At least he liked to kill his old torturers, his enemies… But these muggles aren't his enemies. One possibility would be if he has gone insane… but why should he? He was never imbecile, in fact he was brilliant. No one would have thought him capable of those killings… And he hid the fact that he was a Daywalker for two months! Nobody noticed it! Of course, someone doesn't change that much in two months, but normally somebody would have been suspicious if the blood heat gets lower or if the skin goes paler… Maybe they were just too happy about Voldemort's dead that they noticed it. Nobody pays a hero attention aside from asking for autographs or making photos of him. It was easy for him to hide his change… But all that doesn't solve my problem. What do I do if it's him? I could always track and kill him, but… It would be a shame to kill someone as talented as him. He has such great potential. But he is my responsibility, I was the one who turned him…~

Severus thoughts were interrupted when Seamus stopped in front of an old wooden door. "We're there Professor. Mione and the others are already in the room." With that words did he open the door.

Severus stepped inside and was greeted by familiar faces.

It seemed like Hermione had hired the best specialist available – the normal way to handle a certain problem at the Department for Mysteries was to hire specialist on certain areas and let them solve it. The Department officials just guided them, doing the paperwork and things like that.

Some of the best wizards and witches of whole Britain were there.

Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas of course, both very good aurors and had both a special ability to find used magic – they were 'magic noses'.

Hermione's husband, Ron, was also there. He was a very good auror, too, and a brilliant strategist also.

Neville Longbottom, specialist for healing magic and plants – poisonous as well as healing pones. Severus assumed he was there to tend the wounds the others would get when they hunted the Daywalker.

But Severus was surprised to see – even if he shouldn't, it was logical that he would be there, seeing as he was Ron's brother-in-law, Draco Malfoy there. Draco was one of the few known and talented necromancers alive. If they had to deal with a Daywalker – an undead, to certain degrees – Draco would be of good use.

And the last one of the little group was one of the other known necromancers, Blaise Zaibini. Blaise Zaibini was still single and looked still as if he was woman and man at the same time. Nobody knew which gender he did belong to, but if Severus' nose was right, he was a man. Maybe he wanted to be a woman and tried to accomplish that this way, but Severus didn't knew and he didn't ask.

Hermione greeted him. "Good morning Professor. We were waiting for you."

"Yeah, the old git couldn't come earlier, could he?" Ron muttered under his breath. Severus heard him nonetheless, as some of his direct neighbours.

"No, I couldn't come earlier. I had to write some owls and ask some people." Severus let the purpose of his asking around unanswered.

He slid in a chair next to Blaise.

"You asked around? Did it have something to do with this case?" Hermione asked. ~That girl is always quick to the point.~

"Yes, it has. I asked some of my old friends if they could tell me about the whereabouts of an old… friend you could say." Severus knew that at least three people in this room would think his old friend was…

"Harry?" Ron asked irritated.

Severus arched an eyebrow for show.

"Harry Potter? I asked some people abut him, too, but that wasn't the real purpose…"

"Professor, do you know something about these happenings? Did somebody tell you something?" Blaise asked.

"Yes, I know something but it isn't much. The wizarding part of Kirkcaldy, is there a special shop for weapons and enchantments?"

"Wait a moment, I believe yes. I look it up." Neville had a pile of parchment in front of him and searched quickly through them.

"Yes, there is. It's called 'Sica incanto' – The enchanted poniard."

~I knew it. A special shop for enchanted weapons, especially daggers, dirks and those things. If it is him, he will be visiting there or has already visited… maybe he even comes regularly…~

Severus noticed that everybody was staring at him. "That's good."

"Excuse me? That's good? Why is that good?" Ron asked. He looked as if Severus had gone mad.

"That's good because now we have a place to start looking for hi- the Daywalker. I believe that the Daywalker will be visiting the shop or has already visited it."

Hermione had noticed the slip in Severus speech.

"You nearly called the Daywalker Hi. At least you started like that. And you know about the shop the Daywalker would go into. Do you know the Daywalker responsible for this?"

~Know? Silly girl, I turned him!~ Of course Severus didn't say that loud.

"I've got an assumption but that's it. And before you ask, I won't tell you who I assume to be the Daywalker. But he – and yes, it is a he – has a certain… liking in weapons. Especially daggers and short swords."

Hermione nodded.

The group was in Kirkcaldy now and standing in front of Sica incanto. The shop turned out to be a rather big house with about 300 different weapon types, enchanted and not enchanted, special magic and common magic, even some ancient and rune weapons were there.

Severus had already entered the shop, but Ron had stopped the others in front of it and tried t speak with Hermione.

"Mione, I don't trust him. He knows something and he isn't telling us. He knows this murderer!"

"Ron, maybe he doesn't tell us, but maybe it's because he doesn't want to say something bad about one of his friends?" Hermione still trusted Severus. He had helped killing Voldemort and always fought for the good side, even if he was a vampire.

"Mione, he's not trustworthy."

Draco spoke up. "Maybe he just doesn't want to be unfair to someone like him? He was suspected to be the killer and he wasn't it. Maybe he just doesn't want to let that happen to someone like him? I bet there are more Daywalkers out there than we know of, simply because they fear of being judged and hunted."

"I agree with Dray. And we should go inside and try to get some information."

The group stepped inside. Severus was standing in front of a display-chase and regarding some daggers. They were made of a green-looking metal and had red runes nicked in them.

Blaise stepped beside him. "Are these daggers that he likes to use?"

Severus smiled inwardly about the cleverness of this man. Blaise knew which questions to ask to get helpful information. He had known that since his Hogwarts days.

"Kind of. He prefers runes, but not these type of runes. And he likes the colours red and green on his weapons, preferably both on the same weapon. But this isn't his favourite metal, but it gets close to it."

"You seem to know much about this person." Ron remarked.

"You can say that…" Severus muttered.

The shop owner stepped over to them.
"So, you are looking for these type of daggers? They are made of dragon steel and got fire runes nicked onto them. Most of them are enchanted to burn the target or do similar things. Nice weapons:"

Severus half-smiled at the man. "Well, they look interesting, but I'm searching for something different. I don't know if you've got this special kind of weapon, it's rather rare…"

The shop owner smiled proudly. "Well, Mr., I've got all kinds of rare weapons. Just ask and I'll tell you if I can do something for you."

The others of the group watched with interest and Draco and Blaise were again reminded why this man was an excellent Slytherin.

"Yes. I search something made of red and/or green infragilis glass from Red Mountain."

The shop owner looked shocked, as well as Hermione. The others just looked baffled, they didn't knew what it was.

"Not many people want something made of that special metal. But yes, I've got one or two daggers made of it. Do you want me to show you some?"

Severus again half-smiled. It was a rather evil-looking smile.

"Well, I search such a dagger with special runes on it. To be precise, lamiae runes would be fine, but the best would be pectoris runes."

Now the shop owner looked really shocked.

"Sweet Merlin, it has been a long time since someone has asked me about that. Well, to be honest, the last person who asked me that was a man about four months ago."

The group listened closely now.

"A rather funny one. He looked to be about twenty, well, between twenty and twenty-five. He had short, black hair. Oh, now that I think about it, a young man about eighteen had been here just one week ago. He had looked at those daggers there closely and asked me about the glass, but that was it. Well, that's a special combination. I've got one dagger here. Do you want me to show it to you?"

"Yes, please. We'll wait here."

The man left and Severus and the others were left alone.

"So, Professor, that man with the black hair. Could he have been it?"

Severus was thinking hard, he just answered the question unconscious of what he was really saying.

"Yes, that could have been him."

His mind was swirling again…

~Twenty, twenty-five. That couldn't have been him. The other description is better, at least from the age. But he could have charmed himself to look like he was older. Ah, he is definitely brilliant. He knew I would come looking for him if I would here a bit more about these killings. Everything looks like him, it has to be him. But why does he kill people now? Why? He could have done that all the time. Maybe he has done that. Maybe he was just never as careless as now. But why is he that careless now? If he didn't want to be found until now, then that would men he…

…wants to be found now! By ME!~

Now Severus had something to think about. But that was the only logical answer Severus could think of…

The shop owner arrived with the dagger wrapped up in a piece of satin.

He laid it onto the display-chase of the other daggers and unwrapped it.

And there, on the display-case, laid-

Severus nearly not beating heart lost a beat of its slow rhythm and started again after that.

The dagger was green and red, a brilliant shade. A big ruby was on one side of the hilt and an emerald on the other. Special runes were nicked onto the dagger, everywhere but nearly nowhere to be seen and one letter was glancing black at the end of the hilt.

A

Severus touched the dagger with one finger. "How much?" he asked. The others regarded him with more interest than before but didn't ask question.

The shop owner smiled. He hadn't been able to sell this special dagger – everybody said it had a bad aura. He would even get down with the price to sell it.

"570 galleons."

Ron's breathing stopped for a short time, as well as that of Seamus, Dean and Neville. Hermione arched one eyebrow up, that was lower than the normal price for something like that.

"It's bought."

Ron looked at Severus bewildered, while he took out  the payment. As soon as they had left the shop, Ron asked:

"You walk around with that much money in you pockets?"

"If someone tries to rob me it's their own fault."

Hermione had another question. Why did Severus buy that? It had to mean something! And she would ask him what, and if he didn't tell her, she could always look into her books to find something. That dagger had looked as if it had been very ancient…

Meanwhile Severus thought of different things…

~So that was the reason he came back to the shop. His own dagger had landed up there! I never knew who had found it in the base at the time, but that it would be there… Now he has to come to me. He will come to me. He would never leave his own self-made dagger…~

A/N: I hope you liked it. Please leave a review!

Translations:

Sica – dagger, dirk, peniard

Incanto – to enchant

Infragilis – unbreakable, strong