Disclaimer - All JKR's, nothing mine! Except for a few characters I added.
Disclaimer 2 - Draco drawing dragons belongs to PikaCheeka. Sorry I forgot to mention that in the first chapter of MNS. I sort of adopted the idea subconsciously.
Disclaimer 3 - Severus' raven belongs to J. L. Matthews. I just borrowed him because he's such a perfect pet for Sevi and promise to return him unharmed.
The catar however are all mine and I love them so please don't use without asking me first.
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A/N - Sorry for being so late. I was going to post last week, but Leena was busy translating Severitus' latest chapter, so I decided to give her another week and post yesterday. Then I still didn't hear from her and thought I'd wait one more day, but now I'm giving up. Can't say when the next chapter will be ready. I had half of it written, but most of it was on my notebook, which is down for repairs. (Poor trusty notebook. It's been my almost constant companion for almost two years, but a problem with the disk drive put it out of action now.) I'll have to rewrite a large part of the chapter and will only be able to write when at home now, so updates might get a little slow until I get it back.
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Chapter 12: The Attack of the Armour
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Severus had had to give up his attempts to monitor Lucius' defences. He had been able to determine that both his quarters and his offices, the destroyed one as well as the replacement, were protected by strong anti listening spells. In fact so were both Potions classrooms.
He hadn't found a way to set up a permanent monitoring spell without Lucius noticing, though, which meant that he had to test the spells for enforcements manually and personally every time. Since he also had no way of predicting when his suspects would visit Lucius and whether they'd look for him in his office or his quarters, his only option was to watch one of the two locations at all times, which was both boring and unsuccessful.
Any attempt to follow Lucius rather than the students was doomed from the start. The man was too experienced a criminal not to notice.
The only result a week of watching Lucius' quarters had brought him was that Lucius did not take any additional precautions when visited by Marsha Alton or Gaia Ushton.
So the boys returned to following suspects during the week after the Hogsmeade weekend. Severus' suspect of the week was Iago Orson while Draco shadowed his friend Mattis Parker. That allowed them to work together most of the time, but didn't yield anything conclusive either.
All they knew by the end of the week was that the boys liked to wait behind the corner of a dark hallway near the Hufflepuff common room and jump out at smaller students passing by alone. Most victims were only threatened, but some also attacked physically. The two boys seemed to be easily placated with money or sweets, though and there was no visible connection of their activities with Harry Potter.
In Potions class that Monday, while Neville was off getting the ingredients they needed and Potter was at Lucius' desk trying to convince the teacher that his soup was not dangerous despite the hurricane it had created last time, Severus suggested changing targets once again.
"We could try to follow suspects from one of the other houses. Maybe they're more interesting." he whispered.
"Hufflepuffs perhaps?" Draco sneered. "I'd rather search, the Gryffindors. Neville would let us in, you know that."
"No!" hissed Severus, but got no time to elaborate as Harry returned triumphant and started to set up his cauldron.
"Going to feed the soup again?" Draco asked him conversationally. "Or are you trying to kill yourself and us before the dark lord can get you?"
Harry glared at him, but didn't consider the remark worthy of an answer.
Severus returned his attention to Pansy's shampoo. It had a weird smell, he decided. At least it didn't smell like he thought shampoo should. Their first tests of it revealed only harmless ingredients, though, even if Severus wondered why anyone would want strong liquor in their hair. Better it went onto Pansy's head than into it anyway. There were enough addicts in the school already without adding alcoholics as well.
"Maybe the liquor is responsible for the smell?" Draco suggested.
Severus sniffed the vial again. "Possible." he admitted. "But I won't be convinced until we know all the ingredients."
Unfortunately he didn't get any further in his experiments that day. Gregory's cauldron exploded only seconds after that exchange startling Lavender so much she dropped her ladle into her cauldron. Both she and Parvati got splashed with boiling potion, but that wasn't nearly as bad as the single drop of it that landed in Potter's soup.
In answer another whirlwind rose from the cauldron and the temperature in the room became icy.
Severus quickly doused the fire under his own cauldron as big red flocks started to fall into it with strange hissing sounds.
"What the..." Lucius started.
"I think we're about to get a snowstorm." Hermione answered him eying the growing whirlwind. "Of red snow."
"It's definitely getting cold!" Seamus added shivering. "And we didn't bring our cloaks and gloves."
"Fine." Lucius growled. "You may clean up and leave. Weasley, bring a shovel and warm clothes for detention right after lunch."
"I've got Charms after lunch." Ron pointed out.
"Well, then you'd better eat very fast and hope Professor Flitwick doesn't mind you being a little late." Lucius smirked.
"Can I use magic and the house elf again?" Ron pleaded.
"Of course. I want the room cleaned out. Dumbledore said I'll have to teach on the Quidditch field, if I lose this classroom as well and out there the snow is even deeper than in here right now. "
Greenie for once was happy to lave Potions early. The hedgehog did not like snowstorms in the slightest. In weather like this any decent hedgehog was supposed to be asleep.
Severus hugged him close to keep him warm on the way through the corridors, though, and bundled him up in a towel once they reached the common room. A hot potato and a huge portion of steak finally restored the hedgehog's well being and he soon waddled down the Slytherin table sniffing happily and checking various students' plates. None of them were having anything else than what Severus had served him, of course, but Greenie liked to go exploring.
Their first afternoon class was DADA with the Hufflepuffs, which was currently Greenie's least favourite subject. Remus was teaching the sixth years how to set protective wards and the little green hedgehog was his favourite subject for demonstrations.
Of course it wasn't generally a bad thing to be protected, but when the ward physically pushed away every object you wanted to explore or 'protected' you from tasty snacks like cockroaches it was quite annoying.
Today Greenie ended up being protected against hexes which meant he had a whole thunderstorm of hexes cast at him only to dissolve into a spectacle of bright colours the moment it got into touch with the ward. The brightness stung his eyes and the smells weren't too pleasant either.
Greenie rolled up to pout for the rest of the lesson.
"I don't think he likes that one, Remus." Severus commented. "Maybe you'd better take it off now."
Remus nodded. "Right. You've all seen what it does anyway. Now try to do it."
Severus found to his surprise that, though most of the Slytherins had already known some protective wards when they'd started, while most Hufflepuffs' knowledge had been very sketchy, some of he best ward casters in the class were Hufflepuffs. With the noteworthy exception of Nicodemus Hanson they all showed a certain aptitude and strong desire to master them.
After a while of watching he'd concluded that it was their social inclination that caused them to have a special interest in spells that protected others. They were thinking of their friends and families when practising the wards and put in special effort for them.
Draco was finding the wards particularly difficult. His parents had taught him how to identify and break wards, but never bothered with teaching him to cast them which made him the weakest student in these lessons. Even Gregory had started knowing a ward against bad dreams and how to protect a door against intrusions. He hadn't actually been taught either, but his mother had cast them for him every night when she tucked him in ever since he'd been a baby and as he'd grown older he'd learned by imitating her.
Millicent had a whole arsenal of wards to protect pets. Apparently she really loved her cat dearly. And Estella was a master of silence wards, which she needed when studying since she was easily distracted by noise.
Little Susan Abbot of Hufflepuff had been taught several complex, wards to protect babies and Susan Bones bad picked up some for plants from Professor Sprout. Neville would have been fascinated by her demonstration, Severus suspected, but unfortunately Neville had DADA with the Ravenclaws. Well, they probably knew some great wards as well.
It took Severus a moment to convince Greenie to unroll after class which meant that he and Draco were among the last ones to leave the DADA classroom. Only Millicent and Pansy were behind them still engrossed in a conversation about the ward Millicent had suggested would suit Greenie better than the one Remus had demonstrated today.
"Pets just don't like something that flashy." she was explaining as they walked towards Transfiguration. "A ward that quietly absorbs the hexes serves them much better, but will fail sooner, if confronted with a series of several strong hexes. There's no way to make it absorb power indefinitely you see. It has to go somewhere. So you have to add a draining element . . ."
Severus was impressed. He'd never heard Millicent sound so intellectual. In fact he'd thought her a slightly simple girl, but now he got the impression that she was only lazy and disinterested. Maybe, if he directed her towards potions that might benefit her cat, he could stir her interest in his subject a little.
KRASH! CLANG! Clutter, clutter. Thump!
Draco jumped back from the corner they had just been about to round at the sudden noise from the corridor ahead. Millicent broke off mid-sentence and Pansy involuntarily raised her hand to her lips as they all stopped.
There were screams from the Transfigurations corridor.
Severus was the first to catch himself and run around the corner. The others followed him still shaken, but beginning to regain control.
A suit of armour had crashed to the ground. That was the first thing Severus noticed.
But it had been fixed to the wall with several ropes to prevent any such accidents. Somebody had to have removed them, since there was no way they would have all snapped at the same time on their own.
It would have looked like the kind of thing Peeves might do except for the fact that several Gryffindors were kneeling among the scattered pieces of armour, some obviously wounded.
Peeves might drop an entire suit of armour to anger or scare somebody, but he knew very well that the headmaster would banish him immediately, if one of his pranks ever seriously harmed a student and he'd never crossed that line even in the days before Dumbedore.
Even Peeves had a certain code of honour.
Neville was with Hermione and Ron, digging through the pile. If there was somebody under that . . . Potter!
Of course! This was the work of the traitor.
Before Severus could act on the realisation however the pile suddenly moved, several pieces cluttered aside and Harry sat up rubbing his head.
"I think my leg's hurt." he declared.
Hermione slung her arms around him in relief, while Ron conjured a stretcher to carry him to the hospital wing.
A slight sob of relief drew Severus' attention to Estella who bad been standing frozen in the middle of the corridor with her wand out and pointing at where Harry had been.
"I cast the wrong spell." she said shakily. "There was a suit of armour falling on Potter and I cast a ward to protect him from hexes. I should have used a ward against objects, a magnetic spell, deflected the armour. Levitation charm."
"It's alright." Alice told her. "It worked, didn't it? Even if it wasn't the perfect spell it did deflect the armour a little and kept him alive."
"Yes," Juliana agreed. "Madame Pomfrey will heal his leg. She couldn't have healed him, if it had crushed his skull."
"How could a suit of armour that's stood there for years just crash like that?" somebody asked, voice hollow with shock.
"It couldn't." McGonagall, who was standing in the door of her classroom, stated. "It was tied to the wall."
Draco walked over to the wall behind the now empty platform and pulled up one of the ends of rope that were hanging limply down from the rings that had once secured the armour.
"A clean cut." he reported and held it up so they all could see. "And this one as well." he went on to the next rope.
"Another severing charm?" Neville whispered.
He was still sitting on the floor in the middle of the debris, now hugging himself for comfort.
"Looks like several to me." Draco stated.
"Unless the traitor is skilled enough to make several cuts with just one charm." Severus amended. "An older student very talented at Charms might be able to do that. At least I've seen Professor Flitwick do something like that."
McGonagall nodded. "But can a student? Can we determine whether this was one Charm or several?"
"We'll have to ask Filius to take a look at it." Madame Pince threw in.
She too was standing in front of her classroom leaning against a wall for support.
"I will alert him and the headmaster." Binns offered and flew off through the ceiling.
"And you had better return to your common rooms." Minerva addressed the students. "I'm sure the headmaster will announce another meeting anyway."
And indeed. The Slytherin sixth years hadn't even reached the dungeons yet, when the headmaster's voice rang through the corridors telling them that there would be no more classes today.
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Severus was pacing up and down the row of shower stalls. "I wish I knew Filius' results. Or at least what years had what classes."
"It was break time." Draco reminded him. "Nobody has an alibi."
"Yes, they do." Severus argued. "Unless they were let out early the students coming out of Divination, Herbology or Care for Magical Creatures couldn't have reached that hallway in time. Probably even the students coming from Potions as well. A student on the way between classes not on that hallway would have had to make a detour and his next teacher would have noticed, if he was later than the rest of his class."
"So you'd limit our suspects to the classes coming from or going to Transfigurations?" Draco asked.
"No, History of Magic and Latin are on the same hallway." Severus reminded him. "Students going from Ancient Runes to DADA would go through that corridor as well, as it is the fastest route. Possibly also students going from Charms to Runes. It's one of the busiest corridors in the school."
"Which makes it odd that the traitor would strike there in the first place." Draco mused. "The risk of being caught would be much less, if he'd chosen a more quiet area."
"Not really." Severus smirked. "I see your father's touch here. It's actually brilliant. In a quiet area where he had no business being, anyone who'd happen to see the traitor would be likely to remember. If we assume however, that he is a student who had class on that corridor, his presence there during the incident wouldn't be suspicious at all. There must have been at least thirty people in the corridor when we got there. Do you remember who all of them were?"
"Well, there was Estella, Alice, everybody from our year in both Slytherin and Gryffindor."
"Stop!" Severus called.
"What?"
"First mistake. Pansy and Millicent, our last real suspects in that group, arrived with us. They were behind us when the armour fell, so they can't have done it. I too, remember seeing the rest of the girls, but were all the boys there?" Severus asked. "I remember Neville, Potter. Ron and Hermione. Seamus had a cut in his arm and I think I saw Dean, but I'm not entirely sure of that. I don't remember any Gryffindor girls other than Hermione. And what students from other years were watching?"
"I think I saw Gaia." Draco said.
"And I know I saw Maximius, which means the rest of the Slytherin third years could have been there as well." Severus agreed.
"Alright, alright, I get your point. Why don't we go see, if Remus is back yet?"
"Because everybody is down there in the common room and somebody would wonder where we are going."
"Then we'll tell them we're bored and going to the library, or for a walk, or we want to talk to our head of house."
"We can't do that every time there is an attack." Severus paced faster. "I wish we could interrogate all the witnesses."
"We can talk to McGonagall and Pince." Draco pointed out.
"Who were probably in their classrooms until they heard the crash." Severus argued. "We need somebody who actually saw the whole thing, not just the aftermath."
"Neville?" Draco suggested with little hope.
Severus hesitated. "No." he said finally. "I don't want to involve him."
Draco fell silent for a while.
"We could ask the armour!" he exclaimed suddenly after almost a minute.
"What?!"
"The armours always sing at Christmas, right?"
"Yes, Filius usually performs the spell." Severus confirmed.
"So if they can sing, they can also talk, right?"
"It wasn't animated when it fell." Severus sighed. "Even if we get it to talk, it most likely won't have any memory of the incident."
"We should still try," Draco insisted. "We can't be sure it has nothing to say until we have asked it."
"Oh, ask it, if you want to, but not right now."
"Ask what?" Theodore stood in the door staring at the two. "What are you two doing in here anyway?"
"We were ..." started Draco.
"I was going to clean out Greenie's cage." Severus nodded towards the hedgehog in his arms. "Then Draco distracted me with his ideas about talking to armours."
"Huh?" made Theodore.
"Well, I just thought the armour that fell on Potter should know who enspelled it to do so." Draco said a little poutily.
"Erm Draco, it's a dead object made of dead metal." Theodore explained patiently. "It doesn't answer questions."
"It sings at Christmas!" Draco hissed at him and stomped out of the bathroom.
Theodore looked after him, then to Severus who just shrugged.
"Your best friend's weird." Theodore decided. "Who cares anyway. Let the teachers puzzle over it."
"The traitor scares the first years." Severus pointed out "It'd be better, if he were caught soon."
"Maybe it's better, if he's successful first." Theodore suggested as he grabbed his hairbrush and started brushing his hair.
"And kills Potter?" Severus asked. "I don't think that would necessarily calm the little ones."
"You think they care about Potter?" Theodore snorted.
"They might care about seeing a dead body. Or knowing that somebody in their school killed someone." Severus suggested, "They're little children, Theodore."
"Maybe so, but don't you think they'd catch him, when he finally succeeds?"
"It would probably be the last chance." Severus said. "Careful, loose hedgehog"
"Careful?" Theodore asked incredulously.
"Yep, Gregory stepped on him last year. Blaise and Vince had to carry him to the hospital wing to have the spikes removed from his foot."
"Can't you put him in the cage?"
"It's rather hard to clean it with the hedgehog inside."
"Hold him?"
"And clean one handed?"
"Why don't you just use your wand to clean it?"
"Not thorough enough." Severus insisted. "Afterwards the cage may look clean, but it still starts to smell after a while."
Theodore sighed. "Well, I'm done here anyway."
"Sniff?" commented Greenie as the boy walked out.
At dinner Remus finally approached them and told them to see him in his office after the meal.
"We need to talk about tutoring lessons." he added towards Draco.
"Tutoring?" Draco exclaimed. He didn't like the sound of that word at all.
"You are falling behind in my class and I don't like it." Remus confirmed. "I'd rather stop it before it becomes a problem."
"My father is going to kill me." Draco groaned.
He didn't like this latest excuse at all. Of course everybody in their DADA class was going to confirm that Draco, who was usually a very good DADA student, had been having unusually bad problems lately, so tutoring lessons made sense. Lucius however wouldn't take kindly to the news. He'd call it laziness and ungratefulness and remind Draco that he wasn't doing his duty towards his family and never once remember that it had been him that hadn't taught Draco how to set a single ward.
Dumbledore and Remus walked out together after dinner continuing an apparently very engrossing conversation. Knowing Dumbledore the topic could be anything from world politics to a new brand of Muggle sweets.
It was no surprise when the boys found the headmaster still in the DADA teacher's office about ten minutes later.
"Ah, come on in, boys." Dumbledore invited them as if it were his own office.
The werewolf apparently didn't take offence, though.
"You've heard about the latest incident, I trust?" Dumbledore continued.
"Seen it actually." Draco commented.
"Well, almost seen it at least." Severus amended. "We were just around the corner when it happened."
Dumbledore nodded. "The ropes that secured the suit of armour were severed by severing charms." he reported. "Filius doubts it could have been done with only one charm due to the number of ropes and the distances between them. He would have used at least two charms for a task like that, but suggests that most of the ropes might have been pre-cut leaving only one to hold the armour in place until Harry was in position."
"Would that work?" Draco asked. "Wouldn't the armour have fallen too soon or hung awkwardly by the one rope.
"Not if it was the center rope on its back." Remus answered for Dumbledore. "The ropes are only meant for additional security anyway. The suit should theoretically have been able to stand on its own as long as it wasn't shook up by an earthquake, or Potions explosion, or pushed over."
Dumbledore nodded. "The ropes were originally added, because students kept accidentally bumping into the suits of armour, often pushing them off their platforms, which meant several hours of work for the caretaker to put them back together and into a stable position. That takes us to the next point, though. Cutting the ropes alone wouldn't have caused the armour to fall. My analysis shows that a magnetic charm was cast in the hallway, but I wasn't able to determine the object it was cast on, which means whatever it was had already been removed from there."
"It might have been what caused the armour to fall." Remus agreed. "Or the traitor might just have pushed the armour over manually and somebody else cast the magnetic charm in an attempt to deflect it from the students."
"Minerva says Miss Rashton was standing not far from the scene with her wand out and looking quite shocked. Maybe she was the caster of the magnetic charm and reacted just a second too late." the headmaster suggested.
Severus shook his head. "Estella apparently just cast the first spell that came to her mind, which was the ward she'd just been practising in DADA. She told all of us afterwards because she was feeling guilty for picking the wrong spell."
Remus nodded. "The anti-hex ward we dismissed as unrelated." he told Dumbledore. "I'd thought one of my students had still been practising on the way to their next class."
"Any other unrelated spells?" Severus asked dryly.
"A furunculus hex," Albus reported. "Two stupefys, one disorientation spell and the counter for it. Three minor Transfigurations, five wakefulness charms and one memory enhancing spell. I was unable to determine the exact casting time for any of the spells of course."
Severus sighed. "The furunculus must have been part of a minor fight between students sometime before the incident. The stupefys and disorientation spell might have been part of that fight as well, but the disorientation spell could also have been used to prevent Harry from escaping. In fact so could a stupefy, if cast at precisely the right time. Or each of the three could have been cast by the traitor in order to avoid being caught by passing students when and if he pre-cut the ropes."
"We'll have to find out what students were involved in the fight and ask them what spells were cast during it." Dumbledore decided. "I'll set the other heads of house to investigate it. That will attract less attention than announcing it in the great hall."
"Excellent." Severus agreed. "The Transfigurations might have leaked over from the Transfigurations classroom, or maybe it was students practising before class. I don't see how they could be related to the attack. The same goes for the wakefulness charms. They were probably cast by tired students heading into or out of History of Magic and afraid of dozing off during class. The memory enhancing spell, too, looks like a student, maybe one suffering from forgetfulness, not wanting to miss anything important during class."
Dumbledore nodded. "The schedules then. The first years are once again cleared by the use of the severing charms. The second year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs had all just had Herbology and were on the way back to the castle. Professor Sprout confirms that the class wasn't let out early and could not have reached the castle at the time of the attack, certainly not the Transfigurations corridor. Their Gryffindor and Ravenclaw year mates however were just coming out of History."
"Quintus Palmer and Vestalia Flemming" Draco commented unasked. Severus had been training him to be able to name their suspects by house and year by heart.
"We're still not even entirely sure whether those two can perform a severing charm." Severus added. "Maybe it's time we took a closer look at the Gryffindors."
"The third year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs were leaving Latin while the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were just coming in." Albus continued. "Professor Pince was answering a question from Curtis Marston the moment she heard the crash. Marsha Alton was still in the classroom as well to discuss a detention Minerva gave her for disrupting class. Other than that we aren't sure which students were inside or outside the classroom at that precise moment."
"That leaves us with Maximius Mattels, Gaia Ushton, Aemilia Andres and Caius Rude as suspects in third year." Draco reported.
"If Curtis stayed behind to ask a question, Gaia would most likely have waited as well." Severus commented.
"Unless she was planning to kill Potter in the meantime." Draco suggested. "But at least Marsha and Curtis are cleared."
Severus nodded and scratched the names off his list. "The fourth year?"
"The Slytherins and Gryffindors were leaving Transfigurations. For those that take it, the next class would have been Runes." the headmaster read off his own list. "Minerva was busy preparing for her next lesson and didn't pay attention to the comings and goings around her."
"Iago Orsen and Mattis Parker." Draco smirked. "Our friends the Hufflepuff hunters."
"The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, with the exception of the Quidditch players were putting their brooms away after Flying class. Professor Hootch kept them all in the broom shed until they were done and led them back to the castle herself, because of the unruly behaviour they had exhibited on the way back last week. She didn't trust them to get back without angering Argus again, if she left them alone." Dumbledore reported. "When she reached the castle she just caught the end of my announcement, so her students were all definitely outside during the attack."
"Sandra Invers." Draco replied to Remus' questioning glance. "She isn't a Quidditch player, so she should have been in class."
"Did you ask for absences, Albus?" Severus asked.
"One boy who had a bad cold and is allergic to Pepper up Potion. He was in the hospital wing as Poppy confirms" Dumbledore answered without hesitating.
"The fifth years were leaving Muggle Studies and Care for Magical Creatures." he continued after Severus nodded at him. "The Slytherins and Ravenclaws were heading towards DADA, the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs to Charms. The Care for Magical Creatures students were let out late and couldn't have arrived in the castle before the Flying or Herbology students, who were already too late."
"The Muggle Studies students aren't likely to have taken the detour through the Transfigurations corridor." Severus mused, "But those that don't take either subject could have come from anywhere in the castle. Particularly the Ravenclaws would have been likely to come through the corridor since it is the fastest path to DADA both from their dorms and the library."
"And they would have had more than enough time on their hands to pre-cut the ropes and just wait for Potter to arrive." Draco added. "We don't have any suspects in fifth year anymore, though."
"Your own class was just entering Transfigurations along with the Gryffindors?" Dumbledore continued apparently expecting a comment.
"Our last suspects were Millicent and Pansy and they were behind us when we heard the crash." Draco reported. "Sixth year is entirely cleared."
"Those were our most likely suspects." Albus sighed.
"They and the Quidditch teams." Severus reminded him. "We still have Stephan LaCroix. What of the sixth year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, though?"
"The Ravenclaws were going from Charms to Potions, which would have taken them through the Transfigurations corridor." Dumbledore answered.
"Miranda Deering." reported Draco dutifully.
"And the Hufflepuffs from DADA to Potions. " the headmaster finished.
"Nicodemus Hanson."
"Professor Malfoy claims that Mr. Hanson arrived while the seventh years were still cleaning up." Remus threw in. "Even though the class left a little late that means Nicodemus must have run all the way down to the servants tract. He couldn't possibly have detoured through the Transfigurations corridor."
"We can't trust Lucius' word." Severus answered immediately. "He had a hand in planning this attack and would have an interest in supplying the traitor with an alibi. If anything this makes Nicodemus more suspicious."
"The seventh year Slytherins and Ravenclaws were leaving Transfigurations." Dumbledore continued. "Particularly the Slytherins would have had a good chance as they were only going a little way down the corridor to History of Magic while the Ravenclaws would have had to hurry towards Herbology."
"Stephan LaCroix and Neel Ferris." Draco stated. "Neel could always have claimed he was late because he'd had to go to the bathroom, if he wasn't counting on classes being cancelled before attendance in the first place."
"We played into the traitors hands this time." Dumbledore sighed. We should have let the rest of the classes start normally and seen who was late or missing."
"Well, we'll know, if the traitor ever strikes during break again." Remus concluded. "No use crying over spilled milk."
"Don't even suggest that." Dumbledore suddenly looked serious. "Those attacks have to stop. Stop right now, if anyhow possible."
"We still have twelve suspects." Severus reminded the headmaster calmly. "Unless we get very lucky, the traitor will strike again before we can catch him."
"What of the last two classes?" Draco pushed hoping to get back on topic.
"The Hufflepuffs were on their way from Potions up to History of Magic, but if we are to believe Lucius' claim that Mr. Hanson arrived before they left, they can't have been up there already." Dumbledore answered. "They could however have been there, if they'd left Potions on time. The Gryffindors were heading from Potions to Herbology and shouldn't have come anywhere near the Transfigurations corridor."
"Lucius could have let the traitor out early under some pretence and kept the rest of class back." Severus mused. "If he was in that class, though, he isn't on our list."
"Why would he keep the rest of the class back?" Draco asked. "Wouldn't that attract attention to the traitor?"
"That depends." Severus argued. "If he had a good story, like for example a fake injury, or that he was going to the bathroom, he'd have gotten away with it. Particularly the bathroom story. If the students weren't working in pairs, nobody would have been likely to notice when he didn't come back. As long as Lucius didn't draw attention to the empty workplace it would be perfectly safe."
"But why not just let all the students leave early?" Draco asked.
"Because the class staying late would have been the traitor's alibi." Severus smirked. "Nicodemus might be the alibi, in fact. There's one thing that speaks against Lucius lying about Nicodemus arriving while the class was still there, you know."
"Oh, what's that?" Dumbledore asked twinkling. "Not, Lucius' honourability, I hope."
"The class can confirm whether they saw Nicodemus come in or not." Severus answered calmly.
"And Nicodemus can confirm the presence of the class, but not that of each individual member." Dumbledore realised. "Are you sure you don't have any suspects there?"
"I'll go over those students again." Severus promised. "If you could question Nicodemus and a few of the Potions students for me?"
"With what excuse?" Remus interrupted sharply. "That we don't trust Lucius?"
"With the excuse that I don't see how he could have gotten to class that fast." Dumbledore said mildly. "I'll accuse him of skipping DADA at first, I think."
"Excellent." Severus said. "And we'll go over those seventh years. We haven't visited Argus in a while anyway, right Greenie?"
"Sniff!" answered the little green hedgehog happily.
About a quarter of an hour later the two boys and one hedgehog were sitting in the caretaker's office eating biscuits that must have been a gift from the house elves as Severus was quite sure that Argus Filch couldn't cook much less bake.
Greenie had never eaten biscuits before and was having slight troubles with their habit of crumbling. His spikes were dusted with a thin cover of crumbs and his little green nose was sticky with jam, but he was still happily munching, so Severus didn't think he was suffering in any way.
The boys were also drinking tea, which Greenie didn't like, and had a big parchment rolled out between them.
"Lets start with the Gryffindors." Severus had suggested. "They're easier than the Hufflepuffs."
"Easier?" Draco repeated incredulously.
"Yes, they're less likely to be overlooked." Severus grinned. "Among the Hufflepuffs you often get quiet ones that you tend to forget."
"Okay, the Gryffindors then." Draco agreed and wrote Gryffindor on top of the parchment.
"There's a snotty Muggle born called Anita Miller, that nobody really gets along with." Severus started. "She has the attitude, but I can't really imagine a Muggle born working for Voldemort."
"She's violent, though." Argus commented. "Kicked my poor Mrs. Norris into the ribs when she caught her sneaking into the library last year."
Severus nodded. "Well, it can't hurt to check her alibis for the other incidents anyway."
"We've also got Katie Bell and Alicia Spinet." Draco added. "Both Quidditch players."
"And both seeming rather tolerant and friendly." Severus said. "Then there's Berenice Humperding, a terrible scatterbrain, and her best friend Eudora Scattering. I doubt Berenice would have been able to pull three attacks off without being caught. She just can't concentrate on anything long enough. Eudora seems more competent, at least when far removed from Berenice's influence."
"We're suspecting her then?" Draco asked.
Severus regarded the list thoughtfully. "We'll check out all their alibis. The Quidditch players do have an excellent chance during every game and training."
"But why would Malfoy have suggested banning Potter from Quidditch, if the traitor were a Quidditch player?" Filch argued.
"A feint?" Severus suggested. "He might not have expected to win that vote."
"He looked very triumphant when he did." Filch insisted.
"Father is an excellent actor when he's prepared for it." Draco commented. "He only gives himself away when you surprise him."
"One of the most annoying Gryffindors ever is the aptly named Zachary Melter." Severus glowered at the parchment as Draco wrote that name down. "Most of his classmates refuse to work with him, because he manages to melt down a cauldron almost every week."
"Refuse to work with him?" Draco repeated. "Why? Neville melts down a lot of cauldrons, too, but he always finds a partner."
"I think that can be put down to Neville's and Zachary's personalities." Severus decided. "Neville is accident prone, but a very likeable person. Zachary tends to order others around worse than Miss Granger with a lot less competence to back up his claim for leadership."
"And only a select few put up with Granger." Draco agreed.
"Even though she'd be worth it." Severus confirmed. "Who else? Oh, yes. Andy Alcott, the loudmouth of the year, and Bob 'I'm so cool I don't need to listen to the teacher' Barnes."
"I've heard of Alcott." Draco nodded. "In fact, I've heard Alcott, as has probably everybody in this school. Are you sure he could keep quiet about it, if he were our traitor?"
"Probably not." Severus stated calmly. "He's Muggle born to top it off. Barnes seems like the kind of person that might ignore Lucius' advice and start an attack when he shouldn't, though."
"You think the second attack was a sort of power struggle between Lucius and the traitor?" Argus asked.
"It came too soon." Severus nodded. "Lucius would have been more cautious. It's also noteworthy that this new attack broke the Wednesday pattern, but used severing charms again. Lucius clearly planned this one with a deliberately large number of suspects and different from the earlier ones, but he apparently didn't want to or couldn't do without what seems to be a favourite spell of the traitor, maybe the one thing he does particularly well."
"Do you think we could trace him by that?" Draco asked suddenly. "Maybe Flitwick can give us a list of students that are particularly good at severing charms."
"It can't hurt to try." Severus agreed. "But he'd probably only know of the second and third years for sure and the traitor might well have hidden his talent from him, if he is among those. Severing charms aren't important enough that Filius would remember for years."
"Unless it was a really special talent of an otherwise weak or unremarkable student." Filch amended. "I think the simple fact that he remembers how well an older student did at a simple third year charm would be suspicious."
Severus nodded. "Alright. Next steps: Check alibis of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff seventh years, get list of severing charm masters from Filius, watch Draco question armour."
Draco glared at his friend. "I don't see what's so funny about it. What other Gryffindors do we have?"
"Louis Harringer." Severus announced. "The boy that can't tell the difference between a shrivelfig, an onion and garlic. And that after six full years of Potions."
"He can't tell the difference between an onion and garlic?" Argus gasped.
"I admit that he wears very thick glasses." Severus allowed. "If the problem didn't include shrivelfigs, I'd tell him to bite in and taste the difference, but I don't want him to poison himself."
"How does he manage with fly wings and beetle wings?" Draco asked slightly curious.
"Not!" was Severus' immediate answer. "I manage those for him. Can't risk him throwing them together in one jar, since I can't make him sort them out again. Oh, and then we have his friend Hendric the last."
"The last?"
"Well, his actual name is Hendric First, but he's always last at everything he does. The last to arrive in class, last to find quill and parchment, last to copy the recipe, last to get his ingredients, last to notice his cauldron's about to boil over. . ." Severus sighed. "He's so slow it takes blind Louis to tell him there's no water in his cauldron."
"That class sounds like a disaster." Argus remarked. "Why did I never notice how dangerous they are?"
"Because they aren't." Severus said evenly. "They're just an average class of teenagers. It's the Gryffindor/Slytherin combinations that are really volatile."
"Oh, I see." Filch nodded. "The Hufflepuff half of the class is less troublesome then?"
"Not really." Severus shrugged. "They just have different specialities. There's chatterbox Rosalind, for example. Rosalind Monk on paper. She can't stop talking even if you put her into a row of her own at the back of the classroom. Nothing she says is of any relevance at all, but it will distract her from anything relevant to the topic."
"So what do you do with her?" Draco asked fascinated.
"Make her work with somebody who'll ignore her anyway, Mr. Melter, for example, and question her after every explanation I give to the class. She'll remember after a second personal explanation, if she is sufficiently scared." Severus answered calmly. "Then there's Nosy Holster. Real name Lisa-Beth Holster. She has the uncanny ability to know everything that's going on in class except what she's put into her own cauldron. I mean it. She can tell you what Rosalind was talking about ten minutes ago and when and where Alcott misplaced the lizard eyes, but not what the last ingredient she added to her own potion was."
"Neither of those two sounds like a good suspect." Draco commented.
"Oh, they're competent enough when they feel like it." Severus disagreed. "But they are both Muggle born. As is Martina, the walking lexicon, Horace. She has Granger's vocabulary, but unfortunately not her logical mind. You have to listen closely to notice when she's not making sense, though. Catherine 'I'm not really here' Cree on the other hand is extremely intelligent and competent, but too shy to open her mouth and tell her partner she's doing something wrong. I always have to keep an eye on her, because she's too shy to raise her hand when she has a problem. She's the perfect partner for Lazy Linda Lost, though."
"What's the real name there?" Draco asked, quill hesitating over the parchment.
"Linda Lost." Severus answered. "Honest. It's not my fault her parents named her that. She isn't really lost anyway, just too lazy to do anything, but that leaves Miss Cree with the chance to brew her potion the way she knows it's supposed to be done. Then we have Roland 'I forgot' Hinks and Sebastian 'the dreamer' Highflyer. The first never has all his utensils, or if he does, you can bet he forgot his homework or will forget something in your classroom when he leaves. The second always has great and unrealistic ideas that he absolutely has to realise. Then there's quiet Pat Footer and Lionel Fitter who can't tell clockwise and counter clockwise apart."
"Is that all of them then?" Draco asked staring at the parchment as if he were trying to hypnotise it.
"Yes, I think so." Severus said hesitantly while quickly counting and recounting the names. "No, there ought to be one more."
He fixed the parchment just as intently as Draco.
"What about that blond one that always tromps about with mud on her shoes, even if it hasn't rained in weeks and she hasn't been outside?" Argus suggested. "Isn't that a seventh year Hufflepuff?"
"Right." Severus grinned at him. "That's her. Smudgy Ines Ivory. Now Draco, do you still want to interrogate that suit of armour?"
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Lady LaCroix - Well, somebody had to say it and it's so Draco. . . . Say, are you related to Stephan, by the way?
JerseyPike - Well, a certificate is nice, but I had something a little more personal in mind for my father. (He doesn't do personal very well himself, but it makes him so happy, if you find something really fitting . . .) Well, we don't have snow anymore either, but it did stay over the whole weekend.
ckat44 - I'm aware of that problem, but I couldn't go back to Sevi and Dracvo's loneliness problems with this and the mystery plot is taking me into a totally different direction. I probably shouldn't have done this as a sequel in the first place, but it's too late for that now. As for boring, well, I was aiming to show how routine was settling back in with the last chapters, so it was at least partially on purpose. This will never be as funny as MNS, though, that much is for sure.
Aurumlupi - Er . . . whatever gave you the idea that Luci has a cocaine problem? (Well, in a way the entire school has, but nope, Luci isn't an addict.) . . . Sure Luci has another reason to give Ron so many detentions: He needs someone to clean up after him and he has neither his mother nor an army of house elves with him. . . . Well, they're sixteen. Most boys turn into jack-asses sometime around that age. Luckily in most cases it passes.
Madame Moony - Yep, wasn't that obvious? Stephan's the main dealer. Does that have any pertinence to the plot? Wait and see. . . . Well, it's the purpose of a mystery not to tell you where it's going. I'm throwing information and red herrings around at random right now hoping to confuse everybody before I reveal the truth. . . . Yep, I was getting slow on purpose to indicate how Luci and the traitor were letting things calm down again and as build up for the new attack. Did it work?
EriEka127 - I'm working on it, but my notebook's sick. (Well, actually only the floppy drive is, but that means I can only transfer my work from it to the PC via printing and scanning which means extra work to get the errors and the format fixed again . . .)
Pam Briggs - Well, it was probably obvious to anyone except Luci, Trelawney and maybe Hagrid who he was speaking of anyway. Luci might have gotten suspicious now, though. He must have caught that Albus didn't mention the name of the potions master on purpose, but can he find a reason why?
black sayain - Thanks. I'm trying to update every Friday, but it's turning into every second Friday again. Too much work, too tired.
Pol - The RD sequel will be my next project after this, but it will be short. More of an epilogue to the fic than a new fic. (Another 55 chapters? Oh no, don't have the time. That Catar fic wants to be written, and perhaps the ghost story and . . .) . . . Hey, that's okay. I can understand you just fine and a lot of people around here don't have English for their first language (me being one of them too, after all). . . . Sorry, but there won't be a Quidditch match in this fic. (My characters are telling me no: Harry isn't allowed to play, Neville is afraid of getting on a broom, Sevi of heights, Greenie gets air sick and Ginny and Draco are too much in love to play against each other . . . which leaves Ron who's currently in detention with Luci, so I can't ask him, but I think the vote is pretty clear no matter what he chooses.) . . . Luci said he assumed that everybody except the spy would have gotten killed, but he was on trial at the time and had no contact with Voldemort or the death eaters, so he had no actual information. As far as we know Voldemort might still have some of the prisoners he took and have dark plans with them. . . . The Marauders were unruly pranksters and Sevi (in Minrerva's opinion) an unwilling trickster, who required a stern hand. Frightened students require reassurance and that can only come from someone they trust. Being head of their rival house Gryffindor Minerva was unable to establish that trust with the Slytherin students, so all her attempts remained fruitless. Slytherins are distrusty by nature which makes the task even more difficult, but I think Sevci would have a hard time convincing a bunch of scared Gryffindors everything was fine as well. He's number one 'scary bad guy' to the Gryffindors, while Minerva fills that position for the Slytherins.) . . . Yes, Slytherins usually put on a brave unemotional mask, but Sevi did his best to scare the younger students and first years are only 11 (I still hold the theory that those that don't happen to have a birthday during the summer holidays are actually only ten. Teachers love to assume students are eleven the school year they turn eleven and ten the year before.) 11 year olds are still very impressionable and when very scared children tend to revert to very childish behaviour. They were certainly so convinced they were going to die that they didn't mind about appearances anymore. . . . Yes, I know (I've got a friend in Mexico who told me about your grading system.) I don't understand the things I've been told about the British grading system, though, and with other foreign systems I have the problem that I don't really know how frequently used a grade is or what the emotions connected to it are. That's why I stick with the Austrian grading system (ever since my first failed attempt at using the American one in MNS): The grades are 1- 5. 1 is pretty much perfect, outstanding. In a subject that is taken seriously it's a rare grade (Hermione, Draco and Estella in our Potions class, none of the others. About tree to four students from each class in the other subjects, a slightly different group depending on each subject.) 2 means good, above average. (Maybe a few more students than 1 as it's easier to earn. Alice, Juliana, Theodore and Dean, perhaps in Potions. Requires at least a little talent and effort.) 3 is average and accordingly what most students get. (Talent without effort, a lot of effort with little talent. I'd say Blaise, Pansy, Millicent, Seamus, Lavender, Parvaty and Harry in Potions.) 4 means just enough to pass. (The students who are struggling with the subject or put in just enough effort not to fail. Usually a big group as well, though not as big as the 3 group. Gregory, Vincent, Neville and Ron.) 5 means fail and repeat the year. Not just the subject you fail, but the entire year with all the subjects. Since that never seems to happen in JKR's books I'm not assigning that grade to any of the students. Here you usually get a few students getting 5 at every test, though. I even had a teacher once who said, if not about half the class failed it, that's a clear sign for the teacher that he made the test too easy. . . . I'm afraid I can't answer any traitor guesses right now. You'll have to wait until the end (or until a chapter proves differently) to see whether your theory is correct or not.
Semmel - Uh Rechtschreibung? In Deutsch? Keine Ahnung. Hat schon in der Volksschule meine Lehrerin aufgeregt und wie ich endlich dachte jetzt kann ich's haben sie sie reformiert. Da soll noch einer mitkommen! . . . Ron hat sich schon mit den Hauselfen arrangiert und wie du eben gesehen hast, hat Luci nichtmal was dagegen. Er will halt seine Klasse sauber kriegen ohne selber putzen zu müssen. Alles andere is ihm sowieso egal.
Weasleylover - Of course it is. I've lost what little sympathy I had for James, though. Still like Remus, but that's it. . . . Well, the Gryffindors never really integrated Neville, so he had to go make friends elsewhere. (Realistically, he'd probably have been most likely to find his friends in Hufflepuff, but I put him with the Slytherins and it's certainly given him a boost.) ... Read Ozma's fics for a really wonderful Filch. I got a first sympathy for him when I first wrote him in MNS, but Ozma's fics taught me to love him. . . . Well, my Remus is a Slytherin. He understands and loves his kids.
Colibi - Well, my Greenie has his name from being green, which cats usually aren't, but it would certainly be an original name for a cat. Greenie the kitten! Cute!
Iremione - Well, our snow is gone again by now, but it was there for a few days to announce the end of summer. . . . Oh, don't worry, they did interrogate the girls about the drugs. That wasn't considered a punishment, though. It was research in order to catch the dealer. . . . Luci is probably splitting his head trying to figure out why Albus was so obviously trying to keep the identity of his potions master hidden. Sevi with his cute looks and Green hedgehog luckily has the innocent child image so perfected that it will take Luci a while to look through that. . . . I originally wanted to kill the traitor (die in a huge end-fight), but the prequel was G-rated. I guess he'll just have to escape then. . . . Well, Sevi is still my demon-child. (Marauder trained.) He actually likes Theodore, by the way. . . . Oh, you've got study hour at your school? I only saw that during my two weeks of exchange in France. We always had a full schedule here (and no library anyway.). . . . Why not joints? Stephan offers a lot of variety to his customers. . . . Actually I don't see Minerva as stupid. Just unaware of her own prejudice (which she would do everything to fight, if she were aware of it) and a littleblind to her Slytherin students. As a Gryffindor with very few Slytherin tendencies herself she has problems understanding Slytherin mentality. . . . Lally? Polly! Paddy?
JAL Willaiims - RD sequel will come once this is done. Am not particularly good action writer (but better than romance, no good at romance at all) and that chapter was meant to be slow to symbolise the long time of peace and quiet that lulled the school back into a feeling of safety.
Jade Kirk and Max LBC - Nice ideas, but I think Luci is too cautious to drink anything a student has brewed and he gets smelly things in cauldrons all the time. Sevi might have an accident that turns Minerva's hair green, though. Yes, that could work . . .
Demon of Fear - Well, I just reduced the number and added a few more. Don't worry, several of those new suspects have air tight alibis for the earlier attacks as we will find out next chapter,
sunne - Grin! Thanks! . . . I thought quite a while about Edmond Glizzard. When Eddy asked me for a little guest role in my fic, he suggested a death eater who gets killed right away. Since it wasn't supposed to be that bloody and I can't really see my friend as a murderous death eater I got the idea to cast him as a relative, but he needed a good reason not to take Draco that also fit the real Edmund. So he became a spy. . . . I know. It's hard to let a fic go (at least for me it always is), but they have to end somewhere and RD was already 55 chapters long, the longest I've written so far. I thought it was time to say good bye and give some of those other plot hedgehogs a chance.
kateydidnt - I'm sure Harry checked the map and would have noticed, if Ron weren't Ron on it, but Sevi and Draco don't have access to it. . . . Why would Ron be afraid of Hermione finding out? Yes, they'd quarrel and not talk to each other again, but I don't see him as thinking that far ahead in the moment he has a nasty task ahead of him and a house elf walks on stage eager to do any kind of work that would please some wizard. . . . Harry spent his detention working in the old destroyed office, while Ron (plus house elf) was cleaning the new Potions classroom. Yes, the poor boys had to serve detention separately!
Marauder3Moony - I'll try. . . . Sorry, not much Voldemort in this fic. (But this is the most use I've ever found for him in one of my stories. If I continue like this maybe someday I'll actually manage to write him into a scene!
None of the Above - Sorry, interrogation of the armour next time. This chapter turned out a little differently than I had planned.
Reiven - Well, Draco wouldn't have done that for anybody else, but Sevi's somebody he likes and looks up to. Sevi watches out for his Slytherins and they know they owe him something for that.
Pseudonym Sylphmuse - Well, I don't think dealers care much about where their drugs come from. Stephan sells both Muggle and wizarding drugs. The Muggle ones are in many ways easier for him, though since people at Hogwarts aren't as aware of them or their dangers. . . . RD is done. There'll be a mini sequel once I finish this fic, but no more updates of the fic itself. And RD is all about Draco no longer being the heir of the Malfoy fortune, as there is no Malfoy fortune left. The Prophet probably doesn't give a damn about Draco with all the death eater activity going on and no big fortune left to attract him. They'd probably write about him, if they notice and are having problems filling their paper, but by the time Voldemort is stopped, it will be old news and until then Voldemort will keep them busy.
Sevter - Well, they managed to keep Draco until now and with knowing that he has two kids to support the ministry will have to allow Sevi a little more money. Sarah will be going back to work next year and Albus . . . kindly forgot about half of Draco's school money. Draco's prices have gone up a little since he's back at Hogwarts (except for the single lessons in Potions. Those were already very expensive, after all.), but that's all the 'pocket money' he gets. Sevi doesn't have money to spare for sweets and butterbeer on Hogsmeade weekends (but then those are used for visits at home anyway.)
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A/N: Can a suit of armour answer questions? Has Neville seen anything? Why did Nicodemus run to Potions class? (Guesses about the identity of the traitor as always will be read with great interest, but not answered, yet.) Please R/R.
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Next: Severus gets some Muggle sweets to experiment with, Draco finally interrogates that suit of armour and Lucius has to deal with another Potions disaster.
Disclaimer 2 - Draco drawing dragons belongs to PikaCheeka. Sorry I forgot to mention that in the first chapter of MNS. I sort of adopted the idea subconsciously.
Disclaimer 3 - Severus' raven belongs to J. L. Matthews. I just borrowed him because he's such a perfect pet for Sevi and promise to return him unharmed.
The catar however are all mine and I love them so please don't use without asking me first.
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A/N - Sorry for being so late. I was going to post last week, but Leena was busy translating Severitus' latest chapter, so I decided to give her another week and post yesterday. Then I still didn't hear from her and thought I'd wait one more day, but now I'm giving up. Can't say when the next chapter will be ready. I had half of it written, but most of it was on my notebook, which is down for repairs. (Poor trusty notebook. It's been my almost constant companion for almost two years, but a problem with the disk drive put it out of action now.) I'll have to rewrite a large part of the chapter and will only be able to write when at home now, so updates might get a little slow until I get it back.
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Chapter 12: The Attack of the Armour
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Severus had had to give up his attempts to monitor Lucius' defences. He had been able to determine that both his quarters and his offices, the destroyed one as well as the replacement, were protected by strong anti listening spells. In fact so were both Potions classrooms.
He hadn't found a way to set up a permanent monitoring spell without Lucius noticing, though, which meant that he had to test the spells for enforcements manually and personally every time. Since he also had no way of predicting when his suspects would visit Lucius and whether they'd look for him in his office or his quarters, his only option was to watch one of the two locations at all times, which was both boring and unsuccessful.
Any attempt to follow Lucius rather than the students was doomed from the start. The man was too experienced a criminal not to notice.
The only result a week of watching Lucius' quarters had brought him was that Lucius did not take any additional precautions when visited by Marsha Alton or Gaia Ushton.
So the boys returned to following suspects during the week after the Hogsmeade weekend. Severus' suspect of the week was Iago Orson while Draco shadowed his friend Mattis Parker. That allowed them to work together most of the time, but didn't yield anything conclusive either.
All they knew by the end of the week was that the boys liked to wait behind the corner of a dark hallway near the Hufflepuff common room and jump out at smaller students passing by alone. Most victims were only threatened, but some also attacked physically. The two boys seemed to be easily placated with money or sweets, though and there was no visible connection of their activities with Harry Potter.
In Potions class that Monday, while Neville was off getting the ingredients they needed and Potter was at Lucius' desk trying to convince the teacher that his soup was not dangerous despite the hurricane it had created last time, Severus suggested changing targets once again.
"We could try to follow suspects from one of the other houses. Maybe they're more interesting." he whispered.
"Hufflepuffs perhaps?" Draco sneered. "I'd rather search, the Gryffindors. Neville would let us in, you know that."
"No!" hissed Severus, but got no time to elaborate as Harry returned triumphant and started to set up his cauldron.
"Going to feed the soup again?" Draco asked him conversationally. "Or are you trying to kill yourself and us before the dark lord can get you?"
Harry glared at him, but didn't consider the remark worthy of an answer.
Severus returned his attention to Pansy's shampoo. It had a weird smell, he decided. At least it didn't smell like he thought shampoo should. Their first tests of it revealed only harmless ingredients, though, even if Severus wondered why anyone would want strong liquor in their hair. Better it went onto Pansy's head than into it anyway. There were enough addicts in the school already without adding alcoholics as well.
"Maybe the liquor is responsible for the smell?" Draco suggested.
Severus sniffed the vial again. "Possible." he admitted. "But I won't be convinced until we know all the ingredients."
Unfortunately he didn't get any further in his experiments that day. Gregory's cauldron exploded only seconds after that exchange startling Lavender so much she dropped her ladle into her cauldron. Both she and Parvati got splashed with boiling potion, but that wasn't nearly as bad as the single drop of it that landed in Potter's soup.
In answer another whirlwind rose from the cauldron and the temperature in the room became icy.
Severus quickly doused the fire under his own cauldron as big red flocks started to fall into it with strange hissing sounds.
"What the..." Lucius started.
"I think we're about to get a snowstorm." Hermione answered him eying the growing whirlwind. "Of red snow."
"It's definitely getting cold!" Seamus added shivering. "And we didn't bring our cloaks and gloves."
"Fine." Lucius growled. "You may clean up and leave. Weasley, bring a shovel and warm clothes for detention right after lunch."
"I've got Charms after lunch." Ron pointed out.
"Well, then you'd better eat very fast and hope Professor Flitwick doesn't mind you being a little late." Lucius smirked.
"Can I use magic and the house elf again?" Ron pleaded.
"Of course. I want the room cleaned out. Dumbledore said I'll have to teach on the Quidditch field, if I lose this classroom as well and out there the snow is even deeper than in here right now. "
Greenie for once was happy to lave Potions early. The hedgehog did not like snowstorms in the slightest. In weather like this any decent hedgehog was supposed to be asleep.
Severus hugged him close to keep him warm on the way through the corridors, though, and bundled him up in a towel once they reached the common room. A hot potato and a huge portion of steak finally restored the hedgehog's well being and he soon waddled down the Slytherin table sniffing happily and checking various students' plates. None of them were having anything else than what Severus had served him, of course, but Greenie liked to go exploring.
Their first afternoon class was DADA with the Hufflepuffs, which was currently Greenie's least favourite subject. Remus was teaching the sixth years how to set protective wards and the little green hedgehog was his favourite subject for demonstrations.
Of course it wasn't generally a bad thing to be protected, but when the ward physically pushed away every object you wanted to explore or 'protected' you from tasty snacks like cockroaches it was quite annoying.
Today Greenie ended up being protected against hexes which meant he had a whole thunderstorm of hexes cast at him only to dissolve into a spectacle of bright colours the moment it got into touch with the ward. The brightness stung his eyes and the smells weren't too pleasant either.
Greenie rolled up to pout for the rest of the lesson.
"I don't think he likes that one, Remus." Severus commented. "Maybe you'd better take it off now."
Remus nodded. "Right. You've all seen what it does anyway. Now try to do it."
Severus found to his surprise that, though most of the Slytherins had already known some protective wards when they'd started, while most Hufflepuffs' knowledge had been very sketchy, some of he best ward casters in the class were Hufflepuffs. With the noteworthy exception of Nicodemus Hanson they all showed a certain aptitude and strong desire to master them.
After a while of watching he'd concluded that it was their social inclination that caused them to have a special interest in spells that protected others. They were thinking of their friends and families when practising the wards and put in special effort for them.
Draco was finding the wards particularly difficult. His parents had taught him how to identify and break wards, but never bothered with teaching him to cast them which made him the weakest student in these lessons. Even Gregory had started knowing a ward against bad dreams and how to protect a door against intrusions. He hadn't actually been taught either, but his mother had cast them for him every night when she tucked him in ever since he'd been a baby and as he'd grown older he'd learned by imitating her.
Millicent had a whole arsenal of wards to protect pets. Apparently she really loved her cat dearly. And Estella was a master of silence wards, which she needed when studying since she was easily distracted by noise.
Little Susan Abbot of Hufflepuff had been taught several complex, wards to protect babies and Susan Bones bad picked up some for plants from Professor Sprout. Neville would have been fascinated by her demonstration, Severus suspected, but unfortunately Neville had DADA with the Ravenclaws. Well, they probably knew some great wards as well.
It took Severus a moment to convince Greenie to unroll after class which meant that he and Draco were among the last ones to leave the DADA classroom. Only Millicent and Pansy were behind them still engrossed in a conversation about the ward Millicent had suggested would suit Greenie better than the one Remus had demonstrated today.
"Pets just don't like something that flashy." she was explaining as they walked towards Transfiguration. "A ward that quietly absorbs the hexes serves them much better, but will fail sooner, if confronted with a series of several strong hexes. There's no way to make it absorb power indefinitely you see. It has to go somewhere. So you have to add a draining element . . ."
Severus was impressed. He'd never heard Millicent sound so intellectual. In fact he'd thought her a slightly simple girl, but now he got the impression that she was only lazy and disinterested. Maybe, if he directed her towards potions that might benefit her cat, he could stir her interest in his subject a little.
KRASH! CLANG! Clutter, clutter. Thump!
Draco jumped back from the corner they had just been about to round at the sudden noise from the corridor ahead. Millicent broke off mid-sentence and Pansy involuntarily raised her hand to her lips as they all stopped.
There were screams from the Transfigurations corridor.
Severus was the first to catch himself and run around the corner. The others followed him still shaken, but beginning to regain control.
A suit of armour had crashed to the ground. That was the first thing Severus noticed.
But it had been fixed to the wall with several ropes to prevent any such accidents. Somebody had to have removed them, since there was no way they would have all snapped at the same time on their own.
It would have looked like the kind of thing Peeves might do except for the fact that several Gryffindors were kneeling among the scattered pieces of armour, some obviously wounded.
Peeves might drop an entire suit of armour to anger or scare somebody, but he knew very well that the headmaster would banish him immediately, if one of his pranks ever seriously harmed a student and he'd never crossed that line even in the days before Dumbedore.
Even Peeves had a certain code of honour.
Neville was with Hermione and Ron, digging through the pile. If there was somebody under that . . . Potter!
Of course! This was the work of the traitor.
Before Severus could act on the realisation however the pile suddenly moved, several pieces cluttered aside and Harry sat up rubbing his head.
"I think my leg's hurt." he declared.
Hermione slung her arms around him in relief, while Ron conjured a stretcher to carry him to the hospital wing.
A slight sob of relief drew Severus' attention to Estella who bad been standing frozen in the middle of the corridor with her wand out and pointing at where Harry had been.
"I cast the wrong spell." she said shakily. "There was a suit of armour falling on Potter and I cast a ward to protect him from hexes. I should have used a ward against objects, a magnetic spell, deflected the armour. Levitation charm."
"It's alright." Alice told her. "It worked, didn't it? Even if it wasn't the perfect spell it did deflect the armour a little and kept him alive."
"Yes," Juliana agreed. "Madame Pomfrey will heal his leg. She couldn't have healed him, if it had crushed his skull."
"How could a suit of armour that's stood there for years just crash like that?" somebody asked, voice hollow with shock.
"It couldn't." McGonagall, who was standing in the door of her classroom, stated. "It was tied to the wall."
Draco walked over to the wall behind the now empty platform and pulled up one of the ends of rope that were hanging limply down from the rings that had once secured the armour.
"A clean cut." he reported and held it up so they all could see. "And this one as well." he went on to the next rope.
"Another severing charm?" Neville whispered.
He was still sitting on the floor in the middle of the debris, now hugging himself for comfort.
"Looks like several to me." Draco stated.
"Unless the traitor is skilled enough to make several cuts with just one charm." Severus amended. "An older student very talented at Charms might be able to do that. At least I've seen Professor Flitwick do something like that."
McGonagall nodded. "But can a student? Can we determine whether this was one Charm or several?"
"We'll have to ask Filius to take a look at it." Madame Pince threw in.
She too was standing in front of her classroom leaning against a wall for support.
"I will alert him and the headmaster." Binns offered and flew off through the ceiling.
"And you had better return to your common rooms." Minerva addressed the students. "I'm sure the headmaster will announce another meeting anyway."
And indeed. The Slytherin sixth years hadn't even reached the dungeons yet, when the headmaster's voice rang through the corridors telling them that there would be no more classes today.
-
-
Severus was pacing up and down the row of shower stalls. "I wish I knew Filius' results. Or at least what years had what classes."
"It was break time." Draco reminded him. "Nobody has an alibi."
"Yes, they do." Severus argued. "Unless they were let out early the students coming out of Divination, Herbology or Care for Magical Creatures couldn't have reached that hallway in time. Probably even the students coming from Potions as well. A student on the way between classes not on that hallway would have had to make a detour and his next teacher would have noticed, if he was later than the rest of his class."
"So you'd limit our suspects to the classes coming from or going to Transfigurations?" Draco asked.
"No, History of Magic and Latin are on the same hallway." Severus reminded him. "Students going from Ancient Runes to DADA would go through that corridor as well, as it is the fastest route. Possibly also students going from Charms to Runes. It's one of the busiest corridors in the school."
"Which makes it odd that the traitor would strike there in the first place." Draco mused. "The risk of being caught would be much less, if he'd chosen a more quiet area."
"Not really." Severus smirked. "I see your father's touch here. It's actually brilliant. In a quiet area where he had no business being, anyone who'd happen to see the traitor would be likely to remember. If we assume however, that he is a student who had class on that corridor, his presence there during the incident wouldn't be suspicious at all. There must have been at least thirty people in the corridor when we got there. Do you remember who all of them were?"
"Well, there was Estella, Alice, everybody from our year in both Slytherin and Gryffindor."
"Stop!" Severus called.
"What?"
"First mistake. Pansy and Millicent, our last real suspects in that group, arrived with us. They were behind us when the armour fell, so they can't have done it. I too, remember seeing the rest of the girls, but were all the boys there?" Severus asked. "I remember Neville, Potter. Ron and Hermione. Seamus had a cut in his arm and I think I saw Dean, but I'm not entirely sure of that. I don't remember any Gryffindor girls other than Hermione. And what students from other years were watching?"
"I think I saw Gaia." Draco said.
"And I know I saw Maximius, which means the rest of the Slytherin third years could have been there as well." Severus agreed.
"Alright, alright, I get your point. Why don't we go see, if Remus is back yet?"
"Because everybody is down there in the common room and somebody would wonder where we are going."
"Then we'll tell them we're bored and going to the library, or for a walk, or we want to talk to our head of house."
"We can't do that every time there is an attack." Severus paced faster. "I wish we could interrogate all the witnesses."
"We can talk to McGonagall and Pince." Draco pointed out.
"Who were probably in their classrooms until they heard the crash." Severus argued. "We need somebody who actually saw the whole thing, not just the aftermath."
"Neville?" Draco suggested with little hope.
Severus hesitated. "No." he said finally. "I don't want to involve him."
Draco fell silent for a while.
"We could ask the armour!" he exclaimed suddenly after almost a minute.
"What?!"
"The armours always sing at Christmas, right?"
"Yes, Filius usually performs the spell." Severus confirmed.
"So if they can sing, they can also talk, right?"
"It wasn't animated when it fell." Severus sighed. "Even if we get it to talk, it most likely won't have any memory of the incident."
"We should still try," Draco insisted. "We can't be sure it has nothing to say until we have asked it."
"Oh, ask it, if you want to, but not right now."
"Ask what?" Theodore stood in the door staring at the two. "What are you two doing in here anyway?"
"We were ..." started Draco.
"I was going to clean out Greenie's cage." Severus nodded towards the hedgehog in his arms. "Then Draco distracted me with his ideas about talking to armours."
"Huh?" made Theodore.
"Well, I just thought the armour that fell on Potter should know who enspelled it to do so." Draco said a little poutily.
"Erm Draco, it's a dead object made of dead metal." Theodore explained patiently. "It doesn't answer questions."
"It sings at Christmas!" Draco hissed at him and stomped out of the bathroom.
Theodore looked after him, then to Severus who just shrugged.
"Your best friend's weird." Theodore decided. "Who cares anyway. Let the teachers puzzle over it."
"The traitor scares the first years." Severus pointed out "It'd be better, if he were caught soon."
"Maybe it's better, if he's successful first." Theodore suggested as he grabbed his hairbrush and started brushing his hair.
"And kills Potter?" Severus asked. "I don't think that would necessarily calm the little ones."
"You think they care about Potter?" Theodore snorted.
"They might care about seeing a dead body. Or knowing that somebody in their school killed someone." Severus suggested, "They're little children, Theodore."
"Maybe so, but don't you think they'd catch him, when he finally succeeds?"
"It would probably be the last chance." Severus said. "Careful, loose hedgehog"
"Careful?" Theodore asked incredulously.
"Yep, Gregory stepped on him last year. Blaise and Vince had to carry him to the hospital wing to have the spikes removed from his foot."
"Can't you put him in the cage?"
"It's rather hard to clean it with the hedgehog inside."
"Hold him?"
"And clean one handed?"
"Why don't you just use your wand to clean it?"
"Not thorough enough." Severus insisted. "Afterwards the cage may look clean, but it still starts to smell after a while."
Theodore sighed. "Well, I'm done here anyway."
"Sniff?" commented Greenie as the boy walked out.
At dinner Remus finally approached them and told them to see him in his office after the meal.
"We need to talk about tutoring lessons." he added towards Draco.
"Tutoring?" Draco exclaimed. He didn't like the sound of that word at all.
"You are falling behind in my class and I don't like it." Remus confirmed. "I'd rather stop it before it becomes a problem."
"My father is going to kill me." Draco groaned.
He didn't like this latest excuse at all. Of course everybody in their DADA class was going to confirm that Draco, who was usually a very good DADA student, had been having unusually bad problems lately, so tutoring lessons made sense. Lucius however wouldn't take kindly to the news. He'd call it laziness and ungratefulness and remind Draco that he wasn't doing his duty towards his family and never once remember that it had been him that hadn't taught Draco how to set a single ward.
Dumbledore and Remus walked out together after dinner continuing an apparently very engrossing conversation. Knowing Dumbledore the topic could be anything from world politics to a new brand of Muggle sweets.
It was no surprise when the boys found the headmaster still in the DADA teacher's office about ten minutes later.
"Ah, come on in, boys." Dumbledore invited them as if it were his own office.
The werewolf apparently didn't take offence, though.
"You've heard about the latest incident, I trust?" Dumbledore continued.
"Seen it actually." Draco commented.
"Well, almost seen it at least." Severus amended. "We were just around the corner when it happened."
Dumbledore nodded. "The ropes that secured the suit of armour were severed by severing charms." he reported. "Filius doubts it could have been done with only one charm due to the number of ropes and the distances between them. He would have used at least two charms for a task like that, but suggests that most of the ropes might have been pre-cut leaving only one to hold the armour in place until Harry was in position."
"Would that work?" Draco asked. "Wouldn't the armour have fallen too soon or hung awkwardly by the one rope.
"Not if it was the center rope on its back." Remus answered for Dumbledore. "The ropes are only meant for additional security anyway. The suit should theoretically have been able to stand on its own as long as it wasn't shook up by an earthquake, or Potions explosion, or pushed over."
Dumbledore nodded. "The ropes were originally added, because students kept accidentally bumping into the suits of armour, often pushing them off their platforms, which meant several hours of work for the caretaker to put them back together and into a stable position. That takes us to the next point, though. Cutting the ropes alone wouldn't have caused the armour to fall. My analysis shows that a magnetic charm was cast in the hallway, but I wasn't able to determine the object it was cast on, which means whatever it was had already been removed from there."
"It might have been what caused the armour to fall." Remus agreed. "Or the traitor might just have pushed the armour over manually and somebody else cast the magnetic charm in an attempt to deflect it from the students."
"Minerva says Miss Rashton was standing not far from the scene with her wand out and looking quite shocked. Maybe she was the caster of the magnetic charm and reacted just a second too late." the headmaster suggested.
Severus shook his head. "Estella apparently just cast the first spell that came to her mind, which was the ward she'd just been practising in DADA. She told all of us afterwards because she was feeling guilty for picking the wrong spell."
Remus nodded. "The anti-hex ward we dismissed as unrelated." he told Dumbledore. "I'd thought one of my students had still been practising on the way to their next class."
"Any other unrelated spells?" Severus asked dryly.
"A furunculus hex," Albus reported. "Two stupefys, one disorientation spell and the counter for it. Three minor Transfigurations, five wakefulness charms and one memory enhancing spell. I was unable to determine the exact casting time for any of the spells of course."
Severus sighed. "The furunculus must have been part of a minor fight between students sometime before the incident. The stupefys and disorientation spell might have been part of that fight as well, but the disorientation spell could also have been used to prevent Harry from escaping. In fact so could a stupefy, if cast at precisely the right time. Or each of the three could have been cast by the traitor in order to avoid being caught by passing students when and if he pre-cut the ropes."
"We'll have to find out what students were involved in the fight and ask them what spells were cast during it." Dumbledore decided. "I'll set the other heads of house to investigate it. That will attract less attention than announcing it in the great hall."
"Excellent." Severus agreed. "The Transfigurations might have leaked over from the Transfigurations classroom, or maybe it was students practising before class. I don't see how they could be related to the attack. The same goes for the wakefulness charms. They were probably cast by tired students heading into or out of History of Magic and afraid of dozing off during class. The memory enhancing spell, too, looks like a student, maybe one suffering from forgetfulness, not wanting to miss anything important during class."
Dumbledore nodded. "The schedules then. The first years are once again cleared by the use of the severing charms. The second year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs had all just had Herbology and were on the way back to the castle. Professor Sprout confirms that the class wasn't let out early and could not have reached the castle at the time of the attack, certainly not the Transfigurations corridor. Their Gryffindor and Ravenclaw year mates however were just coming out of History."
"Quintus Palmer and Vestalia Flemming" Draco commented unasked. Severus had been training him to be able to name their suspects by house and year by heart.
"We're still not even entirely sure whether those two can perform a severing charm." Severus added. "Maybe it's time we took a closer look at the Gryffindors."
"The third year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs were leaving Latin while the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were just coming in." Albus continued. "Professor Pince was answering a question from Curtis Marston the moment she heard the crash. Marsha Alton was still in the classroom as well to discuss a detention Minerva gave her for disrupting class. Other than that we aren't sure which students were inside or outside the classroom at that precise moment."
"That leaves us with Maximius Mattels, Gaia Ushton, Aemilia Andres and Caius Rude as suspects in third year." Draco reported.
"If Curtis stayed behind to ask a question, Gaia would most likely have waited as well." Severus commented.
"Unless she was planning to kill Potter in the meantime." Draco suggested. "But at least Marsha and Curtis are cleared."
Severus nodded and scratched the names off his list. "The fourth year?"
"The Slytherins and Gryffindors were leaving Transfigurations. For those that take it, the next class would have been Runes." the headmaster read off his own list. "Minerva was busy preparing for her next lesson and didn't pay attention to the comings and goings around her."
"Iago Orsen and Mattis Parker." Draco smirked. "Our friends the Hufflepuff hunters."
"The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, with the exception of the Quidditch players were putting their brooms away after Flying class. Professor Hootch kept them all in the broom shed until they were done and led them back to the castle herself, because of the unruly behaviour they had exhibited on the way back last week. She didn't trust them to get back without angering Argus again, if she left them alone." Dumbledore reported. "When she reached the castle she just caught the end of my announcement, so her students were all definitely outside during the attack."
"Sandra Invers." Draco replied to Remus' questioning glance. "She isn't a Quidditch player, so she should have been in class."
"Did you ask for absences, Albus?" Severus asked.
"One boy who had a bad cold and is allergic to Pepper up Potion. He was in the hospital wing as Poppy confirms" Dumbledore answered without hesitating.
"The fifth years were leaving Muggle Studies and Care for Magical Creatures." he continued after Severus nodded at him. "The Slytherins and Ravenclaws were heading towards DADA, the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs to Charms. The Care for Magical Creatures students were let out late and couldn't have arrived in the castle before the Flying or Herbology students, who were already too late."
"The Muggle Studies students aren't likely to have taken the detour through the Transfigurations corridor." Severus mused, "But those that don't take either subject could have come from anywhere in the castle. Particularly the Ravenclaws would have been likely to come through the corridor since it is the fastest path to DADA both from their dorms and the library."
"And they would have had more than enough time on their hands to pre-cut the ropes and just wait for Potter to arrive." Draco added. "We don't have any suspects in fifth year anymore, though."
"Your own class was just entering Transfigurations along with the Gryffindors?" Dumbledore continued apparently expecting a comment.
"Our last suspects were Millicent and Pansy and they were behind us when we heard the crash." Draco reported. "Sixth year is entirely cleared."
"Those were our most likely suspects." Albus sighed.
"They and the Quidditch teams." Severus reminded him. "We still have Stephan LaCroix. What of the sixth year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, though?"
"The Ravenclaws were going from Charms to Potions, which would have taken them through the Transfigurations corridor." Dumbledore answered.
"Miranda Deering." reported Draco dutifully.
"And the Hufflepuffs from DADA to Potions. " the headmaster finished.
"Nicodemus Hanson."
"Professor Malfoy claims that Mr. Hanson arrived while the seventh years were still cleaning up." Remus threw in. "Even though the class left a little late that means Nicodemus must have run all the way down to the servants tract. He couldn't possibly have detoured through the Transfigurations corridor."
"We can't trust Lucius' word." Severus answered immediately. "He had a hand in planning this attack and would have an interest in supplying the traitor with an alibi. If anything this makes Nicodemus more suspicious."
"The seventh year Slytherins and Ravenclaws were leaving Transfigurations." Dumbledore continued. "Particularly the Slytherins would have had a good chance as they were only going a little way down the corridor to History of Magic while the Ravenclaws would have had to hurry towards Herbology."
"Stephan LaCroix and Neel Ferris." Draco stated. "Neel could always have claimed he was late because he'd had to go to the bathroom, if he wasn't counting on classes being cancelled before attendance in the first place."
"We played into the traitors hands this time." Dumbledore sighed. We should have let the rest of the classes start normally and seen who was late or missing."
"Well, we'll know, if the traitor ever strikes during break again." Remus concluded. "No use crying over spilled milk."
"Don't even suggest that." Dumbledore suddenly looked serious. "Those attacks have to stop. Stop right now, if anyhow possible."
"We still have twelve suspects." Severus reminded the headmaster calmly. "Unless we get very lucky, the traitor will strike again before we can catch him."
"What of the last two classes?" Draco pushed hoping to get back on topic.
"The Hufflepuffs were on their way from Potions up to History of Magic, but if we are to believe Lucius' claim that Mr. Hanson arrived before they left, they can't have been up there already." Dumbledore answered. "They could however have been there, if they'd left Potions on time. The Gryffindors were heading from Potions to Herbology and shouldn't have come anywhere near the Transfigurations corridor."
"Lucius could have let the traitor out early under some pretence and kept the rest of class back." Severus mused. "If he was in that class, though, he isn't on our list."
"Why would he keep the rest of the class back?" Draco asked. "Wouldn't that attract attention to the traitor?"
"That depends." Severus argued. "If he had a good story, like for example a fake injury, or that he was going to the bathroom, he'd have gotten away with it. Particularly the bathroom story. If the students weren't working in pairs, nobody would have been likely to notice when he didn't come back. As long as Lucius didn't draw attention to the empty workplace it would be perfectly safe."
"But why not just let all the students leave early?" Draco asked.
"Because the class staying late would have been the traitor's alibi." Severus smirked. "Nicodemus might be the alibi, in fact. There's one thing that speaks against Lucius lying about Nicodemus arriving while the class was still there, you know."
"Oh, what's that?" Dumbledore asked twinkling. "Not, Lucius' honourability, I hope."
"The class can confirm whether they saw Nicodemus come in or not." Severus answered calmly.
"And Nicodemus can confirm the presence of the class, but not that of each individual member." Dumbledore realised. "Are you sure you don't have any suspects there?"
"I'll go over those students again." Severus promised. "If you could question Nicodemus and a few of the Potions students for me?"
"With what excuse?" Remus interrupted sharply. "That we don't trust Lucius?"
"With the excuse that I don't see how he could have gotten to class that fast." Dumbledore said mildly. "I'll accuse him of skipping DADA at first, I think."
"Excellent." Severus said. "And we'll go over those seventh years. We haven't visited Argus in a while anyway, right Greenie?"
"Sniff!" answered the little green hedgehog happily.
About a quarter of an hour later the two boys and one hedgehog were sitting in the caretaker's office eating biscuits that must have been a gift from the house elves as Severus was quite sure that Argus Filch couldn't cook much less bake.
Greenie had never eaten biscuits before and was having slight troubles with their habit of crumbling. His spikes were dusted with a thin cover of crumbs and his little green nose was sticky with jam, but he was still happily munching, so Severus didn't think he was suffering in any way.
The boys were also drinking tea, which Greenie didn't like, and had a big parchment rolled out between them.
"Lets start with the Gryffindors." Severus had suggested. "They're easier than the Hufflepuffs."
"Easier?" Draco repeated incredulously.
"Yes, they're less likely to be overlooked." Severus grinned. "Among the Hufflepuffs you often get quiet ones that you tend to forget."
"Okay, the Gryffindors then." Draco agreed and wrote Gryffindor on top of the parchment.
"There's a snotty Muggle born called Anita Miller, that nobody really gets along with." Severus started. "She has the attitude, but I can't really imagine a Muggle born working for Voldemort."
"She's violent, though." Argus commented. "Kicked my poor Mrs. Norris into the ribs when she caught her sneaking into the library last year."
Severus nodded. "Well, it can't hurt to check her alibis for the other incidents anyway."
"We've also got Katie Bell and Alicia Spinet." Draco added. "Both Quidditch players."
"And both seeming rather tolerant and friendly." Severus said. "Then there's Berenice Humperding, a terrible scatterbrain, and her best friend Eudora Scattering. I doubt Berenice would have been able to pull three attacks off without being caught. She just can't concentrate on anything long enough. Eudora seems more competent, at least when far removed from Berenice's influence."
"We're suspecting her then?" Draco asked.
Severus regarded the list thoughtfully. "We'll check out all their alibis. The Quidditch players do have an excellent chance during every game and training."
"But why would Malfoy have suggested banning Potter from Quidditch, if the traitor were a Quidditch player?" Filch argued.
"A feint?" Severus suggested. "He might not have expected to win that vote."
"He looked very triumphant when he did." Filch insisted.
"Father is an excellent actor when he's prepared for it." Draco commented. "He only gives himself away when you surprise him."
"One of the most annoying Gryffindors ever is the aptly named Zachary Melter." Severus glowered at the parchment as Draco wrote that name down. "Most of his classmates refuse to work with him, because he manages to melt down a cauldron almost every week."
"Refuse to work with him?" Draco repeated. "Why? Neville melts down a lot of cauldrons, too, but he always finds a partner."
"I think that can be put down to Neville's and Zachary's personalities." Severus decided. "Neville is accident prone, but a very likeable person. Zachary tends to order others around worse than Miss Granger with a lot less competence to back up his claim for leadership."
"And only a select few put up with Granger." Draco agreed.
"Even though she'd be worth it." Severus confirmed. "Who else? Oh, yes. Andy Alcott, the loudmouth of the year, and Bob 'I'm so cool I don't need to listen to the teacher' Barnes."
"I've heard of Alcott." Draco nodded. "In fact, I've heard Alcott, as has probably everybody in this school. Are you sure he could keep quiet about it, if he were our traitor?"
"Probably not." Severus stated calmly. "He's Muggle born to top it off. Barnes seems like the kind of person that might ignore Lucius' advice and start an attack when he shouldn't, though."
"You think the second attack was a sort of power struggle between Lucius and the traitor?" Argus asked.
"It came too soon." Severus nodded. "Lucius would have been more cautious. It's also noteworthy that this new attack broke the Wednesday pattern, but used severing charms again. Lucius clearly planned this one with a deliberately large number of suspects and different from the earlier ones, but he apparently didn't want to or couldn't do without what seems to be a favourite spell of the traitor, maybe the one thing he does particularly well."
"Do you think we could trace him by that?" Draco asked suddenly. "Maybe Flitwick can give us a list of students that are particularly good at severing charms."
"It can't hurt to try." Severus agreed. "But he'd probably only know of the second and third years for sure and the traitor might well have hidden his talent from him, if he is among those. Severing charms aren't important enough that Filius would remember for years."
"Unless it was a really special talent of an otherwise weak or unremarkable student." Filch amended. "I think the simple fact that he remembers how well an older student did at a simple third year charm would be suspicious."
Severus nodded. "Alright. Next steps: Check alibis of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff seventh years, get list of severing charm masters from Filius, watch Draco question armour."
Draco glared at his friend. "I don't see what's so funny about it. What other Gryffindors do we have?"
"Louis Harringer." Severus announced. "The boy that can't tell the difference between a shrivelfig, an onion and garlic. And that after six full years of Potions."
"He can't tell the difference between an onion and garlic?" Argus gasped.
"I admit that he wears very thick glasses." Severus allowed. "If the problem didn't include shrivelfigs, I'd tell him to bite in and taste the difference, but I don't want him to poison himself."
"How does he manage with fly wings and beetle wings?" Draco asked slightly curious.
"Not!" was Severus' immediate answer. "I manage those for him. Can't risk him throwing them together in one jar, since I can't make him sort them out again. Oh, and then we have his friend Hendric the last."
"The last?"
"Well, his actual name is Hendric First, but he's always last at everything he does. The last to arrive in class, last to find quill and parchment, last to copy the recipe, last to get his ingredients, last to notice his cauldron's about to boil over. . ." Severus sighed. "He's so slow it takes blind Louis to tell him there's no water in his cauldron."
"That class sounds like a disaster." Argus remarked. "Why did I never notice how dangerous they are?"
"Because they aren't." Severus said evenly. "They're just an average class of teenagers. It's the Gryffindor/Slytherin combinations that are really volatile."
"Oh, I see." Filch nodded. "The Hufflepuff half of the class is less troublesome then?"
"Not really." Severus shrugged. "They just have different specialities. There's chatterbox Rosalind, for example. Rosalind Monk on paper. She can't stop talking even if you put her into a row of her own at the back of the classroom. Nothing she says is of any relevance at all, but it will distract her from anything relevant to the topic."
"So what do you do with her?" Draco asked fascinated.
"Make her work with somebody who'll ignore her anyway, Mr. Melter, for example, and question her after every explanation I give to the class. She'll remember after a second personal explanation, if she is sufficiently scared." Severus answered calmly. "Then there's Nosy Holster. Real name Lisa-Beth Holster. She has the uncanny ability to know everything that's going on in class except what she's put into her own cauldron. I mean it. She can tell you what Rosalind was talking about ten minutes ago and when and where Alcott misplaced the lizard eyes, but not what the last ingredient she added to her own potion was."
"Neither of those two sounds like a good suspect." Draco commented.
"Oh, they're competent enough when they feel like it." Severus disagreed. "But they are both Muggle born. As is Martina, the walking lexicon, Horace. She has Granger's vocabulary, but unfortunately not her logical mind. You have to listen closely to notice when she's not making sense, though. Catherine 'I'm not really here' Cree on the other hand is extremely intelligent and competent, but too shy to open her mouth and tell her partner she's doing something wrong. I always have to keep an eye on her, because she's too shy to raise her hand when she has a problem. She's the perfect partner for Lazy Linda Lost, though."
"What's the real name there?" Draco asked, quill hesitating over the parchment.
"Linda Lost." Severus answered. "Honest. It's not my fault her parents named her that. She isn't really lost anyway, just too lazy to do anything, but that leaves Miss Cree with the chance to brew her potion the way she knows it's supposed to be done. Then we have Roland 'I forgot' Hinks and Sebastian 'the dreamer' Highflyer. The first never has all his utensils, or if he does, you can bet he forgot his homework or will forget something in your classroom when he leaves. The second always has great and unrealistic ideas that he absolutely has to realise. Then there's quiet Pat Footer and Lionel Fitter who can't tell clockwise and counter clockwise apart."
"Is that all of them then?" Draco asked staring at the parchment as if he were trying to hypnotise it.
"Yes, I think so." Severus said hesitantly while quickly counting and recounting the names. "No, there ought to be one more."
He fixed the parchment just as intently as Draco.
"What about that blond one that always tromps about with mud on her shoes, even if it hasn't rained in weeks and she hasn't been outside?" Argus suggested. "Isn't that a seventh year Hufflepuff?"
"Right." Severus grinned at him. "That's her. Smudgy Ines Ivory. Now Draco, do you still want to interrogate that suit of armour?"
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Lady LaCroix - Well, somebody had to say it and it's so Draco. . . . Say, are you related to Stephan, by the way?
JerseyPike - Well, a certificate is nice, but I had something a little more personal in mind for my father. (He doesn't do personal very well himself, but it makes him so happy, if you find something really fitting . . .) Well, we don't have snow anymore either, but it did stay over the whole weekend.
ckat44 - I'm aware of that problem, but I couldn't go back to Sevi and Dracvo's loneliness problems with this and the mystery plot is taking me into a totally different direction. I probably shouldn't have done this as a sequel in the first place, but it's too late for that now. As for boring, well, I was aiming to show how routine was settling back in with the last chapters, so it was at least partially on purpose. This will never be as funny as MNS, though, that much is for sure.
Aurumlupi - Er . . . whatever gave you the idea that Luci has a cocaine problem? (Well, in a way the entire school has, but nope, Luci isn't an addict.) . . . Sure Luci has another reason to give Ron so many detentions: He needs someone to clean up after him and he has neither his mother nor an army of house elves with him. . . . Well, they're sixteen. Most boys turn into jack-asses sometime around that age. Luckily in most cases it passes.
Madame Moony - Yep, wasn't that obvious? Stephan's the main dealer. Does that have any pertinence to the plot? Wait and see. . . . Well, it's the purpose of a mystery not to tell you where it's going. I'm throwing information and red herrings around at random right now hoping to confuse everybody before I reveal the truth. . . . Yep, I was getting slow on purpose to indicate how Luci and the traitor were letting things calm down again and as build up for the new attack. Did it work?
EriEka127 - I'm working on it, but my notebook's sick. (Well, actually only the floppy drive is, but that means I can only transfer my work from it to the PC via printing and scanning which means extra work to get the errors and the format fixed again . . .)
Pam Briggs - Well, it was probably obvious to anyone except Luci, Trelawney and maybe Hagrid who he was speaking of anyway. Luci might have gotten suspicious now, though. He must have caught that Albus didn't mention the name of the potions master on purpose, but can he find a reason why?
black sayain - Thanks. I'm trying to update every Friday, but it's turning into every second Friday again. Too much work, too tired.
Pol - The RD sequel will be my next project after this, but it will be short. More of an epilogue to the fic than a new fic. (Another 55 chapters? Oh no, don't have the time. That Catar fic wants to be written, and perhaps the ghost story and . . .) . . . Hey, that's okay. I can understand you just fine and a lot of people around here don't have English for their first language (me being one of them too, after all). . . . Sorry, but there won't be a Quidditch match in this fic. (My characters are telling me no: Harry isn't allowed to play, Neville is afraid of getting on a broom, Sevi of heights, Greenie gets air sick and Ginny and Draco are too much in love to play against each other . . . which leaves Ron who's currently in detention with Luci, so I can't ask him, but I think the vote is pretty clear no matter what he chooses.) . . . Luci said he assumed that everybody except the spy would have gotten killed, but he was on trial at the time and had no contact with Voldemort or the death eaters, so he had no actual information. As far as we know Voldemort might still have some of the prisoners he took and have dark plans with them. . . . The Marauders were unruly pranksters and Sevi (in Minrerva's opinion) an unwilling trickster, who required a stern hand. Frightened students require reassurance and that can only come from someone they trust. Being head of their rival house Gryffindor Minerva was unable to establish that trust with the Slytherin students, so all her attempts remained fruitless. Slytherins are distrusty by nature which makes the task even more difficult, but I think Sevci would have a hard time convincing a bunch of scared Gryffindors everything was fine as well. He's number one 'scary bad guy' to the Gryffindors, while Minerva fills that position for the Slytherins.) . . . Yes, Slytherins usually put on a brave unemotional mask, but Sevi did his best to scare the younger students and first years are only 11 (I still hold the theory that those that don't happen to have a birthday during the summer holidays are actually only ten. Teachers love to assume students are eleven the school year they turn eleven and ten the year before.) 11 year olds are still very impressionable and when very scared children tend to revert to very childish behaviour. They were certainly so convinced they were going to die that they didn't mind about appearances anymore. . . . Yes, I know (I've got a friend in Mexico who told me about your grading system.) I don't understand the things I've been told about the British grading system, though, and with other foreign systems I have the problem that I don't really know how frequently used a grade is or what the emotions connected to it are. That's why I stick with the Austrian grading system (ever since my first failed attempt at using the American one in MNS): The grades are 1- 5. 1 is pretty much perfect, outstanding. In a subject that is taken seriously it's a rare grade (Hermione, Draco and Estella in our Potions class, none of the others. About tree to four students from each class in the other subjects, a slightly different group depending on each subject.) 2 means good, above average. (Maybe a few more students than 1 as it's easier to earn. Alice, Juliana, Theodore and Dean, perhaps in Potions. Requires at least a little talent and effort.) 3 is average and accordingly what most students get. (Talent without effort, a lot of effort with little talent. I'd say Blaise, Pansy, Millicent, Seamus, Lavender, Parvaty and Harry in Potions.) 4 means just enough to pass. (The students who are struggling with the subject or put in just enough effort not to fail. Usually a big group as well, though not as big as the 3 group. Gregory, Vincent, Neville and Ron.) 5 means fail and repeat the year. Not just the subject you fail, but the entire year with all the subjects. Since that never seems to happen in JKR's books I'm not assigning that grade to any of the students. Here you usually get a few students getting 5 at every test, though. I even had a teacher once who said, if not about half the class failed it, that's a clear sign for the teacher that he made the test too easy. . . . I'm afraid I can't answer any traitor guesses right now. You'll have to wait until the end (or until a chapter proves differently) to see whether your theory is correct or not.
Semmel - Uh Rechtschreibung? In Deutsch? Keine Ahnung. Hat schon in der Volksschule meine Lehrerin aufgeregt und wie ich endlich dachte jetzt kann ich's haben sie sie reformiert. Da soll noch einer mitkommen! . . . Ron hat sich schon mit den Hauselfen arrangiert und wie du eben gesehen hast, hat Luci nichtmal was dagegen. Er will halt seine Klasse sauber kriegen ohne selber putzen zu müssen. Alles andere is ihm sowieso egal.
Weasleylover - Of course it is. I've lost what little sympathy I had for James, though. Still like Remus, but that's it. . . . Well, the Gryffindors never really integrated Neville, so he had to go make friends elsewhere. (Realistically, he'd probably have been most likely to find his friends in Hufflepuff, but I put him with the Slytherins and it's certainly given him a boost.) ... Read Ozma's fics for a really wonderful Filch. I got a first sympathy for him when I first wrote him in MNS, but Ozma's fics taught me to love him. . . . Well, my Remus is a Slytherin. He understands and loves his kids.
Colibi - Well, my Greenie has his name from being green, which cats usually aren't, but it would certainly be an original name for a cat. Greenie the kitten! Cute!
Iremione - Well, our snow is gone again by now, but it was there for a few days to announce the end of summer. . . . Oh, don't worry, they did interrogate the girls about the drugs. That wasn't considered a punishment, though. It was research in order to catch the dealer. . . . Luci is probably splitting his head trying to figure out why Albus was so obviously trying to keep the identity of his potions master hidden. Sevi with his cute looks and Green hedgehog luckily has the innocent child image so perfected that it will take Luci a while to look through that. . . . I originally wanted to kill the traitor (die in a huge end-fight), but the prequel was G-rated. I guess he'll just have to escape then. . . . Well, Sevi is still my demon-child. (Marauder trained.) He actually likes Theodore, by the way. . . . Oh, you've got study hour at your school? I only saw that during my two weeks of exchange in France. We always had a full schedule here (and no library anyway.). . . . Why not joints? Stephan offers a lot of variety to his customers. . . . Actually I don't see Minerva as stupid. Just unaware of her own prejudice (which she would do everything to fight, if she were aware of it) and a littleblind to her Slytherin students. As a Gryffindor with very few Slytherin tendencies herself she has problems understanding Slytherin mentality. . . . Lally? Polly! Paddy?
JAL Willaiims - RD sequel will come once this is done. Am not particularly good action writer (but better than romance, no good at romance at all) and that chapter was meant to be slow to symbolise the long time of peace and quiet that lulled the school back into a feeling of safety.
Jade Kirk and Max LBC - Nice ideas, but I think Luci is too cautious to drink anything a student has brewed and he gets smelly things in cauldrons all the time. Sevi might have an accident that turns Minerva's hair green, though. Yes, that could work . . .
Demon of Fear - Well, I just reduced the number and added a few more. Don't worry, several of those new suspects have air tight alibis for the earlier attacks as we will find out next chapter,
sunne - Grin! Thanks! . . . I thought quite a while about Edmond Glizzard. When Eddy asked me for a little guest role in my fic, he suggested a death eater who gets killed right away. Since it wasn't supposed to be that bloody and I can't really see my friend as a murderous death eater I got the idea to cast him as a relative, but he needed a good reason not to take Draco that also fit the real Edmund. So he became a spy. . . . I know. It's hard to let a fic go (at least for me it always is), but they have to end somewhere and RD was already 55 chapters long, the longest I've written so far. I thought it was time to say good bye and give some of those other plot hedgehogs a chance.
kateydidnt - I'm sure Harry checked the map and would have noticed, if Ron weren't Ron on it, but Sevi and Draco don't have access to it. . . . Why would Ron be afraid of Hermione finding out? Yes, they'd quarrel and not talk to each other again, but I don't see him as thinking that far ahead in the moment he has a nasty task ahead of him and a house elf walks on stage eager to do any kind of work that would please some wizard. . . . Harry spent his detention working in the old destroyed office, while Ron (plus house elf) was cleaning the new Potions classroom. Yes, the poor boys had to serve detention separately!
Marauder3Moony - I'll try. . . . Sorry, not much Voldemort in this fic. (But this is the most use I've ever found for him in one of my stories. If I continue like this maybe someday I'll actually manage to write him into a scene!
None of the Above - Sorry, interrogation of the armour next time. This chapter turned out a little differently than I had planned.
Reiven - Well, Draco wouldn't have done that for anybody else, but Sevi's somebody he likes and looks up to. Sevi watches out for his Slytherins and they know they owe him something for that.
Pseudonym Sylphmuse - Well, I don't think dealers care much about where their drugs come from. Stephan sells both Muggle and wizarding drugs. The Muggle ones are in many ways easier for him, though since people at Hogwarts aren't as aware of them or their dangers. . . . RD is done. There'll be a mini sequel once I finish this fic, but no more updates of the fic itself. And RD is all about Draco no longer being the heir of the Malfoy fortune, as there is no Malfoy fortune left. The Prophet probably doesn't give a damn about Draco with all the death eater activity going on and no big fortune left to attract him. They'd probably write about him, if they notice and are having problems filling their paper, but by the time Voldemort is stopped, it will be old news and until then Voldemort will keep them busy.
Sevter - Well, they managed to keep Draco until now and with knowing that he has two kids to support the ministry will have to allow Sevi a little more money. Sarah will be going back to work next year and Albus . . . kindly forgot about half of Draco's school money. Draco's prices have gone up a little since he's back at Hogwarts (except for the single lessons in Potions. Those were already very expensive, after all.), but that's all the 'pocket money' he gets. Sevi doesn't have money to spare for sweets and butterbeer on Hogsmeade weekends (but then those are used for visits at home anyway.)
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A/N: Can a suit of armour answer questions? Has Neville seen anything? Why did Nicodemus run to Potions class? (Guesses about the identity of the traitor as always will be read with great interest, but not answered, yet.) Please R/R.
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Next: Severus gets some Muggle sweets to experiment with, Draco finally interrogates that suit of armour and Lucius has to deal with another Potions disaster.