Chapter 2

The bellhop showed Hermione to a room with a commanding ocean view. The view alone made up for the long flight in from London. The staff had thought of everything. There was hot tea and biscuits waiting for her on the settee.

She looked at her watch. It was only nine in the morning. She had a few hours before the luncheon was due to start. She decided to look over the roster of participants one more time.

Ian Timmons - military officer on holiday

Cynthia McFadden - secretary on holiday

Michael Levinson - architect on holiday

Paul Lewis - businessman on holiday

Amanda Danforth - nurse on holiday

Diana Stevens - fashion designer on holiday

John and Emily Moss - retired schoolteachers on a well deserved holiday

Jack Ironside - accountant on holiday

Adam Claymore - reporter on holiday

David Wright - barrister on holiday

Bruce Maclemore - software programmer on holiday

She took her tea and biscuits to the balcony. Her eyes followed a solitary figure walking on the beach but her mind was on the likely culprits on the list.

Based on her many years of reading mystery novels, her most likely list included the secretary, the accountant and the barrister. Invariably, she reasoned, the guilty parties always knew where all the secrets were buried or had something to hide. A secretary, an accountant and a barrister would be privy to all kinds of information. The less scrupulous would be prone to blackmail or extortion. She'd have to be very observant at the luncheon putting names to faces but still stay in character.

Her concentration was momentarily distracted when she spied the figure on the beach on his knees building a sand castle. Must be the architect Levinson. Her tea and biscuit finished, she stood up and went to unpack then dress for lunch.

Severus didn't know why he suddenly dropped to his knees and started building a castle. It felt like the right thing to do and the right place to do it in. It was peaceful here. In front of him was the ocean and behind were tall, massive cliffs and on top of those were situated several hotels including the Hotel Victoria. He compacted the sand into several makeshift towers and in the middle was the bailey.

As he worked, his mind went over the list of participants picking out those most likely to commit a crime whether it be murder, theft of some other kind of mischief. His picks were the nurse, the secretary and the accountant. The fashion designer might be someone's secret mistress. Businessmen always had money problems. A reporter could have information ideal for blackmail. And in this day and age, a programmer could certainly ferret out information and use it in less than savory ways. An architect, well, he would know how to bury bodies, literally. There was always a military officer in the mix. The retired teachers could have any motive under the sun. Without knowing the exact crime, he could only make generalities. He'd pay extra attention at the luncheon.

His castle was finished and he could be excused to think that it was a most hardy castle. It was proportional with towers at each point of a compass. The walls looked tough enough to stand for years. The thought came unbidden to his mind "A man's home is his castle."

Snape leaned back on his hands and just looked at it imagining what it would be like if it were real and there was activity and laughter about the place. He didn't really have a home. His parents lived in the ancestral estate. Hogwarts wasn't a true home either just a place to put his things. What he wanted was a home, he thought. And someone to share it with, the little voice added.

Snape laid back on the sand and just stared at the ocean lost in thought. The last few months he had begun to feel a certain restlessness. He could not identify the cause of it. Perhaps, he would take up Albus on his offer of a short sabbatical after the next school term.