Lupin looked up when the door to the lab opened, and an old man with white hair, coke-bottle glasses, and a banjo case (along with many other bags) strapped over his back, walked in. He smiled, and stood up to greet the man. Tonks was in the room soon, and smiled at him.

"Doctor Algeron Wheeling," she said, shaking his hand. "The accoustic professor." He smiled.

"The accoustic professor," he repeated. "I like that. I like that a lot." He set his things down, and Lupin placed them near the sofa.

"Can we get you something to drink?" he offered.

"Tea would be great," he said, pulling out his banjo. Luping went into the back, and Tonks walked up to Algeron.

"Do you have the test results?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, reaching into his briefcase and handing her a manilla envelope. She opened it and fliped through a few of the pages, stopping on one to read the results. Her face changed to confused, and she glanced at him.

"Sugar?" she asked. He nodded.

"Yes. Sugar. In both ends. Both ends of the straw."

"Triconal?" she read. "What's that?"

"Well, Triconal is an additive placed in most paints and stains." Lupin handed him his tea, and he thanked him with a wide smile. Tonks sat down in her computer chair and set the papers on the desk.

"But why?" she asked.

"Well, I... I don't know why. But I know where," he said, sipping his tea. "Wood," he said, pointing to the wooden cabinets. "Any wood with finishing on it, or stain."

"Dr. Algeron, we're trying to narrow our search, not expand it," she said, leaning back.

"Let's just handle one detail at a time," he said, sitting down again. Lupin made Tonks move from her seat so he could open up a program on the computer. He placed the blue disk into the digital recorder and played it.

"Listen," he said to Tonks. "Playing it regularly doesn't make any sense. It sounds like another language, but listen to what happens when you play it backwards." He pressed a button, and they listened closely.

"aaayynesss...... Leeeoooonaaaarrrrrrd....... Baaaayyyynnnesssss........"

"Did you hear that?" he asked them both. They listened carefully again, when Algeron spoke up.

"Leonard... Baynes," he said, glancing up at them. "Someone you know?"

Leonard entered potions class, sweating and looking angrier than before. When they had to start working on their potions, he did not shove people out of his way like he always did, and he even ignored some of the snyde comments about being pinned yesterday by skinny Harry Potter.

"Hey, Leonard," called a voice in the back. "I heard that the ghost is after you now." There was a laugh, and Leonard sneered.

"Shut up!" he shouted.

"Hey, Lenny, if you die, can I date your girl?" asked another voice.

"I said shut up!" he shouted even louder. He continued working on his potion, and stopped for a second, looking around, looking very dazed. The two mocking boys' smiles faded and they watched. Leonard backed away from his potion and started dodging around and knocking over cauldrons, all the while shouting in terror and waving his fists at an unseen foe. A minute later he was on the ground writhing around and shouting out, "Abel Frye!"

"Professor Snape!" called one of the boys, and Snape came out of his office to see what was happening.

Tonks and Snape walked into Dumbledore's office to find Lupin already arguing with him on what was to happen now. The three of them had all seen enough, and they knew Dumbledore had too. At least they could only hope he had.

"Leonard's in the hospital right now. Things are not looking good, Albus," said Lupin.

"He had the hanging hex mark on his locker just like the others," said Tonks. Dumbledore nodded and sighed.

"I realize this, but a simple mark on the locker isn't enough proof for the ministry," he said mournfully. "They want more proof I'm afraid."

"What about a recording of a ghost calling his name?" said Hermione as she and Harry stepped in.

"Thomason, Astin, Boltz, Weasley, and now Baynes. It's time for you to close the school before there's more victims," said Snape.

"Believe me, Severus, nothing matters to me more right now than the safety of our students, but the ministry simply won't allow us to close until they've seen enough," he said, frowning.

"What more could they want?" demanded Harry. "Students are going to die if this isn't stopped!"

"Who else hangs with this crowd?" asked Lupin to the others.

"Well... there's..." muttered Harry.

"Blake," spoke up Hermione. "Blake Hornsby."

Blake was called out of class almost immediatly, and they went to his locker and began to search through it. He was frustrated, and thought he was in trouble now.

"You should check Malfoy's locker instead of mine," he growled. Lupin pulled out a picture from the back of the locker and uncovered something scratched into the paint.

"It's a hangman," he said to Tonks and Snape. Blake's eyes widened.

"So they're after me now?" he asked. Dumbledore walked up to him.

"When was the last time you went through this locker?" asked Tonks.

"Two weeks ago."

"Blake," said Dumbledore. "Just as a precaution I want you to take some time off of school and go to the ministry department for a few days to be checked for hexes," he said softly.

"What?!"

"Just as a precaution." He stormed off to the Ravenclaw house, muttering under his breath.

"I don't believe this!" he snarled.

Dumbledore frowned and turned to the others. "Tell the students to keep they're eyes open, and if a hangman appears in their lockers to report it immediatly." They nodded, and Lupin returned to searching through the locker. Max sniffed something and started whining and barking to get their attention. Tonks looked into the locker where Max's nose was exploring and drew out another soda straw, identical to the one in Ginny's locker and the one they had uncovered an hour ago from Leonard's locker.

"That's strange," said Lupin. Snape raised an eyebrow.

"What is?" he asked cooly.

"Max didn't respond to the other two straws. Why this one?" He bagged the straw and handed it to Tonks, and then took it to the ministry to be tested.

Hermione wandered around outside of the school, thinking to herself and hugging herself tightly. What Pansy had said to her that morning had startled her, and all she could think about was how Pansy could have been angered to the point of wanting Leonard Baynes and the others dead. She also thought about Abel Frye. That story had not been placed in 'Hogwarts: A History,' so it either meant that it was made up, or it was a new thing. The thought of a ghost haunting the schools, a deadly one at that, scared her a little and she could only pray that it'd be over soon.

"Hey, Granger!" came a voice, and she turned to see Blake approaching her. She looked him over. He was a tall, muscular person, black skin, and an attractive face. She had seen right through him a long time ago and knew he only picked on people when he was with his wolf pack.

"Hi, Blake," she said as he caught up to her.

"Someone told me you might be out here," he said softly.

"I just had some things on my mind that I needed to sort out," she said, blushing a little. He nodded.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Things are starting to get messed up around here." She looked at him for a moment.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" she offered. He nodded, and followed her around, listening to her thoughts and feelings.

"Now watch," said Lupin to Tonks. They were in the astronomy tower with Max, having him re-sniff some of the items removed from the three lockers. Lupin held up Ginny's wallet and Max started barking. He reached in and pulled out the fifty which cause Max to bark even more frantically as he sniffed it. "Look at that. He reacts to the fifty," Lupin muttered. Tonks watched closely as Lupin pulled out the soda straws. Max first sniffed the one from Ginny's locker and the one from Leonards locker, not reacting to either, but when he sniffed the one from Blake's locker he started howling and pawing at it.

"But he reacts to that one," muttered Tonks. "Why this one and not the other one? And if the straws have anything to do with it, Blake should have been the first to go. This was in there for two weeks."

Lupin sighed and closed up the bin with the items Max had reacted to. Max sat there, panting and brushing against him. Lupin smiled and stroked the dog gently, but turned when Tonks spoke up again. "Whoa," she muttered. She held the straw from Blake's locker up to the light and pointed to two small shadows inside. "What's this?"

"So aren't you afraid that you'll be next?" asked Hermione to Blake, who had just told her about what they had found in his locker.

"I don't know. I guess I should be after how we treated them," he said sadly. "We were kind of rough on them," he admitted.

"Why?" she asked. "They seemed to have let up this year. Why are you tormenting them when they haven't presented a reason to justify your ways?"

"There's no good reason, and that's just it," he said softly. "Being even a little prejudice is just stupid." She smirked a little and took his hand in hers as they headed back to the castle. Once they were in plain veiw of Hogwarts, she stopped and looked at her watch.

"I have to go do something," she said softly. "Sorry I can't invite you with. Closed quarters." He smirked and pointed to her arm.

"Speaking about closed quarters..." She looked and spotted a small black spider working its way up her arm. After giving a yelp, brushed it off, but when she looked up he moved in and kissed her quickly on the lips, catching her completely by surprise. She stared at him in complete shock, not sure of how to react, when Lupin's voice caught her attention as he called her.

"Coming!" she called back. She looked at Blake, her cheeks turning red. "Do me a favor," she said softly. He raised an eyebrow.

"Anything."

"Don't ever try that again." And with that she walked over to Lupin, who had a smile on his face that read, 'We are going to have a nice long talk when you come in.'

"Professor Lupin's back?" called Blake.

"Uh..." stuttered Hermione. "It's a looong story."

"You know we have a rule about getting too close with suspects," said Lupin. Hermione was sitting in a chair in the lab, Harry watching (containing his laughter poorly) and Tonks speaking up every now and then.

"I'm just trying to be convincing," stuttered Hermione, knowing that was the lamest excuse in the world.

"And that you are," said Tonks with a smirk.

"I guess I'm just a better actress then I thought I was." It was too late to stop the pathetic alliby now.

"You've even got me convinced," laughed Harry. Hermione sneered at him, and Lupin raised a hand to get him to be quiet.

"Blake is a suspect in this investigation."

"He's also my friend, assuming that I'm allowed to have friends," muttered Hermione. "Look, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but we have no friends, no social life whatsoever now. We've had to give that all up. There's nothing consitent now."

"I disagree," said Harry. "There's that consistent clunker of a rental car that we drive around that's way beyond its expiration date. I say we should upgrade to better, so I'll have something nice to drive when I get my license..." Hermione raised her eyebrows and turned back to Tonks and Lupin.

"Back on subject," she continued. "Blake's just a friend right now and he knows that... now. I hate being isolated from the others. I get so sick of it."

"Listen," said Lupin. "You knew what you were getting into when you started, and once this is solved, you'll be allowed to drop out if you wish to. But until then we do have rules." Hermione groaned and stood up, walking out of the room. Tonks sighed and looked at Harry.

"We're just trying to protect you guys," she said. Harry nodded. "Unfortunetly we need to get down to the other lab and take these things to Algeron, so until then just do as you're told, got it?" He nodded. "And stay around here until we get back incase the phone rings."