They left, and Hermione was back a half hour later with a Starbucks coffee cup in her hands. Harry was on the computer, trying to research Abel Frye's history.

"I think I might be on to something," He muttered. "Toss me that disk with the school files." Hermione stood up and walked over to the counter when the phone rang. She picked up the disk and answered the phone, carrying them both back to the sofa.

"Hello?" she asked. "No you just missed them. They went to Algeron's lab. Yes. I'll tell them... Okay... oh. Alright I will. Bye." She hung up and sat on the sofa, her face turning pale. Harry looked at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Leonard just lapsed into level two an hour ago. Almost a week sooner than the others." Harry stood up, shaking his head.

"We're running out of time. Where's that disk?"

"Oh no!" cried Hermione as she stood up. "Someone has to reload the recorder!"

"Oh," said Harry. "I'll do it."

"No, I'll go do it. It's okay. Have you seen my keys?" Harry glanced down on the counter and placed his hand over the pair of keys.

"No I haven't," he lied. "Do you want me to help you look?"

"No. It's alright, I'll use floo powder." She walked into the other room and came out with a small sack. "I'll be back soon," she said, and then left. Harry grabbed the disk and began to search through the files until he came to Abel Frye's .

"Yes," he muttered and scribbled down the house address. The house was only a few blocks away, and he grabbed the keys and headed out to the car with a smile on his face. He placed the keys into the ignition, but paused for a moment. "Weigh the alternatives," he muttered to himself. "Make a decision." He sat there for a moment...

(ten minutes later...)

"Black belt in karate," he said to himself aloud as a car drove past. "FBI training... Wizarding skills... and the world's BIGGEST loser!" He kicked off on his scooter and began to count the house numbers as he went by.

Hermione placed the recorder back in its hiding place, and proceeded down the steps, keeping her eyes on the door, relieved to see no one looking at her through the window. As she stepped outside, however, she heard footsteps running from her and in the direction of the boiler room. She ran after them and stopped when she came to the door. It was opened, and she wandered in, lighting her wand once she was inside. The air was musty and the smell of dust was there. The place seemed almost abandoned, but she wandered on into one dark room after another.

Harry looked up at the house. It was dark except for a light in one of the lower rooms, mostlikely the kitchen. He wandered on through the yard and went to the back to see if he could get a better look into the windows. The surroundings were dark since it was night time, and his leg went right into a tireswing and he fell with a grunt. As he stood up, he heard a rifel cock and felt the barrel press into the back of his neck.

"Stand up!" said a voice, it was a woman's. He obeyed and stood still, not daring to move, except to raise his hands in defeat. "Turn around." Slowly, the barrel still pressing into his neck, he turned and looked into the eyes of the woman. She was in her fourties by the look of it. Grey hair from stress and a few wrinkles, but extreme weariness in his features.

"I'm looking for Abel's sister," he said slowly.

"In the yard?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well I... does she live here?" The woman narrowed her eyes.

"Who wants to know?"

"A friend," he said, thinking quickly.

"I don't have any," she said, forcing him to back up a little.

"I'm sorry I disturbed you, Miss... uh..."

"Frye!" He looked at her.

"As in Abel Frye?"

"Who wants to know?" she asked deffensively. Harry was on to his last straw.

"Will you tell me about the boy who hurt so much he died to stop it?" he asked. The woman's gaze softened and she lowered her rifel.

Hermione wandered into the next room, which seemed smaller from the last. There were large air pipes around, but one got her attention. It was out of place and in the wall where it had covered was a square hole, big enough for her to fit through if she wanted. Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, she lifted herself up into it and crawled through the hole which led right into a short tunnel, a little bigger but too small to stand it. There was a large layer of dirt, but she crawled through it, not really caring how her clothes turned out.

Once she was through, she jumped out and looked around. There was nothing of interest in this room, so she went on into the next.

The kettle whistled on the stove, and Miss Frye poured tea for both of them and sat back down taking a photo with her. "It's bad enough that the hounded him when he was alive," she said softly. "But to keep those lies going on this long?" Harry didn't understand so she continued. "He never murdered Martha E. The poor thing died of meningitis. She was all he had left." She handed Harry the photo, and he saw it was of Abel Frye standing next to a chubby kid with black hair. Both were smiling. "Does this look like a murderer to you?" she asked. Harry shook his head.

"No," he answered.

"He wouldn't hurt a fly. The whole family loved my brother, and we thought it was the same at Hogwarts. It wasn't till after his death that we found out what they had been doing to him. Beating him up in the halls, throwing things at him, they even went through his things one time and destroyed them all, including the last photo he had of Martha." She blinked and two tears fell down her face. "There are those who want blood, who want to see pain, to cause it. I hope they rot in hell for what they did to my brother and to my... my family." Harry handed the photo back to her and sipped his tea, trying to absorb this all in.

There were lit candles all around, and when Hermione stepped into the chamber, she recognized the star painted on the floor, surrounded by hex marks and other wiccan signs. The candles were on the floor, hanging on the walls, and a few were on an alter that had been built. Above it was the hangman hex mark with what looked like blood surrounding it, and photos of different students around it. There was a voodoo doll of Leonard Baynes hanging over his picture, and all the pictures of students who were already victims were burned around the edges.

Hermione stared, slightly in shock, and could sense a sort of dark air around her that made her shiver. From the looks of it, a ceremony had been performed in there not too long ago. She moved on to a group of cloaks and monster masks that had hex marks drawn on them in black marker. She lifted the first mask and found nothing inside. The next one was also empty so she stopped there, expecting that they all were empty. The walls were covered in cobwebs and some bull skulls were hanging from the walls along with other skulls. Malfoy and his gang had really gone to town with decorating this room.

Deciding she needed a camera, she turned to retrieved her purse from outside when out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the cloaks shift. It was one of the ones she hadn't checked, and she wandered over, looking into the mask. A pair of eyes opened and looked back at her, and two large hands grabbed her by the arm and threw her to the ground. Hermione screamed and wrestled on the ground with the cloaked person until she felt his/her arm hook around her neck and squeeze tightly. She couldn't breathe and began kicking instead. The arm around her unhooked a little and she lowered her face and bit into it. The figure gave a cry of pain and let go almost immediatly.

Hermione was on her feet and running to the tunnel, but the hands grabbed her shoulders and slammed her into the stone wall. The wind was knocked out of her, but she moved quickly kicking the person between the legs, making it easy to tell now that it was a boy. He fell over and curled up on the ground, and she ran to the tunnel, crawling in and out like lightning. Not watching where she was going, she collided into a body, and began screaming and fighting to get free of the hands that now gripped her tightly.

"Whoa!" came Harry's voice. "Whoa! Calm down, Hermione. It's just me." She looked at him and he let her go. "What's wrong?"

"Let's get out of here!" she cried, and ran for the exit, tugging him along.

About an hour later they were back in there, this time with Snape and Lupin, Hermione leading the way.

"It was right this way," she said. "The witches' nest." She walked into the room with the pipes, but could not find the opening she had crawled through. They all stopped, and she walked up to the wall and looked at the pipes. "I remember these pipes... maybe it was here..." She turned to the other wall but there was nothing there. No opening. Feeling stupid she turned to Harry. "Well, Harry saw."

"All I saw was you making a break for it," he said, shaking his head. Hermione frowned.

"You don't believe me," she muttered. Snape shook his head.

"No," he said, looking at the pipes. "We believe you, that's why the two of you are going back to the ministry to stay. Tonight."

"What?" they cried in unison. "No!" said Hermione. "We can't go now. We're so close to solving this. Besides, you need us because we know the students. Malfoy, Pansy, Blake. We can't go now."

"We can still solve this," said Harry. "We do know the students, and we want to help them."

"Just give us at least one more day. If we don't solve this, then we'll go, we swear." Lupin sighed.

"Alright," he said. "But for now, no one is to come back into here or enter that forbidden wing without an adult, is that understood?"

"Yes sir," they said together.