Teenage Detective
Chapter 4: The Hufflepuffs
The morning after, Hermione ate her breakfast, which consisted of toast and orange juice, quickly before anyone else. After that, she waited for Harry in the invisibility cloak just like yesterday. She wasn't going to be careless like last night after being discovered many times by him. She was surprised that Harry was not that angry with her, does that mean he cares? He didn't reveal her when he went to see Snape and Lupin. Her mind was beginning to spin so she pushed the thought of yesterday away. Then Harry came down from the boys' dorm like she expected, but what she didn't expect was he had company in the form of Dennis Creevey.
"Ready to go, Dennis," said Harry, grinning cheerily as he fastened his robe.
"You Betcha," said the young Creevey delightedly. The two boys went off with Hermione sneakily behind them just five feet away. It would be odd for the Head Girl to be seen spying on her former bestfriend. That was where the invisibility cloak came in handy.
Her first surprise of the day came quickly when Harry and Dennis walked up to the portrait hole of the Hufflepuff's common room. She halted a few feet away from them and saw two people clad in Hufflepuff uniform robe with shiny prefect badges on their bosom. Hermione recognised them as the pompous Ernie Macmillan and the pink faced Hannah Abbott.
"Morning Harry!" squeaked Hannah delightedly. Ernie tried to shush her for manners but she shrugged him off.
"Morning to you too, Hannah, Ernie," Harry replied.
Ernie turned to speak, "And you too, Dennis," Ernie grinned at the young Creevey. "We have-"
"Good news," Harry finished for him and Ernie stared at him surprised.
"How did you know?"
Harry and Dennis exchanged knowing looks. "Oh! We can tell."
Ernie shook his head followed by a chuckle. "Anyway, Harry. The cold dirt you found two weeks ago was nitrogen enriched soil. It's a soil which brings unfortunate things to those who wish to use it," the Hufflepuff prefect said.
"Unfortunate? – What do you mean by that?"
"Well… no edible plants or houseplants can grow with this kind of soil. It is meant to be used for dangerous drugs or endorsements. Sprout banned the use of this soil for learning but one can ask of the use for it as long as someone doesn't use it."
"But Professor Snape needs to use it for our potions," Hannah chimed in.
Ernie turned his head to her. "That's because Sprout ordered the plants from her resources," he said as a matter-of-factly.
Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Looks like someone did extra research."
Ernie blushed at Harry's comment. "I just do whatever I can."
Hermione followed the flow of conversation but was the lost. She knew only the type of plants and the use of it. The Hufflepuffs and Neville were the only ones knew more about herbology. Her mind drifted to why Harry would hang out with the Hufflepuffs. They were sore losers when Gryffindors won over the Hufflepuffs last year. She remembered they attacked Ron after the match. Just when the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor was over another one came up but it was one sided with the two most powerful houses along with Slytherins against the Hufflepuffs. Hermione thought they were just losers who wanted the fame that she got, that was why Ernie and Hannah hung out with Harry. She needed to get her bestfriend back.
She was so in her thoughts that she didn't realize someone pulled the cloak off. "Oh! It's Ms. Perfect Head Girl," Hannah sarcastic tone brought her out of her daze. She was caught… again.
"What are you doing here? Making fun of us again?" Ernie said dryly.
She ignored him and looked around. It seemed Harry and Dennis were gone and the cloak was pooling by her feet. She scolded herself of her carelessness and determined not to be so again.
Tired of the two Hufflepuffs remarks, she glared at them. "I got no time to waste with you, losers," she said and ran off leaving two berated people.
After failing to find Harry, she went to the Great Hall for lunch. To her surprise, there was a commotion just outside the hall. She brushed past the relentless crowd, to find out the fuss. She said, "Head Girl here, move over, please." Finally she reached the middle of the crowd and saw Sloper cowering behind McGonagall and three Aurors led by a bright blonde haired man named Phillips. The crowd chanted 'Get him' and 'Killer' which directed at Sloper. She sighed happily, finally justice.
"This is preposterous!" Hermione heard her favourite professor yelling to argue. "You can't send an underage wizard to prison for something he didn't even commit."
"He killed Ron Weasley!" yelled someone from the crowd. Hermione didn't want to go against her favourite professor but she agreed with the crowd. Phillips, though charming and good looking, held his nose airily and looked smugly at McGonagall and Sloper.
"There you go McGonagall - no one wants the kid here. His alibi was proven to be false. Mr. Weasley went out exactly at midnight to meet Mr. Sloper. An hour later, Mr. Sloper and his friend Mr. Marion went out. The latter went to the loo and Sloper took this chance to kill Mr. Weasley. His friend confessed that Mr. Sloper was near the body and one of the ghosts saw someone running away from the body before that. That's enough evidence for me to take him in."
"Unless you want evidence that's point blank," said a cold, incisive, ironical yet hopeful voice.
Phillips spun around and glared at the intrusion of one Harry Potter. He was standing against the wall, arms crossed and he was smirking at Phillips. Hermione felt oddly relieved he was there for some reason.
"Potter!" he hissed. "Mind your own business, this is Auror business here."
"I don't quite agree with you, Phillips," said a deep tone voice. Kingsley emerged from the crowd.
"Shacklebolt!" Phillips hissed again. The experienced Auror looked utmost triumphant at Phillips.
"Listen to this kid here. He has solid evidence as to why you shouldn't take the suspect in custody," Kingsley urged and Phillips was flushed.
He lent in. "Go on then, let's see what a mere kid can do to save a murderer," said Phillips and the crowd murmured.
Harry gladly step in front and spotted Sloper behind McGonagall. He gave a look that said don't worry. Dennis who was beside Kingsley, looked on eagerly at him. Hermione on the other hand was puzzled just like the rest of the crowd.
"Let me first say that since Mr. Weasley's death, I have been counting the time to walk from the Gryffindor tower to the Great Hall. Then I counted the time from the boys' lavatory to the Great Hall. The former is ten minutes while the latter is merely two minutes and below."
"We've got no time for mathematics, Potter," Phillips interrupted.
"Let me finish, Phillips – Ron went out exactly at midnight alone to get into the kitchen for food. An hour and ten minutes later Sloper found his body and Marion, counting his business in the loo, took four more minutes and found Sloper standing near the body at the Slytherin table."
"You're just repeating what I told everyone. Get to the point," The next thing Harry said shocked him.
"Isn't it illogical that Sloper could kill Ron without any sign of struggle or blood on his robe and then mash the victim's face in just four minutes?"
Harry's explanation took everyone by surprise even Sloper himself.
"Wouldn't Sloper's hands be bloody if he destroyed Ron's face, you missed a lot of evidence here, Phillips," Harry added the evidence and the Auror was getting really mad at him.
"Maybe he ran, after Marion went to the loo," Phillips said defiantly.
"He had three minutes extra which is still not enough to do the damage. You would need at least twenty minutes to kill Ron, unless you want to kill him with the Killing Curse, which no students are allowed to learn and the last spell Sloper did the night… I believe it was the Locomotion Charm, am I right?"
"You're quite right, Mr. Potter," quipped McGonagall.
"No how do you kill someone with the Locomotion Charm? Plus didn't you say that Marion found him standing near the body and that one of the ghost saw someone running… doesn't the two statement made by the witnesses clash a bit. Marion was there until Dumbledore came and Sloper was there too. The ghost mistook the murderer for Sloper and his statement was made before Marion's – Therefore Sloper is one hundred percent innocent."
Everyone was shocked, some amazed, others glee with mirth. Phillips was in disbelief, a boy younger than him has just proven someone's innocence.
"I believe you should release Sloper this instant, Phillips. He is no longer your main suspect but a witness… and you should apologize to Dumbledore for your untimely hiatus," said Kingsley, smiling widely.
Phillips stared spitefully at the black man and turned to Harry, malice in his eyes. "This isn't over yet, Potter – I will prove who is the real murderer but for now – you can have Sloper… he's now officially innocent."
Sloper couldn't help but jump for joy. Phillips and the other Aurors left. Sloper thanked Harry, Dennis and Kingsley. His eyes were teary, indeed a cry for joy.
Harry gazed around and noticed the guilty faces of the crowd. "I think Sloper here deserves some apologies from the whole of Hogwarts," he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. The Hufflepuffs surrounded Sloper and gave him some cheering. Some of his friends from his own house cheered him. The other people from Gryffindor and two other houses didn't react but dispersed themselves from the cheering.
Hermione, who was in a mix of emotions of amazement and disdain, walked towards Harry to congratulate him but someone else beat her for another reason.
"Looks like Potter did it again," drawled someone that Hermione didn't quite recognise.
Harry and Dennis faced the boy with blonde hair. Harry looked irate.
"Quite a comeback for the spotlight kid," the boy said with a sneer.
"Sod off, Zacharias," Dennis said warningly. Hermione remembered the boy. Zacharias Smith.
Harry narrowed his gaze as he coldly looked at the Hufflepuff boy.
"Weasley gone… you crawl back into it. Couldn't stand the shadows, do you, Potter?"
Dennis was about to retort back but Harry raised his arm to halt him from doing so. "Beat it, Smith. There are adults here and you don't want to lose points from your house," said Harry patiently as he pointed at the two adults that were talking animatedly with Sloper. "McGonagall doesn't want anymore disturbance, while Shacklebolt will not tolerate hooligans so I suggest you go off now."
"Hooligans? – Really Potter." With that, Zacharias walked off with a satisfied grin.
Hermione knew Zacharias Smith during her fifth year when the DA was formed. She remembered him as a bit of an annoying boy who wanted to learn the hard stuff from Harry. From what she could see, Smith was just like the old Draco Malfoy but without the strong influence that Draco had over Harry. That made three Hufflepuffs that Harry was close with. Nothing good happened until dinner.
Not wanting to be discovered again, Hermione cast a Camouflage spell on Ron's invisibility cloak to enhance the cover and set off to the Great Hall for dinner. She told Ginny to send her dinner to her room with an excuse of moping and sulking. Ginny didn't buy the act but obliged.
As she entered the loud, bright and noisy hall, she spotted Harry just near her, at the end of the Gryffindor table. He was talking animatedly with Dennis whilst eating. She sat beside Dennis, who was listening intently to Harry and responded well with him too. Hermione found the conversation very interesting.
"All the victims had their faces disfigured by a sharp object," said Harry. "We don't know if the bodies belong to the victims. Besides, the missing Walden Macnus is oddly unconnected to the other victims but I'm sure whatever happened to him, he's not alive."
"What makes you think so?" Dennis asked keenly.
"Half giants aren't killed easily, Dennis. Hagrid is very fond of Walden as they are both the same kind… so Walden must be really special to the murderer, and the big kid is a genius."
"Ravenclaw," muttered Dennis.
"Quite right, Dennis. Walden helped Hagrid that day two weeks ago. I was there but I ran back to the castle because of the heavy rain. Snape told me Hagrid came bursting into Dumbledore's office crying Walden was missing," Harry said with a hint of sadness. Hermione never knew about that, where was she when her big friend needed some comfort.
"Too bad nobody cared about the victims save the Hufflepuffs," Dennis said gloomily.
"Too caught up with the famous couple," Harry said blankly, Hermione flinched suddenly. "Now with Ron gone, they still didn't care about the previous murders. None of the Ravenclaws cared about Walden, nobody cared about the second victim, Benny Tong and – and…. and no one gives a damn about…." As Harry couldn't finish his sentence, his face etched with anger that he almost wanted to slam his fist on the table.
"Calm down, Harry… she's gone," said Dennis as he scanned the table, thankfully no one bothered to look at them. Harry cool down a bit.
"I know – I just wish there was something that could help me more with this case."
"How about this?" Dennis took out a piece of paper form his pocket and handed it to Harry. Harry eyes went wide as he read and skimmed through what was an old paper article. A big grin crept onto his face that made Hermione very keen on what was on the paper. She leaned in closely and carefully to Harry and looked at the paper. There was a moving picture of seven merry looking people standing in front of an old grey but lively mansion with some Christmas lights on it. A half giant was dominating the picture and stood beside two rows of people, six each of the rows. There were two women standing in front with a man on their left side. One woman had the most beautiful auburn hair while the other had a serious looking face with a lot of makeup. Both were young, beautiful and curvaceous. Beside them, the man was very jolly looking by the playful swinging of his arms. He had blonde hair that rivalled Gilderoy Lockhart. Behind them was an Asian man, a red haired man and a skinny man who tried to smile but failed. On top of the picture was the headline that said:
'Seven Dead in One Night'
Hermione sat back quickly as Harry put the paper down. "Where did you get this?"
"This afternoon after lunch. Somebody dropped it after Phillips attempt on capturing Sloper," the young Creevey answered brightly.
"Great work, my dear friend," Dennis blushed. "Can I keep it?" Dennis nodded. Harry put the article in his robe. He then peered around the table and noticed Hermione's absence. He frowned and went awfully silent.
"What is it, Harry?" Dennis asked.
"Let's eat, mo more talking about murders and stuff," said Harry nonchalantly, as he ate silently at the same time his eyes were alarmed. Hermione was astonished that Harry suspected her being close to him even through two layers of spell.
Whether it was their old friendship that still had that little bit of light or Harry's ability to sense the presence of another people that Harry knew Hermione was there, seeing Harry and Dennis become silent she went to her room waiting for Ginny to bring her food. She lay on her bed and thought of what a day it had been.
Her mind was on the person that Dennis called 'she'. A girl in Harry's life was gone? Who could it be? And she needed to see that article again, as she saw only a glimpse of it. She needed to know what caught Harry's attention in the article. Lying on her bed, she thought about what used to be her friendship with Ron and Harry and that was supposed to last forever. It made her cry, and cry she did until she fell asleep, forgetting about dinner.
A/N: That's the end of chapter, sorry if the update was slow, i have a minor problem downloading from my great BETA rachkmar... and a major problem with the laptop. The screen keeps blinking when i work.