Chapter 21: Who Killed Malcom Carrow?

"Sirius, please tell me you have come to your senses and are spending Christmas with me this year?" James asked during breakfast waving around a letter he had just received from his mum.

"'Fraid not," Sirius said through a mouthful of kippers and toast, "My parents have decided to send me away to stay with my Uncle Cygnus and Aunt Druella hoping my cousins can 'knock some sense into me'"

"What about me? I'm a good role model?"

Sirius scoffed, "Your family are some of the biggest blood-traitors around James."

Before James could form a rebuttal, Lexie gasped "You are spending Christmas with Bella?!"

James, Remus, and Peter all looked perplexed at Lexie's outburst.

"Who is Bella?" asked James.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "One of my cousins."

He turned back to address Lexie, "And yes, unfortunately. Bella and her two sisters Andromeda and Narcissa."

Lexie's eyebrows rose and her brow wrinkled in concern, "You going be okay?"

Sirius shrugged "I'm sure it will be fine. Andromeda isn't so bad, even if she was sorted into Slytherin. Cissy will probably spend most of her time with her boyfriend."

"What are we missing?" asked Remus, "I know your family has it's…. urm… issues, but this seems to be more than typical familial problems."

Sirius sighed, "Let's just say some of my family are involved in some unfavorable activities as of late, some of which aren't exactly legal. Bella and her merry group of lunatics definitely fall into that category."

"Same offer stands," said James seriously making sure he had the attention of his four friends, "You just show up at my house if you need, you are welcome anytime and my mum would love to have you. That goes for any of you lot."

The mood had clearly shifted, James normally wasn't the serious one and the dark cloud that had come over the group seemed to hang over them leading up to and through the morning students were to depart home on the train.

Lexie woke exhausted having experienced another relentless night of more picture dreams, some faces recognizable and others not. Through exhausted eyes, she zoned out staring at her bed curtains wondering what it could all mean. From her limited knowledge of seers, her abilities seemed rather pathetic since most seers at least predicted prophecies or had visions of future events. Instead all she got were snapshots of people and a poor night's sleep.

Lexie sighed and dragged herself to the common room to meet up with the boys. They also seemed to be dragging their feet, even normally oblivious Peter seemed to be in a sullen mood. Through breakfast Sirius just poked at his breakfast without actually eating anything.

As the students prepared for departure, Lexie gave each boy a bone crushing hug as she wished them a good holiday. When she got to Sirius she gave him an extra long hug and couldn't hide her worried expression when he seemed just as reluctant to let her go. She gave him a weak smile "Take care of yourself okay? I'll see you next year, keep in touch if you can?"

"Promise," said Sirius, "Hey I meant to ask, how's your Magic Law research coming?"

Lexie shrugged "Dead end. Guess it's one mystery that I'll never solve."

Sirius could tell she was trying to hide her disappointment and gave her one last squeeze before he grabbed his trunk and joined the rest of the students to the carriages.

Lexie watched them all disappear from view before making her way back to the Gryffindor, a nap was definitely in order.

Hi Sirius,

Happy Christmas!

I hope your holiday is going okay all things considered. I thought really hard this year about what to get you but I think I did pretty well. I know it might look like a simple mirror, but it's actually a two-way mirror.

I sent James the other one. All you have to do is say his name and you can talk to him. Pretty cool right? I almost kept the other so we could talk, but I know how close you and James are and also I realized that if you ever did need a 'rescue mission' he would be much better suited for the job.

Lex

Lex,

This is easily the best gift I have ever received! Thank you. James and I have already used them and it has definitely made the holidays a million times better.

It's actually been a decent holiday and the worst part was having to go home for Christmas Dinner with the entire Black family.

I've gotten to know Andromeda very well though and she's definitely alright as far as a Black is concerned. She's been helping me avoid Bella by pretending to give me 'pureblood lessons' but really all we do is go hang out with her boyfriend Ted in secret.

You are absolutely sworn to secrecy and please destroy this letter, but Ted is muggle-born and if anyone finds out Andromeda would be disowned. The two of them actually helped me quite a bit with your gift since I could never have done it alone.

She also let me borrow her owl to send this which is why it's a day late since she needed it during Christmas. I hope that this helps you in your research and I also want you to please remember what I said when you first decided to pursue this case. It does not have a satisfying ending.

Sirius

Lexie unfolded the remaining contents of the package and gasped, inside were old clippings from not just the Daily Prophet, but what appeared to also be transcripts of the trial proceedings. Her eyes scanned the pages and saw everything that he had sent was regarding the case against Alemda Carrow for the murder of Malcom Carrow.

Lexie pulled the first article from the Daily Prophet and couldn't get her eyes to read the text fast enough.

RESPECTED WIZARDING FAMILY INVESTIGATED FOR MURDER

On 5 June, Alemda Carrow and her father-in-law Athelstan Carrow were brought in for investigation regarding the murder of her husband and his son, Malcom Carrow (1925-1954). Malcom Carrow was found mysteriously dead at the Carrow Estate where he resided with his wife and father. There was no sign of a forced entry.

The Carrow family are well known in the Wizarding World and Athelstan is a well-respected Hit Wizard for the Accidental Reversal Squad and member on multiple advisory committees within the Ministry. He is currently on a paid leave of absence while this investigation takes place.

Both suspects have provided alibies at the time of Malcom's death, but there has been speculation if these alibies are sufficient to prove their innocence. Athelstan Carrow's vast experience and accident reversal and law enforcement have also come into question – was this a setup?

Stay tuned for more details as the details of this case unfold!

Lexie set aside the article already feeling a headache coming on. Is it possible that her birth father was killed by his own father and not his wife? Or did they both play a role? And if so, why?

She quickly scanned through the rest of the articles, but the entire case seemed to become more and more mysterious since even the paper didn't seem to suggest a motive for his death. One article mentioned Athelstan Carrow was ruled out as a suspect leaving Almeda as the primary suspect in the case and that she would face trial. The trial date was set for 2 months after Malcom's death and the last article had simply said Almeda was found not guilty and acquitted.

Lexie shuffled through the court transcripts but her limited knowledge of not just Magic Law, but magic in general just made her ask more questions. She grabbed a piece of spare parchment to take notes and write down the items she would need to research further.

Almeda had said during the trial she had found her husband deceased after returning home from a visit with friends. However, the persons she had listed as witnesses had provided inaccurate time stamps that corroborated her story. Almeda had then changed her story, but it was too late since by then her alibi had come into question.

The members of the Wizengamot then went to great lengths to determine cause of death and motive, but there was no mention of what Sirius has mentioned regarding Malcom having muggle or squib relations leading to some sort of family feud. Sirius had mentioned that was hearsay from his family, but given the motive was not determined during the trial Lexie didn't discount it.

At some point in the trial the Carrow family fortune was brought up as a possible motive and other members of the Carrow family were brought to testify. All had said Almeda, despite marrying into the family, had never shown an interest in family money having come from a wealthy family of her own.

Her close relationship with her father-in-law was brought up and he testified that Almeda was like a daughter to him and reinforced the idea that she had no monetary interest or would receive any benefit from Malcom's death.

Almeda's wand was then presented to the Wizengamot. A wizard took note that her wand was 13" composed of ash and rougarou hair which matched what was on file. There was mention that a Prior Incantato spell was performed at the time of the murder.

Lexie made a note to do research to figure out why that became a key piece of evidence as it seemed to be the key defense Almeda had for her innocence and without any further incriminating evidence, Almeda was fully acquitted.

She felt an even heavier weight on her chest and despite everything she had read, something didn't feel right with the case.

Lexie couldn't imagine too many people had access to the Carrow Estate and wondered why there were not more suspects or evidence if there were no signs of a break in.

She flipped through all her notes again and at one point had jotted down "murder weapon missing?" Lexie didn't know how much this applied to Magic law cases as the murder weapon seemed to almost always be a wizard or witch's wand and in this case when there was no sign of injury, it seemed Malcom had surely been killed by magic.

So if the Wizengamot didn't find fault with Almeda's wand, Lexie wondered why they had not mentioned any sort of investigation on either Malcom or his father, Athelstan's wand.

Lexie frowned and flipped back through her notes, in fact there was no mention of her father's wand being recovered at all at the estate. She knew a wand chose the wizard, but theoretically couldn't a witch or wizard use another wand successfully if they were skilled enough? Lexie made a note to do some research on the subject.

In the trial records there had been a detailed report of Malcom's cause of death, position he was found in, even his dress and a list of possessions he had on his body. Lexie had initially skimmed through it not deeming it important, but flipped back to the section in the transcripts.

Malcom was found face up on the floor of his study, eyes open. He was wearing dark grey robes and was wearing a ring on his wedding finger and ring with the family crest on his other hand. He had only a pocket watch and crumpled candy wrappers in his possession at the time.

Lexie frowned, every single witch and wizard she knew always carried their wand. Case in point, she had hers on her person this whole time and despite only being a witch for two years knew this was standard practice. Why would Malcom not have his wand on him? Had he left it somewhere else in the estate?

She allowed her mind to go to the unthinkable, had her father been killed by his very own wand? She shuddered at the thought as that seemed like it would be the ultimate betrayal. Lexie knew she was speculating and that there could easily be a simple explanation to all of this, but she jotted down that final thought before bundling up all the articles and case notes before returning them to the box.

Sirius had been right, the entire case was unsatisfying. Lexie jotted a quick note to Sirius thanking him profusely and sharing that she had no idea how he had acquired the information but she was incredibly grateful. She finished letting him know she missed him and was glad he was getting on well with his cousin.

She gritted her teeth as she gently coaxed Andromeda's owl back towards her, still not quite over her dislike of using owls for post, but managed to tie the letter onto its leg and guide it out the window.

She watched the owl disappear over the horizon, her mind full of more questions than answers and realizing that this truly was a case that would likely go unsolved and couldn't risk Almeda Carrow ever finding out that she had been poking around. Plus, the case was four years old already, what evidence there might have been was likely long gone by now. And who would even take her seriously? She was a second year Hogwarts student who didn't even know magic existed until last year.

Lexie hated to admit that Sirius was right, she really shouldn't have gotten her hopes up that she would be able to answer the question of who killed Malcom Carrow.