International Wizarding School Competition:

[School]: Ilvermorny

[Year]: standing in for year 7

[Prompts]:

Main: [Object] Dungbombs

Additional: [Emotion] Betrayal, [Action] Searching

[Theme]: The Room of Requirement - buzzword used - Mystery

[WC]: 3078

[A/N] Muggle AU- inspired by a murder mystery akin to Agatha Christie's 'And then there were none'. Dungbombs in this story are not magical, more a very disgusting prank item which kids can throw at each other and get pelted with manure.

WARNING: Character death

Luna Lovegood and the Dungbomb Murder

The wind flew around her as Luna stepped off the boat to Orion Island. She clutched her leather satchel to her body, afraid that the wind would blow her few precious belongings away. She had been invited with several others to attend a banquet by Sirius Black, an old friend of her father's and a leading businessman. The small rickety dock she stood on creaked as she set foot on the island; it was small and surrounded by cliffs. A narrow winding path led to a plateau where the manor house stood, encircled by a little garden with a sprawling orchard behind it.

As the wind blew in her face, Luna found herself fighting to keep her hair out of her eyes; she couldn't afford to be distracted, the path to Black Manor was steep and slippery. As the lead journalist for her father's magazine—the Quibbler—she had been tasked with finding the scoop, or more exactly what secrets Sirius Black was hiding and just why he was hosting the event on a remote island and not at his London residence. She had been here once before and knew it to be an isolated place, a perfect place to hide something. Her keen journalistic senses were already sharp and ready. She was ready to find the truth.

She soon completed her trek up the side of the cliff and she grasped the bronze knocker, shaped like a lion, the sound seemed to echo through the hall behind the door. The door creaked open and Luna smiled at the person who had pushed open the large mahogany doors.

"Luna!" Hermione—Sirius Black's assistant— said, beaming at her and allowing her to enter. "It is nice of you to join us."

Luna nodded, "Thank you for inviting me, I wonder why Sirius has invited us here."

Hermione shut the doors and guided Luna up the stairs towards her room. "I know! Even I, his assistant, don't know. He has been very secretive about it," Hermione said, her eyes flashed a look of irritation. If there was something she didn't like, it was not knowing something.

"Well here you are, I will leave you to get settled in. The banquet will start promptly at seven o'clock, so please try to be downstairs in the parlour before then." Hermione opened the door and then went downstairs again, seemingly in a hurry, for reasons that Luna didn't know.

She placed her satchel on the chair and inspected the room; it was elegant, spacious and comfortable; it was a shame that she was only staying for the weekend. Luna had expected nothing less from one of the country's leading entrepreneurs. Who else could make a fortune converting manure into something so weird and wonderful that everyone had to have it? Dungbombs—a small manure ball that when thrown, released a potent smell that took forever to wash— had been such a craze that everyone had wanted to try it; they were the bane of mothers and the ultimate prank item for boys.

Luna pulled out her notepad. There was at most an hour before dinner and she wanted to review her files about the guests before she went down. She knew them all from their school days together. They had all attended the prestigious Hogwarts Academy. Harry Potter and his wife Ginny were in attendance. Harry was Sirius' godson and his best friend's son.

She had made notes on her predictions for the banquet and as she glanced at her watch, she noticed that it was a quarter to seven. She took her notepad and pen and headed down the stairs to the parlour. Luna glanced over at the closed doors to Sirius' study. He was likely still working and would show up at the last minute. It wouldn't be the first time.

Luna crossed the marble floors of the entrance hall and entered the parlour. She found the room deserted except for Hermione.

"Oh Luna, it's good that you are on time at least," she said, her face strained to hide her annoyance.

The clock on the mantle rang seven as the pair chatted idly and still there was no sign of the other guests, nor the host. "Very odd," Hermione pondered out loud. Just then, Ginny walked in, her hair looked ruffled like she had rushed down, but otherwise she looked calm and composed.

"Oh, I am sorry that I am late, my hair didn't want to cooperate," she said, sighing as she looked in the mirror over the fireplace.

"Good to see you, Ginny," Luna said, moving over to give her a hug. As she hugged her, Luna noticed that she wore a lot of perfume which was unusual, she usually didn't. "Where's Harry?" she asked. "Is he on his way down?"

"Oh I am sure he is on his way. I thought he was already down here actually," Ginny said with a shrug. Harry suddenly appeared, out of breath with his black hair a mess. "Sorry! Sorry! I lost track of time," he said, moving over to kiss Ginny on the forehead before hugging Luna and Hermione. "Good to see you Luna, hope you are well."

"Well, that is everyone except for our esteemed host," Luna commented.

"Let's go to the dining room anyway. We might as well sit down while we wait," Hermione said.

After a while, Hermione excused herself. "I am going to check on him, he does get caught up in his work sometimes and forgets the time." Everyone nodded and watched as she left the room. Luna took out her notebook and wrote down her impressions of the night so far, it had been unusual, everyone was arriving late, including the host himself. It was very odd. A piercing scream shook Luna from her thoughts and everyone sprang from their seats.

"Hermione?" Harry called out and rushed off in the scream's direction. Luna grabbed her pad and pen and hurried after him toward Sirius' office. The sight that met her chilled her to the bone and the stench was something foul. "Careful Luna, it looks like he has been murdered," Harry said, his arms around Hermione. His face was strained and tears glistened in his eyes, but Luna knew that he wanted to be strong for his friend and for his wife. "Come on Hermione, let's get out of the room," he said calmly. "You too, Luna. We should call the police."

Harry led Hermione out of the room and Luna could hear him explaining what had happened to Ginny who had followed them. Luna dug out a handkerchief stashed away in the pocket of her dress and dialled 999 on the phone on Sirius' desk, careful not to disturb anything. However, the line was dead. A crash out of the window confirmed the reason: a flash of lightning had hit the telephone pole. "Harry, the phone's out. We will have to wait for the storm to pass and then one of us will have to head to the mainland," she said as she joined them in the entrance hall. She looked to each of her companions, one of them had to be the killer. It was unlikely that it was an outsider considering that she came on the only boat of the day and from what she could see, Sirius had been dead for an hour at most.

"But who do we send? We send the wrong person— the killer— they get away for good before the police can stop them," Harry said. Ginny sobbed quietly, grasping a small lace handkerchief and Harry placed her arm around him.

"Well, I suppose we will have to find out who did it then," Luna said. She opened up her notebook— she had always fancied herself a detective— that was what a journalist was, after all, a seeker of the truth. "First, I suppose I will need to look at the crime scene ," she said, tapping her pen on the notepad. 'Crime scene, alibis and then go from there,' she thought.

"Hermione, do you think you could make everyone a cup of tea? I think we all need it after the shock," she suggested, and Hermione nodded, heading off toward the kitchens. "Harry, Ginny. Please stay in the parlour while I have a look around, I will need to speak to each of you soon," she instructed and headed back into the study after a deep breath.

The stench that hit her nose was, on closer inspection, not the smell of a rotting corpse. It was in fact dungbombs. Moving over to the body, she saw an open crate of dungbombs and several on the floor near it. The body was in fact smeared in dung. Luna covered her nose with a hanky and kept looking for anything to help her figure out who did it. Sirius himself was sprawled out as if he had been surprised, one of his hands covered his chest and the other hung out to the side as if he was trying to reach something.

She first inspected his chest and found under his hand a small stab wound. It had bled out, leaving a pool of blood under him. "You poor thing, I hope that you are at peace wherever you are," she said. He had been hit right in the heart from what she could see. But what was the murder weapon? Looking around, she noticed an impression on the desk. Something was usually placed there, something long and pointed. Luna drew into herself, trying to remember her visit the year before, what had been there. A letter-opener! She remembered a silver letter-opener with a snake head on the end, a Black family heirloom. It was missing; she looked around but couldn't find it anywhere. Luna noted everything she had discovered in her notebook and then continued searching. She followed Sirius' hand to a small cabinet which after some struggle, she managed to open. But all that was inside was some paper scraps.

"What do we have here?" she asked out loud, examining each of the pieces in turn. 'Will and Testament' it said. "What?" Luna exclaimed, looking it over. Sirius, or someone else has torn it up, voiding the will. With it, Harry would have been the sole heir to Sirius' fortune. In her heart, Luna knew Harry would never have killed his godfather, he loved him too much, but this was motive and she had to be impartial. She tucked away the scraps into her bag, to give to the police when they finally did get in touch with them. 'But if this will was torn up, was there a new one?' she wondered. She searched the room but found nothing else, whoever had done it, had made a clean break. However, Luna knew that that dung smell was hard to remove so there had to be traces of it elsewhere. Hopefully that would lead her to the killer.

She stepped into the parlour. "Now everyone, I will need your alibis," she said. "If you can one-by-one join me in the dining room?" She moved across the room. "Hmm, let's see, I will start with Harry."

She took a seat and placed her notepad in front of her. Harry came in and took a seat on the other side of the table. "So you want an alibi from me, I am guessing?" he asked. Luna nodded solemnly. Even though she didn't doubt his innocence, she had to be thorough. As there were so few of them present, it was almost 100 percent certain that one of them was the killer.

"I was upstairs in my room with Ginny for most of the afternoon. I had a nap and I think Ginny did too. I saw Sirius when we arrived yesterday and he seemed fine… this is unreal." Harry shook his head, tears silently running down his cheeks. "Find who did this Luna… please."

Harry was soon replaced with Ginny, who confirmed his alibi, that the pair of them had been upstairs in their room. Luna had no reason to suspect anything amiss until Hermione came in.

"I was working in the library. I often do the books there instead of in the study with Sirius. I last saw him a little after lunch when I collected the bank records. I was so absorbed in my work that I almost didn't hear you knock at the door. I passed Ginny on the way to answer it, who was heading out to the kitchens." Hermione shrugged. Luna smiled at her, trust Hermione to provide such a detailed account of her day.

Luna searched the house. She needed to find the murder weapon, to find out what Ginny had been doing. Harry's alibi was hard to confirm and as he was sleeping, he couldn't confirm Ginny's. If Hermione was telling the truth, Luna was still in the dark. No-one had seen Sirius for most of the afternoon, but someone had been there. Who?

As she stepped out into the hallway, she picked up the scent. Dungbombs. Following her nose, it led her first to the upstairs bathroom. They had tried to wash away the smell but they must have been caked in it, their clothes would have been stained by it too. She searched the laundry basket, but it was empty. "That would be too obvious, Luna," she said to herself.

Looking at the sink, she noticed the telltale sign of dungbomb residue, a lovely brown smear on the otherwise white counter. The killer had been here. She jotted it down and then wrote: 'clothes?' and underlined it. The clothes would lead her to the killer, that and that awful smell.

She followed her nose again, now that she noticed it, she could smell it everywhere. It was all over the upstairs hallway, it was in her room, Hermione's, Harry and Ginny's, even the master bedroom. She followed her instincts and looked into the master bedroom where she found something that blew her mind. The new will.

'I, Sirius Orion Black, being of sound body and mind, bequeath my whole fortune to my only child, set to be born to…'

the mother's name was ripped out and fingerprints, brown dirty fingerprints dotted the page. "No…" Luna gasped, "This can't be true… he has a child?" She looked at it once more. The killer was pregnant… with Sirius' child. This ruled out Harry and surely… that meant it was Hermione's. She worked with him every day, and if it wasn't her… then it meant something terrible for her friends. She almost didn't want to discover the truth. She tucked the new will in her satchel along with the old will and continued searching, she still had to find the clothes.

Soon her nose led her to the source, through the house, down the stairs, through the kitchens and finally to the muck room, where she knew Sirius often washed off after working in the orchard. Other than in the study, this room was by far the smelliest room in the house. The killer had been here. A singular dung-covered handprint, a careless mistake was all it took for Luna to find the truth, hidden away in a broken drawer. What was inside shocked her to her core and she knew she had all she needed to confront the killer.

She gathered her three friends in the parlour and paced the room, wondering how to reveal what she had found. "What I have discovered today… It's the reason why Sirius called us all here. It is the reason he was killed and one person here knew that already." Harry looked over to Hermione expectantly.

"Who? Me?" she asked, pointing at herself. "I don't know a thing."

"But you are… were his assistant," Harry stated. "If anyone knew, you knew."

Before Hermione could defend herself, Luna raised a hand and moved over to close the doors, just in case. "Hermione did not know."

"Ginny did."

Hermione gasped and Harry looked at Luna with a look of utmost betrayal. "You are accusing my wife?"

"I found this in the safe, Harry." Luna handed him the scraps of the old will where his name stood. "You were his inheritor until recently."

"Until recently?" he asked, "What happened?" Luna looked over at Ginny who was silent, but fury burned in her eyes.

"Here is your chance Ginny, tell him the truth, or I will," Luna threatened. "And I have the proof." Luna held up her notepad where the new will was folded into.

"I am innocent," Ginny insisted. "You have to believe me Harry, it was a mistake," she pleaded. She moved across the room and tried to grab Harry's hands but he pulled them away.

"What was a mistake, Ginny?" he asked confused. She fell silent again, tears streaming down her face.

"She's pregnant… with Sirius's child," Luna informed them. Hermione gasped and Harry stood up, unable to sit still any longer.

"Sirius wanted to leave everything to the child but Ginny didn't want him to reveal what they had done. So she killed him," Luna continued. "Correct me if I am wrong Ginny."

The redhead shook her head. "If he had just stayed quiet… we could have pretended that it was Harry's… it was a stupid mistake." She continued to sob.

"No, the stupid mistake was killing him," Hermione said, moving over to Harry and clutching his hand. Harry looked pale and his face was like stone.

Luna proceeded to explain how Ginny had covered it up, spreading dungbombs over him, in an attempt to hide the stabwound, only for it to backfire on her.

"The dungbombs led me to you, that heavy perfume, so unlike you and your clothes covered in dungbomb residue in the drawer in Sirius' muck room with his letter-opener, covered in the man's blood." Luna held the weapon up carefully with the use of a handkerchief, before collecting everything together to give to the police later. "I am sorry Harry, I wish what I found hadn't hurt you more than the death of your godfather already had."

Harry nodded, moving over to Luna and hugged her. "Thank you for uncovering the truth. Even if it is painful, now Sirius can rest in peace."

The next day, Hermione headed to the mainland and returned with the police. Ginny was taken away as Harry, Hermione and Luna looked on; they would never be the same again.