Chapter 3
A/N: Purgers- not from Harry Potter, I made them up. They are people who basically work at a morgue. Hope that cleared it up for those wondering. Anyway here's chapter 3:
Ron gulped as he stood outside Professor Snape's home. They all knew Snape had been in love with Harry's mother and had turned against Voldemort to great personal risk. Harry visited him sometimes, Ron just stayed away. Ron tried not to admit it, but he was abit afraid of the potions master. Malfoy seemed gleeful to visit his old head of house. Ron rocked to and fro on the back of his heels before knocking.
"Yes?" Snape sauntered out ,still wearing black robes.
"We just need to ask you a few questions," Ron quickly said, avoiding eye contact.
"Good evening Professor," Draco said with an air of grace.
"Draco," Snape replied with a nod.
Snape's robes billowed behind him as he strode into his home. Honestly, there was no wind and he still managed to do that. Ron and Draco followed him inside as Snape flicked his wand and cauldrons disappeared. Snape's home was not what Ron expected. Everything looked normal, there was color. He had a black lounge suite but each room was a different color. His lounge walls were green, the kitchen-which they had hastily passed- was yellow and his bedroom was opened just a peep enough for Ron to notice the walls were red. Red, the color of gryffindor, the color of Lily Potter's hair.
"You need information about my neighbor's death I presume," Snape said going straight to the point once they were seated in his lounge. He flicked his wand and bobbing glasses of butterbeer were knocking Ron and Draco on the head. They both took their respective glasses to be polite and to stop the glasses sloshing butterbeer on their head.
"Yes, well as I have already told the people before you," he said gesturing to them,"I don't meddle in my neighbor's business."
There was a brief silence after this as neither knew how to question a snarky professor with a mean streak. It wasn't exactly in their job description.
"Sev-" Ron tried to call him by his first name then stopped mid-sentence at the look he received from Snape. Ron really didn't know what came over him to make such a brazen attempt.
"Professor Snape," he tried again, "We need any information, any at all that you can provide us with on the day Maia died."
" Very well," Snape said curtly before disappearing into his study room. Ron and Malfoy sat awkwardly for 2 minutes before Snape came back out and asked in a very serious voice," Are you two going to come in and get your answers or sit in my lounge the whole afternoon?"
Draco turned pink at being chastised and Ron's ears were beet red. "I realised it would be easier for me to just show you what happened that day instead of talking to you about it," he said motioning to his pensieve.
"We're going into your memory?" Ron asked incredulously.
"Don't look so happy Weasley, I dont think we're going to find Snape having a crush on you," Malfoy said to him.
Professor Snape remained silent, concentrating on his memory and putting it into the pensieve.
Ron suddenly felt very queasy going into his least favorite professor's memory.
"I assume you are both going in together," Snape said after a few minutes passed in silence with neither Draco or Ron making any attempt of going in Snape's memory.
"Alright ,so together?" Draco asked.
"You just want to hold my hand ,Malfoy," Ron replied with a smirk.
" Weasley I do the smirking around here, it doesn't suit you," Draco drawled.
"On the count of three," Ron said. "One, two ...Argh Malfoy!"
Draco had pulled Ron with him and together they jumped into Snape's memory.
The flying and falling sensation hit Draco fast. He and Ron fell through the ceiling -it felt like that anyway- but as usual, there was not a mark in the ceiling. They had each been in a pensieve before but the feeling always took them by surprise each time. Draco looked around to find himself in Snape's kitchen. The professor was dressed in black and Draco swore he could hear Snape singing under his breath to the tune on the radio.
"Is he singing along to Taylor Swift ?" Ron asked ogling the professor.
Snape was making himself breakfast, some pancakes with chocolate chips. He was flipping the pancakes over singing, " Have you ever thought just maybe, you belong with me..."
"This is too bizzare," Ron said as memory Snape drizzled maple syrup on his stack of pancakes.
And a bit sad, Draco thought to himself.
But they were not here to empathise with Snape, they needed to see what happened with Maia.
Finally, memory Snape finished his breakfast, and went outside to collect his Daily Prophet.
He had just opened his door to find Maia locked in a fierce conversation with a man. He had sandy brown hair, green eyes and fit the description Madam Rosmerta had given them.
" Elliot please, just go away!" she begged.
Elliot? Draco looked at him.
"Malfoy, we know him!" Ron said shocked.
"I know," Draco replied grimly. "He was our waiter."
"We need to question him now," Ron said immediately going into his auror mode.
"Well was anything useful?" Snape snapped when he saw them.
"Yeah, we need to question the guy,Elliot," Draco said as they both tried to call Hermione and ,Draco only tried Hermione before giving up.
Snape looked at them in a bored manner.
"Well I hope you find who killed her, she was one of the few less annoying students that I taught," he said as Ron and Draco left.
Draco nodded and replied," Thank you professor... For everything."
There was an unspoken meaning to his words but Snape understood.
Thank you for always being there for me. Thank you for not letting me kill Dumbledore. Thank you for not allowing part of my soul to be damaged. I just wish that you didn't have to pay that price for me...
"Thank you for the visit Draco," Snape said and Draco swore he saw Snape look softer for a moment before closing his door.
"Dammit! Hermione and Harry both are not answering this thing!" Ron exclaimed brandishing his cellphone. "What are they doing?"
"Er Weasley, you do know that they are right next door?" Draco asked amused.
Ron muttered something under his breath before walking next door.
Harry was quite tired of looking through Maia's apartment but Hermione was so sure that they would find a clue of the mystery man, that he decided to continue. They discovered photo albums at the bottom of her closet hidden beneath boxes of old clothes. It seemed that Maia was a photographer and loved to take pictures of everything she saw. But she didn't show this passion anymore, there were no new photo's for a couple of years. They found many hogwarts pictures and Harry and Hermione smiled as they reminiscent of their school years.
"Hey remember the day by the lake and I was quizzing you about Herbology or Charms and you thought I was joking when I said if you got another wrong I would levicorpus you above the lake?" Hermione asked her eyes twinkling.
"Yes and you looked at something Ron was doing and I fell into the lake!" Harry said. "It was Charms by the way, the subject you were quizzing me on," he said chuckling.
"I can't believe you remembered that!" Hermione exclaimed laughing.
"Well you quoted my words back at me in fifth year!" Harry retorted.
" oh yes,the time when I convinced you to start Dumbledore's Army,"Hermione said remembering.
"Yes one of the biggest reasons I started it, Hermione Granger stubbonly made me and quoted my own words against me!" Harry said jokingly.
"Seems like a pretty good reason to me," Hermione said playfully punching him on the shoulder.
"Ow! However will I recover?" Harry replied sarcastically but smiling.
That earned him another punch on the shoulder.
"We really should be getting back to these photo's," Hermione said ruefully.
"Argh Hermione we haven't found anything in here yet," Harry replied." But I suppose we should make sure we haven't missed anything," he said after noticing how much she wanted to do this. He knew they had no other clues and Hermione was not going to go through today without achieving something.
"Okay, so we can see she did live with her many relatives over time, Lavender didn't lie about that," Hermione sighed. She felt like she owed Maia the right to atleast unmask her killer. This girl had gone through so much, her life was as difficult as any other person's, but she was so young...
"We can't give up Harry," Hermione said with newfound fire in her.
"We wont," Harry promised.
Harry heard the front door opening. "Wait here," he said to Hermione before going to check.
"Honestly Harry I am perfectly capable of looking after myself," she said crossly.
" I am better at defensive magic remember,"he said with a wink and was off with his wand gripped firmly in his hand.
"Merlin Potter, it's just us! See I have a nose I'm not voldemort," Draco swaggered into the house.
"Hermione its Ron and the ferret!" Harry yelled, ignoring Malfoy.
Hermione, meanwhile, was sifting through more of Maia's pictures. Som of them had captions and dates written on the back. These were much older pictures of Maia's childhood. Maia and her cousins, Hermione assumed looking at various pictures of Maia and three boys.
"Granger! We have a lead let's move!" Draco called.
"What lead? What did you two find out?" Hermione asked excitedly.
" Elliot, our waiter from today, he was tallking to Maia on her last day. We saw it in Snape's memory. They were arguing and he fits Madam Rosmerta's description!" Ron declared feeling like he just received an Outstanding.
"You went into Snape's memory ?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Yes, not now Harry," Ron said flushing.
"For once I agree with Weasley, we need to move now," Draco spoke up. He seemed a bit shocked with himself for being on the same page as Weasley but no way was he reliving Snape singing Taylor Swift with Potter.
"Let's go then," Hermione said in a determined voice. "We have a killer to catch."
A/N: I know this chapter was a little shorter, but I couldn't wait to give you this part and hear what you think ... So did Elliot do it? I would love to hear some theories.
Love , Mel