Chapter 27

Hermione sat at her desk trying to figure out who Lana had smuggled in. She had checked the name Daniel Higgs through the magical filing system to see if anyone else had been posing under that name lately, but nothing had come up.

Anyone could have grabbed the hairs from the body and could have used polyjuice potion to turn into Terrence Higgs. It was beyond frustrating that it had happened and that they had absolutely no leads about it. How could someone manage to commit four homicides, and there be no trace of them? How did they know exactly where the files would be and how did they know who to manipulate to get in?

The person was beyond clever, and it infuriated Hermione to no extent. As much as it was a crime of passion, it was very well thought out and executed. The person knew exactly what they were doing. She understood that they were hurt; clearly they had lost someone important to them. It was clear that they were also suffering some sort of psychological trauma from the war, but even if you cross referenced all the people who had lost someone in the war with those suffering with the effects of the war, there would be a very long list. Most people had lost someone they cared about, in some capacity of the other. Harry lost his parents, his godfather, Remus, Dumbledore, and so many others, Hermione lost her parents in a sense, but she also lost Tonks, Fred, and many others. Everyone that she talked to who fought in the war still had nightmares of that night.

She still woke up in a panic as she recalled the night Bellatrix had tortured her for information. It had been one of the worst moments of her life, and in it she had wanted nothing more than to die rather than continuously feel the pain. She never held Draco accountable, even though she knew he felt guilty about everything. She often had nightmares that Harry really was dead as well. They came in many different forms, but each time she saw his body, crumpled up and lifeless. It had been horrible to experience, and the thought that she could have lost the man she considered to be a brother killed her. When he hugged her from time to time now, she sometimes held on a moment longer just to make sure he was still there.

But what bugged her the most about this case was that she didn't know who this 'he' that the killer lost was in relationship to them. Was it a friend, or a brother? Was it a lover, or a father? It didn't change the fact that they were still going after people, but it affected their thoughts toward the situation. She wished she could get inside their head and figure out what they were thinking. She knew why they were doing this, but she just needed to know which ex-Death Eaters they were killing.

It scared her a little bit as well. Was Draco on their hit list? She didn't want to think about going over to his house one night and seeing his body as broken up as the others had been. She didn't think she would be able to survive if anything had happened to him. It scared her a bit how dependent on him she was, but she loved him so much that it would ruin her if he died. She had never felt so strongly for anyone, not even Ron or Victor. She wanted to just hold him tightly and never let him out of her sight in fear that they would go after him.

She wondered what would happen to Scorpius. Would his mother get custody, or would he get passed on to some distant relative? She loved Scorpius as if he were her own son, and only wanted him to be happy.

Hermione shook her head; she couldn't think of things like that. They were far too morbid and it left her stomach with a pit of despair. She placed her head between her hands to steady her thoughts to return them back to her case. It would do her no good to get upset over situations that her mind imagined.

She looked down at the reports she had gotten on the break in. she wasn't surprised to see that there was no concrete evidence left behind from the incident. There were a few strands of a fibre found but when she tried to do a tracing spell on them it didn't work. Either there were protection barriers wherever the killer was, or the strands itself had been spelled not to allow such things. There were no fingerprints or any other residue left behind. The only people who saw Lana come in with someone identified the person as Terrence Higgs as well, thus rendering that useless as well. She cursed her bad luck with this case. Part of her wanted to just quit, but she knew she couldn't do that since there were lives of people at stake; besides, Hermione Granger never quits anything.

Hermione looked up startled as Harry rushed into her office.

"There's been a break in at Hogsmeade," Harry said hurriedly. "I thought it was better to tell someone this time, especially after what happened the last time I went alone. And the thief is gone anyways, so it's not exactly as if I could catch them in the process. I know you're really swamped with the whole murder investigation, but I was hoping your team would be able to look over the crime scene and see if you can find anything. This is the tenth break in at a potions store, and honestly I don't even know if they're all related or not, or if someone just really gets a thrill out of stealing ingredients. For all we know it's a bunch of bored kids. But the sooner we can put a stop to it, the better.

Hermione stood up and grabbed her wand. "I'll go get the rest of my team and meet you there. Make sure you take a few Aurors with you just in case the perpetrator is still around. I don't want to have to go to the hospital because of you for another few months," she said slightly sternly.

He smiled sheepishly, "I promise to be careful. Besides, if I have to go to St Mungo's, at least your boyfriend can personally ensure I return to full health."

She smacked him slightly, "Don't even start. Besides, Ginny will kill you if you leave her to have to worry about you and take care of James at the same time."

Her friend's one week off was over and he had to come back to work, but Hermione suspected he wished he were still at home with his wife and son. She didn't really blame him; if it were up to her, she would be with Jamie every free moment she had. And while she had enough money to probably live comfortably for the rest of her life, she knew her job was important. Hermione didn't really feel guilty for spoiling her son, however. The amount of books she had bought lately had nearly doubled from her standard amount of purchases, but Jamie devoured books just as she had at his age. His reading level was already at that of a ten year old, and she was so proud of how much he treasured learning. But with all that said, she bought him quite a few amount of toys as well to entertain himself. She hated that he had to sit in that hospital room all day, alone. Hermione knew that it was the best thing for him in the case that he had another episode and he was at her home. If she couldn't get him to the hospital in time there was a chance that he could die.

Less than ten minutes later, Hermione found herself at the site of the crime with the rest of her team. The door had been blasted open, and in the process it had triggered the alarm. It had meant that the robber knew exactly how much time they had before the shop keeper was able to get down to the store once it had been set off, so they knew how long they needed to get in and out with what they needed.

The state of the store was pretty untouched, except for a section at the back. One of the Aurors were taking the statement of the owner, finding out exactly which items had been taken. She could see a few cauldrons had been overturned, and a few items were tossed all over the place. Dean was inspecting the site with the help of Zacharias, while Patrick surveyed the rest of the store, trying to figure out the path the robber had taken to get to the back of the store. In doing so, he may be able to find other traces of evidence left behind.

She was listening in on the account of how the owner found the place, trying to get all the details about what they saw. From what she heard, when the owner came into the store, the robber had already been long gone. She had hoped that they would have gotten a good glance at the person responsible, as it would have helped them be able to catch them.

"Hermione?" she heard Patrick ask. She saw him crouched over by a set of stirring rods, and she immediately walked over to where he was.

"Did you find something?" she asked him curiously as she approached.

He nodded, "I was able to identify the exact path that the person took. It was simply a matter of checking to see what areas looked the most disturbed, and once I isolated those regions, I put them together to make a pathway. See how the jars over there fell over? They're angled towards the back of the store, meaning that this was how they got there, whereas the vials a few aisles over are angled towards the front of the store," Patrick said as he pointed out the areas he was talking about.

She smiled at him, "Sounds like you've been making progress!" she complimented.

"That wasn't what I called you over for however," he said softly. "I managed to isolate a few strands of a material which were caught on one of the rods. It seems as if the person was in a hurry and didn't even notice that they were left behind. If I run it through a few testing spells I might be able to isolate what it is and if we're really lucky, pull DNA from it. But that's a best case scenario. At the very least, we'll know what they belong to, even if it's a general answer."

She conjured up a sample bag and handed it to him, "Nice work! It's far more than what was found at any of the other crime scenes."

"I'm going to head back to the lab and start the testing. I already checked the rest of the store and there was nothing else out left behind. I'll get back to you as soon as I identify the components," Patrick said as he stood to leave.

Hermione nodded as she made her way over to where Dean and Zachariah were.

"Have you found anything?" she questioned them.

"We've managed to write down every single thing that has been taken from here based upon the inventory that the shop keeper gave us," Dean said.

"It seems as if they were after specific items. They grabbed specific quantities of what they wanted, but left everything else untouched," Zachariah added.

"I wonder why they don't just buy these things," Hermione mused as she looked down at the list, which consisted of only three ingredients; however there were large quantities listed. "For the most part none of these things are really that expensive."

"Maybe they can't afford it?" Dean suggested.

"Or maybe they don't want anyone to know who took it," Zachariah said. "It's highly probable that this theft is connected to all the other break ins at potions stores. But by stealing the items, it's less likely that anyone will find out why they're buying them and what they want to do with it."

"Could the two of you head back to the lab and look over all the things that have been taken to date? See which potions need these items. If we can figure out what they're trying to make, then maybe we can find out who needs that potion," Hermione instructed.

The two of them nodded before they apparated away from the site.

"So what do you think?" Harry asked as he approached her.

"I don't know what I think," Hermione sighed. "I don't know how to get into the mind of this person. I feel like I'm failing at my job, Harry. I don't know how to catch the person responsible in the killer case, nor do I know how to catch this person. What if that's it, Harry? What if I've lost the ability to solve cases and put criminals behind bars? What if I'm burnt out?"

He stopped her, "You haven't, Hermione. Both of these people are just very good. But it doesn't mean that we won't get them. It might just take a bit longer than normal, but we will catch these people and put them away. I have yet to see you fail, Hermione, and this won't be the first time you do."

She gave him a smile as she gave him a hug, "Thanks Harry."

"Now, why don't you go see Draco? I know that the two of you were working on the potion for Jamie. You need to take a break too. You have a very capable team, and they can take care of this case for a bit longer. You don't need to worry about it right now," Harry suggested.

"I might just take you up on that," Hermione said.

"Good," Harry said with a smile. "Now, get out of here."

"Tell everyone that I'll be at a testing room in St. Mungo's if they need me," Hermione informed him.

Hermione sat beside Draco as he added a drop of Murtlap Essence to their potion. It had a lot of healing properties, and Draco had suggested using it.

She looked over a book of ingredients to add it to a list of possible other items to be added to the list. They had gotten far closer to finding the correct combination of hazel and pomegranate juice, however the hazel still clotted the blood far too much and the pomegranate juice made the blood far too cool. It was still a lethal combination, but it was getting closer.

Hermione handed him some of the knotgrass after he nodded at her to show that the Murtlap had helped the blood sample. As he began to measure it out, she took a look at the sample of blood and saw that it had helped get the colour of the blood to a normal consistency.

"I really need this to work," she said softly. "I can't lose him, Draco. I can't lose my son."

He squeezed her hand as he turned to face her, "You won't, Hermione," he reassured her. "We're closer now to figuring out how to cure Jamie than I've ever been in the years I've worked on Jamie's case. For once we have a solution of something that's helped in the past, and all we have to do is figure out how to do it now."

"I still don't have any idea how he contracted the disease," Hermione said slowly. "It's so rare, and there have been no other cases of outbreaks. It's also hereditary, so his parents could have contracted it somehow, but it makes me curious. Was it just some sort of recessive gene that became dormant in Jamie? Or were all of them exposed to something? I just wish there was some way that I could find out."

"I know," he soothed. "But we will figure this out. Look at what we have so far! Sure, it's still far from perfect, but give it a few more weeks and we could find the cure for him, and for anyone else who ever comes across his disease."

She nodded as she pulled away slightly. Draco began to do a few calculations to see what would be the theoretically best amount of the knotgrass for the potion as she moved back to her station. She began to take notes of the different amounts of the ingredients she had used as well as the combinations of what she had so far and what the outcomes were. In a few more trials they would be able to get an idea of what would be the best combination so they could move on to perfecting it through tiny tweaks before giving it to Jamie.

The only thing that worried her was that something could possibly happen to her son before then. What if they didn't find the cure fast enough and Jamie died? She felt herself shake slightly as the thought crossed her mind.

"Hermione!" she head Dean cry out. She looked up startled to see her team standing there panting. "We were told that you were in this room. You said come find you if we found anything important at the potions store, and we got something."

She put down her pen as she ushered them in.

"Should I leave?" Draco asked them. "I know that your case is confidential and all."

She shook her head, "No, stay; I trust you." She turned to her team. "Now, what did you find?"

"You know how it seemed as if the break ins were premeditated and done far too carefully for something as simple as a bunch of teenagers? Hermione, we ran the fibres that Patrick found and we got a match to something," Dean said.

"That's amazing!" she exclaimed, but she lost her enthusiasm when she saw their faces. "What is it?"

"The fibres were a match to the ones found at Terrence Higg's murder. The person killing the ex-Death Eaters is the same person breaking in to the potions stores," Patrick said grimly.

Hermione stared in shock as she dropped her quill. She had definitely not been expecting that.