The day was incredibly beautiful. The sun shone bright, casting its rays through the windows of every single building on the street. The birds chirped, as if they wanted to announce that spring was finally here. To everyone else, it probably seemed wonderful, exciting even, considering all the new possibilities it brought - going for long walks, lying on the grass in full sun or simply hanging out with friends outside. To Clarisse, though, spring meant troubles.

Winter was much more peaceful and quiet. Not in a sense, that the streets were empty. No, Paris qualified as a very busy city, as everyone from around the world wanted to see the famous Eiffel tower or les Champs-Élysées. The city was simply breathtaking. Even Clarisse, who did not usually possess the tenderness required to be entranced with such things as landscapes and architecture, had to admit that.

Winter usually made people less inclined to do stupid things, such as thinking it would be quite hilarious to turn one's neighbour's cat into a teacup. Okay, so maybe that one was a little funny, especially since it was a rather poor example of Transfiguration, because the teacup meowed every single time someone had poured liquid into it. But when the cat died, the case stopped being a simple usage of magic in Muggle neighbourhood and instead, got qualified as an accidental murder, making things much more serious.

Spring was quite extreme when it came to crimes, not only those seemingly easy and not all that serious. Something about the whole world of nature coming to life made the murderers and serial killers even more determined to turn everyone miserable. Miserable and dead, in many cases.

As soon as Clarisse opened her eyes and noticed that the grim aura of winter had disappeared, seemingly for good this time, she knew that the chances of her day becoming very unpleasant expanded rapidly and that thought instantly worsened her mood.

Reluctantly, she got out of bed and stretched her arms above her head, sighing with pleasure when a couple of cracks sounded in the air and her spine started to feel flexible again, just like every other morning. She enjoyed working as an Auror, especially as a part of the Special Assignments Team, that required not only immaculate detective skills, but also a lot of physical fitness. Unfortunately, it had its cost.

Shower turned out to be more than helpful, as the cold water managed to awake her body completely, clearing her mind from all the negative thoughts. Constant fussiness couldn't have helped her, after all, as she needed utter focus to do her job correctly.

Clarisse wrapped her body in a towel and sighed, standing in front of a mirror. A young woman looked back at her with a crooked smile that made her face seem much uglier than it truly was.

"Today's going to be a good day, Riss," she said to herself, trying to sound confident, but her efforts turned out to be futile, as the voice coming out of her mouth resembled someone who was about to get sick, rather than someone believing their own words.

As on cue, a silvery mist appeared in her bathroom, taking a shape of a horse that glowed with a beautiful light. Clarisse closed her eyes in irritation and waited for the figure to speak.

"Auror Bouchard, you're needed at the crime scene."

The voice of her boss sounded in the air, making her mood even worse.

"Cathédrale Notre-Dame."

Clarisse opened her eyes instantly and looked at the slowly disappearing form of the Patronus. Was her hearing maiming her? Did her boss really want her at the crime scene located in front of the most famous church in the entire city?

"Bloody hell..." she muttered and leaned against the sink, biting her lip.

She jinxed it. Maybe if her thoughts weren't so grim and full of negativity, she wouldn't get summoned to a crime bound to be almost impossible to solve. After all, if someone had committed a murder in front of such a famous building, he had to be good. Good or excellent even.

Clarisse pushed herself away from the sink and grabbed her wand, casting a few drying spells. She had no time to dwell on such things, as with every second the magical trace on the crime scene deteriorated, making it even harder to find someone responsible. She had to hurry.

"Auror Bouchard, thank you for your immediate arrival," her boss, Ludovic Deschamps, greeted her with a tight smile that had nothing to do with happiness.

She could tell by the tension of his jaw muscles that the situation was serious and that made her insides clench with anger.

"Auror Deschamps," she greeted him as well and looked around.

She spotted several people from the Magical Forensic Department, all dressed up as Muggles not to raise any suspicions. The entire place in front of the Cathedral was separated from the crowd that gathered around, trying to get as many information as possible to satisfy their curiosity. Muggle police tried to keep them at bay and did a pretty good job at it, Clarisse had to admit.

She was surprised at the size of the secluded area, as it was unusually large. She couldn't spot any signs of struggle or duelling, which usually required expanded perimeter of a crime scene. Actually, she wasn't able to spot anything out of order, beside that one lifeless body lying on the ground in a pool of blood.

This is not good, she thought to herself, as she noticed the crimson liquid framing the body in a grotesque way. Usually, magical crimes didn't involve such amounts of blood, as it was hardly the most effective way to kill someone, Muggle or Wizard. It required time for someone to bleed out and in a such place like this one time probably wasn't something the murderer had. Or at least he shouldn't have had.

"Do we know who the victim is?" she asked and moved closer to the body.

The body definitely belonged to a female, quite a pretty one at that. She probably caught the attention of many men, while she was still alive. Her body didn't seem mutilated though, despite the pool of blood surrounding her frame.

Clarisse crouched down next to her, narrowing her eyes in search for any wounds that may have been the cause of the extensive bleeding, and as a result, of her death.

"No. Apparently, a Muggle priest found her and went into such a great shock, that he stopped talking for three hours. We had to summon a Mediwitch to help him come around, but when we had finally managed to get a statement out of him, he claimed not to know the victim," Ludovic informed her with a scowl and Clarisse looked up at him with surprise.

"Are you trying to tell me that it took us three hours to get here?"

'"Muggle police thought this was a normal crime. They didn't think it was something for the Special Crimes Investigation Bureau."

Clarisse rolled her eyes at the full name of their cover office. It wasn't like they could outright tell anyone about the existence of Wizards and magic. It made things quite complicated, as everyone in the Auror Bureau had to be excellent at posing as Muggles to fool anyone arriving at the crime scenes before them. SCIB's sole purpose was to make everything easier, as the President of France himself stood behind their organisation, in order to maintain their secret and allow magical folks to work in peace. Nonetheless, Clarisse considered it to be truly ridiculous, as no one could specify what exactly made crimes 'special'. Every time they appeared at the scene, policemen started to twitch nervously and exchange scared glances - 'special' usually meant extremely dangerous in their line of business.

"Are you sure that this is not something for them rather than us?" she asked, focusing on the body once again.

Even spotting the wounds turned out be difficult, they were so tiny and clean. From the looks of it, the killer had to use a knife rather than a wand, because of the cuts' precision. Carotid arteries were severed on both sides, explaining the blood loss perfectly. Still, there were much better ways to kill someone. Ones that didn't require usage of Muggle weapons.

"Oh, we're sure. The Forensics say that the knife must have been a magical artefact, as those wounds are basically drowned in magic," her boss crouched down beside her and pointed his finger at one of the wounds. "The cuts are extremely neat and deep, which must have required quite some strength or a very, very sharp knife. I'd say our suspect is a male, though."

Clarissa nodded lightly and dropped to her knees, looking at the wounds from an even closer distance.

"What about those marks?" she asked and pointed to the slightly darker skin surrounding the wounds.

Her boss frowned slightly, but didn't answer. Clearly, Forensics must have missed it.

"I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like those. They don't look like burn marks, but the skin is definitely darker here. Greyish even," she noticed and Deschamps agreed with her quietly.

Clarisse looked at the other wound and spotted the exact same discolouration. What the hell was that?

"Maybe it's just dirt?" her boss asked, but didn't sound sure of himself.

Clarisse took out her rubber gloves that all of the Muggles seemed to wear while examining the bodies, probably in order to prevent disrupting evidence and maybe inquiring some kind of disease.

She put her finger next to the wound and tried to rub the mark off, but it didn't budge.

"Definitely not dirt. You should call the Forensics. I still don't know how they have managed to miss this," she muttered, making Ludovic laugh.

"Dead people excite them, no matter how disgusting it seems. Sometimes they forget about doing their job just because of that," he said and then stood up, waving at one of the wizards to come closer.

Clarisse knew that particular man, as he tried to ask her out on several occasions. Her constant refusals didn't seem to bug him at all and he kept renewing his offers. His name was Harold, if she recalled correctly.

"Hello, Clarie," he greeted her, making her boss snort in amusement.

Everyone knew she hated being called 'Clarie'. She wasn't a little girl anymore and it should have been clear, especially to a man who apparently wanted to date her.

She didn't bother to answer him, as she nodded her head not even looking away from the body. Encouraging him in any way was probably the worst thing to do.

"What can you tell us about those marks?" Ludovic asked in a stern tone, making Harold shift with nervousness.

Clarisse's boss tended to be strict and extremely intolerant when it came to not doing one's job correctly, which was probably why he liked working with her so often. She was the epitome of a hard worker, after all.

"What marks?" Harold asked, clearly dumbfounded and Clarisse sighed.

"Those marks that surround the wounds, you idiot," she stated and gestured him to see for himself.

The man dropped to his knees, blush covering his cheeks as a result of her comment.

"I'm sorry, I-I have no idea how we missed that," he stuttered and took his wand out of the jacket.

Of course, the wand had been Disillusioned, as not to raise suspicions of Muggle policemen or the crowd that surrounded the entire crime scene. Harold muttered an incantation and then surprise appeared on his face.

'"What is it, boy?" Ludovic rumbled, making Harold smile nervously.

The Forensic Expert cast the spell once again and Clarisse fought the urge to roll her eyes. She absolutely hated working with those people. Their department should have been called 'Magical Morons Association' rather than anything else, at least in her opinion.

"Funny thing, sir. It seems that this substance is nothing else, but saliva."

Clarisse raised her eyebrows in amusement, watching her boss intently. Deschamps wasn't exactly happy with Harold's assessment of the situation, as his cheeks grew red and lips turned into a narrow line.

"Saliva..." he repeated after the Forensic and clicked his tongue. "Do you think I'm dumb?"

"No... Sir?"

'"Are you asking me, or answering?"

'"I... Answering, of course," Harold said and paled even more, making Clarisse grin inappropriately.

"Then why would you say something so utterly ridiculous? Don't you think we know what saliva looks like?! It's certainly not grey, is it?"

Harold waved his wand once again, muttering the spell and rubbed his temples nervously.

"I'm terribly sorry, sir, but the spell doesn't lie."

Clarisse frowned when she realised that Harold truly believed in his words. Well, he couldn't have been that incompetent, could he? After all, they were all trained to cast those spells properly even in their sleep. He wouldn't have botched it three times in a row.

"How is that possible?" she asked, crossing her arms on her chest.

Her mind felt completely blank, when it came to finding an answer to her question. She had never seen something quite like it, nor had she heard of it. Judging from her boss' expression, he seemed to share her thoughts on that matter, which made her feel extremely tense.

"We'll have to run further tests, back at the Ministry. It might be some kind of a disease that made it look that way. Right now, I'm as clueless as you are," Harold said and smiled apologetically.

Clarisse couldn't help but smirk, seeing that his eyes started to glint with excitement. Those people and their quirks...

"Fine. Did you find anything on her?," Ludovic asked and received a negative answer right away.

"Nothing. We don't even know if she was magical."

"Summon us as soon as you'll have some information," her boss said and gestured her to get up.

Clarisse did just that and looked around once again.

"We should probably talk to the priest," she muttered, trying to locate the man.

"You'll do fine without me. I have something to take care of, at the Ministry," he frowned in response and looked at his watch with irritation. "Wrap up the crime scene and then come find me."

With that, he turned around and left her alone. He rarely did that, especially in crimes so complicated and weird. It seemed unusual, to say the least, but she wasn't one to complain.

"Harold, where can I find the priest?," she asked the man and a minute later, the thoughts of her boss' weird actions were long forgotten, as she sunk into the world of investigation.


Hello everyone!

First of all, thank you for reading! If you've reached those A/N, that means you've read the entire chapter and that fact alone makes me incredibly happy!

Second of all, this story is going to be something I haven't tried before. Obviously, it is set in the HP Universum, but most of the characters are going to be mine. The figures created by J.K. Rowling are going to be there, somewhere, sometime and I take no credit for them, as they belong fully to that wonderful lady I've mentioned, just like this entire universe.

Having said all that, I hope you found that beginning interesting enough to keep on reading! I cannot promise to update this story very often, but I will do my best! :)

Once again, thank you for reading!