I would like to dedicate this chapter to hollyleaf988, chris400ad, Summer Rosewood and Anonymous Miki. Keep being awesome guys!
Dolores Umbridge was not happy. She hadn't been happy all day, and now, as she sat writing letters at her desk, waiting for her latest set of detention-goers to turn up, she realised just how angry she really was. Despite her best efforts to find dirt on Dumbledore, there had been nothing that would even come close to resulting in his arrest, the students were still sneaking around while her incompetent set of Inquisitorial Squad students had found nothing, and now, now the detectives had begun teaching the students physical combat! Combat! The very thing she was trying to avoid!
Hiding behind a false smile was all well and good, but the moment Dumbledore had announced their arrival and excuse of a class to the Great Hall, she had just wanted to jinx them all into the next century. Filthy sorcerers, not even worthy of knowing about the Ministry, let alone worthy of strutting around the castle like they owned the place. It was a disgrace. She'd tried desperately ever since becoming High Inquisitor to make Cornelius allow her to fire them, but he hadn't received any of her letters. Somehow they just weren't reaching him. She knew why of course – they were intercepting them, making sure nothing negative reached Ministry ears. But only wizards and witches knew how to use a floo network, and Umbridge definitely needed to use the floo network.
So now her letters were sent. Soon she would be able to fire the idiot in the Divination tower and get her out of the way, and then the skeleton and his pawn would be next. Dolores knew full well that the dark haired girl – Cane or whatever it was – had been behind the incident in her office at the beginning of the year, with the hot spices in her sugar that made her endure near 4-hours of shakes, shivers, spasms and splitting headaches before Poppy Pomfrey decided to help. And Dolores would have her revenge. It would be at least the end of January before the minister was likely to answer her calls – after all he was a busy man with a busy schedule – but Dolores was counting the days until she would no longer have to see the filthy half-breeds in the castle, the fraud of a Seer, and the two sorcerers who weren't supposed to exist. The skeleton had refused to tell her anything about where he and his partner came from other than 'Ireland', which was plainly obvious. What did they think she was, stupid? She'd gotten information from one of her squad – the only thing she'd gotten from any of them that made them worth having around – and that was they worked for some kind of organisation called 'the Sanctuary'. Dolores had contacted several of her associates at the Ministry, but none of them knew anything about a place called 'the Sanctuary' other than a few muggle charity organisations, and they definitely weren't from there.
Dolores had tried blackmail, she'd tried jinxes, curses, even threatening others at the Ministry to find information on the pair, but nothing had come up, nothing at all. It was if they'd stepped through an alternate universe and sealed the door behind them. Even at the start of the holidays when she'd been tracking them they seemed to have vanished into thin air. Dolores found it quite odd that no one had heard of a living skeleton detective, and had come to the conclusion that morning in her office, that someone did know, they just weren't talking. But Dolores Jane Umbridge, knew exactly what to do about that.
"Harry! There you are!" Hermione stood up quickly as he walked into the common room, almost dejectedly. Hermione's own face fell immediately, but Ron didn't seem to notice.
"What did they say, mate? Did you find out anything?"
"No" Harry said, sitting down "Valkyrie told me to leave it alone. She made me promise."
"So?" Ron asked "I mean, we promised McGonagall we wouldn't go looking for the philosophers stone, but we did." Harry said nothing, but just sat, and after a moment, he looked at the fire. Hermione sat down beside him, and began to talk tentatively, as she had done when she'd first found out that Umbridge was using a cursed quill – Harry could tell she was about to try and persuade him.
"Harry, we need that information." She said quietly "If we're going to help them-"
"Hermione, I'm not entirely convinced you even want to help" Harry said, the words spilling from his mouth before he could stop them "You've been way too obsessed over this, and you don't even like Valkyrie. Why would you want to help with something they don't even want help with?" Hermione was quiet as she bit her lip, and Harry sighed.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." She ignored him and stood, storming away up the stairs to the girls' dorm room.
"Nicely done mate." Ron said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"But you know where I'm coming from, right?" Harry asked, turning to him.
"Kind of, but you know Hermione. If she doesn't know everything then the world's coming to an end." Ron grinning slightly before he clapped Harry on the back once and stood, yawning.
"I'm going to bed. 'Night."
"Night Ron." Ron was gone quite quickly for someone so tired, and Harry was left in the vastly empty common room. His brain hurt. Too much was going on. He was at risk of being possessed by Voldemort, he had seen his best friend's father be attacked, the DA was at risk of being discovered by Umbridge and her cronies, a lot of the Gryffindor's were still against him, Hermione was angry with him and he couldn't even share his breakthrough with his closest friends when he felt like he desperately needed to share it with someone.
Harry ran his fingers through his hair and took the paperclip out of his pocket, setting it down on the table. He raised his arm slightly, thinking how stupid he must have looked to anyone who might have been watching, and concentrated. He flicked his palm against the air with as much force as he could muster, and the paper clip did a little jump. Harry smiled.
Melissa sat at the compute desk, unable to sleep. Alice was in bed, Desmond was watching the television, and despite the bags under her eyes and the ache on her brain, all she could do was ponder over her eldest daughter. She typed the name 'Valkyrie' into the computer. A lot of results showed songs and films, but none indicated any type of name. But then, why would her daughter be on the internet? She tried typing in 'Ghas', but the search engine had a fit and rejected it stubbornly.
Melissa sighed as she sat back in the chair. She had searched her daughter's room again, but found nothing except a spare hairbrush and a few old scrawling's that were practically illegible. Valkyrie didn't go on websites like 'facebook' that much, in fact, Melissa doubted she even had an account. The internet had been her last bet, and it hadn't helped her at all.
Sitting back up, she began typing random words into the search engine. Only when she typed in 'Edgely' did she get something that slightly peaked her interest. It was a page on Gordon Edgely, her brother-in-law and once partner. It briefly mentioned Stephanie. 'Gordon Edgely dedicated his second book to his niece Stephanie Edgely…'. The article went on until Melissa got to a part about Gordon's friends. Listed in few numbers, there was one name that seemed to stand out amongst the rest. Skulduggery Pleasant. Where did she recognise that name from?
As she moved further down the page, she spotted a picture she hadn't even realised existed. It showed them at the funeral, as if a professional photographer had been there the whole time – but Melissa was sure no one had been there. But there, in the background, the tall skinny man dressed in overcoat with bushy eccentric hair poking out from under a wide brimmed hat, sunglasses and scarf covering his face. Skulduggery Pleasant. The memories suddenly flooded back to her of the skinny eccentric man. He'd been at the will reading too, and received a piece of advice. Melissa had thought he was strange, and Desmond hadn't warmed up to him, but how had Stephanie reacted? Melissa tried to remember, but couldn't. Instead, she went back to the search engine and typed in his name. There were several results, but none of them seemed to mean anything until she scrolled to the second page and spotted what seemed to be a newspaper headline. The World We Know? Melissa clicked on it and began to read.
The World We Know?
By Kenny Dunne
We've all heard of strange situations, things that can't be explained, miracles and oddities of nature. Some of us have seen such occurrences before our very eyes, but I put it to you, how well do you know your fellow neighbour? Your friends? Even your family? This reporter has concrete evidence that the world is not as it first seems. As unreal and unbelievable as it may seem, there is another world merged within our own, wrapped in conspiracy. I myself have seen first hand the trickery as they attempted to steer me off the trail. But this determined reporter…
Melissa scrolled down towards the bottom of the article, which seemingly went on for a while about how the government was covering everything up. Melissa wasn't even sure what the article was about. This reporter, Kenny Dunne, didn't seem to know what he was talking about, or at least wrote in a way that gave that impression. It was on the last paragraph of the article that her interest was sparked again.
…and as elusive as they remain, I myself have met the infamous possible ringleader of this undercover society Detective Skulduggery Pleasant, whom once tried to fool this reporter with the alias 'Detective Inspector Me' whilst his side-kick, a young dark haired girl by name of Detective Valkyrie Cain, looked on in silence. Their deep involvement in this undercover world will all be revealed in my book – soon to be in stores:
They Walk Among Us: The Sorcerers In Our Midst
-
