Chapter Five

The Ministry of Too Many Bloody Secrets

Luna froze in shock at Jamie's revelation. She wasn't ready for a potential war that could devastate both the Magical and Muggle world. She distinctly remembered when she learned about the Second Wizarding War many years ago. It happened before she was even born – both her parents and uncles had fought for the Light side. The amount of deaths that occurred was shocking … She almost shuddered at the thought of it, but thankfully Dumbledore had eliminated the evil which had plagued the world … Luna was about to reply to Jamie when she saw him covering his mouth. He was giggling. It was at that moment that Luna knew she was going to kill him.

"You bastard! Absolute bastard! How dare you make such a terrible joke?" she exclaimed, and proceeded to backhand him very hard across his chest.

"Ow," he complained while rubbing his chest. "It was a joke, Luna – I just wanted to see how you would react. You know … testing the waters."

"We don't have time for this, Scamander!"

"Oh, come on, I'm just having a bit of fun," he said, while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Luna rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Let's just open this damn door and see what's behind it."

"Just hold up a second – aren't you going to ask me why I'm here?" he questioned. "I mean … what kind of detective are you?"

Luna glared at him. "Miss Nightingale was a witch – admittedly, I failed to see it when inspecting her body," she snapped. "Obviously, that's why you are here – to investigate her murder, and since you read the report and saw the body, you decided to check the storeroom. That's when you saw me in front of the door. I assume you had some kind of inkling that there was something suspicious behind the door … dare I say magical?"

"Worthy of a Ravenclaw! I knew Squibs could sense magical signatures, but seeing it for my own eyes is absolutely fascinating."

"Open this fucking locked door, Jamie!"

"As you wish, my lady." Jamie scooted Luna aside, took out his wand from the holster, pointed it at the locked door and cast the unlocking spell with perfect pronunciation: "Alohamora." The door unlocked with an audible click. He walked forward, Luna trailing behind him. Jamie slowly opened the door and walked into the small, dark room. Luna switched on the one light. It revealed a long – and broken – single display case. They walked closer to further inspect it.

"Hmm." Jamie walked around to look at the broken glass. He noted that somebody broke the glass case from the top, and judging from the pattern and size of the scattered glass shards, he assumed that a hammer was used to break it. If magic was involved, the glass would have been obliterated completely. However, there were spells that could have broken open the case carefully – so the question was: why had they not used a spell? Strange.

Meanwhile, Luna noticed a wooden plaque below and crouched. She began to deduce. "There's a label on the plaque," Luna observed carefully. She slid her finger across it. "It's dusty … hmm … nobody has cleaned this for months … " she muttered to herself.

"What does the label say, Lu?"

Luna decided to ignore the nickname and proceeded to read the plaque. "Bella-Bane: the Essence of Death." She frowned in confusion. "What in the seven blazes of hell is that?" Luna looked towards Jamie and saw that he had visibly paled. "Are you okay, Jamie?"

"Luna, this is bad – very bad." Jamie walked closer to Luna, who stood up from her crouching position. "Bella-Bane is one of the most dangerous hybrid plants ever grown!"

"I've never heard of 'Bella-Bane' … Uncle Severus taught me Herbology when I was younger, right up until 7th year."

Jamie shook his head. "The Ministry didn't want the public to know about it. Thus, only a few high-ranking detective Aurors are aware that it exists. Bella-Bane is a dangerous poison that can only be used as either an airborne poison or for Ancient Rune rituals. Our Unspeakables have been conducting experiments … let's just say the end results were not particularly good."

"I can see why you would want only a few people to know about its existence, but I thought the jobs of the Unspeakable are … you know … unspeakable?" She tugged at her clothing.

"Only high-ranking detectives like myself can read the Unspeakables' reports," he explained.

"Okay, that makes sense. But that doesn't explain why there was Bella-Bane in the shop and why the thief used a traditionally 'Muggle method' to break open the glass case – I mean, there are spells that can break the glass without completely obliterating it."

Jamie was impressed with Luna's detecting skills. "Great observation, Sherlock, but obviously they didn't want to risk killing themselves with the airborne poison. A paranoid person … maybe they were afraid their own magic would interfere with the Bella-Bane – it can be magic-sensitive … "

"There's always something," Luna muttered to herself. "But why did Miss Nightingale have one?"

"There was a wizard named Nico di Angelo, who was literally obsessed with death and causing the deaths of others. Nobody knows where he came from, but most knew that he loved his crazy experiments and inventions. Bella-Bane was his pride and joy. He decided to sell them all over the world, especially to former Death Eaters, who paid a pretty penny – I assume you know about those horrid wizards?"

Luna nodded.

He continued: "The Ministry decided to keep the situation on the down-low so as not to cause any panic in the Wizarding World. They sent out their detectives to find all the plants. One by one, they confiscated and destroyed them … The Ministry kept a few for experimental purposes, of course. And then Unspeakables tracked down Di Angelo and killed him. They couldn't use Aurors – too risky." Jamie sighed. "Unfortunately, they must have missed one … This is dangerous, Luna. If it's in the wrong hands – which it seems to be – the Wizarding World is in mortal danger."

Luna soaked in all the information Jamie had just told her. "We must find who did this. Let's search the room and see if we can find anymore clues."

"The room is bare," he objected, shaking his head. "There's nothing else here."

"I feel there's something else here … It was like when I stood outside the door – I just knew there was something." Frustration made her cheeks tint darker.

He paced a little. Abruptly, he stilled. "Lu, I want you to try something. Close your eyes and try to … feel."

"Are you mental? What can I 'feel'?" she mocked him, but immediately remembered what he had said about Squibs sensing magical signatures.

"Just do it, please," he pleaded.

"Okay." She closed her eyes and tried to follow Jamie's instructions. For some reason, she actually felt like something was tugging her forward to the wall in front of her. She opened her eyes and walked towards it. Luna put her hand on the wall.

"Jamie," she said urgently, "cast a revealing spell here," and so he did. They were quite surprised to see what it was. She stepped back and saw the marking on the wall. "It's an Indian snakeroot plant 'painted' on the wall – certainly not the Dark Mark, I can tell you that." She looked at Jamie for a response, but he was staring at it.

"Earth to Jamie?"

"Luna … that's her symbol …" he looked over at her, clearly worried.

"Whose symbol?"

"There's a criminal mastermind in the Wizarding World – 'Serpentina.'" He paused to look at the image again. "Our Ministry decided to keep her existence behind closed doors to avoid nationwide panic, but there's been a string of criminal activities – murder, robbery, kidnapping. You name it, Serpentina and her supporters have done it. She always marks her crimes like this." He shook his head. "She's narcissistic."

"You better not be joking with me," she warned him, but she secretly hoped he was. She couldn't bear the thought of this criminal mastermind gaining power and eventually taking over the world. She didn't want another Dark Lord or Lady, or another war.

"Not this time, Lu," he said seriously. "I give you my absolutely truthful words."

"So, what now?" she questioned him.

"To the Ministry, Watson!"

"I am fucking Sherlock Holmes!" Luna shoved Jamie aside and walked out the door. "Watson!" she called. "Let's go to your Ministry that has far too many damn secrets." She inwardly vowed to stop Serpentina if it was the last thing she would ever do.