"What do you guys think links all of the murders?" Kiara asked, sitting on the desk in the storage room she had been forced to clean the other day. Naomi, Helena, and Christie were in similar positions, seated around a central table with papers full of all of the clues Kiara had attempted to piece together.

"Well, there's one from each of the houses," Helena pointed out, "and they all accurately represent them, too. Almost like they were stereotypes. So, maybe the killer had something against the founders?"

"But that doesn't make much sense," Christie argued, "If it's a student, why would they have some sort of grudge against these deceased, ancient people? It doesn't line up."

"It wasn't the student, though," Kiara cut in, "According to Rose, someone or something is possessing them. So maybe the possess...or? Yeah, possessor. Maybe the possessor had some sort of thing against the founder and decided to take it out on the students."

"Wait," Naomi said, holding up a hand, "Did Rose say what the possessor actually was? If we know that, we could probably draw parameters that the host falls under."

"She didn't give anything specific," Kiara replied, "She just said she felt a trace of the magic lingering in this room."

"If it's a beast, than that limits us to the ones capable of possession," Helena said, "Specifically, ones that won't cause any effects on the host and is smart enough to disguise murders in a way that won't make it look suspicious. It could be a specter. But with four murders and maybe even more pending, it should have left ectoplasm around. So, probably not. There's a slim chance it could be Croatoan Virus, but I don't think so. It isn't a demon, since they never leave witnesses. Hey, Kiara?"

"Yeah?"

"Have any of the animals in your common room gone crazy? Like, really wild? Does that make sense?"

Kiara paused for a moment to think. Lukas is just like he always is. And not really any of the owls, either. Or Hermes. "Uh, no, not really."

"So, it's not a skinwalker. It's not a kanaima, since they force the host to live in the forest, and Hagrid would have noticed." Helena ran down her mental list of creatures capable of possession. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers and smiled. "It could be a djinn! They are definitely intelligent enough to disguise the murders and it's virtually impossible to tell them apart from normal humans. They have to be exorcised out of the body, though, and I have no clue how to do that. All the books on that are in the forbidden section, and we aren't allowed to go there. And if there is another way to kill it, I don't know what it is."

"We could, you know," Kiara said coyly, "break the rules."

"How?" Christie asked. "None of us could go there without getting caught and none of us are close enough to the teachers to the point where they would give us a pass."

"Damn," Kiara muttered. "Ugh, I bet Elizabeth knew how to do it. Okay, at least we know what we're dealing with. That's better than nothing. Next thing." Kiara grabbed the trunk next to her and placed it on the table, unlatching it and swinging it open. "Elizabeth left me all of this stuff and I'm not sure what some of the things do."

Naomi reached over and picked out the parchment. "What is this?" she asked, opening them up and staring at the blank surface.

"Elizabeth gave us little communication slips," Kiara explained, taking her own out. "That one's the master copy. It's password protected, though. I spent a good fifteen minutes guessing and I gave up."

Naomi watched as words scrawled across the paper. Miss Collingwood would like to bid Miss O'Hanigan a good day. She hopes Miss O'Hanigan will manage to guess the password, unlike her friend. Naomi stared at the paper in slight confusion.

"Um, are there any hints?"

Miss Collingwood recently became the leader of a group of people breaking the law, and would like to express her joy about it in her own unique way. Naomi stared at the paper blankly.

"Yeah, that's what she told me too," Kiara said. "I have no idea what she's trying to say." As Naomi tried to guess the password, Christie reached over and picked up the tarot pack. She examined the deck and admired the skillfully drawn, hand made cards and meticulously written words. Christie shuffled the deck and laid out three cards in front of her like Professor Brown had instructed, before flipping them over and examining them. She had drawn the Fool, the High Priestess, and the Emperor. Suddenly, an elegant print started to rise out of the cards and hovered in front of her, emitting a soft blue glow. The text read-

With both the High Priestess and the Fool drawn, it won't work that well in terms of your emotional fulfilment, Christie. You'll be asking yourself thousands of questions about your relationship with the people you know and you won't be able to come up with a solid answer. You'll be in a darker mood, your heart heavy. You'll have a gloomy day if you continue to get yourself torn over nothing. You'll run into roadblocks as you work, which will frustrate you to no end. But it's pointless to get irritated; you should use this chance to size up the ins and outs of everything you're trying to do. That's what the High Priestess and the Emperor want you to understand: obstacles and delays create patience, which will lead to reflection.

"You really believe in that garbage?" Kiara scoffed, watching as Christie stared at the cards in wonder. "God, it's so pointless."

"I mean, it seems really accurate," Christie replied, shrugging.

"Yeah, that's how they trick people." Kiara told her, "Mostly it's just pretending that they know what they're talking about in a way that makes even you think it's true. I would have thrown them away a long time ago, but Lukas would kill me."

"But I feel like they do know what they're talking about," Christie argued, "I have been wondering about stuff like my connection with Rona- with my brother, and with my family. I'm still really sad about… you know, the incident. The roadblocks haven't happened yet, but I'm assuming that's supposed to be finding out what the stuff in the trunk is for. And besides, it really doesn't hurt anyone to do something like this each morning. It's kinda fun."

"If you like it, you like it," Kiara shrugged, "I'm not a big fan myself though. Hey Naomi, how's the password going?"

"I've tried everything and it's not working," Naomi groaned. "Elizabeth even gave up on trying to give me hints."

"That happened to me too," Kiara chuckled, "don't worry. We're both bad at it."

"It can't be that hard, right?" Helena asked, looking over Naomi's shoulder. "What was the original hint?"

Miss Collingwood hopes Miss Shankar will get the answer right. And the original hint was, "Miss Collingwood recently became the leader of a group of people breaking the law, and would like to express her joy about it in her own unique way."

"A group of people breaking the law?" Helena echoed.

"A gang," Kiara answered.

"Express joy in her own way…" she murmured. "So, maybe something only Elizabeth says? What's something only she says? Or that she says a lot?"

"Uhh, she was always saying how much she hates me…" Kiara mused, "She also liked insulting everyone she knew. That's all I can really remember. I don't know, try 'I hate Kiara' or something."

"I hate Kiara," Helena repeated. However, instead of revealing something, the script vanished, replaced with a crude smiley face. "So, that didn't work?"

"She says 'yeah', a lot," Naomi answered. "And 'hella.' I think she said 'coolio' this one time and burst out into a rap for some reason."

"I'm the leader of a gang," Helena said, "and that's… H-E-double hockey sticks-A coolio." The last part, she had barely managed to choke out.

"Oh my god," Kiara huffed, "Let me try. I'm the leader of a gang and that's hella coolio."

Miss Collingwood would like to tell Miss Blackwell that she is REALLY close, but she needs to replace "leader of gang" with something shorter.

"Ugh, no." Kiara shook her head. "Christie, you try!"

"What's a word that means the leader of a gang?" Christie asked. "Ringleader? Captain? Capo? Okay, maybe that's it. I'm the capo and that's…" She hesitated before continuing, "That's hella coolio."

The words vanished and were replaced with I'm not from Brooklyn, lmao. But close enough. The parchment expanded into a large sheet of paper with multiple buttons, each with labels.

"Change to normal format," Helena read, "Make new paper. Schedule new meeting. Add member. Change font colour. Change font size. Change font to Comic Sans. Self destruct. Change to Fourth of July mode…?"

Kiara clicked on the add member button twice and the paper collapsed back into itself, with new text. Write the names of the members here! Use pen or else Miss Collingwood will be very disappointed in you. Kiara pulled out a pencil out of pure spite and wrote down Christie and Naomi's names. The names vanished and two new pieces of paper popped into existence. "These are communication and recording devices," Kiara explained, handing one to the two of them, "They turn cold when I schedule a new meeting. The password to get in is 'This is illegal but I'm doing it anyway.' The password to close it is 'I broke the law and it was fun.' The password to see the past meetings is 'How many times have I broken the law'? Okay, now that's done. There's one more, though." Kiara reached in and took out the printed paper, flattening it out on the table. "This one doesn't give any hints, for some reason. It's just… blank."

Naomi looked at the sheet thoughtfully. "No hints? At all?"

"Nope," Kiara said, shaking her head.

"Then maybe…" Naomi paused. "Kiara, why are you drawing on the paper?"

"Wait, me?" Kiara asked before looking down. On the papers were drawings of snowmen with "Kiara" in her own messy handwriting labeling each one. "Oh shit," she murmured, ignoring the nasty look she got from Helena. "I didn't know it sent drawings and labeled them. Damn."

"Okay, so back to the paper," Naomi said, waving her hands to get all of their attention. "Anyone have any thoughts?"

"Maybe it really is just a normal piece of paper," Christie piped, prodding the sheet with her finger.

"It's not," Kiara said, "or else Elizabeth wouldn't leave it."

"But, it could be," Christie muttered. "There's a chance. Maybe Elizabeth was trying to make the trunk look less suspicious."

"We can test it," Helena suggested. "That way we'd really know if it really is or isn't."

Shrugging, Kiara wrote hi on the paper. Instead of the usual spidery cursive that had appeared on everything else, a small, slightly messy print scrawled itself onto the paper. Who is this?

A person. Who are you? Kiara wrote back, squinting suspiciously at the paper.

It's too early in the morning for your bullshit smart assery. Just answer the damn question.

I did. I said that I was a person, can't you read? Kiara wrote back, still unwilling to tell the person who she was.

For fuck's sake, just give me a name.

Well, you could have said that before. In any case, I'm not giving you a name until I know that you're not a serial killer.

You go to Hogwarts, right? Kiara blinked, taken aback at the fact that the person completely swerved to a different topic.

Yeah, what's it to you?

Are you Keira Blakewall or something?

Kiara stared at the paper. How does this person know who I am? Kiara thought. Well, not really, since they completely butchered the spelling.

No, I'm not. It wasn't a lie, since her name technically wasn't "Keira Blakewall."

Then are you Naomi O'Hanigan?

Nope.

Oh, then you must be that Indian girl whose name starts with H.

Also a negative.

Okay, so this isn't meant for you. Don't try contacting again.

Well that wasn't expected. I wonder how stupid this person is. Well, ok then. But if it wasn't meant for me, how did I get in possession of it? You must know how carefully Elizabeth guarded her stuff if you have the second part to whatever this is.

Wow, what a dumbass. Elizabeth didn't guard her stuff. Period.

Fuck. You're a little bit smarter than you sound on paper. Not saying much. I'll leave you alone then.

Ohhh, so you ARE Ki-however the fuck you spell your name. Elizabeth said you were annoying and stubborn and a whole load over other bad things.

And yet for some odd reason, she still hung around me. The mysteries of life, am I right?

Yea, Elizabeth was kinda pathetic. Now, she told me to ask you what kind of shoe's robbers wear before I gave you more information.

...what?

What kind of shoes do robbers wear, dumbass.

Kiara thought about it, before the answer hit her. "Of all things, a pun?" she muttered.

I refuse to tell you the answer to that.

Well, I don't give a fuck. Answer or you don't get any information.

The answer is sneakers. Happy now?

So. I'm Ethan. Her brother. She said that I could come in handy if any of you guys need to know something you can't get at Hogwarts.

My friends and I have figured out that there's a beast possessing a student. This student is now killing people at Hogwarts, and is the reason Elizabeth killed herself. Do you have any ideas how to stop the beast?

Well, if you tell me what the damn beast is, then I can actually do something.

A djinn.

Magic will weaken it, but it won't kill. Avocado kedabra will kill the host but not the actual djinn.

Avocado kedabra? What are you on?

You just stab the motherfucker with a silver knife coated in lamb blood. If you don't have the blood, I could probably give some to you.

What the hell are you doing with a bunch of lamb blood?

We're killing monsters. Duh.

That sounds highly unlikely but ok.

Just go to the meetup room tonight and it'll be there. And the host will probably be someone more on the stupider side. Or someone with a really closed mind. I'm leaving.

Finally.

"So what was that?" Helena asked.

"Her brother. He's even more of a douche than Elizabeth was."

"That's not that nice," Helena protested.

"He deserved it. Anyway, he told me that to stop the djinn, we need to stab it with a silver knife coated in lamb blood. I'm going to pick up the materials in the 'meet up room,' wherever that is. I'm pretty sure that this switchblade that Elizabeth gave me is silver, so I just need the blood."

"That sounds gruesome," Christie commented from where she was sitting.

"Yeah," Kiara nodded, "Anyway it's getting late, so I'll send you a message when it's time to have another meeting."

"Ok, bye Kiara!" Christie said, smiling despite the events.

"Bye," Helena said, walking over towards the door. Naomi merely waved before all three of them left the storage room, leaving Kiara to figure out where the meeting place was.

Meeting place… Kiara paused for a moment to think. Maybe Elizabeth left a clue to that somewhere? She must've met with her brother before if there's a meeting place. Where would she record something like that? Oh, her journal! I remember that she was meeting with Ethan in that one scene. Kiara walked over to the trunk and opened it before picking up the journal. What date was it on? she wondered, I think it was a few months ago, but I'm not sure.

Opening up the journal she tried, "Fourth of November? I dunno." Like she had been before, Kiara was pulled into the journal and her surroundings were replaced with new scenery. The storage room became the Slytherin common room, the lake pitch black and the area dimly lit with a faint greenish glow. On the couch in front of the fireplace was Elizabeth and in the fireplace was the head of Ethan.

"Journal; I talked to Ethan and we managed to schedule the next day. He said the day before Thanksgiving, which seems reasonable enough. But he's being a picky asshole and saying that he doesn't want to Floo message again. Something about 'damaging his respiratory system' or some half-assed bullshit like that. And I was thinking that if my market became popular enough, I could sell garbage like ripoff S'well bottles and spidget finners. Other than that, nothing much happened today. Signing off, Elizabeth. Postscript; I got my hands on a bottle of cognac. I'm a lucky gal."

"I guess I'm going to the twenty-second." Kiara mumbled to herself, before saying "Twenty-second of November!" in a louder tone.

The common room melted into the hallway right outside the dungeon, where the ghostly figure of Elizabeth stepped out of the entrance to the Slytherin dorms. "Journal; Today was the night I met up with Ethan." Kiara watched closely as Elizabeth walked through the hallways, twisting and turning through the corridors. Towards the end of Elizabeth's walk, Kiara noticed that she passed by the hallway that lead towards the Ravenclaw tower. After a countless amount of pausing, replaying, and more pausing, she finally managed to right down the exact directions to the meeting area from the Ravenclaw tower. Now, all that was left was figuring out how to actually get there without getting caught.

Kiara packed everything back into the trunk before leaving the storage room and walking back to the common room, brainstorming on the way. I don't think I should rely on stealth. Last time I tried that, I was caught by Professor Brown. That leaves invisibility. I don't have a cloak, and I don't know how to do a Disillusionment Charm. I could go to the library and read up on it, but I doubt that I could master it with the time schedule I'm on. I'm not going to try a potion. Kiara entered the common room and went up to her dormitory, sitting down on the bed and contemplating her options. After a long time of thinking, she finally realised that, even as much as it pained her to admit, Kiara couldn't tackle this problem by herself. She took out her copy of the parchment and muttered the password, before clicking the normal format button and scrawling out a message.

Hey, Naomi? I need you to do me a favour.

On the other side of the school, Naomi shivered slightly as her robe pocket turned to the temperature of the Arctic. She hastily scrambled to get out the piece of parchment and opened it up, staring at the words Kiara had written.

Naomi: What?

Kiara: I need you to go to the meeting place. You're much closer and know how to do the invisibility charm, so you probably won't get caught. I'll send you the exact directions.

(Author's Notes)

Dear Reader-

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

its almost Christmas, my dudes

fjdaskhgfnvlsdjfkdjflsadjfklsdjfkajfsdksajfklsdjfkldaj yisssssssssssss.

-Luna

(P.S. I'm going up to my cousins' place, so if the quality of the chapters suddenly drops, its because I didn't edit it and Lupus awful at adding detail.)

.

Hello!

I'm listening to a great song called "I stand alone" It's by Godsmack. You guys should all go listen to it (I listened to it while trying to find a chapter title names. *wink wink*)

So yeah. I stand alone. Godsmack. Go listen.

Bye!

Lupus