The Letter

The brown barn owl flew away from Hogwarts, carrying an acceptance letter to a new student. This is the 3rd owl to be sent off with this particular message. None of the other owls have returned to the school.

All of the professors that were staying in the castle stood watching the owl until it flew out of sight. "I hope that this owl returns." Minerva McGonagall said to the other professors as the owl finally got to far away to see.

"I am hoping for the best. However, if it doesn't return by the morning we will have to check to see where the letters are being addressed. Hopefully then we'll be able to find this student." Albus Dumbledore replied.

The next morning the owl was back in the owlery, unfortunately it was severely injured. It looked to have a broken wing, and it was ruffled like it was in a struggle to escape.

After the professors finished breakfast they all went up to the headmaster's office to talk about their next steps. "The owl came back injured. So they have been going somewhere that is a danger to them." Albus said. "It had a letter with it, so it must've made it to the student safely."

"why didn't you tell us that it had a letter? We would've skipped breakfast. That student might be in trouble. We have to find her." Minerva said quickly.

"I didn't notice the letter until after breakfast. I went back up to the owlery to check on the owl, that's when I found the letter." Albus defended himself. "I haven't read it yet."

"Well hurry up and open it!" Minerva said impatiently.

Albus pulled the letter from his robe pocket and took a look at the address on the front. "This isn't addressed to us. It's addressed to the student." He said.

He carefully opened the letter and started reading to himself. "This is the letter we sent to her." He told the rest of the staff that were in the office with him.

Everyone leaned forward a bit more to take a better look at the letter in Albus's hands. "There's something written on the back." Said Fillius Flitwick the Charms professor. "It looks to be written in mud."

Albus turned to Severus his Potions Master and expert in the dark arts and handed him the letter. "Severus, can you analyze this and confirm that this isn't blood. I know you are proficient in those types of detection spells."

Severus took the letter and examined it before pointing his wand at it and whispered a spell. That can't be right. He thought to himself. He did the spell again just to make sure that he's seeing the right results. The results were the same.

He sat back, still holding the letter. "Well, the good news is this isn't human blood."