Chapter 1: The Bitch is Dead
Well, here's a plot bunny that jumped in my head. Who knows how far it will go. I am thinking it'll be a short story. I have three suspects that could be the killer. So that tells you just where I am at it. I'm not going to tell you who, just that it isn't Harry.
Just a warning, don't expect daily updates.
Enjoy.
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Amelia Bones was looking down at the corpse of Dolores Umbridge. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. There was a hole in the woman's head. It didn't look like any spells she had ever seen. She knew her team of Aurors couldn't handle this. This was a bullet wound and she didn't deal with those. She was going to have to call in the WCIS team.
They were an experimental team that was brought in from America to bring some organization to the Aurors. They were supposed to be training them to be more modern and up to date. As of yet they had only trained a few, because the Wizengamot may had signed off on them, but they were delaying them by budget cuts. They had had no idea how much the equipment cost.
She knew the woman was greatly hated and she had no idea where to start this investigation. She knew the first culprit was going to be the Boy Who Lived. He was the most likely suspect because Dolores Umbridge had it out for him. She had been on that boy's case from day one. Amelia knew the undersecretary had been sent here to silence the boy from stating that He Who Must Not Be Named was back.
"Go find me Harry Potter," she said to the first person she saw. She was going to question the boy before anyone else could.
"Yes, ma'am," said the Auror, all but running from the room.
"And get me Jethro Gibbs," she said, rubbing her forehead. She knew he was going to be needed. And while that was true, she didn't much like working with the man. He didn't like working with authority figures. He did his job, and did it well, but he butted heads with those in charge.
"Yes, ma'am," said the second person, stepping to the floo and calling the WCIS office. They would take a minute to get here, since they had to drive down the block to Apparate.
"This is going to be a bloody mess. I can't believe this is happening," Amelia stated, still rubbing the headache away. She looked at the dead undersecretary again and sighed. "Fudge is going to have a conniption. There's no way this is going to be covered up. Somebody, get me Dumbledore," she ordered, knowing the man was going to want to keep this in house, but she had already nipped that in the bud.
"Yes, ma'am," a third person said, running out of the room.
"Close this room off. I don't want anybody to touch anything. You know how Jethro gets," she barked, waving her wand over Dolores to keep the body preserved.
"Yes, ma'am," came the chorused response from the three Aurors left.
With that, they started sealing off the room and everybody started waving their wands, making sure everything was preserved in the best way they could. It was kind of hard to do since there was students everywhere gawking at the fact that there was a woman lying in the middle of the floor with the hole in her head. Her brains were scattered out behind her. They had never seen anything like that and were all morbidly fascinated. Though some were really sickened by it. There were some kids getting sick in the hallway.
"Get those kids out of here," Amelia said, pointing to a group of teens that were trying to get a closer look at the body.
"Yes, ma'am," a female Auror said, dragging the teens out of the room. "What's wrong with you?" she snapped at them as she frog-marched them out. "Don't you respect the dead?"
"Amelia, my dear, what is going on here?" asked Dumbledore as he came into the room with his usual flamboyant robes billowing behind him. He looked very out of place in a crime scene. He gasped when he saw his dead professor and then got a calculated look in his eye.
"It seems somebody's shot your DADA professor," Bones said, waving to the dead woman. She peered at him, as if to judge what he was thinking. She didn't like the look in his eyes.
"Poor Dolores," said Dumbledore, shaking his head. "Whoever would do such a thing to her?" His mind was racing at the list of suspects. There were many that would want this woman dead, but not many that had the means to cast such a spell. He didn't even contemplate that it could be from a gun.
"I can count about ten people off the top of my head," Amelia stated, tilting her head. "And I think we all know who the top suspect will be." She took off her monocle and started polishing it.
"You cannot possibly think that Harry Potter would do this," Albus said, jumping straight to that conclusion.
"I think it's quite telling that you would name him first off," the head of the DMLE stated with a sigh. She hated that she was correct.
"I meant nothing by it," the old man said, trying to cover up his faux pas.
The first Auror came in dragging Harry Potter. "Here you go, ma'am," he said, pulling the teen with him and presenting the boy to his boss. "I found him hiding in his dorm room." He preened a bit, like he just bagged a buck.
"I wasn't hiding, I was just sitting there. I have nothing to hide from," Harry protested, jerking his arm from the man's grip. He glared at the Auror, who had simply pulled him from his bed and drug him down here and hadn't told him anything. Then he saw Umbridge's body and blanched. It was a ghastly sight. There was blood everywhere behind her. It was all over the floor and leaking from under her body.
"Where were you within the last hour?" asked Amelia, pulling a notepad from her robe and jotting the question down.
"I was in my dorm room doing my homework. I haven't been anywhere else," Harry stated, trying not to be sick by being in the same room as the woman with brains coming from her head. Sure, it was Umbridge, and he was glad she was dead, but he didn't want to see her brains.
"Can anybody vouch for you?" was the next question.
"No, I was there by myself. But you can ask anyone that saw me go up there. They can tell you that I didn't leave," Harry said, trying to alibi himself. He knew it made him look bad.
"When was the last time you saw Professor Umbridge?" Bones asked, already knowing the answer. It was on the woman's records. She had read them earlier. This boy had the most detentions this year. And he had just finished one earlier.
"Just over an hour ago I had to detention with her," Harry answered, honestly. There was no point in lying. His hand was still bleeding from it. He had half a mind to tell the woman just how the detention went, but that might make him look guilty.
"Was she alive when you left?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"How do you explain her condition now?" came the accusation.
"I'm sure I can't say, ma'am," Harry said with a hard look. He didn't like her tone. This didn't look good for him. He knew that the bitch of a teacher was alive when he left, but how did he prove it?
"Do you know how to use a gun?" Amelia questioned. She wasn't sure the boy was guilty, but she needed to ask these questions, or Fudge would have fits.
"I've seen it used on the telly," was the answer complete with a shrug.
"Have you ever used one before?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
"No, ma'am. They're illegal in the UK."
"But could you use one if you had one?" she was curious to know.
"I don't know. I think so, but I've never fired one. I mean how hard can it be?" Harry said, thinking hard about it.
"You know that you're the most likely suspect, don't you?" she asked, tapping her pen on her notepad.
"Now, Amelia," began Dumbledore.
"What's going on here, Amelia?" asked Gibbs as he walked into the room. With him were Agent Anthony 'Tony' DiNozzo, Trainee Agent Caitlin 'Kate' Todd, Medical Examiner and Doctor Donald 'Ducky' Mallard. They made up his forensic team. They would examine the scene and do their best to find out who did this without having to question the entire castle.
Gibbs looked around the room and saw everything in one glance. There was a dead woman at the head of the room. Her brains were blown out. There was a chair that was upset, and a black quill on the floor next to the chair. The desks were clean, and all the portraits were bare. It was as if someone had scrubbed the place, but for that quill.
"I'm questioning a suspect," Bones said, turning to him in a defiant manner. She didn't like being questioned by someone under her. Well, he wasn't technically an underling. But he wasn't her superior either.
"Why is he a suspect?" Gibbs asked, taking out his own notepad and pen.
"He's had the most detentions with our victim since the beginning of the school year," was her answer.
"Just because he's had the most detentions with the victim does not make him our number one suspect. He's a kid, Amelia. We should look at the adults in her life first," he said, jotting that answer down anyway and noting the old man in the room who was taking it all in with a manipulative look in his eyes.
"This is Harry Potter. He is a troublemaker, he's an attention seeker, and he is known to be demented," Amelia said, seeing how Gibbs took that information in. She didn't know quite what to think of the Boy Who Lived. Her niece Susan agreed with the Daily Prophet that Potter was an attention seeking brat. Did she think him capable of murder? Probably not, but…
"Here, now, that's uncalled for," said Harry, indignantly. He hated being called that. It's what put him in detention in the first place. Umbridge would throw those words in his face and state that Voldemort was dead. He was just standing up for himself.
"I've heard of you, Harry Potter, and I've read the papers, and I have to say I don't believe half of what they say," said Gibbs, looking the skinny boy up and down. He didn't think the kid did anything. He was a good judge of character, and this kid didn't have a guilty look about him.
"Thank you, sir," said Harry, sighing in relief that someone believed him.
"That being said, I am going to have to take you in for questioning," the head of the WCIS stated, making a gesture that he remained where he was.
"How is that fair? I was in my dorm room doing homework. I have no idea how this happened," the teen said, throwing his hands in the air.
"You are a suspect and I'm going to have to take you in for questioning. I am not, however, going to put you down as the number one suspect, but you are a person of interest," Gibbs stated, then turned to his team. "DiNozzo, start processing the scene. Todd, I want you to start by asking the other students if they've seen anything. Ducky, start processing the body. I want to know the time of death and I want to know exactly how she died." He went to the far wall to see if there was a bullet there. There was a hole, so there should be a bullet.
"On it, boss," said DiNozzo, going to the fallen chair and taking his kit with him. He took out his wand and started casting spells to pick up any DNA.
"Yes, sir," said Todd as she left the room to start questioning the kids in the hall.
"Of course, Jethro," said Ducky. "I will have those results for you right away." He was already checking the pink clad body. He was waving his wand for body temperature and other forensics.
"Now see here, young man," said Dumbledore, coming up to Gibbs and putting a hand on his shoulder. "You cannot come in here and just take over my castle like that." He turned the man around and glared at him.
"I have a scene to process and a case to solve. I can do whatever the hell I want," said Gibbs, knocking the hand off and going back to where Harry was standing. He hadn't found a bullet. It must have been removed. "What I need from you is for your students to be ready for questioning. I want everybody who was in the immediate area to be rounded up and put in a room so that I may question them." It was going to be a logistic nightmare. The magic in the castle was too much for recorders, so they were going to have to use mirrors.
"How will I know who was in the area?" the headmaster asked, trying to delay the questioning until he could figure out how to cancel it completely.
"Asked the portraits that are outside. I'm sure they know who is there," was the suggestion. Well, more like a demand.
"The portraits are very unreliable and do not know who the students are at any given time." That was a complete lie, but Dumbledore was hoping the man bought it.
"Yeah, I call bull on that. I know for a fact that portraits have very good memories. Just bring the kids around and ask them if they've seen this kid at this time. I don't care if it takes all day, I want to know who is here at the time of the murder. I also need to question any teacher who was here in the castle in the last hour," Gibbs stated, sighing once again. He went to the desk and looked at the book that was there. It was a detention ledger. Sure enough, Harry Potter was the most served person there. Along with two boys named Neville Longbottom and Colin Creevey.
"And if the halls were empty?" Dumbledore tried once again to stall.
"Again, I call bull. Somebody had to be here, and those portraits had to have seen somebody." Gibbs flipped through the book and saw that Potter had had detention every day that week. For hours at a time. Just what had this kid done to deserve such punishment?
"I will have you know that young Mr. Potter here owns an invisibility cloak," the old man said, throwing Harry under the Knight Bus.
"Is that true, Mr. Potter?" Gibbs asked, intrigued. It was unusual for a teenager to own such an object. That and it did make him more suspicious.
"Yeah, but it's in my trunk. That and anybody can cast the disillusionment spell," Harry said quickly. He glared at the headmaster. Was the man trying to get him thrown in Azkaban? Why had he told them that?
"He does have a point, boss," said DiNozzo, looking up from where he was dusting for prints.
"Well, we'll just have to take that under advisement. I still want any kid that was around to be questioned," Gibbs said, taking notes from what was being said, and what he noted in the book.
"I will do my very best," said Dumbledore with a put upon sigh.
"What have you got for me, Ducky?" asked Gibbs, dismissing the old man and turning to the other old man.
"Well, her time of death was about an hour ago. And she was shot point blank in the head from somebody who is either sitting in that chair or was crouched on the floor," the medical examiner stated, pointing to the downed chair. "I would say they were angry at her. It was at close range. She had to have known them," he added.
"Do we know what kind of weapon it was?" was the next question, though he already knew the answer.
"I won't know that until I get her back to the morgue. Although, at this point I would say it was some kind of a pistol," Dr. Mallard stated, standing and putting some equipment in his bag. He was done with what he could do here.
"All right, Ducky. Take her away," Gibbs said, knowing he would get no more from Ducky here.
"I'll go with you, if I may," said Amelia, going to Dr. Mallard. She had never been to the WCIS headquarters and wanted to see what the morgue looked like.
"By the way, Amelia, how did you find out about the victim?" Gibbs questioned. There was no 911 here, or 999 as they had in London. Heck, they didn't even have phones. At least in America there was an emergency floo call.
"I was called in by one Hermione Granger. She called me about 20 minutes ago. She said she had heard the gunshot and came to check on the victim and found her there. The victim's floo is the only one that allows outgoing calls. Other than the headmasters. So, she called me right away," Bones explained after consulting her notepad.
"I wanna talk to this Hermione Granger. Have her brought to me as soon as you possibly can," Gibbs said, looking at one of the Aurors that were standing around just watching.
"She's already been questioned. Here are my notes," Amelia said, handing him some pages from her notepad.
"Thank you for these," he said, making a copy with his wand and handing them back. "But I have a few questions I might ask her myself." He wanted to know if she was muggleborn or pureblood. How she knew what a gun was. How she knew to call, and why she called Amelia and didn't go to the headmaster, like most students would have.
"Very well," Amelia said, waving one of the Aurors to go get Hermione.
"Am I in very much trouble, sir," asked Harry, worrying his hands.
"I'm not sure, Mr. Potter. It depends on what you have to tell me when I question you," Gibbs answered him honestly.
"I can tell you, I didn't do this," the teen said, waving at the area where the body was being prepared for transportation.
"We'll have to see, Mr. Potter."
"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to take Mr. Potter off the grounds," said Dumbledore, like he had that authority.
"I don't see where you have much of a choice. This is a police issue," Gibbs stated, getting in the man's space. He wasn't going to back down from this. He was quite used to men like Dumbledore throwing their weight around. He was in control of this crime scene though.
"Don't you mean an Auror issue?" asked Harry, tilting his head in confusion.
"No, we are the WCIS," Gibbs said, pointing to the badge on his belt. "That makes it a police issue. While we are part of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, we are not the Aurors." He wanted to make the distinction right now.
"Oh," said Harry. "What does WCIS stand for?" he asked, looking confused.
"Wizarding Criminal Investigation Service," Gibbs stated, giving the boy a grin. "We're in charge of things like this. Muggle stuff mostly. Or those that the Aurors can't solve with just magic. We use computers and machines to get our investigations done."
"And just what authority do you have?" asked Dumbledore, standing to his full height, which put him heads above everyone in the room.
"I have the full backing of the Wizengamot," Gibbs said, not impressed by the man's stature.
"I don't recall being in any meeting that gave you that backing," the headmaster said, looking down his nose at the smaller man.
"It must have been when you were no longer in power. I definitely remember some time last year when that power was taken away from you. And it was during that time that we were given sanctions here," Gibbs said with a smirk. That had been a great time for everyone.
"I see," said Dumbledore, slightly deflating. That had not been a great time for him.
"Well, what have you got for me, DiNozzo?" the head of the WCIS asked his second in command, once again dismissing the headmaster.
"Nothing. The whole place is clean. There's not a speck of skin, hair or sweat in the whole room. It's as if somebody knows exactly what we're going to look for and clean the whole place up with a spell. The only bodily fluids or DNA in the room is the victims," Tony stated, putting the quill in a bag and holding it up. "This is the only evidence, and it is free of prints."
"Sometimes, I really hate magic," said Gibbs, heaving a great sigh.