Chapter Eleven: Murder Mystery
Valentine's Day at Hogwarts was hardly ever celebrated due to the fact that some of the boys found it to be dull and pointless, whereas some of the girls feel like there's too much commotion that goes on, what with the decorations and festivities. Some people who have already found love are happy, others who don't have love...well, it's kind of sad. The Gryffindor common room was hardly untouched, and the Great Hall was covered with red hearts and pink tablecloths. Hermione was looking around to see if they were any card-carrying dwarves. When she saw that there weren't, she walked across the hallway and went into the kitchens.
In the Entrance Hall, Hermione caught a glimpse of McGonagall talking to Professor Sprout near the doors. She thought of getting a good listening in. Nick showed up flying about in the Grand Staircase again and noticed that Peeves was creaking around and spooked him. "Boo! Ha-ha!" "Oh, yes, hello, Peeves," said Nick very unenthusiastically. And just like that, he went flying away without another word. Peeves was disappointed for not scaring him, so he went to surprise Gwen and Willow in the Entrance Hall. "Ooh! New ickle firsties!" He zipped by and attempted to startle the girls. But before he could, McGonagall flicked her wand and sparks started shooting. Peeves did a backflip or two and tried to maintain his balance. McGonagall told him off, "I see you're still up to your usual trickery, aren't you, Peeves?"
"Aw, Your Headship, I was just having some fun." "That's what you always do. Now go away and don't come back here!" Peeves grumbled and zipped past the staircases. Hermione came over and spotted the two girls. "Who was that?" asked Willow. "That's
just Peeves," Hermione told them, "but don't let him get to you. He hates everybody at Hogwarts, even the Bloody Baron." Gwen said, "I thought the Baron was the only one who could control that ghost." "He is," Hermione said, "and he isn't a ghost, he's a poltergeist." "I told you, Gwen," said Willow. Gwen rolled her eyes and groaned. "Look," Hermione was saying, "just keep out of his way and he won't bother you. I've got to get to class now. I'll see you two later," and then she walked off and up the stairs.
In the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Professor Periwinkle offered everyone an assignment on how to solve a great murder. "Each of you must figure out a murder that took place in London. You need to identify the victim, verify the facts and consider the possibilities and suspects and then determine who is the killer," Periwinkle was saying.
Hermione knew what she had to do. In the meantime, the others were starting to feel a little nervous about preparing to speak in public and act like detectives. They were getting the chance to act like agents, jobs that muggles normally do except for the whole magic thing. Apparently situations like this involved using mental and cerebral tactics, like wearing gloves so as not to contaminate evidence and leave fingerprints on where murder suspects usually leave them. Hermione still had her suspicions about Periwinkle. What was all this going to prove? Ginny and Luna told her not to even think about it, but Hermione just couldn't help herself. She had to keep her guard up, just in case.
Meanwhile, Professor Periwinkle set up a crime scene for each of the students, one a different student. Hannah, Luna and Ginny already did theirs. Some of the boy students got off easy. It was finally Hermione's turn. Periwinkle told her a man had just died suddenly from stab wounds. The main suspects were the maid and the butler. (This was definitely a pickle.) The setting was in a big mansion and the time of day was afternoon: 1pm, 2pm at the most, and the other house members were in the house huddling together in a type of panic. What a way to spend Valentine's Day.
Hermione knew she had to think about the other suspects, the family members especially. The mother was busy doing the dishes while the father was reading a newspaper in his very fancy chair. Their daughter was in her bedroom doing her homework and her brother was busy doing who-knows-what in his. Apparently the maid and butler were seen near the victim around the time the killer had not been seen. Hermione thought about this very carefully. The victim was a muggle mailman who had delivered a package, but not the one everyone thought it would be. She thought about the father. Could it be the father? Why would it be the father? It couldn't be the son either because he was in his room, and why would he be messing with a knife? And what about the daughter? It always seems to be the daughter who makes the kill, but the motive didn't make much sense.
After a long time of thinking about the case, Hermione came to a conclusion. "The knife was put on the other side of the table. It couldn't have been the butler because the butler was polishing the silver all that time. Now the motive would be holding a grudge, so the maid was doing some early-bird spring cleaning while all of a sudden, there was a gunshot. The woman ran to the body laying down on the floor and found him bleeding in pain. Then the killer ran off and dropped the knife on the sidewalk, leaving a perfectly good fingerprint on the hilt and the blade. So, bottom line, the conclusion is, the killer is...the mother." All of the students gasped.
Hermione explained why, "She was always too obscene for her own good. Here's what happened. She found the victim walking across the lawn one morning and noticed that he didn't give her the package she ordered by post. I know what you're all thinking, what does this have to do with the motive? Well, here's where it gets weirdly serious. She found out that the mailman was secretly seeing her daughter." Everyone gasped again; Hannah looked as though she were going to faint.
Hermione continued, "It sounds like a crazy theory, I know, but sometimes parents can go insane when it comes to who their children are dating. After sneaking out one night, the man was about to leave for the day and suddenly when no one was looking, she immediately stabbed him and left the knife on the floor when nobody was looking. The maid heard a noise and she ran to the bloody victim, making her the easiest suspect in the house, even though she just arrived, and that's when the butler showed up. So, while everyone gathered round, everyone lined up in a row and the mother was playing the part, none the wiser. So there you have it." The entire class applauded her.
"Well, that was very well done, Miss Granger. Very well done," Professor Periwinkle was very impressed. "50 points to Gryffindor. That's all for today, we're out of time. See you all next time." Ginny was intrigued. She said, "Wait, Hermione, I'm still a little confused. Why couldn't it have been the father to kill the mailman? Isn't it always the father who doesn't like the idea of his daughter dating?" Hermione smirked, "Maybe the mother wanted to save the father the trouble, or maybe seemed very fond of the mailman. Not all fathers are assholes." Ginny raised her eyebrows in amazement.
By the time springtime rolled around, it was almost the end of March. Hagrid was watering his flowers in his garden while Fang was biting a bone on the other side of the hut. Professor Sprout, on the other hand, was doing a kind of charm over her plants, making it rain. Perfect vines started sprouting upwards. Incredible detail and design coming from the greenhouses. It was an incredible display.
The first years were running around trying to gather what ingredients they needed to find for Potions glass, and the other students of all years were sitting enjoying the bright, warm sun shining in the distance. Hermione was standing by the lakeside skipping stones and thinking again. It was almost close to the end of term and she still had to convince the others to study. The other seventh years felt like they didn't need to revise their spells, but they knew when the time came for them, they eventually had to grit their teeth and do it. That was the whole point, which makes all the difference in the wizarding world.
