ENCHANTRESS | Harry Potter

TEN

Silence was spread in the Auror office. The three sets of desks that made up the space reserved for Harry Potter's team were sank in a quiet dome, although contrary to most times, the absence of sound was tense. In front of the five members of the team were a bunch of photographs, all of them having the same pictures, and a report.

The murder from the crime scene Harry and Bada had been asked to witness had been taking up most of their time ever since Harry had asked Vance to let his team handle this case, as Bada had asked of him. It had been evident from the moment Harry had announced them they would be taking over the crime that Ron, Draco and Theodore weren't pleased, although they hadn't asked when they had learnt the only reason they were assigned the case was because of Bada's request. Despite their displeasure they didn't work any less hard to solve the case.

Each person seemed to be looking at a different part of the crime. Harry was looking at the description of the wounds, focused so as to not make a mistake, so he wouldn't lose anything that would point out this was a murder. Ron was looking through the victim's contacts, few as they were. Theodore was looking at the pictures of the murder weapon for a while now, the bloodied blade engraved in his mind so well he could draw it if he so wished. Draco was looking through every picture, again and again, occasionally reading through the report. And Bada hadn't stopped looking at the sea shell found in the woman's body once.

They were engrossed in their tasks—tasks they had assigned themselves—the whole ordeal taking up more time than they thought it would. It was a dead end after a dead end, no way the victim could have been killed by another unless they had used the Imperius Curse, and even that way, they wouldn't be able to prove that. Even after all these hours, their search seemed to be getting nowhere.

The silence of the office was broken when Draco let out a deep, frustrated sigh, let the photographs fall on his desk with a light thud and in his despair, pushed his chair back so far back it rolled until it almost hit the back of their cubicle. Bada barely glanced at Draco before she turned back to watching her pictures just as he spoke up.

"I don't get it, it doesn't make sense. We've looked through everything and there is no reason why someone would break in to her house, wait for her until she got home and then cast the Imperius Curse on her and make her kill herself. Everyone said the victim was very kind and polite, didn't leave her home and didn't bother people. What would be the motive for anyone to kill her?"

"There are some sick people in this world, Malfoy," Ron replied as he turned his chair back to face him. "Maybe they just wanted to."

"I doubt they would get into the trouble of breaking in during the one hour every week the victim left home to go grocery shopping, with the goal to use the Imperius Curse on her and make her kill herself. Besides, she had the chance to send a distress signal. She saw the killer before they got to her, which means they saw her as well and didn't seem bothered by her alerting us. It doesn't make sense."

"What I don't get, is why she would have a sea shell in the pocket of her trousers," Bada spoke up, her gaze never leaving the picture in front of her. Slowly, the attention shifted from Draco over to her. "As far as we know, like Draco said, she didn't leave the house in the last week or so, there's no way she could have gotten to the beach. Where did she find the shell?"

"Maybe she had it and it was left in her trousers by accident when she was washing it," Ron suggested.

Bada shook her head, "It would have left her pocket at some point in the washing machine."

Theodore and Draco exchanged a look before the former spoke, "Maybe she wasn't using one."

"No chance. She was a muggle-born, some habits don't change," Bada disagreed, slowly lifted her head. Almost at once, she met Harry's gaze, already set on hers. The look in his eyes was curious.