A Coded Parchment

Chapter 6: The Investigation

Before anybody could move, a dozen aurors and hit wizards burst into the restaurant, led by none other than Jason McNeil! "Arrest her!" he shouted. One of the aurors, Sam Locks leaped forward, snapped Hermione's wand and placed a magical restraint on her. Harry and Ron snapped out of their trance.

"What are you doing!" they both shouted.

"We're placing her under arrest for murder," snarled Locks. Hermione looked up at Harry, pleading to him with her eyes.

"McNeil," said Harry, "I think you should..."

"I do my job my own way, Potter. Don't criticize my methods!"

"Dammit Jason!" yelled Ron. "If you'd just give her a chance, you'd see that she's innocent!"

"You're my employee, Weasley! I don't think it's your place to criticize my job."

"She's supposed to be innocent until proven guilty!"

"Not in the wizarding world, Potter. If your investigation comes up with more evidence, then she'll be let free. In the mean time however, its Azkaban for her!"

As soon as McNeil said "Azkaban", Harry roared with anger and charged at McNeil! He was barely held back by Ron and Sirius (who had come with the aurors). "Harry," said Sirius. "Beating McNeil to pulp will only cause more problems. Calm down." This was very painful for him to say since both he Ron felt like beating McNeil to pulp. Unfortunately, McNeil was their boss and beating would not be good for their jobs.

Hermione stepped forward. "Harry, please don't cause a scene. I'll be all right." She looked frightened however. Harry's gaze softened.

"I promise, Hermione," he said. "I'll do everything in my power to get you out of Azkaban." Hermione gave him a weak smile as the aurors led her out.

* * * * *

A few hours later, Harry was leading the investigation of the murder. He was very frustrated with the actions of the aurors since it hadn't helped him with his investigation.

'That was very stupid snapping Hermione's wand,' thought Harry. 'A good Priori Incantatem would've proved her innocence easily, but they just had to snap her wand.'

"Hey Harry, check this out," said Ron while investigating the sink. He had located a few drops of a thick brown liquid. Apparently, someone had drained a potion into the sink. Harry studied the drops.

"Polyjuice potion."

"Why would someone dump polyjuice potion into a sink?" asked Ron. Harry thought for a moment.

"They were probably trying to get rid of the excess," said Harry. "My theory is that the real murderer took the potion and disguised him or herself to avoid capture."

"Well, that could help but it won't clear Hermione's name or help us find the real culprit."

Harry was still thinking. "What if Hermione was framed?"

"What?"

"What if somebody wanted Hermione out of the way? She was attacked by dark wizards a few days ago; apparently they were looking for something she had. By framing her, they could search her flat without hindrance." Harry and Ron shared a glance before disapparating to Hermione's flat. Her flat looked a hurricane had run through it. Everything was a complete mess, but nothing was missing. It looked like the dark wizards had raided her flat, but found nothing.

"Well," said Ron. "Looks like the dark wizards wanted simply give Hermione a larger cleaning bill."

Harry remained quiet as he continued thinking. "Malfoy," he muttered.

"What does ferret boy have to do with this?"

"Everything, if my theory proves true."

"Theory?"

"Malfoy gave Hermione a number of gifts during their dates a few days ago. You know his family's association with the dark side, what if Malfoy had unknowingly given something to Hermione that was important to the Death Eaters?"

Ron's eyes suddenly widened in understanding. "And she was attacked by dark wizards right after Malfoy had given her the gifts!"

"Exactly."

"So where are those gifts if they aren't here?"

"After the attack, I took her back home to my flat. She must've left them there."

Within a second, Harry and Ron disapparated to Harry's flat. A quick search showed that the gifts were underneath the bed in the guest room. Harry and Ron started rummaging through them.

"Chocolates. Malfoy must've been planning to take Hermione dementor-sighting," muttered Ron.

Harry located a small book, which seemed promising. After a quick glance however, he quickly stuffed it back into the bag he had found it in.

"What is that book?" asked Ron.

"N...nothing," said Harry. Ron raised an eyebrow and said "Accio!" The bag flew into Ron's hand. It turned out to be a book on Kama Sutra.

"OK! That's something I did NOT want to find out about Malfoy!" yelled Ron. Harry started searching through the gifts again. Draco Malfoy's choices of gifts for a date frightened to Harry and Ron. Finally, Ron found something interesting.

"What's this," he asked as he pulled a clear orb out of a parcel. Harry's eyes suddenly widened in excitement as he swiped the orb away from Ron.

"This is it!" yelled Harry. "This is what they're looking for!"

"Well, what is it!"

"It's a decoder crystal," said Harry looking very excited. "This must be what the dark wizards have been using to read their codes. With this, I can completely decode the parchment!"