Hogwarts theft mystery [one shot write prompt]

Merula was sitting in a tiny ministry law enforcement office located in the town of Hogsmeade, backwater office that only has a few officials working there and only two permanent ones. She received an urgent call from the headmistress of Hogwarts detailing a theft during the same evening. She was instructed to apparate to a specific location that had Hagrid waiting for her with a thestral pulled carriage. The half-giant dropped her at the office she was sitting in now, listening to a balding man who thought himself the biggest authority in hogsmeade. She was smoking her enchanted cigarettes displeased about having to deal with another big chief from literally nowhere, who thought they were in control of everything.
"So, that is the situation. I have been given orders to let you proceed with your investigation and to assist you in any way I can."
"I have a feeling there is a but coming..."
"A very big but, I was against calling you here, Snyde. and if I had my way, we'd have the culprit in chains by now."
Merula Snyde, took a drag off her cigarette and turned her attention to the papers infront of her. She was used to being unwelcome by people who thought they didn't need her services, but clearly did.
"You know who the perpetrator is then?" She asked and started to go trough the dossiers on the suspects.
"Yes. There is only one person who could have done something like this, one Anon Ymous, a former auror turned warlock..."
Merula's squinted her eyes in surprise, she went to look at the dossiers and was greeted with her former rival's face, scowling at the people taking his picture.
"Sure, all the charges against him were dropped, due to his actions in second wizarding war, but many people still believe he had some ulterior motives. And he's clearly hiding something."
Merula looked at the man sitting infront of her. He was a balding low level employee of magical law enforcement. Clearly a gryffindor, based on the way he talks and probably a prefect, Judging by his strong sense of duty. But never a head boy, mainly because if he had ambitions back then. He wouldn't have been stuck with a dead end job like this.
"You believe Ymous did it, because of rumors regarding his actions during the latter half of the war against death eaters?" Merula asked and went back to the papers.
"Look, Snyde... We all know you share history with him, but there is a reunion going and for some reason a very important artifact goes missing the  very same day. I don't have to be Trelawney to foresee how this investigation will end."
Merula snorted slightly at the mention of Trelawney, that bat is still alive?
"We have more suspects than just Ymous." She said laying the dossiers on the table. "Lees, Karasu, Haywood, Murk and finally Khanna"
"Well, yes, every one of them were present during the evening it happened. The only person from the reunion, who didn't attend it, was you." The balding law-enforcement officer said and wiped his forehead.
"Interesting... And I am sure that had nothing to do with calling me here." Merula said and dumped her cigarette butt in an ashtray and watched it vanish.
"Look, the higher ups here don't answer to the ministry, if they did, you wouldn't have never been called out here. Whatever the reason for you being here is, my hands are tied." The balding man said annoyed. "So, if you're going to be helpful to the investigation and help us locate the stolen artefact, I will offer you my help. But absolutely do not assume I will take orders from you. If you take my helpfulness as granted, I will make you go trough my superiors before you can even ask me a single question regarding the investigation. Do we have an understanding?"
Merula sighed and decided she has had enough of dealing with some insecure backwater station police, worrying about the only interesting case of his lifetime.
"Alright, we'll do this civil, efficient and co-operate all the way trough. That way I can leave sooner and you can get back to your station."
The balding man raised his eyebrow, he didn't trust Snyde, but he had no other choice than to take her word for it.
"Alright, let's take a look at the suspects." Merula said finally.
"You have the dossiers in front of you, if you want to ask anything about anyone, just let me know. The list has been narrowed down to all the people who don't have alibis."
"We talked about Ymous, so enough about him for the time being. I spotted Rowan Khanna is among the suspects."
"Yes, Mr.Khanna attended the reunion, We don't have any reason to believe he had any reason to steal the artefact. He comes from an important family, that deals with magical wood used for broomsticks and wands."
"He's also deeply connected to Ymous." Merula reminded.
"O-oh, Uh... It did not say that in the dossier." The balding man said surprised.
"The two were practically inseparable in school, they had a falling out after the return of Voldemort and Ymous' actions during the war."
The balding man went a bit pale after the mention of Voldemort by his name, but Merula paid no mind to it.
"Next up we have Barnaby Lee." Merula continue without letting the balding officer open his mouth about etiquette over dead dark wizards
"Barnaby Lee wasn't actually supposed to be at the reunion, he came as a companion to another attendee." The bald man said.
"And who might that be?" Merula asked, thinking about Ismelda. But thinking Barnaby probably didn't want anything to do with her.
The balding officer had to read the dossiers infront of Merula to remember the person's name.
"Ah here, Olivia Lee." he said. "A complete unknown in terms of the investigation, I believe we can safely dismiss her involvement. But she doesn't have an Alibi as of yet, so we have to keep her name on the list."
"Hmm... The clumsy gryffindor..." Merula said reminiscing. "How about this then..."
She said and pulled out a dossier, seeing the name on it brought some memories to her.
"Ismelda Murk." She said.
"Ah, yes... Murk... Well, the thing is, We don't know much about her either, she had connections to death eaters during the war and her actions during that time were obfuscated by the chaos. She could've well taken the artefact, but we have no way of knowing. We trust you will help with this matter."
Merula thought about it for a while, would Ismelda pull off something like this. Merula really didn't know much about the woman anymore, would she be smart enough to pull something like this off.
"Before we continue, what was the artefact?" Merula asked.
"That is need to know information." The balding officer said annoyed.
"And you think I don't need to know, or your superiors think you don't need to know?" Merula asked equally annoyed.
"The internal politics of the school meddle with the investigation, all you need to know is the artefact is very important and very dangerous in wrong hands."
"If it's dangerous, then right hands are rare to come by."
"We can agree on that, do you have any more questions regarding the suspects, or can we get to the matter at hand?"
"Another person I want to bring up." Merula said quickly. "Tulip Karasu."
"Of her we know some things, we know she had been convicted a few times of minor magical misdemeanors. But her connections have kept her out of any major trouble. She seems like small time actor."
"Yes... Small time..." Merula took one last look at the dossiers, there were still some names she hadn't brought up, but even when she asked about someone, it felt more like she was the one giving all the worthwhile information.
"That is all for now, thank you..." Merula said.
"Malbert, chief Malbert." The balding man said.
"Alright then, chief...Malbert, I am going to go head to the scene of the crime.  But before I go  where the suspects being detained?"
"They are under surveilance in Hogsmeade, they all have strict orders not to leave the town or enter Hogwarts"
"What about disapparating?"
"The moment the artefact was noticed missing, the headmistress immediately ordered a lockdown, apparating in Hogsmeade was made impossible and the train isn't taking any passengers, without proper authorization from my office. Which I have only supplied to a handful of people who have been cleared."
Merula was a bit surprised and annoyed about the lax security measures.
"What's to stop any of them from just walking off?"
"We have them under surveilance, some of my underlings are observing any exits from Hogsmeade, and the school has sent some trustworthy prefects and that giant grounds keeper."
"Would it not be better to just lock them up in your station for the time being?"
"Yes, it would. But my hands are tied, the investigation is really ran by Hogwarts, and they do not have the authority to order arrests. I can detain the suspects in Hogsmeade for the time being, but I can't arrest them."
"Hogwart's involvement is making this into a mess." Merula said annoyed at what she had to start dealing with.
"Yes, I honestly wish they hadn't called out the ministry, if they needed the ministry for this they should've given us free hands." Malbert said tired.
"Well, that is all then. I am going to go to the scene of the crime."
"Good luck with your investigation, if you learn anything, I should be the first to know, understand?
Merula had no intention of telling Malbert anything.



Merula entered the castle, it was nostalgic to be back in Hogwarts after all that time, but she really didn't want to be there. Otherwise she would've attended the reunion.
She walked into the room that housed the artefact, there was a ministry officer in the room writing down notes and collecting clues.
"Ah, you must be Merula Snyde." The younger official said.
"Charmed." Merula said and went on to look around the room. intending to ignore the official, unless she had questions.
"Can I just say, that I am a fan of your work!" The official said enthusiastically. "My name is Hunter."
Merula wished she would have been left alone during the investigation, but this official was younger and still enthusiastic about his job.
"Thank you, Hunter..." Merula said dismissivelly still looking around the room. "Can you bring me all of your written notes related to the case?"
"Oh! Of course, Right away, I had filed most of them with the chief already. But I will bring them to you right away!" The official said and practically pranced out of the room in excitement.
Merula smirked at the gullible idiot.  Same trick works time and time again, whenever there was someone overly enthusiastic trying to solve a crime that is way beyond them, they start writing notes of completely inconsequential things. And when asked to get those papers, they immediately run off. Leaving her alone without any interruptions.
Merula looked at the papers the enthusiastic official had left behind.
Useless, just as she thought, the guy was verbose and described everything in unnecesary details. Notes like these were more detrimental than useful. Merula looked around the room and tried to get a gut feeling about what had taken place the glass had been broken by a powerful curse. Probably a loud one, Hunter probably wrote that detail down, but she wouldn't read it from his notes, she would just ask it from him directly.
Merula pulled out a magical cigarette from her case and lit it with a lighter she had got as an early retirement gift from Auror office, by a dick who worked there. She kept the lighter as a reminder of the time she had wasted as an auror.
Merula took a long drag from the cigarette, enchanted not to leave behind ash or any other trash, the smoke was only there for effect and it vanished without trace after floating far enough.
She tried to get a feel for the room, she had spent some time in the room during her years at the school, but she remembered it as bigger. All the displays were guarded by poweful charms with caused alerts immediately when broken, the culprit must have had a very good plan of escaping Hogwarts afterwards. For all she knows, the culprit might well be gone by now. If it was someone other than the suspects.
"What a mess" she said out loud and noticed an odd detail, on another display case there was something stuck on it, few damp black hairs. It seemed out of place. How did they get stuck at floor level at a display case. Static electricity perhaps, she picked the hair up and immediately summoned a bag in which she placed it in.
"OH! Did you find a clue already?" Hunter said excited. Which caused merula to jump up a bit, she had expected the young official to be gone a bit longer, but he made the trip to the Hogsmeade faster than was humanly possible without apparition, which was impossible.
"How the hell did you get back so quickly?" She asked completely surprised.
"Oh, I didn't have to go all the way to the station, it turns out the chief had accidentally placed my notes in a trashbin
"Ah, of course, accidentally..." Merula said.
"Here you go, this is all the notes I had written." Hunter smiled at Merula.
Merula didn't expect actually having to take any papers, she had planned on checking the scene and then disappearing before the ethusiastic trainee could find her.
"Thank you... Hunter, I will read them later." She said and put the way too big pile of notes into her shoulder bag, without any intention of reading them.
"Let me know if you have questions regarding the notes!" Hunter said enthusiastically.
"Ah, well... I actually do have a few questions..." Merula said, hoping Hunter answered questions in less verbose manner than he wrote his notes. "The display case was destroyed by a powerful curse, that kind of curse makes lots of noise. Do we have a time when it happened?"
"Ah yes, I have been writing a chronology, it's in the notes." Hunter said. "The explosion happened between 9 and 9:30... PM."
"Thank you, Hunter, I'll be sure to review your chronology." Merula said dryly.
"Anything else I can answer you directly?"
"What clues have you recovered and are there any eyewitnesses for anything?"
"Uhh... Well, the clues... All we have are the glass shards..." Hunter said troubled.
"I found some damp black hairs, but they're probably not substantial enough." Merula showed the bag to Hunter, who smiled brightly.
"As expected of the famous Merula Snyde! I never noticed anything like that." Hunter clapped his hands.
"Yes, quite... We'll just have to see if they are any useful to us." Merula said trying to dismiss Hunter's enthusiasm.
"We do have an eyewitness aswell." Hunter said. "A student saw someone run out of the school in a hurry few minutes after the explosion."
"That sounds more substantial, where can I find this student?" Merula asked.
"She is currently in the headmistresses office, if you go there now, you might be able to catch her before McGonagall sends her to bed." Hunter said smiling, he had started writing down the details about the black hairs.
"Anyone else or just her?" Merula asked annoyed that the idiot started writing notes again.
"Just her, I even went trough and questioned all the ghosts and the paintings. But no one saw anything."
Atleast he did that seriously, Merula thought to herself, Merula left the room before the scribbling idiot would push those notes at her as well.



When the got to Mcgonagall's office the door opened, seems she had got there just in time.
"Greeting, Headmistress." Merula said cordially, it didn't hurt to be polite to the woman she had caused so much trouble back when she was a student here.
"Merula Snyde..." Mcgonagall said reminiscing. "I was hoping you would have come visit me, before going to that Malbert person, but I knew you just want to jump directly into the investigation. That being said, we do have some things we need to discuss,"
"I am here to question the eyewitness, is she still here?"
"I was about to send her to bed." Mcgonagall said quickly.
"Wont take long." Merula assured her.
"Very well then, You can question her in my office, and then we will talk." Mcgonagall relented.


The girl was sleepy, but anxious to help with the investigation, she was a fourth or fifth year hufflepuff.
"I was told you saw something suspicious after the incident." Merula said to the girl.
"Y-yes, I saw a shady person run in the hallways, away from the artifact room." The hufflepuff said. "O-oh, I was out... Because of my boyf..."
"Save it, I am not interested in why you broke curfew." Merula said quickly a bit annoyed that girls her age are breaking curfew for snogging, while she had to fight with Anon over some dead end cursed vaults.
"Can you describe the suspicious person, what  they were wearing, or what they looked like?" Merula asked.
"Well, they were wearing a gryffindor robe." The hufflepuff said.
"That's hardly suspicious, anything else?"
"The robes were way too small, and the suspicious thing was that they were running and nearly tripped on their own robes."
"Hmm..." Merula said, not enough to draw any conclusions yet... "Are you sure it wasn't a gryffindor student?"
"Positive, the robes were way off and they didn't act like a student."
"Oh? how so?" Merula asked.
"They were making too much noise, any student would have run the hallways silently, not to draw Filtch's or his cat's attention." The hufflepuff explained.
"Of course..." And of course that bastard was still alive. It's a wonder he wasn't incarcerated after how he treated students when the dark forces held the school.
"Final question." Merula said. "Where did you see this?"
"Near that stairway that lead to the lobby, the one with the two headed set of armour."
Merula thanked the hufflepuff and let her go back to her common room, when she left Mcgonagall entered the office.
"Welcome back to Hogwarts, Ms.Snyde." Mcgonagall started.
"Please, just call me Merula."
"Do you know why we asked for you specifically?"
"I have no clue." Merula admitted.
"You know the school and the... Dangerous nature of some of the things it contains, we need someone who can be extremely discreet about the artefact that has gone missing." Mcgonagall explained.
"So, it had nothing to do with me knowing all the suspects?" Merula asked.
"No, although that is somewhat of a hindarance. We will trust you will prioritize this investigation over anything else."
"Of course... But I need to know what the afrtifact that went missing is". Merula said.
"The exact purpose of the artefact is less important, than the knowledge that the artifact is extremely dangerous in wrong hands."
"Can you describe it to me?"
"The artefact is a small silver disc with a button. If, or rather When, you come into possession of it. It is of utmost importance, that you do not try to use it in any way. Just put it in this case and bring it to me." Mcgonagall said and put down a wooden case on the table.
Merula looked at the case and then Mcgonagall.
"How dangerous is this object?"
"Extremely, it was misclassified earlier as begingn. But it the magic in it is potent and defies understanding."
"Understood." Merula said and put the case in her bag.


Merula decided to go to where the hufflepuff had seen the suspicious person. She hoped she would be left alone there, but to her dismay Hunter was waiting for her there.
"Ah, Detective Snyde" He said smiling. "I knew you would come here eventually."
Merula tried to ignore the enthusiastic guy and looked around.
"I have collected some evidence from the floor" Hunter said excited.
"Oh? What would that be." Merula asked
"Coins." Hunter said and held out his hand.
Merula hesitantly took the coins from the enthusiastic investigator wannabe. She looked at the coins for a while pondering if they would qualify as a clue.
"This is hardly useful, while it's likely the suspect dropped them, they're not very useful."
"The exact amount is 2 galleons, 5 sickles and 24 knuts." Hunter said, while writing the amount down on a note and gave it to annoyed Merula, who took it hesitantly.
"Thank you..." She said as thankless sounding as she could.
"We're practically drowning in clues now, I'm sure you will solve this in no time!" Hunter said.
"Yes... quite..." Merula said annoyed and started looking around.
She didn't spot anything out of place, or anything that would be useful for the investigation, she would have to go to Hogsmeade and question the suspects sooner rather than later. She was slightly dreading meeting some of those suspects.


Merula arrived at Hogsmeade to some sense of nostalgia, she immediately walked into three broomsticks Inn, where the suspects were told to spend the night. After she had sorted her own accomodations in the inn, she immediately went on to talk to the first suspect she met. A black haired woman, drinking in a dark corner.
"Well, well now..." Ismelda said spotting Merula. "I didn't know you were going to attend this reunion after all... You were never the type."
"And you even less, Ismelda." Merula said and lit her cigarette.
"But you're not here for the reunion, are you?" Ismelda asked calculatingly.
"No." Merula admitted.
"So, it's true... You've really become even less than the ministry's lapdog, even worse than an auror. A fucking private detective, do you find cats for old ladies often?" Ismelda mocked her former friend.
"Atleast I did not let my past, or worse my parent's past define me, Ismelda."
Ismelda laughed and smiled that smile Merula knew all too well, she never smiled it when she was happy.
"Still a firecracker, aren't you Merula." Ismelda said leaning her face on her hand and sipping her firewhiskey.
"You know why I was called here then, so let's get to it." Merula said impatiently.
"OH, you wouldn't dare suspect your old best friend of something this dreadful, would you Merula... You wound me deeply." Ismelda said mocking a sad expression.
Merula didn't take the bait and just pulled the small transparent bag from her bag and put it on table.
"Not quite watertight evidence, but a black hair, just like yours." Merula said staring Ismelda in the eyes gouging for reaction. "And just as greasy as your hair still seems to be."
"Ha, you suspect me, because you find a black hair... That is hardly good evidence." Ismelda mocked.
"No, but it means someone with greasy black hair was in that room... It might have been you or it might have been someone else."  Merula said, hoping Ismelda would be intimidated, but wasn't holding her breath.
"Look, Merula... We departed on bad terms, but I really had nothing to do with this robbery." Ismelda said.
"Fine, let's just talk then." Merula said.
"Sure, I'd love to reminisce over olden days with you. But you are more interested in the investigation, than catching up with your old friend." Ismelda said calmly.
"Maybe, but I will ask you this. What did you do for all those years after graduation and up till Voldemort's return." Merula asked and gouged the girl for reaction to her namedropping Voldemort.
Ismelda did react to it, she seemed somewhat uncomfortable.
"I think you might have a better understanding of my situation than most, but I don't expect you to have an ounce of sympathy regadless."
"What are you refering to?" Merula asked, looking at Ismelda's reaction.
"I was in hiding..." Ismelda admitted.
"From the aurors?" Merula asked.
"No... Not aurors... I was never a death eater!" Ismelda said hurt.
"No, you just wanted people to think you were."
"It suited me, no one expected the dark lord to ACTUALLY make a return like that." Ismelda said nervously.
"Or to be defeated..." Merula said still studying Ismelda's reactions.
"I was hiding from my parents... You of all people should understand that." Ismelda said anguished looking.
Merula was surprised Ismelda would admit something like that.
"Your parents, why were you hiding from your parents?"
"I did not want to join them... They both got killed in the war..." Ismelda said sourly.
"I heard about that." Merula said finally.
"I had decided not to walk down that path, but I couldn't face them..."
There was a pause.
"Do you know what auror ended up killing them?" Ismelda asked suddenly.
"No, that was after I had retired." Merula said.
"Your boyfriend, Ymous." Ismelda said.
"Anon killed your parents?" Merula asked surprised.
"A good thing he did too, the two went on a rampage after the defeat of Voldemort, they were on the run for moths..." the girl said and paused.
"Ymous actually wrote to me about it." Ismelda said and looked down her glass. "He appologized for it, he never appologized for anything, but he said he had to do it."
"Was that the incident that caused him to lose his position as an auror?" Merula asked.
"No... That was something else, I don't know the details." Ismelda said finishing her drink.
"Well, can we move on to a more brighter subject?" Ismelda asked. "Do you want to interrogate me over the theft, maybe do legilimensis or make me drink veritaserum."
"No, I have everything I need for now." Merula said. "Don't leave Hogsmeade until you're given permission."
"You're not going to suspect me?" Ismelda asked surprised.
"I did not say that."


Merula walked upstairs and considered ther next move, she could just kick down Anon's door and force him to talk, but it would be counterproductive. She decided to visit Khanna first.
"Khanna, can you let me in? I wont ask twice." She asked as she knocked the door.
Rowan opened the door slightly dazed.
"Merula? What are you doing here?" He asked rubbing his eyes.
"I have some questions." Merula asked.
"Fine, I... Fine whatever." Rowan said and let the woman in.
"I am already cooperating with Malbert." Rowan said immediately.
"Yes, well, I am not really." Merula dismissed Rowan.
"Ugh, fine, what do you want to know?"
"At around nine to nine thirty, an explosion was heard from the artefact room."
"I told Malbert aswell, that I was in the bathroom when that happened." Rowan said annoyed.
"Do you have anyone who saw you?"
"No, I don't think so." Rowan said. "Those of us that were in the castle when it happened were mostly alone."
"Have you talked to... Ymous?" Merula asked, she didn't want to ask about him before she had evidence or reason to interrogate him for real.
"No." Rowan said immediately
"No?"
"No, we had a falling out, I haven't talked to him for years."
"Seems like a common theme." Merula said angrily.
She tried to calm down a bit, she was getting angry from the mere mention of the him...
"That is all for now, Khanna. Don't leave Hogsmeade until given permission."
"Of course not, if you think of any useful questions, feel free to come ask. I am in full cooperation with the investigation." Rowan said.
"Of course..."


Merula felt angry, she would have to clear her head a bit, before she let the mere mention of Ymous push her into a fit of rage. She walked outside and smoked a cigarette in the cool air. Calming her nerves somewhat, she spotted a familiar face approaching the inn.
"Ben Cooper?" Merula asked.
"O-oh uh, Merula!" Ben said terrified.
"Why are you out at this time?"
"I left the Inn when Anon was drinking..." The shivering Ben admitted. "I have been walking around hoping he's gone by the time I get back."
He hasn't changed at all, still a nervous wreck. Merula thought to herself. She wouldn't even have to try to intimidate him to talking.
"Alright, then, Ben." Merula said. "Around nine to nine thirty an explosion was heard, can you tell me where you were at that time."
"S-sure, I was at the Inn. Rosmerta saw me."


Merula was pissed, the whole night was wasted, not one good piece of evidence was found anywhere and she ran out of time to talk to the suspects. She retreated into her room and put the pile of papers on the table, she had no intention of actually reading the notes. She went to bed, and tried to think of some way to find some useful bit of evidence, all she had found so far was a handful of coins, a hair and some testimony about a suspicious person dressed up as gryffindor slipping in the hallway, spreading coins everywhere.

The next morning she heard a knock on her door. She got up and went to open the door.
"What?" She asked annoyed.
"We have a problem." The enthusiastic guy from yesterday said.
"What?" She asked again, this time a bit more demanding.
"It's Anon Ymous..." Hunter started.
"Spit it out!" Merula snapped.
"He's gone missing."
"Fuck!" Merula shouted and slammed the door shut and went to get her bag, she pushed the pile of papers on the floor by accident and something caught her eye. One of the notes was torn up and had different kind of handwriting. Her eyes got wider when she recognized the handwriting. She took the parchment from the floor and ran after Hunter.
"HEY!" She houted after the official.
"Hmm?" Hunter asked turning around.
"This isn't your note, where did you find it?" Merula asked angrily.
"Oh, I don't know, if it was in the pile of papers, it might have been in the bin, or maybe it was inthe artefact room?" Hunter said scraching his neck.
"You idiot, you contaminated evidence with your useless notekeeping, Get a single notebook, not these huge piles of parchment, you inept fool!" Merula snapped.
"O-oh, I'm sorry... I didn't have anything else to write on." The junior official said.
"Then don't write anything, Now this might be useless, if it wasn't in the artefact room, and it's impossible to know if it was." Merula said angrily
"Sorry, please forgive me, I didn't know." Hunter said troubled.
"Forget it, just find Anon... And when you find him, arrest him immediately." Merula ordered. "I need to interrogate him."
"Will do, I will let Malbert know." Hunter said and ran off.
"Just find Anon!" Merula shouted after him.
Merula ran outside and was annoyed to see it was Hogsmeade weekend, the town was full of students chattering. she had to find Anon before he left the town. Merula decided to ask some students if they had seen him.
She described him to a bunch of students, but no one had seen him. She was about to give up until someone pointeid her towards the right direction. But it seemed ridiculous.
She got to the place where she had been told Ymous had been spotted, she couldn't believe her eyes when she noticed him trough a window of a cafe. She walked in annoyed and was immediately assaulted by the pink cafe Anon was sitting in alone.
Anon looked at the fat old lady running the cafe.
"See, I wasn't lying, my date showed up."
Merula was just about ready to start cursing the boy, but decided she would instead sit infront of him and listen to him before cursing him.
"What the hell do you think you are doing, Ymous." Merula asked angrily.
"Went for a coffee, you were still sleeping and you never showed up to interrogate me during the night." Anon said smiling at the woman sitting infront of him.
"So you came to this ridiculous cafe instead, you snuck out and alerted all the people keeping an eye on you. That's reason enough for me to detain you."
"So, then detain me, I know you have no evidence against me... We might aswell enjoy ourselves here and pretend later that you tried to squeeze information from me."
"Well, that's not going to happen." Merula said.
"Damn it, Merula, you called out an arrest just for this?" Anon said annoyed at the law enforcement officials sent by Malbert entered the Cafe.
"Give me your wand. Don't cause a scene." Merula demanded.
"Fine, I'll get it back in no time." Anon said and gave his wand to Merula, then followed the enforces into the Hogsmeade station.


Later at the station
"So you decided to listen to me after all, Snyde?" The balding chief said.
"I didn't tell you to detain him because of your gut-feeling." Merula said annoyed.
"Did you find evidence against him?" Malbert asked.
"Yes and no." Merula said.
"What do you mean?" Malbert asked annoyed.
"Your dimwit apprentice spread his notes all over the scene, I found this paper mixed in with them." Merula said annoyed.
"What does it say?" Malbert asked curiously.
Merula put the note on the table.
The balding chief tried reading the note, but couldn't make all the smudged letters
" i l v er round                  a button          ."
"What is that, supposed to be?" Malbert asked angrily. "Did you seriously call an arrest based on that?"
"It describes the damn artefact!" Merula snapped. "Silver round and has  a button"
 "But we don't even know if he was the one who wrote it!"
"I recognize his handwriting, I'll get him to admit to writing it." Merula said.
"And then what?"
"If the note was in the artefact room, we have a reason to keep him detained. Which will prevent him from running off again. It's just so I can get more time."


Merula entered the room where Anon was being held.
"Hello again, Merula. We really should have done this in the cafe, I doubt the coffee here is as good." Anon said infuriatingly.
Merula slammed her palms on the table.
"Start taking this seriously, you idiot." Merula shouted.
"I am taking this farce seriously, Snyde!" Anon snapped back angrily.
"I have evidence that pins you in the location of the crime." Merula said angrily.
"Well, that is impossible." Anon said. "Just send the bad cop in already, I am getting bored."
Merula slammed the torn parchment on the table.
"What is that?" Anon asked.
"It was found on the scene and it has your handwriting on it." Merula said.
"You're trying to get me to admit having written that, what is that. Does it have detailed confession or something?" Anon asked annoyed.
"Did you write it?" Merula asked adamantly.
Anon went quiet for a while and looked at the parchment.
"Open my cuffs and I'll take a better look." Anon said.
"Not going to happen, Ymous."
"What could I possibly do without my wand, just unlock the darn cuffs."
Merula thought about it, he's right, without his wand he's no threat.
"Fine" Merula said pointed her wand at the cuffs and unlocked them with a twist.
Anon immediately picked the parchment and studied it.
"Well, yes, I did write this." Anon said. "Why was it in the artifact room?"
"What kind of a question is that, you left it there." Merula said annoyed.
"No, I didn't. It's impossible, this torn parchment was written years ago, when we were students." Anon said
"You expect me to believe that?" Merula said angrily
"It's the truth." Anon said.
"Explain to me why you would have written that back when you were still studying." Merula demanded.
"Uh..."
"Well?" Merula asked again.
"If this is all the evidence you have, it's pretty weak. I don't have to say anything else." Anon just crossed his arms and looked away from Merula.


"Well?" Malbert asked Merula.
"He admitted to writing it, but didn't go into detail what the letter actually said. We have a flimsy reason to keep him from escaping... But it's no evidence of the crime." Merula said finally.
"Snyde, if you think I haven't noticed the fact you're trying to go behind my back on this investigation. You're sorely mistaken." Malbert said quickly. "I am sick and tired of your lone wolf attitude, you gave me your word."
"How would I have gone behind your back? I've only worked on the case for a few hours since last night." Merula asked angrily.
"You did not present any of the evidence you found to me, I heard from Hunter that you've found something so far." Balbart said annoyed. "I've pulled a few strings and I have gotten higher ups involved in the case, I didn't want to do it at first... The auror office is now involved, they're particularly interested in Ymous."
Merula looked at the balding sweaty chief nobody in disbelief.
"You went and got aurors involved in a petty theft?" Merula asked angrily.
"Everything about this points towards this not being just a petty theft, if Mcgonagall is going to be quiet about the details, us law enforcement officials need to pull all stops to find out the extent of the crime."
"If aurors get involved, they will just take Ymous under any pretense, interrogate him at the ministry and are forced to let him go, when they find no evidence. The worst case scenario here is that the stolen artefact's trail goes completely cold and we never find it." Merula shouted angrily.
"Then I suppose you better get a move on with your investigation and find it, more reasons for the aurors to prosecute Ymous." Malbert said. " You have 24 hours before the aurors get here. You're lucky they are busy, so I suggest you get a move on. And don't withold any more evidence!"
Merula stomped away from the clueless chief's office, he had done everything to mess things up out of spite for her investigation and this weird hate against Ymous.


Merula was about to leave the station when she was stopped by the repentant junior officer.
"Snyde a moment, please?"
"What is it, hunter, your boss just put a time limit on my investigation and if I don't meet it. The trail will be stomped by even more inept people and I wont get paid."
"When we detained Ymous, we found this on his person." Hunter said and gave Merula a ticket.
"A cruise ticket from Glasgow to Mariehamn?" Merula said in disbelief looking at the ticket.
"The boat left a few hours after the incident, is this important?" Hunter asked.
"It could be... Thank you." Merula said.
"I'm glad if I could've done something right, I really feel bad for messing things up earlier."
"I'm shouldn't have snapped at you like that." Merula said to the guy who had lost his enthusiasm. She felt a little bad.
"It's fine, I'm going to stay at the station and just do the paperwork chief Malbert wants me to."
"Actually, I need to go look at the artefact room again, could you join me there." Merula asked still feeling bad. "Maybe two sets of eyes will spot something."
This damn investigation has been a total mess, but maybe she shouldn't have snapped on the guy being enthusiastic. She used to be like that... Back when she was an auror with...
"Let's go." Merula said finally.


The two got back in the artefact room, Hunter unlocked the door and let Merula in. She looked around for a bit, trying to find something she had missed before.
"Do you see anything out of place here, Hunter?" She asked, more for the sake of asking than getting an actual answer.
"The glass shards have moved since yesterday." Hunter said.
"What?" Merula asked. "Has someone been here after us?"
"No... I have the key, and I locked the door few moments after you had left." Hunter said scratching his chin.
"Did someone break into the room again? Is someone tampering with the evidence." Merula asked and looked around. She noticed there was a tiny trail of blood leading behind a display case.
"Look, blood." She said pointing at the floor.
"WHAT" Hunter said in surprise. "Oh fuck, I hope this isn't a murder case now, I am not ready for that, I am just a paper pusher."
"Calm down, it's not that much blood, someone must have touched the glass shards." Merula said as she walked towards the display case and looked behind it. Only to find a black cat licking it's paws.
"It's a cat, was it here the whole time?" Merula asked. "C'mere, Kitty."
The cat came out from it's hiding place and was lifted by Merula.
"Hello there." She said to the cat. "Did you step on some glass, is that it?"
The cat meowed as Merula put it on top of the display case and cast episkey on it's paws.
"It wasn't here yesterday." Hunter said. "I was in the room the whole time and I never saw it, and I looked behind that display case too."
Merula considered the cat for a while and decided to put the cat back on the floor. The cat immediately shot away disappearing behind some other display case.
"Where did it go?" hunter asked.
"Let's find out." merula said and pushed the display case to the side, revealing a hidden tunnel leading into the room.
"You missed this one." Merula said to Hunter.
"I did... And no Hogwarts employee mentioned it either." Hunter said embarrassed.
"The cat could well be the only one who knows about this, let's see what's in here..."Merula said and crawled into the tunnel. It seemed to lead out of the artefact room.
"Lumos!" Merula said after pulling out her wand, she immediately noticed something interesting.
"What, the artefact is right here?" Merula said surprised and took out a small round silver thing that looked like a sundial.
"What, you found it?" Hunter asked surprised.
"...No, It seems to be a fake, maybe the idea was to replace the original with it..."
Merula was about to crawl out of the tunnel when she noticed some weird powder. She wasn't sure if it was going to be important, so she summoned a small jar and put some powder in it. She then crawled out and looked at Hunter.
"Go trough the tunnel, I will go to Hogsmeade and question the rest of the suspects, meet me there and tell me where the tunnel lead to and bring any evidence you might find." Merula ordered
Hunter started getting excited again. He was actually part of the investigation for real now.
"Of course, whatever you say! I'll be there in a flash" The junior official said and crawled into the tunnel.
Merula looked around the room again but didn't notice anything else, she did however think to try something out.
"Reparo!" she pointed her wand at the broken display case, but nothing happened. The enchanted glass can't be fixed like that. It must have been the reason why the culprit never made the switch, they must have left the fake behind by accident.


Merula got back to Hogsmeade and went into the three broomsticks inn, where the suspects were staying. They were all sitting a bit troubled around a table. Merula pulled a chair and joined them.
"You had Anon arrested." Penny said accusingly.
"I did." Merula admitted and ordered fire whiskey from Rosmerta.
"This whole situation is fucked up, I never thought I'd spend a reunion being investigated for a theft." Tulip said annoyed.
"Someone used the reunion as a chance to get in Hogwarts for the theft. The fact we're all stuck here right now is unfortunate, but it will be over soon." Merula said.
"Have you found any evidence?" Olivia asked.
"Some, and some useless." Merula said and turned to Ismelda.
"You've been cleared, the hair belonged to a black cat, but you're not out of the woods yet." Merula said.
"Great, my common haircolour isn't going to get me sent to Azkaban." Ismelda said smiling irritated.
"You all know Anon had been detained, I'd like to ask in general if anyone had seen him on that night."
"I had better things to do than trail him around, like I used to." Rowan said quickly.
"I tried to open a conversation with him, but he was being irritable." Penny said. "Something about paying drinks..."
"He asked me to..." Tulip started but was interrupted by Barnaby who sneezed.
Merula turned to look at Barnaby, who was apologizing and wiping his nose.
"Sorry, sorry." Olivia said to Barnaby. "I didn't mix your shake properly."
"It's alright." Barnaby said quickly.
Merula noted the powder on the bottle.
"What were you saying Tulip?" Merula asked.
"I met him in the Inn before we left for the castle, he asked me to lend him two sickles and five knuts... I mean he asked for a galleon, but I asked him what he needed it for. He just said he needed two sickles and five knuts for a drink." Tulip finished her earlier sentence.
Merula was about to question Barnaby, when Hunter called out to her.
"Please excuse me." She said to the people at the table, and walked to Hunter.
The two got out of the inn, Merula lit her cigarette and started smoking as Hunter was telling his findings.
"The tunnel lead to a classroom on the other end of the hallway."
"Can we plot a chronology out of this..." Merula said contemplatively.
"Well, we know two things for sure, the reunion castle tour started at seven and ended at nine, the only people left in the castle after that are the suspects. Everyone else got back to Hogsmeade or went back home."
"The tickets were for a boat leaving at eleven." Merula said looking at the boat tickets.
"And the explosion was around nine thirty." Hunter finished.
"Did the hufflepuff ever say when she saw the suspicious gryffindor?" Merula asked and flicked her cigarette butt on the ground.
"Well, she says she doesn't remember exactly, but told me it had to be around 10, because she and her boyfriend separated around that time." Hunter said contemplating.
"How long did it take for you to crawl trough the tunnel?" Merula asked.
"I don't know, I was going slow, 20 minutes maybe?" Hunter said.
"Hmm... Let's see, our culprit then entered the castle around seven, stayed behind past nine, around nine thirty stole the artefact and planned on escaping via Glasgow..." Merula said.
"One thing makes no sense though, the moment the enchantments are triggered, the headmistress gets notified, Mcgonagall had Hogsmeade under lockdown within twenty minutes."
"It would have taken longer than two hours to run far enough to disapparate to Glasgow." Merula said finally.
"Yeah... There are other things that make no sense though, when you get out of the tunnel, it puts you at different stairway taking to lobby than our gryffindor impersonator used." Hunter said.
"Hmm..." Merula said. "Maybe there was a reason for our culprit to leave via that stairway, maybe they ran into Filtch on the way from the other stairway."
"That could be it, Filtch immediately started patrolling the castle when alarmed by the enchantment. That still doesn't explain how the culprit planned on getting out of Hogsmeade."
"Like this." Merula said and walked to the street and held her wand out.
With an explosion a purple bus appeared infront of her, with the most obnoxious conductor possible asking her where she wanted to go.
"I am working with an investigation to a magical crime, I need to ask you a question." Merula said to the conductor.
"Ahh! Damn, I was imperiused and people still bring that up..." The conductor said.
"Not that, idiot, a crime that happened recently." Merula said annoyed.
"Oh, then what do you want to know?"
"How much does it cost to get from here to Glasgow?" Merula asked.
The conductor spoke with his driver for a while.
"Two galleons, seven sickles and twenty-five knuts, but with Two galleons nine sickles and twenty-two knuts, you'll get a..."
Merula felt her heart drop.
"Alright, that's enough, have you picked any passengers from Hogsmeade recently?" She asked irritated.
"No, we were under the orders not to pick up anyone from Hogsmeade,  from the chief Martiblart over there."
"You do realize you just stopped at Hogsmeade?" Merula asked the conductor annoyed.
"Oh, dang we did, We stopped at Hogsmeade, we were told not to!" He said to the driver.
"It's fine, just don't under any circumstance pick up any passengers from Hogsmeade or nearby until given permission. You're free to leave." Hunter said to the bus crew.
The bus disappeared with a loud explosion.
"Knight bus could've been used to escape, we only thought about telling them not to pick up anyone from Hogsmeade hours after the incident." Hunter said to Merula.
"Why didn't Ymous use the bus then..." Merula asked puzzled.
"Well, maybe He didn't want to show their faces to the bus crew and get caught that way?" Hunter asked. "Is he your prime suspect now?"
"He's talented with disguises, I think it has to do with the coins we found, if that was all the money they had on them, he was forced to rethink his strategy."
"But the coins we found weren't enough for a trip to Glasgow."
"We are really struggling for clues at this point, Hunter... This might be a dead end case. Even if Ymous did it, we have nothing solid on him." Merula said annoyed, she had bills to pay and ministry commissions were lucrative enough. And she thought she wouldn't have to look for another half-kneazle for a while... Even if she had to work against him...
"I'm going back to the castle." Hunter said. "There has to be something we missed, I'll let you know if we find anything. Oh and don't worry about me telling chief Malbert, he did a great injustice to you by calling the auror department and it annoyed Mcgonagall aswell."
"Alright then." Merula said. "I am going to go interrogate him and force him to tell me everything."


Merula went back to the station and went directly to the room where Anon was being detained.
"Oh hey, the bad cop is here now." Anon said.
"YOU!" Merula shouted. "You had this whole thing planned out, you thought about your escape, everything!"
"The only escape I am thinking, is the one I'd like to do right now to get away from your bitching, Merula."
"How would you stoop so low, as to steal an artefact from Hogwarts? Did you lose the last shred of your honor during your time on the run from the Ministry for being suspected dark wizard?"
"You told me I had no honor to begin with!" Anon shouted. "I spent every single day of my auror career trying my hardest to fix the chaotic world following Voldemort's defeat."
"You were obsessed about hunting death eaters, you killed the Murks!" Merula shouted
"I... Huh..." Anon started. "Yes, I killed the Murks, I didn't just Avada Kedavra them because they were death eaters. They were holed up in a hotel and threatened to cast fiendfyre and go out in a fiery inferno, killing hundreds of innocent muggles."
"how did you kill them?" Merula dreaded to ask, fearing for the worst.
Anon was silent for a while.
"They were about to kill me with Avada Kedavra, when I used depulso to turn their wands against Each other..." Anon said.
"You made them kill each other?" Merula asked in disbelief.
"I didn't mean it to be so cruel..." Anon said finally.
Merula was quiet for a while.
"That wasn't the incident that made you get disgraced as an Auror though."
"No... What I did from that point on..." Anon said angrily. "Why do you care, you left me months before any of that happened!"
"I never stopped caring, it hurt me to see you obsessed like that." Merula said anguished "I couldn't deal with it anymore, I had to retire because of it."
"One day, I will tell you why I was driven..." Anon said. "Just finish your investigation so I can go home..."
"You live in Russia now, don't you?"
"Finland." Anon corrected her.
"A long way to get to a reunion." Merula said and put the ticket on the table. "Care to try to explain this away?"
"It's a ticket to boat, what else is there to say?" Anon asked.
"Come clean, it'll be better for you, the evidence is piling up on you."
"I am not seeing anything substantial, maybe you private investigators have different qualifications for evidence than us lowly ex-aurors."
Merula tried her best to let that insult slide.
"You idiot, I can't help you if you don't help me!" Merula shouted. "And I was an auror too!"
"I remember, did you keep the lighter I gave you?" Anon asked smiling infuriatingly.
"No, I threw it off a bridge when I left London."
"Feh, thought you'd throw it away sooner..." Anon said "How can I help you then?"
"What are you doing here, really? If not to steal some magical artifact, why are you here?"
"Nostalgia, the last good memories I had was in Hogwarts, we were so young and... full of ideals. Heh, four years of almost non-stop fighting and then we started dating and I thought we'd spend the rest of our lives together... What a joke." Anon said.
"You're the one who lost your ideals, Anon..." Merula said finally.
"I don't know if it's more pathetic imagining you an idealist, while you're doing chump work for the ministry that didn't give a single fuck about veterans after the war... They should have never mellowed down after the war. They made the same mistake twice... For all we know Voldemort might return again, a lot of the two time death eaters are still at large. That is seriously fucked up."
"Did you think you would just kill them all then?" Merula asked disgusted.
"No, I have other plans, which don't include getting caught for petty crimes." Anon said annoyed.
"This is going nowhere." Merula said and turned away.
"...Merula." Anon said before she left the room.
"What?" Merula said annoyed.
"The note, I wrote it during second year... It said I love her round cute as a button nose. It's pretty obvious the house elves here are overpaid if the note was never cleaned up... If I recall correctly I shoved it in a crack somewhere when I couldn't find a trash bin."
Merula didn't say anything and left Anon sitting in the room alone.


Merula went for a walk before she returned to three broomsticks and hope she'd find some new evidence that points towards someone else, anyone... She thought about the dust, but Barnaby would never fit in the tunnels, so that was unlikely... But his girlfriend wasn't free of suspicion. She could have gotten the powder on her. But why would either of them steal some magic artefact?
It was getting dark, she had spent all day running around aimlessly, without accomplishing anything, she was also running low on cigarettes. She took a look at the lighter Anon had given her for retiring, it was a gag gift from the start... It had her name, the word auror and the very few years the two worked together as aurors engraved on it. She sighed and found herself hoping she had stuck with him longer, perhaps she could've stopped him from turning into the wreck he is now... The number of years should've been longer and it should have said Merula Ymous.
Merula put the lighter away and decided to go back to the three broomsticks and maybe make some more effort towards the investigation, before the aurors showed up and wrecked everything. She was called out by the familiar official.
"Ms.Snyde!" Hunter called out to her.
"Hunter, you've been running back and forth all day, just call it a night already." Merula said to the official.
"I found the missing coins." Hunter said catching his breath.
"What?" Merula asked.
"The missing coins, I found two sickles and one knut. They were under an armour stand." Hunter said giving Merula the coins.
"This can't be a coincidence." Merula said finally.
"It seems unlikely, did Ymous say anything incriminating yet?"
"No, I am going to search his room."
"You need to do it quickly, the auror office sent an owl, the aurors are here any second now."
"They're early." Merula said.
"They decided the evidence we gathered earlier is incriminating enough to warrant interrogation at the ministry, they're planning on taking Ymous away." Hunter said.
"Fuck, I am not done with him yet." Merula said annoyed.
"Listen, I am in charge of detaining Ymous, not the chief, he delegated the paperwork to me." Hunter said.
"Hmm?"
"You don't believe he's the culprit, or if you do you want to be the one who takes him in. You made the call for detaining him, I can release him if you say he's cleared." Hunter explained.
"But he's not cleared." Merula said.
"All the evidence we officially have against him is the piece of paper you brought earlier, and that is not enough to keep him forever. If the aurors want to take him, they need warrant from their own offices, they wont be able to use ours."
"If you let him go right now, he will just vanish."
"I can follow him, if he goes somewhere he might have hidden the artefact, I'll come get you. It's not like he can disapparate either way."
"You might lose your job, if you go trough with this." Merula said finally.
"A job as a paper pusher, not a big loss... Besides chief Malbert is a horrible person, I wasn't going to stay here forever anyway."
"Alright, due to insufficient evidence, I'm going to have to make the call of releasing Anon Ymous." Merula said finally
"Alright, sign this." Hunter said and held out release papers.
"I hope he doesn't just bolt..." Merula said finally.
"I'll follow him." Hunter said assuring.
"Don't try to arrest him alone for any reason." Merula said quickly. "He's too dangerous."
Hunter looked a bit nervous hearing such dire warning.
"Understood."


Merula ran into the three broomstick and went to Anon's room. It wasn't actually locked either. The room was completely empty, Anon hadn't planned on returning.
"Fuck!" Merula said out loud she bolted out of the room and noticed everyone was dressing up to leave.
"Where is everyone going?" She asked surprised.
"The investigation is over, we've all been cleared" Tulip said smiling
"I never made such a call." Merula said angrily.
"Well, chief Malbert did." Ismelda said smiling smugly. "Looks like someone outranked you on this one... We can finally leave."
Merula looked around the room at the suspects, there was an atmosphere of relief in the air, but Ben looked at Barnaby nervously. Which in itself was nothing out of the ordinary, but Merula remembered the dust she had seen, she never followed up on that lead.
"No one leaves until I give the permission." She said and pulled her wand out.
"What are you doing, Merula?" Penny asked angrily.
"Does any of you really think Anon would steal an artefact like that from Hogwarts?"
"Well, probably not, but who else here would have stolen anything?" Tulip asked annoyed.
"Don't do anything, just sit down and let me think." Merula ordered everyone there.
Everyone complied immediately, no one would imagine crossing Merula while she was this determined, everyone was also hoping that the aurors would show up and shut her down.
Merula looked at everyone sitting there, gouging for their reactions, she looked at Tulip and Penny, trying to think of them stealing something like this. Tulip maybe, but Haywood probably wouldn't resort to theft, her reputation as celebrity potionmaster meant too much for her.
Merula turned to look at Barnaby and Olivia, Barnaby looked at Merula annoyed that she was detaining him and Olivia. Then she noticed it, the powder on Olivia's coat.
Merula walked up to her and sweeped the powder off the coat.
"What is this powder you drink in your shakes, Barnaby?" Merula asked.
"Creatine." Barnaby said annoyed. "Is bulking up a crime now, because guilty as charged."
"Don't be silly." Merula said and sniffed the powder. It smelled absolutely disgusting, like sawdust and mold mixed with something extremely unpleasant.
"Is it supposed to smell like this?" Merula asked and took out the jar she filled earlier.
Barnaby took the jar and sniffed it.
"Merlin's beard no, if it gets that spoiled you shouldn't drink it. That smells like old castle mold." Barnaby said gagging.
"Can I see that bottle of yours?" Merula asked.
"Sure, but why?" Barnaby asked and went to his bag.
"Umm..." Olivia said to Merula.
"Give me a second, Olivia." Merula told the girl and looked at Barnaby rummaging his bag, hoping in vain the artefact would just pop out.
"Here" Barnaby said and gave the empty shake bottle, with powder still on it.
Merula smelled it and realized it wasn't the same powder, although they looked similar.
"Umm... Merula?" Olivia said again and pulled her sleeve.
"What is it Olivia?" Merula asked.
"I accidentally took someone else's coat." Olivia said embarrassed. "I didn't mean to steal it."
"What... That's not really a..." Merula said and her eyes widened. She turned to look at Ben, who hadn't looked at Barnaby nervously earlier. But Olivia standing behind him.
Ben swallowed nervously.
"I tried to let her know... But I was nervous... Our coats are the same colour... Hers is still on the clothes rack."
"Oh, I am so sorry, Ben, I didn't notice it... This is like that time I accidentally wore Slytherin robes the whole day and ended up in their common room." she said with her face completely red, but smiling at Barnaby who smiled back at her.
"Give me that coat, Olivia." Merula demanded and looked at Ben. Who had turned pale.
She rummaged trough the pockets, but didn't find anything interesting, just keys andrandom stuff and a chocolate frog card. She looked at the card for a bit, it was just Dumbledore.
"Ben, where did this dust on your coat come from?" Merula asked him.
"Oh, uhh... Hogwarts is full of that dust, it's everywhere. I must have rubbed on a wall on my way to the dungeons."
Merula contemplated it for a bit and gave Ben his coat back. She saw Hunter outside the Inn, without Ymous.
"Fuck." She said out loud and ran to the door.
"Did he run off?" She asked Hunter.
"No, he's being questioned by the Aurors right now, I thought I'd let you know."
"Where?"
"At the station, they don't have a warrant for his arrest, but he decided to cooperate."
"That's odd, why would he do that, he's been nothing but difficult towards us." Merula asked. Merula said fidgetting with the Dumbledore card.
Merula looked back at the people gathered in the Inn, they looked back at her annoyed, all but Ben who was nervous.
"is everything alright, Ben?" She asked.
"Everything is f-fine." Ben assured her.
"No one leave the inn, I am going to go talk to the aurors." Merula said and followed Hunter.
"We're really struggling for leads here." Merula said angrily.
"Yeah, but so are the aurors." Hunter said.
"I was always against aurors having too much authority..." Merula said. "I find it ironic that Ymous might be arrested without evidence, because of it. He was a vocal proponent for it."
Merula sighed depressed.
"Well, it's unlikely the aurors came with a warrant, if they did, they would not bother interrogating him at our station." Hunter said.


Merula walked in the station and was greeted by a familiar face.
"Merula!" A female auror said. "It's been years."
"Yeah... It has." Merula said uneasily.
"How's retirement been working out for you, we're still waiting for you to get tired of your detective vacation and get back to real work."
"This is real work" Merula said. "I think it is very important that we don't flub this case."
"I hear you, Merula." The auror said. "But the orders came from high up, they have waited for any reason to bring Ymous back in for investigation regarding his last few years."
"Is there any evidence that he's turned renegade?"  Merula asked.
"Besides disobeying orders prior to being let go, no."
"Those charges were dropped when he was interrogated at the ministry." Merula said surprised.
"Yeah, but a lot of people think there are unfinished business... It's all a bit ugly. But you know that better than anyone."
"Yeah..." Merula said uneasily.
"You two were close, weren't you?" The auror asked Merula.
"We used to be... We became aurors together." Merula said not wanting to remember it.
"You two were so bad at your covert trysts within the offices... His Guy Incognito pseudonym was hilarious and you acted like a schoolgirl. The world went to hell and you two acted like secret lovers. it did lighten up the mood, though, even after we were all driven underground."
Merula smiled at the memories, it seemed like they had never grown up from their secret relationship during Hogwarts. Even during the second wizarding war...
"Are you just going to arrest him then?" Merula asked.
"That's the thing... Someone released him with the proper paperwork before we got here, the chief signed the papers without authorization but the release papers are missing, so now he's free to just waltz out on a technicality"
"Why is he here then?" Merula asked surprised.
"I don't know, he's not telling anything important though... Almost as if he's just passing time."
"He's an annoying idiot like that, he always talks and talks and talks before he finally tells what he's been meaning to say for hours." Merula said with her voice shaking in annoyance.
"Do you have any evidence against him, that we might use?"
"I gave all the evidence I found... Well, I do have this." Merula said and gave the jar full of smelly powder to the auror.
"It seems my investigation has been shut down, so you take it."
The auror looked at the disgusting powder puzzled.
"What is it?"
"I don't know, apparently Hogwarts is full of it. Good luck." Merula said and walked out of the station with Hunter.
"Why is he playing time?" Merula asked Hunter.
"Is he?"
"He's an impatient person who hasn't got stomach for wasting time, he's doing this for a reason." Merula said annoyed.
 "Is it a smokescreen?" Hunter asked. "Is he trying to get the aurors to mess up the investigation?"
"They already did..." Merula sighed. "They released everyone but Anon, and the artefact is gone because of it."
"Well, I'm sorry it didn't end up well." Hunter said.
"Well, a lot of investigations end up in a dead end, I have more cases like that than successful ones."
"There's something wrong with the system." Hunter said finally.
"Yeah, I saw it when I was an auror, I see it now and Anon saw it too. The only difference is... He abused it." Merula said sadly.
"Well, sure things will be better in the future."
"I wish I could share your optimism."
"Well, I am about to become a father, so I have to stay positive and do everything I can to make things better."
Merula smiled and felt bad how poorly he treated him, he's an idealist... Similar to how Anon was.
Merula went for another cigarette when she noticed she still had Ben's chocolate frog card with her.
"Ah, forgot to give this back to Ben, I should do that before they all leave." Merula said absendminded, then she realized something.
"Hunter, Ben wasn't on the list of suspects." she said
"No, he had an alibi from Rosmerta, he never left the Inn."
"He just said he got the dust on his coat from the dungeons." Merula said to Hunter.
"But if he never went to the castle, how did he get the dust on his coat from the dungeons?" Hunter asked.
"Fuck, I was focusing on Ymous so much that I missed something so obvious!" Merula said angry at herself. "We need to hurry, what alibi did Ben have?"
"Rosmerta said he had been sitting in the Inn the whole night, reading on something."
Merula and Hunter went back to the Inn.
"Keep any suspects, especially Ben, from leaving the Inn, arrest them if they try." Merula told Hunter, who nodded and stayed outside.
Merula stomped back to the Inn and noticed to her relief everyone had stayed.
"What now, can we finally go?" Penny asked like she couldn't even...
"Everyone without an alibi needs to stay for a few moments more." Merula said and scanned the room. "That is everyone but Ben."
Merula went to Rosmerta, she noticed Ben was pale and didn't get up.
"Madam Rosmerta a moment please, I need to talk to you in private." Merula said and looked at the suspects.
"Alright, we can talk in the kitchen." Rosmerta said and led Merula there.
"You saw Ben Cooper stay in the inn the whole evening yesterday?"
"I mean, yeah, I didn't have my eyes on him the whole time." Rosmerta said.
"what about at 9:30?" Merula asked.
"Well, I don't remember the exact time... But I think so, he was sitting in his corner ignoring everyone, just calmly reading a newspaper."
"Ben, calm?" Merula said annoyed. "Well I can't discount the alibi, because he was calm for once."
Merula paused for a second.
"Thank you for your time, Rosmerta." Merula said and went into the Inn, expecting Ben to have slinked away.
"Ben..." Merula said finally.
"Uh... Yes, Merula?" Ben said nervously.
"Why are you still here? You've been cleared to leave since yesterday." Merula said finally.
"Uhh... Can I have my card back first?"
"It's just a Dumbledore card, why is this one special?" Merula asked.
"Uhh... You're right, I'll just leave without it then." Ben said and got up.
"I have the card right here, Merula said." and put the card on the  table.
Ben walked towards it nervously.
"How did you get it while being in three broomsticks?" Merula asked.
"W-what?" Ben asked.
"The dust on your coat is from the castle, you said you were in the dungeons but your alibi states that you never left the Inn." Merula said.
"O-oh I meant someone else must have rubbed the dust on me, Maybe Barnaby, he was spreading the stuff around the other night." Ben said quickly.
"The powder on your coat wasn't creatine." Barnaby said.
Ben looked at the card nervously and started to move towards the door.
"Finite incantem" Merula said and pointed at the card.
Ben immediately bolted and ran out of the Inn, straight into Hunter, who pushed him back into the Inn.
Merula looked at the silver sundial on the table and put immediately in the case Mcgonagall gave her.
"You're under arrest." Hunter said and detained Ben.
Everyone was holding their breaths, they were all nervous about the investigation and now Merula found the culprit.
"Send an owl to Mcgonagall and tell her we found the artefact." Merula said to Rosmerta and walked up to Hunter. "I seriously lucked out here."
"Well, you found the artefact, that's the most important part." Hunter said while emptying Ben's pockets.
Hunter sat Ben down at a free table and sat next to him.
Merula sat infront of Ben and scanned his expression.
"How did you fool Rosmerta?" Merula asked. "It's over, just tell me... It'll be easier this way, than if I had to interrogate you at the station."
Ben looked terrified.
"I-i used a stalker charm..." Ben said finally. "It worked b-because Rosmerta doesn't have time to pay attention."
"Why didn't you leave the first chance you got?" Merula asked.
"I-i went back to the Inn and left my coat on the coat rack and Clumsy took it by accident, I couldn't get near her, because she was always near Barnaby... I-I thought you'd give me the card back, but instead you ran off with it."
"Why didn't you run without it?" Merula asked surprised.
"Y-you were running around aimlessly. So I knew you hadn't realized the card was the artefact."
"You thought I was dumb enough not to notice." Merula said angrily
Ben yelped in terror.
"Well, yeah..." He admitted finally, expecting the woman to curse him or something.
Merula had never been so insulted in her life.
"Were you working together with Anon?"
"I-i Uh... No." Ben said finally.
"Really?" Merula said. "If you come clean now, it'll be better for you, he can't hurt you."
"No, we didn't plan this together... I didn't know, why you had him detained..."
Merula turned towards Hunter. "I've been following a red herring this entire time and the only real evidence I had was a bunch of smelly dust..."
"Well, coincidences can mess things up..." Hunter said puzzled.
Merula looked back at ben.
"Why did you steal the artefact, you're too scared to ask for your coat back from clumsy, but you're brave enough to steal from Hogwarts. Why?"
"F-financial problems... My debts were sold to a criminal organization and I was told to steal the artefact or I would be in trouble." Ben finally confessed.
"Who told you about the artefact?"
"They signed the notes describing the artefact as Guy."
Merula felt uneasy about more coincidences, it couldn't possibly mean...
"Do you have the notes left?"
"Uhh..." Ben started.
"Do you have any notes from this mysterious Guy?" Merula asked.
"Well, only one that says where to meet him." Ben said finally.
Hunter looked at the pile of stuff he took from Ben's pockets and pulled out a folded note. and gave it to Merula.
Merula read the note and immediately got up.
"What did it say?" Hunter asked.
"It's Anon's handwriting again." Merula said pissed off.
"Same damn fake name too!" Merula said angrily and ran out of the Inn.


When she got to the station, she realized something was wrong. The two aurors were looking at eachother annoyed.
"Where's Ymous?" Merula asked angrily.
"He wasted our time and then walked out on us, we tried to trail him... But he managed to escape." The female auror said annoyed.
"HOW?" Merula asked angrily.
"You know he is slippery, he avoided better aurors than us for months." The auror said defensively.
"You shouldn't have let him go!" Merula said angrily.
"We couldn't keep him detained without a warrant, someone signed his warrant and he was free to go."
Merula was unbelievably angry at herself, she had let her emotions mess things up badly. Anon probably just played mind games on her and got everything he wanted. Excep the artefact... What was his endgame? Did he really just want to have a date with her in Madam Puddifoot's earlier, is this just some sick joke?
"The cafe..." Merula said out loud. "He can't possibly..."
Merula ran off, leaving the annoyed auror back to writing a report on why they didn't actually get Anon.


Merula ran for half an hour to get to a secluded place in the forest she and him had used as a meeting place during their time as students-
"Hello, Meru..." Anon said to her.
"IS THIS A JOKE?" Merula shouted at him.
"Yes and no."
"Why were you doing this?"
"I wanted the artefact..." Anon said. "I knew Ben was incompetent, but the damn idiot actually managed to pull off the heist. He knew something I didn't."
"The tunnel..." Merula said finally.
"What?"
"Nothing, it doesn't concern you anymore... You're under arrest... For conspiracy to steal a powerul magical artefact." Merula said defeated and pulled her wand out.
"One last duel then? For old time's sake." Anon asked.
"I don't want to..." Merula said. "Just come peacefully."
"You know I fucked things up pretty badly." Anon said. "Being a criminal is minor compared to that."
"All that ever happened to you, was that you got fired, all the rumors after that are your own doing!" Merula said angrily. "Why did you run?"
"I had no reason to stay." Anon said
"You never tried to clear your name either, you just embraced the fact people thought you had turned renegade!" Merula accused him.
"I couldn't care less about what people thought about me, I did what I had to do in order to make the world..." He stopped.
"WHAT?" Merula shouted.
"All the death eaters that got away with it twice... The world is a chaotic place right now... So much uncertainty." Anon said.
"So, you decided to go on a rampage." Merula said.
"I wanted to make a safe world... A world without death eaters running around... I did it for our children, but we never got there."
"Anon... You can't make a better world by erasing all mention of death eaters..." Merula said sadly.
"I know, I just thought I'd just plop out of here and find one that had no death eaters to begin with."
"What?" Merula asked in disbelief. "How would you have done that?"
"It doesn't matter, I decided I didn't want the artefact anyway." Anon said.
"Why?"
"I still love you, Merula... I can't bear the thought of a world without you."
"Anon, please come peacefully... It's not too late for you." Merula said.
Anon smiled at Merula and lowered his wand, he stepped forward and embraced the woman.
"I'm sorry, Merula... For everything." He said and pushed the woman back gently. "Of course you could always let me off and not report this confession..."
"Anon..." Merula started.
"But I know it's not going to happen..." Anon said and looked around.
"What do you know... the enchantment has been lifted." Anon said suddenly.
"W-what?" Merula said suddenly and looked around.
"See you around, Meru." Anon said and smiled at the woman, before disapparating away.
"NO! NOT YET YOU IDIOTS!" Merula shouted.


Merula kicked around the forest on her way back to Hogsmeade, where she was stopped by the Aurors.
"Did you find him?" The female auror asked.
Merula thought about telling the aurors about his confession, they would just send more aurors after him, ones that are more competent at tracking.
"No..." She said finally.
"Well, there's nothing we can do, there was no evidence towards him."
Merula felt disgusted she had turned the entire investigation into a corrupted mess because of Anon. It was all under Hogwart's jurisdiction. So no matter what, the internal politics would've messed things up. But she played too big of a role in that.
"Good luck with your future investigations, Merula, and remember... You could always join the Auror office again."
"Thanks... I'll... I'll consider it." Merula said and walked off.

Merula went to Mcgonagall's office. The headmistress and Hunter were waiting for her there.
"Well done, Snyde." Mcgonagall said smiling. "The artefact is safely in the school again, this time in a much more secure location."
"Did you find, Ymous?" Hunter asked her.
"Yes and no..." Merula said finally.
"I see... Well, I don't know the details or in fact anything about it." Hunter said "But I believe you did the best you could in this situation."
"The best thing would've been to stay at home and wait for a case of a missing Kneazle." Merula said sourly.
"Yeah, but then the artefact would still be missing."
"Or worse, in ministry's hands." Mcgonagall said. "There was a reason we went for a private investigator on this. If the ministry was involved, thy would have confiscated the artefact and held it in the ministry."
"That's probably true, chief Balbert would've handed the artefact to the aurors for a promotion." Hunter said.
"The school's autonomy has been steadily waning" Mcgonagall said. "We can't afford the ministry to get a choke hold on Hogwarts, time and time again that has been proven to be detrimental to everyone."
Merula was silent, she could only think of all the corruption but mostly the ones she was involved with... Was she really any better than Anon was back when he was on his inquisition against death eaters?
"Here is your payment, Ms. Snyde." Mcgonagall said and gave the witch a bag of galleons.
"Thank you, Headmistress... I wont have to run after a kneazle for a while now." Merula said and put her reward in her bag.


Merula was walking away from the castle with Hunter.
"Thanks for helping me out, Hunter." Merula said.
"You're welcome, It was the most excitement I've ever seen." Hunter said happily. "But it also showed a more ugly side of our justice system... I'm determined to fight that now.
"That is something I abused aswell, it's my fault Anon got away." Merula said.
"He wasn't the thief, if I understood it correctly, his crime was something completely unrelated."
"Not quite, he was part of the corruption in the auror office, and the same corruption he used was almost used to arrest him. Ironically his investigation was part of the reason why the authority of aurors was decreased so drastically after the war. he wasn't the only vindictive auror though..."
"Well, I am going to strive to create a better world for my first child." Hunter said determined.
"Anon said that too, but his actions made him part of the reason why the world is like it is." Merula said sadly.
"Atleast he had good intentions then, maybe there is redemption for him..." Hunter asked.
"I hope you're right." Merula said and lit the last cigarette she had with the lighter Anon had given her.
She watched Hunter walk off to his family while smoking her cigarette, before disapparating.