In blood and bone

Hermione walked briskly up the stairs of the somber, gray stone building that housed the Ministry of Retribution shaking her head slightly, she reminded herself to resubmit a petition to the Ministry for more money. The building was cold, ugly and cramped, originally it was only a temporary assignment for the newest department of the Ministry until proper housing could be found for them. There simply wasn’t room at the Ministry itself, they were told by the Minister of Magic; the simple truth was that the rest of the Ministry didn’t want to be housed with a bunch of Aurors and criminals, instead they had stuck them in an old rundown government warehouse and there they stayed.

Hermione knew she should be grateful that there was a Ministry of Retribution at all; the system Aurors had been using was laughable because in essence they were nothing more than a bunch of bounty hunters with no structure, code of conduct or hierarchy. Each witch or wizard worked alone, using the methods they had been taught during their training, to locate and capture magical criminals. After Hogwarts and Auror training camp Hermione hit them like a hurricane and within two years a new department was being created strictly for magical law enforcement. Witches and wizards were taking classes in modern law enforcement techniques and adapting spells using the concepts of forensics and science within in five years , Retrib’ was the most successful department of the Ministry. Hermione was proud of her work and proud of the dedicated, hardworking people who worked with her and yet she still wished a new building could be found for her and her department.
“Hermione, Hermione!”

“Good morning Tonks, do me a favor, will you, gather up the team and have them meet me in the conference room.”

“Sure, boss, mind telling me what’s going on?”

“No time, right now, I want every one to have the same information at the same time. I’ll meet you in the conference room in ten minutes.”

Hurrying past Tonks, Hermione prepared for the upcoming meeting, she knew her team would be anxious to discuss the previous night collar and to discuss her decision making abilities but she simply didn’t have time for that today; she had a job to do.
The conference room was full when she reached it and looking over her team she felt a flush of pride. The Ministry had put her in charge of seven of the best people in the business, Terry Boot, Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones, Neville Longbottom and Ronald Weasly were all classmates from her graduating class and Tonks and Remus Lupin had been her friends and mentors throughout some of the hardest days of her life. These people were family and Hermione trusted them with her life.

“Good morning everyone,” Hermione started as she walked up to the front of the room. “I’m sure you are all aware of last night events.” The seven disapproving faces around her made her cringe, inwardly, outwardly she briskly continued. “Well, I see you’ve been updated. I want to apologize for the situation, unfortunately it was unavoidable but that’s not why I called you here today.”

“Hermione,” Terry began solemnly.

“Terry, stop!” Hermione said firmly. “Ron and I have been over this again and again and while I understand that you were all concerned about me you were all made aware of my condition when you signed on. Last night was unavoidable and now this subject is closed.”
Holding her breathe Hermione gave her team a moment in which to decided whether or not to challenge her, hoping they would be wiling to let the subject drop. Time was valuable and with every new case time simply could not be wasted. The moment passed and Hermione continued, realizing that her team waiting for her to speak.

“Okay, people we’ve work to do. Last night I had a vision. A young muggle girl, she was… severely mutilated. The visions have become more and more intense; I keeping them at bay for know and unfortunately none of the images are very clear I’m only sure of three things, one: we have another serial killer on our hands, two: the girl is dead and three: she was murdered with magic.”

Hermione let her words sink in before continuing. “First and foremost we need to locate the girl’s body. I want every one of you to take a moment after the meeting to take a good hard look at my Pensieve. Get a good look at our victim, fix her face in your minds and find her.”

“Terry, Hannah, I need you two to head over to the muggle police station in London, find out if they have the body and take your wands, you’ll need them. Neville, Susan, I need you two in Diagon Ally, keep your ears open for anything we can use. Tonks, Remus, head to Hogwarts contact Harry and tell him I need a list of any Dark Art rituals or ceremonies that requires a human heart or unwilling sacrifice as a Defense against the Dark Arts teacher he’ll be our best resource. Tonks, I want you to ask the new Potions Mistress for the same list, any potion or serum that requires a human heart or unwilling victim. If either teacher has an objection let me know and I’ll speak to them in person.”

Looking around the room, pride filled her, these people were the best. They were willing to step up and do whatever it took to solve this, or any case. “Ron, you’re with me. I’m hoping to force myself to see more clearly into this vision and I’ll need you close by. Okay everyone, let’s get to work.”


Once the room cleared Hermione turned to Ron and said, “Ron, I need Tabitha on this one. I know how you feel about bringing your wife into this, but she’s the best. I need a hypnotist of her caliber and she’s the only one available. Her psychic ability could come in handy as well.”

“No Hermione, last time she worked on a case with us it almost killed her. She was sick for months. I can’t believe you would even ask!”

Sighing she looked over at Ron, she had hoped he would go along with her intentions but she had expected him to balk. Ron loved his wife, Tabitha, madly they had met in Egypt two years before while he visiting his sister Ginny, who had fallen in love with the hot desert sands on her visit there in the summer of her first year at Hogwarts. After graduation Ginny had applied to a university in Cairo and she grew into one hell of a witch and archeologist. During his visit Ron had fallen like a stone for the petite black haired sorceress who worked for the same museum as Ginny and two weeks later they were married. Hermione understood Ron’s reluctance to involve Tabitha, especially after the last situation. Tabitha had gotten much too involved with the hunt for a serial rapist. She had found herself emotionally sick and deeply affected by the horrible situation.
“Ron I understand how you feel but maybe we should ask Tabitha if she wants to help.”

“Hermione, you know damn well that she’ll agree if we ask.” Ron answered angrily. Hermione just looked at him. “Fine, we’ll ask,” he finally conceded after a few minutes of trying to stare her down.
“Thank you”

“Let’s get this over with.”

A few hours later Hermione, Tabitha and Ron sat in a candle lit circle as Tabitha’s rich melodic voice called to the sprits as her chanting grew stronger and the glow around them grew stronger. Hermione’s head snapped up and in a hollow faraway voice she began to speak.

Half an hour later Hermione rose groggily from the bed Ron had placed her in. Quickly she located Ron and Tabitha.

“Well, did it work?” she asked anxiously.

“Yes, Hermione it did, to an extent. The spirit was able to tell us her name and the way she died. She was too disorientated to show us her body and in life she never saw her killer’s face.”

“Damn, we’re right back where we started; let’s locate the girl’s family, maybe they know who she was with last night.”

………………………………………………………………………

Striding confidently through the Forbidden Forest Severus Snape carefully searched for the rare herbs he was experimenting with and savored the silence and solace the forest gave him. After the war and after being acquitted of the murder charges against him found that his scars ran too deep and he was unable to stay at Hogwarts. In fact he had found that he could no longer tolerate any human presence at all. He felt dirty, cold, angry and used. Used by Voldemort, used by Dumbledore and used by the entire magical community. The memories of the many atrocities he had witnessed…and committed during the war haunted him and he desperately needed to find peace. He searched for peace all over the world. He meditated in a Tibetan monastery for several months. He had crossed Australia with the Aboriginals trying sweat out his pain in the harsh desert heat. He spent a year in the South American rain forest studying primitive magic’s and getting stoned with an ancient Bruja. One day the old woman had looked deep into his eyes and told him that peace was not an object buried in some hidden temple, it was found within. Two years later, one spent entirely alone on the Antarctic tundra, one spent climbing the Himalayas, he went home. He purchased a small cabin on the fringe of the Forbidden Forest and began experimenting with the knowledge gained by spending time with some of the most ancient peoples on the planet. He was content to be alone, and while his past still haunted him he used distance like a bandage over a wound, keeping the pain at bay.

Kneeling carefully in a patch of sweet clover, Severus ran his fingers over the earth hoping to feel the spongy tendrils he was looking for; instead he was surprised to find a girl’s scrunchi, a bloody scrunchi. Quickly he began to search for what he desperately hoped was a slightly injured student from Hogwarts unfortunately what he found was a young girl tossed in a very shallow grave, thrown away like a piece of garbage. The grave had had been dug up by some creature and not much remained of the body. Severus turned away, fighting the wave of nausea that swept over him. He knew he would have to contact the Ministry of Retribution, something he would have preferred to avoid. He knew he would have to see Hermione, something he desperately wanted to avoid. Sighing, Severus prepared; or tried to prepare himself for the upcoming confrontation.