The Reluctant Detectives

Chapter Two


“How do we…?”


She turned and looked at him in astonishment. “You may have the mistaken impression that I am a know it all, but I beg to differ.”


“You knew what a bomb looked like!” he exclaimed.


“I know what a rocket ship looks like, but that doesn’t make me an astronaut!” she snapped back at him.


“What?”


“Not now! We have bigger problems!” She went over to the bomb. “We have to get this out of here safely.”


“And how pray tell do we do that?” he asked her, stepping up next to her.


“I don’t know yet,” she muttered, as she went looking around the explosive device. “Look for a clock or a series of numbers that is going backwards on the bomb.”


“What for?”


“We’ll have more of an idea how much or how little time we have to be able to pull off a plan,” she told him.


“I found it,” he told her. “We have five minutes!”


She went over to him and muttered a curse. “Okay, we don’t know a thing about bombs. We need someone who does or get it to someplace that it wouldn’t make a difference.” She looked to him. “I’m at a loss at what to do.”


He pulled out his wand from his sleeve and flicked it at the bomb, making it vanish.


She looked over to him. “Where did you send it?”


“I’m not entirely certain where I sent it,” he admitted. “But I do believe that it is somewhere floating somewhere in the star known as the sun.”


Taking a deep breath she muttered, “Merlin, but I hope no one saw it.”


“I seriously doubt it,” he murmured. “Come along, Miss Granger. I am nearly positive there are some aurors that will be wanting to speak to us.”


This turned out to be an understatement. The moment that they appeared back out of the building, the Ministry of Magic representatives took them both into custody. They ended up in the very same room. It would appear that the aurors were in no way worried that they would talk to each other.


Hermione let out a sigh. What they were thinking by taking them into custody, she hadn’t a clue. She looked over to see Severus sitting in the corner of the room. It wasn’t until that moment that she saw that he had been bleeding at some point. She went over to him, lifting his hair and startling him. He grabbed her wrist and stared at her.


“You’re cut,” she murmured. “Your neck is cut. I saw some of the blood.” She motioned to the front part of her own neck to indicate where it was on him. “I only wanted to see if it was serious.”


“As I haven’t bled to death as of yet, I would say not,” he muttered, letting go of her hand.


Hermione took out a facecloth and poured water for herself. Wetting the cloth, she held it out to him.


“It won’t heal you, but at least you’ll no longer have the dried blood on your neck.”


He looked from it to her and back to the handkerchief again. He snatched it from her with a brisk thank you. Severus went about finding a shiny surface to see where the blood was.


As soon as it was cleaned off, he turned to hand it back over to her but found that she was now looking over the books that were in the room with them.


“Keep it,” she told him. “Consider it a gift if you must.”


He looked down at the dark, watery blood there and murmured, “Thank you.” Pocketing it he went back to sitting where he had been before.


“I can’t help but to have so many questions right now,” Hermione said, running her fingers over the bridges of the books and stopping now and again to lightly trace an embossed title. “But there is only one question that I have a possibility of having any answers to.” She looked over to Snape to find her watching her. “Why did you protect me? We had just had a fight. But you…”


“We didn’t have a fight, Miss Granger,” he said, sounding tired. “We had a clearing of the air as it were. I was wrong. You set me straight.”


She walked over and sat down across from him. “What do you suppose they are having us wait in here for?”


“They want to see if we talk,” he muttered.


“Of anything of great import like a what happened at Diagon Alley or about potions?” she asked quietly.


“I’m sure it’s about the potions,” he said dryly.


She nodded. “Have you made the advancements with the wolvesbane potion you were speaking about in the Potion Masters Quarterly yet?” she inquired. “I thought the addition of the chamomile as a use of a calmer was an excellent idea, but I would have thought there would be a problem with one of the other ingredients.”


“As it turned out, it did,” he muttered.


They continued to have their conversation about different potions for the next two hours. It was then that Kingsley Shacklebolt came into the room.


“Are we under arrest?” Hermione asked, as she got up.


“What? No! Not at all,” he said, trying as he might to sound reassuring. “We had to go over the evidence, look over memories in several pensives, and then there was…”


“Please! Shacklebolt, get to the point sometime within my lifetime!” Snape demanded as he got up. “Is it not bad enough that I had building material raining down on me, but then I was stuck in the same room with one of the chattiest individuals on the face of the planet.”


Hermione turned and glared at Snape. “Why I even bother to be cordial to you at all is beyond me.” She looked over to Kingsley. “Get this over with so I can leave the head master here to wallow in the silence he so craves.”


He nodded. “It was figured out that this wasn’t any ordinary attack.” He pulled out a paper and showed them. “This was found at the sight of the other two bombs.”


They looked at what he was holding. It was a magical picture of the darkmark, moving and writhing on a piece of wall. Hermione squeezed her eyes shut, spinning away only to be caught by Snape. The feel of his strong hands on her arms seemed to fortify her. Taking a deep breath she turned back to Shacklebolt.


“Death Eaters?” Snape asked. “Who?”


“We figured it might be rogue Death Eaters,” Kingsley said. “Though who, I haven’t a clue. The die hard followers Voldemort either died in the Battle of Hogwarts or were given the Dementor’s Kiss. The ones that were able to clear themselves of charges are under such scrutiny that they cannot so much as sneeze without our knowing.”


“If it is rogue death eaters like you figure, why would they use a muggle weapon?” The big man shrugged. “Would they even know what a bomb is? Even Head Master Snape didn’t know what one was and he is a half blood. I doubt a rather proud supposedly full blood wizard would have a clue.”


Kingsley nodded. “You ask the proper questions and know what the answers should be. You both do. And that is why I want you both to head up this investigation into this travesty.”


***


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