Harvest Moon

Hermione chose not to ponder why it felt perfectly natural and right to put her arm around Lucius’ shoulders. He really did feel this was all his fault and it had to be killing him. There was probably also a healthy dose of survivor’s guilt thrown in for good measure. It was so strange to her that the man who’d been one of Voldemort’s high ranking minions had changed so vastly in the space of a decade.



“I have exhausted every lead I could come across to keep you and Ara from going to this party in two nights time. Contacted every dark wizard I could think of who was still alive who might be harboring Liren. I’ve accomplished nothing in my quest.”



“Lucius, we’re both adults and perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves.”



“I’m aware, Mine. The fact remains that Ara was kidnapped from her own home. I feel as though I need to protect you from something none of us can find.”



“Something none of us can find,” Hermione mused. “Lucius, we know the killer has been using non corpus potion to get in and out of the Gilded Lily.”



“Yes. Why?”



“Well, that’s a very complicated potion to brew. Only a handful of people in the wizarding world are capable of doing it correctly. Logically, there should be traces of residue on the bodies if they were touched since I’ve read it has a tendency to seep out through the skin after a while. Perhaps Luna has found something of that nature.”



“I’m not following you, Mine. What exactly is the point? We know someone is using it. There was never any debate concerning that.”



“As far as I know, Luna hasn’t gotten the DNA test results back. If someone touched one of the bodies while becoming visible, we might have at least a partial fingerprint.”



Lucius stared at her for a moment, seemingly speechless. “Can you get a fingerprint from a body?”



“Yes. In the muggle world you have perhaps a three hour window until the body goes through too many molecular changes after death. In the wizarding world, there are other methods. But it can be done.”



Lucius nodded then stood quickly and went to the fireplace. He tossed in Floo powder and called for Luna’s office.



“Ah, just the person I needed to see, Lucius,” Luna said upon seeing his head pop into the fireplace.



He frowned a little. “Why?”



“I’d wanted to ask you to track down Professor Snape’s spirit for me. I think he may have the answers to a few new questions that have cropped up on this case.”



“Finding Severus is ridiculously easy. He’s teaching Defense against the dark arts class at Hogwarts.”



“That does make my search much easier. Is Hermione or Draco there with you?”



“Hermione is. Give me a moment and I’ll get her. What is it?”



“You know I can’t divulge information about a case in progress to you, Lucius. Though gods know Hermione and Draco have done it a thousand times on this one,” Luna said, smiling serenely.



Lucius chuckled a little and pulled his head out of the fireplace. “She’d like to talk to you, Mine.”



“Concerning?”



“She’ll not tell me. Something to do with the confidentiality of a case,” he said, a wry twist claiming his lips.



Hermione flushed a little. She and Draco probably had told him vastly more than what was usually allowed on a case. It just hadn’t felt right to leave him out and he had helped them draw several conclusions concerning the killer. She refused to say it was Lucius’ twin, even in her own head because they only had Lucius’ thoughts on the matter but no hard evidence. She poked her head into the fireplace and found Luna grinning at her.



“Any progress?” Luna asked, her eyes sparkling with mischief.



“Concerning what exactly?” Hermione asked testily.



“You know very well what and with whom.”



“As far as any of us know he could still be our killer,” Hermione said huffily.



“That hardly stops you from looking at him as though he’s a jumbo sized lollipop.”



“Luna!”



“All right, all right, I’ll stop teasing you. For now. But only because we have more important fish to fry.”



“Such as?”



“Go talk to Professor Snape. Lucius said he’s teaching at Hogwarts. Find out if he knows any potions or spells that could tamper with the results of a DNA test.”



“What happened with the test results?”



“A very odd combination that can’t be contamination. It’s as though the gene codes were spliced.”



“How can you tell? It might just be the natural combination of that person.”



“I hardly think so unless they’re both genders.”