To Catch a Killer

~ ~ Chapter nine ~ ~


Harry Apparated into the alley behind The Hogs Head Inn, his feet landing in a mound of rotting...something. "Aberforth definitely needs to clean up his place," Harry thought as he quickly moved up the alley, pulling out his invisibility cloak. He made it to the body ( which was staked to the wall only one block away ) in no time There were only two Aurors on the scene, one being that daft wanker, Garrick. If Harry wasn't positive that the man was shagging the Minister's wife, he would have pegged him for Cormack's bed mate. Everything Cormack said was law according to Garrick. All he wanted was Cormack's job, to hell if work didn't get done. Prat!

By the time Harry made it to the scene, he was shocked to find there to be only two Aurors there. He personally assigned seven permanent Aurors in Hogsmeade. Where were they? As he circled the body, carefully moving in and out of spectators, he noticed the kid. He was in Albus' class...Vaughn. Bollocks!

“Where is Potter?” Rosmerta asked, angrily. The gathered crowd agreed.

“He's been sacked, now if you please! Everyone stand back,” Garrick said, in his bored monotone.

“Sacked? Our children are at risk and you've sacked him?”

Harry, smiling at the support he didn't even know he had, he ran up the road to where another victim had appeared, a fact he'd just learned from several of the angry crowd. This victim was another of Albus' classmates, and to Harry's horror it was one of Albus' dorm mates – Zed. He'd even spent a holiday or three at Grimmauld Place. How could anyone...? The boy was extremely soft spoken and had a warped sense of humour, much like Fred and George, but he never said a bad thing about anyone. This didn't make sense. He removed his cloak to speak with Raleigh, the only Auror on the sight and someone he could trust.

“Raleigh? Where are all the Aurors at? This place should be swarming with them?” Harry asked angrily.

“Harry? What are you doing here?” she snapped.

Okay, so perhaps he couldn't trust her that much afterall. “I heard about Vaughn, and immediately came here. Now there's another? Why hasn't Cormack brought more Aurors?” he demanded, looking around for clues.

She looked around ensuring they were alone, but so far most of the spectators were gawking at the other victim. “Look, Harry. I'm sorry I don't agree with Cormack, but he is our boss and you shouldn't have attacked him.” She held up her hand to stop his irate interruption. “The git has everyone out rounding up werewolves for questioning.”

Harry was flabbergasted. “You're joking?”

“No. And as a favour, Cormack has issued an order. If you're spotted at any crime scene you're to be arrested and charged with interfering with an investigation.” She gave him a sympathetic look. “I'm sorry, Harry. You should probably leave before Garrick comes over here.”

Willing himself to stay calm, and not immediately kill Cormack, Harry took the traditional ten deep breaths, while scanning the ground around Zed's body. There didn’t seem to be any evidence, just mud, some used candy wrappers and some sucker sticks.

“Harry!” Raleigh said anxiously. “He's coming, get out of here!”

Harry looked up at her, his emotions threatening to explode to the surface. “Just find something, please.” He Apparated to Diagon Alley before she could answer.

The alley was all but empty. The bollocks killer keeping many people off the streets, which, given that the victims of choice were boys, only further illustrated the ignorance of these people. He made his way up the street not really heading for a specific place just, but walking and playing each victim over in his head. There had to be something he'd missed!

Out of habit, Harry turned into Weasley Wizard Weezes, but he quickly regretted it, as he wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. Immedieately, Fred grabbed him and pulled him to the counter, showing him an array of new products that he wanted Harry's opinion on.

“Harry!” George welcomed enthusiastically.

“Hey, George.”

“We heard your were sacking. Sorry mate.”

“Thanks,” Harry said.

“If you're in need of a job, you are a partner after all. Silent or not.”

“Which reminds me,” Fred said thoughtfully. “You've not accepted your share of the profits.”

Stopping Fred from emptying out the register, Harry thanked them. “Look, guys it's alright. I don't need money. Besides, if Ginny found out I had another source of income she'd petition to get that, too. I'll be fine, really.”

“Oi, who knew she could be such a bitch?” George said. “She doesn't know we've saved money for you, as she's not privy to our finances. If you need anything just let us know. We can discretely add some galleons to your account.”

“Thanks,” Harry said. “Say, I didn't know you were stocking these?” he said, holding up a lollipop with a yellow stick.

Fred beamed at him. “Actually we're not. Our clientele couldn't afford those. They're imported from a candy maker in France, very high end.”

“Yeah, they're five galleons a piece,” George whistled.

“Five galleons?” Harry whispered, carefully setting the lollipop down. “You've got expensive tastes.”

“Oh, we don't eat them. Must be the years of doing without extravagant sweets, seems like a complete waste of money. We just have one customer for them. Git.”

Harry stared at the sucker, horror building up in his chest. His head grew fuzzy and his stomach threatened to erupt, as the images of each killing came to his mind. Harry had only seen those sticks two other times, and he had the sickening feeling that Albus would be the next victim. He let out an enraged guttural howl and Apparated.


~ ~ tbc ~ ~