ENCHANTRESS | Harry Potter

ELEVEN

"Joanne Miles, Henry Campbell and Victoria Morales," Harry spoke as he looked at his colleagues. He was sitting on the side of his desk facing them, with Ron having already packed his things, ready to head back home. They had a while before their shift ended, though. Talking about the cases they had to investigate seemed like a good enough way to spend their time.

"All of them young, around the same age of twenty five, living alone, they didn't leave the house often, didn't have many friends."

"You can say they were loners," Theodore spoke with a dismissive shake of his hand. "They preferred to stay at home instead of going out to interact with people, friends and family. I can't say I blame them."

"It's not like we do something much different anyway," Draco pointed out, to which Theodore and Bada nodded, while Harry remained silent and Ron shook his head. They got over the interruption soon.

"They weren't inside the house when the murderer got in, they had just enough time to ask for help before they were killed in a manner that seems to suggest they killed themselves. The cases have in common their age, their preference to stay on their own at home most of the time and the manner of murder."

"The murder weapon is always a kitchen knife but they always die in the living room," Theodore added moments before Bada spoke up.

"And they leave the same sea shell in one of their pockets."

"Perhaps that is the mark of the killer," Draco thought out loud, "but there have been no traces of them on it, it's completely spotless. And my initial question about these crimes still stands; what's the motive?"

"That's a question I've been thinking about as well," Harry admitted as he leaned forward, his tone dropping. "Why them? They came from families without wealth and they didn't steal anything from the house. The only thing they seemed interested in was to kill them. Are they doing it for satisfaction?"

"That's so sick, mate," Ron shook his head, his lips curling into a snarl. "To think-"

"Or maybe they want to teach someone a lesson," Bada cut him off, her gaze on her desk as she thought. "As some sort of revenge, perhaps."

"The victims had no connection. They didn't even go to the same school, Victoria lived in Mexico up until a few years ago and Joanne was in France, the only person who lived in England was Henry," Theodore pointed out with a harsh shake of his head. "They don't even have the same age, exactly. All of them are around twenty five years old but it's not common. And we can't say they did it because they hate women because Henry is dead too."

"What if their sexuality was different?" Harry thought out loud. "Perhaps that's why they killed them."

"We would have known," Draco disagreed at once, "the neighbors or the family would probably know and they would have told us. Some might have thought this could have been the cause of their premature death but none of them mentioned it."

Silence fell once more as the five of them thought, expressions stern and serious. Theodore's harsh sigh had them looking his way.

"The crimes are confusing but the most confusing part to me was the sea shell. Why put it there? What is it supposed to mean? Why would anyone pick that as their symbol?"

"They could be wishing to toy with us," Harry replied without missing a beat. "They might be attempting to throw us off or it's just a game to them."

Bada thought she could feel Harry's gaze on her at the last part but she didn't look up, forced herself to not react. She had yet to receive a letter back from her parents and so she had no idea where Hae was and the thought of her being closer than she thought was stress inducing. She was expecting their reply any day now.