Snakepit

Chapter 3

"Are you even allowed to have these in here?" Draco asked, tapping the leaf of one of the dreary little succulents on the windowsill. He'd found her, their, office to be far more entertaining than Hermione felt comfortable with. He had even let out a laugh, well, more of a scoff, when he saw the velvet Thinking Chair in the corner. Hermione didn't try to defend herself to him for that one.

"Shh, I'm trying to concentrate," she grumbled. It was about the tenth time he'd asked some variation of the same question. And, for the tenth time, she raised the new case file to her face, willing the sequences of letters to form words instead of the unintelligible jumble she was picking up. Hermione found herself to be extremely distracted by Draco. There was something in the way he moved throughout the office. It was calculated, purposeful. He seemed genuinely interested in the place—in her things—and each question he asked sounded annoyingly curious and sincere.

She would have much preferred if Draco Malfoy was as uncharismatic and unintriguing as he originally was in her mind.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione watched him dig his finger into the dirt of one of the plants' pots and sigh heavily. When he suddenly turned to her, catching her off-guard, she quickly made herself busy by staring at the case file, not understanding a single word her eyes skimmed over...again.

"Where's the restroom on this floor?" He asked, striding over to her desk. He practically towered over her.

"It's the last door on the right if you take a left out of here," she replied.

"Perfect. I'll be back in a bit," Draco turned, walking out of the office.

Now, Hermione could finally concentrate. She turned back to the first pages of the file and reread the case overview. Her brows furrowed as she continued reading. It was a local case and the Department of Intelligence usually didn't deal with local cases. Why would this be sent to their department? It looked like it should have been sent to Law Enforcement.

Hermione kept reading. According to the files, someone on the west side of Ravaina, had complained about a rotten stench in their apartment unit. The landlord quickly found the source when he investigated the unit above. In an unsettling statement, the landlord described stumbling upon a rotting dead body: there had been blood dried on the floor around the person's head, a gun near their left hand. There was a suicide note on the victim's bedside table.  

The case was given to the Department of Accidents and Catastrophes, which was known for cleaning up suicide cases quickly. Their work unearthed that the victim had been a journalist, mid-forties. He wasn't too well known in Ravaina, but a quick glance through his publications told the tale of an unhappy man who was constantly fighting (albeit unsuccessfully) against the establishment– corrupt politicians, shady investors, under-the-table deals. The suicide was somewhat reasonable. These sorts of journalists were sometimes depressed and weighed down by their work. The discovery of ugly truths that kept society running and the overall impossibility of changing those things would be hard for anyone to to cope with. Hermione could empathize with the journalist, in a way. She had always preferred hard truths over blissful ignorance .

Despite having a motive for the suicide, the Department of Accidents and Catastrophes was unable to overlook two glaring details. The gun had been next to the journalist's left hand, but he was right-handed. A quick search through the national firearm database had also revealed that the journalist did not own a registered firearm. Of course, it could have been illegally obtained, but that didn't seem to fit the profile of the victim.

So, the Department of Accidents and Catastrophes passed the case to the Department of Law Enforcement. But, their local investigators were backed up with work and allegedly did not have time for an extra case. After staying with the Department of Law Enforcement for only a few days, the case was finally sent to the Department of Intelligence.