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B s . A A A full 3/4 1/2 E E Light Dark Books » Harry Potter » Sherlock Holmes and the Ravenclaw Codex
Pavonis Mons
Author of 10 Stories
Rated: K - English - Crime/Supernatural - Phineas Nigellus - Reviews: 73 - Updated: 01-13-08 - Published: 01-04-08 - id:3991385
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Chapter One: The Red-Headed Man
Autumn had come early to London. August was not yet over, but a storm of the most unusual ferocity was sweeping its way through the city, driving all those who had no pressing business outside to the comfort of their own hearth. Holmes had no cases to occupy him, and my old injury from Afghanistan was troubling me, so we were content to remain in companionable silence on either side of a roaring fire in our cosy sitting room in Baker Street, listening to the gale fling handfuls of rain to shatter against the windows and howl in the chimney, and busying ourselves with our landlady's excellent cinnamon toast.
There was a tap on the door.
"A visitor for Mr Holmes," she announced. "A Professor Weaselby."
"The learned gentleman's need must be desperate indeed to bring him out in such vile weather," Holmes remarked, brushing toast crumbs from his dressing gown and setting aside his book. "Very well – show him in."
The young man who entered presented an indefinably odd aspect. He was of no more than middle height, and dressed in a long, shabby travelling cloak that did not match his mud-stained army boots or his ebony and silver swordstick. A veritable bird's nest of bright red hair stood up from his head in wild disarray, framing a broad, freckled face. Nonetheless, his voice when he spoke was cultured and pleasant, despite an underlying note of panic.
"Mr Holmes?" he said. "Though to be sure, I would have known you anywhere – you are the very image of your brother."
"Indeed?" said Holmes. "I confess that you have me at a disadvantage."
"Ah yes… to be sure," said the professor in some confusion. "You would not know me, indeed... but perhaps I should begin at the beginning. My name is Giles Weaselby, and I am authorised on behalf of Hogwarts School to obtain your services in a most desperate matter – robbery, for certain, perhaps even murder!"
An extraordinary change passed over Holmes's face in the course of this short speech.
"Then there is nothing more to be said," he said, in a tone of cold fury I had hardly ever heard him use. "Kindly remove yourself from my rooms, Weaselby, before I take you by the collar and remove you myself!"
"Really, Holmes!" I exclaimed disapprovingly. "Professor Weaselby has come all this way in the middle of a storm to ask your advice. Even if you do not wish to help, there is no need to treat a learned man with such lack of respect!"
