New Beginnings

Chapter 46

Moody and Vance's arrival meant the usual Auror's left. It was a win-win for the students and the Aurors considering how annoying and useless they'd been.

However, nobody knew how competent Moody would be. He was known for being paranoid and violent, had gotten told to retire because he saw enemies everywhere and now he was in a school. Even with Vance to keep him in check, people were sceptic. As highly praised as she was, Moody wasn't an easy patient and went out of his way to try to branch off on his own.

The basic ground rules - as far as Harry could tell - was that Moody had to be accompanied everywhere. He was considered too dangerous to be left alone, but alright enough to head a murder investigation. Obviously, the teacher's refused, even the kinder ones like Sprout, so Vance spent every hour babysitting him with almost zero breaks. 

Between the two, little got done and most of it was surprisingly not their fault. Tonks still hadn't been found and the last murder within Hogwarts had been months ago. Whatever evidence there might've been was gone because of the previous Auror's stupidity and also the fact the school hadn't closed. Maybe if Dumbledore had shut the school down for a short time, more could've been done, but he hadn't and now Moody and Vance seemed incapable of anything. If they'd been sent first, Harry didn't doubt that everything would've been much harder. 

A week passed slowly with Hogwarts growing used to the new people and vice versa. They were forced to work around everyone else so often teachers would be unavailable when needed. Or the halls would be flooded with students when the two Aurors attempted to get somewhere. There was a possibility of Moody, and subsequently, Vance, getting recalled back to London if nothing new was found. The ministry was still trying to maintain control over the situation and either Moody found some piece of information or he had to leave. However, everything seemed to work against them.

It was evident how frustrated they were and then everything fell apart again.

Unlike the ritualistic style Harry had gone for with Ron, Hermione and Cassidy, he and Draco had wanted to be less obvious that there was a murderer. After them, nobody who'd been killed was connected through the method of death, with Molly and Arthur being staged as a murder-suicide. Ginny wasn't even dead and had been moved to St Mungo's. 

Tonks had been staged a suicide. Left to hang from a tree in the forbidden forest and would soon be found when someone actually went into the forest. Draco had suggested finding an area Hagrid rarely went to and wasn't on the outskirts where students sometimes roamed. It had been a good plan for hiding the body and staging the scene, but soon she'd be discovered and it would definitely be before Moody got recalled. The ministry had a habit of stretching things out and trying to cover things up. Moody would stay for months unless he attacked anyone or found anything. There was no way a rotting body would go undiscovered, no matter how much people tried to avoid the forest. 

It was a further week until she was found. 

The centaurs ended up discovering her body and immediately going to Hagrid, who went to Severus, who eventually told Harry and Draco everything. 

Whilst Moody was insistent on pretending nothing had happened and basically attempting a cover-up, he'd been shut down. Severus and Aurora decided that they'd give an announcement to the school and talk with the governors, something that should've happened the first time around. It wasn't a good plan, but there weren't protocols or rules in place for something like this and was better than covering it all up.