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"I'm sorry Alexandra, but we searched all the mentions of petrifactions and nowhere there is mention of an animal, the fabled 'Monster of Slytherin' of the fable, which can petrifies people at will and resides inside Hogwarts walls. We don't know what the fabled 'Monster of Slytherin' is." Declared Hermione.
"Really nothing?" Asked the Potter Heiress in a disappointed tone. They were back in the room which had become by default their meeting place, homework studies location and headquarters of their group of four. After several weeks of cleaning and other household Charms, the former room where the fan-club of the Tutshill Tornados had met once upon the time was now a very comfortable place, with a couch, a small library found in nearby abandoned classes and a good fire in the chimney. The last point had become quite needed, as the temperature on the other side of the windows was hellishly cold, and a fierce storm ejected massive quantities of snow everywhere. Quidditch sessions were now officially cancelled. Going to the Herbology greenhouses was a nightmare, and not only for the snowdrifts. Passing between a warm and very humid place to a freezing one made a very unpleasant shock of temperature.
"Well, there's the Gorgon." Admitted Hermione in an unconvinced tone. "But the animal is extremely weak when the temperatures are not hot and warm. A Scottish winter would kill a Gorgon in a matter of hours."
"And it's a dangerous and endangered species, whose reproduction, transport and breeding are carefully controlled by the Greek ministry." Developed Morag, sending an ink-dirtied parchment into the fire. "Another problem is their life expectancy, close to forty years. I don't know how somebody could make one enter Hogwarts and use it at an interval of several decades. And these beasts petrify everyone they see, no wizard handler is able to safely control them once they're adult."
"Wonderful." Alexandra closed her eyes before reopening them in lassitude. "I have studied the archives of the Daily Prophet from 1960 to 1990 in the last weeks. There is nothing in them referring to petrifaction attacks or anything concerning the Chamber of Secrets. If similar attacks really happened at Hogwarts, it happened before the sixties."
"Any other tracks we can follow?"
"There was this evil artefact created by the Dark Lord Ren in the 1350s." Said Hermione absently, opening a very dusty old book she was probably the first to leaf through in the twentieth century. "One of its properties allowed it to petrify living beings, but it was only temporary."
"How much temporary are we speaking about?"
"Fifteen to twenty-four hours." This was a disappointing answer, but then the bushy-haired Gryffindor added: "then the stone crumbled and they died."
"Filch and Mrs Norris have been petrified for over an entire month without dying, so I think we can assume this artefact is not responsible."
"And the persons who were outside the great Hall in Halloween? Have we managed to make a list of everyone who could have had the opportunity to lead the two attacks?"
"For the attack on Creevey and Frazer, I'm afraid I haven't a clue where to begin." Admitted Alexandra, followed by a nod of assent of the two other girls and the boy around the table. "The two Gryffindors met their aggressor at the very limit of curfew for younger years. Perhaps a few minutes before it."
"The Heir could have run to his Common Room in the time he had left?" Wondered Nigel.
"A Hufflepuff or a Slytherin, yes." Tempered Hermione. "But I know of no secret passages allowing a person to move to Gryffindor Tower so quickly."
"The same is true for Ravenclaw tower." Said Morag, beginning to write what promised to be a boring History essay. "On the other hand, a student having run to reach the dorms before a Professor noticed is hardly suspicious."
"For Halloween, it's simpler." Alexandra unrolled a parchment for her Astronomy homework. "Five persons that I know of were outside the Great Hall when the attack came. Argus Filch, Neville Longbottom, Leo Black, Ronald Weasley and a fifth-year Slytherin student named...Bolton Lloyd. Filch is out of the pool of candidates of potential suspects. I would like to be sure the Heir of Slytherin didn't activate a delayed magical trap, though."
"I agree with Alexandra." Spoke Nigel. "What do we know about Bolton Lloyd?"
"Fifth-year, pure-blood, comes from a relatively poor family, two of his family fought and died under You-Know-Who in the last war." Enounced Morag. "Quite dumb. Is in the process of failing his fifth-year, dead last of his class."
"Not exactly the kind of criminal mastermind we search." Sighed Alexandra. It had been worth a try, but it looked like the search was a dead-end on that point. "It's possible he's acting like an imbecile to throw off suspicions, but most likely Snape put him in detention in the hope his marks improved. I will keep him on the potential list of suspects, but..."
Alexandra didn't finish her sentence, simply rolling her shoulders to signify how much she believed in his culpability. If the fifth-year Slytherin was busy failing his OWLs in spite of his best efforts, him conspiring to create a climate of terror inside Hogwarts was not a scenario which figured in her most realistic estimations.
"That leaves Longbottom as the principal suspect in these attacks." Said Morag.
"Yes. Why the Professors did not ask him to swear a Truth Oath he's not behind this disaster? After the incident with the Slytherin where he was involved, I would have expected the Professors to treat him like any common suspect."
"In reality they can't ask him to do that." Affirmed Morag MacDougal. "Veritaserum, Truth Oaths and a few other magical methods to determine the culpability of someone are forbidden to use on a Lord or a Lady of the Wizengamot without an absolute majority. Article 17 paragraph 6."
By the way the Irish pure-blood recited it verbatim, Alexandra had a feeling this kind of argument had come back a lot in Wizengamot and pure-blood familial lessons.
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