Disclaimer : I do not own Harry Potter and the few quotations I used here belong to Sherlock Holmes. :)

It has been a long time since I last posted a story, and this time I brought you a short series, inspired by Hannibal, CSI TV Series, and Sherlock Holmes. :) The pairings for this story are Tom/Harry and Cedric/Harry.

Thanks to my Beta for editing this, as well as my readers for staying with me. You guys are the best. :D

Warnings: Alternate Universe, Original Characters (not any of the mains, no worries), killing (no explicit scenes, hopefully), and perhaps a bit of OOCness.

Enjoy your reading!

"His name is Christian McTaylor. 47 years old. Divorced and worked as a lawyer in a quite well-known firm. His neighbor found him dead in his bed this morning when he didn't go through his morning routine; which was playing the saxophone loudly. She was suspicious, knocked the door and no answer, but last night he did come home. The door was unlocked. Cause of death, a sharp stab in the heart." Blaise explained while slowly checking the small bedroom. He carefully moved the victim's belongings on the coffee table to look for any clear evidence but found none. Draco took pictures of every part of the room while Tom looked out from the open window.

"Clean, isn't it?" Tom quietly asked. Blaise sighed and nodded.

"Unfortunately. It's the same murderer. Our Scalpel. "

"This is our fifth victim. Still, no apparent motive as of yet." Cedric muttered and slowly zipped the bag containing the dead body. He turned to look at his assistants and nodded at them.

"Send him in." They responded by quickly but carefully taking the corpse out to be sent to the hospital. Cedric looked at Blaise and Draco who have already finished with their work and then at their leader. Tom closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.

"Five victims. Same cause of death; a sharp stab in the heart, big chance it's caused by a sharp, metal object; our suspicion is a scalpel. One woman, four men; ages ranging from 40 to 50. Professions, unrelated. Relatives, unrelated. Past relationships, unrelated. Clean cut murder." He murmured before turning to look at his team. The four of them stood still, looking at each other before Cedric's cell phone suddenly rang.

Cedric grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, it's Harry. A moment please." He left the crime scene quickly, and Blaise snickered.

"Ah, lovebirds. Can't even be away for more than an hour."

"Shut up, Blaise. At least Diggory's getting some." Draco snorted, his eyes sharp as he examined the pictures in his camera. Tom resisted the urge to hit something by the mention of Harry's name and darted his eyes around the room.

"Blaise," once the tall investigator looked at him, Tom tilted his head to the bedside table, which had pens on top of it.

"Looks like our fifth victim is – was a writer as well. The amount of pens on top of the table indicates that he wrote a lot. Journal maybe. Notes. Maybe he even wrote a diary. This room has a lot of books and papers as well. Funny, no computers or laptops found in this apartment." Tom stated as he approached the tall bookshelf near the door. There were a lot more books outside of the bedroom and Blaise narrowed his eyes.

"Laptops or computers. He's a lawyer. No way would he survive without that." Blaise pointed out. Draco nodded his head in agreement.

"And to think again, this is our first victim who actually had a career. The other four are a housewife, a bartender, and two jobless men."

"Maybe McTaylor had an idea about the murderer. He was murdered, because he found something-" Blaise was cut off when Cedric suddenly rushed into the room. All of them looked at him; Tom with a raised eyebrow. Cedric's expression was hopeful and serious at the same time as he showed them his phone.

"Guys, Harry said he might have found something from the fourth victim that could relate to the other three."

"Black market? Seriously, Potter? What has gotten into you this time, dead people giving you random clues in your dreams?" Draco glared at the young forensic doctor as Harry gave Tom a file.

"Yes, black market, Malfoy. If you can just shut your useless hole for a minute and let me explain." Harry bit back, shocking Draco who stood with his mouth agape. Both Blaise and Cedric chuckled at the interaction.

"Feisty one you got there, Cedric."

"Thank you, Blaise."

Tom rolled his eyes at their behaviour, while thoroughly going through the file. Harry placed his white doctor coat on his chair before he sat down on the chair and checked on his computer.

"About three years ago, I followed Ron's team to investigate at a large black market, Horcrux. But what we found there was bigger than we expected." Harry clicked open the old document he had in his work file and turned to look at Tom. The 30 years old investigator narrowed his eyes at the file he was reading.

"Slavery."

The other three pairs of eyes turned to look at him in shock. Harry nodded slowly.

"Yes. Slavery. Fortunately, Ron's team managed to catch all the present buyers. Our fourth victim, Phillips Carr, was one of them."

Blaise shook his head. "That's ridiculous. The sentence of slavery-"

"We caught him, but he got a strong alibi, Blaise. We couldn't hold him down when there was a reasonable doubt. At first I thought this was just a coincidence. Then just to make sure, I asked Ron to check on the criminal records for our three previous victims." Harry nodded his head and show Tom the record he received from the FBI.

Tom's blue eyes were sharp as they skimmed through the load of information. Cedric stood still behind him, reading it as well, while Draco and Blaise got into a small discussion between themselves.

"Our second victim, Charles Vaughn is definitely a black market buyer material. Found his record for having in his possession a couple of illegal things but can't really point out where he bought it. It was vague on the fact whether he got involved in the slavery activity as well or not, but let's put our vote on 'yes'. Third victim's family, the Tanners, was speculated to have a few slaves before. Found it in his father's record, not James Tanner's. But it looked like a family habit. But it was the first victim that got you down, Tom. The first victim, Paula Lee. Once caught for being involved in a slavery auction, but no evidence for that. Acquitted and the record was wiped clean on request filed to the court." Harry explained. Tom rechecked the file in his hands and looked at the green eyed man in front of him.

"We didn't go through their criminal records thoroughly because they were clean. Except for Charles Vaughn's but that seemed unrelated." Cedric voiced out, and Harry nodded in agreement.

"But actually, it turned out the victims managed to hide them well. Paula Lee's record was clean, only because it was cleared up." Blaise frowned deeply before they turned their attention to their leader. Tom was indifferent, but he was gripping the plastic file in his hand tightly.

"Once is an accident. Twice is fate. Thrice is a habit," Tom murmured softly and Harry's green eyes stared into his blue, as if he was thinking the same thought on Tom's mind. Tom chuckled, giving the file for Draco to hold.

Tom smirked. "But since this is a serial murder case, let us get you operating on the fifth body first, Potter. Just to confirm."

Harry rolled his eyes at the older man, but nevertheless laughed at his words.

"Of course, Tom, of course."

"Heard the wedding is tomorrow evening?" Blaise nudged Cedric and the blond laughed at his wriggled eyebrows.

"No, no wedding. Just going to register and get the license at the office. My parents don't mind how I want the wedding to be, and Harry's father is in Scotland. He thinks it's a waste of time just to let him come here only for a wedding. His sister is coming, though. You're welcome to attend it." Cedric explained with a small smile on his lips. Tom sipped his black coffee, his eyes fixed on his papers but his ears sharp on the conversation.

The lounge room was only occupied by them, since Draco who just went out to the FBI's office to meet Ron Weasley. Cedric turned to look at him and Tom nonchalantly put his tea away, as if he didn't know the blond was about to ask him to come.

"Hey, Tom, if you're free tomorrow evening, you may as well come with us. I think Harry would be happy to have you there. It's our day off anyway. Might as well get some drinks afterward." The blond offered with a kind smile on his face, although he knew the shared past between his fiancé and his boss. Tom looked at them for a moment before going back to his works.

"We'll see."

"It seems that you are ready to be tied down."

Harry quickly turned to look at the person standing at the door. Tom leaned against the doorframe, blue eyes scrutinizing Harry in his sharp and smart black suit. Harry sighed heavily before turning back to look at the mirror again.

"What are you doing here, Tom? You still keep my key?" Harry adjusted his tie carefully and watched from the tall mirror as Tom approached him from behind. His bedroom was now half empty, since most of his belongings were already moved to Cedric's house. He thought of selling his apartment at first, but then refused to follow the thought.

His apartment is too valuable to sell, too much memories.

Memories like Tom.

Tom leaned closer; his chest to Harry's back and gently placed his hands on both sides of Harry's waist.

"Harry-"

"Tom, no." Harry cut him off abruptly and turned to look at him. His green eyes were sad and strong at the same time, causing Tom to move back slightly. They stared at each other for a moment, and Tom at last, chuckled.

"You know, I've always liked that one thing about you." He smiled, reaching out one hand to tuck a strand of black locks behind Harry's ear. Harry closed his eyes and shivered involuntarily.

"I like that you never stop being yourself. Even though when you are sad, you still try to make other people happy." Tom whispered softly and pressed a gentle kiss against Harry's forehead. Harry shook his head and turned to look at the open windows of his bedroom. The sun was bright and in two more hours, he'll be wedded to one Cedric Diggory.

"… I love you, Tom. I have, and will always do." Harry murmured, carefully grabbing Tom's wrist that was close to his face and pressed a kiss to the blue vein he saw there. Tom's blue eyes were dark and sharp, and Harry took a shaky breath before looking at them.

"But I want this. I want this complete commitment. Marriage. Settling down. A house, kids, two dogs, white fences and everything." Harry continued, tone desperate and Tom sighed. Harry pressed forward at the response that he got and tightened his grip on Tom's wrist.

"You don't want this. And I can't… can't live with that." He clenched his eyes shut and felt Tom's breathing becoming laboured.

"So you decided to go for the second best." He felt the reply before it was out and Harry leaned closer to his former lover.

"Shut it, Tom, Cedric is a lot of things." Harry defended but didn't mind the almost snort Tom gave him. Yes, Tom Marvolo Riddle didn't do snorting. But almost-snorts, yes.

"A lot of things that you don't need. I am something that you need." Tom looked down, cupping Harry's cheeks with his palms so that he looked up at him and when their eyes met again, Harry was flooded by all those years of being a completely happy fool in love, of years working in a completely perfect chemistry with the brilliant investigator, and of years waiting for him to come home when he got in too deep with his work, of his sleepless nights, of his dangerous, careless actions.

"Tom," Harry pushed him away, not unkindly, hands on his chest. Tom looked at him as if he was looking at what they could still have and Harry laughed at that, albeit bitterly.

"Look at you. Have you even gotten home yet since yesterday?" Harry gestured at his clothes and condition, causing Tom to run his fingers through his already messy hair exasperatedly.

"I was working on the fifth victim, Harry, I can't waste my time sleeping. One minute wasted on sleep could have brought me to the killer-"

"Tom, this is the reason why we won't make it. This is what I can't handle! I can't handle not knowing what had gotten into your mind at times when you go all crazy over crime scenes. And worst, if you got killed and I'd probably be the last person to know. And you know what, there's a big chance it won't even be an 'if'. Now, it's probably just a matter of 'when'." Harry sighed loudly, looking away and rubbing his face with his palms. He hated it the most when they got into this kind of argument. Had it too many times for it to matter anymore. And Harry hated it the most when Tom had no excuse to fight him back.

When the only thing that Tom does after Harry threw everything, every iota of emotion and concern on his face, was to be silent.

Harry turned to get his cellphone when a message came in. It was probably Cedric, waiting at their reserved room in the hotel for the night. He took a moment to calm himself down before grabbing his suit jacket on his bed and pulled his small luggage bag by the side of the bed. Tom watched him silently after his outburst, but his eyes masked thousands of unspoken words when Harry turned to look at him before he went out from his bedroom.

They stared at each other for another moment, and Harry tightened his grip on his jacket.

"Why are you even here anyway? To stop me?" Harry chuckled, the sound hollowed, its fakeness resounding, but it wouldn't matter anymore. It shouldn't anymore. Tom returned his smile, lips upturned on his handsome face but the smile didn't reach his eyes.

Harry ignored the painful clench in his chest as Tom blinked his eyes, wiped away a trace of tears with the back of his hand as if it was nothing.

"I'm not coming to your marriage registration, or the drinks you people will be having afterwards. It was nice of Diggory to ask anyway. To answer your question, I'm here to congratulate you on your marriage. And congratulations too, for finally getting what you want… You two make a perfect pair." Tom nodded at him with a small smile before he headed out to the door, his long strides never pausing as he passed by Harry, only pausing briefly to put down the spare key of Harry's apartment on the coffee table before he left the place.

Harry was left to stand alone in the middle of his empty apartment, a chuckle escaping his throat that felt too tight suddenly, and eyes warmed and blurred by tears.

"Harry, you look handsome, you pretty boy." Harry rolled his eyes at his sister, who came to him to give him a tight hug. He hugged her back as fiercely before turning to look at his fiancé and friends. Ron, Hermoine, Blaise, and surprisingly, Draco were there as well. They stood in front of the City Clerk's office while waiting for their turn.

"You look… good, Harry," Cedric complimented him, a bright, happy grin on his face and Harry felt a blush warm his cheeks. He shyly nodded. "Yeah, thanks. You too, Cedric."

"Aww… I can't believe Harry is getting married earlier than we are, he's just 28! But that should be okay, they look super handsome. Beautiful couple." Hermione sighed dreamily before looking at her boyfriend, who was standing next to her. Ron couldn't help but laugh at them.

"Hey, give the guy a rest. Harry looks like he could cook an egg on his face!" Ron grinned, pointing out at Harry's red face. His sister, Harriet, wrapped her arm around him while chuckling as well. Blaise and Draco shook their heads at the statement but grins were on their faces.

"So Tom's not coming?" Draco inquired almost nonchalantly, but Harry knew the other members of the Crime Scene Investigation were quite worried about their leader. Cedric said nothing but his warm brown eyes looked almost apologetic.

"No, he's busy with the victims. But he said congratulations. That should be sufficient." Harry smiled, almost disgusted by how easily he can lie with his words. Cedric and the others were too quick to be comforted.

"Cedric Diggory, and Harry Potter?" they were interrupted by a female worker from the office, and Cedric nodded to signal their presence. Harriet turned to give a peck on her older brother's cheek, chuckling.

"Finally, the day you've been waiting for. After years of planning." She whispered with a smile. Harry turned to look at her, their identical green eyes scrutinizing each other before he let out a small smile and kissed her back on her cheek.

"Yes. Let's do this."

Cedric turned to look at Harry, smiled at the siblings' interaction before offering him his arm like a gentleman he was. Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes at the display when his sister and Hermione started to squeal like teenage girls.

"You're ready?" Cedric asked, happy and hopeful.

Harry's green eyes softened at the display, before nodding his head with a smile of his own.

Oh, how he wished Tom was Cedric.

But this is what he wanted.

He couldn't go back after this. Not anymore.

"Yes, Cedric. Always."

"You found the laptop?" Tom asked once Blaise entered the office and the black man had to control his yawn before answering his superior. He nodded his head and tilted his head at the direction of the door.

"I've sent it to the Evidence Room. It was in his office at his firm. Maybe we won't get much of it. Probably 1% possibility of it being helpful, considering on how old the model is." Blaise shrugged and proceeded to take a sip from his takeaway coffee. Tom frowned, staring at the wide white board in front of him, arms crossed.

"1% possibility is still a possibility. We can't afford to risk even a single percentage of probable evidence. Have you become rusty in just one night, Zabini?" Tom turned his head to look at the younger investigator disapprovingly, causing Blaise to blink back at him.

"… Okayyy, Tom, we'll take a look at it later." The black man slowly agreed, and watched as their team leader gave back the white board his attention. He put down his coffee and took his seat, ready to start his day.

"Morning, Tom, Blaise." Draco entered their office with his trench coat on his arm; one hand holding onto a paper bag and the other hand carrying his briefcase. Tom just hmm-ed absentmindedly as the response, and Draco abruptly stopped, raising a questioning eyebrow at his other companion in the room.

Blaise mouthed slowly.

'Someone is in a bad mood.'

Draco made a motion of shooting his own head with his forefinger and thumb.

'Might as well kill ourselves now before he kills us later.'

"You two are loud."

Both Blaise and Draco quickly turned to look at Tom, scared that he was watching their interaction but the older man was still facing his white board. Draco squinted his eyes,

"No, we're not." Draco bit back, as he approached his table to put down his things. Tom waved one hand that was holding onto a marker.

"Your empty heads are making those loud sounds like something small got caught in it. Like pebbles in an empty can. I am wondering where your brains are in this early hours of the morning." He answered back, still not looking at them and Draco quickly turned to look at Blaise again, face incredulous.

'Again I tell you. Suicide. Now.' He motioned again. Blaise rolled his eyes at the blond before going back to his work. They settled down into their working positions and started their work without any other interaction. The atmosphere in the big office was calm and silent for a long moment; Draco and Blaise searching for more information on the victims while Tom stared at the clean white board in front of him.

Cedric had taken two days off to celebrate his marriage with Harry, and since Harry was not exactly specialized for their department, they didn't know how long Harry took days off, and how long would it take for his assistant, Cho Chang to finish operating on the fifth dead body.

The silence was however, broken when one Hermione Granger entered the office with a bright smile.

"Hello, boys, the lab sent this for you this morning." the young female analyst grinned and placed a document in an envelope on Draco's table. Draco looked at the envelope before checking it.

"Oh, the result for the blood test. Thanks, Granger." Draco nodded his head at the girl before going back to do his works. Hermione smiled.

"You're welcome, anyway, I just wanted to ask-" she turned to look at the older investigator who was still staring at the white board and her eyes went wide at his clothes and his form. "Tom, when was the last time you went home?"

Tom didn't even turn to look at her while answering with a plain, "I'm working."

Hermoine rolled her eyes at his back and looked back at Tom's two unfortunate underlings.

"Yes, back to my question. It's not even 8 yet, so who wants to accompany me for breakfast?"

"Me."

"Okay." Blaise and Draco quickly shut their files and stood up from their seats, couldn't stop themselves from wanting to leave the room as soon as possible. The female analyst inwardly sighed, but managed to let out a small chuckle.

"All right, boys. Let's go. Anything, Tom?"

"Working."

"All right, all right."

Tom heard an exasperating sigh from Hermione, few shuffles here and there, indicating Blaise and Draco picking up their things and then, the slow motion of the door closing. Finally the noisy ducklings were gone, Tom inwardly rolled his eyes.

He spent another minute staring at the white board, mind swirling for any connected relations and his eyes narrowed even more at the white board as time went by. Every clue, and words, and sign worked themselves out in his mind and by the end of his deliberating, he drew a big circle in the middle of the white board, marked 'BM:S'. Surrounding the big circle were five smaller circles, distanced from the middle circle like planets orbiting around the Sun. He labelled each circle by the name of the victims, and promptly connected all circles to the main circle with an arrow. Parallel to each arrow line, he wrote down the type of record the victims had relating to the black market.

Tom put the dates of their committed crime and then leaned back to observe his work.

"Five victims, all related to the Black Market: Slavery but the dates and their wrongdoings are completely unrelated. Even the genders, past records and relationship are unrelated. Could it be one of the-" Tom's blue eyes widened a fraction as he stared at the middle circle. Something devious passed into his mind and stopped at the back of his head, buzzing annoyingly as if it was telling him how stupid he was being. Tom slowly uncapped his marker and approached the white board again.

He draw a bigger circle, just outside of the 'BM:S' circle and took a deep, shaky breath.

"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes."

He grinned.

"One date. One date where all the victims met at the Black Market for the slave auction. We just need that one date in their previous 20 to 30 years of life."

"You're a madman." Blaise stated with a blank face.

"Have you lost your mind?!" Draco protested as well.

"Riddle, really, as much as I would love to entertain you, but in case you've forgotten, one of your victim was a housewife, two were jobless, one was a bartender and another was a lawyer. Four have no valid and legal records of their work, not to mention, that just makes it harder for us to dig into the previous 20 to 30 years of their lives." Ron chipped in as well, face incredulous.

Tom rolled his eyes at the comment and turned back to look at his white board.

Now he was starting to love this game.

"You see, but you do not observe," he ignored their sighs and groans, marking the fifth victim with a red marker, "We have our lawyer here. A lawyer usually keeps records of their work. And since our McTaylor worked at a well-known firm, I'd vote, he did. He wrote a lot as well. We have the laptop. The laptop is an old model, still working so there's also a chance he kept his records in there. Search at his house for any possible journals or diaries. I want his assistants – you hear me, assistants in the past 20 to 30 years of his working period there – to give their accounts. If it turns out McTaylor worked somewhere else before, get those workers as well."

"This is too much for a Friday." Blaise groaned, rubbing his face with his palm while Draco, although grunted, wrote down everything Tom said. Tom wandered in front of the white board, hands gestures wild and blue eyes bright.

"We've established our murderer as a person with medical skills. He knows how to make a quick stab into the heart for a clean cut murder. One must have had practice, and good knowledge on the structure of the human body to do so. So he's probably a doctor, or a specialist in heart surgery. This man could probably be in his thirties or older. Except if he's a very skilled doctor, or a pure genius." Tom explained some more, and Ron managed to cut in before the investigator continued with his theory.

"So it means that he is either; one, the person who was with the victims on your date," here, Tom could almost hear the eye-rolling, "Or two, the one against them. Could be because of revenge. Could be because the murderer wants to wipe out each and every one of them."

"Smart observation, Weasley, but not smart enough." Tom commented, and heard Blaise and Draco chuckle while the redhead detective snorted. He drew a new arrow from the big circle of the BM:S and looked at it for a moment. The other three in the room also stared at the implication of his signs and Draco breathed out slowly, but heavily.

"If we can get the date, it can lead us to the sixth victim faster than the Scalpel. It can save a life."

Blaise nodded, and Ron couldn't help but to agree as well. They spent another minute staring at the white board, thinking of how they were going to start researching all the possible dates and how tedious the process would be, before Tom suddenly held out his hand, back to them. The three other people in the room looked at him, wondering what other nonsense he was asking for.

"I need Diggory. Get me Diggory."

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"I want you to return now. I got a lead for the Scalpel. I'll see you in 30 minutes."

"Cedric?" Harry sleepily reached out a hand for his husband, who was starting at his cellphone in shock. The blond suppressed his frustration at his leader, before turning to look at Harry, naked, beautiful, and sleepy in their bed.

He couldn't help but to chuckle a bit and pressed a small kiss on the tip of his husband's nose.

"Hey, sweetheart, I know we just got married two days ago but I really need to get back to work now." Cedric explained softly before getting out from their comfortable bed. He looked for his clothes, which were scattered on the floor after their last night's escapade, and dumped them in the laundry. He heard Harry sigh loudly, before the younger man turned to look at him with an annoyed pair of big, green eyes.

"It's Tom, isn't it? That crazy git." Harry fumed, making Cedric laugh at his expression. The blond took out his clothes for the day before grabbing his towel, getting ready to take a short shower.

"His brilliant mind can't do anything about the crime scene without all his ducklings."

"I'm smacking him the next time I see him. He'd better be ready. Oh, by the way, I'm going out with Harriet today. Her flight to San Francisco is tomorrow, said that she was called in for a big criminal case. I might as well be spending some time with the hotshot lawyer before she leaves." Harry smiled, looking at the blond investigator. Then he carefully pushed down a bit of the comforter that was hiding the lower part of his naked body, grinning seductively like a Cheshire cat. Cedric couldn't help but laugh a bit – his laughter was so warm, Harry could feel it rising up the heat on his cheeks –, leaned close to him again and pressed a deep kiss onto his lover. Harry hummed happily, wrapping both arms around Cedric's neck to pull him down back into bed.

"You know what?" Cedric mumbled, kissing his way down his pale skinned lover, mouthing at his throat like Harry was a delicious meal spread out for him, "Screw 30 minutes. I'm blowing you first."

Harry laughed.

In a small restaurant, near the lakeside hotel, which was also at a walking distance to the government hospital and not too far from the CSI office building, a young pretty woman wearing a cream coloured blouse, dark green skirt and her black trench coat placed on the other empty seat, smiled as she sipped on her tea.

Her red lipstick left a stain on the cup, and she carefully wiped the mark off with a napkin.

"Making you run round in circles like a puppy is fun." She chuckled to herself, thinking about what could possibly be happening at the investigation department close to her position now. Then she turned to look at her cellphone that vibrated, signalling there was an incoming message.

"Hmm." She tilted her head slightly as she read the message. A smile later appeared on her face as she watched a young man with black hair and still wearing a white labcoat, crossing the street, "The sixth."

"One week of this, not going anywhere now." Draco placed more journals and books on top of Tom's table, glaring at his superior at the same time. Tom scrutinized the journal he was reading, ignoring Draco who was still standing in front of him. The blond scrunched his nose and groaned loudly.

"Now I can't wait for the sixth to come out." He muttered half-heartedly. Cedric shook his head, smiling a bit as he continued reading his portion of books.

"Interesting how the clues worked, isn't it? The victims have no connection whatsoever except for the Black Market and the slavery auction held there. If we were to give out the hypothesis that the Scalpel killed random five victim from the Black Market, it pushed out the clue regarding their ages. Since all the victims' ages were varied in between 40 to 50 years old, random killing doesn't not fit the criterion properly. People aged 30 probably spend much more money on Black Market rather than the 40 to 50 years old. And our victims had, a long time ago, stopped with their activities there. So that one date. Easier said than done."

"Listening to that from you, Diggory, does sound more wonderful than our mad head there," Draco muttered, rolling his eyes and opened an old leather-bound book he just picked out from the evidence box. Neville pushed his glasses up from the tip of his nose, sniffing as he read the next page of his journal, and Tom turned his head at him.

"Something wrong, Longbottom?"

"If that something wrong is me and him stolen from our department, then yes." Ron's grunt was loud at the left side of the room and Draco barked back. "Have mercy, Weasel, you think we love this?!"

Blaise shook his head resignedly and Neville looked up from his reading, smiling sheepishly.

"Ehh, nothing. I'm just touched by his writing. He wrote good poems." Neville blushed slightly and Cedric couldn't help laughing. Tom might have a twitch in his eye at the detective from the FBI department, but everyone thought it was better not to point it out.

Tom Riddle could be quite vicious when someone mentioned he was showing normal human behaviour.

"I found something!"

Every pair of eyes in the room turned to look at Draco as he held out an envelope he found in-between pages of the leather-bound book. Tom nodded at the blond after a moment, and Draco carefully undid the old letter.

"Whoever found this letter, I hope the circumstance is that I am no longer alive, as I can't ever live knowing this secret of mine is now out from the dark." Draco read the first sentence, and then his grey eyes widened.

"18th of August, 1994." Draco whispered, grey eyes wide and full with surprise, amazement and disbelief, as they slowly looking up at his other partners. Cedric who sat beside him, gaped at the old paper that Draco was holding and the others then quickly shot out from their seats.

"It's a letter of confession! How smart is that!"

"We got the date! We got the fucking date! Finally!"

"God, Draco, why didn't you pick that book the first day you got your boxes!"

"Hurry, Draco, read the rest!"

Tom watched as everyone in the room gathered around the blond to read the letter together. His blue eyes narrowed, and he looked down at the book in his hand. Somehow, knowing that his theory was right, didn't make him feel proud and satisfied as how it always did.

There was something nagging at him at the back of his mind. As if there were more to this, and it would not find its end only by them finding the letter.

Tom turned to look outside of the open windows of his office. The tall building he saw not far from there was the government hospital, where Harry is working at. His hands balled in his lap before he slowly closed his book. He took a deep breath and stood up from his seat, to approach his excited ducklings.

Something ugly was coming his way. Tom gritted his teeth and tried his best to stop the restlessness in his heart to stop, because he knew that that something ugly; was only going to get uglier.

.

.

.

TBC.

A/N: To make things more exciting, I will provide one clue for every 2 guesses with sufficient explanations. If you guys are not interested to play guessing, it's okay, I mean, the whole story already is done, so no worries. (evil crackles)

Playlist for this story: Olafur Arnalds - So Close, Gil Scott Heron - Me And The Devil, and of course, Fauxliage - All The World.

Thanks for reading anyway :)

Please review.