Hermione and I stood just outside Professor Flitwick's office door, Luna having abandoned us after complaining about untolerable working conditions.
"How do you suppose he opens it?" I asked as we stood there.
"It's a door," Hermione said flatly. "He opens it by turning the knob."
"Well yeah, but look how high the knob is." I leaned in to inspect the brass fixture nearly at my shoulder. "Does he have to stand on his toes to do it? Or maybe jump and grab on to it."
"He uses magic." The words came through the wooden door silently opening to reveal Flitwick behind his mammoth oak desk, parchment scattered all about. "And he can hear you Mr. Potter."
"Are you alright, Professor? You're speaking in the 3rd person again."
He just sighed and waved us into his cramped office. All around us massive bookcases crammed beyond capacity with even more books littering the floors, and chairs and every other conceivable surface. Even a few inconceivable ones for that matter since magic was involved.
"Now Ms. Granger as the more…" Flitwick paused trying to think of the best word to use.
"Sane?" Hermione offered, as she reverently lifted a thick tome off a chair and set it on the desk before taking a seat.
"Perfect, thank you. As the more sane of the two what can I help you with?"
"That's not nice," I grumbled and knocked a few books on the floor from a chair so I could sit too.
"Do you think you are more sane than her?" Flitwick asked.
"Didn't say it wasn't true." I said.
"Right well. What's the problem Ms. Granger?" Flitwick turned back to Hermione.
"Well, Professor, we were just in the Great Hall investigating the recent incident that occurred."
"The incident being where Snape got egged," I added.
"He already knows what incident I'm talking about."
"I know. I just like saying that Snape got egged. There's something magical about the phrase. I wonder if it could be a spell somehow. Snapeus-"My voice suddenly fell silent as Hermione's wand cut off my voice. I refused to be silenced however and continued on through the art of interpretive dance.
"We were investigating the incident," she continued through my art. "And we found the basket used to hold the eggs covered under an invisibility charm and left underneath the Ravenclaw table. We thought you might have some idea as to how it was made."
"An invisibility charm you say?" Flitwick's eyebrows rose at the story. "That's quite an advanced feat of magic, I must say. And we don't teach invisibility charms here for obvious reasons. I mean how daft would you have to be to give a hormonal teenager access to something that would allow him to go anywhere and do anything undetected." He laughed at the thought of such a ridiculous thing and I froze mid dance as Hermione chuckled nervously.
"Yes, quite daft indeed," she agreed. "There's no way it could end well."
Flitwick finished his laugh and shook his head. "Do you have the basket still? There might be a way of identifying the creator, but I'd have to see it first."
"Of course," Hermione set the basket on the desk in all its now visible wicker wood greatness. The few remaining eggs and treacle tart still decorating the inside.
"A pity you dispelled the charm," Flitwick said, taking out his wand and examining the basket. "It will certainly make it harder to find the culprit."
"Yeah, Hermione. Why'd you have to dispel the charm?" I added.
"It shut's up or else it gets the charm again," Hermione whispered, jabbing the wooden tip of her wand into my side and I shuddered.
"I'll be good."
Flitwick sighed behind the basket and put his wand away. "I'm afraid there isn't anything of use I can tell you about who actually did this. The basket is one you can get for a knut down in Hogsmead and there is no real way to tell who cast the spells now."
"We're at a dead end then?" Hermione asked.
"I'm afraid so." Flitwick said.
"Do we still get paid?" I asked.
"You can't really expect to get paid if you didn't actually solve anything."
"Then we can't just give up." I leapt to my feet, arm raised to the ceiling. "Where would we be today if Minister Fudge had just given up on his election bid?"
"In a better place?" Hermione offered.
"Bad example." I shook my head and grabbed the handle of the basket. "What I'm trying to say is the twins are in danger of being punished for a crime they didn't commit and we have to help them in any way we can."
"And get paid." Flitwick added.
"And get paid." I agreed. "Now I need to know, Hermione. Are you 100% with me?"
"I'm at about 60% honestly." She held her hand out and flickered it sideways.
"How about 80%?" I offered.
"53," her eyes narrowed.
"53% it is," I turned back to the confused looking professor. "You said Hogwarts doesn't teach invisibility spells, right?"
"Of course not."
"Is there any way one could learn them though?" I asked.
"There is a book in the restricted section," Flitwick admitted after a moment. "The spell itself isn't all that difficult or dangerous, but like I said it's not something we generally want the students to know." I could see Hermione's eyes gleam at his words like a cat when a particularly juicy rat has entered their sight.
"There's nothing else to do then. We'll need an all access pass to the restricted section for at least a week in order to solve this mystery!" Hermione said.
"Are you at a 100% yet," I whispered and got a sharp elbow to the side for my effort.
"I can't just give you an all access pass," Flitwick said. "I'm not even sure I can morally give you two accesses to the one book."
"Can't give us two or can't give Harry?" she asked.
"Can't give Harry. With the trouble he gets into on a regular basis can you imagine what would happen if he could become invisible? No offense intended, Mr. Potter."
"Oh I'm glad you added that last part. I was about to become offended, but then you added that last bit and I realized it was all okay," I said sarcastically.
"Do you think it's not true?" Flitwick asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I would get into exactly as much trouble with access to an invisibility spell as I do now!"
"How about if I promise not to let Harry learn the spell, Professor? Would you let us have the pass then?" Hermione pleaded even as I shot her a look of betrayal.
Flitwick stared into her puppy dog eyes and sighed, pulling some of the parchment littering his desk closer. "I'm going to regret doing this I know, but I couldn't resist eyes like that when Lily Evans did it and I can't resist it now."
"See, Harry," Hermione leaned over to me. "I told you operation 'get access to the restricted section' would work."
"I thought this was operation 'save the twins from a fate they don't deserve'?"
"There can be two operations," Hermione said.
"You forgot about the twins, didn't you?"
"Maybe just a little," she admitted.
"Here you are Ms. Granger," Flitwick interrupted sliding a worn piece of parchment across the desk. "You have access to the restricted section for the next two days. Just don't let Mr. Potter learn the invisibility spell. I shudder to think of the consequences."
"I'll make sure he doesn't see it," Hermione promised and we walked out of the office; back into the drafty hall.
"Can't be trusted with invisibility he says. I'll show him. I'm. I'm. I'm going to poop on his desk!"
"Is that really what you wanted to say?" Hermione asked after a moment.
"… no," I admitted.
/o.O.o\
AN It's been a bit since I've updated and I thought it might be fun to see what Harry and Hermione are up to right now. Their only clue left is a single book. Will it pan out? Will they solve the mystery? Probably. Wouldn't be much of a story if they didn't. Next time on Private Eye Potter: The truth comes out, who really did egg Snape?
As always read and review if you'd like. They won't actually make me update, but the make me feel more like writing and that'll get you updates.