This was written as a reserve for the Keeper position. The chosen genre was mystery.

The overall plot-line was my Keeper's, Lady Arturia, idea but she gave me permission to write it as a fill-in for her.

Word count: 1,376

"Daddy's dead!"

Albus stopped arguing with his brother, James, over the racer to see his little sister, Lily, standing at the doorway. She was clutching her stuffed Pegasus, the green one, the one she carried everywhere.

"Dad can't be dead, Lily," James said. "He wanted to watch the telly. His favourite show is on."

Albus thought that this made a lot of sense. Of course Daddy wouldn't have died; his favourite television show was playing. If he had been watching his favourite show, Doctor Who, he wouldn't die. So Daddy couldn't be dead, and Lily had just made it a mistake.

But that was okay, because Lily was little.

"Yes, he is," Lily insisted. "I saw him."

James sighed dramatically and rose to his feet.

"All right, all right. I'll go check." He walked over to Lily and held out his hand.

Albus eyed the broom. Maybe this was his lucky break! If James was going to go downstairs with Lily, then that meant he could take the broom and sneak outside while James was busy. By the time his brother realized that he had taken the broom, he would already be up in the air!

"Aren't you coming, Al?" James was by the door, head twisted over his shoulder, waiting for him.

Oh, crumbs!

Albus shot a wistful glance at the broomstick but eventually rose, too, and followed after his brother. He could go back to arguing why he should ride it first later.

They crept down the stairs, following Lily across the living room, past the kitchen, and into the family room. Sure enough, there was Daddy, lying out on the couch. One arm was thrown up over his head. One leg was propped up on the arm of the couch, but the other had fallen off and was drooping onto the floor. His glasses were lop-sided on his face, and his mouth was wide open.

And he wasn't moving.

Albus stopped short. Daddy certainly looked dead. Maybe Lily was right! Oh, no…

"You see?" Lily said loudly. "He's dead. He hasn't moved for hours and hours and—"

"Shh! You'll disturb the body," James said. Albus frowned.

"You can't disturb a body. It's already dead!"

James turned and grinned. He put his hands up by his face and wiggled his fingers.

"You can if his soul decided to become a ghost. Woooooo!"

Albus slapped James's fingers away from his face and glowered at him.

"Sto-op!"

"Shh!" Lily shushed Albus, putting a finger over her mouth. "You'll disturb the body!"

Albus scowled at her. She was only saying that because James said it first! Sometimes he really didn't like Lily; she always took James's side.

"Right," James said, and put his hands on his hips. He looked down at Daddy for a minute, thinking hard. Albus sneaked a peek at him. James was annoying, but he was still his big brother, and if there was anyone who knew what to do at a time like this, it was a big brother.

"Lily, Albus," James said finally, "it looks like we have a mystery on our hands. Al, grab that cup." He pointed to the mug sitting on the little table beside the couch. "That's definitely the murder weapon."

"How do you know?" Albus whispered. He took the mug and looked into it. A little bit of brownish liquid was still inside, with a swirl of a lighter color right in the middle: coffee. He looked back up to his brother, who was pointing at the tie around Daddy's neck.

"He's got coffee stains on his tie. Obviously, he was drinking his coffee, when someone came in and poisoned him."

"I want some poison!" Lily whined, reaching for the cup in Albus's hands. But Albus was much taller than she was, and he held it out of her reach.

"Lily, you can't have poison," James said.

"Why not?"

"Because it's bad for you." James stooped and picked her up. Then he jerked his head. "C'mon, Al, let's go see who killed Dad."

The three tip-toed to the kitchen, James clutching Lily to his chest and Albus carrying the coffee mug carefully, as if it were a precious object. Murder weapon, James had said. Yes, it was definitely important.

"All right," James said once they were all seated at the table, the mug in front of them. "Let's see if there's anything suspicious."

"I saw some white stuff," Albus offered. James took the cup, tilted it, and began to search the contents furiously.

"Where? I don't see anything."

Albus leaned across the table and, with his finger, showed James the white stuff sprinkled on the rim and speckling the liquid like little the glitter Lily liked using for when they did crafts. James sat in silence for a moment, which Albus took to mean he was thinking very hard. This couldn't be good.

"That's the poison," James declared suddenly. "It's Instant Poison Powder."

Albus's heart sank. Instant Poison Powder? That didn't sound good. Daddy was dead for sure. He didn't want Daddy to be dead!

"It's gotta be around here somewhere," James said, glancing around the kitchen. "The killer would have had to be quick, he would have forgotten – aha!" He ran over to the counter, grabbed something with both hands, and then ran back to the table. It was a glass container full of white, powdery stuff. On it was a sticky label: S-U-G-A-R. Albus bit his lip in concentration, trying to sound out the letters.

"Ssss…suh…gar…suh-gar." He looked up at James. "What's suh-gar?"

James looked very serious when he said, "It's the weapon." On his other side, Lily gave a very loud, very breathy "ooh." She reached forward to place both hands on the glass bowl, nearly crawling on the table to do it, and repeated, "The weapon!"

"Do you think," Albus began hesitantly, and his heart began to quicken. "Could this be…"

"Does the young masters want some hot cocoa?" came a squeaky voice from the kitchen doorway.

"AHA! Caught in the act!" James jumped out of his seat and pointed a finger down at Binky the house-elf. He rushed over to Binky and crouched down so that they were looking at each other eye-to-eye. "Returning to the scene of the crime – very suspicious. And I suppose you were wanting to do away with the rest of us the same way. Do we want some cocoa – ha!"

"Er, Binky…supposes so, sir. Binky does wonder, though…scene of what crime, sir?"

Albus chewed his lip. He didn't want Binky to be the killer. He liked Binky. She certainly looked very confused by James's accusations, almost as if she didn't know what James was talking about. That meant she was innocent, right? The real killer would be guilty. Besides, Binky was too nice to kill Daddy.

But James sounded very, very confident when he said, "It was Binky, in the family room, with the poison that did it."

Albus's lip began to tremble.

Just then, there was a click and a creak as the front door opened.

"Harry? Kids? Guys, I need help with some things!"

Mummy was home!

There was a mad rush as James, Albus, and Lily raced past Binky, out the kitchen, and to the front door. Albus launched into an explanation of what happened, raising his voice so that Mummy could hear him over Lily's chants of "He's dead, he's dead!" and James's findings of Binky being the killer. Finally Mummy put her hands on her hips.

"Enough! I cannot understand a word. Harry? Harry!"

Albus followed, shoving James so that he could hook a finger in the belt loop of her jeans. Mummy went straight to the family room, picked up a pillow and, throwing it at his head, shouted, "Harry!"

Daddy shot up with a grunt, blinking and looking bewildered.

"Huh? What? Waz goin' on?"

"HE'S ALIVE!" Lily exclaimed and threw herself in Daddy's arms.

"Wh-what? Yes, Lils, I'm alive."

Albus rushed to the couch, clambered up on top, and buried his face into Daddy's neck, hugging him tight. He was glad that Daddy wasn't dead.

Daddy patted their backs and chuckled.

"If I had known that I would have gotten this much love, I would've taken naps more often!"