Granger

by Ydream08

Chapter 1

She heard the fire cracking first. It was hard to miss when the morgue she worked in was empty. Body parts were not much talkative, not during examination anyway.

Definitely comes from the fireplace, Hermione concluded.

"Hermione, are you there?" came a hiss, following the noise. She should have known it was her floo network. The one here was open twenty four seven in case of emergencies.

Standing back from where she has bent to autopsy a brain, Hermione put back her tools and removed her gloves.

"I'm here, Harry, just a moment," Hermione called and went to wash her hands.

When she came back, she found the familiar face of her best mate made up of fire and coals staring at her. It was hard to determine expressions in the floo network, she fleetingly thought. "Yes, you wanted me?"

"Hermione, there is a case. Age twenty-four, male, Caucasian. We couldn't get an I.D. and the body is… well, come and see."

"Don't you have Healer Adley with you? Today was her field day."

"About that. Ron has a group of Aurors after her and—"

"After her? Is she a suspect?"

Evangeline Adley was Hermione's coworker here in St. Mungo's morgue for the past two years. Adley had become the senior Healer after Healer Robinson's retirement. She was not a witch keen on doing cases in the field, but there were only so many Hermione could cover by herself. This week it was Hermione's turn to stay in and maintain the rest of duties here in the office.

How could Healer Adley be involved in a case? That woman was not a person who could hurt anyone, regardless of her skills with autopsy tools.

"No, what, no!" Harry interfered to Hermione's wild assumptions. "Ron sent people after her and the suspect, Hermione. Just, let me finish."

She nodded so Harry continued. "She was the first to arrive at the scene, we believe. When we arrived, her bag was here, tools out, but she was gone. Found her glasses lying on the floor a few meters away. Our best guess right now that she came across the perpetrator and was abducted."

Why was the killer in the scene? Hermione thought. Generally, by the time Aurors and Healers were notified, the killer would have disappeared. This was unusual.

"You need me to come and do the autopsy," Hermione reiterated.

"We need a name, Hermione."

Hermione nodded and got the details to where she would meet with them. Ending the connection she got her wand out to tidy up the place. Finally Accio'ing her own bag of tools, Hermione floo'ed away.

Hermione hadn't realised how late it was. With how she was more or less locked in the lab, the time had escaped her easily. Now, outside in the streets of London, she found that it was dark and cold. October was not a month that was warmth and sunshine in this part of the world.

Casting a warming charm, Hermione sighed and walked to where Harry waited for her. Thank Merlin that her high heels were charmed for steady walking, not minding the cobblestones.

Finding Harry, Hermione couldn't help but grin at seeing the obvious relief in his eyes.

"Give me a moment," Hermione declared and walked up to the body. With a flick of her wand, the temporary cover was removed and she had the chance to observe.

At first look, Hermione understood exactly why there was no identification to the man. His face was slashed, eyeballs removed, and skull caved in. Not only that, but he was burnt as well. Looking at the extent of the burn, Hermione guessed he was set fire from waist up. His fingers were conveniently burned, leaving diagnostic spells on the fingerprints useless, but the burn of his upper body served no purpose otherwise.

Looking at the huge gash at his abdomen, Hermione could easily say burning the man was not the intended method of murder.

Hermione kneeled next to the body, at the opposite side where Healer Adley had placed her belongings, then she proceeded for a closer look.

What she could only guess without further evaluation would be that the man was blond, hence the Aurors conclusion of his race. She noticed that because only the front of him was burned, leaving his hair at the back untouched. Interesting. This would mean he wasn't set fire, but a spell conjuring fire was simply exposed to him. Once the caster was gone, it was finished. Hermione could make a list of such spells.

Hermione told that to Harry.

"So we have a dark wizard—"

"—or witch—" Hermione corrected him.

"—who knows advanced spells. I mean something like that would require immense control. Like Fiendfyre?"

"Fiendfyre is one of the spells, yes," Hermione agreed. She was thinking about whether she should run a few spells here or take the body directly to the lab. Truthfully, she wasn't feeling safe where Adley had disappeared.

Just as she was about to rise, Hermione noticed a glimmer at the victim's hand. She hadn't noticed it at first, because the hand was facing palm up, and thus the object was no more than a simple band. And at a second look, Hermione realised she had overlooked the object because its black colour was so similar to that of dried blood or scorched meat.

But a tiny spot was relatively clean and the metal there took her attention. Her hands gloved, Hermione moved the victim's hand so that she could see what that object was.

It was a ring, Hermione saw. Not just any ring, mind you. Hermione would recognize this ring anywhere.

"Harry!" she gasped, but her voice hardly came out. Could this be? Could he be?

The simple metal band formed motives of two snakes as it circled the finger towards the front. The intricate detail to the snakes was complete with onyx stones for eyes. There, their forked tongues encircled the emblem in the middle of the ring. Hermione knew what that letter "M" stood for even before she read the three words just below it.

"Sanctimonia Vincent Semper," Hermione whispered. Purity Will Always Conquer.

Hermione glanced back at the victim's face. No, he had a name. A name Hermione knew well.

Draco Malfoy.

His father had been sentenced to Azkaban for the rest of his life, shame that what was left of it had been only three years. After Malfoy Sr's death, Hermione had never heard of Draco Malfoy. That last news wrote how he took over his father's business, but that was the extent of knowledge Hermione had of Malfoy.

What had happened to him? Why was he dead? So brutally killed?

Hermione felt a pang of hurt, and suddenly she found that it was hard to breathe. She had lost many friends from Hogwarts to the war, but this… this was different. Malfoy had never been a friend, not a true enemy either, but… Oh, Godric! What was this mess?

However, the dread that filled her was gradually replaced with a serenity foreign to Hermione. Yes, Draco was dead, but he would have wanted for her to find his killer.

Hermione removed her gloves and took Draco's hand in hers. She just knew that she had to help him in any way she could.

She didn't know what to do, because right now, she felt so hollow. It felt like someone was banging her head all the while probing her mind to think, think, think: You have to do something.

Absentmindedly, Hermione traced the ring on Draco's index finger. This was all that was left of him. This was key. She had found him because of this family signet ring.

Hermione blinked, only slightly aware where her thoughts were spiralling into because the alarming motion of her own hands took her attention.

Hermione realized that she was not only holding onto the hand of a corpse barehanded herself but right now, she was gently removing the ring, that evidence, from the victim's person.

Panic for all the protocol she was currently disregarding was not enough to wake her. She couldn't feel control over her body.

And in moments, Hermione had removed the ring, bloodied as it was, and carefully held it in her fingers.

"Hermione is there—"

Everything happened so fast—

Hermione heard Harry, alright. He was over her shoulder, but before he could comment on the ring in her hand, she slipped it to her own finger. Not that she wanted or even intended to do this!

Next, there was a crack and Hermione Granger was no more.