CHAPTER FOUR

"No, you can't go!" Pansy was yelling.

"Pansy, I have to, I just heard Ginny die over our intercom, the least I can do is help find her body- I guess? If she's even dead. We could've just been pranked."

Pansy rolled her eyes, "How typical! You run off and help other people but can't think of yourself. Eliza, what if you die? What if that was to lure you out of the common room?"

Eliza shrugged, "Well I guess I'll find out."

"I think we'll be fine, Pans." Blaise interrupted their arguing.

Pansy rolled her eyes, lightening up a bit, "Whatever, if you die then you better not haunt me." She grumbled.

Eliza smirked, "I'll try my hardest to ignore the haunting urges."

"I do think you all need to go back to your dorms. It's not safe to just be sitting out in the open." Blaise reminded.

"I'm fucking locking myself in my dorm, don't worry." Draco mumbled.

Pansy and Theo nodded in agreement, "I'm not getting involved." Pansy reminded them again.

"I'm going to lock myself in my room and take a nap. Hope you don't die, Parkinson." Theo announced as he stood up.

She rolled her eyes, "Thanks, Nott."

"Anytime." He mumbled, waving a hand as he walked out of the room.

Pansy and Draco followed behind him and Blaise and Eliza headed for the door.

-

"Who do you think it is?" Eliza asked Blaise as they walked down the hallways.

Blaise shrugged, "Why do you ask?"

"Your Muggle film and your theories. I want to know your thoughts."

He sighed, "It's hard to say. My first guess would probably be Granger. She's brilliant. If anyone could pull off the calling, it'd be her. But I don't think she'd kill anyone. She'd have to have a partner and my guess would be Draco."

Eliza snorted, "Draco? Helping Hermione? You've lost it, Blaise."

He shook his head, "Think about it, no one would ever suspect them. It's perfect."

Eliza thought about it for a moment, "I guess you've got a point."

They stopped in front of the Gryffindor Common Room. Blaise knocked on the door and a frazzled Hermione opened the door. "Thanks for coming to help." She held the door open further for them to walk in.

Harry stood behind her, "Gin has been missing for about an hour. She was supposed to be going to Madam Pomfrey about a sleeping potion. She should've been back by now. I've already spoke to Madam Pomfrey over the intercom. She hasn't seen Ginny."

"Harry is still a bit suspicious of you two so I was thinking we could split up? Harry and Eliza could go searching one direction and Blaise and I could take the opposite direction." Hermione suggested.

Eliza shrugged, "If that's what you want to do. I don't think splitting up is a good idea, though."

"I think groups of two will be okay." Harry mumbled.

"Harry, do you want to take the abandoned corridor?" Hermione asked.

"Abandoned?" Blaise looked between the two Gryffindors.

Harry nodded, "There are several abandoned classrooms down the hallway. Haven't been used in years, it's a good place to start looking."

"Okay, well we need to start looking now." Eliza reminded them. If Ginny was really taken by whoever killed the others then she was probably running out of time.

Blaise and Hermione left the Common Room and headed to the left, leaving Harry and Eliza to take the right.

They walked in silence for several minutes, stopping to investigate every classroom and every closet, Eliza followed behind Harry, leaving a good amount of distance between them. She figured he must want space because every time she got slightly close to him, he would glare at her.

After several long minutes, eight to be exact, she was counting in her head, she broke the silence, "Do you have any idea on who you think the killer is?" She asked him.

He didn't turn to look at her, "Someone in Slytherin."

She frowned, "And why do you think that?"

"Well, I can't see it being a Gryffindor, seeing as how most of the victims have been Gryffindors."

She rolled her eyes, typical Harry Potter, "There are two other houses besides Gryffindor and Slytherin, you know that, right?"

He shrugged, walking into the next classroom, "Why would the Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's be killing Gryffindor's?" He asked.

"Maybe to throw off suspicion, of course if you kill several Gryffindor's then it's going to seem like a Slytherin did it. No one would suspect otherwise, in fact I-"

She was cut off by a knock on the wall, she looked up at Harry, "That sounds like it's coming from the next room. Do you think that it might be Blaise or Hermione?" She asked him.

He did not answer. Instead, he ran out of the classroom and down the hall to the next one.

She followed behind him, nearly running into him as he came to an abrupt stop outside of the door. She peered over his shoulder and into the classroom.

Blood was everywhere, it covered the walls, the floor, but there was no body. Just blood. Harry walked into the seemingly empty classroom, he turned to Eliza, "Do you mind going back to the other classroom, I'm going to knock on the walls in here, go see if you can hear it from the other room. There's no one in here so we must be in the wrong room."

She blinked, "Harry, we are in a room covered in blood, I think that we're in the right room."

"Well, do you see a body?" He asked, his voice filled with frustration.

She looked around, there were two doors that she hadn't previously noticed, "Let's check in there." She suggested, nodding towards the doors.

They walked over to the first door, Harry opened it and looked inside. He turned back to her, "Nothing."

She turned away from him and walked over to the other door, "If there's nothing in here, then we can check the next room." She twisted the door knob and pulled it open, she peered into the darkness and just as she was about to feel around for a light switch, something fell out on top of her, knocking her to the floor. She screamed.

She opened her eyes, something orange was covering them, she tried to push it out of her face, but upon touching it, she realized it was hair. She started screaming again. Harry ran over and pushed the person off of her.

She quickly stood up, a dead Ginny Weasley was lying on the floor where she had previously been lying.

Harry pulled her away from the very obviously dead girl, "We need to tell someone!" He yelled, as he pulled her out of the classroom.

Her shoes were squeaking as he pulled her down the hallway, she was sticky and covered in blood that was not hers. She could hear footsteps running towards them and soon she saw three people stopping in front of them. Theo Nott, Blaise Zabini, and Hermione Granger.

"Holy shit, Eliza!" Theo exclaimed.

"What happened?" Hermione asked.

"We found Ginny." She mumbled. She was freezing and covered in blood.

Harry nodded, "Ginny is dead, we found her in a classroom, her body fell out onto Eliza," His voice cracked, "We need to tell someone. But someone needs to get Eliza back to her common room so she can get cleaned up."

Hermione turned to Theo and Blaise, her eyes filling with tears, "Harry and I can handle this from here. Take her back to her dorm."

Blaise scoffed, "Fuck no, I don't trust you, Granger. For all we know, you could march into Dumbledore's office and tell him that you watched Eliza kill Ginny. One of us is coming with you."

Harry frowned, "That won't be necessary. We aren't going to say that."

Blaise held a hand up, "Theo, take Eliza back, I'm going with them."

Theo nodded, he turned to Eliza, "Come on, Lizzy."

Eliza gave a weak smile to Harry, "Come find me if you need me to go to Dumbledore about anything."

Harry nodded, "I'm sure an Auror will want to talk to you at some point, but I'll tell them to give you a little bit to process what happened to you and to get cleaned up." He motioned to the blood on her.

"Thanks."

Theo looked between the two, unsure of why Potter was being so kind to her when just yesterday he was accusing her of killing Ron.

He place his hand on the small of her back and ushered her away, "Let's get you back to the dorm."

-

When Eliza stepped back into her bedroom after taking a shower, she noticed that Theo was still in her room, he was sitting on the edge of her bed, "You didn't have to stay." She mumbled.

"I wanted to."

She smiled, "Honestly, Nott, I didn't get hurt, just got a little bloody."

"Well I couldn't just leave your room empty when there's a killer on the loose. Anyone could have snuck in while you were gone. Buddy system, remember?"

"Well, thanks, I guess."

"Anytime."

"Want me to walk you to Snape's office? There's an Auror in there waiting for you."

She shook her head, "Not yet, I have some questions for you." She sat down on the bed across from him.

He grinned, "Ask away."

"Why were you with Blaise and Hermione?"

His grin disappeared, "Another call had come over the intercom, it was just screams, it sounded like you though. So I came to make sure you were okay."

"But how did you know it was me?"

He shrugged, "I didn't for sure, but I wasn't going to wait around."

She nodded, "Well thanks, I guess."

"Was that all your questions?"

"No, I still want to know what you showed McLaggen for my "alibi" the other night." She said, making quotations with her fingers.

His cheeks turned red, "Just don't worry about it."

"No, I deserve to know. Whatever you showed him must have been embarrassing because he turned red and now you're blushing."

"I just needed something to get him to end his searching quick. It was nothing."

"Then why can't you tell me?" She asked.

"Why is it so important?"

"Because I just want to know."

"You don't want to know."

"Yes I do, obviously that's why I'm asking."

"You seriously can't put it together in your head. A story where we were together that was enough to make a grown man blush."

She thought for a second before her face contorted in disgust, she shoved him, "You're disgusting!"

He shrugged, "Better than sitting in a cell in Azkaban right now."

"What did you show him?"

"Parkinson, don't make me spell it out for you, use your imagination."

She frowned, "Well who knows what you showed him, I need to be prepared in case I'm questioned."

He plopped down onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling, "I mean, maybe we were in a broom closet making out- amongst other things, I mean- it got him out of my mind quick and took the suspicion off of you."

She scoffed, "I hate you, you're so gross!"

"I think what you meant to say is 'Thank you Theo for being an exceptionally fast thinker and for getting me off the suspect list.'"

She ignored his sarcasm, "Why did you even have a memory like that just ready to go in the first place?"

"You absolutely do not want to know that. I answered your question and now I'm not answering anymore."

authors note:

when my original plan was to be done
with this book by halloween but now it's
halloween and I'm only four chapters
in... oops