Whodunit Quiz part 2--the answers
Whodunit Quiz part 2
1. Witch’s Sabbatical by leni-jess
2. In Charm’s Way by annietalbot
3. A Conspiracy of Epicurean Proportions by geminiscorp
4. The Care and Feeding of Zombies by silburygirl
5. Conspiracy Theory by ubiquirk
6. The Other Side of Darkness by Abby
7. Damnation of Memory by ianthe-waiting
8. Harbinger by bambu345
9. Seven Habits of Highly Hateful People by Hayseed_42
10. The Long Way Home by sshg316
1. "Then why didn't Felix and his wife go there from where the Nazis caught up with them? Or why didn't he go from Switzerland, after her death?"
"The death of a beloved wife might have left him unable to do any such thing, even if he felt like returning to duty at once, given the grief he clearly felt."
Hermione bit her lip and nodded, remembering how discomposed she had been by her encounter with a disobliging lift: nothing in comparison with being pursued by the men who meant to imprison Felix, and who had, whether they meant to or not, injured his wife so badly that she died in Switzerland.
"Grindelwald might have been as indifferent to personal issues as Voldemort ever was. A grieving man, however devoted to his service, might have been safer staying away."
"For a time, yes, but to say to his brother he couldn't now return... Witch’s Sabbatical by leni-jess
2. The day passed much as the previous one had. They spent time soaking up the sun’s rays. Hermione finished her book early that afternoon and hurried to the ship’s library to pick out something new to read. While she was gone, Severus went looking for Brad and Brianna. He found them, seated side by side in a glider overlooking the putting green. He pulled up a chair and faced them, effectively blocking their view of the ninth hole.
“So, here’s what we’re going to do,” he said, leaning forward and fixing them each with an icy stare. “We’re going to call George Weasley and tell him to meet us all when the ship docks tomorrow. At that point, we’ll sit down and figure out how many laws you’ve broken and what we’re going to do about it.”
The two sat staring at him, gobsmacked.
“What do you know about George Weasley? And why should he care about you?” After a long pause, Brianna finally broke the silence.
“I know that he owns Wizarding Waves. And he cares about me because Hermione’s practically a member of his family. And-if you’ve met him-I’m the man responsible for the ear.”
“But...” Brad blinked. “But he said it was a war injury. That it had been severed by a Death Eater.”
Severus smirked. “It was.” He casually rolled up his sleeves. In Charm’s Way by annietalbot
3. She stood up slowly feeling dizzy. He wasn’t supposed to be here; he was supposed to be dead. She had watched him die a slow agonizing death! She had searched for his body in the aftermath, but had never dreamt that he had actually survived. It had been assumed his body had been disposed of by a Death Eater before Voldemort had fallen.
CLANK
She dropped the knife again when she caught sight of him. He was pacing the middle of the room dressed entirely in white, his longish hair pulled back from his face. The sallow complexion she remembered had been replaced with a light tan, and with his sunken cheeks filled out his large nose no longer looked out of place on such a thin face. He looked healthy, and younger than she knew him to be. Dare she even think it, but he looked … almost handsome?
He turned instantly toward the noise, Hermione swore she saw his clothes billow slightly, and raised an eyebrow at her. Looking down at the attendance roster in his hand he said, “Ms … Gage?” A lip curled in distaste. “Surely my introductory speech hasn’t left you wanting to run yourself through with a knife already. That usually doesn’t happen until the second lesson, if indeed you make it that far.” A Conspiracy of Epicurean Proportions by geminiscorp
4. “What happened?” she asked, struggling to sit up and failing.
Theo gestured to the index he was skimming through without glancing up. “We’re trying to work that out.”
“Professor Snape isn’t rotting away anymore, though, so good show whatever you did,” said Pansy.
She raised her eyebrows at Harry, who nodded in confirmation, then rotated her head back so she could see Snape. He didn’t appear to have moved from his armchair, but there was a distinct lack of pillows surrounding him. Pansy was right: his skin was once again sitting normally, no longer bloated or sunken, and had lost its green tinge.
The smell in the room still made her throat burn whenever she inhaled, but she suspected it would take days of airing it out before it returned to normal.
“Did you know that would happen?”
“Yes, and I planned it all out, because I’ve spent so much time as the living dead.”
She giggled, earning a derisive look from Snape, and a worried look from everyone else. “I thought you might have. So glad you didn’t disappoint.” The Care and Feeding of Zombies by silburygirl
5. Nodding, he pulls out his wand and creates a bubble of cloaking spells around them.
Hermione wipes her gooey hands on a serviette. “The good news is we have a stopping point, and it’s not centuries in the past.” All trace of lightness has gone from her voice. “It sounds so wrong to say this, but at least the babies have only been dying for … for a few decades instead of longer.”
Severus cocks an eyebrow in query.
She swallows in an attempt to get her throat to work. “1976, that’s the first year it began, or the first year with a good four discrepancies on the list. We could go and double-check everything again with the Muggle records to make sure, but the pattern is exactly the same.”
“I trust your judgment and think that we should move forward with the investigation instead of having Mr. Potter hack away at one of those infernal contraptions again.” His brow creases, and he sits tapping the sandwich wrapper before him for long minutes. “I am afraid the date means nothing to me.”
“Me neither. It’s too hidden, too … too subtle to be Voldemort, and the dates don’t match up.”
“I agree that this does not feel like something he would do.”
“Maybe if we can suss out what was going on at that time in the Wizarding world it might be a clue.” Conspiracy Theory by ubiquirk
6. “How much do you know already?” He suspected that Potter had told her something about what was going on.
“I know about the murders. I know that the victims showed the same pattern of brain damage as Seamus. I know that someone identified you as being there. I know that you’re on the run from the Ministry. I know that they’ve suspended your Licence to Apparate and that the IUMO have a trace out on you.” She virtually ticked the points off her fingers. “I don’t know how, or why, you ended up on my doorstep.”
He nodded.
“The rest is fairly straightforward. I was living rough. It was clear that I wasn’t going to find out anything working on my own.” He paused. “I located your flat using Manifesto. The Aurors were summoned, but I managed to evade them…” He didn’t feel quite ready to tell her about the other two participants in the scene. “I was injured, as you saw, and I managed to get here.”
That was a very edited version, he thought. Her forehead creased. He had the uncomfortable feeling that she knew he was leaving things out.
“That’s how,” she said eventually. “You haven’t told me why.”
He hesitated. Could he phrase it to himself, let alone to her?
“Because,” he said quietly, “you are the only other person who knows about the potion, and who might understand what has happened.” The Other Side of Darkness by Abby
7. “I would say that there hasn’t been anyone in for weeks, but the Hog’s Head was always dusty and dank,” Severus muttered.
“The upper rooms?” I asked from the door, daring to peek inside.
“It would stand to reason that if the door is locked and Aberforth is not here that the rooms were not let.”
I sighed as I watched Severus cast a revealing Charm for any human life. It was clear that there was none.
“I don’t suppose he went on vacation…” I trailed quietly.
The light outside was failing, and it seemed that Severus and I had come to a dead end.
I was nowhere nearer to learning anything about the Knights of Walpurgis, or learning where Severus Snape had been in the thirteen years since his supposed death.
The only somewhat fruitful moment of the day had been the retrieval of my Codex, and the news that the Knights may have once been called the Order of Merlin. It was something, but not as much as I would have liked to have learned. Damnation of Memory by ianthe-waiting
8. It was time to begin the day, and he reluctantly returned to the castle.
Twenty minutes later, he arrived for breakfast in the Great Hall, and the majority of his colleagues were already present. Mellors and Flitwick were absent, and the headmistress was seated in Dumbledore’s throne-like chair, cutting up a grilled chop. Snape passed behind Charlie Weasley, prepared to take his own customary seat next to McGonagall when he noticed her pinched expression. Following her line of sight, Snape halted mid-stride as if he’d been jinxed, for there, placed on the center of his plain earthenware plate was a bouquet of flowers, the stems wrapped in dark green ribbon.
He recovered his composure quickly and lowered himself onto his chair.
“From an admirer, Professor Snape?” the headmistress inquired from two seats to his left.
“Evidently,” he replied repressively, and prodded the flowers off his plate with his wand, casting a nonverbal Revealing Spell as he did. Something was packed within the bundle of stems, but there was no Dark taint to flowers, ribbon, or the hidden prize.
Impotent rage suffused his limbs, and he longed to incinerate the ‘offering’ into nothing more than a distasteful memory; however, he refrained because he was in public and the bunch of weeds might contain evidence leading to the identity of the perpetrator. Harbinger by bambu345
9. By the time she rounded the corner, he was gone.
"Did you see anything?" a voice asked sharply in her right ear.
Gasping in surprise, she spun around to see Snape standing there, arms crossed over his chest, with an expectant look on his face. "Didn't I tell you to stay?" she asked irritably.
"Yes, but you didn't tell me to stay by the authority of the Ministry, so I took that to mean I had a choice in the matter," he retorted slyly. "Did you see anything?"
"He had a gun, I suspect," she replied. "With a targeting device."
His mouth opened slightly. "A gun?" he echoed.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You were raised with Muggles, Snape. Surely you know what a gun is."
"Of course I know what one is, you stupid girl," he said, scowling. "I just didn't expect... they've never shot at me before."
"Come on," she said, heading back to the house. The tree in the front yard had a small hole in its trunk. "Accio bullet," she whispered, catching the little piece of metal adroitly. "See?" Seven Habits of Highly Hateful People by Hayseed_42
10. “But ’Mione-” Ron began, only to be interrupted by a visibly embarrassed Hermione.
“Don’t call me that,” she snapped before casting Severus an apologetic glance. “You know I hate that, Ronald. I’ve told you a thousand times ….”
Severus leaned back against the wall and watched the bickering pair, marvelling at how quickly she was able to transform from his quietly confident partner to a shrieking harpy. That was what her two friends expected of her-it was her role in their little trio-and so it was what she gave them. But he now knew better. Yes, she could be bossy and overbearing, but that wasn’t the sum of her personality. She was strong and vibrant, and she had a sharp tongue and a dark sense of humour. She was cunning and sly, quick on her feet and even quicker with her wand. Yes, Hermione Granger was much more than these boys gave her credit for.
Still, as Severus watched her verbally eviscerate Weasley, he couldn’t help but wonder if the two were romantically involved or merely friends. He was uncertain; but he did know that he did not like the feeling in his chest at even the possibility that they might be a couple. Kingsley and Potter, he noticed, were also watching, both with expressions of amused exasperation.
“Do they do this often?” Severus asked blandly.
Potter grinned. “All the time.”
With an exaggerated sigh, Severus turned his attention to Kingsley. “Can we please get on with it? I believe we have a Portkey to catch.” The Long Way Home by sshg316
1. Witch’s Sabbatical by leni-jess
2. In Charm’s Way by annietalbot
3. A Conspiracy of Epicurean Proportions by geminiscorp
4. The Care and Feeding of Zombies by silburygirl
5. Conspiracy Theory by ubiquirk
6. The Other Side of Darkness by Abby
7. Damnation of Memory by ianthe-waiting
8. Harbinger by bambu345
9. Seven Habits of Highly Hateful People by Hayseed_42
10. The Long Way Home by sshg316
1. "Then why didn't Felix and his wife go there from where the Nazis caught up with them? Or why didn't he go from Switzerland, after her death?"
"The death of a beloved wife might have left him unable to do any such thing, even if he felt like returning to duty at once, given the grief he clearly felt."
Hermione bit her lip and nodded, remembering how discomposed she had been by her encounter with a disobliging lift: nothing in comparison with being pursued by the men who meant to imprison Felix, and who had, whether they meant to or not, injured his wife so badly that she died in Switzerland.
"Grindelwald might have been as indifferent to personal issues as Voldemort ever was. A grieving man, however devoted to his service, might have been safer staying away."
"For a time, yes, but to say to his brother he couldn't now return... Witch’s Sabbatical by leni-jess
2. The day passed much as the previous one had. They spent time soaking up the sun’s rays. Hermione finished her book early that afternoon and hurried to the ship’s library to pick out something new to read. While she was gone, Severus went looking for Brad and Brianna. He found them, seated side by side in a glider overlooking the putting green. He pulled up a chair and faced them, effectively blocking their view of the ninth hole.
“So, here’s what we’re going to do,” he said, leaning forward and fixing them each with an icy stare. “We’re going to call George Weasley and tell him to meet us all when the ship docks tomorrow. At that point, we’ll sit down and figure out how many laws you’ve broken and what we’re going to do about it.”
The two sat staring at him, gobsmacked.
“What do you know about George Weasley? And why should he care about you?” After a long pause, Brianna finally broke the silence.
“I know that he owns Wizarding Waves. And he cares about me because Hermione’s practically a member of his family. And-if you’ve met him-I’m the man responsible for the ear.”
“But...” Brad blinked. “But he said it was a war injury. That it had been severed by a Death Eater.”
Severus smirked. “It was.” He casually rolled up his sleeves. In Charm’s Way by annietalbot
3. She stood up slowly feeling dizzy. He wasn’t supposed to be here; he was supposed to be dead. She had watched him die a slow agonizing death! She had searched for his body in the aftermath, but had never dreamt that he had actually survived. It had been assumed his body had been disposed of by a Death Eater before Voldemort had fallen.
CLANK
She dropped the knife again when she caught sight of him. He was pacing the middle of the room dressed entirely in white, his longish hair pulled back from his face. The sallow complexion she remembered had been replaced with a light tan, and with his sunken cheeks filled out his large nose no longer looked out of place on such a thin face. He looked healthy, and younger than she knew him to be. Dare she even think it, but he looked … almost handsome?
He turned instantly toward the noise, Hermione swore she saw his clothes billow slightly, and raised an eyebrow at her. Looking down at the attendance roster in his hand he said, “Ms … Gage?” A lip curled in distaste. “Surely my introductory speech hasn’t left you wanting to run yourself through with a knife already. That usually doesn’t happen until the second lesson, if indeed you make it that far.” A Conspiracy of Epicurean Proportions by geminiscorp
4. “What happened?” she asked, struggling to sit up and failing.
Theo gestured to the index he was skimming through without glancing up. “We’re trying to work that out.”
“Professor Snape isn’t rotting away anymore, though, so good show whatever you did,” said Pansy.
She raised her eyebrows at Harry, who nodded in confirmation, then rotated her head back so she could see Snape. He didn’t appear to have moved from his armchair, but there was a distinct lack of pillows surrounding him. Pansy was right: his skin was once again sitting normally, no longer bloated or sunken, and had lost its green tinge.
The smell in the room still made her throat burn whenever she inhaled, but she suspected it would take days of airing it out before it returned to normal.
“Did you know that would happen?”
“Yes, and I planned it all out, because I’ve spent so much time as the living dead.”
She giggled, earning a derisive look from Snape, and a worried look from everyone else. “I thought you might have. So glad you didn’t disappoint.” The Care and Feeding of Zombies by silburygirl
5. Nodding, he pulls out his wand and creates a bubble of cloaking spells around them.
Hermione wipes her gooey hands on a serviette. “The good news is we have a stopping point, and it’s not centuries in the past.” All trace of lightness has gone from her voice. “It sounds so wrong to say this, but at least the babies have only been dying for … for a few decades instead of longer.”
Severus cocks an eyebrow in query.
She swallows in an attempt to get her throat to work. “1976, that’s the first year it began, or the first year with a good four discrepancies on the list. We could go and double-check everything again with the Muggle records to make sure, but the pattern is exactly the same.”
“I trust your judgment and think that we should move forward with the investigation instead of having Mr. Potter hack away at one of those infernal contraptions again.” His brow creases, and he sits tapping the sandwich wrapper before him for long minutes. “I am afraid the date means nothing to me.”
“Me neither. It’s too hidden, too … too subtle to be Voldemort, and the dates don’t match up.”
“I agree that this does not feel like something he would do.”
“Maybe if we can suss out what was going on at that time in the Wizarding world it might be a clue.” Conspiracy Theory by ubiquirk
6. “How much do you know already?” He suspected that Potter had told her something about what was going on.
“I know about the murders. I know that the victims showed the same pattern of brain damage as Seamus. I know that someone identified you as being there. I know that you’re on the run from the Ministry. I know that they’ve suspended your Licence to Apparate and that the IUMO have a trace out on you.” She virtually ticked the points off her fingers. “I don’t know how, or why, you ended up on my doorstep.”
He nodded.
“The rest is fairly straightforward. I was living rough. It was clear that I wasn’t going to find out anything working on my own.” He paused. “I located your flat using Manifesto. The Aurors were summoned, but I managed to evade them…” He didn’t feel quite ready to tell her about the other two participants in the scene. “I was injured, as you saw, and I managed to get here.”
That was a very edited version, he thought. Her forehead creased. He had the uncomfortable feeling that she knew he was leaving things out.
“That’s how,” she said eventually. “You haven’t told me why.”
He hesitated. Could he phrase it to himself, let alone to her?
“Because,” he said quietly, “you are the only other person who knows about the potion, and who might understand what has happened.” The Other Side of Darkness by Abby
7. “I would say that there hasn’t been anyone in for weeks, but the Hog’s Head was always dusty and dank,” Severus muttered.
“The upper rooms?” I asked from the door, daring to peek inside.
“It would stand to reason that if the door is locked and Aberforth is not here that the rooms were not let.”
I sighed as I watched Severus cast a revealing Charm for any human life. It was clear that there was none.
“I don’t suppose he went on vacation…” I trailed quietly.
The light outside was failing, and it seemed that Severus and I had come to a dead end.
I was nowhere nearer to learning anything about the Knights of Walpurgis, or learning where Severus Snape had been in the thirteen years since his supposed death.
The only somewhat fruitful moment of the day had been the retrieval of my Codex, and the news that the Knights may have once been called the Order of Merlin. It was something, but not as much as I would have liked to have learned. Damnation of Memory by ianthe-waiting
8. It was time to begin the day, and he reluctantly returned to the castle.
Twenty minutes later, he arrived for breakfast in the Great Hall, and the majority of his colleagues were already present. Mellors and Flitwick were absent, and the headmistress was seated in Dumbledore’s throne-like chair, cutting up a grilled chop. Snape passed behind Charlie Weasley, prepared to take his own customary seat next to McGonagall when he noticed her pinched expression. Following her line of sight, Snape halted mid-stride as if he’d been jinxed, for there, placed on the center of his plain earthenware plate was a bouquet of flowers, the stems wrapped in dark green ribbon.
He recovered his composure quickly and lowered himself onto his chair.
“From an admirer, Professor Snape?” the headmistress inquired from two seats to his left.
“Evidently,” he replied repressively, and prodded the flowers off his plate with his wand, casting a nonverbal Revealing Spell as he did. Something was packed within the bundle of stems, but there was no Dark taint to flowers, ribbon, or the hidden prize.
Impotent rage suffused his limbs, and he longed to incinerate the ‘offering’ into nothing more than a distasteful memory; however, he refrained because he was in public and the bunch of weeds might contain evidence leading to the identity of the perpetrator. Harbinger by bambu345
9. By the time she rounded the corner, he was gone.
"Did you see anything?" a voice asked sharply in her right ear.
Gasping in surprise, she spun around to see Snape standing there, arms crossed over his chest, with an expectant look on his face. "Didn't I tell you to stay?" she asked irritably.
"Yes, but you didn't tell me to stay by the authority of the Ministry, so I took that to mean I had a choice in the matter," he retorted slyly. "Did you see anything?"
"He had a gun, I suspect," she replied. "With a targeting device."
His mouth opened slightly. "A gun?" he echoed.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You were raised with Muggles, Snape. Surely you know what a gun is."
"Of course I know what one is, you stupid girl," he said, scowling. "I just didn't expect... they've never shot at me before."
"Come on," she said, heading back to the house. The tree in the front yard had a small hole in its trunk. "Accio bullet," she whispered, catching the little piece of metal adroitly. "See?" Seven Habits of Highly Hateful People by Hayseed_42
10. “But ’Mione-” Ron began, only to be interrupted by a visibly embarrassed Hermione.
“Don’t call me that,” she snapped before casting Severus an apologetic glance. “You know I hate that, Ronald. I’ve told you a thousand times ….”
Severus leaned back against the wall and watched the bickering pair, marvelling at how quickly she was able to transform from his quietly confident partner to a shrieking harpy. That was what her two friends expected of her-it was her role in their little trio-and so it was what she gave them. But he now knew better. Yes, she could be bossy and overbearing, but that wasn’t the sum of her personality. She was strong and vibrant, and she had a sharp tongue and a dark sense of humour. She was cunning and sly, quick on her feet and even quicker with her wand. Yes, Hermione Granger was much more than these boys gave her credit for.
Still, as Severus watched her verbally eviscerate Weasley, he couldn’t help but wonder if the two were romantically involved or merely friends. He was uncertain; but he did know that he did not like the feeling in his chest at even the possibility that they might be a couple. Kingsley and Potter, he noticed, were also watching, both with expressions of amused exasperation.
“Do they do this often?” Severus asked blandly.
Potter grinned. “All the time.”
With an exaggerated sigh, Severus turned his attention to Kingsley. “Can we please get on with it? I believe we have a Portkey to catch.” The Long Way Home by sshg316