It was much like any other crime scene from the last three months. Young woman, between the ages of twenty-five and twenty-seven years, pureblood or half-blood, murdered through Muggle means in her own home. No detection of spells used to break into the residence, or that anything had been used on the women to render them incapacitated while they were killed.
It puzzled even the best of Aurors. Especially the head on the case, Draco Malfoy. In his two years as an Auror and the four years of training before that, he'd seen several murders that used Muggle weapons -- guns were the preferred for those looking to fly under the radar on their crimes -- but this was erratic.
Her body was prone, pale against the maroon and lime green polka dot carpet. She was in her night clothing, putting the time of death within the last several hours. He imagined that if he brushed her flesh with his, she'd still be moderately warm. Her pale blonde hair was spread out around her and the pattern suggested it was deliberate.
"Oi, Creevey!" Draco called out to the crime scene photographer. "Make sure to take a picture of her hair."
Colin Creevey, first year photographer for the Auror department, ambled up with his camera and an anxiously excited smile spreading his face inappropriately. "Think it was deliberate, boss?"
Draco knew that Colin was excited for the opportunity, but he couldn't help the modicum of disgust that twisted his face at the boy smiling above the dead body of one of his schoolmates. "Have some respect, Creevey. Wipe that smile off your face before I do it for you."
Draco stepped carefully around the body, still amused at the modified repellant spell that was placed on everyone's shoes before entering the crime scene. It would keep evidence off their feet, but acted as if their feet were non-corporeal, passing through the carpet and possible evidence, so that it wasn't tracked up on their shoe patterns. As her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, Draco felt pity for the woman. She never had a chance. So naïve, she never prepared herself for something like this.
Draco looked at her outrageous four poster bed. It was pink and full of frills, with Kneazels printed onto the bedspread. When he looked up, he smiled ruefully at the disco ball hanging above. She'd been one of a kind.
"Sir?" A perimeter securer stepped into the room, "We have an issue at the line. She's demanding to speak with the Head Auror."
Draco felt impatience seeping through him at having been interrupted during his flow within the crime scene. As he began his trek to head outside, he took one more look around. There were no other disturbances, nothing missing aside from the woman's life. There was nothing in the hallway, the staircase had been illuminated with a spell to find finger prints that were foreign. There was no trace of another human being having been in the house.
The outside was pandemonium. Reporters from all the popular Wizarding outlets, domestic and international, were crowding behind the pulsing green line stating that it was a crime scene and investigating Aurors were present inside. He immediately looked to where there was a woman raging, her voice octaves higher than even animals would be able to register.
He sauntered over, his deep breath coming out in a sigh as he took in the three men restraining the hysterical woman. A fourth was off on the sidelines holding the heel of his palm to his eye.
"Where is she?! Why won't you just tell me where she is? Let go of me, you bloody bastard!"
Great. Draco wished more than anything he'd sent out Longbottom instead, or even Blaise. He didn't do well with the victim's families or friends. He wasn't a compassionate enough person to understand their grief and sorrow; not a gentleman enough to hold the weeping women as they cried to Merlin why their friend or relative had been stolen.
Her hair whipped violently as she tossed against the men forcibly restraining her and his stomach dropped out from his stomach, ricocheting up into his throat and then back in a stunning imitation of a Muggle rollercoaster. Red hair in connection to the women inside the house behind him could only mean one thing. A Weasley. Ginny Weasley to be exact. A bloody harpy if he ever met one.
Draco cleared his throat deliberately, and watched with masked amusement as the three Watchers paled simultaneously. The way they were handling the Weaslette was against the code for the Survivors, a law passed after the Final Battle. People in their grief during the war had lashed out and caused violence against officials. The law had been passed after a grieving father ended up in St Mungo's after a spell gone awry put him in a Sleeping Beauty state for several months. It'd caused outrage among the public and demanded something be done about it. The Auror in question was let go and the Minister created the law saying that no harm was to come to Survivors and they were not to be denied information they sought. Although, immediate blood family were technically supposed to be given the information before family friends and Ginny Weasley fell in the latter category.
"Malfoy!" The voice went down now, growling instead of shrieking as she stilled against the men. "What's going on here? Why won't anyone tell me anything?" Ginny stepped up to him, glaring up with fearful eyes as if she already knew and fully expected that he was about to crush her world.
"The family hasn't been notified…" Draco tried to struggle through the words as he watched her face slowly sink into a blank expression. "I'm sorry."
"No…" Her voice was a mere whisper as she shook her head against the words penetrating her brain. "No, no! Just tell me. Is she at St Mungo's? What happened?"
He prepared himself to give the monotone response that they were trained to give at the academy, "Ms. Weasley, I'm sorry to inform you that Luna Lovegood was murdered at 10:13, evening time."
Her face contorted into pain with each syllable, her body caving in on itself as she bent at the waist to release a loud sob. It was only a matter of moments before her grief caused her knees to buckle and she sank to the ground.
Draco stood with her sobbing at his feet, unsure what to do with a grieving female. Especially one who had just found out her best friend had been murdered. He couldn't imagine what her reaction would be when she found out that Luna was fourth in line of a serial killer's spree. Pansy Parkinson, Hannah Abbott, Lavender Brown, and now, Luna Lovegood.
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This story is complete! I'll be posting chapters every other day or daily, depending on my schedule (my sister lives here with her newborn twins! It sucks up a lot of time!). There's the prologue and then 8 chapters.
Hope you enjoy! This will be a dramatic mystery with romance thrown in. Some of it's gonna be fast paced because this was entered in something that had a word limit of 25,000 words, and as is, I pushed the limit towards that.
I hope you enjoy this enough to review, or follow/alert the story :D Have a great day, thanks for reading the prologue.