Chapter Text
It was a rainy spring day, matching the somber mood of the school. Unfortunately, a few nights ago in the dead of night, Professor Taylor Chan was working in her lab on a similarly stormy night when mysteriously an experiment went wrong. She had spent her final nights researching a way to teach her students the joys of learning and utilizing the skills she honed during her short teaching career at Hogwarts. She had barely survived a year after she had been hired as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, what a shame.
The staff at Hogwarts were very skeptical of her death, sure Voldemort had cursed the position when Headmaster Dumbledore had denied it from him, but this shouldn’t be an issue anymore since Professor Chan had survived countless attacks over the school year, how could one simple spell have ended her life? In addition, the state in which they found her body was odd at best and seriously disturbing at worst. It was quite well known that she often was roaming around her office rather than only sitting at her desk, yet this death was strange. The professor was draped in a long robe, similar to what one might see a Death Eater wearing, and at first glance was propped up in her chair facing the window to the left of her desk. Once you get closer, you can see the ropes holding her up, like a puppet. It clearly wasn’t the work of a spell gone wrong. Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore were examining the scene at first but they both quickly agreed that the students won’t hear a word of the truth regarding her death.
Well that was what they hoped, but things don’t always go our way, do they?
During the next day, word spread like wildfire across the student body. Some people (Draco Malfoy) said she deserved to die, while the majority was saddened by her death. Professor Chan had been probably the most qualified DADA teacher they had in a while, and also the only one students didn’t actively plan on… removing. Due to the flash of news being spread and the small amount of information being shared, many rumors were popping up out of the blue with little to no credible fact whizzing from ear to ear of bored students. You’d think they all would have gotten used to the murders at this point, but anyways. Headmaster Dumbledore needed to squash the rumors at once, since he didn’t want this idle gossip leaving the campus and decided to host an assembly right before classes but after breakfast, in the Great Hall.
“Good morning students.” He starts in a calm yet authoritative voice demanding the attention of even the airheaded ones in the bunch. Once he had the eyes of all the students he continued to speak, “As many of you have heard, our beloved Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, Taylor Chan, has unexpectedly passed away. I’m sure that many of you are confused and worried, however, this just seems to be another unfortunate outcome of some outstanding elements, so it would be appreciated that you refrain from speaking of the matter.” Dumbledore continues as many students begin to doze off or pretend to pay attention. Everyone already knew of the rumored jinx placed on the position more than 40 years ago by He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. 40 teachers in 40 years? The position has a turnover rate comparable with a McDonalds, and every termination ends with death. Who knows what they post as the job description, ‘1 Year Term Maximum,’ and ‘Death is Inevitable/ Termination of Position ends with Death.’
Over at the Hufflepuff table, one can see a very confused Olivia J. as she attempts to make her frog jump over her wrench. Near her was Rory, he was quite well known for playing the role of a Muggle bully. His goals remain unclear but currently, he’s just asleep. Shameless I tell you. We cannot forget about AC, her name is Air Conditioner but she gets very self conscious that people call her Abby so she just goes by AC, our resident Disney Princess. Grace is such an anomaly, she’s nice and helpful but keeps insisting to make note of her bad girl era. The final Hufflepuff, who’s even remotely interesting is Abby L. She continues to follow Gabi when she's working on some very important business; Find more hobbies. People really do odd things when they’re bored. No, in the humble opinion of this narrator, the entire Hufflepuff House has some serious issues, I can’t pinpoint it, they’re there. As both these kind and helpful bunch scared me, you never know what they’re hiding behind that smile. But anyways, next to Olivia J., we encounter our main character: Olivia Redwine, Redwine in future writing. This narrator was unable to get an interview from our beloved main character, but we have a statement from Rory the Hufflepuff and Sophia Wiles, referred to as Wiles from now on, the Slytherin.
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A student had turned a part of the castle into a confessional booth, you schedule a time and then you come to confess the crime anonymously. It sounds a lot more mysterious than it actually is, it’s like free therapy, except they get some fun out of it. Over time it has become both a concession booth and a gossip center, what do you expect from children? The booth is more of a magical space that can be entered from a certain unspecified location for privacy purposes with sound proofing. The listener enters in from one entrance, leading them behind a thick and heavy curtain which is impossible to see though or move since it’s held in place by magic and the confessors come in through the other way.
In the case of two blabbermouths, Rory and Wiles both came in at the same time, which is not uncommon, but unusual in certain cases. Similarly to the two's friendship, which defied some sort of reasoning and logic, but a magical sorting hat can’t restrict your friendships, and these two were a great example of that.
It was a few days before the death of Ms. Taylor Chan, when they decided to confess while cackling about something that changed the course of their school life, as they set off a small explosion which would soon be catastrophic for all the students involved.
“Redwine was drawing hearts with her and Malfoy’s name inside.” Wiles eventually says while Rory continues to laugh like he has never before, “I bet the entire notebook is filled with fake scenarios,” Rory states after mentioning the notebook Redwine carried around frequently.
Although the two of them spent more time laughing than mentioning any significant information, they piqued the curiosity of this ‘anonymous’ person who really wanted something interesting to happen at this school.
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Back in the Great Room; instead of listening to the announcement, Wiles was busy observing Redwine’s gaze which occasionally remained on Draco. The brunette looked so lovestruck and oblivious to the fact that she was making her infatuation very obvious, but as Redwine turned to look at Draco, he and Emily were sharing a glance. You see Emily, a Ravenclaw, and Draco had been dating for almost a year now, and it wasn’t a secret to anyone, unless you loved underneath a rock. Enough about the students who refuse to pay attention to this crucial information Headmaster Dumbledore is speaking of, as we head towards the Gryffindor table.
“I understand this may be a shock to the first years, or some of you who really appreciated Professor Chan, but please do keep yourself from acting rashly. Classes are canceled for the day.” The headmaster speaks aloud, the last sentence catches the ears of many as the students let out a cheer, except for the sleeping ones they all awoke at the loud sound and began sporting a look of confusion and shock.,
The Gryffindor's were paying much more attention on average than any other house, not a surprise since Professor Chan was a Gryffindor and they all respected her greatly, and their faces were grim when they heard the news. Those are some loyal students you got there Ms. Chan, if you unfortunately didn’t have to die so soon. Two students in particular looked odd compared to the majority. Katherine had a look of determination, as if she was about to do something reckless and Ivan's face remained disinterested as he yawned and laid his head down despite the noise.
Katherine leans over to Kaitlyn, another Gryffindor, and she taps her shoulder as she leans over to whisper discreetly, “They're hiding something from us.” The brunette states in her hushed tone, to which girl the words were directed to simply stares at her with a look that says ‘since when are they not?’ The girl in question didn't seem to be paying much attention to Kaitlyn's expressions simply because her head was filled with theories of the incident. “I'll tell you the rest later.” She mumbles once Professor McGonagall sends a harsh glance her way, perhaps Katherine wasn't as slick as she wished to be.
Kaitlyn wasn't sure where exactly Katherine was going with this, but she wasn't going to spoil her fun, in fact she was curious to see where this self proclaimed detective's brain was going or how it worked, but that wasn't really of much concern. The professors were probably busy trying to keep this situation under wraps and this always sparked a small sense of rebellion in the students. So she decided to listen to what Katherine had intended to say and hoped it wouldn't put her in an unbearable situation.
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“I'm pretty sure Professor Chan was murdered.” Katherine decided to announce after she dragged Kaitlyn to the confessional booth.
Kaitlyn stares at Katherine with a look of shock. The calm and level headed Kaitlyn Lots had just been pulled into another ridiculously odd scheme started by someone in her house. However, this was the first time she was visibly shocked.
Everyone knew that the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teachers Role at Hogwarts was cursed and now she was bringing up a murder? While in the confessional booth?! Things were not exactly adding up but Katherine was way too excited to listen to any of the logical concerns that might stand in her way so Kaitlyn stayed quiet knowing she'd have to involve herself as she was 99% sure that any warning signs that usually will go off with a sane mind won't for the overzealous Kathrine. “But who in this school is sane?” Kaitlyn mutters as she looks around the Great Hall for one of the last times in this slight state of normality.