Chapter Text
AN: Thanks to my lovely beta, LadyLini, for all her help in making these easier to read for you my readers. Also for all her help in trying to teach me to do it on my own. All mistakes are still my own.
AN: I don't own Harry Potter. That pleasure belongs to the very rich and famous J.K. Rowling and the people she pays to have it make money for her. I also don't own NCIS. That pleasure belongs to Donald Bellisario and his co-producers and writers.
HPHPHP
September 13, 1991, around 7 p.m. Potion Master’s Office, Hogwarts
Madam Amelia Susan Bones, the celebrated Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and aunt to Susan Bones, looked at the body of Potions Master Severus Tobias Snape in confusion. There was a hole in his forehead, and the back of his head didn't exist. Where there should be a scalp, there was nothing but a gory mess of bone and brain matter. She knew of no spell that could do that, and every diagnostic spell she used came back with no magical residue. She was stumped. After about an hour of trying to find out what killed the Potions Master, she gave up, summoned her Patronus, and called in her new WCIS team.
The Headmaster, Dumbledore, looked on pensively. ‘This cannot be happening, he thought. Severus was supposed to keep the students from learning too much and keep the Muggle-born and raised from graduating with honors in Potions. It will not do to have them in positions in the Ministry. Tradition demands that all higher positions be held by pure-bloods. It is where the money is. That cannot change. If we break from tradition, the society as we know it will crumble and I will lose power.’ He sighed thinking that he should be the only half-blood to lead the pure-bloods to the right path. It is for the Greater Good after all.
His thoughts continued as he watched Amelia, ‘He was also vital in keeping Harry humble. What am I going to do now? The whole game has changed. I need to think of someone who can be manipulated enough to be my pawn. Alas, I know of no one. This will require some deep thinking on my part. Now if I could only get these Ministry workers out of my castle…’ His thoughts were laced with many ideas, but he discarded most of them. All of his plans were now ruined.
Unaware of Dumbledore's less than light thoughts, Amelia waited for her team to arrive at the castle. She was still trying to figure out what had happened. In all of her years on the force, she had never come across something like this. She regretted that Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody had retired; he would know what to do. She sighed and turned to the Headmaster.
"Dumbledore," she said, pulling him from his thoughts, "do you have any idea who might have done this?"
"Alas, Amelia, poor Severus had many enemies. However, I do not know of any of them that could have been in the castle. The wards gave no sign of dark magic being used. I was only alerted that an unauthorized Floo call came from this room and came to see who would do such a thing," Dumbledore said with a very sad look and a slight shake of his head. "I truly believe that you will not find anyone in this school that could cast such a dark spell, for any spell that could do that would require more skill than any of my students possess, and I trust my staff completely," he said with complete confidence. "I will, of course, be ready to help you in any way I can, should you need me. Shall I see you to the gates?" he asked with a wave of his hand toward the door, expecting her to follow along. After all, everyone else did.
"Dumbledore, have you gone senile?" Amelia snapped. "When Marcus Flint Flooed to my office to report this crime, I came immediately. I will have to have my team question everyone in this castle until they find the culprit. I highly doubt this was outside work. I’m waiting for my team of investigators to get here. I need you to assemble everyone—and I do mean everyone—in the Great Hall so that we can try to understand what the hell happened here. You will have to have the staff get a list of guardians so that my team can call them when they need to," she said sternly. She hated it when Dumbledore tried to curtail her of her job.
"Of course, my dear," Dumbledore said in his placating grandfather tone, making Amelia's teeth gnash. "I will call everyone in the morning. The children are in their common rooms now and will be soon asleep. Surely, you do not wish to disturb them?" he said, trying to buy some time so he could find the person who had foiled his plans. Then, he could eliminate their memory and get the whole thing dismissed as unsolvable. He too had never seen magic such as this, and he could not let anyone who could perform it to remember and use it against him. No, it was for the greater good that he tend to this himself, without the interference of the Ministry.
"I don't think you understand, Headmaster," Amelia said firmly, looking him directly in the eye. "Once I am at the scene of a crime, I must do everything in my power to solve it. And that means you will call all students and staff to the Great Hall tonight, and they will stay there until we are done questioning everybody. And you," she poked her finger in his direction, "will not interfere or talk to anyone until we are done."
Dumbledore, however, did not leave the room; he was trying to find a way to get this interfering woman out of his castle. Didn't she understand that his word was law?
Just then, Amelie’s American Muggle-born team came into the room. They had been brought over by her because there were very few qualified British citizens, due in great part to the dead man on the floor, making the cut to be an Auror. This was much to the Minister's displeasure; he hated that she could go over his head to staff her department. The fact that this team was still being paid by the America Wizard Government also helped. This was an experimental training exercise. She had seen them at work, while she had been on vacation in the United States, and had wanted them to train her Aurors so that, if war broke out again, they wouldn’t be so unprepared.
Special Auror Leroy Jethro Gibbs was the head of the team. This would be their first case on British soil. There was nothing but glowing reports of the team and, from what Amelia was told by their director, they were the best, though she was told that Gibbs didn’t play well with authority figures. She hadn’t had a problem so far, so she wasn’t too worried. With him were his two deputies, Auror Anthony 'Tony' DiNozzo and Trainee Auror Caitlin 'Kate' Todd, as well as his Medical Examiner, Healer Donald 'Ducky' Mallard. They must have left Abigail 'Abby' Sciuto in her labs.
"What have you got for me, Amelia?" Gibbs asked looking around the room and flipping opens his Muggle notebook, ignoring the poorly dressed man lurking around in the room, trying to get his attention. ‘I’ll never understand why these British still wear robes, he thought, they are far too cumbersome. Look at my guys; they’re in comfortable Muggle clothing.’ He looked at the old man in disgust. ‘I’ll bet he’s one of those that doesn't wear anything underneath.’
Ducky went straight to the body and waved his wand in an intricate manner. Despite the fact that he knew no spell had done this, it was protocol.
"The deceased is Professor Severus Snape, born January, 9th, 1960, died September 19th, 1991 of unknown cause. He was a half-blood wizard and the son of the witch, Eileen Snape (née Prince), and Muggle, Tobias Snape," Amelia stated, going over the facts as she knew them. "The Floo call came in at 6:12 p.m., which is when a young wizard, Marcus Flint, noticed the body. Young Flint was supposed to have detention with Professor Snape. When he arrived, he saw the body and called me right away.
"I arrived here to find Headmaster Dumbledore—" she waved toward the man Gibbs had noticed earlier “—telling Mr. Flint to go to his common room and forget he ever saw the body. He was just about to raise his wand to Mr. Flint's retreating back. I, of course, dissuaded him of that notion," she said, glaring at the serene looking Headmaster. "I then examined the body but could find no residue of any spell. Then, I called you in."
"Boss," Tony said, getting their attention, "that is not from a spell. Looks like a gunshot wound to me. Probably a nine-millimeter hollow point. So we are probably looking for a Muggle-born or half-blood."
Gibbs smacked Tony upside the head. "Never disregard anyone until the whole scene is processed. That's a rookie mistake. There are some pure-bloods that know of the Muggle world. Think, DiNozzo. That is what we pay you for."
"Sorry, Boss," Tony said rubbing his head. He went back to wandering around the room, trying to figure out who had been there during the past few hours.
Gibbs turned to his medical examiner. "What do you have for me, Ducky?"
"Well, Jethro” said Ducky “as far as I can tell the poor young man was shot in the front of the head at point blank range, around one to two hours ago. I won't be sure of what type of gun it was until we find the bullet. Judging from the wound, you’re looking for someone who carries a lot of hate. Also, from the trajectory, it must have been either a small student or someone sitting in that chair," Ducky said thoughtfully, indicating the chair in front of the body. "I’ll need to get my readings to Abigail. She’ll know more. While you’re securing the scene, I’ll get this young man to the lab and see what I can find."
"Okay, Ducky," Gibbs said, turning back to Amelia. "We're gonna need to seal off this room. Do you know if the headmaster touched anything before you arrived?" He ignored the huffing of the headmaster.
"According to him, he had only just arrived when I got here,” Amelia answered.
"Headmaster, I'm going to need you to get all your staff and students together," Gibbs said, repeating what Amelia had told Dumbledore earlier. "Trainee Todd," he said to the nervous young lady, who had been examining the Floo, "I need you to escort the headmaster to the Great Hall and wait for me to get there. Have him call everyone there, and try to keep the students seated. Also, make sure that the staff doesn’t talk to the students. Use a Silencing Charm if you have to. Make sure it is Auror strength."
Kate took the protesting headmaster's arm and drew him from the room firmly. Gibbs turned back to Amelia. "Why don't you go with Ducky?” he asked, causing Ducky to smile disarmingly causing Amelia to roll her eyes; that man was such a flirt. "We've got it from here. Give us a week, and I'll send you a report."
Amelia gave a nod and created a Portkey. She then had an amused Ducky grab the robes of the body, which had had a body binding curse laid on it, preventing it from moving. They then touched the Portkey and were off.
It was a good thing that, as the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she could make a Portkey to get out of any wards, including Hogwarts, much to the headmaster's displeasure. She so liked making that man frown. These Portkeys couldn’t enter warded buildings, but they could get out. Unfortunately, only she could make them.
"Boss," Tony said, coming to Gibbs's side, "whoever did this knew what they were doing. The whole room is clean. Not a bullet, hair, or speck of skin anywhere, except for that Flint kid’s and the headmaster’s. I do detect a overlaying spell, probably for the clean-up."
Gibbs sighed. This was going to be a long night.
Later that night at 9 pm
The two sealed the office and made their way up to the Great Hall from the dungeon where the crime had taken place. As they entered, they noticed that there was complete silence. Todd must have had to cast the Silencing Charm. He gave her a nod in acknowledgement and went to the front of the hall. He cast the Sonorus Charm upon himself and faced the students.
"We," he said, waving between himself and the three Aurors, "are part of the Wizard Criminal Investigative Service, which means that we are here to investigate a crime. Somewhere Sometime around 6 p.m., your Potions master was murdered."
At first, there were stunned faces. Then, Gibbs watched in shock as a large part of the student body stood up and started silently cheering; they were hugging each other, and some were crying. There was even some dancing in the aisles.
‘Yep, couldn't be easy. I wonder what that man did to earn such disrespect,’ Gibbs thought.
He heard the groans from his team and waited for the students to calm down; when it didn't stop after a few minutes, he sent some bangs from his wand into the air to get their attention, then motioned for them to sit.
"As I was saying, a man has been murdered. This is a crime and not a reason to rejoice, no matter what your feelings on the matter are. We will be calling your parents in and questioning all of you until we find the culprit." With that, Gibbs cancelled the Sonorus Charm and turned to the staff.
"I need a list of all your students and their guardians. I also need to know who has had detention with Professor Snape in the last week. I suggest you give me a room to talk to everyone in, and get those that are waiting some food and beverages. You might have to set up cots. No one is leaving this room until we've talked to everybody." He turned to his team. "Trainee Todd, I want you to find Jen and give her the note I'm about to give you and get a search warrant for this whole castle, staff quarters included," he said, ignoring the shocked and betrayed looks coming from the staff table. Jennifer 'Jen' Gleason was an attorney they had brought with them to make sure they didn't step on too many toes, as she specialized in British law.
"When you have the warrant," Gibbs continued, "gather a team of Aurors and bring them here. Try and get the ones we've been training, if you can. We're looking for a Muggle firearm. If the idiot pure-bloods don't know what one looks like, draw a damn picture. If the Minister gives you a hard time, go to Madam Bones and let her and Jen handle it.”
Every member of the staff was glaring at him, but he didn't care; he had the authority to do what he needed to solve a crime, and, from the reactions to his announcement, everyone in this castle was a suspect.
“You’ve got it, Auror Gibbs," Trainee Kate said. She waited patiently for Gibbs to write the note, then took it and left the hall so that she could get outside the wards, where she could Apparate to the Ministry.
She was still a little nervous. This was her first case, and she had heard what a tight-ass Gibbs was, but he seemed to look out for his team, and she wanted to be a part of that.