Chapter 283: Investigation

Disclaimer:

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 283: Investigation

Three figures landed their brooms in a clearing near a small but cozy-looking wooden house surrounded by a forest on all sides.

It was already getting late, but the full moon gave plenty of light.

They left their brooms resting against a nearby tree and focused their attention on the house.

"This is a waste of time," Alastor Moody grumbled.

"I'm just glad we could leave the desk job for a while," John Dawlish said with a smile on his face.

"I don't think this was a waste of time." James Potter had wasted no time performing an examination of the area surrounding the house.

"I can't detect any protections, not even a simple alarm charm," he added.

"That's suspicious…" Moody said.

"Oh, look!" Dawlish pointed at the house. "That window appears to have been broken."

Moody grinned. His mood had obviously improved. "Maybe we can have some action after all… wands ready!" He started to move towards the house at a slow pace, while his magical eye constantly moved around, searching for threats.

"Be very careful, this could be something much worse than a waste of our time," James said. He had not shared what Harry had told him about Voldemort's return, but he could not help but keep his words in mind.

Moody turned around and gave James a knowing look.

"I am always vigilant."

As the three of them approached the house, the first thing that hit them was the smell.

"Urgh… it smells disgusting in there!" Dawlish said.

Moody frowned. "It smells like death…"

"And not a recent one," James added.

It just took a light charm and a quick peek through the window hole to find the source of the stench.

A rotting corpse with a missing arm lay on the wooden floor of the living room, surrounded by a stain of dried blood, as well as other bodily fluids.

"Dawlish, stay outside and keep an eye out. Potter and I are going in," Moody started to give instructions.

"This man seems to have been killed a while ago, but you can never be too careful."

"Yes, sir," Dawlish nodded and went to work.

James and Moody decided to access the house through the window hole. Part of the wall had also been broken, leaving an entrance large enough to enter comfortably. It was hard to tell if some trap had been set up at the front door.

James used a spell to clean the air and make the room more bearable to be in.

The state of the corpse was terrible, and his face was barely recognizable.

"Mmm… this man looks familiar," Moody commented.

James thought the same. But that was not saying much. The magical population of England was fairly small, and by working at the Ministry of Magic for a few years, you could end up meeting most of them.

"It appears that he died of blood loss. Whatever got rid of his arm was not a cutting charm. That is hardly a clean cut… it's almost like it was ripped apart from its socket. What a nasty curse," Moody said.

While he examined the body, James went to look around the room, trying to see if he could find something that could identify the victim.

And he soon found it. Displayed above the fireplace were many trophies and medals.

"Those are dueling trophies… there are so many of them." James felt the need to make the comment. It was truly an impressive number of prizes.

"A duelist, huh? That didn't seem to have done him any good," Moody said.

"No… this can't be him…" James stared in shock at the name on all the trophies.

"Potter? What did you find?... out with it!"

"This is Anthony Dolohov…" The moment he read the name, everything about this case changed for him.

This was no longer a mystery murder. He knew exactly who had killed this man. He also knew the 'when' and the 'why.'

"Dolohov?... of course, that is him!" Now that he had a name he knew, Moody was able to recognize the familiar face, despite its rotten state.

"This guy was quite the piece of work… I can't believe the bastard is dead. I kinda wish to shake hands with whoever managed to take him down," Moody smiled.

"Was he even reported missing?" James was not in the mood to smile.

"Not that I know of," Moody answered after thinking about it.

"But then again, I doubt he had many friends."

"Not friends, but you would think that his fellow Death Eaters would want to know what happened when one of their own goes missing." James knew there was something off about this case they were given.

"You may be right… and our beloved Minister never said a word about this either." Moody glanced at the corpse while his magical eye moved around, searching for something… or someone.

"Who sent the report about this house?" James asked.

"It was anonymous. And I was only told to come here to investigate this house. There was no mention of any corpse," Moody said.

"The three of us have been stuck in desk duty almost since Parkinson took his position as Minister. They obviously didn't want us snooping around in their business, and now all of a sudden…"

Moody nodded. "They sent us to investigate this house in the middle of nowhere with an anonymous report."

"It's like they had been waiting for the right moment to send us out…" James noted.

Moody gripped his wand. "Be ready, this is tr-"

"Ahh!" Dawlish's screams were heard from the outside.

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