Chapter 42. Whack-a-Mole

Before lunch, Headmistress McGonagall sent for me. It was so unexpected that I stared blankly at Gabe for a few seconds.

"What?"

"You heard me, she's at the Great Hall," Gabe responded, heading up the stairs.

Tanner, Blair, and I had been getting some studying done in the common room when Gabe approached with the information that Headmistress McGonagall wanted to see me.

They both stared at me with questions in their eyes which I waved away.

"I'll be right back," I announced, walking away.

It was strange for Headmistress McGonagall to send for me, had Sawyer pulled off another trick?

I pushed down my bubbling thoughts and hurried to the Great Hall.

It was eerie for it to be so empty, I looked up at the sky, it had stopped raining but the clouds hadn't cleared up yet.

Headmistress McGonagall was seated on her usual seat on the dais so I went up to her, expectant.

"Albeline, here you are," She acknowledged me. "Walk with me."

I gulped but did as she said, was something wrong?

"I presume that you have seen today's morning papers?" She asked conversationally.

"Yes, ma'am." I mumbled for a lack of a better response.

Headmistress McGonagall shot me a dark look from the side of her eye. "You don't have any hand in this, do you?"

I nearly stumbled at her presumption. "Of course not! It would be impossible for me to be."

She hummed at this. "If your account of the Thestral accident is accurate, you couldn't possibly have had a hand in this."

"Has any Journalist visited Hogwarts?" I found myself asking.

Headmistress McGonagall turned to look at me. "That is my biggest headache, not one Journalist has come to do an interview to gather information."

I threw my head back in shock. "Someone is supplying them with information from within?!"

"I'm afraid that's the case." She resumed walking.

I followed along, that meant only one thing, it had to be a student.

But who could it be, at least a quarter of the students sent messages by owl within the span of a couple days. Directly investigating it would be a chore.

Once again, I was sitting behind Headmistress McGonagall and the portraits of past Heads.

I barely sat down before a pile of letters tumbled on Headmistress McGonagall's desk.

I stared at them in confusion, looking to her for answers.

"These are letters from parents and guardians." She answered gravely, briefly closing her eyes. "They want me to strip Professor Esme of her position.

My confusion quickly changed to disbelief. "What? Why?"

"You don't sound very happy considering that she was your prime suspect." Headmistress McGonagall got started on stacking up the papers.

"She wasn't yours?"

"It wouldn't be right for me to pass judgment without tangible evidence, mere hearsay doesn't count."

"What's changing now?" I glanced down at the neat stack of letters.

Headmistress McGonagall got to her feet and turned around to stare at the portraits on the wall. "I hope nothing will but things are never that simple."

"Why don't you involve the Ministry of Magic?" I gave into my curiosity to ask.

"That would be the easiest option now, wouldn't it?" She sat down once again. "When did the Battle of Hogwarts happen?"

I thought briefly, I knew it happened in early May of 1998. "Over a year now."

"Even though there have been three attacks altogether, parents, guardians, and the Wizarding World, in general, view them as minor accidents. What do you think will happen if the Ministry of Magic is involved?"

My eyes widened as I listened.

"Hogwarts is viewed as a pillar of stability in the Wizarding society of Britain, it is our duty to uphold this." She added with intensity in her voice. "The Battle of Hogwarts was just over a year ago as you said," She calmed down visibly, adjusting her spectacles. "If word got out that the attacks were more than minor accidents, can you imagine the uproar that would cause?"

I listened intently, I could see the picture that Headmistress McGonagall painted. It was why the school had been largely silent concerning the incident.

"The peace we have now is just skin deep, it would be very easy for chaos to spread."

Whoever was behind this must have predicted that something of this manner would occur, it strengthened my belief that there was more to this than just mundane attacks.

This I told to the Headmistress. "I believe that there is more to the story than the attacks."

Her eyes gleamed from beneath her spectacles. "Splendid, finally looking at the bigger picture are we?"

"What?"

"I need you to help me with something of importance."

My curiosity was piqued by this. "Something of importance?"

"Yes, Albeline, I need your help with investigating the student that is responsible for handing out information to The Daily Prophet."

"Oh, um sure… I mean, yes ma'am."

"Thank you for all of your help." She politely said, her tone dismissive.

I left the Headmistress's office deep in thought, a couple more pieces falling into place.

The reason for the school's inactivity, the possible mole among the students, and Professor Esme's possible innocence as well.

I decided to take a walk outside to articulate my thoughts. I found myself on the Quidditch pitch where the attack had happened yesterday.

I looked around the empty Quidditch pitch, it would add up that students would avoid the pitch after yesterday.

I casually strolled over to the spot where I had accidentally tackled Professor Esme and stared at the grass underfoot.

Had she really been the one controlling the Thestral?

Headmistress McGonagall hadn't outrightly announced her stand on the matter but I could pick up that she didn't think Professor Esme was responsible for the attacks.

Denying that however would be admitting that someone else was behind it and as she said, there wasn't enough tangible evidence to prove the matter in either direction.

Unless the Ministry of Magic was involved, the Wizarding world would view the attacks as skirmishes and now, as a scorned teacher expressing her inner turmoil.

Both opinions were harmless, it kept the Wizarding world calm.

There was also the student who was supposedly feeding The Daily Prophet with information.

Headmistress McGonagall had asked for my assistance in fishing them out. In theory, it sounded simple enough 'Investigate the mole.'

Practically, it was a job in futility.

There was little to go on with except that it was probably a student. I very well couldn't go around asking who was giving out information to the press, it wasn't information that I could freely divulge.

The only way to find out would be when the next attack happened but I didn't have the luxury of time.

Also, the mole could prove to be a very useful clue.

Someone had to have told them to give information to the media, I didn't see 'The Daily Prophet' themselves reaching out to a Hogwarts student to buy information from them.

The newspaper might be a bit too eager to please the populace but I doubted that even them would go to such extremes.

So if I managed to somehow find the student, it might give us a lead on the person behind all this.

I barely noticed the passage of time as I thought and drew up plans until the bells rang to signal lunch.

It brought me out of my thoughts and I started back for the castle. Although I had spent the entire time thinking, I hadn't been able to come up with a plan on how to find the student.

It troubled me, making my brows scrunch up as my brain worked hard trying to come up with a solution for my current problem.

I would need outside help for this.

The plan was to tell Hazel and Witter and ask for their opinions and suggestions.

They already knew all about the matter so I doubted there was anything wrong with telling them about this.

It was glaringly clear that I couldn't come up with a solution all by myself. I doubted that Headmistress McGonagall would mind that I told a couple of people, especially if said people proved to be useful in the end.

So I made plans to meet up with the two Gryffindors after lunch. Witter had his usual cloudy expression on while Hazel looked worried.

"Did something happen?" She asked immediately after we met up.

I hesitated slightly. "Well, yeah…"

Even Witter looked brighter at my response. "What?"

I looked around at the passing students. "We should get somewhere more private."

"So what's going on?" Witter repeated in his level voice when we got to the unused classroom.

I explained everything that happened plus the theories that I spun out of it and at the end of it, they both looked confounded.

"So…" I trailed off, expectant.

"That's a lot to take in." Hazel breathed, her eyes still surprised. "This could be the clue that we're so desperately searching for."

"But it's also an impossible mission." Witter deadpanned. "Even if or when another attack happens," He directed at me. "Finding the student would be an impossibility amongst the tens of other students also writing and receiving letters."

My shoulders dropped, trust Witter to always be viciously blunt.

"Then what do you suppose we do?" Hazel looked up at him.

Witter shrugged. "They could scan the messages sent by students after an attack but that is just as difficult, not to mention that it would give the school a bad rep if it got out."

I trudged to the dungeons, no wiser than when I had met up with Hazel and Witter.

The two of them were also defeated by the limitations that held me back. I retired to the dorms determined to come up with a solution.

///Author's Note///

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