Once upon a time, there was an innocent Hogwarts student on their way to Charms class. They were early and arrived to the classroom before anyone else. Since the class was going to be about Depulso, they decided to practice to pronunciation of the spell, WITH their wand in their hand, causing it to actually cast and blast a hole in the floor. Panicking because of what they just did, it took them a few seconds to realise that what was found under the Charms class floor was ever so shocking. Two dead bodies.

As you probably already figured, this came as a great shock to the school. All sorts of questions came up, such as: who are the victims? Why are they under the Charms floor? How long have they been there? But most importantly: Who did this? In this article we’ll answer all your questions.

The ministry quickly came in on the matter to try and solve the case. After some special spell-casting and examining the bodies, we can already answer the first question on who our victims are. Now, hold steady there, because according to the research, one of them is our Hogwarts staff member, Tom. Along with him, Gemma—a Gryffindor student who was assumed to have left Hogwarts after not being seen on school grounds anymore—was found dead. Apparently they weren’t ON school grounds but UNDER it. Get it?

Now that we know who are our unfortunate victims are, we can start asking ourselves why they were under the Charms floor. Now, after having a thorough look around the crime scene, the Aurors discovered a crawlspace under the Charms class, probably from back in the founders’ days. This wasn’t on any map or architectural plans of the Hogwarts grounds, so someone must have accidentally discovered it and decided it was a good unknown place to hide two bodies. If I was one of those Aurors, I’d be long gone after seeing the big cobwebs, spiders, and Merlin-knows-what living down there.

The question that’s probably on your lips right now is: Who would do such thing and why? At first we suspected it was the Charms teacher Ben, since you’d figure he knows his classroom best. But that seems unlikely after his response to our suspicions.

“I was as surprised as you guys are, I swear. I’m willing to do anything to prove my innocence. I can give you a list of all the students that I teach in this classroom. I can volunteer in the research or cleanup of the classroom. Heck, I’ll even take one of those anti-lying potions to prove I’m telling the truth. Believe me, I find this as awful as any of you do. Gemma was my student and a damn good one too,” says Ben, the Charms professor.

We started digging in the case but couldn’t quite figure it out, so we decided to give our inside-info-detective Brice a call. She’s known for solving crimes around the Hogwarts grounds, along with the ministry, while still being a student. Here’s what she has discovered over the past weeks:

• Gemma was top student of the Charms class. Everyone was shocked to hear that she didn’t attend her exams nor any classes anymore. Being the model student and teacher’s pet gives her classmates plenty of reasons to pull an act out of jealousy, but who would do such thing?
• Most of her classmates are well-known and innocent students who don’t seem capable of doing such a thing. We interviewed all of them to be sure and narrowed our suspicions down to three people: Jill the Hufflepuff, Avi the Slytherin, and Koryn the Gryffindor.
• Since we have a possible motive for Gemma’s death, we have to start thinking about how any of those three might have a link to our staff member Tom, so Brice started asking around if anyone had noticed anything strange. One particular testimony brought a possible explanation to the table. Tom was organising a Muggle oriented trip to London, which only those with the highest class scores were allowed to attend. Jill signed up.

Brice decided to interview her with a hidden recorder, and here’s how it went:

Brice: “You are the only student with links to both victims that we are aware of. You’re Gemma’s classmate and you signed up for the London trip. It’s no secret that Gemma was top student of your class, but it’s also no secret that you’re always on her heels when it comes to top scores. Always being in second place, year after year, must stack up after a while. Maybe this trip to London was just the push you needed to kill Gemma and take Tom along with her. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Jill: “AAaargg… I can’t even hear that annoying name anymore, that’s how much she irritates me. She sickened my life, pushing me into the shadows and ruining my top scores. I’ve been working towards that trip since my third year here AND SHE STILL STEALS IT FROM ME. I couldn’t just let that happen, so I went to Tom to beg for an exception, but he just wouldn’t give in. One wand swing and two simple words did the trick for both of them and a guaranteed spot to London magically appeared in front of me. But hey, you’re just a nobody with average scores, who’s going to believe you when you tell anyone that the new top of the class Huffle murdered two people? I’ll be sure to catch you be laughed at!”

The recording was immediately sent to the ministry, so they’ll be taking action any day now. So if you see them present on Hogwarts grounds this week, you can be certain that they’re having a good talk with our not-so-innocent Hufflepuff.