Who dun it!?

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

It was the kind of night that Henry ardently disliked. An unnaturally bright full moon hung in the sky, wisps of clouds crossing it's face from time to time. It cast a bright light which drained almost all the color from all that which it touched through the high outer windows, creating bright bands which segmented the castle's many halls into dark and light patches. An eerie silence filled the many halls, and the areas that were dark were more so than on normal nights. Nights such as this almost always, in Henry's experience, brought with them unpleasantness and wrongdoing.

As he patrolled the corridors of the castle's fifth floor, Henry found himself unusually wary of his surroundings. It was as though he knew something bad was going to happen and was just waiting for it to do so. He turned corners and moved down halls as he always did, but an uneasiness such as he had rarely known was set upon him.

Nights like this always found Henry wishing that it was common practice that prefects patrolled in pairs. It wasn't so much fear as it was foreboding; if something did happen on a night like this, he was sure he would want and, perhaps, need help.

It was as two o'clock showed it's face that Henry found himself in the bare stretch of corridor that spanned along the building's east side that he saw movement ahead. He stopped dead, peering down the hall ahead of him. As always on nights such as this, even his normally excellent nighttime vision seemed off par. He could see nothing in the darkness at the hall's far end, the many patches of moonlit space separating his patch of darkness from that at the hall's far end making it that much harder to see. All he could do was hope that he remained undetected, but in conditions such as this, that hope was hardly necessary...

(Closed || Tianne)

[Tianne Webster-Barrett]

It was somewhat catlike, the way Tianne reacted to a noise. She wasn't scared of the darkness that the ghost shift brought, she had gotten used to being the only one out in the corridors. The sound of approaching footsteps still gave her the jitters, but it was no where near what it was like when she was just a fifth year. It was hard for her to believe that this was her second year in a position that held responsibilities; when Tianne first received the badge in the mail, she was sure that she wouldn't have it for more than a week before they realized the mistake they had made.

Hearing a banging sound coming from down the corridor, Tianne's ears instantly perked. Okay, so maybe she was taking this feline thing a bit far, but the resemblance was quite funny. Her back straightening as she took a few silent steps towards the sound, she hesitantly wandered down the corridor, to seek out the culprit. It wasn't until she got to the end of the line when she spotted to owls sitting upon the window ledge, fighting each other, and in turn, whacking their wing against the glass of the window.

Exhaling in relief, Tianne lit up her wand and continued to walk, her bag occasionally hitting her on the back. Once again, Tianne's 'spidey-sense' (okay, so she has similarities to both felines and arachnids) flared, as she saw movement up ahead. It was that cat-like night-vision of hers.

Taking a couple of steps in the direction, Tianne stopped dead, in order to listen for any more noises that the culprit was to make.

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

Henry stood there, staring down the hall, weighing his options. He could move forward and get a better look, in which case he was certain to be seen and avoided, or he could sit back and see if the mysterious something would show itself. He was just starting to seriously consider some kind of magical means of identifying whoever or whatever it was when the situation changed entirely.

There was a sudden and vicious sizzling and crackling sound which filled the air; lights began to flash out into the corridor in which Henry stood from a small side corridor which led west off of the hall. Loud ripping noises were added to the chorus, and the lights, which had been green in color, intensified to an almost white hue. The indirect light emanating from whatever it was flashed throughout Henry's corridor, filling even the darkest corner with momentary flashes of dull green radiance. At the far end of the hall, the face of the individual he had seen moving in the shadows was thrown into sharp detail several times in quick succession; he realized who it was almost immediately, and abandoned his shadow instantly, making for the disturbance.

He jogged up the hall quickly, no longer worrying about who might lurk in the shadows; Tianne was hardly an enemy, in fact, he would have bet all the riches in the world that she was just as curious and worried about these highly unusual happenings as he was. His foot suddenly fell upon a loose stone which had never quite fit right into the floor in this corridor since the corridor was obliterated during the Battle of Hogwarts, years ago. The effect of that misplaced step was for a sound like a gavel being struck upon a stone surface as hard as possible in a room with excellent acoustics to ring through the corridor and all those around it with force.

Instantly, as though a switch had been flipped, the sounds and the lights from the side corridor ceased. Henry heard light footsteps and scraping for a moment, then all sound from his destination ended, leaving only the sounds of his own footsteps as he broke into a run in their wake. He skidded around the corner, drawing his wand and lighting it as he did so. The beam revealed a sight that produced a million questions and answered only one...

There, on the floor, lay the smoldering, shredded remains of a tome of great age and wisdom. Only one piece of it's binding remained fully intact, it's spine. Peeling silver letters reflected the light from his wand, providing Henry with a two word name, one which he recognized immediately: Thine Enchantment

[Tianne Webster-Barrett]

As Tianne calmed down her breathing, she attempted to tune into whatever it was that was making the sound. She always felt that she was good at this, that she was good at patrolling, but it was times like these that made her feel so... well, so inadequate. The way her heartbeat leapt at the sound of movement, the way her blood rushed through her veins at the mere thought of someone being there. She didn't know how to act, she didn't know what she was doing wrong, but she always seemed to get scared.

As her heartbeat slowed itself down once again, she was jolted by the way that it picked up again. It was not only the surprises that shocked her, it was the way that she was so surprised every time. It just didn't get any dang easier!

Covering her face to protect her from... well, she was moreso just covering her face incase something did happen to jump out at her. It was childish, but Tianne was flinching, badly. Squinting her eyes, to see if she could see what was happening any clearer, Tianne listened for something that would give away the culprit of this disturbance. The fact that Tianne knew that they would be mocking her made it all the more worse, she didn't want to look stupid, she didn't want to be teased.

Watching the different colors, listening to the different sounds, Tianne was taken aback. Was that... Was that Henry? She was sure she had seen a face on the other side of the problem, but was it Henry, or someone else, someone that was guilty? As the face moved closer, Tianne took a couple of steps, before jumping back in surprise.

"What the?" She said, as the sounds stopped. "Henry?" She whispered, her eyes darting around her, before a light was lit in front of her. Tianne could feel the goosebumps underneath her stockings, the hair standing up on the back of her neck. What was going on, Tianne really wasn't sure.

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

Henry took in the sight of the destroyed volume on the floor for a moment, then looked up at Tianne. He gestured for her to join him where he stood at the intersection of their hall and the hall in which the smoldering remains of the book now sat. He did not, however, wait for her to join him before he moved forward to examine the remains.

"My god..." Henry said, picking the spine of the book up and examining it more closely, hoping against hope that he had misread the title at his first glance. All he knew at that moment, as he looked upon the peeling silver letters upon the spine, was that he now held in his hands the last remnants of the only copy of one of the greatest spell books that had ever been written.

[Tianne Webster-Barrett]

Standing as still as she could possibly be, Tianne closed her eyes. Maybe this wasn't real. Scratch that. It was real, that was something that she knew for sure. This kind of feeling was one that you didn't get in dreams. Tianne was quite creeped out by this whole experience. She didn't know whether the reaction that she was giving was the correct one, the mystery was too much for the sixteen year old girl, but it was what her instinct told her.

Moving closer as she was beckoned by Henry, Tianne's eyes widened. Was Henry holding what she though he was holding. A dizzy spell took over the girl for a moment, before she was able to figure out what exactly had happened. Why was this book here? Of all places, of all times? There had to be a catch. Shaking her head in disbelief, Tianne opened her mouth in curiosity. "Is that...?"

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

"Yes," said Henry, still staring at the charred spine with numb disbelief. "Merlin's book of enchantments..."

It was a name known to all within the wizarding world, and many without. Merlin, lord of the wizards of King Arthur Pendragon's court was known to many as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, wizard to have ever lived. He was, however, also known as 'The Prince of Enchanters', and for good reason. He single handedly unlocked more of the mysteries surrounding the magical fields of enchantment than any other three wizards combined. His discoveries in the field numbered in the thousands, and he recorded them in only one known place: within the pages of Thine Enchantment, a book that he himself wrote seventeen hundred years ago.

Most of the items that had been in Merlin's possession were lost shortly after his disappearance; the book and three other items were all that was left in the known world of the man that had changed the world wizards and witches lived in forever. The book was the last known collection of Merlin's invented enchantments, and, moreover, it was the only device that allowed for their proper working, such was the complexity of the spells.

He scanned the floor, looking for any sign, any clue that might help the investigation he had, not a moment before, committed himself too. He could see a liquid mixed into the remnants of the book; no doubt this was the 'Book Burning Potion'. Magical tomes such as Thine Enchantment had natural defenses; destroying them was nearly impossible unless one made use of a very special potion which was capable of stripping a magical volume of it's magic and then destroying the physical components, the pages. There was no discernible layer of dust on the floor, thus no tracks could be identified leading away from the scene, though there was a black scuff on one of the stones set into the floor as though a dark piece of rubber had been dragged against it. Portraits were not plentiful on this floor, thus eyewitness accounts (beyond his and Tianne's) from the immediate area weren't a likelihood.

He began to shift the remnants of the book around, looking for more clues. Everything about this was just wrong, and it didn't make sense; he kept his wand trained on the remains of the book, carefully examining every bit of them for anything he could use.

[Tianne Webster-Barrett]

Tianne didn't really know what to think. This was such an incredible thing to happen to her and Henry, so much that she didn't want to believe what was happening. She was wishing that she would wake up from this dream at any moment, but the harsh reality was what she was in this to the end. It aggravated her to think that she didn't have a choice in whether she wanted to participate in things like this, though she shrugged it off; she needed a little bit of action in her life anyways.

As she watched Henry look over the book, Tianne smiled. He seemed to be so interested in this, much like Tianne was. Henry was probably one of her closest friends in the castle, she always felt like she could talk to him, and he was probably the best person to maintain a conversation with.

Shaking her head, to get back onto the topic that she should have been thinking about, Tianne kneeled down next to the boy, as her eyes scanned the floor for any remnants of the 'attack', for lack of a better word. As Tianne looked down at the book, her mind raced, trying to make sense of this situation, though it was actually proving to be quite difficult. Tianne always thought of herself as quite smart, but when it came to things like this, her mind just didn't work properly.

"So, what do we do?" She said, falling back onto her backside, somewhat childishly. Tianne definitely didn't act her age, though at this moment she was cursing herself for that action. She felt silly, that she was actually like she was seven years old, but she was dumbfounded by what they had just come across.

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

"We solve this mystery." Henry said, still sifting through the remains. "Everything about this is just wrong."

As he shifted the charred front cover of the book, the light from his wand caught on a pool of a thick, gelatinous, green liquid which was mixed in with the remains. Henry reached down and ran two fingers through the liquid and brought it up to his nose; he knew the scent immediately: enchantment solvent. He had expected to find some hint of the stuff here, it would have been a requirement to destroy an enchanted item as powerful as Thine Enchantment, but the quantity was all wrong.

Enchanted items had natural defenses against damage. Several ways to destroy enchanted objects existed, but the most common, because of effectiveness, were enchantment solvents: complicated potions, each specifically designed to destroy a specific kind of enchanted item.

"Enchantment solvent, look." he said, holding his two potion coated fingers out for her to see. The stuff was perfectly safe to touch; it was probably even safe to drink, but somehow Henry thought that the stuff would taste terrible. He let Tianne get a good look at the stuff, then he vanished the solvent which was on his hands and conjured a small glass vial into which he siphoned some of the potion which was present on the floor.

"Unfortunately, there's no way to know which way the person responsible went..." he said; he had thoroughly checked the area around the book for any clues as to what direction the responsible individuals might have gone, but there were none. The potion, however, was a clue in itself. "Although, we might be able to do one better. This potion," he held up the vial. "regular students have no idea how to make it. The only reason I even know the smell is because my mother had some she used to destroy a rather violent nose-biting teacup once. The kicker is, there can't be more than two books that even mention the words enchantment and solvent in succession in the library. If it's a student, which I sincerely hope it is because if it's a teacher, we're out of luck, then they'll be listed as having checked out the book or books that can tell you how to make something like this. Find the log, find the name, find the person."

At this point, he had a smile on his face; a lot of this still didn't make sense, but he knew one thing: they had a very good way of tracking down the guilty party now. It was an excellent lead in Henry's mind; enchantment solvents were incredibly complex to produce, and even more finicky about storage conditions. It wasn't something that the average student would know how to make; even he didn't know how to make one off hand. This, of course, meant that, if it was an average student who was responsible, then they would need a little help figuring out how to make it, and the only help in the castle that didn't ask questions and didn't bear witness was a book.

[Tianne Webster-Barrett]

Unlike other people, Tianne experienced the 'speechless' feeling quite a bit. There was many situations where she couldn't think of something to say, but they usually only lasted a few seconds or so. This time, however, Tianne felt like she was going to be without sound for a tad bit longer. The mystery hadn't really set in, alhtough Henry seemed to be getting into it already.

She felt somewhat childish, sitting back amazed at their findings, when Henry was there explaining everything to her, and telling her what to do, pointing things out. It was too late, or early (depending how you thought of it) for her brain to be working properly, however, the stunned mullet look starting to get a bit old. As she looked at the liquid that seemed to be stuck to Henry's finger, she wondered how they knew this thing. She smiled, admiring the boy and his obviously large brains, while nodding to what the boy said.

And at last, the mystery began to play at Tianne's mind. She was waiting for her own curiosity to kick in, as the complexity of the potion was revealed. There was no evidence, other than the book and the potion, and even that posed as nothing to Tianne.

"So we've got to hope that it was in the library? There's only a few people in this school
that would go to that much trouble. There can't be many," She smiled excitedly, as she looked at Henry.

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

"No, there can't be many at all," he said, looking around at her. "I would guess that there isn't more than one copy of each of the books that talk about this stuff in the library. I've glanced through one of them before, but the other I only know by it's reputation; it's a restricted section item."

He waved his wand through the air once, instantly conjuring a box which much resembled a large pizza box. He placed it on the floor, open, then drew a line all the way around the remains of the books in a circle. As he closed the circle, the area within glowed blue and he was able the lift the remains, perfectly as they were, up and then into the box. The scene itself was clear, but the remains were exactly as they had been. He closed the box, then drew a glowing orange X exactly over the spot where the remains had sat.

It was then that he had a rather interesting idea: a trip wire. He dragged the tip of his wand across the floor in a square shape which enclosed the scene for about five feet in either direction along the hall and along the base-boards of the wall on either side, completely enclosing the scene. He brought the wand up and twiddled it, conjuring a small, plain, silver ring which he slipped onto his right index finger.

"Magical trip wire." he said simply. "As soon as I activate it, it'll make the ring grow warm anytime someone steps over the line. Went to a great deal of trouble to learn this one; saves on patrol time in some of the more commonly walked hallways: just lay down a trip wire, and it does the work for you."

He stepped outside the area he had outlined, the box containing the remains held in his hands. He flicked his wand at the tripwire once. The line he drew glowed bright blue for a moment, then faded, becoming invisible once more. It was all pretty tricky, but he always found that he had a knack with enchantments, and was usually able to master them with little or no difficulty.

*****

The library was always nice and quiet at night. Every once and awhile, when Henry was able to talk one of the ghosts into taking over for him for the night, Henry would come down to the library and have a look around, but tonight was the first time he was here on business.

He made a beeline down the length of the library and placed the box down right on top of the librarian's desk and moved around to the opposite side, opening one of the drawers and pulling out two heavy, leather bound books. One of them was the book registry, the other was the check out log. He flipped the registry open.

This book was incredible in itself; it had the names of every book in the library listed alphabetically and divided up into category. It also showed the current status of every one of the books. The first book he thought it might be, The Encyclopedia of Potions, was present and accounted for, according to the registry. The last check out date was listed as 'January 15th, 2003', and all seven of the copies that were registered were confirmed in stock at the last inventory conducted by the librarian, one week ago; Henry knew enough about the solvents to know they needed one month's worth of brewing time.

The second book was a different story; the restricted section was designed to be intentionally confusing and disorganized so that students who tried to sneak in would have a very hard time finding anything. The librarian was one of the few people tasked with knowing their way around the section by heart. If Henry hadn't already known the book's name, he would have had a very hard time locating it in the registry, whose restricted section registration pages were equally confused.

The only copy of the Libri Venenum, or Book of Potions, was listed as 'Checked Out' by authority of Leon Snow over one month ago. Henry immediately closed the registry and replaced it in it's drawer. He hadn't dared to hope that the person had been stupid enough to use information gathered from a one of a kind restricted section resident to do this. He opened the log eagerly and turned to the page showing all the checked out books and who they were checked out too for the day in question. He ran his index down the list until it came to a rest one the entry for the check out of the Book of Potions.

A single sentence sat upon the page identifying the person who was supposedly the guilty party, but Henry couldn't absorb it. He looked down in horror at the name. He didn't want to say it; he didn't want to let Tianne know what was on the page in case she didn't believe his side of it, but knew, any second, she would look for herself. The entry was...

Copy A of the Libri Venenum, check out under the authority of Professor Leon Snow, to Henry John Lordings Jr. (Gryffindor).

"It can't be..."

[Tianne Webster-Barrett]

[ Sorry it took so long x) ]

Although she felt the urge to prod the book, Tianne knew that she shouldn't. She was still in disbelief, she couldn't confirm nor deny that the book was real, or even there, as it was only the boy that had that had laid a touch on it. Her mind was playing through so many different scenarios, as she took a back seat to Henry with what was happening. She wasn't confident enough in her knowledge to want to speak, to want to put her opinion forward.

She felt like a child, as she tagged along with what Henry spoke, with what he did, but she knew that she didn't have much of a choice. His knowledge was far greater than anything the girl could even dream up; it wasn't just the age gap that was telling her that. Yeah, she was a sixth year, and Henry was a seventh year, but Tianne knew that this boys brain was far stronger than a year's difference.

Nodding as the boy told her what she was doing, Tianne smiled. Henry was always thinking ahead; Tianne would have just left without doing anything. "To the library?"

- Library -

Come to think of it, Tianne had never been in the Library at night. Even now that she was a prefect, and she knew that they wouldn't get any trouble for being there, her heart raced at a million miles an hour. She was scared that they were going to get spooked by a ghost, tormented by Peeves, or caught by a professor. It wasn't so much that Tianne was afraid of the darkness, it was that she didn't trust it in the slightest.

Walking next to the boy, her eyes nervously darted around the room. She felt safer next to someone that she knew she could trust to help her, someone that's magical knowledge was greater than her own. As they reached the book registry, Tianne too read through the words, and, proving that she wasn't stupid, knew exactly what that meant. It meant that it wasn't this book that was used.

As she watched the boy look through the registry, Tianne waited to see his reaction. Whether or not this mystery would be much easier solved than once thought, whether this trip to the library would get them any closer to resolving it.

As the boy spoke, Tianne glanced over the book, wondering what it was that the boy was dumbfounded about. As she came to the correct spot on the page, Tianne lifted her hand to her mouth, in a way of disbelief.

"What the..."

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

[ Not a problem ;D ]

Henry stood there, fixated by the words that, no doubt, would be the cause of his expulsion from the school mere months before his graduation. It was like an terrible nightmare in a way: as the words resonated in his mind, he wished only that he could wake up and everything would be put right. It was at that same moment that another, more terrible truth crossed his mind: I've been set up...

Though he had collapsed into the librarian's desk chair behind him at the thought, his better reasoning returned to him in force. The facts began to race through his mind at a million miles an hour, but they didn't seem to be fitting together in any way that might point to the true culprit. If there was one thing he knew beyond any doubt, it was that he had done no such thing as destroy that book; this was, in a way, an advantage to him. Until the teachers got wind, he had free reign to investigate, and now he knew something about their suspect for a fact: they knew enough about the prefect schedule, and enough about him personally that they could set him up for something...it's a lot harder than one might think.

This, of course, hinged on one thing...

"Tianne...do you trust me?" He asked slowly, looking over at the Ravenclaw desperately. "I mean, do you really trust me? Because...I need you to trust me enough to believe me when I say...I did not do this."

[Tianne Webster-Barrett]

Tianne too stood still, although the true extent of this mystery had not yet become apparent to her. She wasn't stupid, no, but it was late at night, and things were just taking a little but longer to come to her. She frowned as she thought of what had happened, what was happening, and what was going to happen. This night had gone from a routine ghost patrol, through a series of unexpected turns and corners, and developed into a mystery that Tianne had never seen before.

As the boy asked her the question, whether she trusted him or not, Tianne's mind again went into mayhem. She trusted him, she did. Didn't she? Tianne had always thought that she'd be easily able to answer this question, without hesitation, but this was showing something different. Tianne opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Did she trust the boy? Or was he just setting her up, playing a prank on her.

Henry wouldn't do something like that. He wasn't slack like that. So, yes. Tianne did trust Henry. "I trust you." She said sincerely, nodding, not being able to say anything else for fear of choking on her words.

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

Henry waited with baited breath, but let out a sigh of relief at her answer.

"Thank you," Henry said. "I have to be able to solve this...whatever it is, without teachers interfering. It's obvious to me that I'm being framed for this, but I don't know why...I don't even know why this was done in the first place...it doesn't make sense..."

Henry looked down at the log entry, and read the sentence that would incriminate him in the eyes of many. One thing stood out as unusually odd...

...under the authority of Professor Leon Snow...

"Leon Snow...?" Henry said suddenly.

As with everything else related to this bizarre event, it didn't make any sense. Why would they claim that Leon Snow had given him permission to check out the Libri Venenum? Leon Snow was no fool, he would remember perfectly well whether or not he had given Henry, one of his prefects, permission to check out a book that had absolutely nothing to do with his subject. Henry looked around at the drawers in the librarian's desk and pulled open the one that he knew the librarian kept all the restricted section permission slips in.

It took a moment for him to rifle through the small stack of slips before he found one that was signed by Leon Snow. His eyes darted down the words on the slip, and he snorted his displeasure. It was nothing more than a bad forgery; this meant that there was no chance of him being able to get Professor Snow to come to his rescue on this one. He had hoped that the professor would remember whoever he had really given the slip to.

Then, however, he noticed something, something that started to allow the pieces of this puzzle to fall into place. The slip wasn't just a forgery, it was a forgery of a forgery. It was a perfect replication of Leon Snow's handwriting, except for a few outstanding letters which just stood out like a sore thumb.

"Un...believable..." Henry said, staring at the paper held loosely in his hand. "I can't believe it...this...this is flawless...it's so obvious. Heh...The perfect plan that went wrong...HA!"

Henry looked up at Tianne, then decided that he had better explain this one to her. Even he would think that he had done it if he heard himself laughing about it. He placed the slip down on the desk, then sat back in the chair and swiveled it around so that he was facing her.

"This was the perfect set up..." Henry said, watching her reactions very carefully. "whoever did this knew I would be patrolling tonight, and knew that I passed that spot on the fifth floor twice EVERY night. Once on my way out to patrol, once on my way back. There are no paintings in that hall, or any that adjoin it. The likelihood of a ghost passing that spot at any point during the night was, because of it's remoteness, unlikely. For that same reason, the presence of other teachers or students, or even prefects in that hall was less than probable.

"Whoever did this knew enough about me to know that I would know Leon Snow's handwriting backward and forward. That's why they picked him. As one of his house prefects, I was ideally placed to know Leon Snow enough to make this..." he tapped the slip. "His giving me permission to check out a book about potions, a subject that has absolutely nothing to do with his, doesn't make sense...not to me...and, likely, not to whoever would be investigating this. Since this is so obviously a forgery, they would assume that the person for whom the slip was written, namely me, was the guilty party.

"To anyone looking at this, it would appear that I checked out one of the only books in the castle that could teach me how to make the necessary tools for destroying an enchanted tome. It would appear that I had taken just enough time to make the potion after acquiring said book, and then used the potion as soon as it was done. It would look like I, while out on patrol, took advantage of an area I would know to be completely secluded to do away with a priceless artifact. The beauty of it is that, while that hall is secluded at night, during the day, most everyone coming from the upper floors has to pass that spot. That means half the school and three quarters of the professors would each have a chance to run across it. Do the math, and the likelihood that it would go unnoticed is phenomenally low.

"The prestige of Thine Enchantment would demand an investigation, and, with this evidence, I would be the only person who stood out as a likely culprit. Everything from the location and likely time at which the crime took place to the records in the library point to me. If I denied that I had done it, which any criminal would, it would mean nothing. I don't make it public, but the school records show that I am a student and practitioner of Occlumency; this would be enough for them to distrust any answer they got from truth telling methods such as Veritaserum or Legilimency. They would be forced to ignore my testimony altogether and go solely off of the physical evidence. Add to this the fact that Leon Snow himself would have no choice but to tell them that he hadn't signed any such permission slip, and I'm done for. It's the perfect set up..."

He turned the chair and leaned forward over the desk, running his hands through his hair with his elbows on the desk itself. Even though he could work all of this out, it didn't mean anything unless he could prove it. Nobody other than close personal friends and family had any reason to trust him, and their relation to him was, in itself, a corrupting factor to their testimony in the eyes of any investigator; nobody was likely to give anything any of them said much thought.

"Still doesn't explain why though..." he mumbled. He let his hands fall onto the desk, and looked around at the evidence gathered before him. "Even if they wanted to make it look like I did it just for fun...or to be spiteful or something, I don't buy that that's the reason the real person did it..."