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a little poke around?" Ron asked Saffron, Hermione and Harry as they continued on their trek around the castle, after their final period of the day. There was a spark in his eyes at the prospect of adventure. It was evident that Ron was excited at the possibility of meddling in another mystery.

"I'd rather not," said Saffron with honesty. "But I will if you want to, Harry,"

She felt that way because yet again so many eyes were on Harry and if examining the crime scene of the attack on Mrs. Norris would help find a new suspect or even discover who the identity of the culprit was, then she was game to do so.

Harry didn't answer for a while. He seemed genuinely indecisive in regard to what he should do. On one hand, he obviously didn't want to be seen near the scene again in order to avoid suspicion. But, at the same time, he wanted to know who did it. That want dictated his decision.

"Just for a few minutes,"

While they continued down the corridors in pursuit of the writing on the wall, Colin Creevy walked past them.

"Hiya, Harry!"

"Hullo, Colin," replied Harry on cue.

"Harry - Harry - a boy in my class has been saying you're--"

But what Harry was, Colin never said out loud as he was pushed by the large crowd that was heading out of the dungeons in pursuit of the Great Hall.

"What's a boy in his class saying about you?" Hermione thought out loud. Saffron didn't need to ask the question, she thought it was obvious.

"That I'm Slytherin's heir, I expect," answered Harry coolly.

"Just ignore it, Harry," Saffron told him, sympathetically. "It'll all die down in a few weeks."

"People here'll believe anything," said Ron disgustedly.

When they went up the next staircase, they crowd dispersed and instead there were just pockets of students here and there. They walked to the very end of the corridor and saw the scene looking almost identical to how it looked last night. The message in blood was still there but the cat and puddle of water were both gone. An empty rocking chair was present too.

"That's where Filch has been keeping guard," Ron muttered, glancing anxiously over his shoulder to see if they were being watched.

"Alright," announced Hermione formally, once sure they were alone. "Let's get to it,"

"Scorch marks!" Harry yelped triumphantly. "Here - and here--"

"Come and look at this!" said Hermione a moment later. "This is funny..."

Saffron stood up from her crouched position below the message and walked over to Hermione. She was examining a window, where two dozen or so spiders were making their way through a tiny crack in the pane at the top of it.

"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" Hermione asked them.

"I haven't," answered Saffron, staring at them in confusion. "It looks like they're scared of something,"

"Like they're running away from something," Harry nodded in agreement. He looked over his shoulder to see that Ron was standing away from them all and looked to be on the verge of darting away from them all.

"Are you alright?"

"No," Ron practically choked on his words. "I - don't - like - spiders,"

"I never knew that," said Hermione, sounding fascinated by this revelation. "You've used spiders in Potions loads of times..."

"I don't mind them dead," Ron has his eyes shut as he spoke. "I just don't like the way they move..."

Hermione giggled and Saffron snorted.

"It's not funny," snapped Ron in annoyance. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my - my teddy bear into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick... You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and..."

Saffron was fighting the urge not to laugh and was failing at it. Therefore, she was glad that Harry changed the subject as she did feel slightly bad for laughing at Ron.

"Remember all that water on the floor? Where did that come from? Someone's mopped it up."

"It was about here," Ron too was relieved to be able to focus his attention on anything but the spiders. "Level with this door."

No sooner had he put his hand on the doorknob of the door, did he take it off of it.

"What's the matter?" asked Harry confusedly

"Can't go in there," Ron told him. "That's a girls toilet."

"Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there," Hermione stood up and made her way over to them. "That's Moaning Myrtle's place. Come on, let's have a look."

"On that note, can we not go," Saffron remarked, shaking her head. "I would prefer to avoid any encounters with Moany Myrtle,"

"She might have seen something though," Hermione said thoughtfully. "Come on, there's no harm in asking her,"

Saffron shrugged her shoulders and followed Hermione into the bathroom. She had only ever been in it three or four times in cases of dire emergencies and made a point, like every other girl in the school, to avoid it. For one reason and one reason only, that was making her way towards them.

"Hello, Myrtle, how are you?" said to her pleasantly.

Myrtle flew over to them, hovering over the toilet stalls. She looked shocked at who was in their company. "This is a girls bathroom, they're not girls."

"No," Hermione nodded. "I just wanted to show them how er - nice it is in here."

Saffron had to laugh at that but she covered it up with a cough. She watched on amusedly as Hermione pointed to the dusty mirrors and mouldy sinks in falsified admiration.

"Ask her if she saw anything," Harry mouthed at Hermione.

"What are you whispering?" demanded Myrtle.

"Nothing," Harry assured her "We wanted to ask--"

"I wish people would stop talking behind my back!" exclaimed a teary Myrtle. "I do have feelings, you know, even if I am dead--"

"Myrtle, no one wants to upset you," said Hermione, glaring in Harry's direction. He should have let her get to that topic on her own terms. "Harry only--"

"No one wants to upset me! That's a good one!" screeched Myrtle. "My life was nothing but misery at this place and now people come along ruining my death!"

"We wanted to ask you if you've seen anything funny lately," said Hermione briskly. "Because a cat was attacked right outside your front door on Halloween."

"Did you see anyone near here that night?" Harry asked her.

"I wasn't paying attention," exclaimed Myrtle dramatically. "Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that I'm - that I'm--"

"Already dead," Ron finished the sentence for her. Saffron nudged him in the stomach, yet again resisting the temptation to burst into laughter.

Myrtle let out a cry of despair at hearing that and shot into the air before crashing down diving into a nearby toilet, splashing disgusting toilet water all over them. Saffron let out a moan and looked down at her soggy robes with complete irritation. But she felt that she deserved it in a sense for making light of Myrtle's situation. At heart, the ghost was a fourteen-year-old girl. She had never grown up and never had the chance to grow up. The more Saffron thought about it, the worse she felt.

Hermione sighed. "Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle... Come on, let's go."

They walked out of the bathroom but no sooner had they closed the door, evading one source of trouble were they met with a new one.

"RON!"

Ron's older brother Percy had been walking down the nearby set of stairs when he saw them. He looked at them eagle-eyed and shocked.

"That's a girls bathroom! What were you -?"

"Just having a look around," said Ron casually. "Clues, you know--"

"Get - away - from - there -" Percy exclaimed, hurrying over to them and gesturing to them to move from the scene. "Don't you care what this looks like? Coming back here while everyone's at dinner--"

"Why shouldn't we be here?" asked Ron furiously "Listen, we never laid a finger on that cat!"

"That's what I told Ginny," replied Percy. "but she still seems to think you're going to be expelled, I've never seen her so upset, crying her eyes out, you might think of her, all the first years are thoroughly overexcited by this business--"

"You don't care about Ginny," snapped a blushing Ron with venom. " You're just worried I'm going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy--"

"If I catch you down here again," Percy retorted hotly, pointing at his flashing prefect badge. "I'll write to mum, and I'll let her tell you off. Would you like that?"

All Ron could do was shake his head.

"Then no more detective work, understand?"

Similarly, all Ron could do was nod this time.

But once Percy was out of earshot, he said something about his brother that made Saffron, Hermione and Harry let out audible gasps. It was evident that there was no love lost between those two brothers as a result of the situation on hand. As Saffron personally believed that Percy, like many people in the school, thought that Harry, and by proxy, Ron, had something to do with the writing on the wall.