Sophia and David waited outside the common room anxiously, down at the opposite end of the hallway to the tapestry, keeping a lookout in case the quidditch match ended earlier than suspected.
Sophia was biting her thumb nail, her other arm wrapped around the front of her body when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She froze, terrified at the idea that people were already returning, a chill running down her spine. She turned down the corridor leading to where she saw the figure slowly, creeping around the corner at the end. Letting out a relieved sigh, she glared at Daniel.
"What are you doing? Why creep around like that and scare me like you did?" She hissed.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to just walk straight up to you if it turned out that your Father was still there." Daniel explained.
"Fair enough. But it's alright, he's in there now with Tina. I don't know how long they will take but you can come and wait with us." Sophia lead Daniel back to where David was waiting for her, who smiled upon seeing his cousin. "I was worried that you hadn't made it out in time."
Daniel grimaced. "I almost didn't. I had an issue with moving everything so that it was easy to find, but that it would also seem believable that someone would try to hide illegal evidence in that way."
David frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well, it's hard to explain. But basically I had to make it look like John had actually hidden the stuff like that himself, and therefore had to make it look like they had tried to be hidden, all while being easy to find." Daniel shook his head. "It was difficult. Especially with so much of it. Anyway, I only got out of there when I started to here your footsteps so rather than walking down here I turned the other way out of the tapestry and walked back around the long way."
- - - - -
Percival and Tina wasted quite some time searching the common room itself and other dormitories. While this would have provided results far quicker before Daniel and Adam moved everything, it wouldn't have left a clear line of evidence leading to John, but rather made all of the Horned Serpent house suspicious. So although it took until the fourth dormitory they tried, they finally got the result everyone had been hoping for.
"Tina, I think you should come and see this." Percival said, standing around the scattered belongings by the bed at the far end of the room.
- - - - -
Percival and Tina emerged from behind the tapestry with stern looks on their faces.
"It seems as though you children were right." Percival said. "It looks as if John is the one behind everything that has been happening this year, and after all that I've heard about the guy, I can't say that I'm surprised. Obviously, he hasn't done all of this by himself, but I think for the most part we can assume that a lot of the people who were helping him did it either as a joke that's now been taken too far, or they were blackmailed into it." He frowned for a second as if he suddenly realised something. "Daniel, what are you doing here?"
"I couldn't find David in the stands so I came back to look for him. They've already told me what's happening." Daniel said, finding it easy to cover up the truth.
"Yes, well... No more telling people what's happening here I'm afraid." Percival continued. "Apart from maybe Adam, I don't think we should spread word too much about what's been going on here. Tina and I will collect up everything and send it to MACUSA, and I think it would be a good idea to get some of his class work from his teachers and send that off as a comparison for his handwriting. We'll block off the common room and dormitories for a few hours as we sort everything out. In fact, Daniel would you mind going and telling your Head of House that they will need to find some other accommodation for the Horned Serpents tonight?"
Daniel nodded and walked away silently.
- - - - -
The quidditch match was just coming to an end three hours later when Tina had sent off the last of eleven owls to the Magical Congress.
Students made a lot of noise as they made their way through the hallways, pushing and shoving each other playfully. However, everything came to an abrupt halt for a quarter of the school when they came across Percival, the scary figure looming up in front of them, blocking their path.
"Where's your Captain then?" Percival asked calmly.
A string of murmurs ran through the crowd as a group of third years at the front parted when John pushed through to face the older man, a cocky grin on his face.
"What do you want, old timer?" John said, acting big in front of his audience.
Percival smirked. "After everything you have done, after hurting my friends' child... It gives me great please to tell you that I'm arresting you for the crimes against No-Maj and No-Maj born that have taken place in this institution over the past school year."
There was a sudden hush over the crowd as John's smirk dropped completely from his face.
"You have got to be joking." He said, anger boiling up inside of him.
"I'm very happy to say that I'm not." Percival flicked his wand and suddenly ropes like snakes wrapped themselves around John's body, rubbing his skin raw in places and holding him tight. Percival then stepped forward and grabbed the boy by the collar of his robes, and began to walk him away, through the stunned crowd of students.
At the very back of the gathering they passed Credence and Adam, watching forlornly. Adam appeared to have a glint in his eye.
Percival and Credence locked eyes, the latter giving a slight nod of encouragement. However, John seemed only focused on his Keeper.
"You're dead Graves." He snarled. "Dead for doing this to me."
"Quiet!" Percival bellowed, dragging him away from his son. He flicked his wand again and the ropes moved more to gag John, stopping him from speaking.
Tina met the two of them at the front gates of the school, intent on helping Percival to transport John back to New York.
- - - - - - - - - -
Two more chapters! Wow I can't believe that it's almost over...
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Innocence
Fanfiction'Percival carefully took Credence's hands in his. "My darling." He said softly. "Hatred is a foul creature born initially from fear. But like a fire, as it spreads it becomes all-consuming and destructive. In time, the hatred may be quenched but fro...
