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Superintendent Langston gazed perplexedly at the young man sitting in his office. Two hours ago the Riddles had called: the young Tom Riddle had passed the Gaunts' house while going for a ride. All the Gaunts, father, son and daughter had been lying dead in the garden.
Superintendent Langston immedeatelly went there with his colleagues. It was the first case of murder in his idyllic town Little Hangington.
The Gaunts were known to be a weird family. Hardly anyone dared to go near their lot as they used to chase visitors away with loud railing. Young Morfin was even seen to be a raving lunatic. But why were they all dead now? And how had they died? There were no visible injuries.
The young man, who now was sitting opposite superintendent Langston, had been sitting next to the corpses. In his hands he had been holding a broken, silver hour glass. Except of that they had found a two feet long stick of wood and a flask with some kind of blue liquid. No papers, no pass. His hairut was unusual, too: nowadays no man was wearing long hair. Also his clothes looked like some kind of black robes. And then there was this self-satisfied smile on his face; it made Langston's blood turn to ice.
"So," Langston said, "what happened?" In the corner there were the clacking sounds of his secretary's typewriter.
"I killed them," the young man said, still smiling, "she will live."
Langston frowned. This made no sense at all. "What is your name?"
"Severus Snape," he answered.
"Why did you kill the Gaunts," Superintendent Langston asked.
"Actually, I only wanted to kill Merope," Snape said. "But her father and her brother attacked me. And Morfin destroyed my time turner."
"Your what?"
"Time turner," Snape's eyes glittered with amusement. "I wanted to use it to return to my own time."
Langston's secretary stopped typing and stared at them in confusion. Langston signaled her to go on. Either this Severus Snape was mad, or he was making fun of him. But his eyes were clear, as if he knew very well what he was saying.
"Why did you kill Merope Gaunt?"
"To prevent her from marrying Tom Riddle," Snape answered.
A tragedy of jealousy? But Merope Gaunt had not been a woman men would be fighting for. Why should a rich and handsome man like Tom Riddle marry an ugly, run-down woman like Merope Gaunt?
"What makes you think that she'd do that?" Langston asked.
Snape grinned at him. "I'm from the future."
"Are you kidding?" Langston was really angry now. Snape just smiled derisively.Langston sighed and asked the next question without expecting a sensible answer: "How did you kill the Gaunts?"
"With a Deadly Curse," Snape answered.
"Of course," Langston said sarcastically, "and I asume this stick is your magic wand?"
Snape nodded.
"And you killed the Gaunts because you knew that something terrible was going to happen if Merope married Tom Riddle?" he asked quizzically.
Snape nodded again with an amused smile.
"And you expect me to believe that?"
"No, I don't expect that," Snape said, "that's why I stick to the truth, because you won't believe me anyway."
Langston wanted to answer, but at that moment the door was pushed open and three strange men came in. They were wearing normal suits, but due to their unmodern haircuts they looked a bit... freaky. How had they come past Myers and Smith?
Langston and his secretary jumped up in surprise. Severus Snape raised from his seat, too.
"What are you doing here?" Langston called angrily.
Snape sneered at one of the three men, a strong guy with long, brown hair and a big scar all over his face. "The aurors a quick nowadays," he said, "but no surprise when Alastor Moody is around."
The scar faced man looked at him distrustfully. "Have we met?"
"Not yet," Snape answered. "Have you already been at the Riddles? Did your delete their memories on me?"
The man he had called Moody looked at him gravely. "What have you told the muggles?"
What the hell was a muggle?
Snape sneered evilly: "Everything."
Moody nodded. He didn't look too happy with Snape's answer, but not concerned, too. "Will you come with us voluntarily?"
"Wait a second!" Langston called. "You cannot just take my convict with you! And how did you come in? And who the hell are you anyway?"
Snape took advantage of the distraction, jumped to the table, took the blue flask and broke its bottleneck.
"Stop!" Moody called in alarm, but Snape already was pouring the blue liquid into his throat. Moody jumped at him and caught the now stumbling Snape in his arms.
"I won't go to Azkaban," Snape said. "You will find my confession on the piece of paper over there." He pointed to the secretary's typewriter. Moody signaled one of his people to fetch the paper. The secretary was too perplexed to protest.
Snape sank to the ground. "Why?" Moody asked.
"Merope's son," Snape's voice sounded strained, "worse than Grindelwald." With that he closed his eyes and didn't move any longer.
Langston shook his head, trying to think clearly. What should he do now? Yes, of course, arrest the three intruders!
But Moody raised a wand and said loudly. "Please look at the top of my wand!"
Confusedly Langston did as he was told. Blue light blinded him for a moment, then he heard Moody say: "The Gaunts were found dead, but you couldn't find out the reason nor the murderer. No one was at the corpses. You neither did see me nor my colleagues."
The Aurors left the room, dragging Snape's corpse behind.
FINIS