Neville moved through the manor with the others making note of as many things as he could as they investigated. He shot a reassuring smile back to Fauna as she gave him an apologetic look. He had to say, she was doing fantastic. This was not an easy case, not an easy place to be moving through and the trainee was doing better than he would have expected of her.

He noted every dried herb and botanical ingredient in the Potions room, though nothing struck him as out of the ordinary for every day potion making. The wreath in Lee's room was fascinating but again nothing too abnormal about it. The picture however, he paused to examine it further. The figure inside that withdrew from them didn't concern him. He looked closer at the flowers in the field, "I've seen these before." He spoke softly in the silence of the manor. He thought back to the flowers he was sure he had seen in the forest but once again pressed on with the others. It may not be anything but he made sure he'd look into the woods once they were done with the manor.

The Owlery took his breath away. The sheer amount of spells that had been used was overwhelming and he couldn't help feeling a crushing sense of sorrow for just how much carnage had taken place. Something very, very bad had happened here.

Neville came to Fauna's side, "Revive someone? Were Abby and Callix up here?" His thoughts swirled with all the information they already had. He found this was the hardest part of investigating. Trying to make sense of this kind of madness.

There were hints of the lives that had been lived here, spread throughout the rooms amidst the mess and rain.  He'd carefully pocketed the eagle-crested ring from Lee's bedroom, and paused again to note the surfaces in the bedrooms where it might be worth to come back through later to check for fingerprints.  Somehow, Jonas doubted that either of the Lilly siblings would be present in a Muggle police database, but it never hurt to be thorough, so long as he still had favors that he could call in.

The Owlery looked to be the highest point in the manor.  It hadn't escaped the destruction that had been visited elsewhere in the house.  The first IDREAD team to sweep through here had noted dozens of dead owls, some dead from Unforgivables, others from the chaos of the Dementor attack.

As with so much else involving the Lillys, the tower continued to raise more questions.  Why?  Why had the siblings had so many owls to begin with?  Why bother using Avada Kedavra to murder them, when surely the act of casting the spell had lost them precious seconds?  Were the Lillys worried that the birds could be used to trace them after their escape?  Or could be somehow traced back to them?

Longbottom had moved forward to join Blake; the trainee had found the traces of another spell.

"No," Jonas put in.  He'd pulled his attention away from the floor, where so many dark spells glittered, and was now inspecting the walls and the ceiling.  Traces of inexpert wards, strong but awkwardly woven...whoever had cast them had been forceful but not talented.  Even so, it took some concentration to pick out one from another. 

"Abby said they were both down in the portrait gallery -- she never mentioned coming up here to the Owlery that day.  Does it seem like it was cast at the same time as the Unforgivables?"  he asked, sounding half-distracted.  There.  On the ceiling, tangled in with the warding spells, was something that seemed to shimmer in a different hue.  Another enchantment?  "They didn't try to wake up an owl, did they?"

Fauna nodded at Auror Gamp, agreeing with her assessment. Dementors had come here for someone.

"Abby had mentioned that Lee apparated into the portrait gallery from somewhere." She didn't know if there were designated apparation spots within the house or apparating out of the house, but the next team of Aurors would likely be able to check.

Fauna knelt over the knot of spells as she listened to Longbottom, then Trevelyan as he wondered whether Rennervate and Apparate could have been casted around the same time as the unforgiveables. The Rennervate and Apparition spells had the same intensity as the sickly green afterimages of the Avada Kedavra spells scattered around the owlery, overlapping the weaker Expecto Patronum. The spells looked more recent than the wards, but it was hard to tell if they'd been casted on the same day or even in the same week. She waved her wand, gently nudging the layers of spells back. The spells shimmered with strength but impatience, as if casted by the same quick hand.

"I think these were casted around the same time, possibly by the same person," she smiled ruefully at Longbotton, curious to hear his opinion. "They look like the most recent spells here. Except..."

She followed Trevelyan's glance toward the ceiling, at the shimmering hues peeking behind the wards and cobweb of illusions. Illusions! The gray and lavender strands of illusion spells glimmered and winked down at them from the rafters, concealing the top of the tower.

After checking with the Aurors to get their okay, Fauna concentrated on unraveling the illusion spells, nudging aside the threads and dispelling them with flicks of her wand, and revealing the hidden shimmering hues bit by bit. It took all her focus, like wiping away the layers of an oil painting to reveal the red and blue underpainting on canvas. She doubted that whoever had created this illusion removed the illusion every time. They must know exactly where to look to access what they'd hidden.

Fauna paused when the ceiling appeared to dip inward, until she understood that she was looking at a flat surface. The peaked tower began to flatten out as she swept the illusion away, leaving behind a flat, stone ceiling that hovered just a few feet over their heads. A square indentation marked the ceiling at one side of the tower. Fauna waved her wand at the indented door, but it was locked, warded against the usual charms.

She stepped back to let one of the more experienced Aurors unlock it. She rubbed at the side of her face, where she felt a blush forming, proud that she'd dispelled the illusion charms but vowing to pay more attention to wards during training.

When the door unlocked in the ceiling, a staircase curved from it, one step after another, jutting out of the wall of the owlery and stopping before the staircase that had led them there.

Fauna looked up the stairs, into the opening of the tower. It yawned dark and dim.

The damp wind whistled through the windows surrounding them, raising the hairs on her neck, and carrying with it an echo of oooo ahhh.

Neville's brow knitted when Trevelyan confirmed that their survivors hadn't been up in the Owlry. If they weren't trying to escape through the tower, why in the world was there so much chaos and carnage here? As he contemplated it, he came to stand next to Blake and knelt down with her as she examined the overlapping to spells, trying to determine when they were cast. This wasn't his area of expertise but he gave Blake the best smile he could muster when she looked to him. He nodded in agreement with her assessment that they had been cast close together.

As she stood to follow the web of the illusion he stood as well, a little awkwardly given his stiff knee and brushed off the fleeting thought that the trainee smelt nice. His jaw dropped slightly as he watched her unravel the illusion above them and a hidden ceiling appeared, along with a door. He swiftly moved in to unlock the door that had given Blake trouble. He glanced back to the trainee and mouth, "You did great." Noticing the way she had reacted to not being able to disenchant the door.

He took in a deep breath as he spied the foreboding staircase that led to the hidden level above them, "After you?" He said to Jonas, not trying to come across as cowardice himself but knowing that they'd likely be better off having the more seasoned Auror leading the way for them. He exchanged glanced with Gamp, wondering for a moment if he should have had her take point instead.

Andromeda remained vigilant. Blake made good the illusion charms. Longbottom the trapdoor. Nothing was as it seemed in this house. Longbottom exchanged a glance. Andie shrugged. She conjured lumos maxima again. The ball of light hung beside them.
"I will send it up with you." She said to Jonas. "Do not be sure there are no further illusions. Or traps."

Jonas had stepped back to wait as first Blake and then Longbottom had dealt with the illusions and wards concealing the hidden floor above them.  The Lilly sibling had spun a web of secrets, but so far, most of the protections had been focused on keeping prisoners inside and outsiders away.  Even the pentral portrait gallery, which they'd warned Abby and Calix to stay out of, hadn't been disguised in a manner like this. 

Why had they gone through so much effort to conceal the space above the owlry like this?  Who could they possibly be hiding it from?  What had they been hiding?

Longbottom's comment caught him by surprise.  Usually, he was the Auror who did the deducting and then got out of the way, not the one who charged into concealed spaces with his wand firing.  Jonas blinked for a moment, and then gave a half-shrug, acquiescing. 

"What, you reckon they might be trying to hide something?" he asked Gamp with forced cheerfulness, peering up at the staircase.  What was the worse that could happen? 

Wand in hand, he started up.

The stairs were dark and full of shadows.  True to the female Auror's word, the ball of light followed him up as he ascended, matching his pace as he climbed up and up.  Jonas moved carefully, testing each creaky step before he shifted on to it.  Looking on the bright side, he thought as he ascended, he reckoned that he'd watched too many Muggle horror movies to fall for any embarrassingly easy traps.

He'd thought that he couldn't be far from the curved roof of the owlry when the stairway finally opened up.  A small, circular room was nestled within the very top of the tower, with gray stone walls and a dusty wooden floor.  In the center of the room sat some sort of enormous marble block, lying on its side like a monolith that had fallen flat.  In the light of Gamp's spell, he could make out what seemed to be shadowy faces carved along it, expressions twisted as if crying out in agony.

"There's some kind of chamber up here!" he called back down to the others.  A quick glance around the room revealed more:  an elaborate-looking hand mirror, set aside on a small table.  A curved scimitar-like knife with a tinted, golden blade.  (He was going to stay well away from that.)  And white flowers everywhere, set in vases and mournfully scattered around the room, as if waiting to welcome the dead.

The Lillys had been preparing this room for something.

Jonas gritted his teeth, feeling a sense of frustration rising in his stomach.  If only they'd known.  If only someone had thought to look for Abby, so that they could have found her before these monsters had been able to flee.  "Lumos," he growled, conjuring his own light as a companion to the one that Gamp had sent.

Together, the two lights were enough to nearly drive the darkness out of the tiny room.  In the corner, there was a small flicker of movement that he hadn't noticed before.  Before Jonas could react, or even call out a warning, a gray flicker of smoke suddenly flashed past him, darting back down the stairs towards the three Aurors behind him.

A smile flickered over her face at Neville's compliment, glad she'd done something useful. Her expression turned more somber as Trevelyan headed up the shadowed stairs, Gamp's light bobbing beside him.

Fauna listened at the bottom of the staircase, wand clutched in her hand, relieved to hear Trevelyan's voice when he called down about a mysterious chamber. Whatever it was, it could not be good. She watched the Lumos Maxima light bob past the open door above. When a second light joined it, Fauna crept up the first few steps, listening for Jonas' voice again.

In the silence, a gray cloud swept down the stairs, billowing toward her.

Fog, she remembered Abby saying.

Instinctively, Fauna ducked into the niche in the wall which held up the stairs like ridges in a shell. The fog rushed past, then paused, twisting its form in her direction.

Her heart thudded in her chest. The fog tilted to the side, as if cocking its head. Tendrils of fog crept closer to her flushed cheeks, her warm breath, her clammy grip on her wand, and in that panicked moment she did everything her training told her not to do.

She pressed into the shadows on the stairs, feeling the cold stone wall against her back. She froze. She held her breath, and stared through it.

The fog drew back, sweeping down the rest of the stairs. Its gray shape expanded in the dim light shining through the windows, like an owl stretching its wings, becoming light and full.

Fauna exhaled just as the fog rushed Auror Longbottom. Seconds too late, she flung up a shield in front of the Auror and hurried down the stairs.

Neville held back a chuckle as the older Auror made a joke. He could hear his Gran's voice in his head scolding him that this was no time to be making jokes. He thought differently. If anything, this was the perfect time to make jokes. He thought back to his teen years, living with Harry and Ron and Dean and Seamus. The other Gryffindors were always quick with a joke or a snarky comment, even in the worst of times and considering how his years at Hogwarts had coincided with the Second War, he really had lived through the worst of times.

He felt a pang of guilt as Trevelyan travelled up to the hidden chamber. He was thankful that there were no traps that had gone off. Though before he knew it something had left the chamber, "Blake!" His heart pounded in his chest as he tried to climb the staircase to get to the trainer.

It all happened so fast Neville barely had time to register what had happened. The fog twisted, retreating from Blake and suddenly rushed him. Almost at the same moment as he felt a rush of warmth hit his chest, he felt the trainee's shield charm. He lost his balance and was suddenly falling down the stone steps. His eyes closed as he was momentarily knocked unconscious from the fall.