Ron cut her off. "Maybe they did it after the event?"
"Even if that's the case, ordinary students couldn't possibly cast a spell that would kill so many chickens. There are only a handful of students capable of it, and which of them would have nothing better to do than kill Hagrid's chickens? I'm more inclined to think a younger student used poison—quite possibly a first-year."
As she spoke, Hermione looked at Harry, and Ron followed her gaze.
Harry was baffled by their stares. "What are you looking at me for?"
"Colin," Ron reminded him.
"The diary," Hermione practically spelled it out.
Harry's eyes widened.
Hagrid, who was still sniffling beside them, had not heard clearly. Seeing the strange atmosphere between the three, he asked through sobs, "What're you talking about?"
Harry hurriedly brushed it off and pulled Ron and Hermione aside. "You suspect Creevey did it? But he was at the club yesterday too."
"Creevey was at the club, but the diary wasn't. Maybe it bewitched another first-year."
"But—then—why would it kill chickens?" Harry stammered, voicing the point that made no sense to him.
Hermione and Ron could both tell that Harry was instinctively defending the diary. Perhaps he simply did not want to believe that a magical object he had once spent time with could be so evil.
Or perhaps he did not want to jump to conclusions.
Still, Harry's question was a valid one.
If it really was the diary, why kill chickens?
There was no way to find an answer through such baseless speculation. The trio soon gave up. After all, the idea that the chicken killer was a young wizard was only Hagrid's personal guess.
Afterward, the three checked the chicken coop again. Aside from the footprints left by Hagrid, Fang, and the three of