Disappearance of Amelia Burton

Information Incident Disappearance of Amelia Burton Involved Location(s) Haggleton Lore Credit(s) riryuh, xMye

Background

In the summer of 1976, a young witch suddenly disappeared while on a summer trip to Haggleton. The witch, Amelia Burton, was a sixth year student at Hogsworth and was in Haggleton to study the creatures around the area. She, along with some of her close friends, left for Haggleton on the 18th of June and were planning to stay there for at least a month. Unfortunately, the trip was cut short as some of Amelia’s friends reported her missing after she failed to return from a campout near the Manticores. Auralocks were immediately dispatched, however, after a couple of days of searching, they closed the case on the grounds that Burton was most likely taken by the Manticores.

Reopening

Approximately ten years later, two friends were looking over a set of notes about Manticores for their Magical Creatures class. There was not much known because the creatures were quite dangerous, and not many people had the courage to go near them to study them more in depth. The friends, William and Oliver, decided to approach their Magical Creatures professor in order to get permission to visit Haggleton one weekend in order to get more information about the Manticores. The professor was quite hesitant, seeing as how Manticores were the reason why Amelia Burton had gone missing, nevertheless, he gave his permission to the two students, provided that they stay a certain distance away from the Manticores. William was quite excited for the trip, unlike Oliver, who was disappointed that there were restrictions placed, despite it being for their safety.

William and Oliver eventually went to Haggleton the following weekend and started to organise a list of what was to be researched. Oliver decided to ask around town, interviewing the locals about the Manticores. He came across one individual who was adamant about avoiding all creatures.

"	This one fellow, quite peculiar, was determined to make sure William and I didn’t go near the Manticores. I always knew that they were dangerous creatures, but I didn’t expect some of the locals to be that frightened of them! Another one came up during my conversation with the fellow, mentioned something about a girl going missing years ago?
	- Oliver's Journal

After being informed about the girl mysteriously disappearing, William and Oliver decided to shift their focus off the Manticores and went around Haggleton interviewing those who remembered the disappearance. William came across one person who recalled the Auralocks staying in town for one day to investigate, but eventually left. William found it quite suspicious that the Auralocks only investigated for a day and came to a conclusion quickly. After interviewing most locals, they decided to compare each individual’s accounts. They found that the Auralocks had missed an important detail: Amelia was not in close proximity to the Manticores, at least not enough for the Manticores to notice her, therefore, Amelia either had gotten lost in the forest or had been taken by someone.

Present Day

After William and Oliver finished their report on the disappearance, they decided to give it to their Magical Creatures professor, hoping that the professor would then pass it on to the authorities so that a proper investigation could be done. It took a couple of years for the report to be processed through the Ministry, but eventually another investigation was launched. This investigation lasted significantly longer than the original, and Auralocks came to the conclusion that Amelia Burton was taken by a group of dark wizards given the fact that they were known to be roaming the forest.

Trivia

• You can learn about this abnormal disappearance and other crimes in Magical Crime Studies classes taught by the Academics team.