Prologue
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He was lying on something soft.
It was the first thing he registered.
He was on something soft and it had to be summer, because the air was warm and the window was open. Sweet scents drifted on the breeze and that’s how he knew that the room he was in faced a garden.
He drifted slightly, only dimly becoming aware of another presence in the room with him.
Whoever it was sat nearby, a pen scratching on paper, and he let himself sink deeper into whatever he was lying on.
There was a sense of peace in that room and he soaked it up, his mind drifting as he sunk back into sleep.
* **
Gradually, awareness seeped back in and Harry Potter found himself blinking up at the ceiling of his best friend’s room.
Yawning, he let himself stretch as he heard his friend Ron Weasley start to wake.
“Good morning,” he rubbed his green eyes.
“Morning,” Ron stretched before letting out a yawn of his own. “The summer holiday just flew by, didn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
Today was their last day of summer before they went back to Hogwarts for their final year.
And what a summer it had been.
He’d spent the first month and a half with his Aunt because of the fact that she was his mother Lily’s last living relative. Lily had saved him from the attack that killed her and his father James by invoking blood protection that only his Aunt Petunia could carry on.
The rest of the summer had been spent at the Burrow with his friends.
Ron’s oldest brother Bill had gotten married to Fleur Delacour, who had been a fellow Champion in Harry’s Fourth Year. It had been one of the best weddings Harry figured he would ever be a part of.
The day of the reception had seen both families competing in a version of the Muggle game ‘bobbing for apples’. It had been loads of fun – especially when the crowd had picked the final four to go against each other.
The wedding had been beautiful as well, with all the children doing a dance performance during the lunch and Gabby Delacour’s violin showcase not leaving a dry eye in the dinner crowd.
The night had been marred by a small incident, but things got back to normal – only to fall apart the next day after Harry and his friends got word of the most heart wrenching news.
Even now, as Harry thought back, sorrow filled him as he remembered seeing the article detailing the untimely end of Sherlock Holmes.
Harry hadn’t known the Consulting Detective very well, but he had been a good man from what Harry saw and he grieved with Ron and their other best friend, Hermione Granger, who had known Sherlock a bit longer than they had.
The one affected the most out of their small circle had been the most… well, he didn’t like the term ‘fragile’, so ‘vulnerable’ would have to work … of them all.
Tony DiNozzo had been devastated and it caused the Trio of friends almost physical pain when the Italian had refused to leave Ron’s room for ages before the funeral. Tony had looked at Sherlock as a younger brother – and had been, if Hermione’s theory had been correct – and it hurt to know that Tony was dealing with heartbreak, but they couldn’t really do anything except be there for him.
What else could they have done? They couldn’t bring Sherlock back, but they could prod good memories from Tony when he felt like sharing.
The funeral was indescribable, half of those in attendance sobbing their eyes out and the other half not far off. One of the things that most stood out was finally getting to meet Tony and Sherlock’s other brother, Eames.
The Brit had been rattled almost as badly as Tony and he refused to be more than a few chairs away at best.
But while Eames and Tony had each other, Sherlock’s flatmate Dr. John Watson – a Hogwarts Alum himself – had it even worse. None of the Trio had known which to focus on more between the three.
The highlight of the ceremony – if one could call anything a highlight during a funeral – had been when Tony performed a duet on the piano with a recording of Sherlock playing the violin. Harry had imagined that Sherlock was there, smiling in that way of his as he watched Tony throw himself into his playing.
Sherlock’s death had cast a black cloud over the Burrow during Harry’s Seventeenth birthday party, one he’d shared with Neville Longbottom who was born almost the same day.
Tony had barely kept it together even then, falling into a contemplative mood almost at the drop of a hat. He’d told the Trio that Harry’s birthday was the exact day he’d met Sherlock in Florida years ago.
“Harry?” Ron peered over at him and smiled somewhat sadly when his friend refocused on him. “I didn’t know Sherlock well, either, but I miss him, too.”
They stayed there in silence for a moment before Ron sat up. “Well,” he pasted a smile on his face. “Time for breakfast, I think.”
They slowly got themselves dressed before heading downstairs for breakfast.
Harry remembered having to clean a lot of rooms before the wedding and those rooms had disappeared into the walls of the house not long after the wedding, leaving no trace they’d ever been there.
“Now, the house seems smaller,” he commented, reaching the bottom.
“It kind of does after, doesn’t it?” Ron agreed. “But I think I get used to it quicker because I’ve been here ages.”
They entered the kitchen to find their friend Hermione, Ron’s sister Ginny and two others that they hadn’t expected.
One of them was a Witch of slightly advanced age – reminding Harry of Mrs. Figg, who was at least ten years older -, but the other was a very familiar face indeed.
“Hi, Deeks!” Harry smiled warmly at the American.
Detective Marty Deeks had been at the wedding with Tony and stayed through the funeral and Harry’s birthday. It hadn’t taken much for the Trio to realize that Muggleborns in certain parts of America were just as terrorized there as they were in Europe, though maybe not to the extremes of late.
The blond waved back. “Good morning. Well, on Britain time. It’s still yesterday back home.”
Harry liked having the NCIS Liaison there when Tony or his other two friends couldn’t. It made him feel just a little closer to the Italian.
“They just got here,” Ginny told them as they settled in. “Lyn works with Deeks at NCIS. She’s here to go to Diagon Alley and Deeks wanted to know if we wanted to go, too.”
“I am,” Hermione nibbled on her toast.
“Oh, don’t hurry on our account,” Lyn smiled warmly. “Eating quickly does terrible things to your stomach.”
“Mum stepped out for a moment,” Ginny told her brother.
Harry still wasn’t sure how he felt about Molly Weasley after it had been revealed that she’d been using Gabby to spy on them to make sure that they weren’t talking about things they had no business in – namely Order things. Gabby had wanted to fit in with her new family and had gone along with it.
Deeks shifted slightly before he decided that everyone was awake enough, after at least half a cup of tea and a few bites of breakfast. “So, I heard from Tony last week,” he announced. “He said that he wouldn’t be available for messages for a few weeks at the beginning of September. He’s also sorry if you haven’t heard from him lately, since he’s been running around in order to get ready for his undercover assignment.”
That made the Trio stop what they were doing and exchange looks. They remembered well what had happened the last time.
Okay, granted he hadn’t been undercover, but it had involved a serial killer, an obsessed Hogwarts Defense professor and a black dog that they’d thought was Harry’s Godfather until the end of the year.
“No, really,” Deeks told them. “Palmer told me what happened and it’s legit this time. And it won’t be that you can’t talk to him at all, but just give it a few days for him to settle in. Evidently, a school in the middle of nowhere needs a teacher and he’s got the credentials to make it work. There’s also something of an information network and – well, it’s complicated to get into right now, but it turns out that another Agency needs him and he’s the only one in several agencies who qualifies.”
“Are we sure that’s what he’ll be doing?” Ron frowned suspiciously.
“Send him an owl when you get to school,” he shrugged. “It’ll probably take a few days to get to him.”
Speaking of owls, Harry’s snowy white owl, Hedwig, hadn’t been seen since before Tony came to get him from his Aunt’s house. After he’d gotten to the Burrow, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore had sent his Phoenix, Fawkes, with a message telling them that Hedwig was safe at Hagrid’s, though she’d been exhibiting odd behavior. Hagrid’s latest missive said that whatever was going on with her hadn’t changed since then.
“Well,” Hermione mused, knife suspended over her partially buttered toast. “If there really is a need to have Tony go undercover for someone else based on something that only he can do, then I’m proud of him for having the skills to do it.”
Harry and Ron agreed, pride filling them at her words.
It would help boost Tony’s mood and bring some of his confidence back that his Muggle team had shredded. In fact, being away from the office would probably do Tony good.
“How long is he going under?” Ginny wanted to know.
“Well, from what I understand,” Deeks sipped his tea, “there was already a teacher, but something was going on with her so Tony was brought in until she got everything in order. Probably a little after Christmas.”
The Trio nodded. They would send Tony a note asking for an explanation. Whatever Tony was going to be doing, though, it was certainly keeping him busy. It had been at least over two weeks and a half weeks since they'd heard from him.
The three friends finished eating and they were soon ready to go. Ginny would be heading out to a classmate’s house to review past material and… Harry was certain there was going to be an Order meeting while they were out.
“Have fun and stay together,” Mrs. Weasley reminded as they lined up to use the fireplace. “I should be seeing you for lunch, but if I’m running a bit behind, stay at the house to start packing. We won’t be turning around to retrieve forgotten items.”
* **