Baby Girl
The reunion between Harry and Sirius was bittersweet for the pair. Both were aware of just how much time they'd missed in each other's lives, but they determined not to waste another moment and bonded together just as easily as Remus and Harry had. As for the two remaining marauders, the first things they said to each other were apologies. In fact, neither of them stopped apologizing until Morgan swatted the two on their heads and said, "Just hug already!"
They forgave each other quickly after that.
Sirius, not needing to work to support himself, permanently moved to the United States – with Hotch's help – and bought a house right down the street from the Hotchners. He set up their floos and erected wards around the properties to protect them. Remus easily gave up his shabby apartment after being invited to live with him, but he kept his part-time job. He wanted to carry his own weight and had grown to like the work.
Remus also wanted to be there for Sirius. While they could mostly pick up their friendship right where they'd left off, bickering and teasing each other like an old married couple, sometimes the fact that Sirius had been in Azkaban could not be ignored. His maturity level was about the same as it had been when he'd been sent to prison, tragically, the day before his twenty-second birthday*. At times, he seemed to get lost in his memories, a side effect of long-term exposure to dementors that would fade with time.
Luckily, Sirius's current euphoria seemed to outweigh any depressive states. As long as he wasn't left alone too long, Sirius was fine. It was one of many reasons Harry stopped going to Quantico on the days when he wasn't allowed in the bullpen and started staying with Sirius while everyone else was working.
Once again, the family's routine changed, but no one was complaining. Harry finished his first year of homeschool, acing the tests for two years' worth of education just as Spencer had predicted. Despite his progress in social settings, they all decided public school would be too boring for him, so he would continue to be homeschooled, especially as Harry didn't stop learning during the summer. He just reduced the hours he spent studying.
Haley was home all day now that her teaching duties had ended for a couple months, and she and Harry were able to spend more time with each other. Part of that time was spent learning about magic. Haley shared Harry's excitement when Remus walked them through their very first potion brewing. It was a simple Taste Altering potion that would make any food it was poured on to taste like their choice of fruit, but they enjoyed it all the same.
Sirius, while not as studious as Remus, was still knowledgeable about many aspects of magic and joined in. He taught Harry about his ancestry and about wizarding culture in Britain and other European countries, including Harry's duties as a Lord. True, the Potters weren't part of the Scared Twenty-Eight, but the family had held a seat on the Wizengamot since its creation, which afforded Harry the title and responsibilities*. While doing so, Sirius realized he needed to sort out quite a few Black family matters, including reaching out to Andromeda Tonks.
Communicating across an ocean took time even for wizards though, so meanwhile Sirius introduced his godson to flying on a broomstick. Both backyards were warded so that no one would see them up to a certain height. Haley needed to be convinced it was safe, but Harry was allowed to fly if he was supervised. Altogether, Sirius brought Harry and the Hotchners more laughs than they'd ever had before. It was a wonder the man still had a sense of humor after Azkaban, but Sirius was making great progress in moving on from the ordeal. Aside from the long talks with Moony, it just wasn't in his nature to dwell on the past.
"I'm out now and I have you," Sirius said to Harry. The nearly seven-year-old had showed his concern when Sirius complained about the daily muscle rebuilding potion he had to take. It was one of several nutrient potions Remus promised to force on him for the first six months out of prison to regain his health. "I have all of you," Sirius continued solemnly as he looked at the Hotchners. The other adults, including Spencer and Morgan, had rallied around Remus and never let Sirius skip a potion.
This concern was what really made Sirius accept the Hotchners. A small, secret part of him had still harbored a bit of resentment to the couple, but he came to love them just as he had loved James and Lily – just as he'd begun to care for the other BAU members. After realizing this, he cornered Haley and confessed to her that, much like Remus, he had never thought he would gain another family after what had happened. He was infinitely grateful he did.
"You're a lot like Lily," Sirius told her. "Maybe not as fiery in temperament. You hold your tongue more than Lily ever did and are infinitely more patient with your husband." He chuckled. "Still just as strong though, and as kind." He hesitated for a moment. "Lily would approve. So would James. I don't know if…well, I thought you should know. Maybe James and Lily didn't pick you to raise Harry, but if they could see you now, they wouldn't want Harry to be anywhere else. They'd be happy he was with you."
Neither Haley nor Hotch had realized just how much they needed to hear those words. Whenever someone brought up Harry's parentage before, both went on the defense. They felt the need to prove that they were Harry's parents in every way that mattered. They weren't substitutes.
They didn't feel that need anymore; that disconnect, the doubt. It had taken almost a year and many challenges, but now they were simply Harry's parents.
With the two British wizards, Haley and Harry explored magic, sharing their findings with Aaron every night he came home. Spencer joined in as often as he could, spouting ways to test out his theories of magic versus science. His proposal intrigued both men, who'd never thought of magic in the way Spencer suggested.
"I've read almost every book on magical theory sold by Truncare & Gloss. Now, the definition of magic is to create, change, or influence something in a seemingly impossible and inexplicable way," Spencer said when explaining his idea. "That means magic could theoretically do the impossible, but your magic can't. There laws of magic just as there are laws of physics: the Fundamental Laws of Magic, Gamp's Law of Transfiguration, the Principal of Artificianimate Dominance," Spencer listed. "You are limited, not just by power but by possibility. My theory is that you are bound by the same laws of physics that the rest of the natural world is. If you are, then there is a way to prove it. And if it is proven true, then what you're doing isn't necessarily magic, but energy manipulation!" Spencer concluded excitedly.
And so, they started analyzing magic with a scientific eye. They were especially curious as to why magic affected electricity, which needed to be solved as the technology in both houses belonging to Sirius and the Hotchners were starting to be affected by the ambient magic building up.
Luckily, they got more help when it came to analyzing magic.
While trying to find two serial killers that targeted prostitutes over the internet, the team had arrested a wanted hacker by the name of "The Black Queen". Hotch convinced the FBI to recruit her instead of sending her to jail, and she, Penelope Garcia, had agreed. However, just because she was assigned to their team didn't guarantee that she would be told of magic. Before Gideon could even begin to study her though, Harry had made the choice for him.
While the other team members were introduced to Penelope, Harry went into her office to snoop. He had always been good at sensing the people around him. It wasn't until he'd learned of magic and Remus taught him about magical cores that he realized that was how he did it. Since Remus came into his life, he'd gotten pretty good at sensing magic, as he was constantly going back and forth between magical and nonmagical locations and interacting with both wizards and muggles. Each time, he became more and more sensitive to the presence of magic, so he was able to sense the magic on Penelope Garcia. She obviously was not a witch, but she was around magic of some kind that had rubbed off on her.
It took only one look at her desk for Harry to find his answer, so he went back to the bull pen and saw that the team had moved to a briefing room. Harry slipped inside and closed the door, then walked up to the blonde with a large smile.
"Hi! I'm Harry Potter-Hotchner. Do you know how to make electricity work around magic?"
Harry wished he'd gotten pictures of everyone's faces. Through the gasps, coughs, forced laughs and weak explanations from everyone else, Penelope just blinked at Harry before matching his wide grin.
"Not yet I'm afraid," she answered. "But I think I'm close!"
Morgan sputtered, "What? You – what?"
Harry turned to him with a giggle. "She knows."
"I know," Garcia echoed. She turned to Harry. "How did you know I know? And are you a wizard?"
"I am," Harry replied and then smiled sheepishly. "I went into your office. I saw the magical animal figurines on your desk. You have an erumpent and a niffler. They're easy enough to pass off as a bad representation of a rhino and a platypus. They also have good luck charms on them: erumpent for love and niffler for finding fortune. Also, the lollipops you have are Hocus Pocus Pops. I recognized them from Tweety's Sweet Shop at the Magical Mall. I do have a question for you though. How do you know about magic when you're not a witch? Are you a squib?"
"How do you know I'm not a witch?"
"I can sense it. Just as I could sense that you had trace magic on you."
Penelope hummed. "Haven't heard that before, but you're right. My parents were hippies and the crowd they brought me up in included witches and wizards. It's hard to explain how we got away with that, but we were a pretty close-knit group and the MACUSA wasn't going to break up our little community. Magic is just something I grew up always knowing about. I had magical friends I played with and everything. Though admittedly I got jealous sometimes which is probably why I started liking technology so much because they couldn't use it often without breaking it," she tacked on quickly in one breath.
"Well, my uncles and mom and I are trying to make magic and tech work together. Really, I'm surprised no one's figured it out yet."
"Well, they have to an extent," Penelope explained. "Anything prior to the forties they've configured pretty well, like the radio. Then tech from there to the seventies can work well enough with magic as a power source, but it's not as easy, so it's not common. It's when you start working with anything digital that magic makes tech go wonky. That's why televisions, computers, and phones don't work in areas with a lot of ambient magic."
Spencer leaned forward. "Do you think ambient magic could be a form of radiation? O-or maybe magic runs on its own frequency? Or-"
Gideon had to call an end to the conversation before they all got distracted from the homicides they were supposed to investigate. Before Harry left though, Penelope babbled about how cute he was, resulting in Harry declaring he was too old to be cute.
"I turn seven next week!" Harry pouted.
"Next week?" Penelope repeated. "Your birthday's next week? Is there a party? Am I invited? I'll bring lots of presents. It's an aunt's job to bring lots of presents."
Harry smiled brightly and looked at his dad. Hotch rolled his eyes but smiled and nodded.
"Of course you're invited Aunt Pene-," Harry stopped and tilted his head. "No, just Aunt Pen. If you like."
Penelope squealed and did a little happy dance in her chair, hands over her heart. Harry left and Penelope calmed down enough to speak. "Oh my gosh, he's so cute. I can't believe he came from Mr. Stoic over here."
"He didn't," Hotch deadpanned. "Didn't you notice his accent?"
Penelope blinked. "I thought he was pronouncing some of his words oddly, but I couldn't really tell it was an accent."
"British," Hotch informed. "He's been working on his American accent the last few months. Haley and Sirius keep telling him his accent makes him sound distinguished, but Harry doesn't care. He's a kid and he's never liked attention for any reason. He thinks it'll help him fit in."
The topic was dropped, and the team went to work.