Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Castle or HP. I do use some Castle dialogue almost directly from the show, and the general outline is following the show, but it's strictly to relate it to the original. :)


It's early morning, the sun has barely peaked its way through the tall buildings of the city, the cold misty air of late September still lurks in the shadows. A small group of people are standing in a sectioned off part of the street, yellow crime scene tape diverting the few taxi's that wander by. A tall, dark haired women comes seemingly out of nowhere and approaches the quiet scene, head bent against the chill, long beige coat billowing around her knees. Her short choppy hair cuts across her face, accenting a light scar that runs across her cheek. She flashes a small smile to the police officer standing watch and the man lets her pass. She eyes his NYPD police badge that's neatly positioned over his right shirt pocket, and just underneath it are the letters MLEP. She doesn't recognize him but he nods at her as she passes, each showing in silent agreement that they know who the other is. She approaches a dark skinned woman kneeling on the ground next to a body, she maneuvers around the few orange cones placed on the ground, and kneels down on the other side.

"What have you got for me Lanie?" She asks, eyes still on the face of the woman on the ground, blonde hair spread out in all directions, eyes and mouth open in an expression of shock.

"Good morning to you too, Beckett." Lanie takes another moment before she answers as she finishes brushing for fingerprints on the victims arm sticking out from under the black sheet that's been laid over the top of her. Lanie knows that Beckett hasn't had her morning coffee yet so she answers her question after looking at the blank look on Beckett's face. "Seems like your basic killing curse. But..." she pauses, pointing her pen at the victims face. "It seems like she was stunned before the final blow, and..." she moves her pen to point to her neck, "it looks like whoever did this to her tried to suffocate her first. My guess is they didn't want to pull their wand, maybe too many muggles near by." Beckett glances up to the surrounding buildings, noticing a bar just up the sidewalk and another down the block. She nods at the M.E. as they both stand.

"Most likely." Beckett stands and walks around the body, noticing for the first time that it isn't blood all over the ground, but red rose petals. "Any idea what these flowers are for?" She pulls her wand from inside her coat and pokes a yellow sunflower near the victims head. She finds the scene eerily familiar but can't quite pin point the thought.

"No. My guess is that those sunflowers were covering her eyes. It's been pretty windy this morning, could have easily fallen off. The rose petals are all over her body though. She's naked." This gets Becketts attention as her eyes snap back to Lanie.

"Naked?" She looks down at the body, which she thought had been covered by the black sheet to keep spying muggles from noticing the lack of wounds.

"Mhmm" Lanie responds leaning down to pick up a rose petal. "They're synthetic too, probably a conjuring charm done badly, I'd say the coloring is a little off as well." At that moment a faint pop sounds in the distant and two men approach the scene at a quick pace.

"Sorry we're late Beckett." Says the taller of the two, glancing over at his partner. "Ryan here wasn't awake when I showed up at his doorstep," Ryan just glared back at him.

"And then Espo got the address wrong and we apparated five blocks south from here." Espo just shook his head as they each flanked Beckett standing near the body.

"I was given the wrong address."

"Wrote it down wrong is more like it." Ryan retorted as he and Espo glanced around the scene. Ryan looked over at the officer standing watch. "Is it just me or does the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol get new officers every week?" He realized that Beckett wasn't listening and Lanie was staring at them like she couldn't care less. "What've we got?" He added, smiling at Lanie who just shook her head.

"Does this look familiar to you two?" Beckett asked her partners as she tilted her head and stood back to look at the whole scene. "Completely naked, flowers on her body." She looked at them as they looked up at her quizzically. They both shook their heads.

"Decided to get artistic?" Ryan asked.

"Wand backfired and shot out a whole bunch of flowers?" Espo added with a chuckle which just got a glare from Beckett.

"Honestly, don't you two read?"