Disclaimers: In no way at all do I own, the Magnificent Seven or its characters (MGM does), or the characters from the Harry Potter universe (all bow to the Great-All-Knowing-Mistress J.K. Rowling). I am a lowly little person paying off a student loan (in other words, own nothing of value). Also, I've changed some stuff around. I have Tonks and Remus together at this time (Christmas), as well as other things as one familiar with the Harry Potter universe will note. I wrote this on my old laptop and that piece of junk won't work anymore, so I've tried to piece this story as best I can.

The Attack of your Friendly Neighbourhood Wizard Owl

MAB49

"Thanks for driving me here, Nathan," JD Dunne stated from the passenger seat of Nathan Jackson's Ford Explorer.

He and his fellow ATF agent were driving to the home of Ezra Standish. They had seen Ezra off on a plane to England—to which he had dragged his feet going tot was something about how he did not need an entourage to see him off—a few days previously. At first, they had voiced thoughts against this, seeing on how there were terrorist attacks in that country--and this was furthered when it was revealed that he had not bought a ticket--but

when he Southerner stated that he had promised Harry—the son of deceased friends—that he would go, they couldn't exactly refuse. Especially when they found out that Ezra's friends died when Harry was a baby, thus the latter having no memory of them. Ezra had promised that he would tell the boy some stories about them.

"No problem, JD," Nathan replied, breaking the younger agent's thoughts. "You know that I like going to Ez's place now that it seems more lived in, and not so much a shell, anymore."

"Yeah, and having Remus coming over a few times to tell what Ez was like as a kid must have also helped," JD chimed in.

"Yeah, makes me realise how human Ezra is. Losing his father's family like that.." Nathan shook his head at the memory of Remus' tale. "Then he comes over with that school banner that had a lion on it. I still can't believe that Ezra actually hung it in his bedroom. The den, I can believe, but his bedroom?"

Dunne shrugged. "I guess that Ez is learning to live more."

"He's still too concerned about 'appearances,' though."

A snort was heard from the youngest member of team seven. "Can you imagine him any other way?"

"Not really." The SUV drove onto the street of Ezra's townhouse. "So, how long will Ezra be in England for?"

"Two weeks," replied JD. "He's going to stay at his family's place while he's there."

"I thought that Remus and Ezra said—"

"No, no, his family's dead. But there's a caretaker of the estate," JD interrupted. 'Yeah, house-elves.'

"Estate? I knew that Ez had money, but not like that."

"Yeah." The computer hacker was now uncomfortable talking about his undercover agent friend so openly like that. Luckily Nathan noticed and took pity on JD. "Would you mind me going in with you? I like his plants, some of which I've not really seen anywhere else."

"Nope, I have no problem. You can feed Edgar," JD answered, knowing of the affinity that Nathan had with the half-kneazle. "Here we are."

They drove into the driveway of Ezra Standish's townhouse, parked it, got out and locked the doors behind them. As the duo neared the front door, JD took out the key and inserted it into the door lock. He turned the key and opened the door.

It was then that JD truly realised that Nathan meant. There were knick-knacks out and about, photos (some wizarding ones charmed to get them to remain still, some not), were displayed. The townhouse had even been decorated for the holiday season. Yes, it seemed that the transplanted Southerner, was letting his hair down a little. JD went into the kitchen to get the watering can and fill it up with water.

"Meow." Dunne looked down and saw Ezra's pet, Edgar. Like Dorchester, Edgar was part cat, part Kneazle (the two were brothers from the same litter).

"Hey, Edgar," he greeted as he knelt down to pet the feline. "You're taking care of the house I hope."

"Meow."

"Good boy." JD passed by Nathan as the latter went into the kitchen.

"Hi Edgar," said the EMT to the kneazle," How are you doing today?"

"Meow," Edgar replied as he rubbed up against Nathan. Jackson was one of his favourite people, after his own pet, that is.

"Ready for some food?" Nathan asked as he opened up a cupboard door.

"Meow." Edgar sat down by his food dish.

Nathan brought out a can of tuna and opened it. He wrapped the lid in a paper towel and threw it into the garbage. He then opened the cutlery drawer and retrieved a fork from it. Moving to the food dish, he forked out the food. Edgar waited patiently until Nathan put every morsel into the dish before going in to eat. Nathan sat down on the floor and petted the furry creature.

"Yeah, you're a cute one."

Edgar just licked his lips.

*****

JD was humming Christmas songs to himself as he watered Ezra's plants. He was partially glad that Ezra would be spending time with his friends in England, but a part of him wished that he could spend Christmas day in Denver with the team. JD shook his head. At least Standish lived here and had no plans to move away. He didn't think that he would be able to take it if the undercover agent left for England for good. They were family, and family was there for everyone.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way..." Dunne sang under his breath as he walked up the stairs to the landing to water more plants. "Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh." He should really play some Christmas music and turn on the Christmas tree lights before he and Nathan left. JD thought back to last week when Ezra enlisted the team's 'services' in order to get a tree back to the townhouse. They had used Chris' Dodge Ram to transport the tree and set it up in the living room, whereupon ornaments and lights (which had been bought the night before) were hung, cider and hot chocolate consumed, and laughter filled the air.

Tap, tap tap.

The noise broke JD out of his happy memory. He moved to the landing window, glanced outside and opened the it. A cold brown owl flew in.

"Whoo, whoo."

"Hi, Eustache," JD greeted Ezra's owl, as he took the letter the bird of prey clutched. "You must be freezing!"

"Whoo," replied Eustache e, agreeing with the young agent.

JD opened up the letter. "Okay, it's a reminder to collect the paper and mail and put them in his potions lab." He shrugged. "Okay."

"Whoo, whoo."

"Shh! Nathan's here! I'll get you some owl treats from the cupboard and--" Dunne heard noise below "What the?" He put down the watering can and ran downstairs.

*****

"I hate Death Eaters!" Harry seethed, as he came out--or rather, tripped out-- of the fireplace

"Whoa! Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed as he came out next. "How did they ever find out about Grimmauld Place?"

"I don't know, maybe a death eater saw where we came in and figured it out from there."

"This is a nice place," Ginny said as she came out.

"That bites," Fred mused as he entered the living room next. "And it's Christmas, too"

Ron's face fell. "Our presents."

"Not to worry," George said as he tumbled out, "Fred and I shrunk the presents that were under the tree before coming over here." He put a hand into his pocket and pulled out a miniature present. "See?"

"That's bloody brilliant!"

"Oh, oh," Ginny said as she looked elsewhere. They followed her gaze and saw someone looking straight back at them.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Nathan demanded.

"Well..." Harry drew out.

"Bloody Death Eaters! I wish that I could kill every one of them!"

"Ezra?!?" Nathan couldn't believe it. "How did you get here? You're supposed to be in England!" Nathan exclaimed. "And did you just come from the fireplace?!?"

"Talk about cutting it close," Tonks said as she came out into the living room, stumbling into George. "Sorry."

"No problem."

"Ezra!" Remus called out, "Can we close the floo temporarily?

Ezra gingerly walked to Remus. "It's the floo system, Remus, no."

"Why?" Ginny asked. "Do you think that any Death Eater heard where we were going? We did put up a silencing charm after we went into the room. Could they have heard, anyway?"

Remus shook his head. "I don't think that they could have, but I asked anyway. Better to be safe than to be sorry."

"Ezra?" Everyone looked to who had said that. JD came towards them. "What happened?"

"That's what I'd like to know!" Nathan yelled.

"Death—err, terrorists came to London," Harry explained. "We got away from where it was taking place before coming here."

"I didn't hear about any of that! It hasn't been mentioned on the TV or radio!" Nathan replied. "And who are you?"

"Hello," Remus greeted. "These are some friends of ours. This lovely woman is Nymphadora Tonks."

"Wotcher. It's nice to meet you!"

"The twins are Fred and George, and we also have their younger brother and sister, Ron and Ginny."

"And I'm Harry," Potter said has he looked over the irritated older man. "And you are?"

"God damned confused is what I am!" Nathan turned to Ezra while JD let out a snicker. "How the hell did you get out of your fireplace? And what the hell are you wearing? It's Christmas that's coming up, not Halloween!"

"Hey, you got new robes!" JD exclaimed.

"And you're in pain," Nathan continued as if he had not been interrupted.

"You won't be able to do anything about this," the undercover agent stated.

"The hell I can't! JD, you get the first aid kit," Jackson ordered the FBI agent as he grabbed Ezra's arm with the intention of leading the Southerner to the couch. JD was hesitant about getting it when he heard Nathan exclaim "What the hell?!?!"

Everyone in the room winced at the sight of a brown owl swooping down onto the EMT.

"Hoot! Hoot!" was heard as Eustache swooped at Nathan once more.

"Eustache! No!" JD yelled as he pulled Nathan out of the owl's path. "He's a friend! He's an EMT! He only wants to help Ezra!"

"The healer," Harry said aloud. "You must be Nathan."

"Yes," the paramedic confirmed as he saw the owl land table beside JD. "How on earth did an owl get in here?

"He's Ezra's owl. We use them for OwlPost," Harry replied.

"OwlPost?"

"It's the mail service in the wizarding world," Ron added.

"Ron!" Remus exclaimed.

"He's the healer, Moony! He's supposed to know!"

"We don't know for certain!"

"So what happened?" JD asked

"Death Eaters attacked Grimmauld Place--where headquarters was--so we flooed over here. It's the safest place considering that they somehow found out about where we were."

Nathan took in Harry's explanation. "Flooed?"

"A form of …transport, if you will Mr. Jackson. The ability to go from one place to another," Remus clarified.

"Kind of like Star Trek."

"So how exactly does one use the fireplace to get from one place to another?" Nathan automatically asked "Wait a minute? What am I saying?!? You can't go from one fireplace to another! This is a dream! A bad dream! I'll wake up next to Rain in a minute." He sat down on the couch.

Remus felt for the ATF agent. But, could it be that Harry and Ron were right? Could Harry be the healer that Ezra spoke of in his prediction not too long ago? Looking at Ezra who had gravitated to the couch, he remembered what had happened. "JD, could you please get a potion for Ezra? He suffering from the effects of the Cruciatus curse."

Dunne's eyes went wide open at this. "I 'll find it! Be back soon!" With that, he left the room.

Remus gazed at the children--teenagers, really--and saw them looking around the room. He then looked to Tonks, who only nodded. Lupin drew in a breath as he moved to sit down in a chair. "The floo is connected to a network. Certain fireplaces are linked to the network and we just go from one place to another."

"Kind of like Star Trek again," Harry added. "But not quite."

"But not quite." Nathan looked at Dunne and said with a pointed finger, "You do realise that you're talking nonsense, right? Talking nonsense in my dream.."

"I'm afraid that this is no dream, Mr. Jackson," Ezra painfully said. "What we are telling you is quite the truth."

"See, I knew that you'd say that! My subconscious even got the, 'Mr. Jackson,' right!"

"Nathan, there is a world that is both a part of, and is separate from the world that you know so well," Remus began. "There are witches and wizards that live alongside you, around you--"

"It's not working, Remus," Tonks said, as she stood beside the chair.

"No, there are witches about, I get that," Nathan said.

"Or, I could be wrong."

"Not the kind that you're thinking of, Nathan," Ezra countered. "Real witches who use wands and go to magic schools."

"Yeah, right!"

"No, mate," George began.

"It's true!" Fred ended "Where do you think that we went?"

"To a school in England."

"Scotland," several voiced corrected.

"Whatever!" yelled Nathan.

"Whoo!" Eustache interrupted, not liking the commotion.

"There's no such thing as magic!" Jackson continued

Harry inadvertently shuddered, thinking of his Uncle Vernon saying the same thing, when the former was a young child.

"I've got it!" a voice was heard, accompanied with footsteps pounding on the stairs. JD ran into the living room, stopping at the couch, and handed a bottle to his robed friend. "Here."

Standish took the bottle, popped the cork off and downed the substance inside. He made a face as he finished. "That is vile."

"No kidding," mumbled Ron.

"So, what did I miss?"

Nathan got up off the couch and began pacing. "These... people! They're trying to convince me that magic is real, that there are wizards and witches, and that there are schools in Scotland to teach that stuff!"

"Well, one really. The others in Europe are Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are the other schools in Europe," said JD.

Nathan stopped and stared at JD. "You gotta be kidding me."

JD shook his head. "No! I went to Salem Academy, myself."

Nathan made a face of disbelief. "So you're what?"

"A wizard, Nathan," Remus answered. "With the exception of Ginny and Tonks who are witches, we're all wizards."

"Okay, this is what I think. I think that after the holidays, I will go to the department shrink and ask for him to set up appointments with you--all of you!"

"He's one of those, I see," commented Ginny.

"Who's like to do the honours?" George said with a grin.

JD got out his wand. "Accio Edgar!"

"Meeooow!" The next think everyone saw, was Edgar flying through the air into JD's arms. "Hiss!" was Edgar's response to being is said arms. The feline jumped onto the floor and went onto the couch to sit beside Ezra. Ezra petted the half-kneazle.

Standish sighed. "Must you have done that?"

JD shrugged. "It was the first thing that came to mind."

Nathan's focus was now on Edgar. "That didn't happen."

"Can anyone think of anything else?" Harry asked.

"I know. Can someone apparate?"

"Someone apparate! I'm going to fire-call Professor Dumbledore to make sure that he's all right. Those Death Eaters should never have been able to find us, with the Fidelius intact."

"Maybe, they found us by accident. Or does anyone have a tracking charm on them?" Ron asked.

Everyone except Nathan went pale at this, and used their wands to check each other. All heads shook negative.

"Call him and tell him everything," Remus said.

"Wait! We have to call Mom and Dad in Romania!" Fred exclaimed.

"We'll do that after telling the Professor," Ezra said calmly.

Remus got up and went to the fireplace. He grabbed some floo powder. "Professor Dumbledore's office!"

Ezra moved on the couch, causing Edgar to move to the back of it. "Well, Christmas at Grimmauld is out. How would you, young adults, enjoy a small vacation at my abode for the next two weeks?"

"The one outside Norwich?" asked Harry, knowing that his parents' friend was offering the one that they were currently in.

"No, this one of course. We can transfigure several items into beds."

"Bloody brilliant! Our first vacation in America! This is great!" shouted Ron.

"That's if Mom and Dad agrees," cautioned Ginny.

Nathan, meanwhile was looking at the fireplace, wondering where Remus's head disappeared to. "Uh, Ez?"

"Yes, Mr. Jackson?"

"Where's his head?"

"Oh, he's just talking to Professor Dumbledore, right now. He'll be back in a few minutes," Ezra replied casually.

"Ookay." And with that, Nathan went back to starring at Remus's form.

"Well, if we're staying here..." With that, the twins moved to the Christmas tree, put their hands into their pockets and retrieved the gifts that they had shrunk. They stepped back. "Engorgio!"

Nathan heard this and went to view them. He saw the gifts grow in size. "Oh boy."

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet!" said Tonks as she disappeared before Nathan's eyes.

"Hey, where did she go?"

"I'm here." Nathan turned around and found the pink-haired Auror. "Uh..."

"I think we broke him," Fred whispered.

"Wizards and witches, huh?"

"Wizards and witches," JD confirmed.

"Okay, we know why the Fidelius failed," Remus announced, as he came out of the fireplace. "It's caused by the curse that Voldemort placed on the Gaunt ring."

"Oh dear," Ezra said, contemplating the consequences of the curse.

"He'll fire-call Arthur and Molly in Romania and suggested that perhaps we could stay here for the holidays."

"We were just discussing that," Tonks said.

"I have five bedrooms in my abode, that should be enough with some sharing."

"Wizards and witches," Nathan mumbled as he sat down on the floor.

"Yep," JD confirmed.

"Do I want to know?" Remus asked. Tonks shook her head.

Riinngg

Everyone turned to where the noise was coming from.

Nathan.

Jackson went into his coat pocket and retrieved his cellular phone. "Hello? Hi, Chris... No, I'm fine... No, really, I'm fine... No, I'm fine... I'm just sitting in Ez's house talking to him... No, he's here. Him, Remus, a woman with pink hair and some teenagers... No, really, they're here right now." He held out the phone. "Ez? Chris wants to speak to you."

Ezra got off the couch to where his friend was seated. He took the offered cellphone. "Hello, Mr. Larabee... No, everything is all right. Nothing is amiss... Remus and Tonks were going to surprise me by coming over here, so I spent a week in London, and now we are here... The teenagers? The children of some friends of ours. We will be taking them on a skiing trip for the New Year's holiday... Nothing to my knowledge. Oh, we could not possibly do that, Mr. Larabee... No, it is much too late to get extra anything! One moment please." Ezra covered the phone "What is it that you are going on about?" he asked Tonks.

Tonks, who had been using her hands to get Ezra's attention, put them down. "What is he saying?"

"He wishes for us to come to his residence for Christmas, which we obviously cannot."

"Yes, we can," Tonks countered as she grabbed the phone from Ezra. "Hello, Mr. Larabee? My name is Nymphadora Tonks--but please call me Tonks... We'd be delighted to come over tomorrow! Which time would you like for us to arrive at?... Anytime? Works for for us!..." Everyone looked incredulously at Tonks as she related the kids' ages to Chris and gave the phone back to Nathan. "There, after unwrapping gifts, we'll get ready and go on over to his place."

JD smirked. "You better rent a van, Ez, your Porsche only fits two people."

"I will endeavour to take that under advisement."

""Why is it that no one knows about your... your... stuff?"

"If by 'stuff,' you mean the wizarding world, it is because it's kept secret," Remus confirmed. "However, we do have confidence in you that you will keep it secret--and not abuse your friendship with Ezra because of it!"

This shook Nathan up. "Of course, I wouldn't! I value my friendship with Ez!"

"Good!"

"So, I won't tell anyone about this."

"We would appreciate that," Ezra stated.

"Okay, now I have to leave. I have some more presents to buy."

"You really don't have to buy us any presents, " Ginny put forth.

"Speak for yourself," Ron murmured to Harry

"Yes, I do," Nathan countered. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going shopping and afterwards, I'll have a breakdown as I absorb this information!" With that, the ATF agent left the house.

"I'll see you later, Ez!" JD said as he ran after his friend, as he remembered that they drove in together. "Nathan!" The front door slammed shut behind him.

Silence

The quiet that followed was interrupted by George. "Well that was entertaining."