Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter. I am not John le Carré either. As far as I know, at the time of this disclaimer George Smiley and company are all his inventions, and I do not own them, either.

Note: The following piece was written as an experiment which just felt like it had to be written, and is a crossover between the universes of Harry Potter and George Smiley. Sadly, it ran out of steam (see Author Notes) and is a one-shot.

Update (September 2013): Okay, inspiration struck, and this ended up extended to a two-parter, but that's it for now.

Further note: for those unfamiliar with George Smiley's world, 'The Circus' is jargon/slang for MI6, of which (in Smiley canon) Saul Enderby is head in the 1970's (and I assume into the start of the 1980's). George Smiley worked on and off for the Circus for several decades, coming and going from 'retirement' as political jockeying occurred and suspicions rose and fell. The Circus of the Smiley era is fond of coming up with sideways references for other organizations, groups, or occasional individuals, and 'Unmuggles' is a term which it would seem to me that those who occupy George Smiley's world might coin to refer to witches and wizards and their ilk.


The presence of Mr. George Smiley as a solitary watcher 'for anything unusual' in the early hours of a November morning of 1981 in a street in a small town in Surrey might have surprised many who did not know him – or even some who thought that they did – but to Smiley it was an entirely logical place to be and to his instincts entirely the right time for him to be there. There were other watchers of course – those assigned to cover other periods of surveillance, since one man could not keep watch twenty-four hours a day, even if that man were Smiley – but Smiley had been quite certain that if the matter were to come to a head in Privet Drive that it would do so in the early hours of a morning, and he himself wanted to be there to observe it and to intervene if necessary.

Following the business with Karla, Saul Enderby had concluded that whilst it was a good idea for Smiley to have semi-official Circus recognition for now, that it would be preferable for him to be involved in a capacity not remotely connected to his previous work, and so he had assigned Smiley to watch the 'unmuggles' (as they were referred to in Circus lore) who thought that they were hiding successfully from the rest of Britain's population – a people who regarded themselves as a state apart, with their own independence and rulers, and who consequently could be considered to fall partly within the Circus' remit. (Given the trickiness of dealing with them, other bodies responsible for the security and welfare of the British nation were only too happy to palm dealing with them off to someone else, if they wanted it.)

This was why Smiley was here now, in Privet Drive, in Little Whinging, watching. Something big had happened – something so big that even the unmuggles' own specialist workers supposed to keep their people hidden had had trouble concealing the signs of it – and, having read all the files (unmuggles were nowhere near as careful as they thought in concealing information about their world), Smiley had concluded that Privet Drive was a high probability location for something to happen which could be of use to those who were not unmuggles. For years, now, it turned out that the unmuggles in Britain had been fighting some sort of internal war, ostensibly on ideological grounds, but in reality it was a struggle simply about power, and all too often those who were not unmuggles had been incidental casualties to their conflict. The wise men in Whitehall, and Saul Enderby were tired of this state of affairs. They wanted leverage they could apply against this world; they wanted a real, significant, asset.

Smiley had been assigned the seemingly impossible task of acquiring such an asset. It wasn't that there weren't already plenty of dissatisfied people amongst the ranks of the unmuggles prepared to betray their secret society – the way in which many first generation unmuggles were treated was sufficient to make them at least open to approaches from those who were not unmuggles and who worked for officialdom, and some unmuggles were even lowly placed (albeit well-paid) advisors to Whitehall; no, the problem was that those disaffected unmuggles were not in any position to influence unmuggle policy, nor to affect opinions of how the unmuggles viewed and treated those who were not unmuggles. This had been a problem for successive British governments and the Wise Men in Whitehall. And since Smiley had just done the impossible of arranging the defection of the head of the thirteenth directorate, those in power now expected him to follow up that minor miracle with another in a different sphere of operations, regarding a yet different society which could hardly be considered 'friendly' given the way that the vast majority of its core members regarded regular British society.

And as Smiley kept his lonely vigil, the lights suddenly started to go out along the street, and it became apparent that his watchfulness had not been in vain and that something significant was about to happen. The deliberate extinguishing of lights along the street suggested a very powerful unmuggle was present, confident – perhaps even a touch arrogant – in his or her abilities. From a purely practical point of view Smiley considered it a touch overly dramatic, and if it was intended to provide cover for what was about to happen, it had had rather the opposite effect, in that it drew attention of anyone about at this hour of a cold November morning that something was taking place. Of course it made Smiley himself, in his vantage point, almost impossible for any unmuggle to detect by means of normal vision, and it was to be hoped that any unmuggle now arriving would not have other means of discovering if he or she was under observation.

The following ten minutes proved highly enlightening to Smiley about the unmuggles and some of their capabilities – and of the highly flawed methods of operating of some of their foremost leaders. For at least one of them was here tonight, he was sure – the man whom the files identified as Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who was a politician in unmuggle society who simultaneously moonlighted as a reportedly second-rate headmaster. Although accounts of him in Circus files varied in their exact views, the information they contained consistently conveyed an impression that whilst he was a formidable political operator, his running of the school over which he – in theory – presided left much to be desired.

Smiley thought, at least, that Albus Dumbledore looked tonight like a man who was overworked, and who had spread himself too thin, for too long, and didn't have the wisdom to step down from any of his positions or responsibilities. He looked a man who tried to cover up his weakness with a façade of eccentricity, and relied upon his reputation to get others to unquestioningly follow his orders. He looked a man, as Smiley would shortly write in one of a number of highly secret reports of his own observations of this evening, who needed a good long holiday.

And then the unmuggles were gone, and Smiley waited a further half an hour to see if anything else would happen, and then he carefully emerged from cover to cross to the doorstep of number four Privet Drive where he examined the child so casually deposited there, and the accompanying letter.

He read the letter through several times – blinking in surprise as he did so, on the first reading, at several moments – then slowly folded the letter up and put it in his pocket.

And then he picked the child up, took a moment to compose himself, and decided upon his approach, then pressed the doorbell.


Smiley presented himself to the Dursleys (Petunia and Vernon) as an overworked government official, who was simply doing what he was told, with only the bare minimum of knowledge of what was going on. He had been contacted by 'someone else' he said, who wanted Mrs. Dursley informed that her sister and her husband had been killed by a terrorist. Since there were complicated legal issues involved, she was being requested, as her sister's only known adult relative, to take care of her nephew, Harry Potter, for six months, for which the government would suitably compensate her, whilst the wheels of Whitehall bureaucracy attempted to sort the mess out. If, after that, she wanted nothing more to do with her nephew, he would be removed. If she wanted to keep him, Whitehall would try to make that possible, although the terrorist angle did rather concern them – especially since there were certain aspects to the attack which had them baffled. Smiley implied unmuggle involvement in the attack, which he was certain that Mrs. Dursley would be able to read between the lines and interpret, whilst presenting himself as a normal human being completely unaware of unmuggle existence or activities. The Dursleys, Smiley felt, were people who would respond best to that which sounded official and everyday.

He promised that a police officer would stop by on a regular basis whilst Harry Potter was being kept here, to check that Mrs. Dursley and her family were okay?

Mrs. Dursley was someone who respected 'normal' authority. She agreed to take Harry for six months.


Smiley had had several reasons for wanting Harry in Privet Drive with Mrs. Dursley for six months, not least of which was that he was sure that Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (who rapidly became 'the elderly hippy' in Circus nomenclature) would establish some means of observing Harry, and Smiley wanted to try and determine what that means was, before removing Harry to place him with a more suitable family. Harry Potter's aunt was someone whom it would suit neither Smiley nor his masters (nor Mrs. Dursley, he suspected, given what was known of her) for Harry to be placed with in the long-term. How it was arranged that Harry Potter was placed with a different family would depend on how Albus Dumbledore was keeping an eye on Harry; for Smiley was morally certain, from everything he'd read and seen of the man, that Albus Dumbledore would not take kindly to any attempts to interfere with what he had decided was for the best, and at this stage his response was simply likely to be the use of unmuggle force to put things back as close as possible to the way that he thought that they should be, should he detect any upset in his arrangements.

Several weeks after Harry's arrival in Privet Drive, an agent arrived in Privet Drive by the name of 'Arabella Figg', who rapidly became 'the dotty cat woman' in Circus parlance. Careful visits by a number of agents (including a disaffected unmuggle temporarily on the Circus payroll) rapidly established that she had been handpicked for her task by Albus Dumbledore himself, to whom she personally reported.

It was judged that whilst she was genuinely concerned for Harry Potter's well-being, that she would prove incapable of knowingly co-operating in any deception operation. In whatever fields her talents did lie, they did not have any overlap with areas which involved the wilful deceit of authority figures.

Meanwhile, it was becoming clearer by the day that Mrs. Dursley was looking forward to the moment she was no longer responsible for her nephew's care.

A compromise was reached.

Peter Guillam, who worked for the Circus, was recalled to Britain from France. He had a young wife and family, including a daughter only a few months older than Harry. Peter Guillam obtained the house next door to Mrs. Dursley's and became Harry Potter's legal guardian as far as the British state was concerned. Arrangements were made so that, for the sake of Mrs. Figg, Harry was only ever seen emerging from or entering the front-door of number four Privet Drive as if it were his home, although Mr. or Mrs. Dursley were frequently seen to leave him with their 'next door neighbours'. This arrangement seemed to work. Harry was placed with someone reliable, his aunt was no longer responsible for him but remunerated for continuing to play a minor role in his upbringing, and as far as Mrs. Figg could see, the arrangements put in place by her master were running exactly as he required.

It would come out at some point what had been done – with the passage of time it becomes increasingly likely that any intelligence deception will be uncovered, after all – but if Harry was old enough by then to be able to express an opinion on the matter, it was to be hoped that Albus Dumbledore would have to accept the situation, however grudgingly.


Author Notes:

I've assumed a Smiley universe loosely based on the books Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People (which I have read and have on the shelf at home). In the books Peter Guillam had recently married a young French woman as of Smiley's People (which Wikipedia dates the events of as occurring in 1977) and they are expecting their first child in the spring of the following year. For what it matters, I assume that Peter and Marie-Claire have had another child in 1980, although Peter was still in Paris for his job. If other Smiley books contradict this, this is one of those alternate universe things.

George Smiley being assigned from 1978 to keep an eye on 'unmuggles' is obviously alternate universe from Smiley canon.

When I set out to write this piece, it seemed to me that it might be highly interesting to view the world that Harry Potter occupies from the perspective of someone like George Smiley, and it was for the first half dozen paragraphs, describing the circumstances about Harry Potter's arrival in Privet Drive and the thoughts of the solitary watcher. The scene was one which cried out to be discreetly observed. Cloak and dagger arrangements afterwards to obtain the personage of The-Boy-Who-Lived (Smiley's informants are on the ball, and by the time Smiley is in Privet Drive, he already knows the fuss being made about Harry in the 'unmuggle' world) also seemed to be there to be described...

But then, it sort of fizzled out. I took a couple of stabs at writing the Hogwarts letter arriving nine and a half years later, and the spark was no longer there. Possibly I made a mistake by switching it to Harry's perspective. Maybe I should have stayed with the man who by then was Harry's 'Uncle George'. At any rate it was unsatisfactory, and therefore the project has for now been discarded. But the first few sections seemed good enough to put out in the hope of entertaining (and perhaps inspiring someone else). If nothing else, I suspect that there ought to be the potential for a sizzling scene involving George Smiley and the Harry Potter universe's (only?) semi-professional spy, Severus Snape...

I assume that with the 'Wizarding War' raging, that plenty of muggle-borns (and the odd half-blood) would be happy to go to ground in the 'normal' world to try and escape the fighting (and the prejudice), and that the British secret services would be equally happy to pick them up and question them extensively, with promises of making it easier for them to settle back into the 'normal' world in exchange for co-operation. And I can't see a muggle-born 'abandoning the ship' of the Wizarding War being too bothered by the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in what they say to an organization which isn't going to publicise what they've said or who said it - or even that it's been said at all.

Update (September 2013): Going over my notes/drafts, I've extended this to a two-parter, with at least Smiley's point of view of the events immediately around the arrival of Harry's Hogwarts letter.