Title: A Murder Without A Cause
Author: FlamboyantlyBiBoy
Feedback: Yes please
Summary: The Jeffersonian Crew is off to England to investigate magic murders at Hogwarts School For Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunately, the headmistress doesn't like them being there. Specifically, one of them.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter/Bones or the characters
Spoilers: None but takes place before season 4 of Bones.
Pairing: Harry/Zack, Fred/George, Angela/Hodgins, Bill/Fleur, Ginny/Dean, Luna/Neville, just about everybody cannon in the HP world.
Warnings: Slash
Beta'd: Not beta'd
Author's Note: Sequel to The Boy Under the Bleachers, and all my other HP/Bones crossovers. This takes place about a month after A Hello In A Goodbye, and in late July. Also, if you haven't watched the videos to Welcome to the Black Parade and Famous Last Words by My Chemical Romance, I recommend you do now since the big event after their trials is completely themed after those videos.
ENJOY!
Harry James Weasley had his head resting on his lover's shoulder. Zack had fallen asleep about an hour before with his head on top of Harry's. Not that either boy minded the position; Harry was still able to read his book, while Zack had managed to sleep in an airplane which was always hard for him.
They had been in the air for nearly three hours already, and were almost half way to London. Harry was reading the words that he'd known since high school. Pages had been folded down or ripped, the spine was creased from being over read, and the front cover was threatening to tear off.
When they landed at Heathrow airport in London, all eight of the Jeffersonian Forensics Team clustered at the bag pick up. As the rest of the crowd moved away, four red haired men walked up to them.
"So, change of plan." The youngest said, "They moved your trial to in about two hours. So, Fred and George will take the luggage home while dad and I get you to the Ministry."
"Of course, they changed the time. They always do." Harry sighed.
Angela smiled, "He forewarned us about that so we all have a change of clothes in our carryon bags."
They all started to rush, changing in the airport bathrooms before leaving to go to the Ministry of Magic. Soon, they were hurrying down the street in the early morning London light. Zack found Harry's hand in the folds of his trench coat, and could almost feel the uncovered scars on the back of his hand. Harry had removed his cover up in the bathroom, claiming that he didn't want to give her the satisfaction of hiding it.
"Are you scared about going back?" Zack asked softly so that the others around them couldn't hear.
Harry shrugged, "It hasn't sunk in yet. One of the benefits of them moving the trial to today. If it was tomorrow as previously planned, then I would have not slept tonight for nerves."
Angela smiled at the two young men. She had been the least surprised when they had told everyone two weeks before that they had gotten back together. Harry found her hand resting gently on his shoulder, "So, what are we due to expect?"
They were all looking at him the best they could while walking. Harry took a deep breath, and let it out slowly before answering, "The Council will ask about everybody's schooling, and recommendations. Which we should be good on. Then they will talk to us each individually, and make judgment on us separately. We will not be seen as a team in any of this, and they may approve some while denying others."
Zack looked at him lover closely. Harry's Risorius muscles were tenser then normal, his palm was sweating in Zack's loose grip, and his pupils were slightly dilated. Realization flooded over Zack, "You believe they'll deny you."
All of the others' gazes seemed to grow more intense, as Harry answered slowly, "I have a past record that they will have to include in their evaluations of me, and I don't believe that it will…make them want to put me back at Hogwarts."
They were all silent for several steps before Dr. Brennan spoke up, "They are welcome to dislike it all they want to, but I am not doing this case without you, Dr. Weasley. We are entering a world that none of the rest of us know much about, and I refuse to work it without the one person who has some knowledge as to where we are going."
"Thank you, Dr. Brennan." The group stopped outside a telephone booth, "I believe that they will ask us about each other, and if they heard you say that then they would take great stock in it."
"I will make sure to tell them then." Dr. Brennan smiled briefly at the young man. She had grown rather attached to him over the past year, and had discovered that while each worked wonderfully on their own, having both Harry and Zack as her assistants had caused the two to produce better results then before. In her own way, Dr. Brennan had begun to think of the two boys as her children, and wanted the best for both of them. Especially, if it was each other.
"Right," Mr. Weasley said, "We'll have to take several shifts down. I think we can do three, three, and four as the most convenient. Harry, do you still remember how dial in?"
"Of course." Harry answered simply.
Ron, Angela, and Hodgins went down first. They were quickly followed by Mr. Weasley, Cam, and Sweets. As the booth slid smoothly back into place, the remaining four stepped in. Harry reached calmly for the dial; six, two, four, four, two.
The female voice that answered startled the other three, while it didn't phase Harry, "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."
Slowly, Harry answered, "Dr. Temperance Brennan, Special Agent Seeley Booth, Dr. Zachary Addy, and Dr. Harry Weasley here for-" He faltered, suddenly unsure what to say they were there for, "For a trial."
"Thank you." The woman didn't seem bothered by his uncertainty, "Visitors, please take the badges, and attach them to the front of your robes." Harry caught the badges as they came flying out, "Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium."
The telephone box started to slide smoothly downward. As they vanished from the world above, noise started to float up from below. The shouts, and calls of people.
Harry swallowed, "I believe the press is already here."
Zack's hand tightened its grip in Harry's as the Atrium came into view. A large group of people were clustered around where the box would land, and the uproar got louder as they all noticed its decent.
"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day." Was nearly drowned out by the crowd's commotion. Harry could see the rigid curls, and heavily-jawed face of Rita Skeeter among the crowd with her quill hovering making up every detail. Zack focused in on a boy, hardly sixteen years old, with dark hair, and the look of a rebellious teenager. He couldn't figure out why the boy was there, or why he was so focused on Harry.
"Wow." Booth breathed. The Atrium was very long with highly polished, dark wood floor. The ceiling was several shades darker then the last time Harry had been there, but still inlaid with gleaming golden symbols that were continually moving. The walls were shiny dark wood as well with gilded fireplaces set into them. A little ways down was a fountain with a group of golden humanoid statues glorifying wizards above all other types of life. Behind the sounds of the press crews were the sounds of Apparators cracking in, the whooshes from the fireplaces as wizards arrived for work, and the steady splashing of water from the fountain.
The doors slid open. Surprisingly, the press stayed back as all four disembarked to make their way to where the others were standing attaching their badges.
As the approached, Dr. Brennan spoke, "Why aren't they all rushing to talk to us since it's clear that they're here because we are?"
Mr. Weasley smiled gently as he answered, "Technically, you're all still private people. They can't just start talking to you since the laws have gotten stricter about it. However, as soon as the Council approves you, you're no longer private people but public. Then the press can swarm you no problem."
"Wonderful." Zack murmured. The group headed toward a desk with the word SECURITY on it.
The man behind it smiled at them, "I suppose you're the visiting muggles so you won't have wands. I'll just take any weapons that you do have; guns, knifes, and the like. You'll get them back when you leave."
Harry, and Booth passed over the guns before the group moved on to a line of lifts.
Mr. Weasley told them, "I'll be leaving you now. Ron will take you all down to old courtroom ten. You're a bit early, but that's better then being late."
"You won't be coming with us?" Cam asked him.
"No, I'm not allowed in. Ron will be there the whole time though, as the representative from Muggle Relations. You won't have to deal with the Council on your own." They all nodded, "Good luck."
Ron took the Jeffersonian crew down in one lift, while Mr. Weasley headed up to his office in another. They went down to level nine, Department of Mysteries. Harry gripped Zack's hand again as the doors slid open.
The hallway seemed to stretch on, lit by torches of green fire on the walls. A black door sat at the end. Harry's gaze never left it as they walked. Zack could tell that he was thinking about the last time he had walked this corridor, and had left with his life drastically changed. He had to pull Harry down the stairs when the reached them since he was so focused on the door.
"Why doesn't the elevator go down this far?" Dr. Brennan asked as they reached the second hallway.
"To few people come down here on a regular basis." Ron answered, "It's hardly used anymore since the war ended. Everything this low are courtrooms, and holding cells, while everything above us are department."
"That Department of Mysteries sounded interesting, what goes on in there?" Hodgins asked.
"That's why it's called the Department of Mysteries, nobody knows." Ron answered as he opened a grimy dark door for them, "Everybody who works there keeps to themselves, and the only person to have been in it who doesn't work there won't talk about it."
He seemed to have glanced at Harry when he said it, but as Hodgins looked again he figured that he must have been mistaken. The room they entered was a large dungeon. Walls of dark stone with dim torches, empty rows of benches, and a single chair in the middle of the room greeted them. Chains covered the arms of that chair.
"Are all the courtrooms like this?" Sweets asked in awe.
"No, most are smaller." Ron responded. They all sat down on one of the benches. Harry ended up between Cam and Zack. While the rest of them were chatting, mostly to Ron about the Ministry, Harry was silently glaring at the chair.
After about half an hour, Cam noticed how moody the man next to her was, "Westley, what's on your mind?"
Harry jumped slightly, and looked at her, "Nothing, I'm just thinking. It's nothing that I can't handle. I can handle it."
"You want to stop lying now?"
Harry sighed, "They handcuffed me during my last trial. Admittedly, that was a criminal trial, but they still might again. I don't want to freak out, and cost us the case."
"Hasn't Sweets been working with you on staying calm?"
"Yeah, but I still don't last very long."
"If they do handcuff you, then you'll force yourself to stay calm. You won't freak out when you know how dire the situation is." Cam smiled, and ruffled his hair gently.
"I guess you're right." Harry smiled back weakly. That was when wizards in plum colored robes started filtering in. The benches around them filled up quickly with about fifty witches and wizards. When the minister himself walked in, everybody grew silent.
"I believe we are all here." Cornelius Fudge spoke so that the whole room heard him, "Before we start with the hearings, we have a informational presentation to watch."
He sat, as Cam stood slowly. One of the audience members produced a TV, and DVD player from thin air. Cam slid her pre-prepared slideshow into the player. She turned confidently to the crowd around her, "We were able to observe several different strands of DNA, some from Muggles and some from Wizards. By looking at several of both, we were able to determine the single gene that was the same in all Wizards, or all Muggles. Our conclusion is that magic is simply a genetic mutation. It's passed on from parent to child, and the probability of a child getting the gene can be shown in a Punnet Square just like every other genetic mutation."
"Thank you, Dr-" Fudge faltered, realizing that he wasn't sure who he was talking to. Harry figured he was to lazy to look at the name on her badge.
"Saroyan." Cam supplied before making her way back to the others.
As she sat down, Fudge stood, "The following trials are open to all of you, but we will require you to leave the room while we ask your colleagues for their opinions on each of you and how the team works as a whole." Everybody nodded in understanding, "Alright, lets get started. Dr. Zachary Uriah Addy?"