Family Secrets
Thanks go out to: abby1006, STP7-10SPLIT, metrokid1981, IVANHOE, leen01, washingtongurrl, lilou5701, Casse01, shagggy, darkyshana, stardustreader, Vi38, blackwolfgirl88, Constance Truggle, bloody-black-lion, bevfan2, , Mainsail, frannienzbabe, shadow7564, curlup2cuddle, kate1243, Sillage, Itachisgirl88, Far Away In Wonderland, Ju du Nord, EmmaM21, Yoruko Rhapsodos, Lady Vonda, The American Psycho, Treebrooke, shadow-warrior93, Ehzzu, fishesforwishes, Niamh O'Leary, softdeepgrey, Reaumur, Nerd-in-a-book, Barren Chasm, puparoo13, MelindaLove, thegoldfishassassin, kittykat9628, Seravonijia d'Felys, Miyako Yukimura, DIAlecHotty, Tenshi01, Mari Wollsch, aj13walker, PuppyProngs, MarieVerdonck, Angel4EverLostInLife, wolfgirl4554, LucediDio, KitKat05, jenn008, Sarah Riddle Potter, Lion of the Mountain, HIM399131 and 3 'guests'. By the way, one of the guest reviews has guessed a part of the plot already! Also I need some idea of who you want Harry/Hadrian to be with so I'm accepting suggestions. The only characters I won't consider are Hermione, Ginny, Ron or any of the Weasleys I'm afraid as I have plans for those characters already.
I've just gotten the best news for Sherlock fans, especially those in the UK, there's talk of a theme park that's being planned in Kent having Sherlock-themed attractions, how AWESOME is that?!
Also, this is set after series 3 of 'Sherlock' as I REALLY don't want to have to to 'The Reichenbach Fall' as I HATE that episode!
Anything you recognise is not mine.
Chapter 2
Once Petunia had reassured Vernon that she was alright, the two adult Dursleys were sat in their living room with their nephew and son.
"Pet, this letter says that we need to keep the boy here." Vernon said moodily after reading the letter as his wife held the two boys on her lap.
"Well we will for a few days, but before Lily was forced into hiding, she sent me a letter explaining. Hadrian here is not the child of her husband, she had actually tried to leave him but was forced to remain married to him. She had fallen in love with someone else during the only separation she had managed to have with him and that relationship resulted in Hadrian." Petunia replied, watching as Dudley and Hadrian seemed to be examining each other with great interest. Petunia gave a fond smile as she remembered Lily and herself doing something similar when they were little.
"How do you know that this 'Sherlock Holmes' will just accept that Hadrian is his son? How do you know that we haven't just had the boy dumped on us?" Vernon asked, still a bit moody. It wasn't that he didn't want to care for his nephew, he just didn't like the choice being taken away from him. Had he been asked previously, he would have agreed, especially as Hadrian was a quiet and pleasant child.
"Lily was sure of his feelings for her, and my sister was a good judge of character. She was fond of that Snape boy and he adored her up until the point when he went to live with relatives after his mother died. And if he won't accept Hadrian, then we will raise him. I'm not abandoning my sister's child!" Petunia said firmly.
"Pet, I didn't mean it like that. I just don't like having the choice taken away from me." Vernon sighed.
In the end, it only took two days before Sherlock Holmes was available to see them. And so, with Hadrian and Dudley both dressed warmly in Dudley's clothes (Petunia had been furious that no one had thought to leave Hadrian with anything of his own) they set off to London for their meeting with Hadrian's real father. Dudley was a little bit fussy, almost as if he knew that he was going to be separated from his cousin. Even though Hadrian had only been with them for a short time, the two cousins had grown close. Petunia worried that Dudley would continue crying for the whole journey until Hadrian placed his hand on Dudley's arm, quieting his cousin. Seeing the sweet scene before her, Petunia hoped that they would be able to keep contact with her nephew if he did go to live with his father.
When they arrived at the address provided, 221 Baker Street, Petunia and Vernon were surprised. While pleasant looking, it wasn't the sort of street they expected someone like Sherlock Holmes to live on. Each giving a mental shrug, they collected the children from the car, Petunia carrying Dudley while Vernon held Hadrian. An older woman answered the door when they rang the bell, and smiled warmly at the two children although she was surprised at Hadrian's appearance. When they told her that they had an appointment with Sherlock, she immediately led them upstairs.
"I don't normally do this of course, I mean, I'm his landlady, not his housekeeper." She said to Petunia as they walked up the stairs to a second-floor flat.
Sherlock was sat in an armchair, his hands together in front of him, and when they entered he looked up at them. In that moment, Petunia could see why Lily had fallen in love with this man so quickly, he was very handsome (even if his curiously coloured eyes seemed to be gazing right through you) and cut a striking figure in his tailored suit.
"Mr and Mrs Dursley, I presume." He said in his deep voice as he raised an eyebrow at the appearance of the children.
"Yes, I apologise for bringing the children, we couldn't find a babysitter that we trusted enough and considering why we're here, it felt more appropriate to bring them." Petunia smiled, as they took a seat at Sherlock's indication.
"Yes, about why you're here, your email wasn't very forthcoming on the details. May I ask what issue is so secret and important that you could not put it into an email?" Sherlock asked as Mrs Hudson left them to it. Petunia sighed sadly.
"Mr Holmes, do you possibly remember a woman by the name of Lily Evans-Potter?" She said softly, watching his reaction. Sherlock stiffened.
"How do you know that name?" He asked, his eyes narrowing and flashing dangerously.
"Lily was my younger sister, she sent me a letter about you a few months ago Mr Holmes explaining briefly that she had had a relationship with you. If it makes you feel any better, she hadn't wanted to leave you at all and loved you until she died." Petunia explained, tears filling her eyes at the thought of her sister. Sherlock closed his eyes briefly.
"I had hoped that she would escape her brute of a husband and make it back to me. If only she'd come straight to me when his associates found her, I would have been able to protect her! But you haven't explained what issue is so important that you have dredged up the past." He said, sadness flowing through him as he thought of the woman he had loved.
"I think you should read this letter from Lily, she asked that I give it to you after her death." Petunia replied, handing over the thick parchment envelope. Hiding his eagerness to read the letter, Sherlock carefully opened it and let his eyes sweep across the last words Lily would say to him.
'My dearest Sherlock,
If you are reading this then I am dead and I never managed to escape James. For the longest time, he has been my husband in name only and I despise the very mention of him. He has no consideration of my wishes and feelings and he proved that quite well when he started taking other women to his bed, not that I am complaining as the more of them he slept with, the less I had to endure him.
But this letter is not merely to gripe about James Potter, I have something important to tell you. Sherlock, when they took me back, I was pregnant. I didn't know it at the time or I would have told you. When I first arrived back with James, he used a ritual to bind me to two different Potter properties, meaning that I would be trapped until he died. After that he forced himself upon me multiple times. I'm sorry I had to tell you this, my love.
It was upon the discovery that I was pregnant that James started taking other women to his bed and I spent my pregnancy mostly in isolation although my midwife, a lovely woman named Poppy Pomfrey, visited regularly to check up on me. She knows the full truth about us and agreed to keep our secret. Throughout my pregnancy I prayed that the child would be yours and not James' although I would have still loved my son. Imagine my joy mixed with sadness when Hadrian was born and I saw that you were indeed his father. I named Poppy and Petunia as his godmothers and your brother and an old friend of mine named Severus Snape as his godfathers. James wasn't in the birthing room so Poppy managed to fill out a correct birth certificate for our son which I have provided with this letter, his true name is Hadrian Sherlock Emrys Holmes.
Our son is powerful Sherlock, and Albus Dumbledore is worried about his power. We are being made to go into hiding with James and I have a bad feeling that something is going to happen. In that instance, Dumbledore will place Hadrian with my sister and her family, hoping that he will be abused. He doesn't know that I reconnected with her while I was with you. Please Sherlock, raise our son to be the man I know he can be, a man as wonderful as you.
With all my love,
Lily'
When he had finished reading the letter, Sherlock stared at it for a few seconds before turning back to the Dursleys and observing both children. One was obviously the Dursley's son but the other made Sherlock nearly gasp. The child had the exact same high cheekbones as him as well as the same cupid's bow mouth and wildly curling hair. From Lily, the child had received her nose and eyes in a beautiful shade of emerald green. Hadrian, 'My son!' Sherlock though, was gazing at him with a piercing expression similar to one he used himself. A slight smile graced his features at the sight of that familiar expression on the face of another. Hadrian began to wriggle to get out of Vernon's arms, reaching for Sherlock who allowed Vernon to place the young child in his arms.
"Thank you for keeping your promise to Lily." Sherlock said quietly as he held Hadrian close to him, he'd never really thought of having children before but he found that he rather liked having a small child who was a mixture of him and Lily in his arms.
"I did love my sister, I wish she'd never met James Potter, in the end he only brought her misery. I hope you'll let us keep in contact, Mr Holmes, Dudley is rather fond of his cousin." Petunia smiled wistfully.
"I would be offended if you didn't wish to have contact with my son as Lily chose you as one of Hadrian's godmothers." Sherlock replied with a smirk
In the end it was agreed that Hadrian would stay for another couple of days with the Dursley family while Sherlock prepared a room for him. He also needed to tell the rest of his family that Lily had given him a son. Sherlock knew that while it would be a surprise, especially for his older brother Mycroft, that they would be pleased for him and would support him if he needed it. Mrs Hudson, of course, would be ecstatic that there would be a child around the place and she would no doubt spoil Hadrian rotten given half the chance.
True to his prediction, his family rallied round to help him get everything ready for Hadrian's arrival. Mycroft had been somewhat bemused when he was told that Lily had named him as one of Hadrian's godfathers as she had only met him once. It was even more surprising that their cousin had been named Hadrian's other godfather. Not many people in Wizarding Britain knew that the Holmes family was a Wizarding one but that was because traditionally every Holmes studied at Beauxbatons Academy in France. Severus' mother was actually Lady Holmes' sister and upon her death when he was fourteen, he had been sent to live with his cousins as his father was found to have been abusive towards them both. When Severus heard that the child he had thought of as James Potter's son was actually Sherlock's, all hatred that he had been preparing to have simply left him. Most of his peers from Hogwarts assumed that Severus had been in love with Lily, but that was not the case. She was his dearest friend and they had faked the falling out to get the other Gryffindors off her back about being friends with a Slytherin. In actual fact, Severus had begun seeing Élodie Delacroix, one of Sherlock's peers from Beauxbatons, when they were sixteen. In fact, he and Élodie were set to marry in a few months time. Knowing that Lily's son most likely wouldn't be going to Hogwarts, Severus had no qualms turning down Albus Dumbledore's job offer in favour of doing his own private research. Of course, the manipulative old man had tried to guilt him into accepting the position but stopped short when Severus mentioned Élodie.
"But my boy, what about Lily?" The aged headmaster had spluttered in disbelief, he'd assumed that Severus was in love with Lily and some of his plans revolved around that.
"She was my dearest friend and like a sister to me. Dear me headmaster, you weren't one of the people who believed me to be in love with her were you?" Severus replied with a smirk, he loved disrupting preconceived notions.
"And what about Lily and James' son, surely you wish to be at Hogwarts to protect him?" Dumbledore asked, trying a new angle.
"Oh, I'm sure that Lily's son will be perfectly fine without me here, he might even benefit more if I wasn't a teacher here." Severus replied almost flippantly, revealing nothing about Hadrian's true parentage. Knowing that he was beaten, Dumbledore gave up but kept giving him disappointed looks in the hope that Severus would feel guilty. But there was no such luck for Albus Dumbledore that day.
It was about a week after Hadrian had come to live with Sherlock that Élodie visited to meet her new 'neveu' as she called Hadrian. It wasn't the first time that she had visited and Mrs Hudson greeted her eagerly when she opened the door to her. When Élodie entered the living room of 221B, she couldn't help but smile at the sight which met her eyes. Sherlock was sat in his armchair with Hadrian in his lap and a copy of 'TinTin: Le Secret de la Licorne et Le Tésor de Rackham le Rouge' open which he was reading to the small child from in fluent French.
"I don't understand why Sherlock's starting him with French now, he hasn't started speaking yet." Mrs Hudson whispered so as not to disturb their story time.
"Ah, but Mrs 'udson, leetle Adrien is an 'olmes, eet ees een 'is blood to be fluent een both French and English." Élodie replied with a smile. Throughout her relationship with Severus, she had had a front row seat to Sherlock playing many roles with ease but she couldn't help but feel that the role of 'father' suited him very well, much better than some of his others.
It didn't take long for Sherlock to notice them, and he nodded while finishing the page they were on. Hadrian scowled slightly, showing his disapproval of the story stopping in the middle. He rather liked listening to his father's deep voice as he read a story to him.
"We can carry on reading later, little one, but for now we have a guest." Sherlock chuckled at his son's protest.
Hadrian seemed to have a knack for charming people and Élodie was no exception. It was while she was cuddling Hadrian and chattering to him in a mix of French and English that Greg Lestrade turned up. The detective inspector hadn't been to ask for Sherlock's help since before he had found about Hadrian. As such, Greg wasn't aware that Sherlock had a son and so, when faced with a child that looked an awful lot like the Consulting Detective, his brain seemed to stop for a moment.
"Yes Lestrade, Hadrian is my son. Can we get to why you came here?" Sherlock asked impatiently.
"Right, yes, I wanted your opinion on these marking we found on a body." Greg said finally, pulling out some photos. He was still having trouble getting permission for Sherlock to be consulted on any cases let alone being allowed onto any crime scenes after the Magnussen incident. But even his 'superiors' were confused by some of these markings and agreed that Sherlock could be consulted.
Sherlock checked that Hadrian was engrossed with Élodie's conversation before he looked eagerly at the pictures. Each body had been strangled to death before a line, a circle and a 'U' were carved into their chests, just over their heart. Seeing the carvings, caused a random memory to flash into Sherlock's brain, of having tea with Moriarty and the apple with 'I O U' bitten into it.
"Moriarty…" Sherlock whispered as apprehension flooded his very being. Greg looked alarmed as Sherlock spoke.
"But he's dead, you told everyone what really happened on that rooftop. How could he have survived that?" Greg asked quietly.
"Easy, he could have used a stage prop as the gun, it would make the sound but cause no damage. Next he'd need a blood pack on the back of his head, possibly with a mechanism to make it burst in a similar manner to a gunshot wound. He'd be able to learn how to properly do a stage fall quite easily." Sherlock explained, busily texting his brother at the perceived new threat not only to himself and his friends but also to his son.
"But surely you'd have seen it before!" Greg exclaimed, feeling a bit confused. Sherlock glanced at him.
"I will admit that I was a bit panicked at the time, I had just been told that my friends would be shot unless I killed myself or Moriarty called them off. Seeing him shoot himself was enough to drive the possibility that he somehow survived out of my mind." Sherlock explained, reading Mycroft's reply. Not many knew just how vindictive Mycroft could be when someone caused his family some harm but Moriarty would learn that the hard way.
"So what do we do?" Greg asked, glancing at Élodie with curiosity in his eyes.
"We wait, my brother has some of his best people looking for Moriarty. Let him know what it's like to be hunted for a while. I'm going to concentrate on keeping my son safe." Sherlock replied, standing and collecting Hadrian from Élodie and turning to his old friend.
"Élodie, I need to to tell Severus that an old adversary of mine has resurfaced so I might need some help with protecting my son." He said calmly as he held Hadrian to him. Élodie stood and nodded.
"Of course Sherlock, you and Adrien are still coming to ze wedding, non?" She smiled waving lightly to Hadrien.
"Bien sûr. Nous serons là." Sherlock replied, the French coming easily to him.
"Au revoir, mon cousin d'être." Élodie smiled as she kissed both his cheeks goodbye and left. Greg was staring incredulously at him when Sherlock turned back to the detective inspector.
"What is it?" Sherlock asked with an internal sigh.
"Who was she? And since when do you speak French?" Greg asked, his brain finally reconnecting.
"Her name is Élodie Delacroix, she's an old school friend of mine and engaged to my cousin. As for speaking French, I've been speaking it since I was a child, my family have gone to school in France for generations so we learn French early on. Greg, it doesn't really matter about any of that right now, you'll probably be whisked off to a meeting with my brother not long after you leave here so I really can't see how any of this information is important." Sherlock said almost dismissively as Hadrian examined Greg before pointing at him.
"'Croft!" He said in his childlike way. Sherlock looked surprised before grinning and nodding.
"Greg, my brother will probably be getting impatient. It might be wise if you headed off now." Sherlock said, hiding his grin from Greg. While it was a surprise, it might actually do Greg and Mycroft good. Sherlock knew that when Hadrian was finally talking properly, he would be able to tell them what had happened to his mother. The Consulting Detective had already asked the child if he could remember and Hadrian had nodded sadly. It had taken a lot of stories for Hadrian to be able to sleep that night...
