A/N: Alright, NaNoWriMo is over. And I am a proud winner of the most exhausting contest I have ever found myself apart of. That being said, for the next week, I will not be writing or posting anything. I need a break. Forgive me.

But before I head out to veg for a week, here's the next chapter of Return: Booth learns... Hope you like it!

Chapter 7

Temperance took a moment to take in Booth's hotel room. It must have been a quick decision, as the room was nothing remarkable. Then, she turned her attention to Booth. He was stumbling, harshly, trying to recover from the nauseating feeling of apparating. Temperance reached out to steady him.

At her touch, Booth shot straight up, stumbling away from her, "Oh God, oh God," falling repeatedly from his lips.

"Booth," Temperance called.

His hands came up between them as though to fend her off, and he collided with the bed. The collision toppled him, and he did a kind of twisting flip over the side of the bed.

"Booth!" Temperance cried, running to him.

"No!" Booth had recovered himself to scuffle away from her, crying out, "Get away from me!"

She froze at his words, not moving a muscle. Booth continued to back away, not stopping until he touched the wall and couldn't go any farther. "Who are you? What the hell is going on?" he yelled at her.

"Booth," Temperance tried again, keeping her voice slow and calm, "Booth, I need you to calm down."

"Calm down?" he practically shouted at her, his voice pitching high in hysteria, "Calm down?"

"Yes, Booth. Calm down. I will explain everything, but you are likely to injure yourself if you continue as you are."

"Calm down?" he repeated again. It was getting a little annoying that that seemed to be all he could say. "A minute ago, we were standing in an alley next to Kings Cross Station, now we're in my hotel room! Your eyes are green! Your hair is red! And you're talking like you're a fucking Brit! You're talking to dogs and identical twins are disappearing into thin air! And you want me to calm down?"

"Yes!" Temperance shouted back at him, in that moment replacing the glamour she'd been using for the entirety of the time he'd known her. Whether it was the tone of her voice, or the instant reapplication of glamour, Temperance didn't know, but Booth fell immediately silent, freezing completely. "Thank you," she sighed, moving closer to Booth and sitting down across from him on the ground, though she left several feet of space between them.

"Booth, I haven't been completely honest with you. And I am sorry for that. My name is actually Temperance Brennan Evans. The woman you met earlier was my sister. The twins are Fred and George Weasley, the fourth and fifth sons of one of my friends. The dog was actually a man in disguise. And we arrived here by apparition, a form of magical travel."

Booth continued to stare at her, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly. "I don't… I…" he managed eventually.

"I'm a witch, Booth," Temperance explained quietly.

Much to her surprise, Booth burst out laughing. "A witch, that's great Bones. A real good one." He continued to laugh, stopping abruptly when he saw his partner flinch. "C'mon, Bones. You can't expect me to believe that. After all the times you've said that magic wasn't real? Besides Bones, witches, witches are supposed to be evil. You know, communicating with the Devil, green skin, warts?"

Temperance's expression remained downcast, "When have you ever known me to lie, Booth?"

"Well, never. Except that you just told me that you haven't been honest with me, so maybe a lot. I don't know. But, I mean, c'mon Bones. Magic?"

"It's real Booth," she insisted, "I am telling you the truth."

"But, Bones…"

"Booth," she stopped him, "How do you explain everything that you've witnessed today if I'm not telling you the truth?"

"I, uh, I don't know… I can't." His eyes widened as he stared at her, "You're a witch?" His pitch had shot up once again. When Temperance nodded, he barely managed to keep himself from going for his gun. "What does that mean? Does that mean you're evil? Have you just been using me? Who are you?"

Temperance stiffened, trying her best not to let him see just how much hurt his words had inflicted on her. "I'm still me, Booth. I'm still the same person. Nothing has changed. I've never once lied to you, not about my fundamental beliefs, not about anything that makes me me, I've just kept a part of myself from you. I'm sorry about that, Booth. I just couldn't…" she shrugged awkwardly, "But nothing changes Booth. I'm not evil; the Wizarding World isn't that much different from your world. There is good and evil, it's all about choice."

"And your hair, eyes, and voice?" While he wasn't sure that he believed her just yet, Booth had managed to calm himself down enough to realize that he needed to hear her out before he could make any conclusions.

"They're a series of glamour, ones that I have used constantly throughout the time that we have known each other."

"So the… other you… that's what you actually look like?" he asked tentatively.

Temperance nodded, allowing the glamour to drop once more, though much slower this time in hopes of minimizing the shock level.

It startled Booth still, to see something of a stranger looking at him with his partner's face. But he couldn't stop himself from reaching out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Needing to touch her to confirm that she was real. He settled his attention onto her eyes, staring into the startling green orbs. He would easily admit, at least silently, that as much as her usually ice blue eyes intrigued and enticed him, these eyes now staring back at him were much more her. The sharp green was warm, and brimming with intelligence, but there was an undercurrent of mirth that he usually say in his partner, as well as just a tinge of sadness. Her eyes drew him, and he couldn't break away.

"Booth?" Temperance questioned quietly when he had been staring at her for several minutes.

He drew himself away from her eyes with a great deal of difficulty, pulling away just enough to focus upon her expression. "You're beautiful," he breathed, his mind not quite caught up to his words. Temperance flushed lightly, ducking her head a little. And Booth suddenly realized what he had said, and scrambled to recover from it, "Why did you hide it? Do you not like the way you look?"

"No, it's not that," she sighed and stood, offering a hand to Booth and directing him to take a seat on the bed. As she sat next to him she began her explanation, "The woman you met today, Petunia, she's my sister. Our parents had only recently moved to England when she was born. My twin sister and I were born two years later."

"Wait, sister? Twin? I thought you only had Russ."

"I met Russ at the same time you did, I hadn't known until then that my parents had another child. Petunia was always the oldest, and then there was Lily and me. Our parents were gone often, constantly leaving on business trips. I believe now, that they were returning to America to spend time with Russ.

"Lily and I were 15 when our parents left. Petunia was 17. None of us were of age, so we were named orphans. Petunia became of age not long after our parent's disappearance, and Lily and I were returning to school, so we weren't there long. When we tried to contact Petunia again she became enraged, and informed us that she wanted no contact between us.

"When we were children, the three of us used to be very close. I began showing signs of magic much earlier than Lily did and it created some strain in our family, though it was mostly fear. When Lily began showing the same things, our relationship with Petunia and our parents became rather strained. It wasn't until we went off to school, however, that Petunia became truly antagonistic."

"You had a twin, though?" Booth confirmed. Temperance only nodded. "What happened to her?"

"Several years ago, a megalomaniac calling himself Lord Voldemort gained a group of followers. He, and his followers, believed that the only ones allowed to possess and learn magic should be those born into purely magical families. He abhorred witches and wizards coming from non-magical origins and strove to massacre them.

"Lily married a young man, James Potter, directly out of school. The war was already being fought in the streets, and we threw ourselves into the fight with everything we had. That is, until Lily had her baby. Harry's birth was an incredible time, that such beauty and wonder could exist in a world so ravaged by war was light and hope that we desperately needed.

"They went into hiding a year after his birth. James and Lily were both incredibly important in our efforts to end Voldemort, and so they were in much more danger than anyone else.

"Three months after they went into hiding, they were killed. Lily sacrificed herself to save her son, and Harry survived the night that ripped the rest of his family from him and ended a war that had lasted eleven years."

The silence fell harshly upon the room as she finished speaking. Booth started at her. Temperance had spoken softly, but managed to keep her voice even, fighting away all trace of tears as she recounted, once more, the night that had destroyed everything.

"Bones," Booth said finally, his voice soft as he touched her shoulder.

She shook her head, "With Voldemort gone, his followers rampaged through the country, and Dumbledore, our leader, didn't think it safe. That was why I hid, Booth. I left the country, altered my appearance a little, and hid away."

This time when Booth reached for her, she didn't pull away. Instead, she allowed him to wrap an arm around her, leaning into him some.

"The magic version of Witness Protection," he joked lightly and Temperance made a valiant attempt to laugh.

They remained that way, silent for a long time, until Booth slowly moved away from his partner just enough to look at her.

"So what happens now?" he asked.

"That's your choice Booth," she told him, "I will respect your wishes. If you want me to stay out of your life, I will. I promise."

"What? No! I don't want you out of my life Bones," he sighed, and scrubbed a hand down his face, "I'll admit, it's a lot, and I'm not really ready for it. But I never want you to not be in my life Bones. I promise that."

Relief shown on her face as she smiled to him, "Thank you Booth. I don't know that I'd be able to accept it if you really didn't want me here." She glanced over at the clock, "But I really should be getting back. Molly will have my head if I miss the meeting."

"Yeah, alright," Booth stood with her, "It'll give me some time to think."

She smiled, and stepped forward tentatively to wrap him in a hug. "I really am glad you're here Booth," she whispered to him.

"Me too, Bones," he said as he hugged her back. "See you tomorrow?" he checked as he released her from his embrace.

"If you want to," she agreed.

"I do."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow."

She smiled at him, and stepped away. Booth was confused momentarily when she didn't go for the door. But she just smiled again, and turned sharply, disappearing with a little pop.

"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" Booth asked himself as he sunk down onto the bed once more.

Well, it wasn't anything like he'd been expecting.

A/N: Tadah! Alright, I'm pretty much positive that there are things I didn't touch on enough, or questions left to be asked. Ask away! That's why things got left as they are, with another meeting coming in later.

=] Kiko