The MAIM Project

Bones has a secret. A secret that her latest case with Booth will uncover. Crossover with Harry Potter. BB

Slowly, Tempe stopped worrying about everything and allowed herself to relax. "Thanks for listening Russ," she embraced him for the first time in a long time, a bright smile lighting her face.

Russ awkwardly patted her back and smiled at her. "I'm proud of you Tempe," he mumbled, blood rushing to his face almost immediately.

Tempe grinned even wider and squeezed him tighter before suddenly releasing him. "You're the best brother ever."

A beaming smile dangled from Russ's lips. "Don't I know it." He replied. "I'm going out with my buddies, but I'll be back later. Watch some TV in the meantime, Tempe."

"I can't, Russ. I've got a poetry essay due tomorrow in English and I need to get those transfiguration papers in. If I get all that finished, I've got a potion that I should practice brewing; I'm going to be tested on it on Saturday. I've also got a document study in World History due on Friday."

He gave her mournful look. "I don't know how you stay sane, Tempe. Tell you what, I'll go with you to the Wizards Pitch on Sunday and watch you shoot a few hoops."

"You don't 'shoot hoops' in Quidditch, Russ," she said, exasperated.

"What do you do, then?" Tempe launched into a detailed explanation of the finer points of Quidditch as Russ settled into the chair again, forgetting his plans.

Tempe wearily fumbled for the key to her front door. Pausing for a few seconds, she rubbed the back of her neck and breathed deeply. She'd been running herself ragged over the identification of the victims, and she was finding that she knew more and more of them. The case was becoming more uncomfortable as it dragged on, moving at a snail-like pace. Finally, she slipped one of the keys into the lock and shoved the door open. She stumbled through the house with heavy eyelids and a heavy heart, barely making it to the room before falling asleep fully dressed on the bed.

"Tempe, we refuse to let you wallow!"

Confused, Tempe opened her eyes, and closed them again. She was dreaming.

"Temperance Brennan, don't you dare ignore me!" the voice came again.

Tempe pried her eyes open a second time, and allowed them to adjust for a few seconds. "Alden?" she asked, blearily. "Cynbie? What are you doing here?"

"We're all moving in with you for a while." Cynbie told her, matter-of-factly.

She glanced at the clock. Six o'clock. It was too early in the morning and Tempe couldn't be bothered arguing. "Fine. But I don't have enough room for you and the kids here."

Alden smiled sunnily. "No need to worry, Cynbie and I hired a trunk."

Tempe nodded. "Right. Couldn't you have let me sleep a little longer?"

"Well, not really," Cynbie began, before she was interrupted by a loud ringing.

"AUNTY TEMPE, YOUR FELLYTONE'S RINGING!" Kelvin's voice rang through the house.

Before Tempe had a chance to react, Alden was bellowing back a reply. "ANSWER IT!"

The Bradley family hadn't even been here five minutes and they were already taking over.

"Rebecca, I don't know why you can't accept it," Booth ground into his phone. He listened briefly, before sighing. "Look, Rebecca, clearly we need to talk about this. Again. But right now, I'm at work, and I don't have time for this."

Faint but unrecognisable sounds emitted from the other end of the line. "That's not what I mean and you know it! Yes, I know he's my son too. Look, I'll come by later and we'll talk. Okay?"

Dial tone sounded in his ear and Booth put his phone back in his pocket, clearly not in a good mood. "I see you're finally here," he snapped at Tempe.

Tempe looked offended. "I overslept, I'm sorry," she told him with a touch of anger in her tone.

Booth immediately regretted his harshness. "Sorry," he apologised.

She forgave him immediately.

"So why are you late?" he asked her, curiously.

"I overslept," she admitted.

Booth raised an eyebrow. "You, oversleep? Are you alright Temperance?"

"Temperance?" Tempe asked on reflex.

Booth flushed and coughed. "Yeah, I thought since Fiona's name was Bones…" he trailed off, embarrassed.

Tempe laughed, but hastened to reassure him. "It seems an odd time to start calling me Tempe, when you've known her name was Bones for almost a week. Besides, I like you calling me Bones," she admitted self-consciously.

With that admission, Booth grinned at her. "You like it when I call you Bones?" he teased.

"In various cultures a nickname, like Bones, indicates a close friendship or relationship between two people. By calling me Bones, you are saying that I am your friend." Looking away, Tempe busied herself by pulling out a list of names and addresses.

"Alright Bones," Booth rolled his eyes and smiled at her, "now let me see what you got there."

She smiled back at him and the conversation was forgotten. "I was able to get this list, from the Ministry, of people possibly affiliated with the Death Eaters. The first five on this list are Americans, but the other thirty two are spread throughout Europe." She handed Booth the list. "Although the second war took place world wide, it was stationed mainly in Europe."

"What was mainly a European thing?" Hodgins enquired. He had several sheets of paper in his hands.

"We believe that a British terrorist organization is responsible for these deaths," Booth explained.

"What have you got?" Tempe asked.

Hodgins handed her the sheet of paper, which she began to examine thoroughly as he gave a commentary on the results. "You know how we suspected that some of the bodies were buried in a different place at first? Well I've narrowed it down. The soil samples revealed that the bodies had been buried for long periods of time in a forest; specifically, a forest in Scotland that very few people are permitted to study. It's a major conservation project or something, the information I have is a bit sketchy. It's situated near the dump, which seems pretty contradictory. Dr Brennan? Are you listening?"

Tempe had zoned out several seconds ago, and her face faded to white. "That's sick. By Merlin that's sick," she whispered.

Hodgins frowned at the strange phrase. "By Merlin?" he repeated. "Usually it's 'by god.'"

"She's trying to point out that both God and Merlin are fictional." Booth falsified quickly while Tempe got over her shock.

"Go on," she instructed Hodgins, ignoring his request to explain what she had been saying before.

"We were able to get some DNA samples from some of the skeletons, and every one of them presented with the same pair of irregular alleles. It appears that whoever did this was trying to commit some form of genocide."

Tempe nodded in agreement and Hodgins posed a question. "Dr Brennan, do you know of any genetic anomalies Fiona may have had?"

"None," Tempe lied. "Thanks Hodgins."

"Bren, we're all going to Wong Fu's, coming?"

Tempe shook her head. "Sorry Ange, I've got plans."

"Reading a bunch of science journals does not constitute plans, Brennan," Angela ribbed with a smile.

Tempe raised an eyebrow, and looked up from the microscope. "What makes you think I'm reading science journals? I've got plans."

"Doing what?" Angela asked, interested.

Tempe lowered her head to the microscope again, and made a notation on a sheet of paper. She began to pack up. "I've got some old friends over for a while."

Angela looked interested, but Tempe was gone before she had a chance to enquire too deeply.

"Kelvin, why aren't you joining in any of the fun?" Tempe asked, seating herself in front of him. Cynbie, Alden, Tempie, Fiona and Emmett were immersed in a game of Monopoly. The children were exceedingly amused by that fact that the pieces didn't talk or move of their own accord. Kelvin, on the other hand, had his head buried in his book.

"I'm going to Hogwarts next year," at her question Kelvin looked up briefly. Once he had answered it, stuck his head back in again.

Tempe gently tugged the book from his hands. "Give me that, Kelvin." She closed the book. "The Magic Shield by Francis Melville? Kelvin, this is third year reading. What are you doing?"

"I don't want to be behind in all my classes," Kelvin admitted, red-faced.

Tempe smiled at his innocence. "Kelvin, put that away and don't let me see you with it again. No-one knows anything when they first go to Hogwarts. It's expected. Now, you either come play monopoly with all of us, or I'll get out the chessboard."

Kelvin grinned. "Chess please."

Tempe rummaged around in her cupboard for a few seconds, before she found what she was looking for. She handed the box to Kelvin, before reaching for her wand and conjuring a table and some chairs. Kelvin placed the box on the table and opened it up, claiming the white side as his own. One of his pawns (a small white mouse) scuttled away and Kelvin toppled off his chair, pouncing on it. The mouse managed to escape his grasp, and he scrambled after it. It hid underneath the couch and Kelvin peered miserable at it.

"It's not coming out," he informed Tempe. "And I think that some of the other pieces are missing. Do you have Gobstones?"

Tempe indicated the negative, and Kelvin's face drooped. "Cheer up," Tempe told him. "There's still monopoly."

But the others had finished their first game and didn't want to play another. "I know," Alden crowed, "let's go for a fly."

Tempe shook her head. "Not in a Muggle area. We could go for a drive though,"

So they did. After some magical expansion of the inside of the car, the seven of them piled in, and Tempe found herself driving them around Washington, pointing out monuments and such to Alden and Cynbie, while the four children argued loudly in the back about who was in whose space. Suddenly, Fiona leaned over and began to poke Cynbie repeatedly. "Mummy, we're hungry. When are we going to eat? How long till we get home?"

Tempie soon joined in. "Mummy, I need the toilet. How long until we get to the next toilets? Are we there yet?" Not wanting to be left out, Emmet and Kelvin pitched in with questions of where they were going, how long it would take, would it be fun and so on. Cynbie had been taking this all very well for about twenty minutes, when suddenly she snapped.

"Be quiet!" the car screeched to a stop as Tempe slammed the brakes on in shock. "The next one of you who says anything is getting out and walking home!" The four children silenced. They had stopped not even a block away from Wong Fu's. Tempe suggested that they go in, so that the kids could eat and use the facilities, while Cynbie and Alden could meet everyone.

"Tempe, they're gone. Get used to it." Russ' face was alive with pure fury.

She brought her chin up, face hardened with denial. "No! They're not gone! They'll be back, Russ! I know it!"

Russ sneered, his features turning ugly. "What, did you see it in your crystal ball? Grow up, Tempe! Mom and Dad are gone. We don't know where they are. They're probably not coming back! Why can't you understand that?" His anger petered out into hopeless and pitying frustration.

Tears welled in her eyes. "They are coming back! I hate you! I hate you! Leave me ALONE!" Her tears bubbled over and streamed down her face as she yelled at her brother. Suddenly, she ran to her bedroom and buried her head in her pillows. "They're not gone, they're not gone, they're not gone," she repeated the mantra as if saying it would make it true.

Russ stood rooted to the spot by his sister's words. His shoulders slumped. The closeness that they'd had so recently was gone, had disappeared with his parents.

Authors Notes: For reasons of clarity, in the narrative of the story, Tempe (Bradley) will be referred to as Tempie, while Tempe (Brennan) will remain Tempe. During dialogue, I will attempt to make it as clear as possible, but should any confusion arise, please inform me.

Also, The Magic Shield by Francis Melville is a real book. It's a guide to the defence against the dark arts and can be found in the new age section of bookstores. I have just been waiting for an opportunity to use it, it was too perfect.

On another note, I now have a beta. Thanks a million to butt3rflykiss89, she's done an excellent job.