Candles

Harry Potter x Criminal Minds

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or Harry Potter. I am just a fan fiction writer.

When it was you and me

Chapter Ten

"The victim was 20-year-old Heather Stolar who was babysitting Spence's charge," JJ sighed. "It seems to point towards Hayden Porter as the suspect."

"The kid is six years old," argued a police officer who was on the case with them.

"He's also the charge of one of our teammates, so we are not taking this lightly," Aaron Hotchner told the officer with his ever serious look. His eyes fell on Spencer Reid who was holding Hayden on his hip and talking to the little boy softly, appearing quite frazzled.

"Hayden," Spencer tried softly. "Can you tell me what happened?" Hayden looked up at him solemnly and back down at his hands which were now cleaned up and bandaged, the team having discovered his hand was cut from the knife. It only added to the mystery quite frankly.

'I wish I could Spencer…' Hayden thought. He couldn't for the life of him explain what had partaken in that one hour. He'd been watching a scary movie when it had begun to bring up Harry's memories of the Battle of Hogwarts. He'd been screaming, he remembered, from the memories assaulting his brain once more and he remembered the sitter calling Spencer.

Then, he showed up. A man decked in black robes and a mask had appeared, about to grab him, when Heather had appeared and blocked the man from taking him. He'd stabbed her and before he could reach for Hayden, Harry's magic had set something off and the knife was accioed to his hand, cutting it, and Hayden had dropped it in shock.

The man had vanished when Spencer arrived and Hayden honestly couldn't describe exactly what had taken place.

"Hayden," Spencer tried once more. "Please. What happened?"

The six-year-old looked up at the man's face, his eyes searching for something before he gave in. He could try at least—for Spencer's sake at any rate. The man had just come home to find what looked like his little charge murdering his neighbor after all.

"I-It wasn't me Spence," Hayden whispered. Spencer looked relieved to have him talking and consequently, Hayden had the team's attentions. He struggled to talk, still shocked at all the blood that had been so much like his mom and dad's murder.

"She saved me," he said, comprehension hitting him like a wave of bricks as Harry's self-hate hit him. "The bad man wanted me but she died for me!" Tears streamed down his cheeks as he looked loathed at himself.

"Hey now, none of that," Morgan ordered as he lightly tapped Hayden on the nose, startling the boy. Hayden looked at Morgan searchingly before he nodded silently, rubbing his cheeks of the dampening tears. He decided to seek shelter against Spencer's neck and pressed his head against the man's shoulder, an arm reaching to clutch the man's opposite shoulder for support.

"Was there any sign of someone entering?" Morgan asked his guardian and Hayden felt Spencer nod and explain of the window open when he'd finally become aware of things besides his little charge and the dead sitter.

They eventually chose to stay at Hotch's house since Spencer's apartment was the crime scene. Spencer had finally set Hayden down only for the little boy to be confronted by one Jack Hotchner.

"Daddy, why's he here with Uncle Spencer?" Jack asked curious.

"Hayden and Spencer are going to stay with us for a little boy," Aaron assured and Jack seemed satisfied, reaching over and taking Hayden's hand into his, declaring that they were going to play now. Hayden looked unsure, but did follow the other boy into his room.

Aaron looked at Spencer and the two went into the living room to discuss what would happen now while Hayden learned how to play with another child, the first time Harry had ever done so. He was amused by the block game Jack invented and the two raced one another with Jack's toy cars.

There was silence between the two men for a few minutes. "I don't think it's safe, to be honest," Hotch told the boy genius.

Spencer nodded. "I know, but I believe Hayden. He couldn't have murdered Heather. If you look at the angles of the knife and the cut on Hayden's hand, you'll find it's as if the knife slammed itself into his hand, and the position of Heather's stab wound is too high for a little boy." Hotch nodded, looking thoughtful.

There was a loud crash and both men shot out of their feet in record time, running into Jack's room at the sound of crying. Hotch immediately found that it was his son crying and he ran towards Jack, trying to make sense of it when he saw the broken firetruck and a horrified Hayden beside it.

"Reid, you might need to control him," Hotch nearly growled as he lifted Jack up and tried to calm him down.

Hayden looked at Spencer with wide eyes as the man turned to him. Jack was crying too much to make much sense of what he was saying. "You know what you did was wrong don't you?" Spencer questioned harshly, knowing that Jack was upset and that this was the second time he'd found Hayden in an undesirable position.

"I-I didn't –"

"DON'T try to blame it on some 'man in a mask'," snapped Spencer angrily. "I think maybe you're the actual murderer of Heather and I should have never taken you in!"

Hayden looked shocked at Spencer. He didn't mean that! Did he? Tears stung his eyes at Spencer's cold manner and he felt hurt.

"I'm n-not!"

"Don't lie to me! I've had it with the lying and the tantrums! You've been burdening me enough as it is!" the FBI agent continued.

Hayden couldn't take it anymore. He ran, out of the room and far away from the three as he could. He was out of the house and down the street before they had any time to react.

Spencer and Aaron spent nearly an hour trying to get Jack to calm down and when they did they weren't very expecting of what the little boy told them. He'd been crying because he'd been surprised by what truly happened and apparently Hayden hadn't directly broken the toy.

A man had broken into Jack's room somehow while Spencer and Aaron were in the other room, and he'd smirked at Jack before using something before the toy had come flying at Jack and would have injured the boy if Hayden hadn't pushed him out of the way. The toy had broken against the wall and the man had disappeared, which had been the breaking point and Jack had broken down from the scare.

Spencer felt a horrible turning in his stomach at the boy's words.

There really was someone after Hayden it seemed, planning to pin him with blame and Spencer had walked into his playing hand. The six year old little boy was outside by himself at night.

And it was because of one Spencer Reid…

Author's Note: Dun Dun Dun! Will the unsub from chapter three finally get Harry Potter? If you're confused by all of this it's simple, a man in a mask and black cloak has been using magic to apparate and has been getting Hayden blamed for things so that someone will hurt him, perhaps break him.

Review and I'll be a happy camper?