Chapter 10

Agent Rossi tapped Hotchner on the shoulder.

"Hotch, listen to me. Go and get that 'wand' that the boy was holding. If he has it, I think he'll tell us everything we want to know."

"Alright, fine." Agent Hotchner said with a trace of annoyance. "But don't encourage him too much. I'd like to get some real information. Not this fantasy story he's concocted."

"I've almost got him Hotch. I guarantee that once he's got his wand he will talk to us."

Agent Hotchner had a uniformed officer collect Harry's wand from the evidence bag. It hadn't been checked in yet, so it was readily available. Hotch handed it to Rossi with a slight glare.

"Hotch, trust me." Rossi said assuringly. "This will work. He's not just spinning a story. He really believes what he's telling me even though it's crazy. If he has his wand he'll feel confident enough to talk to us."

Agent Hotchner didn't say anything or change his stony faced features. Agent Rossi sighed. Hotchner really needed to loosen up. Profiling was a "think-outside-of-the-box" business. And right now Hotchner was very much stuck inside his own box.

Harry felt relieved to hold his wand again. He considered hexing the agents and just getting the hell out of there. But there was the fact that they knew exactly who Hermione and Alex were, and would track their families down if they had to. And Harry was opposed on principle to obliviation. It seemed like such a violation of personhood. It had overwhelmed him that Hermione had trusted Harry so much that she had done that to her parents to protect them while she helped him hunt for Voldemort's Horcruxes. It had been a huge sacrifice. He gave a small sigh and tried to think of a spell with spectacular effects.

He kicked himself. His Patronus, of course, that ought to do it.

"Okay," Harry began, "I don't want anyone to get alarmed. I promise, what I'm about to do isn't dangerous at all, but if you haven't seen magic like this before, it might be a bit shocking-and I don't want anyone to get scared and shoot me alright."

Agent Hotchner rolled his eyes. This was ridiculous he thought. But he kept his eyes glued to the one way mirror to see what kind of crap this teenager was going to pull next.

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry said loudly.

There was a blaze of white light, and a brilliantly glowing white stag burst out of the wand and galloped around the interrogation room. Agent Rossi fell backwards out of his chair with an expression of utter shock and disbelief on his face. Agent Hotchner couldn't believe it either. He refused to. It was a trick of some sort. It had to be. He burst into the interrogation room and found himself face to face with the stag before it slowly faded into nothingness.

Agent Hotchner had to sit down. All of a sudden his knees were wobbly. He needed some coffee. Rossi looked none the worse for wear though. He looked positively thrilled. Agent Morgan stood in the doorway looking perplexed, angry, and more than a bit frightened. Agent Morgan didn't scare easily, and that was what made him so angry. He felt like slugging the kid. That couldn't have been real. He stalked into the room.

"Okay, wiseass. What was that? Some kind of hologram?" Morgan said angrily.

"What's a hologram?" Harry asked, bewildered.

Morgan made a threatening move towards Harry. The kid was mocking him. Hotchner grabbed Morgan's arm.

"Enough!" Hotchner said authoritatively. "Morgan, go and wait outside until you cool down. That was no hologram. Send JJ and Spence in though. They'll want to see this."

Once Agents Jareau and Reid arrived, Harry gave everyone another look at his patronus. Everybody was suitably awed-except for Morgan who was still pissed off for having been scared like that.

"Right then. I take it you all believe me now." Harry stated.

The agents looked at each other, not quite sure what to do next. Obviously the kid had something interesting going on, but they didn't know what to believe. Harry decided to put the pressure on.

"You know, now that I've got my wand, I could just hex the lot of you and leave. But that wouldn't be right. I'm more or less in the law enforcement business myself now, and I'm happy to tell you whatever you want to know. But I should tell you, the longer I and my girlfriends are locked up here, the further away the wizards who committed the murders are getting-and I have no idea who they are yet."

Agent Hotchner had to do something, but he didn't like just trusting people. Though after what Harry had just pulled off-proving that he was a wizard indeed-Hotchner decided to give Harry and his girlfriends the benefit of the doubt.

"JJ, can you go and bring the two girls please?" Hotchner asked Agent Jareau. "I think we're ready to just do a straight interview and let these kids go on their way.

She complied, and a few minutes later JJ arrived with Alex and Hermione. Hermione looked awkwardly around the interview room at all the agents. But Alex ignored them and pounced on Harry almost knocking him out of his chair.

"Harry!" she squealed with a huge grin on her face while she squeezed him in a big hug, "I missed you so much. Can we leave now?"

"Not just yet." Harry replied. "We're going to bring these agents up to speed on wizards and what we're up to before we leave, and maybe even help each other out. We're all after the same people, whoever they are."

"Fine," pouted Alex. "But let's hurry up, I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm hor..." Then Alex remembered that she was in a room full of FBI agents, and didn't finish her sentence. She just blushed and flashed a smile at everyone. Then she plonked herself on Harry's lap and put an arm around his shoulders. Harry looked bemused, and Hermione couldn't help giggling. Alex's behaviour always made her laugh, even when she was feeling down.

"I'm not leaving here until we're ready to go." Alex said glowering at everyone, as if daring them to try and pry her off Harry.