I know it's really short-sorry dear readers. That really was the best place to stop though. Also, technical difficulties resulted in my not surrently having access to a word processor with a functional wordcount tool. Anyways, I'm going to work on some of my other stories over the weekend, so I'll look at this one again when I run out of ideas for those and when I get the chance to rewatch the necessary episode.

Disclaimer: We're still doing this? Really?

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 19

All of the children found their seats and their families took spots in the audience. Sherlock grumbled as Remus forced him to sit on one of the chairs. "Why am I here, John?" he complained. "I'm bored! He's not my child." Several other parents stared and Remus glared fiercely at his flatmate.

"You taught him this, so you're going to see the results."

"Are you saying I shouldn't have taught him to use his mind? If he were still an imbecile, would I not have to be here?"

Remus glared some more. "Sherlock, you should be proud of him. He's come a long way with your help and since you taught him, it's your job to be supportive. Deal with it and shut up."

Sherlock folded his arms and huffed, ignoring the disapproving glances he was receiving from most of the people around them. Remus gave up the argument, just happy that Sherlock didn't have a gun to shoot the walls with, and turned his attention to the front of the room, where a stout woman in a blue skirt was introducing the competition and the competing schools. When the woman introduced St. Mary's, Remus smiled and waved encouragement at Harry, who smiled half-heartedly back.

When they finally got through with the beginning stuff, he woman pulled out the questions.

"Let's get started with a math question," she said. "If an apple costs fifteen pence, a piece shepherd's pie costs fifty pence, juice costs thirty pence, and a donut costs 25 pence, and I have one pound sterling and fifty three pence, then how much would I have left over after purchasing a piece of pie and juice?

"Seventy three," Sherlock muttered in his 'I'm bored and about to explode' voice. Remus gave him a light punch. "What was that for?"

"Shut up, Sherlock."

After a moment, several students tentatively pressed their buttons.

"Dianne Ross," the woman said.

A black girl with hair in two braids answered, "Seventy three pence?"

"Yes, that's right." The girl grinned.

"Obviously it's right, how could anybody get that wrong?" Sherlock intoned. Remus elbowed him in the ribs.

"Next question. History. Which King…"

Several more questions were asked with Sherlock either answering them under his breath, or muttering about how irrelevant the information was and Remus elbowing and glaring at him.

"What happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar?" Harry's hand shot to the buzzer. "Harrison Potter."

"It creates an acid-base reaction where lots and lots of bubbles containing carbon dioxide are formed at once and it makes it foam and grow. If you add soap, it bubbles for longer," he babbled excitedly. Remus grinned, Sherlock almost smiled, and the woman looked shocked.

"Yes, er, yes , that's correct."

Harry began answering more questions after that, more confident in his knowledge.

Nearly an hour later, the competition ended with much cheering. Another school had won, but Harry was still happy, because when he answered one of the freeform questions, he'd actually made Sherlock smile.

"Name a job that not very many people do," she said.

Harry hit the buzzer with lightning speed. "A consulting detective."

"What's that, Harrison?"

"A consulting detective solves crimes that nobody else knows how to solve. My uncle Sherlock does experiments and studies things like ash and dirt so he can solve crimes that the police can't figure out. He's the only one in the world." Harry sounded very proud and smiled broadly when he saw Sherlock's face at the mention of his tobacco ash studies. Several gasps were heard from audience members who had read the newspaper stories.

"Sherlock

Holmes?" they whispered. "With the hat and the kidnapping case?" Remus rolled his eyes at the crowd's reaction.

Just as Remus was making his way through the crowd towards Harry, he saw the black-haired boy get ambushed by the frizzy-haired girl from before.

"Harrison Potter?" she demanded. "You said your last name was Watson!" Remus caught the end of that statement and felt himself blush. Harry told people his last name was Watson?

"My last name is Watson," Harry defended. "People always mess things up, but my dad's last name is Watson, so mine is too."

Remus noticed the other man come up behind the girl, looking a bit breathless. "Dr. John Watson," he introduced himself. "It seems our children have met before."

"Dr. Daniel Granger," the other man said, shaking Remus' hand. "They were talking earlier." The two children had abandoned their argument to listen to their fathers, but became uninterested at this point.

"Why do people get your name confused? No one ever messes up my name. Well, not my last name. People mess up my first name all the time."

Harry shrugged. "I'm adopted and people are too dumb to figure it out."

Hermione frowned. "Do you have a mum?"

"No, just Sherlock. He's Dad's flatmate."

"Me neither," Hermione said. "Dad has a girlfriend though."

Harry nodded. "So your dad is a doctor too?"

"Yup, a dentist."

"Oh."

Their conversation didn't have many directions to go from there, so it drifted off.

Eventually, the two men noticed the silence and Sherlock got bored of deducing and insulting people. He came up behind Remus and said, "John, I need a case."

Closing his eyes and taking a breath, Remus didn't answer immediately. "Yes, Sherlock, but you've turned down all the ones I gave you and all the ones Lestrade sent."

"But John—"

"It looks like it's time to go home. Dr. Granger."

"Dan, please."

Remus nodded and turned away, catching Harry's shoulder so he didn't wander off, and steered them out of the building.

oOo

Sherlock got his own cab and headed directly home, but Remus took Harry for dinner and ice cream before returning. When they finally did enter the flat, Remus was happily laughing at the tale of how Harry had determined Dr. Granger's lunch. "You've got stuff on your face," he said gently, pushing Harry towards the bathroom. "Go wash up."

Harry skipped off to do as he was told and Remus picked up a paper from the coffee table. 'Reichenbach hero finds kidnap victim' Sighing, he threw the paper aside and looked at his friend, who was lying on the couch in his classic thinking pose. Shaking his head, he went to his room. It had been quite the evening.

oOo

Sherlock was on quite the roll. He solved case after case in a desperate effort to stave off boredom. The cases kept getting higher profile and Remus was worried. "The press will turn, Sherlock. They always turn, and they'll turn on you." Sherlock looked at him for a moment then asked why he cared. Remus shook his head. "Just try to keep a low profile. Find yourself a little case this week. Stay out of the news."

Harry was the hardest part of all of this. Remus was concerned for Sherlock-of course he was-but he really didn't want Harry to experience the press or the negative kickbacks. It was hard, keeping him safely away from the cameras. They'd managed so far, but Remus couldn't help to think for how much longer they could keep it up. The poor boy was already famous in one world and he didn't need to be famous in two.

The next day, he got Harry off to school, just barely rushing out the door as normal, and returned home to go back to sleep. When he finally emerged from the shower, hair wet and in just a dressing gown, it was after eleven o'clock. He informed Sherlock that his phone was buzzing, plopped down in his chair, and engaged in idle conversation, beginning around the mannequin hanging from a noose strung up on the ceiling.

When he finally decided to get Sherlock's phone himself, he nearly dropped it in shock. This was bad-really, really bad. He held it out to Sherlock. "He's back." There was no way they could shelter Harry all through this mess.

Without thinking, he rushed to his room and dressed quickly, pulling on whatever was convenient. When he returned to the living area to grab his coat, Sherlock was already waiting. They left the flat together and got into a cab to travel to the tower of London.

Remus was in a mild panic, but trying not to show it. Sherlock didn't seem to be paying any attention. When the security video played and showed the message scrawled across the display case, his heart clenched painfully. This was big. It was big and it was going to be public. There was absolutely no way to keep Sherlock out of it. There would be press coverage court cases. How-how was he going to keep Harry out of the eye of the press? How?

John turned to stare at Sherlock, but the man didn't look away from the screen for what seemed like ages.

"Sherlock…" he said.

Finally, the detective turned to face him, eyes swirling with something Remus couldn't identify.

"Sherlock, what are we going to do?"

In response, Sherlock only shook his head slightly.

They were escorted back to Scotland Yard. "Obviously, we have to bring you in on this, Sherlock. No choice, really," Lestrade explained.

Remus would have stayed-wanted more than almost anything to stay to make sure he knew what was going on-but Harry was getting out of school. So, he left Sherlock to deal with the police and rushed to the school to pick him up.

Harry babbled on about some of his friends and what he'd done in class before asking a surprising question. "Could we go visit some of my old friends?"

"From the children's home?"

"Uh-huh."

Remus considered the question. Why not? It would pull him away from the action which might not be great for Sherlock, but it would get Harry out of the line of fire for a weekend. He nodded and attempted a smile. "Alright. Saturday?"

Harry grinned. "Great!"

Tomorrow was going to be a difficult day.

I hope you liked that. You all know what's coming next though. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

If you have any questions, send me a message. Reviews are highly motivational and greatly appreciated, so you should leave one! Really!

Thanks for reading!

-MP