This is being cross-posted from Ao3. It was originally posted on 22 March 2020.

This story was run through Grammarly. It was not beta read.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. Sherlock belongs to PBS & BBC America, and, ultimately, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is being made from this creation.

Prompt: Gemino + Draco Malfoy/Sherlock Holmes

15 March 2020
The Case of the Doubling Detective

It's not quite often that my flatmate, Sherlock, gets it wrong, but it does, in fact, happen from time to time. He would prefer that I not post about the cases we can't figure out, but I like to be honest with my readers. This particular case is one of those few, and it is quite the questioning sort. Even I have to admit that I'm particularly baffled by it. Nevertheless, I want to write down what happened as I do hope you'll find it just as interesting as I do.

It all started when Sherlock and I ventured out into the countryside to investigate an old manor…

"We're leaving."

"But they have a shark tank in their basement," Sherlock nearly whined as he turned to stare at John. "Don't you want to know why?"

John rolled his eyes. "Yes, but that is not why we are here, and that shark has clearly been dead for quite some time."

"Four weeks to be exact," Sherlock pointed out as he knotted his scarf and buttoned his coat. "This manor is quite obviously a dead end, so I suppose you are right. Let us head back to the city."

Having thought that I'd convinced Sherlock to leave after finding nothing but a deceased shark at this manor, we prepared to head back to the train station. Unfortunately, this is where things took a rather strange turn. We were outside preparing to walk the dirt road back into town when there was a sort of explosion behind us. Sherlock and I whirled around to stare in horror as the house we were just inside was consumed by a fireball.

Now, one would think that this was an unusual occurrence, but if you have read my blog before, things go awry more often than not. The fire wasn't what shocked us; no, it was the two men that walked out the front door as if nothing was amiss. The fire didn't appear to phase the two men as they descended the ruined front stairs and came to stand in front of us.

"You two really shouldn't be here," a man with black glasses and hair said. "It's not safe for you."

"And yet the two of you can freely walk out of a burning manor?" Sherlock challenged, taking a step forward. "How are you not burnt?"

"We have protective clothing," the other of the two men replied. This one was blond and had a bit of stern look to his face. "Now shove off before we have to make you."

"Malfoy," the dark-haired man said as he turned to his partner. "We don't need your attitude right now."

"We were just on our way," John said, trying to avoid a confrontation. Sherlock was rather gifted at infuriating people on a near-daily basis.

At this point, one would assume the two men would allow us to leave, but that was not the case. Nothing is ever easy with Sherlock, let me assure you. The consulting detective continued to berate the two men for quite some time, all the while the house burned in the background. I remained vigilant in trying to assess the situation, but after a spell, I did grow tired of standing around and watching Sherlock bicker with the blond.

"Sherlock," John said, interrupting the debate. "Shouldn't we head back to the city and find another lead for the case?"

Sherlock took a deep breath and then huffed, letting it all out in one go. "John," he began, his voice low and his eyes never leaving the blond's. "I do believe that these two strange gentlemen are somehow related to our case. It would not be imperative for us to return to the city at this time."

The dark-haired man sighed heavily. "See, Draco," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "If you had just kept your mouth closed, these two would have left us alone."

"You're that consulting detective," Draco said, pointing at Sherlock instead of replying to Harry. "What were you doing here?"

"Investigating for a case," Sherlock replied, clearly speaking in a way that indicated he did not trust the blond. "All we found was the dead shark."

Harry made a noise to stop Draco from responding, but the blond carried on. "This was my uncle's house. There's no telling what that shark was for, but we destroyed it anyway." Draco gestured to the woods beyond the other side of the road. "My aunt's estate is on the other side of those trees. I bet you meant to go there instead."

"The Lestrange's did not live in the same house?" John asked, looking at the woods.

"Hell no," Draco said, shaking his head. "They hated each other. My aunt loved the Dark Lord far more than Rodolphus."

"Fascinating," Sherlock mumbled, his eyes narrowed as he added this information to his Mind Palace to help solve the case. "John, the train will have to wait." He started to head toward the treeline.

Draco reached out and grabbed at his arm. "Whoa! You can't just go running off into those woods and her estate without understanding magic."

"Magic." Sherlock said the word as if it had a foul taste.

Draco looked to Harry, who threw his arms up in annoyance. "Go on, then. You already dropped Voldemort's name. You might as well tell them everything."

By everything, Mr Potter meant what they really were. Wizards. Both of them. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had magic. They even showed us their wands and how they were used. Sherlock was astounded… I too was at a loss for words. We took it in like we did every other rarity we encountered. The two wizards gave us a brief history of their people and why we should be wary of entering Bellatrix Lestrange's estate. I listened intently, but I do believe Sherlock was more interested in Mr Malfoy's conversation.

Nevertheless, we did recruit the two to join us as we still intended to investigate the estate. There was a case to solve after all, and Sherlock refused to leave it unsolved. So together we all hiked through the woods to the other side. The sight of the grand, decaying estate was breathtaking, but we didn't linger outside taking in the view.

We entered the estate of Mr Malfoy's late aunt and began to have a look around. It all seemed somewhat normal, but we were warned not to touch anything. Both Sherlock and I felt that was ridiculous, but now that we knew about magic, one couldn't be so certain. I kept my word, but Sherlock, of course, couldn't help touching everything in sight. It wasn't long before Mr Malfoy became annoyed and snapped. My friend and the blond argued for quite some time before I cleared my throat and intervened.

"Hamish," John said, biting back a grin. "That's my middle name in case you two were looking for baby names." It was a joke he used often, but it always had the desired effect of pausing a discussion.

Sherlock huffed and crossed his arms. "I am not interested in this infuriating wizard."

Draco's eyebrows moved toward his hairline. "Excuse me? As if I would ever be interested in a pompous arse as yourself."

"Pompous arse!?" Sherlock threw his hands into the air and turned to glare down into Draco's face. "I am a fine catch!"

John shook his head and took a step away. Harry had already given up a few minutes ago and wandered into another room. As the two continued to argue, er, or flirt, in their own way, things took a turn toward disaster. John found an unusual cupboard in the kitchen and decided to open it to investigate since they hadn't seen anything else of substance yet.

This, however, was a grave mistake. The moment I opened the cupboard, I was sucked inside, and a series of rather unfortunate events thus followed. The closet slammed shut, and all the other cabinets in the room burst open. From inside, hundreds of keys flew into the air, circling the room once before shooting out into the other rooms of the house.

Sherlock and Mr Malfoy ran into the room along with Mr Potter to investigate. I pounded on the door, trying to free myself, but it was no use. Mr Potter revealed a shrunken boomstick which he brought back to full size, mounted, and went off in search of the correct key to save me. Sherlock had other plans.

He ran to the drawers and began searching for something to break open my prison. Sadly, this only made the situation worse. Everything he touched made a popping noise and doubled. In the chaos, Sherlock panicked and continued to try and grab hold of items. Knives, spoons, plates, and bowls slowly filled the kitchen as they duplicated over and over.

"What is happening?!" John shouted from the cupboard, his fists banging on the door.

"The room is filled with bloody teacups!" Sherlock shouted back, turning this way and that as he tried to avoid touching anything. It was no use. He'd triggered a seemingly endless barrage of duplications that would fill the room until they all suffocated.

"Potter," Draco called over the clatter and John and Sherlock's shouting. "You have to find the key so we can get Watson out of here! Sherlock's triggered a Gemino charm, and we are slowly going to drown in knives and spoons!"

Somewhere in the house, Harry laughed and called out a reassurance that he was on the tail of the correct key. Draco laughed too, but this only infuriated Sherlock, who was still touching everything and making it worse.

"I don't see what is so funny?" Sherlock practically shouted at Draco. "If we do not suffocate, we'll surely be stabbed to death by the fifteen-hundred knives that are filling this kitchen." His sea-coloured eyes stared at Draco with such intensity that the blond was nearly thrown off guard.

"You, Sherlock, need to calm the hell down," Draco said, pointing his wand at the consulting detective. He now tried to get control of the situation. "You're at about a fifteen, and I need you at, like, a seven. Tops."

Not used to having a magical wand directed at his being, Sherlock backed off, but this only managed to cause about fifty more duplications to go off around them. Draco sighed as Sherlock continued to whirl about in a frenzy.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Sherlock exclaimed, now trying to climb onto the table. "You're the one with all the magical knowledge."

"First, you need to stop moving around so much. Every time you touch anything, it doubles," Draco explained, now trying to climb onto the same table as Sherlock. "Damn my aunt for loving this spell so much."

When the table managed to double, Sherlock lost it. Draco, having anticipated this, had a plan. He grabbed hold of the consulting doctor's coat and pulled him close. Slamming his lips on Sherlock's, he effectively silenced the man and redirected his panic. It quickly turned into passion, and Sherlock returned the kiss with much fervour. The kiss was enough to shock Sherlock into some semblance of calm which was what Draco had hoped would happen.

From my understanding, as I was trapped in the cupboard, Draco was able to use Sherlock's shock from the kiss to put him into an unconscious state. His body was then floated from the room while Mr Potter found the key to release me. He was rather gifted at flying a broomstick and swiftly caught the flying key. Apparently, this was not the first time he'd had to do something of this nature. Once freed, Mr Potter and I joined Mr Malfoy and Sherlock out on the front lawn of the estate. Sherlock was being brought out of his 'stupified' state and had more questions than ever.

The entire time, I couldn't help but notice the way that Sherlock's hand lingered near Mr Malfoy's as if wanting to take hold. I also noticed that Mr Malfoy was paying far more attention to Sherlock than that of his partner or myself. It was almost as if we were not there at all. I did attempt to guide our conversation back to the case at hand eventually.

"So we really don't have any idea why your aunt placed the charm on this place?" John asked, looking around at Sherlock and Draco. "None?"

"It would seem so," Sherlock replied, scratching at his chin. "With the house now entirely full of duplicated kitchenware, there is no way to get inside any longer."

"For all we know, the charm could have been placed just to keep people out," Draco supplied. "My aunt was an evil bitch to put it lightly."

John sighed heavily at having no solution to their unanswered questions. Sherlock, however, appeared calmer than John had seen him in quite some time. He focused his attention on Draco while Harry scribbled in a notebook.

"Dinner?" Sherlock asked Draco, holding out his arm. He hoped he wasn't misreading the signs as he was often to do in the past. Luckily, Draco looped his arm through his own and Sherlock was able to breathe a quiet sigh of relief.

"Dinner sounds fantastic after all the nonsense we had to deal with tonight," Draco said in answer and then turned to look at John. "Potter, Dr Watson, are you going to join us?"

John merely shook his head. It was crazy how quickly those two had connected. They may even be more perfect for one another than he and Mary. "I'm good," he replied. "I have to work tomorrow, so I am going to catch the train back to the city."

"Yeah," Harry said, eyeing Sherlock and Draco. "I am going to burn this house down and head back to the Ministry."

Mr Potter and I watched as Sherlock and Mr Malfoy wandered toward the small town in search of a pub for dinner. A short conversation was had between the dark-haired wizard and myself before I watched him torch the estate, and I caught the train. There was no telling what would happen next, but one thing was certain… Sherlock and I never did solve the case we had ventured out to the English countryside to investigate. In fact, we never again heard from the client who appeared in 221B urging us to seek out the Lestranges.

Perhaps, though, that Sherlock Holmes will finally learn not to touch things that do not belong to him. You never know when something could be affixed with a doubling charm after all. It's not very likely.

Having been reading over John's shoulder as he typed, Draco huffed and pointed at the computer screen. "You can't post that. It exposes the entire wizarding community. It's supposed to be a secret. You'll have to edit it."

"How am I supposed to edit it without taking away from the story?" John inquired, his face falling into a frown.

"Remove all the magic bits," Draco said as if this were obvious. He'd been staying in 221B since the case had ended seeing as he and Sherlock were now nearly inseparable.

"If I do that, there won't be enough of the story left to post!" John exclaimed, now turning to Sherlock. "What do you think? I should post it, right?"

"Fancy having your mind cleansed by a wizard?" Sherlock questioned with an eyebrow raised. When John merely opened and closed his mouth a few times and then shook his head in frustration, Sherlock said, "Thought so. Draco, fancy getting something to eat? I know a marvellous Italian place just down the street."

"Italian sounds good to me," Draco replied as Sherlock donned his coat and scarf. Before moving to do the same, he leaned over and hit the delete key on John's keyboard. "See you when we get back, Dr Watson," he said with a smirk before following the detective downstairs and into the street.

Turning back to his computer, John stared at the now blank document on the screen. "Bugger," he mumbled to himself before shutting the laptop. There was no point in trying to rewrite the case without all the interesting magical parts. John resigned himself to the fact that the world would never know how Sherlock Holmes fell in love with a wizard from Wiltshire.