Author Note: This was inspired by a suggestion and the fact that when I turned the TV on last night to relax before bed there was an episode of Midsomer Murders on. I had already been thinking about possible crossover attempts and came up with this and a Star Trek idea. I have taken a few liberties with the canon of both franchises as Godric's Hollow is supposedly in the west country near Cornwall. Midsomer is sort of in the middle area of the country, sort of around Berkshire. As I wanted this to be a Harmony story of course Hermione and her parents show up in Causton. This is as much as I have done up so far and will probably do like I did with Star Potter and post a couple chapters before moving it under its own title as aside form this initial setup I have utterly no idea where I want to go beyond this. Not sure which Dumbledore I want to go with Good but misguided Dumbledore, lying manipulative dark sider Dumbledore, or maybe some combination of the two. Sadly the way Ms Rowling wrote him his characterization is all over the place in the books. Anyhow I've rambled too much in this so here it is cue the theremin...
===(Midsomer Potter)===
The late night of October 31, 1981 DS Tom Barnaby was called out with DCI Lambert to Godric's Hollow a small village a few miles between Causton and Midsomer Barrow. They had received a report of two dead bodies in a house explosion. The curious thing about the house was that no one recalled there having been a house until after it exploded.
The other curious thing was that a 8 foot tall man had been trying to make off with a baby from the house when the fire brigade showed up. They had managed to subdue the man and rescue the baby which was in the care of child protection. The man was now sitting in the back of a van enroute to Causton police lockup.
They pulled up to the scene. The constabulary already having taped off the scene they at least would not have to deal with interlopers. Lambert was satisfied to see that the ambulance was driving off with the bodies on its way to the morgue. Barnaby noticed that the nameplate by the gate said Potter on it.
A tall wild looking man on a very loud motorbike came pulling up at the same time. "James, Lilly!" He began shouting before officers managed to stop him.
Lambert looked over, "Well our first person of interest Tom let's go speak to him."
Tom nodded and followed his DCI. The man had dropped to his knees distraught obviously.
"Hello, I'm DCI Lambert." The tall balding chubby man said flipping his warrant card out so the young man in the leather jacket could see it. "And you are?"
"Sirius Black. I was, I was the best friend of the people who lived here. Is their son safe?"
"A child did survive the blast. He has been taken to hospital for a check up." Lambert gently said. "Can you tell us what must of happened here?"
"It was him. He betrayed them and blew up their house." Sirius said in a distant upset voice.
Lambert looked at Barnaby who was taking notes with a raised eyebrow. "Why would someone blow up these people's house and kill them?"
"Because he's evil. Because he likes to kill good people. Its how he gets off."
"So the Potter's were not involved in anything illegal?" DCI Lambert smiled to soften the question.
"No, James worked for the Ministry, he was legit as they come."
"Ahh and his wife?" Lambert asked as Barnaby raised his eyebrow. The Ministry. Perhaps MI-6 or Home Office. If so the Potters would be very important people to some very high ranked people.
"Could we be dealing with the IRA?" Barnaby suggested interrupting.
Sirius shook his head and seemed to realize who he was talking to, "Yeah. Him and his gang are really bad about hating anyone not like them."
"Ahh and your involvement in all of this aside from being friends with the Potters?" Lambert asked coming to the same conclusion Barnaby had.
"I worked with James. Infiltration, undercover stuff. You know. Independent contractor as I don't like bureaucracy much." He gave a lopsided grin.
"Ahh I see. Well Mr Black about Mrs Potter?"
"She mainly took care of Harry, that's their son, and worked from home. She was an artist." Sirius smiled remembering.
"Ahh and any other friends of note?"
"Well the Lovegoods and the Longbottoms but they live down by Ottery."
"And do either of them have any family that we could place the child with after he's out of hospital."
"No James was the last of his family and Lily was too. She didn't have anyone but James. I'm his godfather" Sirius sighed fighting back tears.
"Ahh. Well thank you Mr Black. If you could give me an address to find you at we'll give it to Child Protection so they can get in touch with you about taking over his care."
"Number 12 Grimmould Place London. But I might not be there. I'll have to find the one who did this."
"Yes well perhaps you should leave that to law enforcement. And we will need a phone number." DCI Lambert was not at all soft when he said that, Barnaby would have to look up all of these people. If they were Home Office they might have the authority to act.
"Oh I will. The law will be very much enforced. As for a phone number I don't have one. Thank you gentlemen, please take care of Harry until I get back." Sirius said running to jump on his motorbike and roaring off into the night.
"Well Tom looks like we got a few names at least. Assuming they are real and not some Home Office spooks."
"I can contact a few old friends to see if they know anything."
"Yes this entire situation stinks of government secrets and I do not like that."
===xxx===xx
It was early on the morning of Nov 1, 1981 and Barnaby had been allowed to run the questioning of the tall man they had taken into custody. He was not a happy person as the fingerprints had not been on file locally, the man had no identification of any kind on him. His coat had been filled with all manner of disgusting and unusual things, including live animals such as an owl. Tom would have described him as something out of the Grimm fairy tales if he had believed they were real.
Lambert would be sitting to his side listening and noting things in his eidetic memory. He was letting Tom handle this as since he had the government experience he might be able to recognize the traits of another agent. Lambert having risen through the ranks after having come back from the big war.
The man was looking uncomfortably around him when Tom entered the interrogation room. Sitting down at the table with his pen and notepad he sighed as he looked at the file they had started. So far all he had said was he was Rubeus Hagrid and worked at a place called Hogwarts. Then he immediately clammed up and said he shouldn't have said that.
"Well Mr Hagrid before we begin I need to give you your rights, You have the right to remain silent but it may harm you defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Now do you understand that Mr Hagrid?" Tom said sitting down.
"Ah unda stood it when the other bloke said it to me."
"Well we just want to make sure. Policy and procedures you know."
Hagrid just nodded.
"Well you work at Hogwarts. We've checked a business directory for Midsomer and Causton but can't find that where was it again?"
"I hadna told you where it was."
"Really?" Tom said flipping a few pages in his notebook around he stopped and looked, "Ah here it is you told one of the other officers that it was located in Wales."
"Bah not bloody likely. I"m not supposed ta talk about stuff like that."
"Oh why? Is it a classified secret or something? Have to worry about the Home Office if you spill the beans?"
"The Ome Office? Nah they got no power o'er me I'm more worried about the Wizengamut they already broke me wand." The man suddenly looked aghast, "I shouldna said that. I shouldna said that."
"The Wizengamut? What office do they work out of?"
"Look is 'arry safe or not? Dumbledore is expectin me and there will be bloody hell to pay if I don't show up."
"Why such concern over the child who is he to you?"
Hagrid rolled his lips inward and stopped talking.
"Here now. You're the one that asked about him. We're both concerned about the child's safety. We just want to know who you or this Dumbledore are in relation to him?"
"Dumbledore wants to put him wi his family so he'll be protected from you-know-who."
"You-know-who? I'm afraid I don't know who." Barnaby looked to Lambert who seemed to be dozing.
"You-know-who. He's the one who killed a bunch of your lot too. Not jest us."
"Our lot? What sort of lot is ours?" Tom asked with a heavy sigh. This interrogation was going nowhere fast. Either this Hagrid was being purposely obstructive with his stupidity or he was actually seriously limited in his intellect.
"Ye know muggles."
"Muggles as in the 1920s slang for cannabis users?" Tom asked incredulously.
"No of course not. Fer folks who don't ave magic." Hagrid pulled a face like he had made a great mistake. "I shouldna said that I shouldna said that."
Taking a deep breath Tom started to say something when Lambert spoke, "So this Dumbledore, why would he want a small baby? Grooming him for deviant practices or selling him on the black market?"
"Ere now. You don't be casting aspersions on Albus Dumbledore. He's the greatest wizard this country seen." Hagrid broke the chains of the handcuffs he had been placed in as he pointed his finger angrily at Lambert. The armed response officer in the room put his hand on his sidearm as the two Detectives sat staring at the big man who seemed to realize that he was not in a position of power at the moment.
"Well threatening an officer. That's not exactly a good thing. Perhaps we should put you back in a cell until you calm down and feel a bit more cooperative."
"If I could apparate you'd not ave caught me. I'd not be ere. You lot wait until Dumbledore gets here. He'll have aurors all over you lot like ants on honey." Hagrid huffed.
Three more officers came into the room. Drawn by the disturbance they held batons at the ready. The four officers put new handcuffs on him and led Hagrid off.
"Well Tom the chap seemed to be quite loyal to this Dumbledore chap. Looks like a you've got a lot to check into. I'll let you get on the phone to your friends. I'm going to go talk to Anne over in Child Protection about this Harry boy."
"Alright sir. I better tell Joyce I might make it home for dinner."
"Better tell her a week from Sunday at the way this is going." Lambert said as he heaved himself out of his chair. "I'm getting too old for this stuff." He sighed on his way out the door.
===xxx===xx
Barnaby had made multiple phone calls to the his friends, old friends from his time in MI6. They had not heard of any of the people or this Hogwarts place. A friend in the Home Office though said that while she had not heard of Hogwarts she had overheard a conversation form some of the higher ups that used the word auror in it. She thought it might have been some kind of secret police.
Barnaby was stymied about what to do next. Child Protection Services had taken him to hospital declaring him healthy aside from a scar on his forehead. Since he had no birth certificate they looked in the church records to see if there was any mention and found him. Harry James Potter born to James and Lily Potter on July 31, 1980, baptized into the faith a week later by the insistence of the mother. So that at least let them draw up a birth record for the boy. As that was the only record of his existence and none for his parents he was going to be placed as a ward of the crown it was looking like.
When he talked to Joyce she expressed some interest in perhaps taking the boy into their house. Tom sighed at the thought of another baby. Cully was going to turn four in a few days which meant she was getting a bit less of a tyrant and more of an approachable human. But another baby. Tom sighed as he looked at the picture in the file and called Anne. CPS was overworked, overwhelmed and who knew where the boy would wind up, or who with. Children did slip through the cracks sometimes, plus it might be nice to have a son, even if he was adopted.
"Hello Anne? Yes. This is Tom Barnaby, I might have a family for the Potter boy."
===xxx===xx
It was late in the night of November first ninteen eighty one and Minerva McGonnegal was sitting outside a house in a modern subdivision in Surrey called Little Whinging. She supposed the designer had felt themselves cute naming it that. The house was Number four Privet Drive and belong to a people called the Dursleys. They were the absolute worst sort of muggles imaginable. She couldn't put her finger on what exactly. Aside from the mother doting on the fat toddler, giving him anything he could reach and not slapping his pudgy hands once. She had been in her animagus form and snuck into the house to investigate exactly why Albus had demanded, in a state of almost panic for the man, that she remain here and guard this house. She had come close to the boy who was crawling on the floor and he reached out to grab her tail pulling quite hard which hurt like the bloody blazes. Those who had never grown a tail had no idea how sensitive they could be.
When she swatted the boy, not even using her claws, he screamed like she had slashed his chest open. This brought the mother who, when she saw Minerva, grabbed the broom and tried to brain her, not shoo, strike downward with intent to do bodily harm. Minerva had barely managed to get the window open with some wandless magic and leap out to freedom. When the husband got home he snarled and postured as his wife described the vicious horrible dirty tabby who had skulked inside to steal food and had almost killed their Dudley. Minerva took great affront at the description of her animagus form. She was quite fastidious about her cleanliness.
She was beginning to wonder if Albus had somehow forgotten to show up. It had been a quiet day otherwise. Completely normal for a world at war. She sighed when the streetlights started to go out. Dumbledore had no sense of subtlety.
"Ahh Hello Minerva. I trust there has been no problems." The old man said as he walked up.
She transformed back to her human form, "Aside from about having my tail pulled off by the little brat that lives here no. Now could you please explain to me why I was given this task?"
"I will show you when Hagrid arrives with his charge."
"Hagrid?" Minerva sighed, "What sort of charge is he bringing to this place. The muggles that live here are absolutely horrid."
"They are incredibly vital though." Albus said quietly. He knew the Dursleys were not a good sort of people. They would be harsh to Harry but it would be essential he learn discipline and to accept Albus' plan as his own. He had felt the wards go down at Potterhouse and the life monitoring charms for James and lily fail while Harry's flickered but returned to normality quickly. Unfortunately the magical burst had required him to go to the Ministry and explain what was going on to the Wizengamut and the Minister. That bat Bagnold had questioned him for hours about the possibility of the death of Voldemort. He had assured them he was dead. They had said they would send an auror team to investigate and then return with confirmation. When he told them he would take personal responsibility for Harry though the firestorm had really begun. He had just left the chambers a few minutes ago after barely winning. He had to surrender the reason why Harry was so important, although only to the most senior members of the Wizengamut and the Minister, citing the secrets act, to get them to agree.
Pulling his watch out, even given Hagrid's propensity to stop at every pub along the way from Godric's to here he should have arrived by now. Albus began to frown as he wondered if any of the death eaters that were still running around might have gotten to them. Hagrid couldn't apparate so he had to use a broom or a portkey. Albus had given him one to go to Godric's Hollow and he was to use a broom to get back, or if things worked out well Sirius' motorbike would be available. Since he was the Potter's secret keeper he would not be using it when the Ministry caught him for his betrayal of the Potter's.
Pulling the item that reported Harry's health he saw that the boy was still healthy and alive. He had tried to put a tracking charm and a few others on her but she said that too much magic would be detrimental to her plans. The fact that she had a temper strong enough to counter Albus' made him compromise with her. Getting them to accept the fidelius and a few other protections to hide and stay hidden.
Minerva watched Albus fiddle with his pocket watch and another small item with glowing gems on it. He put both away and then slid his hands in his pockets with a deep sigh, "It would seem that Hagrid is running very late."
"Well that will give us plenty of time to discus what he is doing and what I am doing here." She crossed her arms and stared at him as if he was a recalcitrant first year.
"Well, very well Minerva. Petunia Dursley is Lily Potter's sister. She is the last living relative of Harry. As his family was killed late last night in the defeat of the dark wizard Lord Voldemort he would need to stay with them to protect his life from Death Eaters who would murder him in revenge. He has to stay here for the blood wards to protect him."
Minerva gasped as she contemplated his words. "James and Lily are dead!"
"Yes Minerva sadly they are. But so is the dark lord. We can take some comfort that their sacrifice achieved that." He did not actually believe he was dead, as there was a suspicion he had achieved some way to prevent his death but he could never mention that to anyone, ever.
"I suppose. But still couldn't Harry go to some wizarding family. He would be better loved and cared for by them."
"No he has to go to the right family. I suppose I should see if I can find Hagrid. Pity too many magics do not work on him."
"You and your tracking charms. You do know that too many of them will cause you to go insane."
"Yes I know what Flitwick says. I am in control of the situation as always Minerva. I suppose you can wait a few hours more and if he has not arrived go on home."
"Let us hope that he hasn't lost the child somewhere between Midsomer County and here."
===xxx===xx
Alastair Moody was poking around the ruins of the Potter home. The entire first floor had been blown apart and collapsed into the ground floor. The muggles had placed their yellow caution tape all over the place indicating that all of the wards had been dropped.
"Stop that Weasley, you keep that up I'll see you transferred into the Muggle Artifacts office." Moody growled at the Auror Arthur Weasley. He had too much curiosity about the damnable muggles and was messing with their tape.
"Sorry sir. I was just wondering why they would put a warning around a house that was obviously collapsed."
"Fer dunderheads like you Weasley. They have them on their side of the fence too." He was observing things. The place had not been ransacked but the muggles had obviously been here and gone through the place. He saw the signs of their investigations as they had to turn over things and poke and prod. The wands of James and Lily were still were they had fallen as were their brooms and other magic items. The Ministry would be coming by to collect those to keep them out of the hands of the sticky fingered, or morbid souvenir hunters. A soft pop made him spin and draw his wand only to lower it slightly when he saw Albus Dumbledore walking through the debris.
"Al looks like the muggles have been here. I don't think they got Harry but they got the bodies of James and Lily no doubt. Plus look at this," He nodded to have Albus follow him.
"Looks like Hagrid was here but as much water as all this plus his broken broom he got in a fight. You should have called me to come get him not that big oaf."
"Got in a fight with who though?" Albus studied the foot prints. The only way to tell what Hagrid's were was from how much larger they were from the other people's They were muddied and smeared though.
"Well I know the muggles couldn't have taken him so it must have been Death Eaters. Your pet might know more about that." Moody growled.
"I will speak with Severus about this you may be correct."
"Yeah. If only Hagrid had been able to do magic or apparate. You messed this one up Albus."
"I chose Hagrid for a specific reason. His giant heritage should have allowed him to resist most spells."
"Yeah and anyone that knows anything should have been prepared for that. You're too closed up in that castle Al, you need to get out on the front lines and stop all the plotting. You're loosing your edge." Moody frowned at Dumbledore.
"Alastair, you may be an old friend of mine but there are things that you do not know. So I would appreciate you not making assumptions without basis." Dumbledore frowned back.
"If you say so. I'm going to put it in my report that it must be considered that Death Eaters have the boy unless something else turns up."
"Yes well you do what you must. I will do what I have to. And do not forget to restore the notice-me-not and muggle repelling charms on the house."
"I know the drill Albus. I'm not a wet behind the ears rookie."
Albus just nodded and apparated out.
Moody stuck his tongue in his cheek and narrowed his good eye.
"Weasley wrap it up. We've got to get this cleaned up and call in a containment team."
"Yes sir."
===xxx===xx
The morning of the second saw Tom and Joyce meeting with Anne from Child Protection.
"Well Tom, Joyce, we can do the paperwork and you'll be able to bring him home. His birth certificate and other papers will be completed in a few days and then we can begin the process of adoption. Which you're really sure you want to adopt him and not just foster him?"
Joyce smiled broadly as she bounced Harry on her knee, Cully sitting looking at him curiously. "Oh yes. We thought about having a second child but I developed some problems which the doctor said would be a problem if we tried again. So this is a blessing."
"Okay. I didn't know that Joyce. I'm sorry so yeah this will be good for all of you. Right Cully?"
"Is he potty trained?"
"Mostly he has a few accidents but seems to be pretty bright and advanced for his age." Anne said proudly.
Cully looked at Harry who was studying her with his emerald green eyes. "I guess he'll be okay. We can keep him?" She looked up at her mother.
"As soon as the magistrate says so."
"Yes well we drew Magistrate Kelley as Magistrate Bones well you know what happened to him more than I do."
"Yes that was a bad scene." Tom agreed.
Joyce had a confused expression on her face as she looked between the two officials, "What happened?"
"That was the quadruple homicide in Midsomer Barrow last winter. The only one to survive was a baby girl who went to her aunt in Leeds." Tom explained.
"Oh I read about that. That was so sad. An entire family wiped out." She shook her head.
"I know. So Kelley likes putting children with very responsible families so we can probably get this wrapped up within the week, maybe two at the latest."
"That quickly?" Joyce exclaimed in surprise.
"Magistrate Kelley hates mysteries and things that don't make sense. So he's cutting a few dozen reams of red tape to get this done. He loves a nice neat orderly world with everything and everyone organized and filed into their proper spots, this boy though, he's a round peg in a triangular hole. So Kelley is going to get him properly recorded, stamped, filed and placed in his cubbyhole." Anne chuckled.
"Well I don't think he's going to be the sort to like that." Joyce said smiling at Harry as he gurgled and smiled back at her.
===xxx===xx
Tom entered the office later that day to find Lambert frowning as he spoke with someone on the phone. Eventually he hung up the phone. "Tom, Congratulations on your adoption."
"Well the papers haven't gone through yet."
"No but I heard you got Kelley. He's going to make sure that boy gets put in your care as soon as possible." he chuckled, "Which I wish he would go up to Godric's and do something about putting our crime scene in its place."
"Tom looked at his superior in confusion, "Problem sir?"
"The local constabulary went to the house to check on the place as a neighbor reported trespassers messing around. When they got there the house was missing." Lambert said with a wry expression.
"The house was missing? As in all the debris cleaned up?"
"As in the lane had six houses and not seven. No sign there had ever been seven. Not a blasted track or fence, or even dropped shingle. Glad we got some of the family's things out when we did."
"That's rather incredible sir."
"Well hold onto your shoes for this one. That Number 12 that the mysterious Mr black supposedly lives at?"
"Yes."
"It has never existed either. The planning committee for London and its environs have utterly no record of there ever being a number twelve Grimmould. It goes from eleven to thirteen."
"Now how do they explain that one?" He asked incredulously.
"They did not. They merely said that the neighborhood dated back to the Regency period and that it must have been a quirk of the one who number the street." Lambert sighed looking at his notes with a frown.
"Yes well. So since our crime scene has flown the coop how about our victims?"
"Dr Bullard said he would have something for us by this afternoon so let's go find out."
===xxx===xx
Tom hated the morgue. It wasn't that he was squeamish he had seen far too many dead bodies for that, it was that when order broke down far too many people wound up crossing these tables. When this room was empty that meant he was doing his job and society was working properly.
The Dr looked up and nodded, "Hello Charles, Tom. What can I do for you?"
"Do you have a report ready on the Godric's hollow victims?"
"Yes I do. I cannot find any reason for them to be dead."
"That is a bit absurd given they were quite dead when emergency services arrived." Lambert pointed out.
"Oh I know. Time of death somewhere between six and eight that evening. With the explosion coming right at eight I would say they had not been dead long before it."
"Well could they have been asphyxiated by gas or something?" Tom asked.
"No real sign of it. Skin color was normal, blood gases were normal. Everything came back normal. Everything looked normal. I cannot tell you what killed these two. They looked like they should have gotten up and walked out of here."
"And if the explosion? How did young Harry survive?" Tom Barnaby asked.
"Well since the parents were not killed by the explosion, all their injuries occurred post mortem, I would say it wasn't that powerful, except from what I saw on the scene with the debris scattered I don't know. He must have been extremely lucky. Unfortunately his parents were already dead before the explosion."
"Very well. Has anyone come to claim the bodies?"
"No I was getting ready to release them to Willoughby when you cleared it."
"Alright, just make sure they understand that if anyone comes to claim them to call us."
"I will."
===xxx===xx
A few days later the wizarding world mourned the loss of the Potters and celebrated the death of Voldemort. Their torment had come to an end. Frank and Alice Longbottom had been tortured into insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange who was later captured with her husband and brother in law when they tried that trick again. Sirius Black had tracked down Peter Pettigrew and exploded him on a street in London which the Ministry had covered up by their containment teams as a gas line explosion.
Harry was adopted and became Harry Barnaby legally. Tom and Joyce were quite happy to be parents of a toddler again. Cully had begun to proudly call him her brother.
Tom was not a happy camper as the Potter's had vanished from the Willoughby funeral home without an explanation. Jeremy Wickwire the proprietor had no idea how it had occurred. He had made the preparations, embalmed the bodies and was going to bury them the next day. When he came in they were gone from a locked freezer room. No sign of entry or exit was found by forensics.
Albus tried every trick he could think of to find Harry. The book at Hogwarts had him down still but as the founders had not allowed the address of any student to be known until they became old enough to be a student. This was to protect them from being groomed by one of the founders or agents of the headmaster into one sort of path or another. As the interrogations of the Death Eaters did not reveal that they had him Albus wondered if the muggles had taken him after all but kept dismissing it. Muggles just did not have the ability to overcome Hagrid's giant ancestry. He was too strong, too resistant. That unfortunately left only a few options that Albus did not like to consider, that Hagrid had betrayed him, Hagrid had been killed, or that Hagrid had failed to save the boy and ran off in shame and fear.
What actually happened to Hagrid was that he was tried and convicted in a muggle court for Child Abduction and Attempted Kidnapping. This got him a decade in a crown prison. As he had no records on file anywhere in the U.K. They listed him as a person unknown with the alias of hagrid.
===xxx===xx
Seven year old Harry Barnaby ran into the house excited.
"Dad, Dad. There are people moving into the house next door!"
DI Tom Barnaby looked over his paper at his son, "Well then I suppose we should go say hello. Although what sort of people do they seem like?" He asked Harry.
Standing straight like he had seen several detective sergeants coming to the house to report to his father. "They seem to be a rather good sort. They have nice furniture, lots of boxes marked books and a girl is with them."
"OH a girl is with them." Cully said coming in from the kitchen with her mother.
"YEAH a girl. She has bushy brown hair and looks like she's my age." He said sticking his tongue out at his sister.
"Ahh. Well then we should definitely say hello and see this amazing young lady he's already noticed."
"Dad. I was just giving a report with all the important data." he said blushing.
"Yeah and the girl was pretty important." Cully teased scruffing her brother's messy black hair.
The Barnabys walked over to their new neighbors. "Hello, so you're the new neighbors?"
A tall brown haired man with an easy smile turned and greeted them, "Ah yeah. Hello. Pleased to meet you. You live next door?"
"Yes we do. I'm Tom Barnaby, this is my wife Joyce and our children Cully and Harry." He said gesturing to each in turn.
"Well hello everyone. I'm Daniel Granger and this lady is my wife Emma and our daughter Hermione." He said pointing to a tall slender brown haired woman and a young girl who looked like a much younger and smaller version of her mother.
"Hello. You must have been the black haired blur I saw earlier."
"Uh yes ma'am. I'm Harry."
Daniel chuckled, "Yeah sure does look like you could use a bit of a shave."
Harry looked at him in confusion while the adults either chuckled or rolled their eyes.
"You have to forgive my husband Harry. His sense of humor isn't as good without the laughing gas."
"Laughing gas? You're in the medical field?" Tom asked politely.
"Yes my wife and I are both dentists. We had a practice in Crawley but relocated here to get out from under Gatwick. The last expansion put us way too close to the train line and flight path so we wanted someplace quieter."
"We chose Causton as its really rather nice and still has that small village quality." Emma explained.
"Oh well welcome indeed. Perhaps Harry and my husband could help you get these boxes in."
Tom smiled in resignation and rolled up his sleeves. Harry was blushing as he stood looking at the brown haired girl. He got tapped on the shoulder by Tom and started helping carry things in.
"Where does this box go?" Harry asked Dan after they had been moving things for several minutes.
"Oh that's Hermione's her room is upstairs on the right."
Harry nodded and took the box to the designated place. A she was turning to leave he ran into the girl herself knocking her down. His tall lanky athletic frame for a seven year old impacting the smaller girl caused no damage other than to her pride.
"Oh no. Are you okay?" Harry asked holding his hand out to help her up.
"Yes I'm fine thank you very much." She said picking the box she had been carrying up.
"I didn't see you there."
"No you didn't." She said setting the box down on the stack of other boxes, all marked with the word books, Hermione.
"Wow you have a lot of books."
"I enjoy reading." She said defensively with her eyes narrowed at him.
"Oh good. So do I. Dad says that a good education makes you taller. I'm not sure what he means by that but since he let's me go to the library and the bookshop as often as possible I don't mind."
She relaxed when he said that, "Are they any good?"
"The Library? I guess. I've not seen very many to compare. But the bookshop has plenty of new books and if they don't have it Mildred can order it. She lets me go through the catalog of new releases when she gets it." Harry excited told her.
"Really? Maybe the next time you go you could let me know." Hermione said shyly.
"Yeah sure. Mum goes takes us usually once a week to the library and the bookshop is right down the street."
"Us?"
"My sister Cally comes too. She takes speech classes. She want's to be a movie star some day." He said in the tone of a younger sibling tired of hearing his older sibling go on about their plans.
"Oh. I'm an only child."
"Well I would have been if my parents hadn't chosen me."
She looked at him strangely for a moment, "Chosen you?"
"Yeah I'm adopted. They told me about it last year when we did a my family project for school. My real parents got killed when I was a baby and dad worked the case. Hes a detective with the police." Harry proudly stated.
"Oh that must be rather exciting." She said wide eyed.
"Not really, it just means he has to go do a lot of paperwork and wandering around talking to people he says. If he does his job right its really quite boring." Harry confessed.
"Oh. Well still it must be really quite interesting." Hermione said politely.
"Hello, shall we come back later or will you be joining us in our labors Harry?" Tom chuckled with Dan behind him,
Harry blushed, "Sorry dad I was just telling Hermione about the library and the bookstore since she likes books a lot."
"Oh boy Tom, looks like Harry has already found the path to her heart. Tell me is there any good churches around?" Daniel said laughing happily with a wink.
"DAD!" Hermione shrieked angrily stomping her foot. When she did that a small burst of wind shot out ruffling Harry's hair. He looked at her wide eyed as she suddenly seemed to realize something had happened and began to bite her lip.
Tom raised his eyebrow but ignored it to turn and chuckle with Dan about the joke, "Dan said he is going to order takeout as its getting close to dinner."
"Yeah we have all the boxes in so its a time out for dinner then we have a lot of work to do or its the sleeping bags and not the beds tonight." Dan pointed out.
"Okay dad. We'll be right down."
"Okay, behave yourselves." Dan said with a chuckle as he and Tom left.
"Uh you saw that didn't you?" She said after their parents had been out of the room for several seconds.
"I saw something. Did you make a breeze happen?" Harry asked quietly.
"Yeah. Sometimes weird things happen. If I get mad or upset especially. I had a girl at school that was bullying me and one day when she pushed me, she burned her hands." She said in a soft barely audible voice like she was scared to say it out loud,
"Wow. I thought I was the only one that had that happen."
She looked at Harry in surprise. "You've had strange things happen too?"
"Yeah one of the bullies at school had taken the lunch money of one of my friends. He lied about it and when the teacher asked him I think I made him tell the truth because he started telling the teacher all kinds of things he had been doing. Plus one time I tried cutting my own hair and it went badly. By the next morning it had all grown back."
"That's pretty neat I guess. So do your parent's know about it?"
"It was kinda hard to hide from them. Cully calls me space boy because she thinks I came from outer space." He rolled his eyes. "Dad just looks at me funny then makes a note in this big notebook he keeps. He says its evidence. Evidence for what I don't know. Mom says it makes me really special and loves me all the more for it." He shrugged.
"My parents know. Since I got bullied a lot things happened a lot." She said sitting on one of the boxes glumly.
"Well since you're here and you're my friend no body is ever going to bully you again. Dad hates bullies and so do I." Harry declared firmly.
Hermione smiled, "You want me to be your friend? You never even asked why they were bullying me."
Harry shrugged, "There is never a good excuse for bullying. So it doesn't matter." he said in a tone of finality.
Hermione smiled at him, "Thanks. I'd like to be your friend."
====(Review Responses)====
Dennisud: Yeah just a bit skewed. At least they're happy together. Hope you found this crossover shell of an idea interesting. This is as far as I got before hitting the wall. As you can tell its not going to be a direct crossover where Harry and crew get involved in a murder but more of a setting crossover in that the Wizarding world and the world of Midsomer coexist. So the Causton CID are definitely going to be a lot more involved in things as they go down the road. Just trying to balance how a muggle can deal with things magical on a relatively even term requires some careful considering. One benefit is that the wizarding world dismisses muggles as weak and ineffective, even the most pro muggle ones. Sort of a paternal pat on the head oh how cute attitude. So they don't see that muggles could do a threat.
IdlemanRPG: Well you did ask nicely and was polite. Plus it is a shared interest as you might be able to tell. Lolol. I'll keep it in mind but like I tell my friends when they ask if I have any ideas for what to do on our rare mutual days off, I always have ideas, now if they're good ones or not is another story...