More Happy Birthday!!!
Cast
When all Jack could tell her was to look for a Dr. House and Wilson Martha’s first thought was how the hell he expected her to find someone when all she had was a name? Her second was a brief flash of memory that told her she knew something but not what it was. Instinct led to her old med school notes. That was where she found references to Dr. House, a diagnostician. She looked up other Dr. Houses but if there was one who could get by without introduction it was the one she started with, so, the next day in the office she had a guy in the tech department hack into a few servers to get records on the guy.
Finding Dr. House was the key, of course, but only because he led to Wilson. That was who she was supposed to see. The first place she checked was the Hospital records. On staff were two Dr. Wilsons, one OBGYN and one Oncologist, as well as a Nurse Wilson in the ER, a Paramedic named Wilson Johnson, and a Mr. Wilson who was a part time janitor in the Family Practice wing. She threw the janitor out as an option but made a note of the others. She needn’t have bothered. Half of the time the utilities under Dr. House’s name were paid by a James Wilson and he was a co-signer on Wilson’s loan for a condo they were both living in. One look back at the list of staff confirmed that James Wilson and Dr. Wilson, oncologist, were one and the same.
Martha booked a flight to New Jersey for the next day and left work early for once.
~*~
Peter met Rodney at the entrance to the Kresge Building, “Wow, Rodney. You look-“
“Yes, yes, some of us have yet to manage the concept of aging gracefully. Can we not have that conversation?”
Peter laughed and looked over Rodney’s shoulder, he quirked his eyebrow as his gaze noted concealed weapons despite the casual clothes- he would know military anywhere.
“They gave you a babysitter?”
Rodney scowled, “Apparently ‘valuable asset’ means much the same thing as ‘incompetent child’ to the wonder that is the American military.”
Peter laughed, “Do they give you your own gun or does he do all the shooting for you?”
“Oh, ha ha. Laugh it up, boy wonder.”
“Peter! Are you- oh.” Olivia came down the steps, “Hello.”
She held out her hand to greet them and Peter winced as she introduced herself using her title. Rodney smirked at him, “Babysitter?”
Peter grimaced, “Touché.”
Rodney smiled, “Yeah, well, I suppose they’re not all bad. I’ve gotten used to him.”
The guy came closer, butting Rodney out of the way and whispering to him, “Aren’t you the one who keeps going on about not hiding any more?” then he leveled an intimidating look at Peter they shook hands, “John. I’m his-“ and then he waved his hand vaguely.
Rodney snorted, laughing, “Partner, John. It’s not a hard word.”
John blushed.
Olivia smiled, “Peter’s taken some getting used to, as well, but he’s kind of grown on me since we started working together.”
John turned away, rubbing the back of his neck, and Rodney coughed, “That’s not actually, exactly-“ he trailed off.
Peter caught Olivia’s eye then looked down at his own hands as he tapped his ring finger once, then let Olivia follow his sights to theirs. Her eyebrows rose, “Oh. Sorry.”
Rodney waved his hands as if clearing the air, “No, it’s fine. We’re still not used to being able to-“ he waved his hands some more, “You know.”
Peter broke the awkward air with a loud laugh, “let’s just get inside and see Walter, shall we? I believe you had some questions?”
Peter led the way up the stairs with Rodney close behind, John still eyeing him suspiciously, and Olivia’s eyes flicking among them amusedly.
~*~
“Hello.”
“Hey, Harry”
“Nev! Thank god. Any news.”
“Um. Yeah. Look, George is definitely here. Boston, actually. The thing is, Harry, he’s into something. I don’t know what, but it’s weird.”
“Weird? Like…”
“Like unexplained phenomena following him around. It’s making the news. Muggle news. I think he’s stayed out of the wizarding community, they don’t seem to know anything’s going on.”
“But he’s alright? I mean…”
“Yeah, Harry. He’s alive and all, but I need you to understand. George is into something. I don’t think anyone’s making him do this.”
Harry paused, “Really?”
“Yeah. Harry, I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok. I’m on it. We’re going after him. Boston, right?”
“Yeah. Need anything else?”
“No, I don’t think so. Listen, Neville, thanks. I owe you.”
“It’s alright. Glad to help. Do you want me to e-mail my research to you?”
“Sure, Hermione and Draco would probably like a look. Thanks again.”
“’Course.”
“Bye, Nev.”
“Yeah. Bye, Harry.”
Harry shut his phone and sighed.
“We going to America?” Draco asked from his place on the other end of the couch.
“Yeah. Sounds like he’s gotten himself into something bad.”
“When?”
“Need to call Ron but probably tomorrow.”
Draco got up and shrugged on his work robes again, “You call them, I’ll get a portkey set up.” He leaned down for a kiss then walked over to the fireplace and flooed to the ministry. Harry sighed again and dialed Ron.
~*~
They arrived at the international reception area of the Boston branch of the American Department of Magical Transportation early in the morning. Ron was already making plans to visit the locations Neville had found that George might visit. They were also going to look into the strange occurrences.
Hermione coughed nervously, “I’m actually going to floo to New Jersey for a bit.”
Ron turned to her, “What? But George…”
“You’ll find him. You don’t need me for the footwork. Besides, there’s something I’ve been working on and, along with the stuff Neville sent us, something doesn’t feel right.”
Harry leaned forward, “Like what?”
She shrugged, “I don’t really know yet. There’s something I want to check out.”
Ron and Harry shared a glance. Why Hermione always left them in the dark, they didn’t know, but if she thought something was off there was nothing they could do to stop her.
“You’re not going alone.”
Hermione rolled her eyes, “Come off it, Ron, I’m not going end up in trouble. Promise.”
“Still, I don’t like it.”
“I’ll go.” Draco spoke up.
“What? I thought you wanted to come with us?” Harry said.
“I do. But, like she said, you don’t really need us.”
“Are you sure?” Hermione asked him.
“Of course. Let them go gallivanting off.”
Harry and Ron exchanged another look and Ron acquiesced, “Alright. But if anything happens to her, Malfoy-“
“Ron! I can take care of myself. Come on, Draco.”
Draco smiled a goodbye to Harry and followed Hermione down the hallway to the door that read ‘Intranational Floo Network’.
~*~
Agent Broyles slid a file across the desk to Olivia, “Two men have been lurking around incident locations. The undercovers watching the areas first noticed them yesterday. They’ve hit most of the sites where suspicious activities regarding the hole have occurred.”
“You think they might have something to do with it?”
“How else would they know? I want you to find them and follow them.”
“Yes, sir.”
~*~
John had gotten increasingly fidgety the past few days with nothing to do but watch Rodney and Walter work, and glare at Peter. He didn’t actually fear Peter attempting to steal Rodney from him or anything but he couldn’t very well start treating him civilly after setting a precedent of mistrust the first day. So when Agent Dunham had come to get Peter for a stakeout, because there had been some suspicious activity, and invited him along he readily agreed. It was kind of fun, actually. Since he was the one allowed to carry a gun and was clearly more help in a combative situation, he got to ride shotgun while Peter sat in the back. John decided he rather liked Olivia.
They were parked across the street from an abandoned warehouse that was one of the few places the men had not been sighted yet when they heard a very faint pop. Agent Dunham spotted the source first. How they’d ended up in the middle of an alleyway with no entrance save the one they were watching, he had no idea, but it gave John the creeps. He watched them look around, everyone in the car held their breath, and they slinked toward the door to the warehouse. As soon as they slid through Agent Dunham whispered instructions to John to follow her and told Peter to stay back.
“Think you can follow my lead?” She asked as they left the car.
John gave his best ‘trust me’ smile, “Yes, ma’am.”
It was true. He had no desire to usurp her position here. He had enough responsibility to begin with and she seemed perfectly competent. Contrary to popular belief he did not have authority issues. He could take orders with the best of them. Just so long as he had confidence that they deserved to have others listening to them. He took a position at her six then waited on her nod to kick in the door so she could lead the way inside.
They rounded a corner in the hallway, John rushing to her side as she yelled, “FBI, get your hands up!”
His eyes flicked up to their hands where he’d almost missed their fingers pushing something into their sleeves.
The taller one, slightly burly with red hair, took a step forward and in front of his accomplice.
“Don’t move!”
He slowly lowered one hand, “I’m going to reach for a badge.”
Agent Dunham narrowed her eyes but allowed him to reach into an inside pocked of his coat. He pulled out a wallet and flipped it open, “Interpol.”
Agent Dunham kept her gun trained on him but reached out to pluck to wallet from his hand. John barely caught the flicker in the other guy’s eyes.
Dunham slowly lowered her gun and John copied her, “Alright. Say I believe you. What are you doing here?”
The guy ducked his head, “Nothing official ma’am, we didn’t mean to step on any feet. It’s just that my brother’s gone missing and the cops back home kind of gave up on him. Me, and my friend, here, tracked him to America ourselves. Please, we just want to know what’s happened to him.”
Agent Dunham looked once more at the badge she was still holding then handed it back to him, “Your brother? Maybe you can help us.”
“Anything, ma’am.”
~*~
The first day Hermione and Draco were in town Wilson had to sneak out of the hospital while House was in surgery to pick them up from the local office for the Department of Magical Transportation. They spent most of the afternoon in a little wizarding café so Hermione could question Wilson. Draco spent most of the time playing spider solitare on his phone.
Wilson had to call it quits before he wanted to so that he could get back to the hospital in time, to make sure House got home and wouldn’t stalk him for pulling a disappearing act. He dropped them off at a hotel first and promised to fetch them as soon as he could ditch House without arousing suspicion.
The next day Wilson took extra care not to wake House while he readied himself for work. Usually it was the other way around: he liked to harass House into waking up because once he actually was wide awake he really didn’t have anything else to do but come in to work. He wasn’t sure if Cuddy hated or loved him for all the extra time House was spending at the hospital due to him. This morning, however, Wilson snuck out of the condo thanking his stars that with House still asleep they had at least four hours before he would show up.
He parked in the back so he wouldn’t have to bring them through the main lobby where he would, no doubt, be stopped by Cuddy. And he was saved from having to manufacture a complication (not enough to call House but enough to ensure all his minions were away from this particular patient) by an actual complication. Draco was made look out while Hermione and Wilson entered the room and closed the blinds so they could run some tests Hermione wanted to try.
Draco tried to look nonchalant as he leaned on the wall next to the room. Doctors and nurses, along with a few other visitors wandered by but they all seemed to be in their own worlds. Once, a young black doctor accidentally bumped into him. He helped her pick up the papers she had dropped then she was gone again. Really, the boredom of being stuck here was almost enough to make him wish he was with Harry and Ron, where they were probably risking their necks right about now.
~*~
Harry pulled the phone from his pocket and stepped away from where the others were gathered around a table, “Hey, Hun.”
Draco smirked on the other side, he never got the pet name thing and Harry never seemed to know when he did it but things like that just tended to sneak in when Harry talked to him.
“Hi. We’re all done.”
“Great. When are you going to get here?”
“Well, Hermione’s friend is driving us to the Department of Transportation now. We’ll get a taxi in Boston. So, maybe an hour. Where are you?”
“Harvard. Kresge Building. In the basement.”
“How’d you get there?”
“Um.” Harry looked over his shoulder at the crowd a few feet away and inched further, “Call me when you get outside, I’ll meet you and explain.”
“Fine. See you.”
“Yeah.”
Harry closed the phone and turned back around.
“They done?” Ron asked.
“Yeah. They’ll be here in about an hour.”
“Good.”
Peter raised an eyebrow, “There’s more?”
Ron shrugged, “My wife and Harry’s partner.”
John smiled, “Anyone else invited to the party?”
Rodney looked at him, “Wouldn’t circus be more appropriate?”
John shuddered a little. Rodney winced.
“Do we want to know?” Olivia asked.
“No.” They said together.
“So,” Harry said, turning back to one of the devices they were gathered around, “We can guess where he’s going to be by following this thing?”
~*~
“Oh! Oh! Flashing lights!” Draco pointed at the detector as the red light flashed.
“Ah! Yes, we have activity. Near, too.” Walter hurried over to the precision machine, “With intermittent bursts of that secondary particle I believe is of interest to you.”
Rodney and Hermione scrambled over to where he was pouring over the outputs. Harry sidled up to Draco’s side, “You would notice the shiny stuff first.”
“Shut up.”
Harry smiled and reached down to take his hand.
“Hermione, is that it? Is it George?” Ron asked nervously.
“I think so, yes.”
“Right, then, what are we still doing here?”
Rodney and Walter lead the way out of the building, with the others hovering around them, waiting for directions. They followed the particles for several blocks before Olivia shouted, “There!”
It was an old engineering building on the edge of campus. Ron and Harry lead the charge toward the building, not paying any heed to Olivia’s shouts telling them to stay back, but they faltered several meters from the door when the ground lurched under them.
Olivia, Peter, and John caught up with them, “It’s not safe.” She said.
Ron shrugged off John’s arm as he tried to help him up, “My brother’s in there. I’m going!”
Hermione caught up with them then, “Wait! Olivia, if this is George’s doing we might be able to stop him before this gets much worse. You have to let us try.”
Olivia’s jaw clenched but she nodded sharply, “Fine.”
Ron and Harry broke free and flew to the building’s entrance.
“-but,” Hermione looked at her, “I’m ordering evacuations, and if it gets too bad you come back out.”
Hermione nodded then she and Draco ran after Ron and Harry.
“Astrid, call the local LEOs and the campus cops, get this area evacuated!” Olivia flipped open her phone to call Agent Broyles.
“Peter! Peter, what should we do?”
Peter turned to his father, “Walter, stay with Astrid. Whatever happens, stay out here with her, ok?”
Rodney handed the equipment he’d been holding back to Walter, “That’s right.” Then he and John turned to walk into the building.
“Wait!” Peter called after them before turning back to Walter, “Promise you’ll stay. Walter, promise me.”
“Alright, fine, but-”
Peter didn’t stay to hear the rest, he was already running to catch up with John and Rodney, “Never thought I’d see the day when you ran into danger, Rodney.”
“Yes, well, it happens far too often these days.”
“Move!” John held the door for them and they raced along the corridors trying to keep their footing as the shaking under their feet grew more noticeable.
They caught up with the others just in time to see fading shimmers around the door to the basement before Ron kicked the door open. Harry swept in brandishing a stick and Draco and Ron followed. John pulled out a few guns, tossing one to Rodney, then lifted one of the two he was still holding so Hermione could see. It popped up and glowed.
“Can we agree on something?”
“No questions?”
He nodded, glancing at where Rodney had pulled a small hand held computer from his pocket.
“Obviously.”
“Good.”
Rodney walked into the room looking at the device. John followed him. Harry, Ron, and Draco were all looking at the hole, suspended in the middle of the room, with their sticks held out and were whispering. Occasionally they would reach out to stabilize themselves in the shuddering room. John could see sparks in the air every now and then, lit up even more brightly on the falling dust swirling around them all.
“Looks kind of like the quantum mirror things.” John said to Rodney.
“Hermione!” Ron yelled, “George went through but the hole keeps getting smaller, can you keep it open?”
She rushed up and started firing spells at the closing window to the other reality. One of them must have worked because the size stabilized, though the very air seemed to tauten as though stretched too tightly. She explained the spell she had used to the others but Draco was the only one who seemed able to accomplish anything. Though the ground still trembled it was more contained, less wild but somehow more violent as it struggled against its constraints.
“Right, that’s it. I’m going after him.” Ron pocketed his wand and edged closer to the hole.
“Ron!”
“I can’t go back without him when I’ve got this close. You can keep it open, I know you can.”
Hermione bit her lip and nodded before turning her whole focus back on maintaining the hole.
“Draco.”
“Bloody hell,” He glanced at Harry, then he whispered, “I know. Just come back.”
“Promise.”
Then he and Ron fought their way through the thick, charged air and disappeared into the other reality.
There was a loud clunk from the entrance to the room and only Hermione managed not to break her attention on the spot were Harry and Ron disappeared.
“You!” Draco yelled, “What are you doing here?”
The young black woman straightened up, “No time for that now, someone help me set this up.”
John had his guns leveled at her, “Who are you.”
She rolled her eyes, “Martha. Now, help?”
Rodney moved closer, “What is that?”
She looked down at the conglomeration of parts she’d put together from a boiler and two ancient computers, “Well, if it works it will help contain the damage that rift is causing. Right now it’s probably sending out all kinds of fractures.”
Rodney gaped, “Of course!”
“What?” John yelled.
He didn’t get an answer as she and Rodney seemed to mind meld and began to plug things in. He growled as he turned back to the hole but then was struck by a force that threw him back several feet before he could catch himself.
“Draco!” Hermione called.
He turned back around and muttered the incantation to help take some of the strain from Hermione. Together they got the rift’s power fluctuations back under control.
“There!” Martha shouted, “If you can keep it within that range the damage should be contained to a few blocks.”
She stood up and moved away from Rodney, “Wait, where are you going?”
“Over there,” she said and pointed to the hole.
John moved in front of her, “No way. It’s too dangerous, and we still don’t know who you are.”
She edged around him, “I believe the ‘no questions’ policy covers who I am.” She watched the way his eyes flickered to the entrance to the room where he and Hermione had reached the agreement, “As for the danger, let’s just say this isn’t my first dance.” Then she knocked one hand out of the way as she ducked the other and combined with John’s distraction she was able to make a dash toward the rift and disappear through it.
“Damn! Rodney, is that thing doing what it’s supposed to be doing?”
“It’s absolutely ingenious. Why didn’t I think of it?”
“Rodney!”
“Oh, yes. It works.”
“Ok, I-“ He stopped then reached into his pocket for his phone, “what!”
“Ok…Yeah. Fuck.”
He slammed his phone closed again.
“Agent Dunham says the damage hasn’t extended past the block surrounding the building but our condition’s getting worse. Don’t know how she knows but she thinks we may only have a few minutes before, and I quote, ‘We die a very disturbing death’.”
Hermione was still focused on the rift, her wand shook with the effort to control the realities as they fought to either collide or break apart, but Draco looked at them. His voice was soft but steely, “We’re not leaving. You should get out.”
“Like hell!”
Another shock wave burst though the spells containing it and slammed into the far wall. Rodney dove to cover the machine Martha had built. The tremors knocked Hermione’s already unsteady legs off the ground. The whole building shuddered. John felt like he was being pulled in two directions at once and could barely move. Draco cried out, “I can’t do it alone!”
John watched as he struggled to maintain his footing and his face turned red with exertion then snapped out of it and forced himself to help Hermione right herself. The room settled a little but it was easy to see they wouldn’t be able to stop something from happening for long.
John yanked the phone out of his pocket again, “I know!” Then threw it over his shoulder.
“Rodney!”
“What?”
“Ten minutes. Then get out everyone out of here.”
“Wait! No! John!”
But John was already through the rift.
On the other side John took a moment to gather himself, then began a search of the area. It didn’t take long before he ran into them. Ron and Harry were supporting an unconscious red-head. He was a little shorter and stockier than Ron but John could see the resemblance. Martha had a gun trained on him.
“Damn it, it’s me!”
“Which one?”
He cocked the zat at her.
“Fine.”
“We need to hurry, the building’s falling apart over there.”
~*~
The instant John, Martha, Ron, Harry, and George were far enough into the room Hermione muttered another incantation and both her and Draco’s arms dropped. The force the wave made when the rift collapsed closed knocked everyone off their feet. A moment later the door burst open and FBI swarmed the room.
~*~
They were all sitting on the steps to the building. Ron made sure George would stay unconscious until they could get him transferred to St. Mungos then he’d been carted off to the local hospital with FBI guards. Everyone else was treated by paramedics and refused to leave just yet.
Ron had Hermione tucked up against his chest, “Did he find him?” She whispered.
“No. We got there too quick.”
She nodded and let the silence carry for a moment.
When Ron spoke she could hardly hear him, “I get why he did it. If I could see him one more time-“ Ron’s voice broke off.
Hermione turned around in his arms and pulled him closer. Ron nuzzled close to her neck, hiding his face in her hair, and wept.
When all Jack could tell her was to look for a Dr. House and Wilson Martha’s first thought was how the hell he expected her to find someone when all she had was a name? Her second was a brief flash of memory that told her she knew something but not what it was. Instinct led to her old med school notes. That was where she found references to Dr. House, a diagnostician. She looked up other Dr. Houses but if there was one who could get by without introduction it was the one she started with, so, the next day in the office she had a guy in the tech department hack into a few servers to get records on the guy.
Finding Dr. House was the key, of course, but only because he led to Wilson. That was who she was supposed to see. The first place she checked was the Hospital records. On staff were two Dr. Wilsons, one OBGYN and one Oncologist, as well as a Nurse Wilson in the ER, a Paramedic named Wilson Johnson, and a Mr. Wilson who was a part time janitor in the Family Practice wing. She threw the janitor out as an option but made a note of the others. She needn’t have bothered. Half of the time the utilities under Dr. House’s name were paid by a James Wilson and he was a co-signer on Wilson’s loan for a condo they were both living in. One look back at the list of staff confirmed that James Wilson and Dr. Wilson, oncologist, were one and the same.
Martha booked a flight to New Jersey for the next day and left work early for once.
~*~
Peter met Rodney at the entrance to the Kresge Building, “Wow, Rodney. You look-“
“Yes, yes, some of us have yet to manage the concept of aging gracefully. Can we not have that conversation?”
Peter laughed and looked over Rodney’s shoulder, he quirked his eyebrow as his gaze noted concealed weapons despite the casual clothes- he would know military anywhere.
“They gave you a babysitter?”
Rodney scowled, “Apparently ‘valuable asset’ means much the same thing as ‘incompetent child’ to the wonder that is the American military.”
Peter laughed, “Do they give you your own gun or does he do all the shooting for you?”
“Oh, ha ha. Laugh it up, boy wonder.”
“Peter! Are you- oh.” Olivia came down the steps, “Hello.”
She held out her hand to greet them and Peter winced as she introduced herself using her title. Rodney smirked at him, “Babysitter?”
Peter grimaced, “Touché.”
Rodney smiled, “Yeah, well, I suppose they’re not all bad. I’ve gotten used to him.”
The guy came closer, butting Rodney out of the way and whispering to him, “Aren’t you the one who keeps going on about not hiding any more?” then he leveled an intimidating look at Peter they shook hands, “John. I’m his-“ and then he waved his hand vaguely.
Rodney snorted, laughing, “Partner, John. It’s not a hard word.”
John blushed.
Olivia smiled, “Peter’s taken some getting used to, as well, but he’s kind of grown on me since we started working together.”
John turned away, rubbing the back of his neck, and Rodney coughed, “That’s not actually, exactly-“ he trailed off.
Peter caught Olivia’s eye then looked down at his own hands as he tapped his ring finger once, then let Olivia follow his sights to theirs. Her eyebrows rose, “Oh. Sorry.”
Rodney waved his hands as if clearing the air, “No, it’s fine. We’re still not used to being able to-“ he waved his hands some more, “You know.”
Peter broke the awkward air with a loud laugh, “let’s just get inside and see Walter, shall we? I believe you had some questions?”
Peter led the way up the stairs with Rodney close behind, John still eyeing him suspiciously, and Olivia’s eyes flicking among them amusedly.
~*~
“Hello.”
“Hey, Harry”
“Nev! Thank god. Any news.”
“Um. Yeah. Look, George is definitely here. Boston, actually. The thing is, Harry, he’s into something. I don’t know what, but it’s weird.”
“Weird? Like…”
“Like unexplained phenomena following him around. It’s making the news. Muggle news. I think he’s stayed out of the wizarding community, they don’t seem to know anything’s going on.”
“But he’s alright? I mean…”
“Yeah, Harry. He’s alive and all, but I need you to understand. George is into something. I don’t think anyone’s making him do this.”
Harry paused, “Really?”
“Yeah. Harry, I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok. I’m on it. We’re going after him. Boston, right?”
“Yeah. Need anything else?”
“No, I don’t think so. Listen, Neville, thanks. I owe you.”
“It’s alright. Glad to help. Do you want me to e-mail my research to you?”
“Sure, Hermione and Draco would probably like a look. Thanks again.”
“’Course.”
“Bye, Nev.”
“Yeah. Bye, Harry.”
Harry shut his phone and sighed.
“We going to America?” Draco asked from his place on the other end of the couch.
“Yeah. Sounds like he’s gotten himself into something bad.”
“When?”
“Need to call Ron but probably tomorrow.”
Draco got up and shrugged on his work robes again, “You call them, I’ll get a portkey set up.” He leaned down for a kiss then walked over to the fireplace and flooed to the ministry. Harry sighed again and dialed Ron.
~*~
They arrived at the international reception area of the Boston branch of the American Department of Magical Transportation early in the morning. Ron was already making plans to visit the locations Neville had found that George might visit. They were also going to look into the strange occurrences.
Hermione coughed nervously, “I’m actually going to floo to New Jersey for a bit.”
Ron turned to her, “What? But George…”
“You’ll find him. You don’t need me for the footwork. Besides, there’s something I’ve been working on and, along with the stuff Neville sent us, something doesn’t feel right.”
Harry leaned forward, “Like what?”
She shrugged, “I don’t really know yet. There’s something I want to check out.”
Ron and Harry shared a glance. Why Hermione always left them in the dark, they didn’t know, but if she thought something was off there was nothing they could do to stop her.
“You’re not going alone.”
Hermione rolled her eyes, “Come off it, Ron, I’m not going end up in trouble. Promise.”
“Still, I don’t like it.”
“I’ll go.” Draco spoke up.
“What? I thought you wanted to come with us?” Harry said.
“I do. But, like she said, you don’t really need us.”
“Are you sure?” Hermione asked him.
“Of course. Let them go gallivanting off.”
Harry and Ron exchanged another look and Ron acquiesced, “Alright. But if anything happens to her, Malfoy-“
“Ron! I can take care of myself. Come on, Draco.”
Draco smiled a goodbye to Harry and followed Hermione down the hallway to the door that read ‘Intranational Floo Network’.
~*~
Agent Broyles slid a file across the desk to Olivia, “Two men have been lurking around incident locations. The undercovers watching the areas first noticed them yesterday. They’ve hit most of the sites where suspicious activities regarding the hole have occurred.”
“You think they might have something to do with it?”
“How else would they know? I want you to find them and follow them.”
“Yes, sir.”
~*~
John had gotten increasingly fidgety the past few days with nothing to do but watch Rodney and Walter work, and glare at Peter. He didn’t actually fear Peter attempting to steal Rodney from him or anything but he couldn’t very well start treating him civilly after setting a precedent of mistrust the first day. So when Agent Dunham had come to get Peter for a stakeout, because there had been some suspicious activity, and invited him along he readily agreed. It was kind of fun, actually. Since he was the one allowed to carry a gun and was clearly more help in a combative situation, he got to ride shotgun while Peter sat in the back. John decided he rather liked Olivia.
They were parked across the street from an abandoned warehouse that was one of the few places the men had not been sighted yet when they heard a very faint pop. Agent Dunham spotted the source first. How they’d ended up in the middle of an alleyway with no entrance save the one they were watching, he had no idea, but it gave John the creeps. He watched them look around, everyone in the car held their breath, and they slinked toward the door to the warehouse. As soon as they slid through Agent Dunham whispered instructions to John to follow her and told Peter to stay back.
“Think you can follow my lead?” She asked as they left the car.
John gave his best ‘trust me’ smile, “Yes, ma’am.”
It was true. He had no desire to usurp her position here. He had enough responsibility to begin with and she seemed perfectly competent. Contrary to popular belief he did not have authority issues. He could take orders with the best of them. Just so long as he had confidence that they deserved to have others listening to them. He took a position at her six then waited on her nod to kick in the door so she could lead the way inside.
They rounded a corner in the hallway, John rushing to her side as she yelled, “FBI, get your hands up!”
His eyes flicked up to their hands where he’d almost missed their fingers pushing something into their sleeves.
The taller one, slightly burly with red hair, took a step forward and in front of his accomplice.
“Don’t move!”
He slowly lowered one hand, “I’m going to reach for a badge.”
Agent Dunham narrowed her eyes but allowed him to reach into an inside pocked of his coat. He pulled out a wallet and flipped it open, “Interpol.”
Agent Dunham kept her gun trained on him but reached out to pluck to wallet from his hand. John barely caught the flicker in the other guy’s eyes.
Dunham slowly lowered her gun and John copied her, “Alright. Say I believe you. What are you doing here?”
The guy ducked his head, “Nothing official ma’am, we didn’t mean to step on any feet. It’s just that my brother’s gone missing and the cops back home kind of gave up on him. Me, and my friend, here, tracked him to America ourselves. Please, we just want to know what’s happened to him.”
Agent Dunham looked once more at the badge she was still holding then handed it back to him, “Your brother? Maybe you can help us.”
“Anything, ma’am.”
~*~
The first day Hermione and Draco were in town Wilson had to sneak out of the hospital while House was in surgery to pick them up from the local office for the Department of Magical Transportation. They spent most of the afternoon in a little wizarding café so Hermione could question Wilson. Draco spent most of the time playing spider solitare on his phone.
Wilson had to call it quits before he wanted to so that he could get back to the hospital in time, to make sure House got home and wouldn’t stalk him for pulling a disappearing act. He dropped them off at a hotel first and promised to fetch them as soon as he could ditch House without arousing suspicion.
The next day Wilson took extra care not to wake House while he readied himself for work. Usually it was the other way around: he liked to harass House into waking up because once he actually was wide awake he really didn’t have anything else to do but come in to work. He wasn’t sure if Cuddy hated or loved him for all the extra time House was spending at the hospital due to him. This morning, however, Wilson snuck out of the condo thanking his stars that with House still asleep they had at least four hours before he would show up.
He parked in the back so he wouldn’t have to bring them through the main lobby where he would, no doubt, be stopped by Cuddy. And he was saved from having to manufacture a complication (not enough to call House but enough to ensure all his minions were away from this particular patient) by an actual complication. Draco was made look out while Hermione and Wilson entered the room and closed the blinds so they could run some tests Hermione wanted to try.
Draco tried to look nonchalant as he leaned on the wall next to the room. Doctors and nurses, along with a few other visitors wandered by but they all seemed to be in their own worlds. Once, a young black doctor accidentally bumped into him. He helped her pick up the papers she had dropped then she was gone again. Really, the boredom of being stuck here was almost enough to make him wish he was with Harry and Ron, where they were probably risking their necks right about now.
~*~
Harry pulled the phone from his pocket and stepped away from where the others were gathered around a table, “Hey, Hun.”
Draco smirked on the other side, he never got the pet name thing and Harry never seemed to know when he did it but things like that just tended to sneak in when Harry talked to him.
“Hi. We’re all done.”
“Great. When are you going to get here?”
“Well, Hermione’s friend is driving us to the Department of Transportation now. We’ll get a taxi in Boston. So, maybe an hour. Where are you?”
“Harvard. Kresge Building. In the basement.”
“How’d you get there?”
“Um.” Harry looked over his shoulder at the crowd a few feet away and inched further, “Call me when you get outside, I’ll meet you and explain.”
“Fine. See you.”
“Yeah.”
Harry closed the phone and turned back around.
“They done?” Ron asked.
“Yeah. They’ll be here in about an hour.”
“Good.”
Peter raised an eyebrow, “There’s more?”
Ron shrugged, “My wife and Harry’s partner.”
John smiled, “Anyone else invited to the party?”
Rodney looked at him, “Wouldn’t circus be more appropriate?”
John shuddered a little. Rodney winced.
“Do we want to know?” Olivia asked.
“No.” They said together.
“So,” Harry said, turning back to one of the devices they were gathered around, “We can guess where he’s going to be by following this thing?”
~*~
“Oh! Oh! Flashing lights!” Draco pointed at the detector as the red light flashed.
“Ah! Yes, we have activity. Near, too.” Walter hurried over to the precision machine, “With intermittent bursts of that secondary particle I believe is of interest to you.”
Rodney and Hermione scrambled over to where he was pouring over the outputs. Harry sidled up to Draco’s side, “You would notice the shiny stuff first.”
“Shut up.”
Harry smiled and reached down to take his hand.
“Hermione, is that it? Is it George?” Ron asked nervously.
“I think so, yes.”
“Right, then, what are we still doing here?”
Rodney and Walter lead the way out of the building, with the others hovering around them, waiting for directions. They followed the particles for several blocks before Olivia shouted, “There!”
It was an old engineering building on the edge of campus. Ron and Harry lead the charge toward the building, not paying any heed to Olivia’s shouts telling them to stay back, but they faltered several meters from the door when the ground lurched under them.
Olivia, Peter, and John caught up with them, “It’s not safe.” She said.
Ron shrugged off John’s arm as he tried to help him up, “My brother’s in there. I’m going!”
Hermione caught up with them then, “Wait! Olivia, if this is George’s doing we might be able to stop him before this gets much worse. You have to let us try.”
Olivia’s jaw clenched but she nodded sharply, “Fine.”
Ron and Harry broke free and flew to the building’s entrance.
“-but,” Hermione looked at her, “I’m ordering evacuations, and if it gets too bad you come back out.”
Hermione nodded then she and Draco ran after Ron and Harry.
“Astrid, call the local LEOs and the campus cops, get this area evacuated!” Olivia flipped open her phone to call Agent Broyles.
“Peter! Peter, what should we do?”
Peter turned to his father, “Walter, stay with Astrid. Whatever happens, stay out here with her, ok?”
Rodney handed the equipment he’d been holding back to Walter, “That’s right.” Then he and John turned to walk into the building.
“Wait!” Peter called after them before turning back to Walter, “Promise you’ll stay. Walter, promise me.”
“Alright, fine, but-”
Peter didn’t stay to hear the rest, he was already running to catch up with John and Rodney, “Never thought I’d see the day when you ran into danger, Rodney.”
“Yes, well, it happens far too often these days.”
“Move!” John held the door for them and they raced along the corridors trying to keep their footing as the shaking under their feet grew more noticeable.
They caught up with the others just in time to see fading shimmers around the door to the basement before Ron kicked the door open. Harry swept in brandishing a stick and Draco and Ron followed. John pulled out a few guns, tossing one to Rodney, then lifted one of the two he was still holding so Hermione could see. It popped up and glowed.
“Can we agree on something?”
“No questions?”
He nodded, glancing at where Rodney had pulled a small hand held computer from his pocket.
“Obviously.”
“Good.”
Rodney walked into the room looking at the device. John followed him. Harry, Ron, and Draco were all looking at the hole, suspended in the middle of the room, with their sticks held out and were whispering. Occasionally they would reach out to stabilize themselves in the shuddering room. John could see sparks in the air every now and then, lit up even more brightly on the falling dust swirling around them all.
“Looks kind of like the quantum mirror things.” John said to Rodney.
“Hermione!” Ron yelled, “George went through but the hole keeps getting smaller, can you keep it open?”
She rushed up and started firing spells at the closing window to the other reality. One of them must have worked because the size stabilized, though the very air seemed to tauten as though stretched too tightly. She explained the spell she had used to the others but Draco was the only one who seemed able to accomplish anything. Though the ground still trembled it was more contained, less wild but somehow more violent as it struggled against its constraints.
“Right, that’s it. I’m going after him.” Ron pocketed his wand and edged closer to the hole.
“Ron!”
“I can’t go back without him when I’ve got this close. You can keep it open, I know you can.”
Hermione bit her lip and nodded before turning her whole focus back on maintaining the hole.
“Draco.”
“Bloody hell,” He glanced at Harry, then he whispered, “I know. Just come back.”
“Promise.”
Then he and Ron fought their way through the thick, charged air and disappeared into the other reality.
There was a loud clunk from the entrance to the room and only Hermione managed not to break her attention on the spot were Harry and Ron disappeared.
“You!” Draco yelled, “What are you doing here?”
The young black woman straightened up, “No time for that now, someone help me set this up.”
John had his guns leveled at her, “Who are you.”
She rolled her eyes, “Martha. Now, help?”
Rodney moved closer, “What is that?”
She looked down at the conglomeration of parts she’d put together from a boiler and two ancient computers, “Well, if it works it will help contain the damage that rift is causing. Right now it’s probably sending out all kinds of fractures.”
Rodney gaped, “Of course!”
“What?” John yelled.
He didn’t get an answer as she and Rodney seemed to mind meld and began to plug things in. He growled as he turned back to the hole but then was struck by a force that threw him back several feet before he could catch himself.
“Draco!” Hermione called.
He turned back around and muttered the incantation to help take some of the strain from Hermione. Together they got the rift’s power fluctuations back under control.
“There!” Martha shouted, “If you can keep it within that range the damage should be contained to a few blocks.”
She stood up and moved away from Rodney, “Wait, where are you going?”
“Over there,” she said and pointed to the hole.
John moved in front of her, “No way. It’s too dangerous, and we still don’t know who you are.”
She edged around him, “I believe the ‘no questions’ policy covers who I am.” She watched the way his eyes flickered to the entrance to the room where he and Hermione had reached the agreement, “As for the danger, let’s just say this isn’t my first dance.” Then she knocked one hand out of the way as she ducked the other and combined with John’s distraction she was able to make a dash toward the rift and disappear through it.
“Damn! Rodney, is that thing doing what it’s supposed to be doing?”
“It’s absolutely ingenious. Why didn’t I think of it?”
“Rodney!”
“Oh, yes. It works.”
“Ok, I-“ He stopped then reached into his pocket for his phone, “what!”
“Ok…Yeah. Fuck.”
He slammed his phone closed again.
“Agent Dunham says the damage hasn’t extended past the block surrounding the building but our condition’s getting worse. Don’t know how she knows but she thinks we may only have a few minutes before, and I quote, ‘We die a very disturbing death’.”
Hermione was still focused on the rift, her wand shook with the effort to control the realities as they fought to either collide or break apart, but Draco looked at them. His voice was soft but steely, “We’re not leaving. You should get out.”
“Like hell!”
Another shock wave burst though the spells containing it and slammed into the far wall. Rodney dove to cover the machine Martha had built. The tremors knocked Hermione’s already unsteady legs off the ground. The whole building shuddered. John felt like he was being pulled in two directions at once and could barely move. Draco cried out, “I can’t do it alone!”
John watched as he struggled to maintain his footing and his face turned red with exertion then snapped out of it and forced himself to help Hermione right herself. The room settled a little but it was easy to see they wouldn’t be able to stop something from happening for long.
John yanked the phone out of his pocket again, “I know!” Then threw it over his shoulder.
“Rodney!”
“What?”
“Ten minutes. Then get out everyone out of here.”
“Wait! No! John!”
But John was already through the rift.
On the other side John took a moment to gather himself, then began a search of the area. It didn’t take long before he ran into them. Ron and Harry were supporting an unconscious red-head. He was a little shorter and stockier than Ron but John could see the resemblance. Martha had a gun trained on him.
“Damn it, it’s me!”
“Which one?”
He cocked the zat at her.
“Fine.”
“We need to hurry, the building’s falling apart over there.”
~*~
The instant John, Martha, Ron, Harry, and George were far enough into the room Hermione muttered another incantation and both her and Draco’s arms dropped. The force the wave made when the rift collapsed closed knocked everyone off their feet. A moment later the door burst open and FBI swarmed the room.
~*~
They were all sitting on the steps to the building. Ron made sure George would stay unconscious until they could get him transferred to St. Mungos then he’d been carted off to the local hospital with FBI guards. Everyone else was treated by paramedics and refused to leave just yet.
Ron had Hermione tucked up against his chest, “Did he find him?” She whispered.
“No. We got there too quick.”
She nodded and let the silence carry for a moment.
When Ron spoke she could hardly hear him, “I get why he did it. If I could see him one more time-“ Ron’s voice broke off.
Hermione turned around in his arms and pulled him closer. Ron nuzzled close to her neck, hiding his face in her hair, and wept.