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Crime is of the Essence	By : K8BNimble Category: Harry Potter Crossovers > Slash - Male/Male Views: 6594 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or BBC’s Sherlock nor do I make money from this. I just like playing with them. Harry Potter is owned by owned by JK Rowling, Scholastic and Warner Brothers & BBC’s Sherlock is owned by, well, the BBC

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
And I still don’t own either Harry Potter or BBC’s Sherlock. I also make no money on this either….

Story note: The year is 2018. It’s canon until the Epilogue. Harry never married. Ron and Hermione had Rose and Hugo earlier than indicated in the books so that they are older in this story. Rose was born in 2002 and Hugo in 2005. Other minor modifications made without notice probably!
Reminder: The Sherlock in this story is from BBC's Sherlock which is set in contemporary times. This IS NOT Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock nor any traditional versions as portrayed by Jeremy Brett or any other actor. This is Sherlock as portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. You do not need to have seen the BBC series to follow this story.

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Crime is of the Essence

Chapter 10 – Dr. Watson, I Presume?
Severus was sporting grey in his now short brown hair and wore dark khaki colored trousers tucked into earth brown dragonhide boots. A sky blue oxford peeped out from under a dark blue fitted robe that had been delivered from Madame Malkins. Harry glamoured Severus’ eyes to be several shades lighter, but still a rich brown. And, per Severus’ request, had straightened his nose and teeth. Harry had avoided any black for the time being.
Harry was impressed that Apparating seemed to have no effect on Severus. He neither lost his balance nor his lunch. They appeared in an alley behind Sherlock’s place.
John Watson greeted them at the door. Harry felt relieved that finally there was another man that wasn’t gigantically tall. Being around Sherlock, Kingsley and Severus was making Harry feel quite tiny. Harry noticed Sherlock sitting at a desk placed on the far wall.
“That was fast,” the man commented. “You must not have been far away.” Harry wondered if Sherlock had told John about the Wizarding World. In walking distance, they were a good twenty minutes away and it had only been about seven minutes since they had spoken.
“You must be John Watson.” Harry held out his hand in greeting. “I’m Harry Potter and this is Evan Kornavich.” John shook Severus’ hand as well. Sherlock looked up from his computer and gazed at Severus intently.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Sherlock has told me about you,” Harry said. Harry thought the older man was nice looking. He seemed down-to-earth.
John looked at Sherlock and then back at Harry. “Really? Sherlock has told me nothing about you, other than that he was giving you my phone.” He sounded aggravated. Harry could understand his feelings. John eyed their robes suspiciously.
“Er.. sorry?” Harry said. He had also heard the exasperation in John’s voice at Sherlock’s antics and sympathized with him.
John shook his head. “It’s not your fault. I just hate using his old phone. The touchscreen sticks. I guess I’m lucky he kept it activated as a back-up.” He stepped back to wave them through the door. “Please come in. Can I get you something to drink?”
“Get them some tea, John. Harry likes Earl Grey. And, Evan was it? What do you like?” Harry could see Sherlock was evaluating something about Severus. He could guess what it was.
“The same,” Severus answered.
“Why am I not surprised?” Sherlock asked rhetorically.
“Fine. I’ll be a few minutes.” John walked into the next room. The flat was open so there were no dividers between the living space and the kitchen. Harry remembered the bedrooms were on the upper floors. It had been a long time since he had been here.
Sherlock spun on his seat and leaned forward, deeply interested in Severus. “Evan, huh? Any particular reason for that name?” He glanced at Harry.

Harry shook his head in warning. “Sherlock, this is not the time…”
“Harry, this is actually important. Did you choose that name or did someone from the Ministry choose it?”
“I did and no, I do not know why. It just came to me,” Severus explained, looking somewhat baffled.
“Interesting. And quite telling.” Sherlock spun his chair back to his laptop. “I’ve been running searches all morning to see if I could find other mentions of the oddly costumed people in Hyde Park. I was able to access the Wizarding World Wide Web – wwww dot whatever urls your people have come up with in the last few years. Kingsley sent one of his people over this morning to assist. Truly extraordinary how your world has caught up to Muggle technology in the last few years. Next thing you know, you’ll be inventing Wizarding apps!”
Harry pulled up a second chair and sat next to Sherlock, interested. Severus stood just behind Harry.
“Does John know?” Harry asked.
“A little. I had to tell him why he couldn’t find your place. I don’t think he believes me. You’ll need to perform the oath or Obliviate him later if he does.”
“Hopefully one or the other will work on him since they never did on you,” Harry pointed out.
Sherlock raised an eyebrow as if to say, ‘I’m special’.
“Quickly, back to what I’ve found. In searches, I’ve found several other photos and one other recording. I’ve not sent them to you yet, but I will. I wanted you to take a quick look at the recording.”
The video showed a Wizard walking into the store. The caption read “A Freak Convention Held in a Freaky Place”. The Muggle obviously only saw the rundown building and not the Wizard shop that was visible to magical people. The recording didn’t last long, a few seconds at best.
The windows were blacked out, but just over the shoulder of the Wizard, you could see a bit of the counter within. Sherlock blew the picture up. “I’ve enhanced this a bit. Listen closely to the audio.” He handed a pair of headphones to Harry.
The audio was slightly garbled but Harry heard, “…got…Essence... Evan,” a high aristocratic masculine voice said. “’Bout time,” a second voice, deep with a thick Cockney accent answered. “We’re runnin’ low and a customer is comin’ in for it. Lock….” The first voice shut him up, “Quiet! Don’t say that…” The door had swung shut and the protective charm on the building must have reset. Harry’s eyes widened and he stared at Severus.
He slid the headphones off and handed them to him. Severus listened and John had come back into the room and set the tea down. He walked up behind everyone. As far as Harry knew, John would only be able to see a dilapidated old building.
“Tea’s ready,” John said. Severus pulled the headset off and they all joined him around the coffee table.
They sat as John poured. There was an awkward silence. Harry attempted polite conversation. “So John, how long have you..er..known… Sherlock?”
John watched them all every carefully. “Since about 2010. And one of these days he may finally tell me what’s going on.” They all looked at him. “I’m not an idiot. Sherlock’s been working on a top secret case for the government that I don’t have clearance for, right? That’s why he’s been dodgy the last few days. He actually tried to get me to believe that magic existed. Can you imagine? Then he recommended I go to the movies this afternoon. Harry, you seem to know Sherlock, even though in the eight years I’ve known him, he has never mentioned your name. Is Sherlock the type of man to recommend a movie?”
“Uh, no,” Harry answered truthfully.
John leaned forward with a smile. “I’m right then, aren’t I,” he asked, seeming very confident in his theory.
“You are very astute,” Severus piped in. He looked at Harry. “Indeed, we’ve hired Mr. Holmes for a very secret mission. Requires top level clearance only. Nothing personal. I’m sorry we can’t say more than that,” he said, with a very thin veneer of politeness.
John stood. “I understand. I’ve served the Queen, you know,” he said.
“I am well aware of your background otherwise you would not have been permitted to be here at all.” Harry was quite impressed with Severus’ imperiousness.
“I see,” John answered. “I’ll make myself scarce then, shall I?” Severus nodded. John seemed to accept that Severus was the lead investigator. He gathered up his things to head out. “I assume you’ve had a breach in security and you are seeking a traitor from your department?”
Harry cocked his head. “What makes you think that?”
“The uniforms. Those long robes must be required but they make you stand out a bit. I noticed the men on the video wearing them, too. So someone within your organization is doing something illegal and you’re tracking them.”
The three stared at him in silence.
“Okay then. I’ll see you later, Sherlock. Magic – hah! As if I’m that gullible.” John turned and left them alone.
“He’s very observant,” Harry stated.
Sherlock agreed. “And I can see why you were considered such a good spy, Severus,” he added. “So, now Evan takes on a different meaning.” Sherlock went back to their previous subject.
“What is the ‘Essence of Evan’? Is that a potion ingredient?” Harry asked.
“It would explain my presence there and possibly why it was important to me,” Severus mused.
Harry wasn’t sure whether to be happy it didn’t automatically mean Severus still loved his mother, Lily Evans, or upset about it.
“It doesn’t sound familiar, though. Not like other ingredients that I can recite from memory: aconite, acromantula venom, armadillo bile, ashwinder eggs, asphodel, bella donna, bezoar…” Severus’ voice had gone soft as if reciting potion ingredients was a meditation mantra.
“We don’t need the Encyclopedia of Potions,” Sherlock interrupted. “This Essence of Evan seems relatively recent. Once I heard the name, I began searching the Wizardnet. I’ve found very few mentions of it and the sites that did mention it are shady at best.”
“Meaning it’s probably an illegal drug of some sort,” Harry thought out loud. “It would explain the ever-relocating store.”
“Yes, but how would users know when and where the supply was set to arrive?” Severus asked.
“That’s been my question as well. I think I might know.” Sherlock pulled his iPhone out. He was obviously pulling something up and handed the phone to Harry and Severus.
Harry read the short message: ‘More Evan expected. 513132053.779828052313-0754.6023196.’

“The message had been posted at 1:03 today, or 13:03 if you’re still keeping military time, Harry. Since it’s just past 2:00 now this is a very recent message. The user name isn’t helpful either. It seems to have been posted by johnqsmith. This is actually a jpeg image of the original message. The actual post was deleted several minutes later. They are using Flitter to deliver messages to their clients.”
“How on earth did you find that?” Harry asked.
“You know how I’ve always said I don’t believe in luck?”
“Yeah,” Harry answered, remembering their first argument when Sherlock refused to believe that magic existed.
“I got lucky,” he responded and popped a small butterscotch candy into his mouth from the bowl on the table.
- 10
- 11
- 12
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Crime is of the Essence