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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
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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 1 – The Trials of Parenthood
“Harry, I wish you could stay longer.” Hermione Weasley smiled as she sat the tray of digestive biscuits on the table between them. She was one of his two best friends since school and she was married to the other one. He had stopped by their home on his way from work. He needed a short break before getting started on his evening’s assignment.
“Sorry, ‘Mione, I only have time for a cuppa today. Shacklebolt’s finally gotten irritated with my lack of following procedure and has assigned desk duty until I learn my lesson. He’s given me a stack of work to be done before tomorrow and it’s already been a long day.” Harry had a small smirk on his face and Hermione rolled her eyes at him.
“Honestly, Harry. I would think you would do anything to get away from doing paperwork – even if it’s following proper Auror procedures. Even Ron can manage to do that. Did you get called into W.R. again?” She laughed at his predicament.
Harry took off his long red Auror robes and draped them over the back of the kitchen chair before he sat. Unlike his own long narrow kitchen, this was a square and spacious country-style kitchen. It was large enough to fit the entire Weasley clan and then some. Everyone ended up in this room during family gatherings. It was one of Harry’s favorite places to hang out. He considered the possibility that it was the company rather than the location that he enjoyed, but speculated that it might be time to renovate Grimmauld Place.
Harry nodded in response to Hermione’s question. “Of course. I think Pansy enjoyed being able to tell me she was making ’notes’ in my personnel file on the day of the twentieth anniversary of The Dark Lord’s defeat.” He shook his head as he thought with frustration of the bureaucracy of the Ministry. “Ah, the miracle of Wizard Resources. In the morning I’m hailed as a hero and speaking at the Memorial Breakfast, but by the afternoon I’ve been transfigured into just a poorly performing lackey. She even threatened to finally put me in the mentoring program.” Harry stuck his tongue out in disgust. “I swear if she had been hired before me, I’d have never made it past the first interview.”
In an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for his latest violation of Auror protocols, he asked, “Speaking of Ron, where is he? Not only did you abandon me today, but he left after the breakfast. I had to fend Skeeter off myself.”
“Since Hogwarts was also observing the holiday, Ron took the kids shopping. I needed everyone out of my hair for a few hours while I worked and Hugo needed supplies for a school project. Rose, as you can guess, wanted to shop for clothes. I also asked Ron to pick up a few books for the summer holidays. Not that I think they’ll ever open them,” she added with a half-hearted sigh.
“Not everybody likes to study the way you did, Hermione. I mean, I've never met anyone else who not only read Hogwarts: A History the whole way through, but did it before their first year. You were always an overachiever.” He grinned at her and took a bite of his biscuit. “You are still are,” he added, just to annoy her.
She reached over and softly punched his shoulder as if insulted. “I know I can’t expect her to be like me. I just wish she’d take her studies a bit more seriously. It’s come as quite a shock that my own children wouldn’t have some level of enjoyment for learning.”
“You sound disappointed.” Harry paused for a moment. “Um…were you ever sorry for having kids?”
Hermione looked shocked, “Of course not!” Then she settled down. “I mean, I kind of wish sometimes we had waited a bit longer.”
Harry neither agreed nor disagreed. He knew she sometimes felt stifled early on in their marriage even while Ron thrived in parenthood. They had married far earlier than Harry would have expected, but after the war, many couples did. He thought, cynically at times, that they did it just so they could move on and forget about everyone that had been lost. He knew that wasn’t true but given how Ginny had pressured him back then, it sometimes felt like it was.
Hermione sighed and then continued her train of thought. “I just think maybe I would have had more patience had I waited. It’s hard for me to relate to them. It’s not like I had a normal experience being a teenager.”
‘True,’ Harry thought. At Hugo’s age, Harry and Hermione were using a time-turner to save a fugitive. At Rose’s age, they were dealing with Dumbledore’s death. The memories were very fresh in his mind since he'd just had to rehash them all over again earlier that day, as he did every year. Harry reached over the table and patted her hand. “The kids love you. You know that.” He was glad the most difficult things his niece and nephew would have to face would be to pass their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s.
She nodded. “I know that, but honestly, I don’t think that they like me very much. Ron relates so much better to them. Maybe I’m too demanding,” she mused quietly. Harry took a sip of his Earl Grey without commenting. After a moment, she looked up at him. “Did you ever feel like I nagged you in school?” she asked seriously.
Harry coughed, choking on the tea. “Uh…well...no...of course not. I mean...”
“You’re a terrible liar, you know.” Hermione smiled. Her short hair curled around her jaw line.
“Er…sorry. But I always knew you did it because you cared about my success. It was your way of showing you loved us. I may not have always appreciated it in that moment, but in the long run, I knew. So do they,” he reassured her.
“Harry, you really will be a good father when you’re ready.” Hermione smiled again, this time with a mischievous glint to her eye. “So, any news on that front?”
Harry sighed. “No. I think I’m never going to find the right person. I mean, I always swore that by forty I’d have kids.”
“That’s two years away, Harry! It could still happen.”
Harry gave her a dismissive look. He had pretty much given up. He tried not to let the disappointment show in his eyes, but now that he no longer wore glasses, he could no longer hide behind them. He was still someone who wore his heart on his sleeve.
She looked at him earnestly. “Harry, let me help. I can help you find someone. The right someone.”

“Through one of those dating services?” Harry laughed with a hint of disgust on his face. “That worked so well the last time.”
“We didn’t do it right. Then everyone knew it was you. It didn’t attract the right sort of people.”
“It attracted the nutjobs, that’s who it attracted.” Harry groaned at the number of bad dates that posting had led to. “The celebrity hanger-ons. I can’t believe people still want to sleep with ‘The Chosen One’. No thanks. Not for me.”
“I know. I think we just need to do it more discreetly. Ron and I have been…”
Harry widened his eyes and stopped her. “You and Ron have what? Been lamenting about my pointless love life? Pitying me? Well, sorry I didn’t settle down and have babies with Ginny when you two did. I’m sorry his sister wasn’t good enough. Sometimes I think I should have just done that. Our kids could have played together.” Harry was mentally berating himself.
“Harry!” Hermione’s voice cut through Harry’s rant. “Harry, you know it’s not like that. Ron has never,” and, seeing the look on his face, she rephrased it, “Ok, he was mildly disappointed things weren’t fairytale perfect. He honestly thought you and Ginny would have been happy. He thought you were experimenting, like many boys do in school. You never had that chance to, being too busy saving the world and all.”
She grinned. “He thought you were a late bloomer, that’s all. He doesn’t care that you prefer men. He probably wished you ended up with one of his brothers, but he only wants you to be happy. Like I do.” She patted his hand.
“I thought you always said you didn’t need to be married to be happy,” Harry said, still feeling a little argumentative.
“I don’t, Harry, but you seem to. Ron and I, we love each other but if for some reason we had not found each other, I truly believe either one of us would have been happy being single. I believe you want someone to love that truly belongs to you. Sometimes, I think you don’t believe you deserve it.”
“Sorry. I know I’m being a sensitive prat but could we not psychoanalyze me?” Harry hated feeling so defensive.
“I don’t mean to. But it does explain why you either get involved in short term affairs with people you care nothing about or involved with men who are overly involved with their brains but not with their hearts.”
“That’s rich, coming from you. I would have thought you’d appreciate that I find intelligence sexy.” Harry laughed self-deprecatingly.
She smiled warmly at him. “I do. But you seem to find intelligent men who have little-to-no compassion. You have a great capacity for love, Harry, but you can’t make other people love. They have to have it within themselves. You don’t need to save them.”
“What? I don’t do…”
“What was that guy’s name? The investigator – ‘Sherlock’? You tried for how long to get him to love you?”
“He did love me, in his own way,” Harry defended the man.
“Right. But it wasn’t enough, was it? The man viewed you and your relationship like he did a case he was working on. Intellectually interesting and stimulating, but he had no real attachment to you other than as a specimen.”
“I thought you liked him?” Harry asked. Hermione always seemed to enjoy her lively discussions with Sherlock that went way over everyone else’s heads.
“I did. He was, he is, brilliant. But he was also brittle, Harry. And you need someone that can comfort you. That can feel passion. Was he passionate?”
“He was good in bed, if that’s what you mean.” She smiled somewhat sadly at this statement.
“I don’t mean the mechanics. I meant, was he passionate about you? Did you ever feel like he felt that he couldn’t live without you?”
“That’s silly, Hermione. Of course he could live without me. He’s done it for almost ten years hasn’t he?”
“But that’s not what you want. Deep in your heart, Harry, you need to be needed, not just wanted. Am I wrong?”
Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He did have a penchant for overly intelligent men who didn’t consider Harry’s emotional needs important. He found their brilliance mindnumbingly attractive but then ended up feeling inferior since he wasn’t as smart as they were. His heart never seemed to be enough for them.
“You don’t need to answer that. Just think about it,” Hermione said.
“It doesn’t feel right to methodically search out for the person I should marry. I always thought that true love would find me. That if I was worthy of it, the right person would find me, like magic,” Harry whispered.
Hermione stood up and walked over to Harry’s seat. She bent down and hugged him from behind. “You are a real romantic, you know that, right?” Harry nodded, blushing. “Well – like most magic, you have to put a little of yourself into it and use a little discipline. You are worthy of it, Harry.” She kissed his cheek.
“Oy – Wife! What are you doing holding my best friend like that?!” Ron’s voice boomed through the room as he came in carrying an armful of shopping bags. Hermione and Harry laughed as Hermione pretended to passionately lick Harry’s ear. Ron pretended to be dismayed and swept into the living room.
“Hi, Mum. Look at all the stuff Dad got us!” A spritely young woman bounced in behind Ron. She was tall, like her father and had his hair coloring but she had the thickness and curls of her maternal line. A sullen teenage boy came in after her and went straight through the kitchen and up the stairs without acknowledging anyone.
“I see Hugo is still being surly,” Harry observed.
“He’s thirteen,” Hermione replied as if that was all the explanation needed.
“He’s been a real brat all day, too!” Rose exclaimed as she ran up to Harry.
“Hi, Uncle Harry!!” She gave him a kiss on the cheek and plopped down in the chair next to him. “Gosh, I’m starving!” She grabbed a couple of the biscuits and shoved them in her mouth. Harry laughed at her unusual enthusiasm for snacks.
“Not watching your girlish figure today?” Harry teased. Rose was always talking about going on a diet even though she clearly didn’t need to lose weight. She leaned forward and bit into a biscuit right in Harry’s face as if daring him to say she couldn’t have it.
“Guess not,” Harry concluded.
“Rose, did you borrow my brush?” Hermione asked.
“Eww…why would I do that?” she asked. “I have my own.”
“I couldn’t find it this morning.”
“You’re always misplacing things, Mum,” Rose pointed out. She leaned over and whispered conspiratorially to Harry, “She works too hard. It rots the mind.” Harry grinned at his niece.
“Yeah. I know. I just can’t remember where I laid it down this time. Ron and Hugo wouldn’t use it, would they?” Hermione seemed perplexed.
“Does Ron even know what a brush is, Hermione?” Harry teased.
“I heard that!” Ron yelled from the living room. He came back into the kitchen after dropping off all the bags. “Heya, Harry. Staying for dinner?” He lightly squeezed Harry on the shoulder as he passed by on his way to the refrigerator. He pulled a beer out. Hermione raised an eyebrow at her husband as he sat down with it.
He looked at her as he opened the bottle. “I’ve spent the entire day shopping with the kids. I deserve this.”
“Great thing to teach our children, Ron; Alcohol is a great way to relax. Look Daddy does it!”
“Lay off him, Mum. I don’t like beer anyway so he’s not teaching me anything new," Rose blurted out around a mouthful of crumbs.
All three adults swung their heads at her dumbstruck.
“And where have you ever tried beer, young lady?” Hermione stared at her daughter.
The girl’s eyes widened.
Harry stood, “I think this is my cue to leave.”
Rose jumped up. “Uncle Harry – no!! I mean…um…” She pulled her tee-shirt taut against her chest. She was built rather delicately, like her mother. “Don’t you think I should get a boob job?! Look how flat these things are. Uncle Harry, tell them you think it would be ok. Mum won’t let me.” She batted her green eyes at him, pleadingly.
Harry turned several shades of red and a couple of purple ones, too. “I, uh, well…I can’t say…” he stuttered.
“Rose Molly Weasley!” Hermione stood. She was clearly livid. “Your room, now!”
“Mum!!! I just…”
“Now! Ron – tell her!”
Ron was also flushed. “Rose, you better do as your mother says,” Ron said very quietly.
Rose looked aghast at her father. “But Dad!”
“Now, Rose,” he repeated in a tone that brooked no argument.
“And you can forget movie night with Uncle Harry this Saturday, young lady!” Hermione added in her sternest voice.
Rose’s eyes widened and she stamped her feet on the floor. “I hate you!” she shrieked.
Harry stood stock still during the exchange and then shuffled a bit. Rose turned and seeing he was still there turned red once again and ran out of the room.
Hermione turned to Harry. “Sorry. You sure you want kids?” she asked with a heavy sigh.
“Maybe not…” he chuckled. “What was that about, anyway?” He waved his hands near the vicinity of his chest to indicate what part of the conversation he was asking about. He couldn’t really say it. It was his niece. He used to bathe her as a baby. It was just…weird.
Hermione rolled her eyes. “She’s been asking about getting plastic surgery.”
“You mean – Muggle plastic surgery? Why?”
“Some kids at school have been teasing her about being flat-chested. They did a charm spell so she could see what it looked liked to be more well-endowed, but charms don’t last. Nothing magical will make that change permanent. Then, one of her friends picked up a Muggle magazine that had an article about breast enhancement and now she’s obsessed with it. She’s convinced she needs it to become a model.”
“I blame Scorpius Malfoy,” Ron muttered.
“Scorpius? What’s he got to do with it?” Harry asked looking puzzled.
“Ron, we don’t know that he’s the one who said anything.” She turned to Harry.
“She won’t tell us who started it but Scorpius has been hanging around her a lot lately according to Neville. He gave us a fire-call last month. He’s been concerned that Rose has been hanging out with different people lately. As the Deputy Headmaster, he felt he should notify us about it.”
“Scorpius hasn’t been in trouble, has he?” Harry asked. He didn’t keep track of what happened at Hogwarts but as an Auror, he certainly knew which Wizards were accused of breaking the law.
“Hasn’t been caught more likely,” Ron said. “He is a Malfoy. I expect there’s an unwritten family law that requires them to tease the Weasleys.”
“Yeah, but I can’t imagine any Malfoy recommending a Muggle solution.” Harry said.
He looked at his watch. It was much later than he thought. “I’d really better go.”
“Sorry about Saturday, Harry. You’re about the only real thing we can use as a punishment,” Hermione said.
“Thanks, Hermione. That means a lot,” Harry said with a chuckle. “It’s nice to be thought of as a form of punishment.” He grabbed his robes off the back of the chair and threw them over his arm.
“You know what I mean. Your monthly movie nights matter to her. It’s the only thing that seems to work anymore. I’m sorry it’s a punishment for you, too.” She smiled softly at him, evidently upset that she had to include him.
“You’ll still let Hugo come, right?”
“Of course, but you may not get any actual conversation from him. Maybe Ron can join you since it obviously won't be ‘date night’ for us. I’ll have to stay home with Rose.”
Ron grinned. “Yeah…I’d like that. Us guys can watch some of those manly action flicks the girls hate.” Ron suggested enthusiastically. Harry thought Ron was unusually chipper about the change in plans.
“Yeah, sounds good.” Harry agreed and turned to the Floo. He hoped he could whip through the stacks of paperwork quickly. There was a Quidditch match tonight he wanted to watch. Thank Merlin someone had finally figured out how to use Muggle electronics like tellies and toasters in the Wizarding World. He could finally watch all the matches he couldn’t attend in person. The Harpies were playing the Falmouth Falcons. Ginny would be playing and even though they were no longer together romantically, he still loved her like a sister and enjoyed rooting for her. They were playing in Falmouth tonight. With all the work Harry had in front of him, he couldn’t attend the game in person.
The whirring feel of the Floo whooshed through him and he landed inside of his own living room at Grimmauld Place. At least now he landed on his feet consistently. He brushed the ash off his robes.
“Where the hell have you been?” a long familiar voice asked from the couch of his supposedly empty home.
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Crime is of the Essence