Short Stories and Oneshots

Meeting of the Minds

Type: Criminal Minds & Harry Potter

Special Agent David Rossi meets Jack Hotchner's tutor looking over their newest case board and finds out that there is a heck of a lot more to this woman than meets the eye.

~

Having just arrived at the New York Police Station ten minutes before, Dave didn't know exactly what called his attention to the quiet woman looking over the case board. Her golden eyes looked over every piece of paper clipping, picture, and case note scrawled on the board. The humidity of the New York summer had her brown hair going into nearly out of control curls that appeared to irritate her, as they kept getting into her face.

She would stop every now and again, worrying her lower lip. Clearly she was thinking over what she was seeing. But was this because the case was confusing or because she was figuring something out. When she came to a conclusion or read something that gave her the answer she was pondering, her face would light up in understanding and she would move on.

Dave had been studying her for about five minutes before Spencer came over to join him.

"Who is that?" Rossi asked.

Spencer watched her for a moment before saying, "She could be the expert that Captain Tailor told us of."

"Let's find out, shall we?" he said, even as he was advancing towards her.

Just as Dave was approaching her, her cellphone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket, answering with a brisk, "I know I'm late."

He stopped. British? This made her stand out all the more, but decided to wait to see what she said to the person on the other end of the phone conversation. What exactly was she late for?

"Because I promised him that's why!" she snapped. "For heaven's sake, Gin! It's a pub crawl, not the World Cup finals. If I miss a few pints, the world won't come to an end." She rolled her expressive brown eyes. "Okay, so I missed going to one of the pubs. Just move on and I'll meet up with you. Yes, I promise I'll call first to find out where you are. Okay, okay, bye!" She hung up the phone, letting out a long breath she turned to David and asked, "You wouldn't happen to know the appeal of a pub crawl would you?"

She was earnest in her question and so he answered, "The comradery. Doing something with your friends."

"Oh." She nodded. "That makes sense. I knew it had to be more than the pints."

"Pardon me, but who are you?" David asked her.

"Oh I'm terribly sorry," she said, turning to face the older man. "I'm Hermione Granger. I tutor Jack Hotchner in Mathematics. Currently, I'm waiting for Agent Hotchner to get out of the meeting he's in to give him the test that I swore on a yellow pages directory that I would see to that his father would get."

Cracking a grin, he asked, "A yellow pages directory?"

"It was the best I could do, seeing as I didn't have a Bible about," she replied. "And I wasn't about to swear on an Algebra book." When he frowned, she answered, "If it can't even find a simple 'X' on its own, it can't help anyone with an oath of any sort."

This had Spencer laughing.

"So you're waiting for Agent Hotchner, but what are you doing looking over the board?" David asked her.

"It's quite the puzzle," she murmured.

He looked at it, answering, "It certainly is." He looked back to her. "What do you see?"

"Connections," she replied. "Links, I suppose."

"There aren't any," David told her.

"Are you sure?" she asked him. "Three of the four on this board were dying. That's a link."