Potterlock

How and Why

It had been under the cover of darkness that the Potters, the younger Holmes, and Dr. Watson appeared at the edge of the Weasley property and it would be before dawn when they left if they hoped to go undetected and keep from revealing the truth that Hermione and Ron Weasley had not, in fact, died. While Ron was quite surprised to have awoken to the lot of them in his house, Hermione was not. She had been awake already, sorting through books and news articles and trying to research James Moriarty. John and Harry explained what Sherlock had deduced to Hermione and Ron. Ginny was frowning, clearly still remembering the rude and tactless ways the two professors had barged into her house and devising ways in which to keep them out. In her mind, Sherlock was an arrogant prick who was much more likely to get them killed than to keep them safe, and while she did not mind John on his own, any friend of Sherlock's was no friend of hers.

Had Sherlock been paying attention to his comrades, he would have recognized those things, however, he was distracted, sorting through Hermione Weasley's detailed, and neatly scrawled notes on his nemesis, James Moriarty. She had searched the Muggle and Wizarding newspapers for crime cases and had gathered many of the ones tied to Moriarty. He was a criminal mastermind, after all, so there weren't many cases in recent history that he didn't have his hand in in some form or other. A small smirk played on Sherlock's lips as he studied her work, she was brilliant, more so than he had given her credit for, and he had known she was the brightest witch of her age. He noted that she was probably the brightest witch since Rowena Ravenclaw and would hold that title for many years to come.

He had gotten distracted thinking of Hermione and the group's conversation began to register. "So," Ron said, "What you're telling me is that John got himself fired, and now Seamus, who was missing, but somehow isn't anymore, has taken his place."

"Yes," John said.

"Well how the bloody hell did you get fired? And how did Seamus turn up again? Why is he a target? He never was a bad bloke, he just wasn't the best at Charms," Ron continued.

Sherlock froze, "Say that again."

"What?" Ron asked, the entire party turning to face Sherlock who had tensed up but was still standing over Hermione's notes.

"Say that again."

"He never was a bad bloke, he just wasn't the bet at Charms?" Ron was utterly bewildered by Sherlock's sudden outburst.

"Yes..." Sherlock muttered, "He was never good at Charms, and he had never stepped out of line. He was a prankster, attention seeking, not at all good with women," Sherlock stopped short.

"Sounds like someone we know," Ron muttered under his breath. Sherlock ignored his comment, but heard someone, presumably Hermione, drive his or her elbow into Ron's side, causing him to cry out in pain. Sherlock's smirk curled a little wider; it was Hermione. Then he frowned, the room faded out and he was in his Mind Palace, specifically the potions room at Hogwarts in seventh year flipping idly through his textbook as the professor droned on about a potion Sherlock had mastered in his first year. The pages moved under his fingers and looked exactly as they had when he'd first turned them, recipes and all. There it was.

Back in the Weasleys' basement, Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Ginny looked from Sherlock to John, hoping for an explanation. John shrugged, "He's in his Mind Palace. Dumbledore himself couldn't bring him out if he tried; I would know, I've tried everything I could think of."

"So that's it then? He's done being helpful until he comes out of his own head?" Ginny asked. She did not like the man one bit and his methods would always confuse her.

"Seems like it," her brother agreed.

John and Harry, who knew Sherlock better than the rest, let it go. They knew how it worked and they also knew that if they spoke or thought in too obnoxious a way that Sherlock would yell at them to shut up. Hermione, however, was curious. She had not really had much experience with the memory concept of a 'Mind Palace'. She studied Sherlock, taking in his posture and the weird pressing of his fingers into his temples as he thought. His spine was rigid and she caught herself wondering how a person could ever think in such an uncomfortable position, but then again, it seemed like Sherlock led an unusually uncomfortable life. He held himself like someone who had been neglected as a child, but who had since grown, like Harry, but there was an arrogance about him, too, that she associated with people who were born well off, like Draco Malfoy. There probably wasn't a humble bone in his body and she knew that Ginny believed there was not a polite or decent one, either, but Hermione had a gut feeling that there was. Somewhere, deep inside Sherlock, he cared about people much more than he let on. He didn't want people to get hurt, and he was doing his best to prevent that, but to protect himself from getting attached or hurt when something went wrong, he put on a shell and a mask, or rather, a trench coat and a blue plaid scarf, then he popped his collar and pretended the world didn't get to him.