PotterLock Down (A Crossover Fanfiction)

Chapter 14: Of Scandals and Polyjuice

Once the hubbub had died down, Dumbledore stood and announced that the teachers would band together and get to the bottom of this matter while the students resumed classes as normal.

"Didn't you hear the man?" said McGonagall, "How are we to teach magic if we can't use magic?"

"Sounds like summat the Ministry would love to hear," grumbled Hagrid.

Sherlock absently wondered how large his home might have been if his parents were anywhere near the giant's size—then he realized everyone was watching him carefully. Just in time, Sherlock remembered again that he was supposedly from this "Ministry" they evidently mistrusted. Perhaps it hadn't been such a good idea to use it...

"Well?" Flitwick prodded.

Sherlock raised a lean hand. "I assure you, I had nothing to do with this."

Snape remained dubious. "Yet you know the man responsible."

Sherlock nailed him with a stare. "A hen may know a certain fox but that doesn't make them friends," he retorted. "Yes, I know this man, but only inasmuch as he has tried to thwart or kill me on multiple occasions."

Snape remained impassive. "He must not be as much of a threat as you would make him out to be, since he obviously never succeeded."

Sherlock very much wanted to punch this man. He sincerely hoped that at some point during his visit he would have the opportunity to go head-to-head (or at least toe-to-toe) with him.

"You have seen the sort if performance he gave just now; I can very likely connect him with the poisoned candles in the great hall and the other misdemeanors too. Only give me the chance to investigate and you will see exactly the sort of man he is!" Sherlock bragged.

By midday, the insidious performance had been forgotten, and it really did feel like Hogwarts was back again as the owls swooped overhead with the daily mail, even though it wasn't breakfast. They dropped the papers on everyone's plate.

Sherlock couldn't help noticing that the murmur of whispers suddenly swelled, and students were pointing to him. What was it this time? Sherlock looked up as a paper dropped onto the table in front of him. He recognized Hedwig, Harry's owl. Sherlock looked at the paper.

"FAMED CONSULTANT RESISTS ARREST!" The headline proclaimed. There was a picture of him and Watson cuffed together, from when they had been arrested only for publicity's sake (and the sake of Lestrade's job). It was all very fascinating how he could see the picture move as if on a television screen, but the fact that some muckraker was dredging that up again made Sherlock feel like a bug under a microscope. He glanced to his left, where Trelawney was very obviously trying not to look at him.

The paper she read had a picture of him nude (there was only one person in the world who could and would have taken such a photo!) accompanied by the headline "CONSULTING DEFECTIVE? SHERLOCK BARES ALL FOR THE CROWN." Sherlock stood abruptly from the table. If he said anything now he would look guilty. There was only one reason things like this would emerge in the paper even after being dismissed for so long. He passed a young girl who shrank away from him. She was reading about the incident in the abandoned factory with the children Moriarty had taken to make him out to be a molester. He needed to find Moriarty, and soon! He-

Sherlock stopped. Something he had absently dismissed as a white speck of dust wasn't dust at all, but a flash of light. He looked up. Something glinted in a chink in the wall high up near the ceiling of the great hall.

"Something glitters," said a dry voice.

"But I'll bet it's not gold," said another in exactly the same tone.