crossoverfic | FIC: Science and Magic, PG, Harry Potter/CSI Miami

Title: Science and Magic
Author:

morgynleri_fic
Fandoms: Harry Potter/CSI: Miami
Disclaimer: Hermione, Nott, Graham, and others recognizably from the Harry Potter books belong to JK Rowling, etc. Speed, Horatio, Eric, Calleigh, Alexx, and others from CSI Miami belong to Jerry Bruckheimer, etc.
Summary: Speed runs into a friend in trouble, and discovers that there are times when what you don't know could kill you.

Next Chapter: Under the Influence

Chapter: Something's Wrong
Rating: PG
Warnings: none

"Hermione." Speed stopped on the edge of the beach, the shadows stretching from behind him towards the young woman standing on the oddly deserted beach.

Her hair reflected honey-brown highlights, frizzy curls flying as she spun to face him. Brown eyes looked almost sunken into her pale face, lighting up with relief for a brief moment when she saw him. She managed to shutter the expression away so quickly that he wondered if he had actually seen what he thought.

"Tim?" She approached him slowly, and he could see the careful tilt of her hand, probably to hide the wand she held. "You came alone?"

"Yeah. What's going on?"

"Not here." She beckoned him closer, resting her one hand on his arm, the one without the wand. "It's not safe here."

"Hermione, what's going on?" He hadn't seen her this spooked since he had met her, curled into a ball at a crime scene, her fiance murdered in their hotel room. "Is someone else dead?"

"I don't know. Please, we can't talk here." She pressed something into his hand, holding tightly to it as something tugged behind his navel, the world spinning away around him. He stumbled on the deck of a ship as the tugging and spinning ceased.

"What the hell was that?"

"A port-key." Hermione dropped the rolled up newspaper into a trash compactor. "I'm sorry about that, Tim, but I had to make sure we could talk without potentially being interrupted by some... well, wanted criminals is a very bare-bones description of what they are."

"Where are we?" Speed turned slowly, looking around at the cabin. A low table in front of a padded bench took up the bulk of the room. A table covered in scraps of parchment with scribbles and strange symbols that looked like arcane mathematical equations.

"A small yacht somewhere in the Pacific, with just enough magical protection to keep anyone from tracking it or getting on board without my permission." Hermione reached into the small cabinet that hung over the bench, pulling out a tiny vial before turning to face him. "I need you to drink this, Tim."

"What is it? And why do I need to drink it?" Speed raised an eyebrow, confused, and wondering what had happened to the cheerful young business executive he'd taken out to lunch a week ago. "And while we're at it, what the hell happened to you?"

"It's a truth serum, I can't trust anyone, and I won't tell you unless I can be sure you are who you say you are, and no one has gotten to you already." Hermione held out the vial, her wand visible in her other hand. "If I have to, I'll erase your memory, and make sure no one can ever retrieve it."

Speed stared at her a moment before slowly reaching out to take the vial. "You're going to tell me what the hell is going on after you're sure it's me, right?"

"I promise, Tim."

"Right." He sighed, pulling the cork out of the vial, and regarding it warily for a long moment. "This day is getting really weird."