Disclaimer: Bones and Harry Potter is not mine.

warning: descriptions of abuse coming, not as much this chapter but there are mentions

I have a lot more written and hopefully will get it out quickly after I type it all up.

Special Agent Seeley Booth led the most recent victim's wife into the conference room, studying her intently as he did. He never liked this part of the job, informing the poor family that their loved one was dead and then trying to subtly interrogate them and see if they were the ones who killed them. Agent Booth's partner and recently to his utter delight, wife, Dr Temperance Brennan, or Bones as he preferred, followed them into the conference room and took a seat at the table. Booth invited the victim's wife to do the same, then sat down himself.

God this part of the job sucked, and the guy had two kids as well it seemed. Some other agents had picked up the victim's wife from a hotel and the two children had to come along and were currently sitting in the bullpen with Dr Lance Sweets. Children being involved often complicated situations, especially on what his partner had discovered so far.

"Are you sure it's my Vernon?"

Booth did his best, he thought anyways, to not judge the families of the victims too much right off the gate, but something about this woman put him off a bit. She was a horse-faced woman, with a thin neck, that seemed to do its best to be extended and look down on them. There was something in her British voice in the little conversation that they had had so far.

"We are sure Mrs. Dursley, my team was able to positively identify him," Dr Brennan told the wife, "Vernon Dursely."

Petunia Dursley bristled and she blinked back a few tears. "Where did you find him, he's been missing for weeks?! We come to this country for a vacation and my poor husband is murdered!"

"His body was found in a hotel room in Dupont Circle. Do you know why he would be in a hotel room that was booked for one month in advance under an assumed name when our agents picked you up at a completely different hotel?"

Booth studied the woman's face as she answered. There was something in her face that set something off in his gut, but he wasn't sure what it was yet. "A hotel room? I wouldn't know anything about that." Mrs. Dursley's eyes darted over to her children.

Out of the corner of his eye, Booth saw his partner turn and look towards the children as well, and begin studying them intently, he continued on with his questioning. "No idea at all, why at the same time your family is on vacation together, he gets his own place to be away from you all for the same amount of time?"
"Now I don't appreciate that at all," Mrs Dursley said bitterly, clutching her chest, "My husband has died and you seem to be interrogating me."

"I'm sorry for your loss Mrs Dursley, but I need to ask these questions to get to the bottom of your husbands murder," Booth replied.

Mrs Dursley nodded.

Booth thought over what was known about the victim so far as he studied the woman in front of him, and none of it was good. The victim was easy enough to identify as Vernon Dursley, surprisingly enough there weren't a lot of missing 400 pound briting men in Washington DC. He had been found in a hotel room after the smell became too much for the cleaning lady to continue listening to the do not disturb sign and open the door to find the exploded remains of a guest. The body had been left unattended long enough to do the stomach rupture thing that Bones had explained to him at the body farm and it was absolutely disgusting.

Booth couldn't help but suspect that that was why he had gotten the call in the first place. If he was the paranoid type, he'd say there was a memo somewhere that said "for gross murder call Booth." He got why, he had some of the smartest people in the world on his team, they could figure out the gross ones better than anybody, but it still sucked sometimes.

The Jeffersonian hadn't had the body for long before Bones was called away from the lab to talk to the victims wife with him, but her initial findings had him worried. According to the forensic anthropologist the man's x-rays, and Bones initial examination showed the man had injuries that indicated he spent a lot of time beating on something. Or as Booth suspected, someone. Worse still was evidence of what she called a repetitive strain injury that was more suggestive of repeated use of a whip than manual labor. Bones years of experience meant she had seen similar injuries before. And all of the injuries were at varying stages of healing and as well as some very recent ones. All of this added up to the agent as the victim was probably abusing someone, and usually that meant the wife unfortunately.

Also, cause of death was nowhere to be found thus far.

"Ok, well, why were you guys visiting the US, one month is a pretty long vacation?" Booth questioned further.

"Oh my god." Her voice was small and Booth almost missed it, but something in her voice made him stop in his questioning and look towards his partner.

Bones was staring through the glass, and it seemed as though she was tearing up slightly at something she was seeing.

Booth's eyes widened and he grabbed his partner's hand. Bones rarely cried,and he couldn't recall a single time she had shown this level of emotion in the FBI offices surrounded by strangers. Booth watched as a fire seemed to light in her eyes as her sharp gaze landed on the victims wife.

"Do you know what's wrong with that child?" Bones voice was hard and Booth's hair stood on end as an anger he didn't understand fully permeated her voice. His wife could be a terrifying woman.

"Bones?" he whispered forcefully, leaning into his partner, not knowing where the sudden anger towards the victims wife was coming from.

"That boy…" Bones pointed into the other room.

"Oh…" something in Petunia Dursely's voice as she began to speak caused Booth to look directly in her eyes instead of where his wife was pointing. "My son, Dudley, what a wonderful boy so much like his father. Oh my poor Dudders, what will we do without my Vernon?"
"The other boy, not the victims son. While the boy does share some of the same facial markers as you, I don't see any matching our victim. Illegitimate child maybe. Were you cheating on your husband?"

Mrs. Dursley paled considerably. Whatever Bones had noticed had seriously spooked her and a bad feeling settled in Booth's gut. He didn't know what was coming, but he knew it was going to be terrible.

"Absolutely not!" Mrs. Dursley exclaimed, "I would never cheat on my husband, how dare you say such a thing. How rude you are, my husband has died. The boy belongs to my sister. She died when the boy was a baby and he was left in our care after her and her husbands murder. I would have left him at the hotel but I… there was no one to leave him with and the agent suggested I bring him."

Her voice continued to set Booth on edge, but what Bones said next shocked him.

"Is that why your husband beats him, because he's your nephew?"
Booth wanted to turn and gape at his wife and comment on her common and often troublesome overstepping of bounds, but something told him she was onto something and the bad feeling grew.

Mrs. Dursley's eyes grew wide and she sputtered as she tried to answer. "How dare you, my husband is a good, decent,normal man, and that boy, that fr… That boy is a liar and a criminal. MY husband punished that lazy boy fairly and anything else the fre… the BOY has said is a lie."

The more she spoke, the more Booth knew Bones was right and the wife definitely knew.

"The boy hasn't said anything," Bones began. "I can see it in his bones, Booth."

Booth finally tore his eyes away from the frightened, angry woman in front of him to look at where his wife was pointing. To an area across the bullpen where the children were waiting.

"Look at the way he's holding himself, it's subtle, but he looks to be in pain by the way he's sitting. And watch his hands, just… look at him Booth!"

Her voice was rising in volume as she began to get more worked up.

Booth looked at the small child across the way sitting next to an odd looking Sweet. He expected to see nothing his genius wife could as per usual but was shocked to notice he was seeing what his wife was beginning to describe.

"His skin is pulled tight over his bones, when he grabs the water, there's tension and stress indicative of broken carpals, and Booth, what I'm seeing, I can only imagine the amount of breaks I'd see on an x-ray. When he looks up you can see a nasal fracture on his septum, in fact evidence of it being broken more than once. They're healed well, but I can see its multiple breaks. Your husband," Bones turned to look at Mrs. Dursley and Booth followed her gaze, "Has years of boxers fractures and stress along the joints in his shoulders from a whipping motion. I've been here five minutes and I see evidence of severe abuse and malnutrition. I dread what we will find on closer examination."

At this point Petunia Dursley looked like she was going to leap at them, yet she was also obviously pale and terrified. Booth knew everything that was being said was hitting her to her core.

Booth felt the horrible feeling in his chest become quickly replaced by anger. He knew everything being said was true, he just knew.

A short rap at the door drew Booths attention and he turned as the door drew Booth's attention and he turned as the door opened without him answering.

"Booth." It was Sweets at the door, a worried look on his face, "I need to speak with you both. Now."