Disclaimer: Neither HP nor 'Numb3ers' are mine…

Placing: Hermione's ninth birthday.

Crossover with the "Numb3ers"-series.

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sSsSsSsSs

COLBY

sSs

There was one thing that Colby Granger hated the most: Having free time and nothing to do.

Nevertheless, even the fact that he had both right now, didn't actually explain how he ended up in the middle of Great Britain, in a suburb where nothing ever happened.

Colby Granger had actually no idea what he was doing there.

He hadn't been there in years - or even longer.

Actually, the last time he had been there was when he had been fifteen years old and had just lost his father.

It had been a trying time, back then, he had been a sullen teenage who had wanted to be anywhere but there - but now...

Colby looked at the yellow house with a picket fence.

He sighed.

Ten years.

It had been ten years since he had been here last.

He knew, theoretically, he should use his time off to visit his mother or go out with friends or-

Who was he kidding?

Colby knew for a fact that he needed to be here.

Here - not somewhere else.

For a moment, Colby took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, his face showed determination.

He squared his shoulders and then knocked.

For a moment, nothing was heard inside, then running from children's feet could be heard and then the door opened jerkily, revealing big brown eyes and wild locks.

"Hello," Colby said cautiously, wondering if the girl in front of him was the baby-cousin his mother had mentioned being born a year after Colby had been here.

"Hello," the girl said, watching him from the gap of the door she had opened. "Who're you?"

"I'm Colby," Colby said while frowning over her head, not having heard anything that indicated an adult present. "And I guess you're Hermione?"

"How d'you know?" Hermione asked, crooking her head to the side and opening the door a bit more.

"My Mum mentioned you a few years ago after she phoned Uncle Brandton… er… your Dad, I mean," Colby told her and wondered if she'd believe him.

The girl just looked at him, her face in a cute kind of frown.

"So," she said slowly. "You're Daddy's nephew?"

"Yes," Colby agreed. "I'm Colby Granger. My Dad and yours were brothers."

"Prove it," the girl demanded, still frowning at him.

"Er…," Colby said slowly. "I… don't actually know how?"

The girl just looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"Don't you have some piece of identification?" she asked him.

Colby frowned, but pulled out his army identification and handed it over into her demanding hands.

The girl took it and looked it over like an expert.

"It looks valid," she decided finally.

"How would you know?" Colby asked, interested how the girl had decided on that.

"You're clearly American and this is an American identification. From your posture and your haircut you're definitely army. You've also got a tan-line that indicates that you have been in a very warm climate until recently while wearing clothes that covered most of your body, so definitely not on holiday…"

Colby looked a bit amused at that, then the girl continued.

"Sadly, all that doesn't tell me if you're really related to me or not." She cocked her head, her face thoughtful.

"Ah," another voice suddenly spoke up from behind the girl and Colby's eyes snapped up towards the stranger behind the girl.

Instinctively, Colby reached for his weapon - which he wasn't carrying. Nevertheless, the knowledge that a stranger was standing behind his baby-cousin actually trickered all his protective instincts.

"Take another look at him, Hermione," the stranger added, his eyes fixating on Colby's twitching hand for a second or two before looking him in the face.

The girl meanwhile turned towards the stranger with huge and trusting eyes.

"What should I look for?" She asked, her face open and interested.

"Structures," was the man's calm reply and his sharp eyes looked Colby over assessingly.

Colby straightened.

"And who are you?" he asked challengingly. Obviously, his little cousin knew the man - but that didn't mean that Colby had to trust him.

"Sherlock Holmes," the man replied, his eyes turning towards Hermione. "And you're clearly related to Daddy."

Daddy.

Colby opened his mouth to ask who the man was talking about when Hermione piped up suddenly.

"Oh!" She exclaimed as if she had finally found a missing puzzle piece. "He has the same jawline like Daddy! And while there are differences to his face, there's a 70% of being related if you take his appearance, his bone structure and his overall appearance together."

"More like a 75.6% chance," the other man - Sherlock corrected her.

Colby's baby-cousin just nodded eagerly. She didn't seem to be put out at all by the fact that she had being corrected and not even praised.

"So… he hasn't been lying," she concluded instead.

"If you had looked at his body language then you would have known that from the start," the other man added, his eyes still trained on Colby.

"Well," Colby decided to speak up at that. "If that's the case - will you let me in?"

The man frowned.

"Shouldn't you be at home with your mother?" he countered instead. "You haven't seen her in at least five months so I'm surprised that you came here to an Uncle you haven't seen in years and were never close to instead of to your mother."

Colby frowned.

"I was once close to Uncle Brandton," he corrected the other man. "I might not have come here for the last ten years - but before that I basically lived here for a time."

"Damn," the other man countered, his face contorting to a frown. "It's always something I miss!"

Colby shrugged and then decided to add diplomatically.

"But you had the rest of it right," he countered.

The other man just waved it off and then turned away from the door and left.

Colby's eyes found the ones of his baby-cousin.

"Can I come in?" he asked her.

She shrugged.

"Sure," she said and stepped aside, but before Colby could actually enter, the other man came out again, this time wearing a coat.

"What-?"

"A double murder in a closed room!" The other man replied before Colby could even ask. "I need to go immediately."

Colby gawked at him, watching him pass him and heading towards the train station.

"Hey!" He called after him when the man reached the street. "And what about Hermione?!"

The stranger stopped.

"Ah," he said and then waved it off. "You're there, so she should be safe."

"You don't even know me!" Colby countered immediately.

"American Army Ranger, and you have been at it since you've been eighteen. You're disgustingly honourable and you're so much like Daddy that it hurts to even look at you. I bet you're going to be as disgustingly overprotective of my baby-sister as Daddy is even before I reach the train," Sherlock countered and before Colby could even comprehend what the other man had uttered, he was gone again…

Colby followed the other man with his eyes in disbelief before he turned and looked at his baby-cousin.

"Is he really leaving you with me alone?!" he asked in disbelief.

Hermione shrugged, obviously as unconcerned as Sherlock.

"Sure," she said. "My brother's work is important, after all."

Colby opened his mouth to counter her exclamation, but then closed it again with the mental reminder that his baby-cousin had called the other man 'brother'.

Brother.

Colby turned and looked down the street where the other man had vanished to.

Brother.

That man… Sherlock… was Colby's cousin.

Colby wanted to slam his head against something really, really hard.

Sherlock was his cousin.

He had a mad man as a cousin.

Hermione smiled at him sweetly.

"Come in?" she offered.

"Er… Thank you, I guess," Colby said slowly. "Hermione."

She smiled again and then gestured him in.

"Come in," she said proudly. "I'm sure there's even some birthday cake for you in our fridge."

"Birthday cake?"

Hermione grinned.

"My brother brought it by a few hours ago… actually, it's for later when Mummy and Daddy come home but I don't think they'll mind if we eat a piece now, it's mine after all," she assured him with a smile.

"Oh?" Colby said and followed the girl. "So… you're having a birthday soon?"

"Today," she corrected with a huge smile. "I'm nine now. And I definitely like my present this year."

Colby frowned.

"Well, I don't have a present for you, sorry," he apologized.

She grinned.

"Oh - but you don't need a present for me," she corrected. "You are my present, after all!"

And when Colby gawked, she added happily.

"I've never gotten any cousins from Daddy's side for my birthday until now," she said with glowing eyes. "Only siblings."

"Oh… alright," Colby said, not too sure what to say to that.

"But I already got an aunt on Mummy's side," she assured him as if he could be concerned by her lack of variety in presents.

"Er… alright?"

Hermione just grinned happily.

"And I bet, if I'm good for the whole next year, I might even get another cousin for next birthday - this time maybe even from Mummy's side." She nodded to herself. "There must be some cousins out there as well, don't you think so, too? Mummy has some siblings, after all!"

She looked at him inquiringly and her brown eyes seemed to reach into his chest and take out his heart.

No matter mad adult cousins from the new wife of his uncle - this girl in front of him was something that Colby didn't want to miss from his life.

And maybe, Colby had to say later on, that Sherlock had been right.

Talking to Hermione on his way to the kitchen was all it took.

After that, Colby would forever watch out for Hermione first… or well, as good and as often as he could, considering that he was first in the army and later on an FBI agent in Los Angeles.

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I'm sorry that it took me such a long time to update this story. I hope you like it anyway.

Ebenbild