The summer started auspiciously. Harry finished his Hogwarts homework in record time and charged headfirst into his Muggle schoolwork. Abigail successfully lured, brought down, and processed three kills one hundred percent on her own. The dogs were all healthy. Hannibal's garden overflowed with fruits and vegetables, and they all feasted.

And then one day there was a knock on the door.

Both Hannibal and Harry looked up from what they were doing. They exchanged glances, and Harry rose to answer the knock. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his father palm a long knife from the block on the counter and another from a drawer, one balanced for throwing.

Harry opened the door, and his first thought was, 'He knows.' The tall, heavyset black man at the front of the group knew – or at least suspected the provenance of their protein, though the others had no idea. But they all were surprised to see him; none of them had known he was living here.

"Ah," said Hannibal behind him, "Agent Crawford. Agent Katz. Agent Price, Agent Zeller. Doctor Bloom."

"How long have we all known each other, Hannibal?" the spunky Asian woman demanded, planting her hands on her hips.

"My apologies, Beverly; I didn't want to presume, given the circumstances. This is Harry, our adopted son. Harry, these are Jack Crawford, Beverly Katz, James Price, Brian Zeller, and Alana Bloom."

Harry's chest tightened, but he didn't let on anything but pleasant surprise. "Oh! It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot of stories."

"Only good ones, I hope," Katz grinned, and shook his hand when he offered.

"Please, come in," said the eldest Wendigo, stepping back and surreptitiously returning the knives to their places, "I take it you're here to see Will?"

"I wouldn't have come if I thought we could do it without him," Agent Crawford said a little stiffly.

"Harry, would you mind?"

He nodded and headed toward the back of the house.

Will and Abigail were both in swimsuits despite the faint chill in the air, washing the dogs in the backyard and laughing as they sprayed each other with the hose. Harry knew their good mood was about to disappear. "Dad!"

"Coming!" Will abandoned the hose and sprinted for the house before Abby could grab it and turn it on him. He dried off quickly with a towel from the deck and followed Harry back inside.

The wizard knew the instant he spotted and recognized their visitors, almost a decade older than their last pictures, because his bloody presence deepened and darkened with pain and fear.

"Hey, Will! Lookin' good!"

"Thanks, Bev." He stepped forward and let her hug him, but shied back a little when Alana offered the same. "Hannibal, do you mind if we use the parlor?"

"Go right ahead. I'll be along with some refreshments in a moment." When they all disappeared into the sitting room, Hannibal whispered, "Go tell your sister that the FBI is here and she can't be seen."

Harry nodded and darted off again.

Abigail panicked briefly but dried off and climbed the outer wall to her bedroom window, getting dressed and then climbing back down and disappearing into the woods, dogs in tow. They wouldn't go far, though the dogs would need another bath.

Harry returned to doing his homework, trying to listen in, but the doors to the sitting room were closed and no one was talking loud enough for him to make out.

Almost three house passed before anyone emerged for longer than it took to use the bathroom. Everyone looked grim and Will looked pained. The High Wendigos bade farewell to the FBI agents, even as Harry texted Abigail that they. Were leaving.

They were gone completely by the time she made it back, and Hannibal had Will in his arms, the younger Wendigo's face buried in his throat. "Dad…?" Abby said hesitantly.

"They need me to go back to the States with them. There's a killer they want caught – 'Buffalo Bill.'" Will's voice was muffled but still audible.

Both Abby's and Harry's breath caught. Although they did not quite have his gift for it, both had been taught how to Read people as best they could. But they were lucky; they could Read and then forget. Will was not; his curse was that every time he Read, he took a piece of that person into himself, and depending on how deep he went, it could take anywhere from hours to years to erase the imprint he received. It hd been almost a decade, but he was still picking bits of the Chesapeake Ripper out of himself.

"Are you gonna go?"

"Yes," Will sighed unhappily, "They're desperate. A Senator's daughter's been taken. If we catch him, Hannibal gets amnesty in the even enough evidence 'turns up' to convict him as the Ripper."

Hannibal's eyes narrowed, and his lips tightened. "I was very careful. I doubt they'll find anything."

"They're still solving cold cases thirty years down the line, Hanni," Will murmured into his throat, "That's not a risk I'm willing to take."

"I've been a Wendigo since I was at school in Italy – our DNA might be different enough to be an attack by a 'cryptid.'"

"Still, not a risk I'm willing to take. I'm going, and I want you to come with me." He leaned back to look the elder High Wendigo in the eye. "I need you to come with me, keep me steady – otherwise I don't know how much of me will come back."

Hannibal's eyes flashed, and he pulled Will back into his arms.

They had told the BAU team that they would need time to consider. In reality, both Wendigos knew that they would be watched closely while in the States, too closely to hunt – or bring any meat with them, no matter how cleverly concealed. Instead, they hunted quickly – yet still carefully – and nearly gorged themselves on the flesh of murderers, rapists, and pedophiles they snared through various means. Hannibal also set the bills up for autopay, certain groceries for auto-deliver (including food for the dogs), and explicitly forbade Abby and Harry from eating nothing but junk food while they were gone.

But then came the hard part. There was no guarantee that they would return in time to see their children off for their next years of school. Abigail could take Harry to King's Cross, of course, and head off to school herself, but the dogs would have to be boarded, the house shut up.

Both Hannibal and Will disliked the thought of that.

"Then find Buffalo Bill quickly," said Abigail.

The two "kids" kept up with every development they could in the case. Since a Senator's daughter had been taken, it became a huge deal overnight, and the return of one of the FBI's own out of retirement similarly made headlines. Freddie Lounds was posting articles almost as fast as she could type them, speculating on where Will and Hannibal had been and what they'd been up to, since each gave a different answer every time someone asked. Some of Will's answers made Abby and Harry crack up, like "ultralight hiking around the world" (no way in hell would Hannibal abandon civilization like that), "running a farm in Mongolia" (same), and "taking over for a Colombian drug lord" (more likely than the others, but still not very high). Hannibal's best had the two of them as Tibetan monks with Will serving as "dog whisperer" for their monastery.

Despite Freddie's intense prying, both Will and Hannibal managed to stay mostly out of the public eye, leaving Jack to bear the brunt of her attention. Though his temper was still formidable, he'd grown proof to her questioning over the years, and stonewalled her at every turn.

The elder Wendigos called whenever they could to check up on their children and discussed some details of the case with them, what details that they could get away with sharing or had already been leaked by the media. Sometimes having an outside perspective helped; they weren't blinded by what they had seen.

Jame Gumb was caught and killed by the Wendigos three days before the Hogwarts Express was due to depart. Though officially the FBI discovered his identity first, Will and Hannibal chanced on him living at the home of a former employer, rather than his listed address, and took him down, saving the Senator's daughter in the process.

Both of them wanted to return to England right away, but there were reports to be written, statements to give, and reporters to avoid. And both of them were starving; their tempers were short, and while Hannibal hid his irritation behind an titanium wall of civility, Will was prone to snapping at everyone for the slightest inconvenience (though he made it a point to apologize to his friends at the BAU if he did snarl at them, saying that he wanted to return home to his son and his dogs).

On August 31st, Abby and Harry hunted for their parents, catching two pedophiles on the outskirts of London and hauling them home for processing, which they were both exceedingly careful about, wearing Hannibal's "murder onesies" despite their low opinion of the attire.

The morning of September 1st, both Will and Hannibal called to wish Harry a safe trip and a good school year, then Abigail took him to the train station. They had gotten all his books the day the letter arrived (though Abby hadn't been able to sign his Hogsmeade permission slip), as well as new robes and supplies for classes new and old. Harry was able to get all three of his electives – Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Divination – and was actually able to practice them over the summer. He was especially interested in Divination, and read tea leaves for both himself and Abigail. According to said leaves, Abigail would have an easy year with her now-boyfriend, the werewolf David Kessler, but Harry's was going to be hard – symbols for darkness and depression kept turning up, but also ones for "long-awaited news" and a metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel.

But then he was waving goodbye to Abby and laughing with his friends. Yet their gossip revolved around something that had happened during the summer – a prisoner had escaped from the wizarding prison of Azkaban.

Sirius Black – Harry's godfather.

One of his other godparents was on the train with him – Remus Lupin, still tired but happy to see him. They had written the occasional letter to each other, keeping the other appraised of what was happening in their world along with occasional requests for advice, information, or clarification from the Ravenclaw, but this was the first time they'd seen each other since the will reading. The werewolf sat with them in their compartment, and when they found out he was their defense professor for the year, everyone pelted him with a multitude of questions about the lessons he had planned, which made him laugh.

But then the train began to slow, even though Harry knew there was no way they'd arrived at Hogsmeade Station. All the other students were just as confused, sticking their heads out of their compartment doors, questioning everyone else – which turned to screams and cries of shock when all the lights went out, the train grinding to a complete stop.

Harry focused and flicked his wand, creating a few werelights that hovered in their compartment, illuminating his friends' frightened faces. "Professor, do you know what's going on?"

Lupin looked grim. "The train is being searched for Sirius Black. Once it's done, we'll continue on our way to Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts."

"'Searched?'" Harry repeated, "By who?"

"By what."

Cold rippled through the compartment, making the werelights waver even as frost started spiderwebbing over the windows. Then a shadowy figure appeared on the other side of the door, sending bolts of cold dread down Harry's spine.

The compartment door slid open, revealing the dementor. It was tall and slender and cloaked from head to toe in black, save for the dead, decaying hand it had used to pull open the door. The hand withdrew, and the dementor took a long, sucking breath.

Any warmth left in the air vanished, and Harry's hands tightened into a death grip on his wand and the arm of his chair. Darkness swam at the edges of his vision, distant screams in his ears, but by the light of his wavering werelights, he saw his godfather stand and speak to the dementor, then banish it from the compartment with a spell of glowing silver mist.