The Contract - A Crossover with CSI:NY and Harry Potter.

Hurt/Comfort, friendship, angst, slowly developing romance.

Two best friends make a pact that their children will be drawn to each other, fall in love and spend the rest of their lives together. Unfortunately years later Magic demands that the pact be fulfilled and forces the children - Hermione Granger and Danny Messer - to marry. Can they find a way to merge their two very different worlds?

AU for both HP and CSI:NY but of varying degree.

Hermione is a year younger than she is in the books - so she was 17 at the end of the war. Events of DH are changed slightly - Ron didn't re-join Harry and Hermione in the hunt until after the events at Malfoy Manor so didn't save Harry from drowning (Hermione followed Harry and saved him from drowning instead) and the book did not relate all of what Bellatrix did to Hermione.

The story takes place in the fourth series of CSI:NY and there is an established relationship between Danny and Mac, therefore changing events of the series' from mid-season 2 onwards - so Peyton and Lindsey were never with either man, and Mac never went to London. The story may mention cases from the show, but none of them will feature here as they don't quite fit within my story - and it's difficult to figure out which episodes were based around Christmas in the fourth series. Don Flack is a Wizard and Danny is the only one on the team who knows.

Being British I don't know how to sound like a New Yorker, so sorry if I mangle some of the speech. Thank my use of Google for any location mistakes for New York City. Also, my first time writing relationships - so probably not going to be graphic.

Warnings for: male/male relationship, scenes of torture at later points, threesome, fluff, limes - DON'T LIKE DON'T READ. Rated M, just in case.

Usual disclaimer - all characters belong to Ms Rowling, her publishers, Mr Zuiker and the executives at CBS and Bruckheimer Television, and are just being borrowed for non-profit fun.

The Contract

Chapter One

Danny Messer didn't know what was wrong with him. Everything had been fine until about a month ago. He was finally with the man he'd loved for the last five years, and after an initial few problems, he and Mac were happy together. Danny was happier than he ever remembered being, and he loved seeing a side of Mac Taylor that no-one (except his late wife) was privy to - the relaxed, sensual side. Mac Taylor took his intensity at the lab to the bedroom, much to the younger man's delight. Everything was perfect. Until September came along. Danny didn't know why, but he started to feel different as September wore on. Nothing changed between Mac and himself as far as he noticed - the same intensity, the same passion, the same workload at the lab - but it felt like something was missing suddenly, and the feeling was growing every day.

So far Danny had managed to hide his feelings from his lover, but as time went on he was beginning to feel the same sense of loss during sex too - oh he was just as satisfied, and sated, as ever with Mac, but he just had the feeling that there was something more. Try as he might Danny just couldn't think what could be missing. What could have changed?

xxxx

Mac Taylor was worried. He watched from his office as Stella and Danny talked about their case in the Trace lab. Something was wrong with Danny, and he was trying to hide it. Whatever it was didn't affect his work at all, and everything seemed the same when they were home, it was just that every now and then he would catch the younger man distracted at times with a faraway look in his eyes. Even after almost a year of being together Mac still had difficulty getting his lover to talk to him about things that were bothering him. He knew Danny didn't like to seem weak, especially in front of him, but hoped that Danny would eventually learn that it didn't matter to him; Mac loved him no matter what. But lately it seemed that Danny was even more passionate during their love-making, almost as if he was making up for something, though Mac couldn't think what - as far as he was concerned there was nothing wrong in that department. But was that the problem? Was Danny not satisfied by him anymore? No, that wasn't it. He knew they were both satisfied last night.

Whatever was wrong was increasing, with Danny's distracted moments becoming more frequent it seemed as October changed into November. Maybe Danny had spoken to Don about what was wrong. But Mac wasn't sure he wanted to ask Don, he wanted his lover to tell Mac himself. But how was he going to get him to do that?

xxxx

Stella Bonasera watched as Danny Messer began processing the victims clothing for evidence, being meticulous as usual. She had thought that he appeared to be slightly distracted occasionally during shift yesterday, though it never affected his attention to detail while at the scene. Then today as they returned to the lab he stopped and looked as if he were searching for someone before shaking his head and entering the building. She knew the younger man was often reluctant to admit when something was bothering him but she could usually get him to spill eventually. She decided to try the direct route today.

"Did you see who you were looking for?" The Greek woman asked.

"Huh? What you talkin' about?" He replied as he collected the last of the blood samples from the victim's blouse before carefully replacing it in the evidence bag and signing the seal. Danny couldn't help but notice how his voice sounded flustered and slightly panicked, there was no way Stella missed it either.

"When we got here, you were looking around for someone. Danny, is there something wrong?"

"Nothin's wrong! I'm gonna get these blood samples down to DNA, see if any of it doesn't belong to our vic." With that he collected to various swabs and sealed blouse and made his way out of Trace.

Danny quickly re-entered the blouse in the evidence locker and dropped the swabs off to DNA before going up to Mac's office on the pretext of giving him an update on the case. When he reached the glass office he was grateful to see that most of the blinds were already drawn, and Mac was standing behind his desk speaking on the phone. Mac saw Danny approach and motioned him to enter before the younger man had a chance to knock, as he finished his conversation with the person on the other end.

"Chief, you'll know as soon as I know, which can't happen when I keep getting interrupted for updates. Let us do our jobs." Mac's voice was firm as he said his piece and then hung up before the other could reply.

While Mac had finished the phone call, Danny had closed the door and shut the remaining blinds before walking to the man behind the desk. While the rest of the team knew of the couple, no-one else did - there were still far too many anti-gays around, especially in the force, to make the knowledge public. Mac didn't want their relationship to break up the team, but couldn't allow any question as to the integrity of the lab, so Stella was the one who dealt with Danny's evaluations (as well as Sheldon's and Adam's) on the pretext of expanding her responsibilities. That way it could never be argued that the couple's relationship played any part in the decisions made at the lab.

As Mac hung up the phone Danny stepped into his personal space and leaned in to bring their lips together in a kiss while bringing both hands up to cup the older man's face. The kiss was tender and sensual at the same time as Danny poured all the emotions of his heart into the kiss, starting slowly by gently tracing Mac's lips with his tongue before being granted access when Mac moaned into the contact. Their tongues duelled for a moment as the kiss became more heated until Danny pulled away again before they got really carried away.

"Chief still buggin' ya about the Stanley case?" He asked the older man.

"I think he's just fond of the sound of his own voice." Mac replied. "What brought that on?" He asked, trying to keep his earlier concerns out of his voice.

"Just needed you. I love you." Danny replied as he placed another quick kiss on his lover's lips.

"I love you too." There was a hesitation, before he asked "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah boss, Stella's workin' ballistics, Adam's runnin' the fingerprints through AFIS and I just got the last of the samples down to DNA." Danny replied, back to being all business. Mac allowed the moment to pass as they left the office discussing their unknown homicide victim.

xxxx

Hermione Granger stood outside the huge concrete and glass building designated One Police Plaza. In fact, she had been stood there for the last two hours, arguing with herself about what the best course of action should be. She knew he was in there, she could feel the persistent tug at her soul as she stood there. She suspected that once she actually entered the building, the pull would lead her directly to him, without having to ask directions. It scared her a little. This whole thing scared her a lot. Which is why she was still standing outside instead of having gone in already to find him.

It had taken her weeks to figure out what was wrong with her when she had started to feel a pull in her soul and an emptiness in her heart shortly after her birthday, and had only thought to look for a magical explanation when Fleur had suggested that maybe her Blood Contract was activated by turning eighteen. Hermione had tried to explain to the other woman that she was Muggle-born and had never made a Blood Contract with anyone, but the newest addition to the Weasley family had dismissed her assertion stating that the Contract was made between the parents of the intended. A charm had revealed that Hermione's mother had indeed entered a contract with a childhood friend named Rosa Santorini when they were both nine years old, that their children - if one had a boy and one had a girl - would be soul mates completely in love and would marry within six months of them both turning eighteen, sealing this promise by cutting both their palms and pressing the two wounds together. It turned out that both girls were Muggles, so ordinarily this wouldn't have been a problem, except that Hermione had been born a witch, and therefore bound by the Contract her mother had made.

Unfortunately Hermione was not able to ask her mother about her childhood friend. Shortly after arriving in Australia, Monica and Wendell Wilkins - the aliases she had given her parents - were killed in a car accident, never knowing that they ever had a daughter. This knowledge had devastated Hermione when she had gone looking for them at the end of the war, as the only reason they had been there was to protect them from harm, and they ended up dying anyway. Hermione had spent several days and nights crying into Harry's embrace, nearly inconsolable. Her grief had barely run its course when she began to feel the effects of the Blood Contract. She knew that her mother's family had moved to England when she had been ten, which meant that the contract had been made while she was living in America. New York City to be precise.

It had taken almost two months to find the right Rosa Santorini and discover that she had married a man named Paul Messer and born two sons - Louie, now deceased, and Danny, a policeman for the City. Which is how she found herself standing outside the City's crime lab - where the man in question worked. Harry had argued with her about going to see a stranger alone, but Hermione had insisted that this was a personal matter, one that she had to do on her own. She just had no idea how.

Sometime after arriving at the building she had felt the pull of her soul get stronger, as if the man she sought was coming closer, and it took every ounce of strength she possessed to move back round the corner of the building she was watching as a tall, elegant woman with long curly hair walked to the entrance accompanied by man. He had short dark blond hair and was wearing a black leather jacket with a pair of faded blue jeans. He stopped before entering the building, and began to look around as if searching for something, or someone. As he turned her way, she noticed the slight stubble on his face, and behind wire-rimmed glasses were the most brilliant blue eyes she had ever seen. Every fibre of her being insisted that she go to him - that this was the man she was looking for, this was the missing part of her soul. But Hermione was not considered the rational one for nothing, and not for the first time forced her body to listen to her head instead of her heart and dodged back out of sight before he could see her.

That had been over an hour ago, and she still didn't know what she should do. From what she had managed to find out about him, he was a Muggle like their mothers, but his actions outside the building suggested that he was at least affected by the contract as well, though to a much lesser degree. That might make it easier to explain if he could feel what she was talking about. Getting him to believe in magic, and accept that she was a witch, on the other hand was likely to be a problem. Not that she had any idea what she was going to say, but that was not what was keeping her outside. The pull she had felt when she saw him at a distance had been stronger than she had imagined it would be, and the thought of getting closer, and perhaps loosing herself in his presence, scared her. No, it terrified her. The idea that she could be controlled so easily, have her actions taken out of her control, by some Blood Contract that she had no say in, terrified her.

So much for Gryffindor courage.

Taking a deep breath Hermione moved towards the building entrance.

xxxx