Gossip {Sherlock Holmes/Harry Potter}

Chapter Twenty

"What's your plan, Pierce?" John asked as they sat in the Hogsmeade Village outside of a small shop.

"I don't have one currently, John." Pierce answered standing up and throwing his head back. "I don't know how to defeat a dragon. I spent the evening in the library researching as much as I could about dragons, and you know what I learned?"

"What?"

"That I am one hundred percent screwed." Pierce said.

"That's not true." John said. "And don't speak like that. I'm sure you learned a lot about the dragons during your time. You have a brilliant mind just like-"

Pierce gave him a look.

"Right, sorry." John placed up his hands. "Look, tell me what you know and we can think of something together, alright?"

Pierce nodded his head before he began pacing back and forth in front of the man.

"They're highly aggressive, unable to be domesticated, and it takes several wizards just to stun one. The odds are just stacking themselves against me more and more."

"Let's stay positive..." John told him.

"I'm positive I'm going to be burnt to a crisp. Better?"

John chuckled. "No, not at all. "

"What do you want me to say, John? I don't know how I'm going to defeat a dragon for whatever this task is."

"Perhaps you do not have to defeat a dragon...just outsmart it, which you are fully capable of doing. Whether you like to admit that you are smart or not, you know as well as I do that your mind can work in remarkable ways. You just have to put it to proper use in this situation."

Pierce ran his hands through his hair as he stared down at the ground.

"How about I bore it to death with useless facts that I know? No wait, I'll leave that to my father and all those in his company."

"Cheeky."

The two looked over to see Sherlock standing near them with a bored expression clear on his face, apparently not impressed by Pierce's insult.

"Mind you, people do enjoy the things I have to say." Sherlock said.

"No one I've met."the boy scoffed under his breath to his father.

"I'll have to agree to that." Another voice added to the conversation.

The three males cringed as they saw Rita.

"It just became drastically colder and it was not due to the weather." Sherlock muttered. "Must be your frigid personality Rita."

"You're one to talk Sherlock, your interaction skills are equivalent to a jar of dirt."

John stood up and shoved some money into Pierce's hand.

"Go busy yourself with something, Pierce." he told the boy before pushing him along. "Quickly!"

Pierce walked around until he found Julius exiting Honeydukes with a bag of candy as he began to stress eat even more as the First Task neared.

"Pierce!" the boy ran over to him as he spotted Pierce heading in his direction. "Well, did you and John come up with something?"

"No, we were working on it, but my mother and father decided to engage in conversation and it all went to hell really fast. John's back there probably trying to keep them from killing each other. Although, I wouldn't have protested to letting them go at it and seeing who came out the victor. Knowing my luck it would probably be Rita. Vicious hag she is."

"Alright, well you and I can brainstorm in the meantime, you know. I just all this candy and stuff, I'm set to go." Julius told him.

Pierce smiled. "I honestly don't know what I would do without you and John in my life. Alright, let's do this-"

"Perhaps you could use some outside input as well?"

Julius and Pierce turned to see Mycroft sipping something warm in his hand as they faced him.

"Seeing as your supposed parental figures cannot offer their words of "wisdom" if that's what you want to call it."

Julius eyed Mycroft with a suspicious glance, Pierce's uncle came across as a total creeper.

"No thanks, Uncle Mycroft." Pierce waved the man off. "I only invited you to get my dad here. And it worked! Thanks again! Come on Julius."

Before Julius could respond, he was dragged along by the sleeve of his shirt.

"Bye!" 

Once they were a safe distance away, Julius looked to Pierce.

"Your uncle is kinda...how do I put this?"

"A creep?"

"Yes."

"Yeah well..he's weird but nothing compares to the other man I invited here foolishly."

"Who's that?"

"Moriarty."

"And he is?"

"A very very strange man. Trust me, you don't want to meet him."

"You think he'll come? After all you invited him."

"I guess we'll have to wait and see." Suddenly, Pierce stopped walking and stood completely still. Julius went to question him but he could see the gears in Pierce's mind at work and knew better than to interrupt.

A smile drew across the boy's face.

"I got it. I got it!" Pierce told Julius grabbing him by the shoulders.

"You got what?"

"A plan, Julius!"

"What is it?"

"Wait and See! Don't you understand?"

Julius stared at him blankly. "No..not really."

"It's perfect, no matter the situation thrown at me...it would work...even against a dragon, this is...ha!" Pierce laughed triumphantly before hugging Julius tightly. "I need to go tell John about what I'm thinking. Come on!"

Julius was left standing stunned and still by Pierce's sudden craziness as the boy ran off. He heard giggling and turned his head to see some girls from Slytherin hiding their laughter behind their hands as he turned red in the face.

"Pierce wait up!"