Agents of Magic

Summary: After Petunia dies in a car crash, eight-year-old Harry is sent to an orphanage in Surrey. Shortly thereafter, Harry is spotted and recruited by an undercover agent working for an organization known as CHERUB. Before Harry's 11 birthday, he receives a letter delivered by an owl…. What will Hogwarts (and the Wizarding World) be like with a CHERUB agent as their savior?

Spoilers: Harry Potter: Major spoilers for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

CHERUB: General spoilers for the CHERUB series. No planned spoilers for the missions from the books.

Author's Note: This is my first Harry Potter crossover with CHERUB fanfic, so please let me know how I do. Also, big thanks to my beta, bluehyperpixie.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or CHERUB. I do, however, own Elizabeth.

Chapter 1: The Letter

"So, what do you want to do?" Harry Jameson asked his best friend Elizabeth Anderson. It was a hot, lazy Saturday evening in late July and the two friends were in Liz's room trying to decide what to do with the remainder of the night.

"Want to watch Stargate: SG-1?" Liz suggested. Stargate: SG-1 was Liz's all-time favorite TV series and Harry should have suspected that she would want to watch it; consideringshe owned all of the seasons currently out on DVD.

"Sure, why not?" Harry shrugged. "I suppose I could see some bad guys getting taken care of." After choosing a season and an episode, they settled down to watch.

It was while they were watching the opening title that something unusual happened. Harry heard tapping coming from the window and turned to look. To his surprise, there were two owls outside the window, seemingly wanting to come in.

"Uh, Liz?" He spoke hesitantly.

"Yeah?" She replied distractedly, turning her head away from the TV to look at Harry. Her mouth dropped open when she caught sight of the owls outside the window.

"Harry, are those owls?" She asked, stunned.

"Yeah. Do you think we should let them in?" Harry wondered.

Liz seemed to remember about her show and hit pause on the remote without looking away from the owls. "Do you think that's wise? What if they attack us?" She asked him. What if the owls had rabies or some sort of disease, or something? She wondered silently to herself.

Harry shrugged, watching the owls warilyas they seemed to be slightly aggravated at how long it was taking Harry and Liz to let them in. "I dunno. But they seem like they want to come in and, look, there are letters in their beaks."

Liz blinked at that. She had been too busy contemplating the idea that owls were outside her window to notice the letters they were carrying. "All right then." Slowly, she went over to the window and opened it. The owls flew in; one went to Harry and dropped a letter on him while the other owl did the same to Liz. Both then landed on Liz's bed.

Frowning, Harry picked up his letter, which, in marblegreen ink, said:

Mr. H. Potter

Elizabeth White's room,

CHERUB Campus,

England

Harry looked up at his friend to see Liz frowning at her envelope. "Does yours say CHERUB Campus on it, too?"

"Yes," Liz looked at Harry. "How do you suppose whoever sent these knew about the campus?" She asked. CHERUB was a secret organization—a division of MI5. All CHERUB agents were 17-years-old and under. Children were great undercover agents; the idea was that criminals would never suspect that children could be intelligence spies. The majority of CHERUB agents were orphans, the others recovered from care homes. All CHERUB agents lived on CHERUB's campus, which was known to the public as a military firing area and off-limits to civilians; Harry and Liz had been living at the campus since they were both eight and seven years old, respectively. That was why Harry and Liz were so surprised that the CHERUB campus was named on their envelopes.

Harry shrugged. "I dunno. Let's read the letters and see what they say." Liz agreed and separately they opened their letters.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY was the first thing that Harry saw when he opened the letter. "Witchcraft and Wizardry?" he mouthed silently. Were they serious? He wondered. He continued to read the rest of the letter.

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School

of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

"Have you finished?" Liz asked Harry as he read the last bit of the letter.

"Yeah," Harry said, looking at her. "Do you think they're serious?"

"They seem to be," Liz said, looking down at her letter. "It could be a joke, but the letter seems too serious. And who do we know with access to owls?"

"And how would they have gotten the owls tame enough to send us the letters?" Harry added.

Liz nodded. "Exactly. Harry, I think we should take these to the chairman." The chairman was the most senior person at the CHERUB campus. The chairman also was the person who gave the "okay" for any and all CHERUB missions to go ahead.

Harry nodded. "Good idea. Maybe he'll know whether or not these are fake."

"Harry. Elizabeth. What can I do for you?" Dr. Terrence "Mac" McAfferty, the chairman of CHERUB, asked his young agents as they sat down on chairs in front of his desk.

"Well, sir," Liz began, "just recently we received these letters." She handed her letter to Mac who took it and read it. She wavered slightly before adding, "They were delivered by owls."

"Do you reckon they're a joke?" Harry asked.

"No, Harry, the letters are not a joke," Mac said, looking up from the letter. Harry and Liz glanced at each other, surprised.

"They're really real?" Harry asked.

Mac smiled. "Yes, Harry, they are real. You two are not the first CHERUB agents to receive these letters. Harry, I was fairly certain that you were going to receive your letter, but I had no idea that Elizabeth was going to."

"How could you have been certain that I was going to receive it but not Liz?" Harry wondered.

"Harry, what do you know about your parents?" Mac asked.

Harry frowned. "I don't know much. Just that their names were Lily and James Potter and that they died in a car crash when I was one. My aunt didn't like talking about them much." Before coming to live at the campus, Harry had lived with his mother's sister and her family after his parent's death. However, when Harry was eight, his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and Cousin Dudley were involved in a car accident in which Petunia was killed. Harry's uncle and cousin were not seriously injured. After the accident, Vernon packed up house and took Dudley with him to live with sister. Vernon had never liked Harry, and so he dropped Harry off at an orphanage, claiming Harry was no longer his responsibility.

"Were they magical?" Harry asked Mac quietly.

Mac nodded. "Yes. They were a witch and a wizard. However, they were not killed in a car crash like your aunt told you."

"Then how did they die?"

Mac sighed. "Much like in the TV shows and movies, in real life there are good witches and wizards and there are bad witches and wizards. Your parents, Harry, were the good kind. My knowledge of the Wizarding World is limited, but from what I've learned, some years ago, a dark wizard who called himself Voldemort came into power. Voldemort apparently had a hatred for anyone he termedwas not a 'pure-blooded'."

"What do you mean exactly by pure-blooded wizard?" Liz interrupted.

"A pure-blooded witch or wizard is someone who is born of magical parents. Someone who is born of non-magical parents is called Muggle-born. Muggle is the wizard term for someone who has no magical powers."

"So 'muggle' means basically the same as mortal." Harry said.

Mac nodded. "Correct. Now, Voldemort, for reasons I don't know, attacked your parents on Halloween when you were a year old, Harry. One could assume he attacked them because they were fighting on the opposite side, but then why would he single them out? We'll probably never know why Voldemort decided to attack your parents that night."

"What happened to Voldemort?" Liz asked.

"Voldemort's fate is currently unknown. After he attacked Lily and James, he turned his wand on you, Harry."

Harry looked at Mac in surprise. "Voldemort tried to kill me?"

Mac nodded. "Yes. The curse he used is one that wizards call The Killing Curse.There is no record of anyone having survived it. No one, that is, until you." He explained, looking at Harry.

"I survived a curse that no one else has?" Harry asked, shocked. He glanced at Liz. She looked also looked shocked. "How?"

Mac shrugged. "No one knows. All anyone knows is, that scar is the only proof that he tried to kill you. After that, Voldemort vanished. No one knows what happened to him. Some say he is dead, and some think he was weakened and is using this time to gather strength for a big comeback. No one trulyknows for sure."

"So is that how I got my scar?" Harry asked. For as long as he could remember, he'd had a scar unusually shaped as a lightning bolt on his forehead. He had wondered on how he could have gotten it, but until this moment, he never knew.

"I believe so." Mac nodded. They sat in silence for a few minutes as Harry and Liz digested what Mac had just told them.

"If we accepted, what would we do about the missions?" Liz asked a few minutes later. Not every child at campus could go on missions. It was only after they took and passed basic training that an agent was qualified to go on missions. Only once a child turned 10 they were eligible to take the 100 day grueling course. Harry and Liz had just recently passed basic training.

"Could we do some missions during the summer holidays, or something?" Harry asked.

Mac nodded. "That would be acceptable." Harry and Liz nodded. Mac handed Liz's letter back to her.

"Um… Mac," Liz said, looking at her letter, "it says 'we await your owl'. Does that mean we send a reply back with an owl?"

"Yes. From what I gather, the Wizarding World uses owls for communication the majority of the time."

"Where do we get the school items?" Harry asked, looking at the list of items he and Liz would need. "It says we need a wand, a cauldron, 1 set glass or crystal phials, 1 telescope, 1 set of brass scales and a whole bunch of other stuff." Harry looked up at Mac. "Where do we go to buy them?"

"There is only one place I know of where we can buy those items," Mac said, "it's a shopping center called Diagon Alley. Now, I know how to get there, but I need help getting in."

"What do you mean?" Liz asked curiously.

"What I mean is, they have some sort of spell on the place so only people that have magic in their blood can see the entrance." Mac replied. "The entrance to Diagon Alley is behind a pub called The Leaky Cauldron. Should you accept the invitation, when you reply, could you ask for a guide to meet us at the pub? It's been a few years since I've been there."

Harry and Liz nodded. Mac pulled open a bottom drawer of his desk and picked up what Harry and Liz saw to be two books.

"I picked these books up the last time I was in Diagon Alley," Mac said, handing Harry and Liz each a book. "You can borrow them for a while. But make sure they stay out of sight." Harry and Liz nodded. Harry reached for his book. Introduction to the Wizarding World by Marcia Ridge was the title of the book Harry picked up. The book was like the title said—an introduction to the Wizarding World. It gave some basic info about Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and its Muggle entrance, and some other general info about the Wizarding World.

"What about our friends?" Liz asked. Harry looked away from his book to look at her. "Can we tell them about us being magical?"

Mac seemed to hesitate before saying, "It would probably be best if you waited until you had more proof. If you tell them now, they may think you're playing a joke on them. It would also probably be best, for the time being, to just tell them you've been accepted to a boarding school. It would be wise to only tell your closest friends that you are a witch and a wizard."

Harry and Liz nodded. They had thought it was best only to tell their closest friends, anyway.

After leaving Mac's office, Harry and Liz walked back to Liz's room in silence, each was thinking about the information Mac had given them. Harry honestly wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel. Magic was real. His parents had been a witch and a wizard and attended a magic school. And then they were killed by the worst dark wizard the Wizarding World had apparently ever seen. Then he had survived a curse that nobody had ever survived before. How was he supposed to feel about that?

"Do you think the owls are still there?" Harry wondered aloud a few minutes later as they reached Liz's room.

"We'll see," She answered, opening her door. Only one owl had stayed behind; it was currently napping on Liz's bed.

"Ohh, I hope the owl didn't make a mess," She said as she looked at the owl. From what she could see, it hadn't.

Harry smirked at the thought of owl droppings on the bed. "I'm sure it didn't." He assured Liz as she sat down on her computer chair. Her computer was already on, so she didn't have to worry about waiting for it to start up. She clicked on Word and a blank page opened up.

"Do you want to send separate letters?" Liz asked Harry.

Harry shook his head. "No. I think it would be simpler if we sent only one letter."

"All right. Hey, we forgot to ask Mac why the letters have our birth names on," Liz noted. Once a person agreed to become a CHERUB agent, they had to change their names for their own safety; they were, however, aloud to keep their first names.

"You're right; we did. Perhaps it has something to do with the magic?" Harry suggested.

Liz nodded. "That makes sense. We could also ask our guide, if we get one." She looked at the computer and then at Harry. "Do you think we should use our original last names?"

Harry thought about it for a few seconds. "I think that would be best. Especially since the owls arrived with letters addressed to Elizabeth White and Harry Potter, instead of Elizabeth Anderson and Harry Jameson." Liz nodded and began typing. Harry looked over her shoulder and read:

Dear Professor McGonagall,

We, Elizabeth White and Harry Potter, have received your invitations to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We accept the invitation. Our guardian happens to know a little of the Wizarding World and was able to explain that the letters were real and not fake. However, while our guardian knows how to find The Leaky Cauldron so we can do our shopping, it's been a few years since he's been there and he thought it would be best if we had a guide to show us around Diagon Alley. Is it possible for that to be arranged?

Yours sincerely,

Elizabeth White and Harry Potter

"That sounds good," Harry said once Liz finished. She looked it over once more before printing it off. She found an envelope and folded the paper so it would fit inside. Then she wrote "Minerva McGonagall" on the envelope before turning around so her back was to the computer.

"Do you want to wake the owl, or should I?" She asked Harry.

"I'll do it." Harry took a couple of steps so that he was by the bed and gently prodded the owl awake. The owl seemed to glare at Harry as it woke up, but it didn't go back to sleep.

"Um…," Liz began hesitantly, thinking it was weird that she was talking to an owl. "We have a letter for you to take back." The owl seemed to understand and opened its beak. "It's for Minerva McGonagall." She added holding the envelope up to the owl, which grabbed and held it securely in its beak. Liz opened her window and the owl flew out.

Liz exhaled as she closed the window. "That was weird."

"You're telling me," Harry said, flopping back on Liz's bed. "We're magical. Who would have thought?"

Liz laughed. "Who would have thought that magic was real in the first place?"

"Good point."

Liz looked out her window as she remembered something that had happened recently. "Harry, do you remember last week when I punched you in the eye?" Liz asked, looking at Harry. She and Harry had been sparring in the gym. She went to through a punch and was sure Harry would either duck or block it, but she ended up hitting him in the left eye when he got distracted at the last minute.

Harry looked at her. "Yes. I was so sure I was going to get a black eye." Harry sat up quickly as he realized what Liz was getting at. "Do you think I didn't get a black eye because I really didn't want one?"

"It's a possibility."

Harry frowned as he began to think about things that had happened to him when he was younger, before he joined CHERUB. "I remember once when I was younger, my cousin and his gang had been chasing me at recess and I was running towards the school, and then I was suddenly on the chimney above the school kitchen. I had no idea how I had gotten there. I suppose I used magic to get up there, didn't I?"

Liz nodded. "You most likely did. I wonder if every kid does some… raw or accidental magic before they get trained?"

Harry shrugged. "I dunno. Possibly." Harry looked at the clock on the VCR player and saw that it was half past ten. "Well, I'd better head back to my room," he said as he stood up.

"Okay," Liz said. "Good night."

"Night," Harry replied, closing Liz's door.