The rights to Mary Poppins belong to Walt Disney and to the estate of the late P.L. Travers. Those to Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling. Those to Rex Milligan belong to the late Anthony Buckeridge. Those to the Dana girls, Linda Craig and others to the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Those to Once Upon a Time are held by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Other rights belong to the BBC, DC Comics/Warner Brothers/Hanna-Barbera, Marvel Comics, Terrance Dicks, Jim Butcher, Joss Whedon, the estates of the late Enid Blyton, the late Charles Addams, the late Malcolm Saville, the late Ian Fleming, the late Peter O'Donnell, the late Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and more. I own nothing and make claim to the same nothing.

Early June 2019

"I don't think that I fully appreciated the taste of bangers and mash," Hermione Weasley noted drily, "until I moved to the United States. Now, I seem to be in this pub at least twice a week, as one of the few places which does authentic British cooking."

The Alchemists Arms on the outskirts of New York looked to any passing no-majs to be a once high-end hotel that had long since fallen into ruin. Three taps on the gate with a wand or stave, however, would reveal that Gomez Addams had bought, refurbished and opened the place as a private members club for trusted mages and certain no-majs, empowered or otherwise. It was also the headquarters of the Secret Circle, a wizard taskforce that Stephen Strange had founded. For the payment of a small annual subscription, invited members would get access to a top-end restaurant, two themed bars for casual dining (one patterned after an American diner and the other after an old-fashioned British and Irish pub), four libraries, a games room, a ballroom, indoor and outdoor heated swimming pools, extensive gardens, a putting green and a quidditch pitch. There are even rooms and suites available for overnight stays and a main conference room for Secret Circle general council meetings. Other than modest charges for food, drinks and overnight stays, there are no extra payments due. Hermione was in the pub, which employed British chefs, who had settled in New York during Voldemort's puppet Ministry. It had developed a reputation amongst British members for offering high-quality food that tasted authentic.

Following her rape at the hands of a muggle crime lord in the Caribbean in Spring 2018, Hermione had given birth to a girl that was clearly biologically not Ron's. Her husband, however, had adopted Hope Pansy Weasley as his legal child and, like all the Weasleys and Potters, loved her as one of their own. Sadly, a press hate campaign over her muggle immorality spearheaded by Rita Skeeter and the ensuing political fallout from conservative purebloods in the Ministry of Magic and the Wizengamot had made the couple decide that it was time to resign from the Ministry. The fact that the White Council was looking for people to head a Commission on House Elf Rights and a wizard version of Interpol, both based in New York. Some old friends had found them a house in Oak Falls, close to the Dana House. They (and during the school holidays Rose and Hugo) were now living there.

"I know, darling," Ron replied. "As nice as chilli dogs and Tex-Mex are, I do miss fish and chips every Friday and a fry-up on weekend mornings. Still, as you say, this place provides proper British pub grub at decent prices.

"At least we are out of the press firestorm in the States. Our family has a chance to recover from that horrible episode courtesy of Rita Skeeter."

"To be honest, love," Hermione agreed, "I felt almost as much violated by her so-called journalism as I was by the late unlamented Mr Gallia." Buonaparte Ignace Gallia IV had abducted and raped her, hoping to father a seer. Her nightmares of being chained stark naked to a bed whilst he ravaged her were only partly comforted by her great love for Hope, the result of her ordeal.

"So-called journalism?!" Rex Milligan, The Quibbler's muggle correspondent erupted. "That gruesome specimen is a muckraker of the highest order. Her articles are only fit for recycling as toilet paper. Honestly, I ask you…?

"That said, I can see why you would feel violated by her manufactured salacious gossip, Hermione. I can't see Rita doing tea and sympathy well. Her only interest is what forwards her career, with any misery she causes not being her problem.

"As far as I know, the addle-pated clodpoll is still in voluntary exile. Good riddance to bad rubbish!"

"Thank you, Rex," Hermione replied with a smile. "You are a true investigative journalist and not a mere gossip columnist. Rita Skeeter is nothing but a beetle that thinks it can turn into a woman…"

Rex put his arm around his wife Louise Milligan nee Dana. Both the 1950s British schoolboy chronicler and the 1930s American girl detective were kept looking youthful (like many of their fellow Former Young Adventurers) by Sherlock Holmes' elixir vitae, the Royal Jelly Honey. Ever since Rex had met the then Luna Lovegood when both had been investigating the return of the Hound of the Baskervilles, he had been seen by the British wizards as very much one of their own. He was one of Lorcan and Lysander's godfathers, as well as Luna's honorary elder brother.

With Rex and Louise's seven-year-old adopted daughter Harriet Jean Luna Milligan (originally named Bernadette Imogene Gallia, Harriet was baby Hope's half-sister) also a pupil at the Serafina Picquery Elementary School in New York that Hugo attended, the families had arranged to meet up with their friends from the United Kingdom in the pub on a regular basis. Despite still being based in the UK, the Potters had enrolled Lily in the school whilst many wizards and witches had been forced into exile during the brief time that a bargain the demon Neron had made with both Lucius Malfoy and Dolores Umbridge allowed them to take over the British wizard world from Christmas Night 2017 through to late February 2018. Since Harry and Ginny had both fallen in love with and then married Wednesday Friday Potter nee Addams in Summer 2017, a school founded by her father Gomez (with the primary purpose of educating the children of wizards, squibs and muggles with magical family ties) was always going to want Lily as a pupil and so she had stayed on for the rest of her primary education. She and Hugo were now finishing their last few weeks there before starting Hogwarts in September. Whilst both would miss the happy atmosphere of the school, they knew that it was time to begin their magical education as eleven-year-old mages.

Harry, Ginny and Wednesday were also in the pub, as were several of Ron and Hermione's Hogwarts contemporaries. It was no surprise to see the Scamanders and the Patil twins present, nor Ron and Ginny's brothers Bill and George with their respective wives and children. Others, however, would have been more unexpected. Back in summer 2016, the Potters and Weasleys had rescued Millicent Bulstrode and Pansy Parkinson from being bullied into helping Blaise Zabini and Theo Nott's schemes for pureblood supremacy. It turned out that the two of them and Tracey Davis had been subjected to a vicious campaign of bullying (and, in Pansy and Tracey's cases, rape) during the Carrows' reign of terror in their last year at Hogwarts, a bullying that had continued for Millie and Pansy after they had finished school. Harry had arranged for the three girls and Tracey's then-girlfriend (now wife) Daphne Greengrass to receive therapy and training with the Amazons on Themyscira. Not only had Millie and Pansy become a couple themselves on the island, but Millie had been chosen to become the alter ego of the superheroine Wonder Witch. After so many years of being accused of being fat and ugly, she was delighted to be the British wizard world's most popular pin-up. She certainly looked stunning in the costume! Now, she had a support group of superheroines, the Furies, which included Lioness and Wrath (or Ginny and Pansy respectively). Harry had blood-adopted Millie as his sister on Christmas Day 2016, two days before her marrying Pansy. He had also donated the sperm for Pansy's IVF and was proud to be biological father to Sirius Harry Potter, the thirteen-month-old son on Pansy's lap.

During the Exile in early 2018, the Malfoy administration had reintroduced a Marriage Law designed to force any exiled families with only female heirs to either get the sole or primary heiress married to a man or lose the vote to a proxy appointed by the usurpers. Caught by the Act, Daphne had married Harry, whilst keeping Tracey as her primary spouse. The now Daphne and Tracey Greengrass-Potter were also present, Daphne's six-month-old daughter Dora cradled in her arms, conceived with Harry in the traditional manner. Susan Bones, also caught by the law, had married her long-time best friends Neville and Hannah Longbottom. The three were cuddled together in a cosy nook, with Susan Bones-Longbottom's baby bump rapidly developing. Daphne, Tracey and Susan are now the alter egos of the Furies Protectress, Vendetta and Nemesis respectively. The superheroines are rounded out by Grace (Parvati Patil), Justice (Padma Patil), Alicia Spinnet (Tracker), Katie Bell (Pursuer), Gabrielle Delacour (Allure) and Astoria Malfoy (Warrior). With Draco and Astoria sitting opposite the Greengrass-Potters, Katie and Alicia with George and Angelina and Gabrielle with Bill, Fleur and Victoire and Teddy Lupin (Victoire's fiancé), the Furies (albeit out of their costumes) were all present and correct.

"Well, we are settled in now," Hermione admitted. "That said, if an incident involving House Elves brings us back to dear old Blighty for a couple of weeks, I wouldn't object."

"Don't speak too soon, love!" Ron warned her wryly. "Be careful what you wish for, dear. It just might happen…"

A couple of days later, evening was falling over London. The Fidelity Fiduciary Bank was winding down for the night, closing time for customers having come and gone. One of the last independent banks in Britain, still largely run by the Dawes family and its offshoots. The other shareholders had also been connected to the institution since at least the start of the Twentieth Century.

"Everything is right in the world, George," said Richard Dawes, the current chairman. "The bank is still run on moral principles by the same families. When prudently invested, a few pennies can still become a small fortune in the right hands, albeit over a longer period than before.

"Oh sorry, George! With your wife crippled and three young children at home…"

"That's OK, Richard," vice-chairman George Banks replied. "Claire might be in a wheelchair, but she still keeps her spirits up. The children could do with a nanny or an au pair, as we have only a cleaning lady a couple of times a week…"

A loud bang sounded from the vaults below. Richard and George looked at each other in surprise, as the night security guards charged down into the vaults. There was much shouting and the blaring of alarms. Then one of the security guards came out of the monitor room looking puzzled. "Sirs! You must see the footage that I just saw!"

"What is it, John?" George asked kindly.

"You would never believe it if I told you, sir. I'm not sure that I believe it…"

The footage showed a strange being a couple of foot high with a long nose and massive ears and clad in what looked like a cut-out burlap sack appearing in the vaults. A safe-deposit-box was blown open with just a snap of the creature's fingers. Something floated out of the box into the intruder's hands, at which point the whatever it was disappeared with its prize.

"What the hell was that?!" Richard asked rhetorically. "Do we know who that box belongs to?"

"It belonged to some mysterious personage called Gellert Grindelwald…"

"Why would Grindelwald have an account with a muggle bank?!" Ron asked bemused. He was in the main conference room at The Alchemists Arms, the general council of the Secret Circle in full session. This consisted of Harry, Ginny, Wednesday, Millie and Pansy Potter, Bill, Fleur, Ron and Hermione Weasley, Gomez, Morticia, Fester and Pugsley Addams, Stephen Strange, Clea, Wanda Maximoff, Jason Blood, Madame Xanadu, Giovanni and Zatanna Zatara, Dr Fate, John Constantine, Harry Dresden, Endora, Samantha and Tabitha Stephens, Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, Paige Matthews, Will Stanton, Willow Rosenberg, Rupert Giles, Hadji Quest-Singh, Emma Swan and Regina and Zelena Mills. Only the largely retired Sar Dubotnal and Mandrake were absent.

"Perhaps he wanted to hide something where no wizard would think to look?" Gomez offered. "With all due respect, Ron, British mages have a reputation for ignoring the muggle world. Perhaps a Dark Wizard found some clues to something Grindelwald had hidden there?"

"The Fidelity Fiduciary Bank is an old family firm," came a voice from one of the side tables to the sides of the room. The council sat around a massive round table in the centre. The Doctor stepped forward, a frown on her face. "Perhaps the Dawes, Banks or whatever families had a wizard or witch member in the past?

"Alternatively," the Doctor paused in thought, "I wonder if he might have heard of the Banks' links with an old friend of mine…?"

"Who?" Hermione asked. "Another Time Lord?"

"No, Hermione. She is neither from Gallifrey or of Time Lord stock. My old friend is a true one-off.

"Rex, you have been investigating the myths of London for many years. Can you remember the one about the flying Nanny of Cherry Tree Lane?"

Rex Milligan frowned from another side table. "Mary Poppins is a Nanny supposed to fly down from the sky on a bird-handled brolly whenever the Banks family needs saving from themselves or others. She is supposedly able to bring dreams into reality and make the imagination literally come alive. All children remember, but adults forget whatever magic she brought within days. Even the children only remember the reality as dreams once they have grown up.

"That seems bonkers, honestly, but the legend is kept alive by those adults who do remember. There was a jack-of-all-trades, a lamplighter and others. I spoke to an electrician in the 1970s, who claimed to have met her. He was the grandson of the lamplighter and a Jane Banks, one of Miss Poppins' old charges."

"There was a George Banks at the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank," Harry Potter recalled. "I interviewed him and then obliviated him. He was a nice chap. Sadly, his wife has recently been in a driving accident and rendered unable to walk. They have three children under eleven too."

"The Banks children need looking after," Rex mused. "Mary Poppins would know that, Doctor. If the legend is remotely true, she will know that she is needed. Should we look to the skies?"

"Yes, but I'll pay her a social call to make sure."

"Anyway," Stephen Strange interjected, "this is clearly a matter involving House Elves used for criminal purposes, Hermione. I assume that you and Ron are going to be leading a House Elf Commission and Wizard Interpol investigation into the matter, with the full cooperation of Harry Potter and Kingsley Shacklebolt?"

"We are," Ron confirmed. "As my wife was saying it seems as if a case is calling us back home for the duration. Thankfully, we can commute each day from the States after dropping Hugo off at school."

"Any news, George?" asked Claire Banks from her wheelchair in the lounge of 17 Cherry Tree Lane, their three children Michael, Jane and Annabel gathered around her. Sidney, or Sid, a local handyman who was related to the Banks via a great-great-aunt who had married a lamplighter, was finishing fixing a tap.

"There you go, guv," Sid offered in an East London accent. "That should be all fixed. I'll see myself out…"

"Not before I've paid you, Sid," George said firmly. "We also must meet up at the weekend.

"As to your question, Claire, the robbery remains unsolved. There was some security camera footage that a Superintendent Potter took away. It was an ordinary break-in, from what I remember.

"Children, I am looking into getting some extra childcare, particularly as the summer holidays start in a few weeks. It isn't easy…"

"I don't know," Sid offered casually. "There's a wind from the East. Something is in the air…"

The TARDIS materialised on a cloud. The Doctor stepped out and smiled at the elegant brunette in early-twentieth-century attire. "Good afternoon. It has been a long time, old friend."

"Indeed, it has," the brunette responded primly. "So, you are a woman now, Doctor? I thought that as a lady you would be more elegant, but you have your usual complete lack of dress sense, I see."

"Oi! I am into charity shop chic these days!"

"I see. Well, Doctor, I wish that I could stop to chat. There's a family that needs me."

"Name of Banks, perchance? There has been a break-in at the bank. I don't think that they are related at all. Are they?"

"No. George Banks' wife has been rendered paralysed from the waist down after a motor accident. The dreadful new-fangled things are a menace!

"The bank incident is a matter for magic users. As you know, I am not one."

"Really?! You can't use that imagination nonsense on me, Mary Poppins! I'm not some adult human who forgets everything magical the next day.

"Wizards are investigating the matter. You will give them your full cooperation, I trust?"

"As if I would do anything else! Really, Doctor, I am a respectable professional. Isn't that right?"

"Of course, Mary Poppins!" croaked the bird's head handle of her umbrella. "You are still practically perfect in every way!"

"I must get one of those!" the Doctor grumbled.

"Michael, what are we to do? Dad's busy at the bank and Mum's unable to look after us properly."

"I don't know, Jane. Mum is still able to do most things or will be once she gets used to her electric wheelchair. We just need to accept that Dad will probably have to get an au pair shortly.

"There is still a park nearby and plenty of things to do in this old house. The family is well-off. We could be in a much worse situation. All we can do is be there for Mum and Dad."

At ten years old, the two were twins, with Annabel two years their junior.

Exiting the house, they saw their parents talking to Sid. "Dad, we were thinking of taking Annabel to the park…"

From nowhere came a rushing wind. In the sky, a lady in Edwardian finery was descending from the sky, an open umbrella in one hand and a carpet bag in the other. "What is going on?" Claire asked.

"She's returned!" Sid breathed. "I told you there was a wind from the East!"

The lady landed on the pavement and the wind died down. "I hear that the Banks children need a Nanny. I am Mary Poppins, but we can discuss my terms and references later. In the meantime, I can take the children to the park. Spit spot!"