A Study in Magic
is a crossover story between Harry Potter and the BBC series Sherlock written by Books of Change
When Professor McGonagall went to visit Harry Watson, son of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, to deliver his Hogwarts letter, she was in the mindset of performing a familiar if stressful annual routine. Consequently she was unprepared for the shock of finding the cause behind Harry Potter's disappearance.
This fic provides examples of the following tropes, in addition to those already present in the source material:
- Alternate Universe: Not only it is a crossover, major changes have been made regarding characters from the Sherlock series. Namely, John Watson is actually a woman while Inspector Lestrade's original family name was Lestrange. Yes, those Lestranges.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: As always, the famous Sherlock Scan. Dumbledore even tells Snape that trying memory modification charms on Sherlock to maintain the Statue of Secrecy is pointless because he'll figure out the existence of magic (and what he forgot) anyway.
- Berserk Button: Don't hurt Harry. Just ask Lockhart.
- Brought Down to Normal: For a magic user, receiving a blood transfusion from a muggle completely cuts off their access to magic, effectively rendering them squibs.
- Death by Adaptation: Harry and the Dursleys were among the many people that Moriarty took as hostages and blew up to taunt Sherlock. Harry was able to apparate out, but the Dursleys weren't so lucky.
- The Dreaded: Grandmaster Shin June Hu, Lestrade's father-in-law. The man is so feared that even Voldemort backed down when the Grandmaster refused his offer.
- Gender Flip: John is a woman using the name of her dead twin brother.
- Happily Adopted: Harry adores his new family, especially John.
- Happily Married: Sherlock and John, shockingly enough. In fact, when Sherlock announces his marriage to his family - a few years after the wedding mind you - his family is so shocked that everyone shows up for that years Christmas gathering, including an uncle who fakes his death each year precisely to avoid it and a cousin who vanished at Tibet a few years prior.
- I Owe You My Life: The basis of John and Harry's relationship, as they both cite the other person responsible for saving their lives during Moriarty's hostage bombings.
- Irony: The Lestrange is a pureblood family, with many of the younger generations being Voldemort's follower and amoral sociopath... except for the oldest son, Greg Lestrange now Lestrade, a law abiding Muggle (for a long time) police officer who's friend with Harry's adoptive parents.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sherlock is a rude, condescending, antisocial bastard, but the man deeply cares for John and Harry, in his own way.It was worth it, John thought, as they round their arms around each other. It was worth many more scares to catch a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. It was the moments of revelation like these that made the months and years of exasperation worth it.
- Manchild: John explicitly call Sherlock one.
- My Sibling Will Live Through Me: John's reason for basically living as a man despite being a woman is that she has a dead twin brother named John.
- Psychic Static: A variant: it's not because of him thinking useless thoughts or anything horrible, but because Sherlock thinks too fast for anyone else to follow. He later reveals that they're "slowing [his] thought process to an agonizing crawl". Yes, for Sherlock, thinking too fast for anyone to follow is slow. And in case you're wondering, this person was Snape.
- Refuge in Audacity: Snape is floored at Mycroft's audacity to kidnap Albus Dumbledore. Meanwhile Dumbledore just rolled with it because it was so audacious.
- Sherlock Scan: It's Sherlock Holmes, what do you expect? Even magic can't really stop him from figuring things out. Also, Harry is developing one.
- Wham Line: Chapter 3: "That's not my Dad that's my Mum!" regarding JOHN.
