Chapter Eleven : Old Friends
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter(belongs to JK Rowling) or NCIS (belongs to CBS and Bellsario).
NCIS Timeline : during and after 'Singled Out'.
Harry continued on with his life as a muggle as reports of the Wizarding world poured out into the Muggle one. He continued to do his job as an NCIS agent and like he promised his bosses, did little magic to help with cases. However, when there were suspects being questioned, he did let Gibbs know through text messages if they were lying, but that's about it. Abby's research into the love potions was hinder during investigations, but she said she was getting close to the one the Malfoys may have used on their son. The stories of his past life were leaked out by an anonymous source and Harry found more and more coworkers at his side, including some friends from the FBI. His college friends even picked up the phone to talk to him more. They now have basketball games scheduled in the park every Sundays.
Suddenly, Harry found himself in charge of the team when Gibbs was injured in a bombing and then for four months when Gibbs left after getting his memory back, but was unable to stop the bombing of a ship. His boss and mentor of four years handed him his gun and badge with a simple 'You'll do.' and walked away with Ducky in tow. Gibbs came back when Ziva found herself in trouble with the FBI and Mossad and then when Fornell had an escaped convict threaten him and his daughter. He stayed for good after solving the Paulson case, with a moustache. Harry now found himself in Jenny's office, looking at the pictures on the wall. He checked the door before going over to her desk where a vase of flowers sat, with a card in them. He plucked the card from it's pick and was going to open it when; "Something interesting about my flowers, Harry?" she asked. He whipped around with a smile and chuckle.
"Of course not, Jenny," he said. "I was just admiring them. Orchids, if I'm not mistaken," he said as she walked over to him.
"Very good, Harry."
"I knew paying attention in Herbology would pay off." He was thankful that he could speak openly about his past. He handed her the card. "This fell out while I was sniffing them." Jenny took the card with a amused look, and sat down. "You wanted to see me?" he asked.
"Samantha has informed me that the British Ministry will be sending over their Muggle liaison for a tour of the White House, Capitol and federal government buildings of their choosing." Harry sat down in the seat across from her.
"Let me guess, they picked NCIS as one?" he asked.
"You guessed correctly," Jenny said.
"Any idea who this liaison is?" he asked. Jenny shook her head causing Harry to sigh. "So, it could be anyone."
"I'm afraid so," she said. "Samantha assures me that the liaison will be screened and their wand will be tracked for any illegal spells used on you or any muggle for that matter."
"Any idea when this liason is suppose to get here?" Harry asked.
"Sometime this weekend," she said. Harry nodded before standing up.
"Thanks for letting me know, Jenny," he said.
"Any time, Harry," she said. Harry left the office, and headed down to the squad room. He just got to the stairs when his cellphone went off. He answered it.
"Potter," he said. "Stop calling me from dispatch Mulvaney," he said, "I'm not team leader anymore, Gibbs is. Trust me, it makes a difference. Call him and leave me alone." He hung up the phone, and reached into his desk for his gun. Gibbs phone rang as he hooked it on his belt.
"We going somewhere?" McGee asked.
"What's my motto, Probie?" he asked.
"Always be prepared," McGee said.
"Exactly," Harry said. "Bat signal may fly at any moment."
"We're on our way," Gibbs said. "Gear up." Ziva and McGee hurried to get their things together, and looked at Harry.
"How'd you know?" Ziva asked.
"Gut feeling," Harry said following Gibbs to the elevator.
"Where are we going, Boss?" McGee asked.
"Ask Potter," Gibbs said. "All I got was a wrong number." Harry cringed as the elevator doors closed.
As they arrived at the crime scene, Hermione was portkeyed to the American Ministry in New York City. She and a few Aurors, who were there for her 'protection' according to the minister, went through Magical Customs. "Hand over your wands, please," the young witch said at the desk. Hermione handed over hers without question, but the Aurors were a little hesitant.
"Why?" one asked.
"It's procedure that we check all wands of visiting wizards and witches, and put a tracking spell on them," she said. "Things have gotten tight since 9/11," she said giving Hermione her wand back after checking it, and placing the tracking spell on it. "Please, gentlemen. There is a long line behind you." They reluctantly handed over their wands the witch checked them before placing the spell on them. "Minister Ofenkil is expecting you, Ms Granger," she said. "Her assistant is waiting for you in the lobby." She stamped their passports, and sent them off with a smile.
"Thank you," Hermione said with a smile, "and don't mind them," she said gesturing to the Aurors. The girl smiled as she went back to her line. Hermione headed to the lobby with the Aurors in tow. In the lobby stood a young witch with a sign that read 'Hermione Granger'. "Hello," Hermione said.
"Ms Granger?" the witch asked. Hermione nodded. "Follow me, and I'll take you the Apparation sites." They followed her to the sites, and was told where to Apparate to. "Just think of the American Ministry, and you'll get there in no time."
"Thank you," Hermione said before stepping into an Apparation site. She was gone with a pop, and close behind her was her protection detail. The assistant led the way to the office of Minister Ofenkil. To Hermione's surprise, there sat a woman no older than thirty sitting in front of her.
"That can't be the Minister," one Auror said.
"Why not?" Hermione asked. "Because she's a woman?" Hermione walked up to Minister Ofenkil with her hand extended. "Minister Ofenkil, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Ms Granger," she said shaking the hand. "Call me 'Samantha'," she said.
"Only if you call me 'Hermione'."
"Deal," Samantha said. "So, let me tell you what's going to be happening this past weekend."
"Okay."
"You'll first meet with the President of the United States," he said. "He's eager to meet with new people, especially magic folk." Hermione nodded. "You'll get a tour of the White House and the Capitol building. The next day you'll met with the Directors of the federal governments your Minister chose, and get a tour of those buildings. Of course, there will be areas you won't be able to go into for security reasons."
"Minister Scrimgouer wants to know if we can skip right to the NCIS building?" one Auror asked.
"I'm sorry, but the President comes first," Samantha said.
"I understand completely," Hermione said. "The Minister is eager that I make contact with Harry Potter over here."
"I see," Samantha said. "Do you share this eagerness?" she asked.
"Frankly, I think we, as in the British Ministry, should just leave him alone."
"Well, until Director Shepard gives the 'ok' for a visit, you'll have to wait."
"Oh, absolutely," Hermione said. Samantha smiled. She liked this Hermione.
Meanwhile back at NCIS ...
Tony and Ziva had gotten back from Lt. Sullivan's apartment with loads of evidence to go through. They took the hard drive down to Abby, and Ziva offered to stay to help with the profiles they found. Harry was currently in the squad room with McGee and Gibbs going over the witnesses' sketches. "This is a police sketch of who the witnesses saw in the back of the SUV," McGee said bringing up the sketch. "And this," he said bringing up a file picture of Lt. Sullivan, "Is a photo of Lt. Sullivan for comparison."
"I'd say that's a pretty good match," Harry said.
"You think, Potter," Gibbs said, "The driver, McGee." McGee brought the sketch of the driver and suspect up on the screen.
"Fredricksburg PD put a BOLO on him last night."
"Any hits?" Gibbs and Harry asked at the same time.
"Sorry, Boss," Harry said, "Continue."
"No hits yet, but the local LEOs did match the likeness to a mug shot," McGee said bringing up the mug shot next to the sketch. "Justin Farris, arrested for car theft five years ago. Currently lives with his mother, claims she hasn't seen him since yesterday."
"Our lieutenant had at least sixteen profiles in her apartment," Harry said.
"Without names and photographs," Gibbs said, "I'm still waiting on the why,"
"Me too, boss." Harry said, "I'm just saying that Farris might be one of them. Our Rosetta Stone if you will."
"Find him," Gibbs said, "That's good work, Tim," he said and stopped in front of Harry. "Not bad either, Harry," he added before walking away.
"Is it me or does he seem a little more ...?" McGee started to ask.
"Human?" Harry offered.
"Well, I was going to say 'mellow' but yeah."
"Yeah, I think is the moustache," Harry said, "Lull us into a false sense of security."
The suspect, Justin Farris, eventually turned himself in, and when questioned by Gibbs, he claimed that he didn't know that Lt. Sullivan was in the vehicle when he stole it. He dumped the vehicle when she started screaming, and took off. Now the team had to go, and prove that. The next day, found Tony and Ziva in front of the screen, going through Farris' route. Ziva's stretching posed as a distraction for Harry. "Farris claims he didn't know that Lt. Sullivan was in the vehicle when he stole it," she said stretching to the left and right. "When she started screaming he dumped it here with her still in it," she said. "So whoever kidnapped her must have followed Farris to get the lieutenant back."
"If he's telling the truth," Harry said. "It still doesn't explain why she's profiling people."
"Blackmail, espionage, assassination," Ziva said flicking the clicker at him. Then she bent over, touching her fingers to her toes.
"All good reasons why someone would want to make her disappear," Harry said checking out Ziva's ass as she moved it side to side.
"We could be missing something," she said.
"Believe me, not from this angle," he said then looked at the screen as she came back up.
"She could be a covert operative."
"She's a navy computer geek who worked on base housing. According to her coworkers, she's a female version of McGee."
"Being a geek makes for a good cover," Ziva argued.
"Cover for what?" Gibbs asked.
"We're still trying to figure that one out, boss."
"Did you pull the security tapes from the gas station?" Gibbs asked.
"There weren't any," Ziva said. "System's been broken down for months."
"Tire marks from the lot check out Farris' story," Harry said. "They're a match for Factory Honda Standard Accord."
"Well, let's hope that Abby and McGee had better luck. Come on, " Gibbs said. He grabbed Abby's Caf-Pow, and headed to the elevator with Harry and Ziva in tow.
When they arrived in Abby's lab, they found both McGee and Abby fast asleep. "I wouldn't call this luck," Harry said. Gibbs leaned in to Abby's ear, and softly said,
"You're computer's on fire." He had to step back when Abby shot up, wide awake.
"McGee my baby's french frying!" she shouted causing McGee to bolt up.
"Checking internal core temperature," McGee said. They taped the keys on the keyboard rapidly, checking the computer, and after a few seconds, finally woke up all the way. Abby turned around to Gibbs with a look that could kill.
"That is so not funny, Gibbs." He set Abby's Caf-Pow down in front of her.
"Must have nodded off," McGee said.
"Tell me you have something," Gibbs said.
"We have something, we just don't know what it is," Abby said bringing up what looked like a time table.
"Looks like a timetable for an operation," Gibbs said.
"The problem is that the events on the axis are encrypted," Abby said.
"We've been trying to crack it all night," McGee said.
"Try harder, McGee," Harry said. "Chances of finding her alive drop to almost zero after forty eight hours." Harry looked over to Gibbs. "Sorry, I'm sure you knew that."
"Don't apologize, Harry," Gibbs said.
"Right, sign of weakness."
"Not to mention annoying," Ziva said causing Harry to look at her.
"The only thing that stands out is this," Abby said. "Morph Pro." She brought it up on the computer screen. "It's super high end imaging software. It's unusual because it retails for over five thousand dollars."
"Big bucks on a lieutenant's salary," Harry said.
"What's it for?" Ziva asked.
"Morphing human features," Abby said. "We pulled some test runs." An image of Lt. Sullivan appeared on screen, and the Morph Pro aged the image into an old lady.
"I've seen software like this, Abby," Ziva said, "Mossad used earlier versions of it to age Nazi war criminals. It was a great asset to hunting them down." Gibbs walked back next to Abby.
"So basically what you're saying to me is we have nothing," he said.
"Gibbs," Abby said in a hurtful tone. "Ziva's talking about Nazis. I wouldn't exactly call Nazis nothing."
"Abby," Gibbs said sternly.
"We have nothing," she said. "Until we crack her encryptions," she added.
"You mean 'if'," McGee said. "It's high level, very sophisicated." Just then, Ducky walked in with his cup of tea.
"Would her password help?" Ducky asked.
"Well, yeah, Ducky, but we don't have it," Abby said.
"I just spent a long night in our lieutenant's head," he said. "I may be able to offer some suggestions. Try 'Colin Gables." McGee typed it in, but they were denied access. "Fiddler's Green." Access denied. "Hampton Inn." Access denied.
"Nice try, doctor," Gibbs said. "Harry, Ziva with me."
"Spanish Rose," Ducky offered. McGee typed it in, and access granted came onto the screen.
"Whoa," Abby said.
"We're in," McGee said. Gibbs, Harry and Ziva turned around at McGee's shout. "Ducky that's ..."
"Mindblowly amazing," Abby finished.
"It's more of an art than science," Ducky said walking up to the big screen. The encryption was replaced with actual words, and revealed to the agents when the time table was. "Ah, Lt. Sullivan was indeed targeting people. She was using all of her military knowledge and skills to find a husband."
"Well, it looks like she found herself a psycho instead, Dr. Mallard." Just then the shrill of Harry's phone went off, and everyone turned to him. Harry chuckled and answered his phone.
"Potter." He listened intently to the person on the other line. "Yeah, okay, I'll be right up, Director Shepard." He hung up, and looked to Gibbs.
"Go," he said. Harry left Abby's lab, and got into the elevator.
The past few days had been hectic for Hermione. She met the President of the United States, and got a tour of the White House, then moved on to the Capitol building. She then got to meet with the FBI Director, and toured that building. She got tours of other buildings, ones that allowed her to tour through. Now she was in the NCIS building where the Minister told her that Harry was an agent. The Director, Jennifer Shepard, seemed nice enough to her. She asked if she wanted to see Harry, and have him give the tour. Now she was sitting in her chair, trying to control her shaking hands. The door to Director Shepard's office opened, and the man she had been waiting to see for eight finally came back into her life. She was impressed with the suit he was wearing, and thought he looked quite good in it.
Harry froze seeing Hermione standing there looking all professional. "Mione?" he asked. She nodded her head, smiling.
"Yeah, it's me, Harry," she said. Jenny stood up from her desk, and smiled at Harry.
"Well, what are you waiting for, Agent Potter?" she asked, "Come give your best friend a hug." Harry chuckled as he walked up to Hermione, and her arms came around and eveloped him in a hug.
"I thought I'd never see you again, Harry," she said. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you, too, Hermione." He looked over to Jenny and pleaded with his eyes. She got the message.
"I'll leave you two alone for awhile," she said walking out of her office. Harry and Hermione pulled away from each other, and there was an awkward silence before Harry spoke up.
"So, uh, how's Ron?" he asked.
"As well as he can be with three children," she said.
"Oh," Harry said.
"He and Lavender are very happy," she said. "At least that's what Ginny tells me. I'm not allowed to talk to Ron directly. His wife gets a little jealous. She thinks Ron still loves me. I'm sure he does and she's afraid he might leave her one day for me."
"So, you and Ron didn't get married?" he asked. She shook her head. "What happened?"
"We had occupational differences," Hermione said. "He wanted to be the bread winner in the family while I played house-witch."
"Oh, so, you haven't found anyone?" he asked.
"No," she said. "So, Agent Harry Potter," she said.
"Special Agent Harry Potter," he corrected.
"That's quite a title." Harry smiled.
"Ready for that tour?" he asked.
"Sure, but there's one thing I have to do first," she said.
"What's that?" he asked. Hermione's hands grabbed his head, and she pulled him into a kiss. It lasted several seconds before she pulled away from him. "You should've done that several years ago, Hermione," he said.
"I know," she said. "Can you ever forgive me?" He gently kissed her again.
"I've always forgive you, Hermione," he said. "I could never stay angry at you. Ready for the tour now?" he asked.
"Lead on."
Harry took her through the building, showing her the interrogation rooms, conference rooms and then took her to Abby's lab. The goth scientist was there with a smile. "Hermione, this is Abby Sciuto, our forensic scientist. Abby, Hermione Granger."
"Nice to meet you," Abby said.
"Likewise," Hermione said and they shook hands.
"I like her, Harry," Abby said. Harry chuckled. Someone cleared their throat, and Harry turned around to see Gibbs.
"Oh, boss, this is Hermione Granger, the Muggle Liaison from England," he said. "Hermione, this is my boss, Special Agent Gibbs," he said to Hermione.
"Nice to meet you, Agent Gibbs," Hermione said holding out her hand. Gibbs shook it with a smile.
"Same here," Gibbs said.
"I'm giving Hermione a tour of NCIS," Harry said.
"Carry on," Gibbs said. Harry chuckled grabbing Hermione's hand, leading her out of the lab, and to the elevator. "Nice girl," Gibbs said.
"I like her," Abby said.
Hermione adored Ducky, and vice verse, and the only ones left were Ziva and McGee who were up in the squad room. "These next two are my partners in the field."
"Okay," she said. Ziva and McGee looked from the computer they were looking at to see Harry pulling a brunette behind him.
"Who's your friend, Harry?" Ziva asked.
"This is Hermione," he said. Ziva smiled holding out her hand.
"Harry told us all about you," she said.
"He did? Hermione asked shaking Ziva's hand.
"He did," the Mossad officer said. "I'm Ziva."
"Nice to meet you," Hermione said.
"And I'm Tim," McGee said.
"Nice to meet you, Tim," she said. They shook hands, and the two got back to investigating.
"So, what's up?" Harry asked eager to get back into the case as Hermione settled herself down into Harry's chair at his desk.
"Well, now that we have access to her files, we now know that the lieutenant was using Morph Pro to predict the appearance of her adult offspring," McGee said.
"Are you kidding me?" Harry asked. "Creepy, no wonder she couldn't find a husband."
"You know, choosing someone to spend the rest of your life with isn't easy," McGee said. "You'd want to know all the facts before deciding."
"Isn't that what dating's all about?" Ziva asked.
"Yeah, you should try that sometime, McGee," Harry said. Hermione laughed at the coworker banter.
"Gee, I wonder what would happen if you two hooked up," McGee said. This got Hermione's attention as McGee brought Ziva and Harry's file photos up, and merged the two together to bring up a baby face. "Guys, meet your love child." Ziva chuckled as she and Harry looked at each other.
"Do Gibbs and the Director," they said together. McGee brought up the pictures of Gibbs and Director Shepard onto the MorphPro, and merged it.
"Hmm, now that's not a bad combination," Ziva said.
"Even with Gibbs as a father I'd date her," Harry said.
"Never more than once, Potter," Gibbs said coming around the corner. Hermione laughed at Harry's expression. She tapped Harry on the arm, and he turned around. She was holding the framed picture of Brian.
"Who's this?" she asked.
"My son, Brian," he answered.
"You're married?" she asked.
"I was," he said, "It's a long story. Um, why don't you come to my house tonight for dinner?" he suggested. "We can, you know, catch up. I'll call you when I'm done here."
"I'd like that," she said. They flirted some more unaware of Harry's coworkers watching them. Harry wrote down his address, and gave it to her.
"Just take a cab, and I'll pay the bill when you get there," he said. She took the piece of paper from him, and stuck it in her purse. She stood on her toes, and gave him another kiss on the lips.
"I'll see you tonight," she said then turned to everyone behind Harry. "It was nice to meet you all." They waved good bye to her as she headed for the elevator where the two Aurors were waiting for her. They had their eyes fixed on Harry who gave them a little wave as the elevator doors closed. Harry let a huge sigh as he turned toward his coworkers. They all had smiles on their faces.
"What?" he asked innocently.
