Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or NCIS or any of their characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.
It took a couple of weeks for Flint and Travis to commit another crime that drew the Auror's attention quickly enough for them to be located before they left the scene. The first respondents managed to set up portkey and apparition wards before the perps finished torturing the family they'd been attacking and had surrounded the house waiting for them to emerge when Hadrian arrived.
"What's being done to try to save the family" Hadrian asked listening to a child screaming.
"SWAT will be here in five" Erik reported.
"The child will be dead before then" Hadrian argued. "I'm going in. Back me up."
"Wait!" Erik called as Hadrian walked away. Hadrian ignored him and blasted a hole in the side of the building and dove through it with his strongest shield up. He quickly identified the targets and started taking them out. The American wanna-be gang members lacked experience with people fighting back against them and fell easily but Travis put up a fight against Hadrian (not that he realised who he was) while Flint attacked Auror Johanson and his team. They managed to take them both down and once Hadrian had double checked they were secured and disarmed, including searching for portkeys and other magical objects he left the prisoners for the New York team to handle the transfer to the holding cells and started trying to help the victims.
The father was still conscious but beyond help, bleeding out from an entrails expelling curse too quickly for even magic to save. The mother had been severely tortured but after quick diagnostics for the official records, several carefully directed healing spells fixed the life threatening injuries so she would live. She would need mind healing to get over the torture but she should recover fully in time. He turned to find the child, from the pictures it looked like a daughter about eight. He cast a point me spell and followed it upstairs where he found the little girl sitting in her closet shakily holding a wand.
"Hey there. I'm an Auror, a magical policeman. You're Mum is going to be okay. She'll be in the hospital for a while but she will heal" Hadrian said gently. "Do you have a grandparent or Aunty or Uncle you'd like us to call to come look after you until your Mummy is better?"
"What about my Daddy?" the little girl asked.
"I'm sorry" Hadrian said.
The little girl evidently understood something bad had happened to her father and started to sob and Hadrian carefully lifted her out of the cupboard and carried her down the stairs and covered her eyes as he walked through the room the fight had been in and out the front door where he was met by the paramedics. "The scene is secure but the female vic in the front room is in need of your services" he said quietly. Once outside he could hear Auror Johanson arguing with someone about jurisdiction. He handed the child over to the second set of paramedics on scene and joined the discussion.
"This is a Naval Base. All crimes committed on the base are NCIS jurisdiction" the other man said, as Johanson's team and several other people stood watching.
"Two of the perpetrators have been on the British most wanted list for years for mass murder and treason. How about we handle the extradition and you can take care of the locals" Hadrian suggested.
"They killed a Naval officer, and his family" The NCIS leader protested.
Hadrian recognised Tim standing nearby and smiled at him slightly. "The officer yes unfortunately, but the wife's being assessed by the paramedics now and will probably spend several weeks in hospital and the daughter is more frightened than anything so I'd suggest you stop yelling before you frighten her further" Hadrian said calmly gesturing to the crying child the paramedics were trying to assess. "Can one of you stop this petty argument long enough to trace the child's grandparents or godparents. The sooner she has family here to support her the better."
Tim smiled to see Hadrian politely standing up to Gibbs.
Auror Johanson quickly directed his team in to try to find a cell phone or address book and contact the next of kin.
Gibbs however was less than impressed. "And you are?" he asked belligerently.
"Lord Evander MI7, working with the FBI to round up these fugitives" Hadrian said showing him his ID. "I'll arrange transport and collect my prisoners from your lockup at 0500 tomorrow" he said to Auror Johanson.
"We might need them to make our case" Erik Johanson protested.
"Your perps were caught red-handed torturing the wife and fired on federal agents. As the first agent onto the house my testimony will more than make up for the loss of Flint and Travis" Hadrian said unimpressed with the argument.
"I don't know that we can extradite them that easily. Official channels need to be followed" Erik reminded his young consultant.
Hadrian frowned. "Make it 0900 and I will have Sir Geoffrey Hobbs expedite the paperwork" he replied confidently.
"Why'd he introduce himself as Lord Evander?" Thaddeus asked once the NCIS team were out of hearing.
The other Aurors all shrugged their ignorance.
"Either he was pissed that Gibbs was being such a dick over jurisdiction or he mustn't have wanted to give Gibbs his name" Erik said dismissively.
"So he really is Lord Evander?" Thaddeus asked.
"It's possible, with all the families wiped out in the war, I've heard there are a lot of titles now in the possession of distant descendants" Erik replied. "If you have ancestors from Britain you could have a title yourself. If you're curious I'm sure you could have Gringotts run an Heirs test on your blood."
-o0o-
"I need to call in the obliviators" Erik grumbled looking around at the local police, paramedics and NCIS agents now crawling over the crime scene.
"For NCIS and the local law enforcement maybe" Hadrian said grinning. "Not for the family. I don't know about the parents but the kid's one of ours, it looks like she's just turned eight and gotten her wand. We need to look into that. That may be how they targeted this family. Oh and if you do obliviate Gibbs' team skip the blonde guy if you possibly can."
"He's a wiz?" Thaddeus asked.
"No and he doesn't know about magic either, but he is a friend and I'd rather not mess with his memory if you can avoid it. Let me know if you have to so I won't mention seeing him today if he doesn't remember."
"Sure" Thaddeus agreed grinning.
"If he doesn't know about magic, then we can't obliviate the rest of the team and leave him with memories the rest of the team no longer have" Erik said bluntly. "You know what that can do?"
Hadrian did know the type of paranoia that could cause, that was the sort of thing that gave rise to stories of being abducted by aliens. Of course there had also been a wizard serial rapist who liked to obliviate his victims and deliberately implanted false memories of alien experimentation to explain away the wounds he left and prevent the victims from being taken seriously by the police and avoiding Auror attention.
"Oh here's the diagnostic for the mother"
"And she's going to survive?" Thaddeus asked looking at it.
"She should, I healed up anything life threatening" Hadrian replied.
"Are we going to have to obliviate the whole hospital staff?" Erik asked wearily.
"I don't think so. I was pretty precise with the healing charms. Keep an ear out though, if I got it wrong they'll probably think that she was assaulted a couple of months ago or being abused by her husband and start asking questions about it. We'll need to sort that out pretty quick if it happens, they've been through enough."
Hadrian didn't get a chance to talk to Tim before he left though he was harassed by Tony as he was leaving.
"You've got nerve speaking to our illustrious leader like that" he said.
"He came storming onto my crime scene and instead of doing his job or trying to help the situation he started an argument with the people who were trying to do their jobs. I'm just grateful he wasn't here early enough to get the child and her mother killed" Hadrian replied frustrated.
"I didn't mean that/ I meant nobody ignores Gibbs like that. Nobody!" Tony said.
"I don't have to work with him" Hadrian pointed out.
Tony laughed. "Yeah you haven't made my life any easier today" he agreed ruefully. You're kind of young to be in charge?" Tony was curious, it made no sense why all the Feebs were deferring to the youngest one there, one who from the sound of his accent wasn't even one of them."
"It's my case. I came to the US to apprehend the traitors who fled here. I'm the expert in the British ringleaders of this group" Hadrian explained. He saw that Tim was right, this man in front of him as a shrewd investigator and an insightful reader of behavioural patterns. If he hadn't heard about the way the older man treated his friend he could have liked him enough to try to establish a friendship.
"You're very young to have been sent on an overseas mission like this" Tony replied.
Hadrian shrugged. "When you take out a terrorist cell leader and his lieutenants you earn the right to go after the small fish that got away."
"You took down a terrorist cell?" Tony asked astonished.
Hadrian glared at him. As much as the fame had annoyed him and caused problems with the people he worked with at least his abilities and accomplishments weren't questioned like this. "Yeah just because you were a spoiled little innocent until you finished college and the academy at what twenty three or four doesn't mean the rest of us have that luxury" he snapped before walking away.
Tony collected a head slap for baiting Hadrian. "Where does he get off. Titled snob"
"He is gainfully employed, unlike other young noblemen his age" Ziva said, unknowingly touching a nerve Hadrian had just poked. Tim kept his opinions to himself. He'd been amused when Hadrian had just barged into the argument over jurisdiction between the two team leads and just announced he was taking the prisoners he wanted. He also appreciated seeing the verbal slap down he'd given Tony. He just hoped that Tony didn't meet Hadrian again soon enough to recognise him.
-o0o-
Gibbs was furious the next morning when he went to interview the prisoners to find that the two Brits had already been transferred.
"We need to get their statements to close up our case. Otherwise these clowns may walk on a technicality" he yelled.
"Their taped confessions are here" Auror Johanson said handing over a copy that had been carefully edited to exclude all mention of magic. "We've already dispatched agents to apprehend the other members of the group."
"And are we going to be able to get them back to testify at trial?" Tony asked.
"That won't be necessary. We had a court judge there to authenticate the statements and they had defence lawyer representation" Erik replied.
"The defence lawyers will want to cross examine" Tony said.
"That won't be possible" Auror Johanson replied bluntly. "Those two men are part of a terrorist group responsible for thousands of deaths and a reputation for breaking their members out of jail. They'll tried by the military and quietly put to death for treason as soon it can be arranged. You wouldn't hold terrorists here in regular jails they could easy escape from so they could be part of a trial for the minor players. You'd send them to Gitmo and make your case against the two bit perps some other way"
"Since when do we care what the defence attorney wants?" Auror Thaddeus Billingsley asked.
"Since denying the defendants right to a fair trial will get the case thrown out" Gibbs answered.
"They were caught red handed and they've confessed to their crimes, There's more than enough evidence to convict them all without the two British fugitives" Auror Johanson reassured them.
"How the hell did you give the kid permission for them to be extradited?" Gibbs roared.
"The 'kid' as you call him has more clout than you would believe. The order came down from the president himself late last night. And I do mean that I received the orders via secure channel from President Bush himself" Auror Johanson replied. "Britain wanted them back and they were on their way as quickly as we could organise the transfer."
-o0o-
Hadrian had spent the whole night portkeying between London and Washington trying to set up the prisoner transfer, taking potions to deal with the lack of sleep and the side effects of multiple international portkeys so he'd be at his best to get the job done. The Americans were amused once he'd got the clearances he needed that he'd stunned Flint and Travers and transfigured each of them into a chess piece putting them in a box with what looked like the rest of the set.
"You're allowed to do that?" Thaddeus asked.
"This is my fifth international portkey in the last twelve hours. I don't want to risk them escaping because I'm exhausted" Hadrian retorted. "Besides they killed children. Becoming a chess piece for an hour or so is the least they deserve. It's a pity I can't play a game or two with them before I reverse the transfiguration."
Thaddeus laughed slightly uneasily.
-o0o-
"Potter, how's the liaison position going?" Auror Robbards asked as Hadrian walked into the ministry lockup. "Are you back for a while?"
"No I accompanied Travis and Flint back from Washington" Hadrian said as he pulled the chess set out of his pocket. He put one piece into each cell and untransfigured them.
"Interesting way to transport prisoners" Robbards said without censure.
"This is my third trip to London in the past twelve hours sorting out the paperwork so the American government would release them" Hadrian said. "I didn't want them to her away from me if they recovered from the portkey quicker than I did."
"It's very effective" Robbards admitted. "But why chess pieces?"
Hadrian shrugged. "I had to travel part of the way by muggle transport. Muggles play chess so they wouldn't think anything of me carrying a set, and wizards would expect it to be a wizarding chess set so the trace of magic coming off the pieces wouldn't attract their attention either."
"I might use that in future" Robbards said thoughtfully.
"It will only work until it becomes common knowledge" Hadrian warned.
"Good job catching these two" Robbards complimented.
"They were stupid they'd already attracted the attention of the Aurors for torturing muggles and new muggleborns" Hadrian said. "I'll trace the money and see if whomever helped them helped anyone else but I'm not holding my breath."
"It's still one possible pipeline for support shut down if the purebloods revolt again" Ribbards said.
"Do you think they will?" Hadrian asked, he hadn't heard anything about the threat.
"We have a whole generation who grew up believing Voldemort's doctrine that we can't do anything about until they break the law. Who knows what they'd do if someone tried to rally them to the cause" Robbards said practically. "The fact that you were attacked indicates there's still some wizards out there with a grudge and other than killing off their leader you haven't really done anything to draw retaliation like that."
"Have you found Healer Davis?" Hadrian asked hopefully.
"No the skunk has really gone to ground, but he's got to surface eventually and then we'll grab him" Robbards said reassuringly.
The problem with that was that Hadrian knew too much to be reassured by empty words. "Thanks."
-o0o-
Hadrian returned and went up to his apartment to collapse. He hadn't been as tired as this since the day of the final battle. Swallowing half a dose of dreamless sleep he slept most of the afternoon before returning to the New York field office to talk to Auror Johanson. He didn't want to see Tim until he'd been notified whether he and his team had been obliviated.
"You're in luck. We had a Legilimens scan the NCIS team and they didn't see anything they couldn't dismiss or explain away. Their Medical Examiner already knew about magic and agreed to help cover up if required, so we were able to avoid obliviating any of them" Erik said. "A couple of the local cops have had their memories slightly altered, but not enough to arouse suspicion."
Hadrian smiled in relief.
"He's important to you, the blond mundane?" Thaddeus asked.
"Yeah! He's my best friend in America" Hadrian replied.
-o0o-
Tim was surprised to find Hadrian home that night. "I thought you would have had to accompany those two prisoners back to London" he said.
"No they are on a military flight to England. My part is done, I can do more here looking into their financials to see who helped them resettle in this country and if they helped anyone else" Hadrian replied. In truth he had portkeyed the two Death Eaters to the holding cells underneath the British ministry of magic, met quickly with Kingsley and Robbards to hand over the evidence and Sir Geoffrey then portkeyed back but he could hardly tell Tim that. He thought back over his day. His meetings with his superiors had all gone well. They were impressed with his capture of the two fugitives and Edmund Clancy had sent positive reports of Hadrian's willingness to help out when required. "They'd given him some intel on a couple of the other Death Eaters that had managed to escape justice but none of them were thought to have made their way to America. He thought back to the conversation he'd had with the leader of MI7 earlier that day.
"I'm worried that I'm not really doing the job you sent me to do" Hadrian told Sir Geoffrey.
"You are improving international cooperation and understanding every time you interact with their Aurors" Sir Geoffrey replied.
"Yes but if you're hoping that I'll return and bring back their techniques and ways of doing things then I have to tell you that I'm honestly not sure I ever want to return to magical Britain to live" Hadrian replied.
"I'm not paying your salary, the Americans are, so don't worry about what you think I might want from you Harry" Sir Geoffrey reassured the younger man. "Our country owes you a great debt for your sacrifices in defeating Voldemort and this position was just as much about repaying that debt and giving you the chance to heal as it was catching the remaining Death Eaters or rebuilding relations with the Americans. Kingsley hopes that in a year or so you will come back and give some training sessions to the Aurors, but that would only be a couple of days every few months."
Hadrian nodded. "I could do that" he agreed.
"Well I'm glad you're not stuck in Britain for weeks until the trial Hades" Tim said smiling.
"I'll attend the trial via video conference" Hadrian replied. "I'm glad not to have to be there in person too."
"So you met my team, what did you think of them?" Tim asked.
"Your descriptions were very accurate" Hadrian replied diplomatically. "I don't think Gibbs or DiNozzo liked me though."
"No, and Gibbs likes you even less after you succeeded in absconding with 'his' suspects" Tim replied. "He was in a foul mood over it all day. The whole building could practically hear him yelling at the director this afternoon."
"I'm sorry if it gave you a bad day" Hadrian replied.
Tim laughed. "It did but that's okay. The amount of evidence you manage to collect on our perps in one night was amazing."
"Just luck" Hadrian dismissed. Veritaserum and magic truly did speed up investigations.
"Why did you give Gibbs a different name?" Tim asked.
"Mostly because I knew I was going to piss him off and I didn't want him to take it out on you if he'd heard my name before" Hadrian explained. "I didn't know if you'd mentioned me."
"You know this means I can't introduce you to the team any time soon now" Tim said slightly disappointed. He'd had no plans to introduce Hades to the team, he wasn't ready to expose either of them to the teasing and the perceptiveness of the investigators he worked with, but he was surprised how disappointed he was that he had to carry on keeping his friend a secret.
"Yeah I know it will be difficult but it's not like I actually lied to them" Hadrian replied. "It also means you don't have to be so careful mentioning me because they won't recognise the name. I was trying to make life easier for you."
"I don't think I have mentioned you to the team" Tim said, "But I may have, I often think about wanting to tell you things that happen during the day."
Hadrian nodded in understanding. He often felt like that too before he remembered Tim didn't know about magic and wouldn't understand his stories.
"So is Lord Evander a real title?" Tim asked curiously, remembering Hadrian telling him he had more than one legal name.
"Yeah, don't get too excited though, it's just an impoverished barony that I inherited from a distant relation whom I never met. I wasn't brought up to be a nobleman" Hadrian replied. "It makes a convenient second legal identity but other than that it's useless."
"But you could campaign for a seat in the House of Lords?" Tim pressed.
"Yeah I guess, but politics and I mix almost as well as me and technology" Hadrian said laughing.
Tim laughed too. "It takes a level of patience, and an ability to lie that I don't have either" he agreed.
Hadrian internally winced. Keeping the statute of secrecy necessitated him lying to people on a daily basis, but never had it been more difficult, or hurt his conscience more than lying to Tim. He was able to put it out of his mind for the moment and got up to start dinner.
Tim watching him move saw how lacking in energy his movements were and stopped him. "It's been a long couple of days and you look exhausted. I'll cook or we can call out and get something delivered" he suggested.
"I'm in the mood for Chinese" Hadrian said hopefully.
Tim agreed and got the takeout menu out of the drawer.
"You know you keep promising to cook for me. But all I've seen is your prowess with takeout menus and sandwiches" Hadrian teased as they waited for their food.
Tim laughed. "But you have to admit that I make the best peanut butter and Jelly you've ever tasted."
"Only because you've made the only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I've ever eaten" Hadrian retorted laughing.
A/N: Thank you to Locket1, geetac, julschristine975, Maben00, Nozomi Higurashi, xDarklightx, icyquest4, DS2010, buterflypuss, Lientjuhh, Rori Potter, Theamazinggata, acherongoddess, Guest, gabrieljuarezl, avidereader101, Merlenyn, mithrilandtj, Silvermane1, Firehedgehog, gaul1, YosoNoAkuma, Momoshi-chan, heathster, Arlekin, blaketiger, Little Nix, 1bibliophile, Darkness223, Alexjd, coffeee, kjede, lulawild, Maddy1012, Moonlit Magic, hufflepuffbadgersdontcare, mrs. phelps12, Tanya Dinocrisis01, Claddagh, ButterfliesInTheSkies, Almonda, tansy6, silverharpie17, Araknofobia, miastmisty, Alna'ir, Ardsy, when spells go wrong, 4Ameline4, Selenity84 and ABreathAwayFromWhereYouAre for your support.