Quidditch Practice

It was pouring. Torrents of rain hit the Great Hall window during breakfast. If it was any louder, it'd drown out all conversation. Other than that, however, the day would be a completely normal one.

Abby planned on sitting in on all the potions classes collecting more knives and ensuring fairness. McGee would be with her, attempting to keep Snape from killing Abby, or vice versa.

Ziva would be in the library, reading everything she possibly could, and would likely be joined by Ducky and Jimmy. Unbeknownst to Ziva at the time, Tony would be accompanying her to the library to see if he could find anything on Quidditch so he would not feel like a complete idiot at practice later that day.

Gibbs, Fornell, and the recently released from the hospital wing Colonel Mann would continue to run into dead ends trying to discover the killer's identity.

Classes would go on as usual… all of them except potions, at least. Students were rather looking forward to the class, hoping to perhaps see a showdown between Abby and their extremely unhappy professor.

Snape stood up from the table and began heading towards the door. Abby stood up, pulled McGee with her, and followed Snape out, a bounce in her step. Students watched her skip out the doors and moved around in their seats to try to keep her in sights as long as possible.

"Abby's quite the celebrity now a days!" Tony commented.

"Perhaps it will come in handy," Ziva suggested as she threw her bag over her shoulder. Tony got up as well. "Where are you going, DiNozzo?"

"With you, David!"

"Why?"

"Is it wrong for one to go to the library?"

"We are talking about you, Tony, not a normal person. You, who have not finished a book since he was seven, are going to go to the library of your own accord?" She turned and started on her way out.

"For your information, Officer David, I've gone to the library several times of my own will!" Tony called as he hurried after her.

"Really? What was her name?" Ziva asked with a chuckle.

Jenny turned toward the remainder of the team and said to Ducky, "I thought you were going to the library too?"

"We will," Ducky said, gesturing to himself and Jimmy, "but I thought we'd stop by Professor Snape's to see if he had anything new, first."

"He's left for his office, Ducky."

"I know, but this breakfast is simply delicious!" he admitted. "I haven't had this kind of food since Mother and I moved to the States!"

"Ducky…"

Ducky sighed heavily. "Very well. As the Director demands. Come along, Mr. Palmer."

Jenny rolled her eyes. "Born in Scotland, educated in England, traveled the world, moved to America. I guess a man can have food of every kind and will still prefer his home cooking," she commented to herself. She could see the McGonagall was distracted and hardly listening. Jenny pretended to take great interest in the enchanted ceiling (which she was now rather used to) and waited. Surely it wouldn't be long… the woman was almost bursting at the seams…

"Why are you letting Agent Gibbs and his team do this?" McGonagall asked suddenly. Jenny worked hard to keep her smile at bay. "Honestly, they're only children, what help will they be? I don't like the idea of you using them!"

"It's only a child that's brought all of this on, Professor," Jenny pointed out. "They can be as much of a help as the culprit has been a hindrance. Students know more about what's going on with other students than teachers know what's going on with students. Fred, George, Harry, Ron, and Hermione will be able to tell us if anyone's been acting out of sorts.

"And I would deny that we're using them, but that'd be a lie. However, we won't treat them like trash. They are human beings with emotions and we'll treat them as such. And if not, you have my permission to curse Gibbs into whatever time period you'd like," Jenny wrapped up with a broad grin.

McGonagall raised an eyebrow, but Jenny could see it was a substitute for smiling.

After hours of reading about Quidditch, Tony felt like he had a rather strong grip on its concept. He was actually excited to go down to see the Gryffindors practice. However, he was, after all, a professional. Tony DiNozzo had to keep control of himself and play it cool.

Tony would have played his 'keeping cool' part fantastically if he hadn't been sitting in front of a window for half an hour staring out at the grounds. He would have been more convincing still if he hadn't leapt three feet into the air when figures with brooms slung over their shoulders trouped across the muddy grounds.

The full grown man shoved his NCIS hat onto his head and shrugged on his jacket, not taking notice of the woman across the bull pen following suite.

Ziva followed Tony all the way down to the Entrance Hall before he noticed.

"What are you doing, David?!"

"Going with you, DiNozzo! Potter plays."

"So?"

"So I am going to go watch and learn. This is part of my assignment, Tony!" Ziva smiled annoyingly.

Tony exhaled before turning around and throwing open one of the doors. He took two steps out into the almost solid sheet of water falling from the sky. "Well this is just great!" he shouted over the noise. "Two steps and I'm already soaked!"

Ziva stepped out into the rain as well. She opened her mouth and tilted her head back briefly. "It is only a bit of rain, Tony! I am sure you will survive!" she said loudly as she headed towards the Quidditch Pitch, Tony at her heels.

The Pitch was enormous with stands rising high into the sky. On either side were three hoops resembling bubble wands. Seven red blurs were flying around the field together, warming up.

As Tony and Ziva made their way to a pair of seats, two red robes flew straight towards them and took seats on either side of them as the rest of the team flew to different positions on the field.

"Wood's teaching the chasers a couple of new moves!" Fred shouted over the rain hitting the bleachers as he propped his broom against his knee.

"He doesn't want the bludgers in quite yet!" George explained as he slicked back his wet hair.

"Bludgers are the black ones that try to knock people off their brooms, right?" Tony asked loudly.

"Look at that, George! He's been doing his research!"

"It makes me proud, Fred!"

"What about you, Officer David?"

"I did a bit of reading," Ziva said. "But I do not understand the points!"

"Points!" Fred exclaimed. "Quite simple, really!"

"The chasers throw the Quaffle around and try to get it past the other team's Keeper into one of the hoops!" George said.

"Every time they get it through the hoop is ten points to their team!" Fred elaborated.

"And the Seeker – "

"That's Harry up there!"

"Tries to find the Snitch. If he catches it before the other Seeker, he gets 150 points!"

"The catching of the Snitch ends the game!"

Ziva nodded and turned to watch the practice. She looked up to see Harry Potter flying around in no particular pattern. She doubted whether he could see anything with his glasses.

"Poor Harry's going to have a tough time at the match on Saturday!" Fred told Tony.

"He's blind with or without his glasses in this weather!" George said sadly, shaking his head.

A third figure flew over by the stands.

"Fred!" shouted the figure, "George! I've been calling you for three minutes!"

"Sorry, Oliver!" Fred called back.

"We can hardly hear you now!"

"And what are they doing here?" snapped the figure dubbed Oliver.

"They're Muggles, Oliver! Haven't a clue as to what's going on!"

"Do you really think they're going to go tell the Hufflepuffs all our fancy moves?"

Oliver scowled, but seemed to think Fred and George had a fair point. Either way, he told them to get back on their brooms and then flew off to circle his three fifty-foot high hoops.

"Oliver Wood's captain of our team," Fred offered.

"It's his last year here and if Gryffindor doesn't win the Quidditch Cup he might just kill himself!" George said dramatically as he and his brother mounted their brooms.

"Watch – "

"And Enjoy!"

The twins kicked off the stands and flew into the air. They dove to the ground and came back up with bats in their hands. Two black balls now flew around the field as well, though they were extremely hard to see through the sheets of rain.

"What do you think, Tony?" Ziva asked after a while.

"I think this would be a lot better without the rain!" Tony answered sourly. "I'm soaked to the bone!"

"Oh look!" Ziva exclaimed, pointing at the red blurs, "They are landing!"

"Finally!"

The seven Grffyindors were indeed coming back down to the earth. Well… five of them. The Weasley twins flew over to Tony and Ziva.

"We've got to change into our school robes – "

"So we can get those dripping wet, as well – "

"And then we'll walk back to the castle with you!"

Fred and George turned around and flew down into the open doors of the locker room.

"I think Saturday will be very interesting," Ziva said as she and Tony climbed down the stands.

"If we can see anything, yeah!" Tony took shelter under a very small awning and shook his head like a dog. Water flew from his hair, but it was still dripping wet when he stopped.

Deciding silence was probably the best option available with Tony being in such a surly mood, Ziva stayed out in the rain and waited for the locker room door to open once more.

At long last, the door opened and out of it came Oliver Wood, Potter, Fred, George, and three girls whose names Ziva didn't know. The Gryffindors met up with Tony and Ziva and the lot began their way back to the castle.

"Muggles, eh?" said Wood. He was walking beside Tony and Ziva, watching them carefully as if they'd try to run off and blab Gryffindor's tactics to everyone. Ziva took notice of the fact that he kept his hand in his pocket, likely gripping his wand. "How's work going?"

"Fine," Ziva answered.

"Got any suspects?"

"Mr. Wood, I am not at liberty to tell you any details about my work," Ziva said firmly.

"Well, I hope you catch the culprit soon. Penelope Clearwater was in my year. I don't want to see any of my other friends go the same way as her."

"We are doing all that we can to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Quit being a downer, Oliver!" Fred called.

"Yeah, talk about something more upbeat!" George suggested.

"What'd you think of your first Quidditch experience?" Fred asked Tony, coming up beside him.

"Why are you playing in the rain?" Tony answered one question with another.

"Neither rain – "

"Nor snow – "

"Nor hail – "

"Nor being sick – "

"Nor the end of the world as we know it –"

"Keeps Quidditch at bay!"

Fred and George gave identical grins.

"How do you control the brooms?" Ziva inquired.

"Just turn the handle the way you want the broom to go!"

"Yeah, it's real simple."

"The better the broom, the easier it is to turn, isn't it, Harry?" Fred asked, turning around to face a black-haired boy with glasses.

"I dunno," Harry admitted. "I've only flown on my Nimbus, really…"

"Harry's got one of the best brooms out there," George said with a twinge of envy.

The group now stood in front of the castle doors.

"Alright," Wood said, stepping up to face everyone. "We're all covered in mud, so we've got to hurry back to our dorms or Filch will catch us. I don't want anyone getting thrown into detention!" Wood pointedly looked at the Weasley twins before opening the door. He stuck his head in, looked both ways, opened the door wider, and ran out of sight. The rest of his team followed behind him.

Tony and Ziva went in after the team and felt as if they had to run too. Ziva looked behind herself to see a trail of darker carpet and flecks of mud. She understood why running was necessary. Filch was the Hogwarts caretaker. He'd have to clean up.

The two grown adults ran into their headquarters and slammed the door behind them. Tony took off his shoes and dumped the water onto the ground. Ziva began wringing out her hair.

"What happened to you two?" Professor McGonagall asked. Oddly enough she was the only person in the room.

Tony swore. "Did we miss dinner?"

"Your colleagues went down to the kitchens to get their meal. Now what happened?"

"We went to watch Quidditch practice, Professor!" Ziva supplied as she took off her jacket. "The Weasley twins invited Tony and I snagged along." She grabbed towel that had appeared beside her and dried off her face and hands.

"Tagged. And I'm going to change," Tony declared, stalking off to get a new suit.

Ziva was wringing her hair again. She suddenly stopped and her hand went to her pocket. She pulled out her phone, then said something foreign. "TONY!" she shouted, causing McGonagall to jump. "IS YOUR PHONE WORKING?"

Tony's response came from behind a door on the other side of the room. It was only a swear word.

Ziva sighed as she looked at her now useless phones. "Electronics do not get along with water," she explained.

Ziva walked into the bull pen and opened a drawer in the filing cabinet next to Tony's desk. Professor McGonagall caught a glimpse of several boxes, all with a picture of a cell phone on it. Ziva pulled out one of the boxes and opened it, talking as she worked. "Gibbs does not get along well with electronics, either. He tends to break his phone several times a month. We have these for easy replacement."

McGonagall watched as Ziva took the backs off both phones, pulled a chip out of the broken one, and put it in the new one. She turned the new phone on and smiled as the screen flashed. The Israeli pulled out a second box and left it on the desk, threw out her now useless phone, and went to change.

Minutes later, the two agents went down to the kitchens, where (unbeknownst to them) they would get their first sight of house elves.

Author's Note

Next chapter - High Speedy Chase

I'm hungry, I'm tired, and I have to get ready for a dance. I have no witty comment to give.

Review anyway! :)