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.
-o0o-
"You look so tan" Susan said enviously. "Did you have a nice holiday? Did you go to your family's place in Guernsey?"
"No, I'm not sure where the island was but it was a lot more tropical" Hannah replied.
"Why didn't you go to Guernsey? You love it there" Megan Jones asked.
"Neville wanted to see Harry" Hannah replied trying to sound casual.
"Harry Potter?" Megan screeched.
"Yes" Hannah replied giggling.
"Oh my God!" Megan squealed.
"Keep your voice down" Susan said. "When's he coming home?"
"I don't think he is" Hannah replied. "Not for years at any rate. He loves where he is."
"So he's not coming home to marry Ginny Weasley?" Leanne said sounding pleased.
"I'd love living on a tropical island too" Wayne Hopkins said enviously.
"Oh he doesn't live there. He was on holiday too" Hannah said. "He wouldn't tell us where he lives."
"He probably knew you'd tell everyone" Susan said.
"Yeah, he admitted it. He said he didn't want anyone coming after his family" Hannah admitted. "Did you know he was getting attacked nearly every time he went out on his own before he left. He was sent away to keep him safe."
"Wait, you said family!" Susan said surprised.
"Yeah he has custody of his godson" Hannah said not knowing how to mention Rosie without talking about Tim. Talking about Teddy was fairly safe, even before he left it was obvious that Harry had doted on his godson and if she slipped and mentioned Rosie the others would think she meant Harry's best friends' child, Rose Weasley.
"Did he say anything about where he lives?" Megan asked.
"Harry said he lives mostly in the muggle world. That most witches and wizards do where he is. They don't use galleons even the wizarding shops use muggle money, and their students learn muggle subjects at school. He said there really isn't a separate world at all and there are almost no purebloods. Nobody cares how many generations your family has had magic. He said he's never even been asked if he's pureblood or muggleborn."
"Of course he hasn't. He's Harry Potter everyone knows he's a half blood" Ernie MacMillan scoffed.
"No he said he's not famous like that there. That he can walk down the street and nobody takes any notice of him. He said he hasn't been in their newspaper since the week he killed 'You-Know-Who'. He said he really loves that" Hannah said.
"I would have thought he'd love the fame" Ernie said.
"No. Harry made me see that his fame came with constant scrutiny. Everybody thought they had the right to tell him how he should live his life and what they thought of everything he did. And he was still getting attacked by You-Know-Who's supporters. He was tired of it all. He says he's safer where he is" Hannah said soberly.
"So, he really isn't coming back" Susan said. "Or at least not until Teddy goes to Hogwarts in seven years."
"Probably not even then, he said he was going to enrol Teddy in school where he lives" Hannah said.
"He said their school taught muggle subjects as well and started younger so by the time Teddy is eleven he'll be beyond first year in a lot of subjects."
The others gave various loud exclamations of disbelief. "Is that even possible, most kids don't do accidental magic until they're nine or ten" Ernie retorted.
"He says it is, they do a lot more non wand subjects in the first few years, latin, runes, arithmancy, herbology, potions and magical theory" Hannah said shrugging.
They saw Draco Malfoy walk past sneering at them.
The boys all frowned but the girls had grabbed them to prevent them from reacting.
"You'll never believe what Harry told me about Malfoy" Hannah said.
"What?" Megan asked.
"He said Malfoy had four older siblings that died suspiciously a month or so after they turned eleven.
Apparently they didn't get a Hogwarts letter so the Malfoys got rid of them. Murdered their own children. Who would do that?" Hannah demanded.
Ernie looked down guiltily but the others looked shocked.
"What?" Susan asked appalled.
"Harry said it's fairly common practice here to kill squibs. He said that's why most people don't bring their children out in public until they've done magic" she gestured out to the alley where there were quite a few children out there that looked a year or two too young for Hogwarts and a few muggleborns with preschool aged children but very few others. Even those in their group who had a child hadn't brought them out with them.
"Harry said that was one of the reasons our population isn't growing. That a lot of squibs will have a magical child or grandchild if they marry another squib but here in Britain most squibs don't live long enough to have children."
"But what should we do with them? They can't be sent to the muggle world, they'd break the statute of secrecy"
"Would they? The boys can't do magic yet so nobody could prove they weren't just pretending. People would think that any mention of magic was just imaginary." Hannah said. "Harry was encouraging me to put Franklin and Ellison into a muggle kids group to play, or something called 'Kindigym'. He said that nobody would believe a child talking about magic, they would just think they were making it up or playing an imaginary game."
"And does Harry put his godson into these muggle plays?" Ernie asked.
"It's playgroup. A lot of churches and parenting organisations run them. It's a group of kids that are about the same age and you take your child to the group and meet other parents while your kids learn to play together" Justin explained.
"Yeah he does, though he's got to be a bit more careful. Teddy's already doing magic" Hannah replied. "And he has to take his metamorphmagus blocking potion to be out in the muggle world too."
"He can't be more than five" Ernie exclaimed incredulously.
"He's just turned four" Hannah replied. "Harry thought it was normal. He said his godfather told him he was already doing magic before his parents were killed."
"I can believe that, he's Harry Potter" Megan said dreamily. "But his godson shouldn't be doing magic yet. Did you see it?"
"No but I believe them" Hannah replied.
-o0o-
While Hannah was out with her Hufflepuff friends, Neville visited the Abbotts and asked to view their family tree.
"Of course you can, but why?" Lord Abbott asked.
"We spent our holiday with Harry and a muggle friend of his. Harry's friend is a scientist and he was telling me that it isn't just the paternal bloodlines that affect children. Most people do what you did and make sure the Longbottom and Abbott families hadn't intermarried in recent generations but you never asked me about my mother's family lines. Maybe you already knew them and I'm worried about nothing, but I'd like to see it for myself."
"Maternal lines don't count unless it's a matriarchal line and there's precious few of those these days" Lord Abbott said.
"Maybe in terms of inheritances of property and wealth but I look more like my mum than my dad, everyone says so. So, it's reasonable to assume that physically I inherited other things from my mother's side of the family, and my paternal grandmother's family too. Harry's scientist friend said that he thinks that's why so many more squibs are born in Britain because purebloods marry close relatives."
"We'll let's go and have a look, though it's a bit late to do anything about it" Lord Abbott agreed.
Neville pulled the parchment copy he'd made of the last five generations of his family tree, or as much of it as he could trace anyway, and compared the two. He asked Lady Abbott questions about her family and the dowager Lady Abbott also joined them and told him about her family too. Luckily, they didn't find any names in common which made Neville feel better though there were too many names missing for it to be conclusive, and with all his mother's family dead and his mother unable to interact with the world he didn't know how to even begin to fill in those blanks.
Hadrian had told him not to worry too much because as far as they could tell Franklin and Ellison were perfectly normal healthy intelligent little boys with no signs of congenital problems but he wouldn't truly stop worrying until they'd done magic. He had wanted another child, dreaming of having a little girl but now he wasn't so sure it was worth the risk. Hadrian had laughed when he said that and told him that as long as he could love the child it would be worth it.
-o0o-
It was his third day back at work before Tim had to go down to Abby's lab, and even then he wasn't alone. He Tony and Ziva arrived with boxes of evidence from their latest crime scene to be analysed for fingerprints and trace evidence.
"Hey Tony, Ziva, McGee" Abby greeted them.
"Hello Abby" Ziva replied. "This is all from Lieutenant Morris' bedroom. We need to know who else had been in there lately."
"Was he killed in the bedroom?" Abby asked.
"He was found in the walk-in wardrobe so all of his clothes are bagged and tagged in these boxes"
Tony replied. "Gibbs wants the bedroom processed first though. His wife is deployed but there were signs he may have had a mistress and Gibbs wants to know who it is."
"Well at least this time we can't go with Tony's favourite theory, 'the wife did it'" Ziva said.
"She could have, she could have used Voodoo" Abby suggested enthusiastically.
Tony chuckled a little.
"Ducky says the cause of death was stab wounds in the lower abdomen" Tim replied.
"We'll leave you to it Abby" Tony said as the three of them retreated upstairs to start digging into the victim's life.
Abby remained very cool and formal with Tim. It was obvious that she was still unhappy with him but Tim found that he didn't really care as long as she remained professional.
Jenny had warned Gibbs that bribing Abby with Cafpow to run his evidence before the other teams would no longer be tolerated.
He tried to argue that it wasn't a bribe and that the others were free to bring Abby a Cafpow when they bought their coffees too but Director Sheppard wouldn't budge. She informed him that that much Cafpow would probably constitute a serious health hazard, one that a federal agency couldn't be responsible for causing, and probably make the lab tech so jittery she couldn't effectively analyse anybody's evidence. Jenny had also assured Jethro that she had explained this and Abby understood that she would have to buy her own Cafpow. Unfortunately, Abby had not understood the way Gibbs and the Director thought she did. She'd been hurt at the time by the inference that Gibbs didn't buy her Cafpow out of pure affection, and then hurt again when Gibbs followed orders and stopped bringing her the drink. She didn't realise that the cooling of her relationship with Gibbs was mostly caused by his anger at the way she treated the rest of his team, so while she was still trying to blame others, at least at the moment she was blaming Director Sheppard not Tim for this problem and was able to maintain the professional relationship her new probation demanded.
-o0o-
Hadrian and Tim managed to hire a human assistant for Tollie who could take Teddy and Rosie to that park and take Teddy to preschool when it started. Barbara O'Neill was a retired grade school teacher whose father and husband had both been decorated police officers. Her elder sister and youngest child were magical but she was not. Judy was a no nonsense woman with a grandmotherly air and Teddy and Rosie both took to her straight away. Tollie herself didn't like the idea but she soon came around when she realised that Barbara wasn't taking over her duties so much as taking over the tasks Hadrian and Tim performed themselves when they were home.
Barbara was totally accepting of the relationship between Hadrian and Tim and the fact that her new charges had two Daddies and no Mommy and tried to step up to provide some of the feminine influences that the two men and the dedicated elf couldn't. She also didn't need to work full time financially and was happy to have extra time off when Tim and Hadrian were off and work extra hours when they were both busy on cases if it was needed and was willing to work weekends and take a couple of weekdays off instead to match Tim's erratic schedule.
-o0o-
Labour Day came and went and Hadrian returned to work. He spent the first week missing Teddy and Rosie incredibly and reading through all the incident reports that could potentially have foreign wizard involvement. Luckily, he didn't find any evidence of the Death Eaters operating along the East Coast of America and called through to the other regions to have their questionable cases forwarded to him. As a result he spent a week in California chasing up on an offender who turned out to be a British muggleborn who'd fled the war. In spite of having suffered the pureblood prejudice throughout his years at Hogwarts he had adopted the idea that wizards were superior to muggles and could be mistreated with impunity. Hadrian quickly disabused him of the notion arresting him and snapping magical suppression cuffs on him before handing him over to local authorities to charge. Hadrian settled into his new routine, taking the couple of classes he had left to get his GED and helping out with regular Auror duties when they were short-handed as well as keeping his ear to the ground for possible escaped death eaters. After a few weeks, he had to admit as much as he missed his children it was good to return to being Auror instead of just Daddy.
-o0o-
Hadrian and Tim had both taken leave for the day Teddy started preschool. They'd chosen to send him to the local public school to start with and it was a short walk from the house so Judy could take him and pick him up easily.
As a backup, Tim had researched private preschools in their area and found one with a reputation of tolerance for non-typical families in case they didn't receive a good reception at the public school. Neither man wanted their children to grow up feeling overly entitled spoilt brats and felt that public school was something they wanted to at least try even though neither had had good experiences with schools as children and were prepared to pull Teddy out at the first sign of bullying.
Tim and Hadrian decided to be in your face open about their relationship so if anyone had problems with them they'd show up before Teddy settled in enough to be upset if he had to change schools. They walked to the school hand in hand, Rosie in her baby carrier on Tim's chest and Teddy in the middle being swung along by his fathers.
They took Teddy in and helped him find the right cubbyhole for his bag and hook for his jacket before hugging him goodbye and sending him in to sit on the mat with the teacher and the other children. The teacher's assistant was standing by the door to answer questions and collect the paperwork allocating who was allowed to collect each child. After much thought, Tim and Hadrian had added Gibbs and Agent Clancy as well as Barbara to their list in case of emergencies. Teddy was use to the day care at Quantico a couple of times a week and he'd also spent some odd days in the day care at the Navy Yard so it would be familiar to him if Tim had to take him there in an emergency so even in this new place he was okay with his father's leaving him for a while. They'd promised to pick him up before lunch and take him for a picnic outside which he was looking forward to but for now he was eager to meet the other kids and have some fun.
Tim and Hadrian were shocked to see many of the women leaving the preschool clinging to each other with tears in their eyes. Another mom noticed them looking and explained. "Full time moms leaving their eldest or in many cases only child for the first time" she said. "You're lucky to have this little poppet to keep you busy this morning. Stop you from missing the other one so much."
"Hadrian and I both work, we're used to leaving them in day care" Tim replied.
"Which explains the lack of stress dropping him off but if you're not working today you're gonna miss the little tyke more than you expect, four hours can be a long time when you're waiting to see your kid again. Just be kind to each other today. It may hit you both at different times. I know, this is my third time and it never really gets easier."
Hadrian and Tim smiled at the kind-hearted lady.
"Thank you" Hadrian said.
"Good luck today" Tim added.
-o0o-
Teddy settled in well to preschool and Barbara turned out to be a good fit for their family. Everything was going along well until Hadrian got pulled aside one day as he walked into the DC branch of Gringotts as part of an investigation. He quickly got the information he needed, being one of their wealthiest customers with a reputation for treating his account manager respectfully and taking his advice served him well here. As he was leaving, a goblin passed him the message that his account manager Sharprock wanted to see him at his earliest convenience.
"I finish work at five, I could use a portkey and be at the London branch by 1730 our time which would be 1230 London time, would that suit Sharprock?" Hadrian asked to goblin passing the message politely.
"The time suits but Sharprock is willing to come to this branch to see you" the goblin replied.
"If it doesn't inconvenience him too much, that would be gratefully appreciated" Hadrian replied smiling.
"1730 DC time then" the goblin confirmed.
"Thank you I'll be here" Hadrian agreed.
Once out of the bank he rang Tim to let him know he'd be late home. "Sharprock wants to see me badly enough that he's willing to travel to DC. I expect whatever it is might take a while" he warned Tim.
"It's ominous that he's willing to come to me instead of demanding my presence. Either they want something from me or there's something to inform me of that Gringotts feels responsible for" Hadrian said.
"That could just have a more efficient means of travelling between one branch and another" Tim suggested.
"They probably do for him to even suggest it but still…" Hadrian trailed off thoughtfully. "he's not the type to try to save me the discomfort of an international portkey without a reason. We're not actually friends and most goblins enjoy causing as much irritation and inconvenience for wizards as possible within the treaties they have with the wizarding world."
-o0o-
Hadrian was careful to be ten minutes early for his appointment with Sharprock, and to let the goblin at the desk know that he was happy to wait for Sharprock's convenience.
Sharprock chose not to keep him waiting, which rang more alarm bells in Hadrian's mind. In his experience Goblins loved to exercise their power by making wizards wait for them.
"Sharprock" Hadrian greeted bowing slightly.
"Black" Sharprock answered using only the surname Hadrian used in America.
"You asked to see me?" Hadrian asked getting to the point.
"Your accounts for the Potter Griffin Corporation show a sharp and unexplainable drop in profit" Sharprock stated bluntly.
Hadrian frowned. "What seems to be the problem?"
"The rental income suggests occupancy is down at least ten percent in south London but looking at the lease agreements your buildings are at full tenancy with rent prices rising in line with inflation and there is a waiting list for most buildings as well. I believe someone is skimming off the profits" Sharprock replied.
"Have you investigated?" Hadrian asked.
"I've done what I can, the loss is not occurring inside Gringotts, and it's too wide spread to blame one of your area managers. As you know most of them are muggles so we cannot spell or potion them for truthfulness" Sharprock answered seriously. "You'll have to hire human investigators if you want answers."
"That's not what you want is it. You want me to go and investigate it myself" Hadrian said perceptively.
"We've already hired one investigator who found nothing" Sharprock replied.
"You think the investigator might have been bought off? Paid to overlook something?"
"The missing sum is quite large, you'd have to hire someone beyond trustworthy to guarantee it didn't happen" Sharprock replied obscurely.
"I'm sure all your employees are carefully screened" Hadrian replied.
"We do what we can" Sharprock replied. "Most of our employees are well aware that to steal from us will result in a most painful death but in this case it's a little different."
Hadrian shuddered, the rumours of thieves being fed to the dragons that guarded the highest security vaults had never been proven but they were pervasive enough that most wizards believed them.
"Of course, it could just be that the thief is just very skilled at hiding his tracks. With wizards, or goblins for that matter we can easily dose suspects with truth serums and find out all they know. An unfortunate side effect of this is that we are not as well proficient in muggle investigative techniques and profiling whether someone is telling the truth."
"I'll need to talk to my husband before we determine our next step. It may be that the best thing to do would be to approach muggle authorities. They have a white collar crime division that deals with things like this" Hadrian replied.
"That might cause issues with the stature of secrecy given that all your money goes into Gringotts and you don't pay muggle taxes on most of it" Sharprock warned.
"I'll take that into account" Hadrian replied. "Thank you for letting me know."
-o0o-
The elves had dinner ready to dish up when Hadrian arrived home so he helped Teddy pick up his toys and wash up.
"How was your day?" he asked.
Teddy jumped in and told them a meandering story about his morning at kinder, his lunch with Tollie and his trip to the park with Barbara. Tim and Hadrian listened smiling at the little boy's enthusiasm.
"Well I spent the morning at Rock Creek Park but I didn't have the fun you did" Tim said.
"You went to the park?" Teddy asked.
"It's not a play park, and it wasn't a real petty officer either, we turned it over to the local LEO's" Tim explained. "It's a pity we get so many victims there, the park would be beautiful if it didn't have so many negative connotations."
"Well I had a fairly typical work day. We managed to find out who's been financing our perp and pulled them in for questioning. Then Sharprock and I had a conversation on the surprising reduction in rental income on my properties in London in spite of the fact they're all fully occupied. He wants me to come back to England to investigate" Hadrian said.
"I take it we are talking about a lot of money?" Tim asked.
"Not enough to make a difference in our quality of living, but yes quite a bit. It's more the fact that someone's stealing from me" Hadrian replied.
"Do you think it could be someone doing it to force you to come back to Britain?" Tim asked.
"I don't know, but that's definitely what Sharprock wanted. I can't hand the evidence over to the police without breaking the statute of secrecy as the money gets deposited into Gringotts and disappears from the muggle world" Hadrian answered.
"So, that makes you the perfect target to rob if someone knew that" Tim suggested.
"Yeah" Hadrian replied thoughtfully, "but not if they knew that I work for the DMLE, or they knew anything about goblin justice."
"Do you want to go to London and investigate?" Tim asked.
Hadrian shrugged. "I've only just returned to work, and Teddy's settled in kindergarten. It's not a good time to be taking a week or so off to go to London for heaven knows how long in the hope we can find out how someone's skimming the money and who's doing it."
"I could ask Gibbs for a couple of days off" Tim offered.
"I could go by myself or we could wait until October 21st when Teddy has the week off" Hadrian replied. "I don't want him to miss kinder but I don't want to leave him behind with Barbara and Tollie" Hadrian replied. "The problem is I think the records might be on computer, which would explain why the goblins or anyone they'd hire couldn't find anything." Hadrian was slightly embarrassed that he was so hopeless at something Tim was so interested in. He knew Tim didn't care but he hated not being able to share something that was important to his husband.
"How much money will you lose by waiting?" Tim asked concerned.
"Maybe quite a bit but once the goblins know where it is they should be able to collect it. I'm more worried about my relationship with the goblins if they realise that my children's happiness is more important to me than correcting a loss as soon as possible" Hadrian replied.
"Even in the muggle world?" Tim asked.
"Yeah I think so" Hadrian replied. "To be honest the money isn't as important as Teddy's well being. We have more than plenty."
"It's hard to think that way. In not used to having so much that being robbed doesn't matter" Tim said.
"It still doesn't feel right, knowing someone's stealing from me" Hadrian said. "But it would be worse if it's someone who knows me."
-o0o-
A/N: Thank you to Kourtney Uzu Yato, Rori Potter, Firehedgehog, charm13insomnia, BCgurlie, Guest, icyquest4, Reader Ethiriel, lia (Guest), xDarklightx, julschristine975, lilly-flower15, Lientjuhh, veyronking995, acherongoddess, Kaorilamb, mayawene, DarkRavie, DS2010, jayswing96, Fixtictious Fanasty, Merlenyn, Maben00, asdf (Guest), Locket1, buterflypuss, dobbys-stinger, Village-Mystic, Silvermane1, PercyJacksonROCKS4ever, gabrieljuarezl, Hortensia, serenityselena, .9, yngoldfogee (Guest), Hot Tamale (Guest), Serpent91, LadyDrak75, Fallow53 (Guest), rmiser1994, MargaritaS, madnessdownunder2, InlovewithMalfoy, Missabakuno, skmccollum, EmpressKie, Mithryl, jbuising85, jhor, Chisana22, imphyy, wilbornas, SAK01248, Blyder, PotterSnapeValdezDiAngelo, jdekke, .1, issey989, Rocketgirllily, Erster Schnee, mamadoi, necrogirlmb12, purediabolus, kain-donovan, yaoichan, marianbri, reckless13, Tasva, Mullkkkkkk, cjcold2, CalicoKitty402, Sakiq-Sakik, MaidenZorriah, amber10587, .x, tiwan, redsnivy, rozielrie, BeautifulCherryBlossom, fontsofwisdom, 2130, AlexisJames, Xzeria, Rumbling Frenzy, Shinigami04, FoldedWings, Kalypso24, sorguez, lucariosgirl22, IgorTheBat, tcbnv, aldetert, chantal marchons, Kaiserin Rose, dragon-girl40, redstickbonbon, Remea, PasserbySir, 15-Alesso-22, K'VIN, Snow-Nightshade, kickassclumsy, Kasai no Oni, disingenuous, sblack13, norska, dverducci, nlblake, , speedy101, Crystalline92, Silver Eyes in Shadow, Alia-Jevs, phoenixdeea, SeekersTF4, InfinityMinusOne, Kyuubi, LikaNues, 24casey91, pentheseleia, .on. .Night, frances979, shadowmoon31, and lollypop1996 for your support.
