DISCLAIMER: Neither the TV show 'NCIS' nor the 'Harry Potter' book series belong to me.
The moment Ziva's foot stepped inside the strange-looking house, she honestly believed that that step was the weirdest experience of her entire life.
And to be able to say such a thing, after the few days she'd just had, was, in her humble opinion, impressive.
There was too much to process, in too little time. Noises, colors and things her brain refused to process as real. So she stood in a daze, absorbing it all for what she estimated were several minutes.
First of all, there was the turquoise-haired kid yelling "Victoire! Give it back!" Then, there was the fact that, as he ran right in front of her - nearly sending Tony toppling to the ground - his hair turned deep blue, right in front of their eyes.
Then she thought she glimpsed people – mostly red-hairs – outside, flying around in actual brooms - one of them had yelled for Harry and he'd taken off, waving someone in the kitchen over to them. Then there was the mirror in the hallway, yelling at Gibbs about his uneven, Marine haircut. The clock that showed no time at all was the least weird, and by then, she'd gotten used to the robes everyone was wearing (which didn't speak in favor of her sanity).
The food was cooking itself as a plump, motherly, cheery-looking lady waved her wand and plates flew out the window toward a table. Ziva realized she'd been the one Harry had called when she walked toward them with a happy smile. And Ziva could've taken a step back, she was so startled.
And lastly, the flying pan that nearly hit her in the face. "Oh, sorry, dear." The woman cried, setting the wand in her pocket straight.
She crossed the rest of the distance toward them, maneuvering around the confusion with the skill of an expert in the art of being a mother and grandmother to her share of children. She dodged the laughing little girl running away from the now deep red-haired boy, with a distracted, but strict "Victoire! Play nice, and give Teddy his toy back!", and Ziva's attention snapped into focus again.
(She also noticed that the 'toy' was a half-bird, half-horse stuffed animal that was trying to wriggle free from 'Victoire'.)
"I'm sorry about that." She told her, gesturing to the pan, now broken on the floor. She gave her such a motherly smile, Ziva couldn't help but to give one back.
Then she waved her wand, muttering something, and the cooking utensil mended itself and flew back toward the kitchen.
Ziva didn't realize she was staring until the red-haired woman spoke again. "I'm Molly Weasley, it's very nice to meet you." She shook Ziva's hand, and moved to repeat the gesture with everyone else. They dazedly introduced themselves, and Mary slid slowly from Tony's arms, wide eyes jumping about the room.
For once, even Abby was speechless.
The ride there – well, Ziva couldn't say it was the most pleasant one. Harry had ridden with Gibbs, because he'd clearly been approving of his car. The rest of his team had followed, driving to a particularly unpleasant part of town. Gibbs had warily stepped out of the car, and, though his team mimicked him, Ziva saw Tony's hand drop to his holster, nervously keeping Mary behind him and close.
Harry had then proceeded to make all the cars disappear, which caused Tony to yelp. The wizard had quickly explained that it was a glamour – he'd said that, if they wanted their cars still there when they returned, that was the best way. Then he'd presented them with an empty, ruined soda can he'd picked up from the ground.
He'd ordered them to touch it, and, two minutes later, they'd been outside the hunched, old-looking, stone house he called 'The Burrow'. McGee had dry-heaved and Abby had landed butt-first on the grass, but that was nothing compared to how Palmer had dropped to the ground and stayed there long enough for Ducky to go check whether the young man was conscious. Tony had efficiently placed Mary on the ground before stumbling straight onto his nauseated partner – and Ziva wasn't sure of how much of an accident that had been. And Gibbs had staggered slightly, which made it all very impressive.
And now there they were, watching 'Teddy' snatch the animal from Victoire's grasp while sticking his tongue out at her. "Teddy Lupin, put that tongue back in your mouth before I cut it off." Molly said tiredly – she didn't look back at him.
Did all members of this family have Gibbs-esque abilities? Most of them were even red-hairs.
"Well, come this way, please." She lead them to a back-yard – a very impressive one. It seemed as though the owners of the house had a lot of land in their possession. "We're mostly out here."
The people riding on brooms – and throwing what it appeared to be an apple at each other – were now clearly visible. Gibbs' eyes didn't waver from them, and Tony looked positively fascinated. Mary was still nervously attached to his hand, but her eyes were stealing would-be surreptitious glances at the children that had by now left the house after them.
"Christ." Ducky muttered. Palmer was stumbling over everything in his way, completely unable to look down, even after the tenth time he nearly went tumbling to the ground. Abby kept helping him up, randomly eliciting squeals in her excitement. McGee was looking like his control over himself was feeble too – but he seemed more scared than anything.
"I'm so glad you could make it." She told them warmly, oblivious to their awe. Ziva saw Jenny stepping on Gibbs' toes to keep his oncoming comment at her sentence quiet. "Hermione told me how dreadful what happened to you was." She patted Ziva's shoulder sympathetically. "I thought you ought to be on friendlier terms with wizards and witches in general if you're going to be working closely with them, so I took it upon myself to invite you all for dinner."
Ziva translated the annoyed look on Gibbs' face as a hearted speech against political dinners.
Jenny seemed to name herself the appointed speaker for them. "You have a lovely home, Mrs. Weasley." And, just like that, Jenny was in charge of the aspect of the meeting that bothered her best team leader most.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ziva saw that they had been noticed. Ginny was beckoning them closer with a smile, her pregnant form sitting next to Hermione, who gave them a warm smile in acknowledgement. They were at an enormous table – she imagined that it wasn't just because of them; she counted at least twenty people since she'd arrived – so that even though the two weren't the only ones sitting, they were perfectly private.
Since they were the only people they recognized so far, they left Jenny with the pleasantries and made their way to the two women. "It's nice to see you again." Hermione hugged them all as if they were close friends. Ziva was speechlessly overwhelmed by the last few minutes. The whole thing had made more of an impact on her than the entire week, so her lips were unable to produce any words, and she resorted to nodding.
Ginny waved to the empty chairs around them, and the NCIS team took them.
She was about to say something when an uproar came from the other end of the table – mostly men – because of, she realized, one of the broom riders taking a dive so close to the ground his nose must've brushed some grass. Then he pulled back up at a ridiculous speed, absolutely safe, and shot Ginny a cat-like, smug grin. She smiled back, and Ziva saw with a shock that it was Harry.
Abby was the first of them brave enough to speak. "Isn't that… dangerous?" She asked dubiously, excitement temporarily tampered with.
Hermione made an irritated noise in the back of her throat, nodding vigorously. Ginny's head shake seemed small in comparison. "Yes, extremely so. But they are boys,and so they have to play it."
"Mom and, well, obviously, Hermione would say so." Ginny told them, smirking. "I, on the other hand, really wish I could be up there." She morosely rubbed her belly. "This kid better be adorable, and he better play Quidditch well in my place, because I am putting a lot of effort into bringing him into the world."
Hermione rolled her eyes, clicking her tongue in an annoyed manner. "I stand corrected – boys and Ginny."
"And Delmeza, and Chang – and you know how much I like bringing her up – and-"
"Yes, Ginny, I understand. Boys and women with death wishes, maybe." Hermione leaned back on her chair tiredly. Ginny scrunched her nose up at her.
"If it's dangerous, why do you say you want your kid to play it?" Gibbs, smart man, put the name Ginny had mentioned to the sport the men above them were playing, leaning back on his chair and reduced to making easy conversation for the moment.
"It's not dangerousif you're good." She retorted back. "And we're all – with punctual exceptions -" Hermione rolled her eyes. "good."
"Really?" Ducky asked, giving them both a charming smile as he began to get engrossed in the conversation.
"Yes." Ginny beamed back, eyes glazing in remembrance. "I used to play for one of the best teams out there." She said. "The Hollyhead Harpies. Then I got pregnant, so I had to quit." She made a face. "Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely overjoyed about being a mother," The sunlit smile she threw at her husband, playing ten feet above them, allowed Ziva to believe it. "but I do wonder if, after this little guy" She patted her belly. "is able to take care of himself, I won't want to go back."
Hermione made a little noise of protest, but the fact that she remained silent meant that this conversation had been discussed before.
"Sounds like a very interesting career choice." Ducky consoled her, patting her shoulder reassuringly. Even though she'd just met him, Ginny didn't seem bothered by it.
"It was." She answered back with a sigh. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"You don't agree." Jimmy stated. Hermione gave a nod, and her expression told them a rant was about to begin.
Ginny was prone to cutting it off before it started. "Yes, Hermione hates the sport from watching her husband and best friend end up in the Hospital Wing one too many times, we all know the drill." She drawled, smirking as an added effect.
Hermione glared at her with a huff, but she leaned back silently.
"What're the rules, exactly?" McGee seemed finally recomposed, and now he looked curious.
"Oh, they're very hard to explain." Ginny said enthusiastically, ready to begin with the longest way to do so. So, this time, Hermione cut her off.
"Yes, Ginny loves the sport from ending up herself in the Hospital Wing one too many times, we all know the drill." She stated, in a mock-imitation of her friend's voice. Tony chuckled.
"You always spoil my fun."
Mary scrambled down from Tony's lap, and that caught Ginny's attention. "Hey there, sweetie." She smiled warmly, contorting to be able to look at her. "Why don't you go play with Vic and Teddy over there?" She pointed toward an open spot a few feet from where they were, where Teddy and Victoire were sharing their knowledge on flying with tiny brooms that hovered under a foot from the ground.
Mary eagerly took off, leaving Tony to watch her anxiously. Even Ziva couldn't help to bite her lip in order to contest the suggestion.
"Don't worry." Hermione soothed. "If that thing was dangerous, I wouldn't let the children play with it."
"She certainly wouldn't…" Ginny mumbled, sparing her a half-glare. "She locked away the notice-me-not Bludger that Harry got for games here." She pointed up to the sky where her husband did a three-hundred-and-sixty degree spin.
"Does the name itself tell you nothing?" She snapped. "A Bludger you don't notice."
"It was meant to ward off Muggles!" Ginny exclaimed in protest.
"Yes, and, in the meantime, make sure the wizards were paraplegic. I should know – you did ask me to make the charm. Which I had no idea what it was for, by the way." She added with a glare to Ginny, and as an explanation to the Muggles.
"It made it more fun." Ginny offered her last argument.
Ziva decided not to ask what a 'Bludger' was.
Hermione rolled her eyes. She absent-mindedly took a sip from her cup, and then her eyes widened as they landed on the newcomers. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry! Would you like something to drink?"
"Do you have coffee?" Tony joked, gesturing at his boss. Gibbs' hand connected with the back of his head. "Shutting up, Boss!"
"We're good." Gibbs told her. They'd eaten very shortly before, and they were actually glad it was taking longer for dinner to be done.
Ginny grinned at the jabs, visibly warming to the lot of them. "Sorry." She mock-apologized. "Mum absolutely refuses to have coffee near dad after lunch."
"Well, that's not exactly true." A man announced behind them, scowling slightly at Ginny. She just smirked back. "She actually lets me take it if I stop tinkering with the things in the garage for the afternoon." He shrugged, as if to say 'what can I do?', and extended a hand to Gibbs, who was closest. "Arthur Weasley. You've met my son, my son-in-law, my daughter, my daughter-in-law and my wife. Who told me you'd arrived." Ziva had lost count of the amount of relatives long ago.
He was a red-hair – besides Harry and Hermione, Ziva was beginning to wonder who wasn't in this family – and he wore glasses at the tip of his nose, which he adjusted from time to time. He looked a lot like his children, but his hair was already heavily laced with grey. He was the picture of the doting grandfather, and Ziva, for some reason, immediately took a liking to him.
Gibbs shook his hand, and he moved on to the rest of them. Finally, he dropped to a chair next to Ginny, taking off his glasses and sighing a little. "I take it the conversation didn't go so well." His daughter assumed, and he made a face.
"The problem isn't even Kingsley – no, he's perfectly ready to move on, but some at the Improper Use of Magic Office are determined to blame the black-out on someone. Winchester's looking pretty good, and if we don't stop it, they will crucify him." His face betrayed serious annoyance.
"Harry told him that he won't let that happen." Ginny assured him. "And you know Golden Boy – no one's gonna say no to him."
Arthur cracked a smile before remembering they weren't alone. "The blind moment that allowed you to slip through the cracks of the system." He explained. "A lot of happenings nearly became incidents because of it – and, since it was world-wide, the damage was done. I have no idea how, but somehow the blame was assigned to us, and now we're very eager to find a scapegoat." Maybe the word 'we' didn't fit in there very well.
"Politics." Gibbs said immediately, in unison with Arthur. The latter grinned at the other.
"Indeed." And the two of them were, suddenly and surprisingly, bonding over their bosses' red-tape annoyance (though Gibbs' tone was fonder than it was angry) and Muggle boats' construction, away in their own world. Arthur found the latter subject particularly fascinating.
"Okay, so that's that." Ginny said, eyes trained on the two. Then she turned to the rest of them with another smile. "Be prepared for madness worthy of Luna."
"Ginny!" Hermione hit her arm – but it was weak, and Hermione was smiling. It wasn't mockery, though. It was more of a fond teasing. "You're as crazy about Quidditch as she is about…" She trailed off.
"Everything?" Ginny suggested, grinning. "Anyway, you're right. So, I'm just going to explain the rules now." She prompted, already leaning forward.
"I think I have noted some things." Ziva said unexpectedly. She had been silently watching the game and listening to the talk going on around her, and now her eyes were drawn back to her surroundings. "There are several positions, yes? Some throw the apple back and forth, trying to send it through some kind of goal behind another player, who is playing as goal-keeper. They seem too wary, so I would say there is usually some kind of threat they need to watch for during an actual game.
"Harry seems more aware of his surroundings than the others, except perhaps the man with the burns. Maybe they have some different position in an actual game, which they are not playing here." She finished, drumming her fingers on the table absent-mindedly, her eyes already returning to the flashing-by alien-like objects.
"Impressive!" Her eyes snapped to Ginny, who was beaming in approval. "Yes, that's very close. The man with burns is my brother, Charlie, though." Her expression flickered to a smirk briefly. "He and Harry are usually Seekers, and they are supposed to find this really fast tiny ball. Then there are the Chasers, who are supposed to throw the Quaffle – which is being represented by an apple – through the hoops guarded by a Keeper. Lastly, the Beaters, like my brother George" She pointed to another red-hair, grinning in mid-air. "bat the Bludger against the other team. It's a really heavy ball, hell-bent on throwing everyone out of their brooms." Ziva didn't ask why they wanted to make that unnoticeable.
"So… You like this game?" Tony questioned, apparently not quite able to believe it.
Abby swatted his arm, eyes gleaming. "Of course they do! It sounds and looks awesome!" Ginny smiled broadly at her, and Ziva supposed the two would be close friends before the evening was over.
"You are forbidden to ever, ever try it, Abs." Gibbs said flatly, somehow having listened through his own conversation. Abby pouted, but Gibbs was no longer paying attention, so her attempt at mellowing him out failed.
"See, Hermione?" Ginny pointedly indicated the Goth, ignoring Gibbs' remark in favour of her own devices. "Someone understands why I'm as crazy as Luna."
"Were you just talking about me, Ginny?" An airy voice attracted Ziva's attention.
The character that caught her eye had to be the most peculiar girl she'd ever seen, and she'd seen the three trespassers in robes. She was blond, young and pretty, blue eyes hardly focusing on anything at all. So far, that wasn't unusual.
Then she noticed the necklace, the earrings, the dress and the shoes.
"Yes, actually, Luna." Ginny told her brightly. "Take a seat." Ducky had a vacated one to his left, so that was the one she took. He held it back for her like a proper gentleman, and she beamed at him before sitting down.
"Where's Rolf?" Hermione asked, smiling in greeting too.
"He went to talk with the children." She vaguely gestured in the direction Mary had gone. Ziva had kept half-an-eye on her, and she wasn't surprised to see that the three kids were further from them than they had been. They'd wandered off, and now there was a good-looking, brown-haired man sitting cross-legged with them.
"How was your trip?" Ginny asked, contentedly and comfortably leaning back into her chair. The plastic object molded to accommodate her, and Ziva found herself staring a little. "Was Arizona as nice as it's made out to be?" Ziva couldn't quite put her finger on what Ginny's voice sounded like.
"Very. But I found nothing." She answered with a disappointed shrug. "I've told daddy, and he says he understands."
"I bet he does." Now she could safely assume that Ginny's voice was annoyed.
"Ginny." Hermione warned softly. There was a story there, but no one seemed about to reveal it. Ginny cleared her throat, forcing an apologetic smile.
"Sorry. Old habits die hard, I guess."
"It's alright." Luna said softly. "Daddy did not behave correctly at all."
Then, Ziva blinked, and the mood was right back to cheerful and party-like. "So, no Snorcakes, then?" Ginny cracked a teasing smile.
Luna shook her head. "Snorkack. But you knew that." She grinned. "And no."
"Now, I have heard that name before." Ducky announced, leaning forward in curiosity.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Luna, these are Muggle NCIS workers. They're the ones who caught Harry." Ginny confided. Then she turned to the Muggles themselves, including Gibbs who'd paused his talk with Arthur to listen. "And this is Luna Lovegood, who is a good friend from harder times."
Luna nodded. They introduced themselves, and she smiled at all of them with an absent smile.
"And I am also sure I've heard the name Lovegood before, as well." Ducky continued, smiling at Luna as if his comment hadn't been interrupted. "I do believe it was a young with quite an unusual name, which is why I recall it. Xenophilius, I believe?"
Pretty soon it became clear that Ducky had met Luna's father in one of the man's extensive travelling, and he'd made quite the impression. Without delay, Luna and the older man were enthusiastically exchanging stories like only the two of them could, and a cup of tea had appeared in front of him out of nowhere. Well, Ziva corrected herself, not out of nowhere, but rather unexpectedly (now that she was aware that magic existed, she needed to be careful with how she phrased things). Molly had brought it, as if she knew what he'd want.
Ziva felt like they were losing their party one by one, and she was shockingly light about it.
"Okay!" Ginny clapped, and Ziva was reminded of Harry in the gesture – she must have had some internal trauma to deal with too. And since when was the Israeli a psychologist? "Now that the responsible adults are out of the picture, let us talk, shall we?" She grinned with too much light in her eyes for Ziva to be entirely comfortable.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Normally, I'd join the 'responsible adults'." She announced, sipping again an unidentified substance. "But I'm not sure that I won't have to control Ginny, so I'm staying."
Ginny made a face. "I don't need to be controlled. Just 'heavily observed'."
"At least that was what the teachers said."
"In my defense, the teachers were in league with the Death Eaters."
McGee was slumping in his seat, as if preparing himself for a long night. Palmer sat erect at the edge of his chair, slurping anything the wizards and witches said, and Abby was visibly bouncing.
Ziva glanced at Tony and they both grinned.