DISCLAIMER: Neither the TV show 'NCIS' nor the 'Harry Potter' book series belong to me.

"You're late. Both of you."

Damn. Gibbs was looking from one to the other with narrowed eyes. Jesus, they'd decided to keep it secret for a few days and they hadn't lasted more than a few minutes.

"I called Ziva to give me a hand with Mary. I don't know much about eight-year-old girls' outfits." Tony said immediately. "I ended up making her late too."

It was a practiced story, obviously. If they were stupid enough to tell Gibbs that they'd been late because they'd slept in due to being tired from breaking one of his rules, they didn't really deserve the lives they'd be losing in the follow-up to that conversation.

McGee was amusedly staring at the two of them. Apparently the scene he'd walked in on Observation was now funny to him. Ziva's bag dropped next to her desk, and Tony made his way to his, pretending he wasn't noticing how Gibbs' eyes were burning a hole in his back. When he heard a quiet, exhaled breath and the fearful shivers running through his back stopped, he knew Gibbs had given up.

"Abby asked to have Mary downstairs for today, DiNozzo." Tony turned back to his boss once he realized he was no longer in the line of fire. Gibbs was glancing at the little girl that had sat down, crossed-legged on the floor, next to Tony's desk.

She no longer seemed apprehensive of the Goth. In fact, she seemed quite eager to go. Bright eyed, she looked up at Tony hopefully. "Can I?"

He groaned. "Only if you make her promise to keep any and all spikes a wide berth from you." He berated her – but it was too little, too late. She was already sprinting to the lift. Tony made a face when he took off after her, but he still didn't miss his coworkers' grinning amusement at his predicament.

He was really glad he was so appreciated.

"Abs?" Tony called, stepping out of the elevator and listening to the lack of music in the premises. A grinning face popped around from the doorway of the lab.

"Hi!" She cried, as perky and over-excited as ever. Then, completely ignoring the senior agent (she was apparently still harboring a grudge against him for not telling her about Mary), she turned to the little girl. "C'mon, Mary, I have something for you!" And the little girl was being dragged head-first behind Abby.

Tony warily decided to follow them, taking a few extra seconds that he hoped Gibbs would forgive him for. "No music?" He asked as an excuse to be able to stay a little while longer.

"I knew Mary was coming, and so that you wouldn't waste time and self-harm your own life by turning down the volume as we spoke, so I turned it off for now. When you leave, I'll put it back up, that is, if Mary likes it, but then, it's great music, so-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah – Abby, what is that?" Tony hastily interrupted her rant, intently staring at the small-sized spike-decorated collar the Goth was now holding.

Abby beamed at him, unfazed by his rudeness in her excitement. Then again, she was probably used to it anyway. "It's for Mary." She said brightly, turning to the little girl, who was staring at the object in utter fascination.

Abby fastened it around her neck so fast that Tony didn't even have time to protest. Then she stepped back to admire her handiwork with an excited clap. "Oh, it looks awesome." She squealed in delight, and Mary grinned back. All these people were so nice and silly, she was starting to feel better (and not just better, but actually good) just from all the goofiness.

Tony rubbed the back of his neck, torn between not wanting to annoy the two girls and worry that Mary would hurt herself. "Abby…" She ignored him.

The elevator dinged, and Gibbs stepped out, holding a coffee and a cup of Caf-POW. He spotted Abby and Mary and stopped short, staring at the little girl's new gift. "Abby..." He said with the exact same wary tone and pinched expression as Tony's. They were even mimicking each other's stance.

"It's rubber, Gibbs." She answered immediately, smile never faltering as she bounded happily to him to take the drink from his hand. Tony scowled at her, annoyed that she'd said that to his boss and not to him.

"DiNozzo, back upstairs." Reassured, Gibbs turned around and left. Abby blew Tony a raspberry when he followed, and the Italian crossed his eyes at her, sticking out his tongue in return.

"I'm playing daddy to a bunch of kids." Gibbs muttered to himself, having observed the scene. He took the stairs, not in the mood to deal with DiNozzo at the moment. The next time he spoke to the senior agent alone would be when he chewed out his brain for not telling him about sleeping with Ziva – he didn't feel like doing that at the moment.

When he got to the bullpen again, he barely contained a groan. He was remembering vividly why he'd created rule 12.

DiNozzo had both arms pressed against the wall of their designated work place, and, between them, Ziva was leaning back against it, eyebrows playfully raised in quite the suggestive look. Even as he watched, Tony decided that two inches was an inch too long between the two of them.

Any other day, he would have strolled in there, told them to quit playing grab-ass and get to work. Any other day.

Instead, he pinched his eyes, gave an almighty one-eighty, and vanished somewhere else – anywhere else. Well, Autopsy was his most likely destination.

Meanwhile, Tony was thoroughly enjoying himself, and his thoughts were very far away from Gibbs, his job, or anything related to either.

Ziva's were pretty much in the same direction. She quite liked being in sync with him like that.

McGee had left – somehow, she had a sneaking suspicion that that might have had something to do with the two of them. Regardless of the reason, the truth was that they had been left alone in the bullpen.

When Ziva grew older and wiser, she came to realize a particular word of advice: when you have two impulsive, sexually active, brash and newly-dating rule-breakers with serious issues, no fear of death and several years' worth of sexual tension with each other, do not leave them in a semi-secluded place together and alone. It's simple logic, really.

Tony had a smirk on his face – of course he did. He had gotten what he'd been aiming for God-knows how long, and he was happy that it was possible. Ziva understood that well, and there was a light feeling in her stomach that she'd been the one to make it happen.

"There is a loose screw digging into me." She informed him with a grin, leering in a way that was completely inappropriate for a lady. "My back, I mean." She corrected a little too long after her first comment.

His hands left the wall to sneak around her waist, pulling her closer to him, and he was smiling. "Better?" He asked, and his face was entirely too close to hers, and his breath was entirely too good of a feeling on her skin.

She could see the amusement sparkling green in his eyes, but, for once, she wanted to play along with his silliness. She wanted to have these ridiculous talks, because they made people feel good, and she just eager for that - she was too tired to continue avoiding what she wanted. She figured all of the years she'd spent pulling back from everything nice in her life had to count for something. She could be allowed this, at least. With Tony, she felt wanted, and that made her feel happy. So she'd have it, just because.

Her arms dropped lightly on his shoulders, hands tangled behind his back. "Very much so." She registered surprise flickering in his face, and she realized she wasn't the only one noticing the way she usually pulled back whenever she felt in too deep – but not today.

He stepped even closer, grinning, now. "Really?" He asked playfully, eyes sparkling.

Her nose touched his. "Yes."

And he was back to a warm smile, and she was wrinkling his suit with her closeness.

"Gibbs." She muttered, when it became apparent he was going to kiss her. He pulled back, raised eyebrows in amusement.

"Not my name, sweetheart."

She rolled her eyes, hitting his arm in annoyance at the name. "Gibbs cannot catch us like this, you idiot." He sighed; suddenly, she was free, and the moment ended. Still, there would always be the lingering smiles and the soppy looks that would make McGee gag throughout the rest of the day.

The moment they sat down on their respective desks, Gibbs entered the bullpen again, but Ziva noticed that he did so more quietly than usual. With shocked (and more than a little amused) outrage, she realized that he was hoping to silently catch them in the act – whatever it was that Gibbs thought the 'act' was.

Well, since they were very innocent at the moment, he seemed to stick with scrutinizing the two very closely and very carefully. "DiNozzo, your tie's sideways." He said unexpectedly, resuming the walk to his desk. Ziva's eyes snapped to Tony, and she realized that her boss was right. Watching as her frazzled partner scrambled to fix himself, she placed a hand on her mouth to keep from grinning. "So's your ponytail, David." Gibbs threw out casually, sitting and pretending he wasn't paying attention to anything but his computer (which, if it had been true, would have been a first).

Ziva scowled, rolling her eyes as her hands flew to the back of her head and smoothed out her hair. Tony made a funny face at her, as if he was keeping himself from sticking out his tongue.

That was about when McGee tentatively returned, eyes darting around as if he was checking to see if the coast was clear. His hand was poised in mid-air, looking ready to slap itself over his eyes if needed. (It was safe to say he was no longer entertained by their behavior).

Were they that obvious? Seriously? Did the whole building know by now?

Then again, they had been on the verge of making out in the middle of the bullpen, in plain view of anyone with eyes. And they had arrived together. And Ziva had arrived a lot later than usual.

Technically, they hadn't tried to be very inconspicuous, if Tony were to be honest to himself.

But he usually wasn't honest with himself, and he failed to see a reason to start now.

So, he pulled a random sheet from his desk, assuming it would be paperwork (like the remaining ninety-eight per-cent of paper on his table) and started mutely working on it. He surreptitiously eyed his boss once in a while. If anyone (Gibbs) knew, they (Gibbs) would talk to (or kill) Tony or Ziva (just Tony) because the senior agent was sure as hell not going to breach the subject first.

So he shut up, as if nothing had changed. And they worked.

It didn't take long for their latest peppy pain in the butt to show up.

Except he didn't look so peppy now. Harry was in later than he'd promised, and he wasn't looking so hot. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, his complexion was pale, and, if he'd looked too young before, he looked like the kid he was now. He walked briskly to their desks, stopping nowhere until he'd reached Gibbs'.

He stared stiffly at the man, crossing his arms. "Your association with this case is officially over. The American and British Magical Governments thank you for your collaboration, and ask that you call back the men you sent off for protection of the Muggleborns' families, and their memories will be dealt with." And he made to turn and walk away, if it weren't for Tony's body suddenly blocking the exit.

The rest of them snapped out of their shock, standing up too. Gibbs walked to the two men, so that he was standing, crossed-arm behind him while DiNozzo blocked his front. "What do you mean, 'our association with this case is officially over'?" Gibbs snapped, frowning. "What's going on?"

Harry clenched his teeth, but the senior agent in front of him just raised his eyebrows. The wizard turned back to Gibbs, and his eyes were as emotionless as only he could make them. "I told you. We don't need any more help. We're going in today."

Gibbs picked up on something in the kid's voice that made his gut perk up. "Who is 'we', Potter?" He asked quietly, scrutinizing his expression with his usual stare.

Harry's eyes flashed and Gibbs knew he'd pushed the right button. But he didn't answer. Still, he knew. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to be approved by the Ministry – Gibbs figured he was going off on his own, probably with Weasley and Granger.

Hell, in his shoes, it'd be what Gibbs himself would do.

"What happened?" Gibbs chose to ask a different question.

Harry just stood there blankly, not answering anything and waiting for them to eventually shut up and leave him alone.

That didn't happen. After several moments of silence, Gibbs repeated his question with the softer voice he used on suspects he thought the easy approach would work better on. "What happened?"

Harry's shoulders slumped. His mask fell, and he seemed to deflate before their eyes. He ran a shaking hand through his hair, and Gibbs knew that something had gone terribly wrong. And he also knew they were about to find out what.

"Ginny… She's been kidnapped."

Tony's arms, previously holding each side of the 'door' of the bullpen in a would-be-casual gesture, dropped down to his sides in shock. He glanced at Ziva to see her wide eyes staring back.

"The letter!" She exclaimed. "The threat - Abby said she could not match the prints she found, and that it was otherwise clean."

Harry nodded thickly, head barely moving. "They kept their word on what they wrote." He ground out.

"Kidnapped?" Tony prompted – this line of conversation was leading them nowhere - looking at the wizard again.

Harry rubbed his face warily. "She's been taken. She was in Diagon-Alley, even though I told her not to go on her own-" His expression betrayed his flaring fury, but he swallowed it back down and continued through clenched teeth. "And, somehow, she was caught alone and abducted."

"How do you know all this?" Gibbs, quick to jump into action, immediately snapped into interrogation mode.

Wordlessly, Harry's answer was to wave his wand and make a floating screen appear in mid-air. Gibbs' eyes widened as he snapped his head around to make sure there was no one nearby, before he glared at the wizard. "Let's move this to the conference room." He growled through thin lips.

"There's no need." Harry snapped, and he waved his wand, muttering, and in the middle of the non-sense, Ziva thought she heard something that sounded like 'mulato'. Ziva had noticed that, usually, he was less obvious when doing magic in front of them, but he seemed to have no such qualms now.

The shimmering image was now moving. And Ziva realized that – whatever it was – it was somehow live. "Harry!" A red-haired, pregnant woman they knew very well said from the other side. She looked harassed – her hair was filled with tangled curls, her clothes were rumpled - but otherwise fine. She was tied to a chair in an apparently empty, black room – and that was all they could see.

Tony's eyes were drawn to her stomach. If they did something to her… She was too far along for the baby to be properly protected by his mother's body.

Ginny looked behind her husband and noticed everyone there. "You're at NCIS." She said, surprised.

Harry's face was steeling as he stared at his wife – his way of not being the one scared. To be honest, she was doing a better job, and she was the one being held captive. "I came to ward them off. I needed the place clear if we're going to go." He glanced around in annoyance at them all. "Needless to say, it didn't exactly work."

Ginny glared at Harry furiously, but she said nothing. She obviously didn't want him to go to where she was – though it was strange that she wasn't voicing that the way she usually did.

"I don't get it." Tony spoke up in confusion. "How are you able to talk?" He asked both Ginny and Harry.

Harry tapped his foot, obviously impatient and unwilling to just stand there and talk. "It's Hermione's invention. She based it on the Patronus Charm." He added as a second thought.

None of them neither knew nor were going to ask what a Patronus was. They couldn't ask about everything – they didn't have the three life-times it required.

"Okay." McGee said slowly, not about to show he had no idea what the guy had just said. "But it's- magical, right? Then how come they don't have any defenses against it?"

"Because they don't care if I speak to her." Harry growled. "They're probably hoping I do." The unsaid words were clear: it was quite easy to see that the plan was to leave Harry helpless and tortured – and, frankly, it was working.

Any semblance of anger at those words vanished from Ginny's face and the MCRT frowned in an effort to hide their uneasiness. "I'm sorry… It was stupid. I shouldn't have gone out on my own." She apologized, looking near tears.

Harry's face looked away from them, and Tony could no longer see his expression. "It's not your fault. And you're getting out of there." His voice was thick, but that didn't mask the fierceness and defiance in his tone.

"Where exactly is 'there'?" Gibbs finally spoke. He'd been observing them all, hoping to get any clues just from their interactions, but no such luck so far.

"My best guess is the warehouse your computers were tracked to." Harry answered, eyes unwavering from Ginny's tight face. She looked like she was holding back from speaking.

Gibbs didn't want to watch this. The guy was young – he was supposed to be starting his life, not ending up like him. The red-hair on Ginny's head triggered Shannon's memory in his mind – he'd been several years older than Harry and he'd still been too young to lose his wife and daughter. Losing a child happened too soon for everyone.

But, God, this kid hadn't even been born.

"Why can't she tell you if she is there?" Tony asked softly, both edgy of speaking up in front of the live image of their suspects' lair (even if Harry had had no such issues) and compassionate toward the situation.

"Because she's been placed under an Unbreakable Vow." He hissed, and the ire in his face didn't bode well to the responsible people. Surprisingly, they understood what an Unbreakable Vow was – George's stories had mentioned it at some point the previous night. "They're not worried about her giving out information because she simply can't. It was either swearing to it or get beaten to a pulp." He was defensive, as if he needed to protect her choices.

For some wild reason, Tony managed to trace back the reason for that tone. If the Ministry hadn't allowed a search to the premises they needed to look into, then they had to know what had happened. If that was true, then they knew Ginny had taken the Vow.

Which meant that Harry had had to defend her actions to his bosses – why Ginny hadn't allowed herself and her child to be hurt in exchange of the location of the Death Eaters.

Okay, so maybe a little over-dramatic. Harry's Ministry probably hadn't wanted to walk into an ambush, and Harry had possibly had to explain why Ginny was now tied to the 'bad guys' but that was most likely it.

Maybe he hadn't gotten enough sleep after all – his brain was having a class-Abby rant.

"So that's why they aren't watching?" McGee picked up where Tony left off, eyeing the senior agent as Harry shook his head.

"Oh, they're watching. Listening, too." Harry added bitterly.

"Then why have you revealed your plans?" Ziva, the ninja trained to trust no one but her handler, found the disturbing problem with that.

"Because it doesn't matter. They know we know their hiding place. They're counting on us going." He spat, blank eyes not moving from Ginny's face, who was just staying quiet.

"It's a trap. And you're very aware of it." Gibbs stared flatly at him, expression unrevealing. Ginny's eyes flashed, and they were all instantly aware that she agreed with Gibbs whole-heartedly.

"I know. But it's also the only lead I have on my wife."

Ziva did not like this – any of it. Ever since Tali had passed away, she had an aversion to the death of children that almost made her retch. There was a terror-filled black cloud in her chest every time her eyes landed on Ginny's swollen belly.

They had to get her back to her family. And Ziva would help, regardless of Harry's opinion on it. She'd dealt with male opposition many times before - it was the easiest kind to deal with.

Suddenly, a noise was heard – and was quickly identified from being from the other side. Footsteps. Alarm rose like an explosion in Harry's face, and his hand grabbed his wand as if it would make a difference miles away.

But something seemed to change in Ginny's face – it cleared, as if she'd had a brilliant idea.

"Remember when we broke up?" She asked in a rush, eyes wide, like she was giving him a very important clue. "I told you I hated you. I'm sorry about that."

McGee winced, looking away to give the two of them some privacy. He was uncomfortable with this – he liked these wizards; actually, they and their family were about the only ones he hadn't heard or seen anything bad about so far. And Ginny was pregnant – that could hardly be good in a kidnapping. They needed to help; he was at least sure Gibbs would force himself into the rescue mission.

And then he paused his thoughts, surprised, when she saw Harry's eyes widening and his lips curving into a grin. Out of a sudden, he didn't look so down.

The connection cut, and the last thing they all saw were Ginny's brown eyes - there was no way to tell what had happened to her afterwards. But Harry's new strength barely dimmed. "Oh, you brilliant, gorgeous woman." He breathed, jumping into action with renewed vigor.

He flew to the elevator, punching the button that would open the doors. Before stepping in, his head snapped to the MRCT, who were still grabbing their things.

"Are you coming?"