A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved and alerted. This story isn't beta'ed and although I proof and redraft obsessively, I know once I post this that typos are going to jump up and slap me in the face but then I could spend another week tweaking this and still miss things so I'm going to put it out there and move on.

Someone asked for clarification on if Anthony DiNozzo is simply a memory or still alive due to the conversation between him and Tony in the last chapter? It complicated and ambiguous - just like Gibbs' visions of his daughter or Mike Franks are ambiguous. Are they real - i.e. spirit visitations, manifestations of his subconscious or hallucinations? Canon Tony has a habit, despite hating being called Anthony and requesting that people call him Tony of talking to himself and he refers to himself as Anthony i.e. in Twilight before he lets go of the trigger to the bomb - which is odd, given his seeming dislike of his full name. So while in this story, he was given AD's memories, I guess I see that having been undercover -deep cover- for well over two decades if you include the extra time thanks to time-turners, it might have affected his grasp on reality just a little bit bit and he's created Anthony as his devil's advocate/moral compass. Plus with all the trauma he's experienced, its cumulative effects could cause a disassociation i.e splitting off of a part of himself to create another identity; or it might just be a manifestation of his own subconscious thoughts and emotions. Hope that's cleared up that confusion lol.

Serieux Part 2

Chapter 23: Scones Anyone?

Harry hung up the phone to Sirius, rather disgruntled. He'd offered to go shopping and get some food but what he thought would be a simple expedition to the supermarket was turning into a nightmare of misunderstandings and miscommunication. You'd have thought that since English was spoken here in the United States it should be an easy enough errand yet when it came to finding food it was like they spoke a completely different language to back home.

For instance, when he asked what aisle the potato crisps were in, after getting a bunch of blank looks, a helpful but clueless shop assistant directed him to the savoury biscuit section (except the Yanks apparently called them crackers and fyi they called biscuits cookies.) So, he wandered around aimlessly until he finally found the crisps which it seemed, weren't called crisps but chips. In the UK, chips were hot fried pieces of potato, except that they weren't called chips here but French fries – so no wonder he couldn't find potato crisps.

Knowing he had to get a move on since he was making lunch for Delores Bromstead, a squib who worked with his godfather who was stopping by at 1pm, he knew he had to get back and start preparing. He'd also undertaken to cook dinner tonight for Ellie Bishop, who was coming over to see Pads, too so there was a lot to do and he wasn't finding shopping as simple a job as he thought. First he couldn't find the damned coriander but now that he knew to ask for cilantro he was a man on a mission. He just hoped that Ellie loved his Harissa baked fish with bulger wheat.

He thought about how much he was enjoying spending time with the kooky NCIS agent. It was one thing he truly missed after getting married– having platonic female friends. Apart from Hermione, he had none, ever since Ginny became so jealous if he spent time with other witches – even his former school friends like Lavender Brown, Katie Bell, Alicia Johnson, Angelina and Luna – convinced he was cheating on her. Ginny didn't approve of his friendship with Hermione either, but she was family in the truest sense of the word like Sirius, James and Remus had been brothers, and she was officially family too since they were brother and sister-in-law. Plus, thankfully, Hermione refused to be chased away like all the other former school friends had done when Ginny turned into a terrifying Green-Eyed Monster.

Of course, once Hermione had married Ron, Ginny had been fine about his friendship with his best friend but after her brother's death, Ginny had become super jealous of them spending time together again. She'd gone postal when Katie Bell, his old quidditch teammate had been appointed his new work partner about five months ago, even though Bell was in a long-term relationship. According to Ginny, Katie was a gold-digger who would do anything to have his love-child so she could demand child support from him. So, his possessive spouse would definitely not approve of him becoming friendly with Ellie, especially if she knew she was single, female and pretty.

It wouldn't matter that she had just undergone a painful divorce from her cheating ex-husband and had no desire to start dating anyone since she'd been badly hurt and didn't want to be hurt again. Never mind that that Bishop would never cheat with a married man like Harry and subject Ginny to the same pain that she had experienced. They were just good friends but sadly, there was no reasoning with his wife when she got an idea into her head. So, the bottom line was that even though he would like to stay in touch with Ellie when they went home, it was all too difficult.

Still, the friendship he experienced here in DC had given him a lot to think about. The fact that Ellie didn't have a clue about who he was and had liked him for who he was, not for his fame was refreshing. It emphasised how different it was between himself and his fangirl wife. He really didn't have a lot of experience dating before he got married – Ginny was the only one he'd dated seriously– because the disastrous time he spent with Chang didn't fit the criteria of a date. Nor did taking a girl to the Yule Ball at Hogwarts because he had to have a partner didn't really count either – especially since that night was pretty much of a catastrophe too.

So, he was making the most of this experience, knowing that all too soon he would have to say goodbye to Ellie Bishop, and their friendship. Because even if she wanted to keep in touch with him, and he had no reason to expect that she did, it simply wasn't going to happen. It would cause way too much trouble if they tried staying in touch. He'd have to make some excuse to her about his 'clandestine job' precluding him staying in contact – although hopefully Tobias Fornell might be able to let him know how she was doing from time to time. He knew that Tony and Hermione intended to remain in touch with Tobias and his daughter. There'd even been some talk of the Fornells taking a trip to the UK to visit Emily's mother's relatives at some point, including the Weasleys.

Frankly, he wished that Ellie would look for a job elsewhere when his godfather left the team. Gibbs was clearly no longer fit for field work from everything he'd seen and heard… and McGee! Well it was no secret that Harry wasn't a fan of the cadaverous looking agent and a part of that was because he was smug. Smug people were dangerous people because they usually thought they were smarter than everybody else. Plus, he kept making snide remarks about Tony behind his back and if he got caught out, McGee claimed he was just joking around. But as far as Harry was concerned, sarcastic people rarely joked about something unless they already thought that way to begin with.

It was like drunk people always tried to excuse the shit that came out of their mouths when they were blind drunk because they weren't responsible for what they said or did. But the truth was that being drunk didn't turn you into a totally different person – one who did or said stuff that was totally foreign. Alcohol simply removed filters and inhibitions, be it aggressiveness, lust, attractions or expressing thoughts and emotions. People often said or did exactly what they were truly thinking or feeling but felt obliged not to express because it wasn't polite or politic, so when alcohol removed their social filter, they let rip.

Plus, Harry had quickly noticed Tim's habit of standing around questioning orders that Tony had given him, not responding to the direction immediately. Harry considered that to be bordering on idiocy and defiance if it happened once but when it happened continuously it was full blown insubordination. In the experienced Auror's eyes, questioning orders or not responding promptly was totally unforgiveable for a trained law enforcement professional. People could get hurt or die when agents hesitated in a crisis. And clearly that hesitation was because he felt that Tony wasn't competent to give him orders.

How could the team's computer expert genuinely believe he was more competent, more experienced, more skilled than Sirius who had fought drug and gang wars, was an undercover specialist and spent years honing his investigative abilities. For someone who was fond of reminding everyone he was a genius, Tim could act like a dick.

Okay… so all that was true. But it wasn't the only reason he'd developed a major antipathy for Special Agent Timothy McGee. Someone (he honestly wasn't sure which NCIS agent it was) had left him a few magazines and a paperback to read while Tony slept off the after effects of the barbaric operation to stitch him up like a piece of clothing. The book was called Deep Six – The Adventures of L.J. Tibbs and was about a team of federal agents who worked together under the rule of a megalomaniac team leader called L.J. Tibbs and his team. Agent McGregor was the hero of the team and Agent Tommy was the buffoonish jock who somehow managed to stumble onto leads through sheer luck.

The more of the cheesy story that Harry read, the more convinced he became that someone was writing about the major case response team as enough of the superficial details meshed for him to know who the author was writing about. The Medical Examiner was called Goosey for Merlin's sake, who was an overly chatty individual from Edinburgh. That could hardly be a coincidence. He also had a trusty sidekick called Pimmy Jalmer who liked to have sex with corpses. (Wow, he wouldn't have thought Palmer was into necrophilia). Plus, there was a lab technician called Amy Sutton who was a Goth, as well as a female Mossad liaison officer on the team called Lisa who went around killing people or threatening to kill people with a paper clip. When she wasn't killing, Lisa was busy shagging Agent Tommy in the agency lift.

While that female character clearly wasn't Ellie, he knew there had been a female agent who was from Mossad before Ellie joined the team. So, it must have been written prior to Bishop's joining the team two years ago. He was wondering if the MCRT knew that someone had written a tacky fiction about them that made most of them out to be freaks or jerks, when a nurse came in to check out Tony…something about checking his vitals. 'Vital whats, he mused.

Laying the book on the bed, Harry kept a close eye on the nurse to ensure she wasn't an associate of CIA spy Kort slash Death Eater. He watched her suspiciously while she tried to squeeze the crap out of Pads' bicep (although she said she was taking his blood pressure) and stuck a weird device in his ear and wrote down numbers on his chart. Harry thought the magical way of measuring health was a lot less invasive.

At least they'd finished giving him a blood transfusion though. That was a little too creepy for Harry, thinking that someone else's blood was circulating around inside your body – what if they had some sort of infection or disease? What if they were an idiot or a murderer? He snorted - the pure bloods would have Kneazel kittens at the very thought of diluting their blood with those who weren't pureblood. Maybe they could threaten blood transfusions to frighten the crap out of criminal purebloods in interrogation.

Honestly, Harry thought taking magical blood replenishing potions was a lot less confronting than being given a stranger's blood. Could you feel someone else's blood inside you? It seemed a bit too much like a vampire for Harry but Pads hadn't seemed to be too fazed by the transfusion - said it wasn't his first. Harry did speculate too much about the cryptic comment he'd made about the drugs though. How much worse could it get than having a needle stuck into your arm or stitches holding stab wounds together?

He couldn't imagine and he wondered briefly, did he really want to know. Sometimes ignorance was bliss.

Since his godfather had remained deeply unconscious and he had nothing better to do while he waited, so he'd picked up the Deep Six book again, snorting at the ironic title. Whoever had written it was after all, anything but deep – shallow, trite and posturing perhaps – but hardly profound or complex. Nor was the story multi-layered - the writing style came off as a whiney teenager who had a huge chip on their shoulder. Perhaps written by a huge fangirl/boy of the book's protagonist, Agent McGregor aka Tim McGee. Maybe a family member.

Thats when he noticed the photograph on the back-jacket cover and studied the non-moving muggle photograph. He realised with a jolt that the author, Thom E. Gemcity was none other than NCIS Special Agent Timothy McGee. The very same person who expressed such contempt for Agent Tommy (who was obviously a thinly veiled portrayal of DiNozzo) was the same individual who purported to be his best friend. Odd idea he had of friendship!

Harry felt outrage – if one of his partners, or even if it was just a fellow Auror had published a less than flattering book about him and his colleagues he would feel hurt, furious and completely betrayed. Knowing that McGee had written Deep Six, a detached part of him identified traits of Ron – his dead best friend brother in the snotty tone whenever McGee wrote anything about Agent Tommy. Ron, like his sister, had always battled his own green-eyed-monster which had impacted negatively on their friendship. He'd been stubbornly convinced that Harry deliberately courted publicity and enjoyed throwing his 'wealth' in everyone's face.

Ron had felt that he was hard-done-by because his family was a large one and galleons were tight. Like his sister, he grossly underestimated the riches the Weasleys enjoyed which couldn't be quantified – being a part of a loving family full of siblings. Plus, two parents who showered their kids with unconditional acceptance.

Yet as much as his best male friend had resented the crap out of him sometimes, he'd never sunk to the depths of writing a book betraying his friendship and making him out to be a hippogriff's arse while at the same time 'bigging' himself up as the hero. The truth was that everyone had flaws - Ron had quite a few, as did Hermione, he definitely was no saint (which Ginny was always eager to point out to him) and he was equally sure that Padfoot was no paragon either. Well he knew that he wasn't perfect, but he didn't deserve Gemcity's scathing portrayal that made him out to be little more than comic relief and a pain in the arse, while Special Agent McGregor was depicted in the book as the second coming. Merlin's beard, Agent Tommy didn't even get the respect of a last name!

Having watched Timothy McGee working for almost three weeks while Harry had been guarding Tony's back, he didn't think the junior agent was anywhere near as competent as Agent McGregor had been portrayed in Deep Six. True, Harry really didn't understand any of the computer stuff McGee/McGregor performed and he was probably very good at it. Sirius always said he was and he trusted his godfather's judgement. Although, Harry DID know how critical it was to have situational awareness and to follow the chain-of-command when you were in the field. Moreover, while he didn't understand computer hanking, Harry knew that complacency, especially when it was coupled with inexperience and arrogance were never good attributes for an Auror.

Harry was many things, a loving husband and father, a staunch and caring friend, a hardworking honest wizard, a messed- up orphaned kid who'd never gotten over losing his parents or being forced to live with relatives who hated and feared him. Fundamentally, he was a protector who needed to defend the weak, save souls who were in danger, to right wrongs and see justice done. He was an Auror, striving to be the best he could be, to have the backs of other Aurors, who, like himself lived to serve and protect. Harry knew serving as an Auror was never about individual glory, personal aggrandisement or garnering laurels – it was about being a part of a team who shared mutual goals. A team which was like a chain and a chain was only as strong as its weakest link.

Primarily, all relationships when you boiled them down to their bare essence, were built on trust – trust that your partner, your team, your colleagues would have your back – that they wouldn't betray you. Law enforcement was a dangerous job; you knew every time you put on your Auror robes that you could die doing your job. So, trust was central to being able to do the job effectively, and frankly, Harry couldn't fathom how a law enforcement professional could betray the trust of their fellow cops so badly and not understand what that meant. And make no mistake, writing a book which Tim based on his own team and the unfortunate people whose cases he'd helped investigate was a massively huge breach of trust.

In his opinion, it was a far worse betrayal than cheating on your partner/spouse. As crazy as it sounded, in many ways, law enforcement professionals trust in their work partners and teams was even more inviolable than a romantic relationship. After all, betraying your spouse resulted in broken hearts but betray your law enforcement partner and lives could be lost. McGee's betrayal, by writing a prosaic novel, was in his opinion an unpardonable act. He couldn't understand how 'Tony' could forgive him for such massive breach of trust - unless he thought of McGee as family and then, suddenly all bets were off, apparently. If he considered you family, he'd forgive you almost any transgression.

A rash trait which was new, and honestly an unwelcome development following his rebirth in the US. Harry figured it had to do with Anthony DiNozzo's abusive upbringing and his desperation to find a family. So, Tony been acting like a doormat and letting his pseudo family, his grossly dysfunctional pretend family walk all over him. He'd even confessed to Hermione and Fornell one night when they'd gotten blotto, that the former Mossad officer attacked him when he was injured and held a loaded gun against him, threatening to pull the trigger and he hadn't reported her and continued working with her. In addition, Tony own up that he'd never reported when Miss Mossad and McGee had turn off a communication device that they'd been supposed to be monitoring to ensure his safety as he gathered evidence after a mass murder. It was wrong on so many levels.

Still, after the debacle with Pettigrew and the rat's betrayals of his 'brothers' – Remus, James and Sirius he couldn't understand how his god father could be so gullible…okay stupid as to see McGee as a brother despite Anthony and his pathological need for a family. It was something a young Harry could easily relate to because it was one reason why he'd overlooked a lot of Ron's less admirable qualities as a friend, plus the Weasleys had made him feel like part of their family.

That being said, even if Tim had a lot in common with Ron, Harry thought he also shared some vile characteristic to Peter Pettigrew. They both had a massive superiority complex – or was it an inferiority complex? He always got those two mixed up. Anyway…they both thought they were better than Sirius i.e. smarter. They were both envious individuals, jealous about the supposed privileges he received as a member of a wealthy family, even if it was all a bunch of crap.

Both were cowards who didn't even have the guts to attack their 'family' face to face – one chose to betray them with a pen and the other by betraying a secret so imperative that it was only entrusted to family members. Ron, for all his faults as a friend, brother and husband always had the guts to complain and whine about him or Hermione to their faces.

So, for obvious reasons, he obviously hadn't exactly taken a shine to McGee initially. Partly because he had trouble dealing with people who were passive aggressive, partly that he was treating Tony like crap. That opinion nosedived severely after he read Deep Six and he wanted to hex the agent with something painful and embarrassing.

However, Pads was leaving soon; couldn't come soon enough for him. Harry was glad because he didn't think that NCIS deserved to have Tony's services and they certainly hadn't done right by him but Ellie was staying and that was a real source of concern for him. She was going to be very much dependant on Gibbs and McGee to watch her back her and train her, as she was still very much what he'd consider a rookie when she was in the field. That plus Pads had made a few disturbing comments about her becoming quite foolhardy this past year and Harry knew he was worried about her welfare when he left. He'd said that being a female and close to Gibbs was dangerous.

Harry was also worried – he'd hate it if anything happened to Ellie Bishop.

~o0o~

Tony watched with amusement as Harry stomped around his kitchen, putting the shopping away. He was in a shitty mood and he worried about what had caused it. Initially he wondered if Gibbs had accosted him after he'd left the apartment but when his godson started ranting about the stresses of shopping in the US he heaved a sigh of relief. He was apprehensive that the former Marine might try to intimidate Harry into tell him what had really happened at Rock Creek Park.

Listening to Harry gripe, Tony gathered it wasn't just the arugula and cilantro that had him so badly stressed out. So, he made a tactical mistake and asked what had pissed him off so badly, sparking an impassioned outburst on British/American differences in nomenclature by his normally placid godson.

"The US is barking mad, I swear Sirius! Do you know that I spent hours looking for packets of potato crisps because they don't call crisps crisps here? They call them chips and they call chips French fries. How mental is that? Plus, they call courgettes zucchinis or summer squash, a swede is a rutabaga…"

"Ducky calls rutabaga neeps," Tony proffered helpfully, stopping Harry's tirade momentarily.

"Ah yeah, we used to have neeps at Hogwarts with haggis. I'd forgotten that. So anyway, they're barmy…they even mess with breakfast foods. Porridge is oatmeal, semolina is creamed wheat, muesli is granola and don't get me started on muffins," he harrumphed dramatically.

Tony who had long ago gotten used to the different terms used by Americans, probably in part because he had inherited Anthony DiNozzo's memories, tried not to laugh at Harry's outrage. He suspected that Harry would explode if he did.

Settling for a comforting tone, he replied. "Yeah, it's confusing but some of its got to do with the Franco Spanish influences. Anyway, thanks for doing the shopping. I'm looking forward to lunch, it sounds delicious. Can I do anything to help?"

Harry slumped. "No… it's going to suck!" he grumped childishly.

Looking at the pears, parmesan cheese, walnuts and rocket (arugula) on the island benchtop, he was confused.

"Problem, Cub? Looks like you managed to find everything," Tony observed.

"For the salad. In honour of Delores' British roots I was going to have a cream tea too. I've always sucked at making scones but Ellie said you could buy them here. He produced half a dozen in a bakery box, throwing them on the bench despairingly. "Look at them, Pads. They're triangles, they're flat…and huge and have crap in them. Some of them even had icing on them or chocolate chips." He raved, greatly incensed.

"Frosting." Tony interspersed mildly.

"What?" Harry pulled up, bemused.

"Icing is called frosting here," he explained patiently.

"Exactly my point and don't even talk to me about mince steak. They call it ground beef, for Merlin's sake. Like it's ground under an old boot or buried under the ground instead of put through a mincer." The younger wizard snarked grumpily.

Ignoring the change of topic, Tony brought it back to the problem at hand. "Okay so apart from the scones did you get the other fixings for your cream tea?" he asked, hoping that Harry wouldn't be disappointed with the US version of clotted cream. In his own experience, it never matched up to the Cornwall or Devonshire versions – the kind you got here lacked the nutty, silky sweetness of the real deal. He always preferred using double cream for cream tea here in the US when he baked scones (UK scones).

Unfortunately, Harry dragged out one of the varieties that was certain to fail his high foodie expectations – but to be honest, once you'd had an authentic cream tea, the American version couldn't measure up.

Not privy to Tony's musings on clotted cream he produced a smallish jar of strawberry jam with a flourish. "And another thing," he griped. "Yanks don't call jam 'jam' they call it jelly. So, what do they call jelly I hear you ask," even though Tony hadn't? "They call it jello…and how dumb is that?" he demanded, frustrated.

"K so I'll admit it's confusing Harry, but even in Britain they can't agree on their cream teas. Cream tea aficionados from Cornwell insist you put jam on your scone and then the clotted cream, while those from Devon traditionally assert that you dollop clotted cream and then the jam." He stated calmly.

Harry glared. "Yeah. Okay. But look at these monsters, Padfoot. They're nothing like a scone should be."

Tony smirked. "Are you or are you not a wizard, Harry James Potter?"

Glaring at him, Harry sighed. "And your point, Pads?"

"Chuck the scones," he advised, pronouncing it scones to rhyme with phones. "And ditch the clotted cream too. Trust me! Transfigure a cream tea with Scottish scones," articulating it to rhyme with Johns and proper clotted cream."

"What about the strawberry jam… um jelly?" Harry queried scornfully.

"Up to you, Cub. That brand is pretty good."

"So you don't mind if I use magic instead of making it myself?" Harry checked.

"Of course not. Besides, don't see much difference in buying scones and the fixings to you transfiguring a cream tea. Do your worst. Of course, I could probably transfigure a better cream tea than you – I was awesome at transfiguration at Hogwarts. If you're not up to it, I'll give it a go," he teased.

Harry laughed and Tony was relieved to have restored his good humour. "In your dreams, old man." He taunted. "Besides, technically and to all intents and purposes, you're more Yank than British." Seeing Sirius' affronted expression, he accused, "You call football soccer, Sirius."

Rolling his eyes at his godson he replied. "Yeah Harry…because I'm undercover," he said, slipping effortlessly into Sirius' upper class British accent. "But if you think you're up to it then go for it," he challenged him good-naturedly as he wandered back over to the lounge area and sank down cautiously onto his sofa.

The whole altercation with Gibbs had left him feeling more exhausted than it should. Perhaps they were all right and he had needed the day off after all. The last thing he needed was someone to tell him I told you so!

Later, after lunch- that had Delores had raving about the Pear and Rocket salad and drooling over the cream tea – the conversation turned to Tony's imminent departure.

Delores looked sad. "Things won't be the same when you go, Tony. You were the only one who managed to see past my gruff exterior. Everyone else at NCIS thinks I'm a troll," she observed shrewdly.

Tony didn't bother to deny her assessment. "Hey, I wasn't Mr Sensitive either at first. But once I started snooping I found a kindred spirit. I act like clown and you act like a porcuswine so we can keep everyone at arm's length," he joked, utilising one of his favourite Ziva-isms.

"True," she admitted, chuckling. "Never could let my guard down and trust people after my parents' rejection, it crushed my spirit – not to mention my trust. I told myself that I didn't need anyone; then you were my Secret Santa and tracked down that doll. You smashed my protective shell and made me realise that not everyone was out to hurt me." She smiled, seeing how uncomfortable Tony was when someone praised him for anything which was deep and meaningful.

Looking across to Harry who was watching silently she continued. "And then you and Hermione arrived and threw my world off its axis, Harry." She smiled at the younger wizard. "When you found out my secret shame, it didn't make a bit of difference to any of your team – you treated me as an equal and you offered me your friendship. This has been the best few weeks I've ever had. I'm going to miss you all so much."

Delores reached out hesitantly and grasped both the wizards' hands, giving them a brief squeeze before letting go, primly placing her hands in her lap.

Impulsively Tony spoke. "You don't have to miss us, Delores. Why don't you blow this popsicle stand and come with? I need to hire a personal assistant – someone with your HR experience and skills would be invaluable. Especially with all the innovation and the anti-corruption measures we plan on implementing at the DMLE."

Although his offer was impulsive, in that he'd planned on speaking to her privately and formally, it just seemed to be the right time. Besides, he couldn't stand how sad she seemed at the thought of being left alone again. Looking at her tearing up and becoming emotional, he immediately regretting not making the job offer in private. Knowing she was a very self-contained individual, she would hate for them to see her getting emotional; he knew this because he was the same.

But what he wasn't prepared for was her reaction. Bursting into tears, Delores rose from the table and crossed the floor to hug Tony tightly, forgetting his injury as she sobbed on his shoulder. Exchanging a helpless look with Harry, he patted her ineffectually on the back, murmuring nonsense phrases to her. Finally, the normally taciturn squib gave a hiccup that sounded like a cross between a giggle and a gasp, before releasing him.

"Oh Director, I'm so so sorry. Forgive me!" She apologised, horrified by her emotional display and her familiarity with such an important wizard.

Tony gave a somewhat nervous chuckle. "Well I didn't mean to upset you, Delores and clearly, I think maybe I should be apologising to you."

"Oh no, I'm flattered, Tony. That you would ask me – a squib to be your personal assistant when you could choose a bright young witch or wizard to fill the position. I'm sure that it would be more politically expedient than me."

Tony shrugged. "I asked you because if you agree to be my assistant then I think I'll be extremely lucky to have someone of your calibre on my six," he said sincerely. "So what do you say, Ms Bromstead? Have I filled the position of Personal Assistant to the new Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?"

Sitting back down at the table and pouring herself another cup of tea, she looked penitent. "Tony, you know I'd do almost anything in the world for you. You're my friend, even though women like me don't have friends like you. But I can't…you don't know what you're asking of me. I'm a squib and my parents threw me away like rotten garbage. To go back and face them and all the rest of my relatives…to know that I'm not good enough – that I'm a squib, an embarrassment. I just can't…I'm not strong enough."

"You underestimate yourself, Delores. You're a strong and incredibly capable person and a loyal friend. I don't care about you being a squib – you're worth ten of most witches or wizards. Please say that you'll at least think about the job before you say no." He pleaded with her gently.

Tearfully she shook her head. "I wish I could but I'm not half as courageous as you think I am. You don't understand how difficult it would be to go back to Britain and become a part of the magical world again. You're an outsider and even though it will be difficult to gain acceptance as an outsider, it still isn't as hard as going back to the place that rejected you. Where they made you feel useless like a pile of steaming hippogriff dung, Tony. I just can't."

Harry grimaced at his godfather. If only Delores knew that Sirius indeed knew just how she felt to be rejected – disowned by family – to be judged as wanting. But even though Delores was a friend and knew about the magical world there was no way they could risk telling her his secret. A secret that only three people were privy to which was probably three people too many already.

Sighing regretfully Tony nodded. "No Delores, you're right. I didn't think about what I was asking of you. So, we'll stay in touch – I'll expect lots of emails letting me know how you're doing.

~o0o~

It was later in the afternoon that the FBMI got back the results of the age regression facial software. Fornell organised another transatlantic video conference with Hermione at 1700 hours to discuss the findings. Tony decided he might as well stay for dinner since Harry was already cooking for Ellie. Of course, they couldn't discuss anything classified but at least the single dad wouldn't need to get his own dinner tonight.

Tony was feeling deflated that Delores had turned down his job offer. She would have given the Ministry of Magic a real kick in the pants and it would have also been great fun to help her stick it to her family. According to Hermione, who had done some digging into the Bromsteads when she returned to London (or more likely asked Penelope to look into it) they were a fairly insignificant family. Oh, sure they were pureblood still, but since Delores and one other cousin had been born in their generation and the cousin had fathered a squib and a wizard who barely qualified for Hogwarts, it wasn't looking good. Chances were that the UK Bromsteads would cease to exist within the next generation…maybe two at the most.

So, it would have soothed his soul and no doubt Delores too to have had her as his PA since her father still worked in some obscure but pettifogging clerical department as a drone. As his PA, she would have had a high-profile position befitting her abilities to organise workplaces in her sleep. He'd have given a lot to see Nilbert Bromstead having to kowtow to his daughter at the Ministry. Still, he'd never been a squib so he couldn't truly understand what he was asking her to do. Never mind – he'd get Penelope Clearwater to find him a nice squib who'd worked in HR in the 'outside world' to come and sort out the DLME with him. He put it on the list of tasks to see to when he arrived in London – along with finding some temporary accommodation.

Right on time Hermione appeared on screen, her mien serious but she smiled in greeting. Tony looked across at Harry – he didn't know adult Hermione well enough to read her expression. The messy haired wizard shrugged at him and whispered that it looked as if something had come up.

After they'd exchanged greetings Fornell took charge. "Right, let's get this show on the road. The FBMI ran photographs of Trent Kort through facial regression software that the FBI use and I sent the results to Hermione. They regressed Kort so he was 20 years younger, 30 years younger and forty years younger - hoping we'd get a hit on who we are dealing with."

Hermione took over at that point. "So, I had Harry's Auror partner, Katie Bell check on who was incarcerated in Azkaban at the same time as Sirius and escaped when Riddle organised the mass breakout."

"One thing she discovered was that the record keeping of the prison commandant wasn't flash. Something we'll need to attend to in due course," she observed, looking at Tony speculatively. "Anyway… when the software regressed photos arrived, I had Kingsley Shacklebolt take a look at them too since he was an Auror 30 years ago. I figured he would recognise Kort if anyone would."

Harry leaned forward eagerly. "Did he recognise him?"

Hermione nodded gravely. "Yeah Harry, he did. So, I guess if he did have some cosmetic surgery when he arrived in the States it wasn't extensive, more subtle."

Tony was not getting a good feeling about this. Sighing mentally, he sucked it up and asked. "Okay, so who is he?"

"Augustus Rookwood. He was an unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry. Igor Karkaroff gave him up as Voldemeort's spy in the ministry when he was trying to wriggle out of a life sentence as Casa Azkaban. Apparently the DMLE had no ideal about him, he was a most successful mole and Rookwood was tried, unlike Sirius and thrown in Azkaban."

Tony wasn't that surprised – they always suspected that there were moles in the Ministry – aside from the obvious ones like Lucius Malfoy with his pathetic claims that he was acting under the Imperious Curse when he committed crimes as a Death Eater. Honestly – the ministry deserved to be shot for swallowing such ridiculous tripe and it bothered him that Lucius was still out there now, free and clear.

While he wouldn't play by Gibbs rules, Tony was going to find a legal means of making his cousin's husband pay for his crimes – his war crimes against British wizardry. Knowing criminals and unfortunately being familiar with Malfoy from his stint as an Auror, he was pretty damned sure that he was still breaking the law – just being a bit more careful. As a well-known TV shrink was fond of pointing out – the best predictor of future behaviour was past behaviour. Apart from the Death Eater's murder and mayhem, his Lucius thrived in the role of a manipulative corrupt wheeler dealer. He'd preened and paraded around as a political advisor to Cornelius Fudge for years.

Tony was almost sure that he would be unable to resist using nefarious means to make more money. He was the type of individual who couldn't resist using illegal means to create more wealth. He reminded him of Anthony DiNozzo Senior when it came to wheeling and dealing and his love of money and influencing those in power and leopards don't change their spots they just learned to camouflage them more effectively.

However, just as some of the worst American criminals had ended up being ensnared by the IRS for tax fraud, perhaps he could catch Lucius with his pants down. He had fantasies of him being tried by a non-magical court, because while Malfoy was a pureblood to his bootstraps, he didn't mind bilking non-magicals to put more gold in his Gringott's vaults and galleons in his pockets. Perhaps Tony could have him made a squib as punishment and confiscate his fortune – that might go some way towards making up for all the misery he caused over the years.

Taking away his fortune and magic would probably be a much harsher punishment than life in Azkaban or going through The Veil. Plus, if Malfoy was up to his old tricks within the Ministry (knowing him the way he did, there was every chance he was) then he would be helping to clean up the bribery, graft and corruption which was the job he'd been hired to do. If he was keeping his mitts out of the Ministry he'd be dipping them in somewhere else – so Tony would be patient and catch him in the end.

Realising he'd zoned out, he tuned back in to find Harry, Tobias and Hermione were all staring at him in concern from which he concluded that that they been trying to get his attention and that they were worried about his reaction to the news that Kort was Rookwood. Not really sure why.

Smiling widely, he apologised. "Sorry, was just fantasizing on cleaning up all the moles and corruption in the Ministry. What were you saying?"

Hermione took control – her natural authority shone through when the two males seemed to be loath to continue. "Did you hear what I said about Rookwood, Tony?" she asked, glaring at the two males and making them glad she wasn't with them in the same room.

"Um that he worked as an unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries as a mole and Karkaroff shopped him, along with a bunch of other Death Eaters to save his miserable skin." Tony responded obediently.

"That's it?" she queried.

"Well… I'll hazard a guess that he was part of the mass break out when Riddle lured the Dementors to join his side and they left Azkaban unguarded?" Tony theorised.

Shaking her head on the screen, she sighed. Must have been some fantasy, Director," Hermione retorted wryly.

"Yeah, it was about Lucius Malfoy," he confessed, grinning before sobering up at the serious faces of his co-conspirators. "Okay…what did I miss? It looks like bad news!"

"Let's just say it's going to hit you and Harry hard, Tony. After the mass breakout from Azkaban in 1996 he disappeared from sight until the night he appeared at the Ministry of Magic with the other Death Eaters." She said, trying to be delicate.

"What night? Was it during Riddle's overthrow of the government?" Tony enquired, not seeing what all the fuss was about.

"No, the night that he conned me into believing that you had been trapped in the Ministry of Magic and then I insisted in going off half-cocked to save you, walking right into his trap for me. The night I got you killed because you had to come to my aid. The night that I almost got Hermione killed when Antonin Dolhov hit her with a Curse and everyone else who came with me from Hogwarts was injured too… except for me. All because I was too damned stubborn to listen to Hermione about it being a trap and insisted on checking it out. If I'd only called you on the mirrors or stopped by Grimauld Place to see if you were there, you wouldn't have died and the others wouldn't have been injured."

Tony looked solemn. "Maybe, Cub…we'll never know and your heart was in the right place. But if I'd lived then Tony DiNozzo wouldn't have had the chance to keep on saving lives and helping people," he stated calmly. So, while I didn't want to leave you alone, at least I was still able to continue to save lives. Last year when Joanna Teague and I brought down Budd and his terrorist group, there was no way to tell how many people's lives we saved," he stated baldly, glancing over at Fornell to acknowledge him. Tobias had made him realise that he'd done good work while he was living as Anthony DiNozzo.

Although it was painful remembering that night when Bellatrix forced him through the Veil of Death, he was trying to be strong because Harry obviously carried around an enormous amount of guilt over what happened. Refusing to wallow, he sucked up his anguish, focusing on Kort aka Rookwood.

"So, what happened to Rookwood after the showdown at the Ministry? Did he escape?"

Hermione answered after glancing at Harry who was acting far too maudlin. "No… not then, Tony. He was imprisoned again. He escaped a second time, in 1997. The last known sighting was Aberforth Dumbledore who defeated him during the Battle of Hogwarts. Kingsley talked to Aberforth today. He's getting a bit forgetful but he identified the photos of Kort as being Augustus Rookwood. Said he killed him at the Battle of Hogwarts but when Auror Katie Woods searched back through the records, there's no record of his death or a funeral for anyone fitting his description."

Fornell who was quiet up to this point piped up, "So it seems pretty conclusive, Trent Kort was Augustus Rookwood."

Harry managed to focus on the present. "I guess that explains why he recognised me and decided to kill me. He clearly blamed me for having to go on the run after Voldemort was defeated."

"Especially once he'd learnt that he was on the nose with the CIA and that they'd be looking to tuck him into a nice dirt bed for a long sleep." Tony observed fatalistically. "Seeing Harry with me and putting two and two together about me being appointed as director of the DMLE, he must have gone postal. Encountering the person who made him leave the UK must have felt like rubbing salt in the wounds."

"Do you think you were also one of his targets, Tony?" Fornell queried curiously, "Or were you just collateral damage."

"Well…considering that we couldn't stand each other because he tried to kill me and Jeanne by blowing up my mustang and failed, then I busted his nose. So, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he decided to take me out too. Like icing on the cake," he quipped with a grin at Harry who chuckled at his joke. "I guess we'll never know," he mused - although his brain was already occupied with more pressing thoughts.

Hermione finished up their call soon after that – with time differences she was anxious to finish up and get so food. After praising her new director and Auror for apprehending one of the most dangerous war criminals and Death Eaters still at large, she dropped a bombshell as she was signing off.

She issued an order for Tony to take at least one more day before returning to NCIS, signing off before he had a chance to protest.