TONY

There was something telling about the way she said it - not simply 'he died'... but not 'he was murdered', either. She didn't elaborate, and Tony wondered what exactly that meant.

"I thought everyone connected with Hogwarts knew." She bit her lip, then visibly gathered herself together, putting on her 'teacher' face. It looked a lot like Kate's 'agent' face, he thought.

She turned to her class, and sent them off to 'Hufflepuff' in the basement - whatever that meant - then gestured for the NCIS team to follow her into a nearby classroom.

Tony got the impression that Gibbs was relieved to sit down, or at least that his body was grateful not to be propping him up any more. He hadn't seen Gibbs look this bewildered in a very long time.

It didn't help much when she drew a smooth, shiny wand from her belt and gestured to the door, muttering something under her breath. Tony wasn't entirely sure he wasn't imagining things, but he could've sworn there was an odd, slightly squelchy noise, as if the door had just sealed itself.

Once they were settled, Caitlin continued. "There was... Well, it would take too long to explain. It was hard for the whole wizarding world, it took them a long time to get back on their feet. But Minerva is headmistress now."

"They?" Trust Ziva to pick up on a small inconsistency. Well, it probably helped that she wasn't dealing with the shock of seeing a long dead colleague apparently resurrected. "It was hard for them? Wasn't it hard for you, too?"

"Well, yes, I suppose I-"

"You suppose?"

"I don't remember-"

"How could you not remember such a significant-"

"Ziva!" She was going to go into bulldog mode if they weren't careful, and if they were going to get answers out of K- out of this woman, then bullying her probably wouldn't be wise.

Ziva subsided, though she didn't look at all happy. Tony gave her a pleading look and then continued the interrogation more gently.

"Why don't you remember, K-Caitlin?" His voice tripped over her name. The urge to call her Kate, to start picking at her and teasing her, to slip back into that same old easy, spiky familiarity... It was like some twisted torture.

He couldn't help thinking that Kate, if the old Kate could see him, she would find his discomfort hilarious and well deserved.

The question obviously troubled her. The only time Tony had ever seen Kate - their Kate - quite this unsettled was when she'd shot a man who turned out to be innocent. "I'm sorry if this is hard." Apologising to a- well, she wasn't a suspect, but still. "We're just trying to work out what's going on."

She nodded. "I'm sorry. It's just a little complicated. I don't know why, you see. I-" She shrugged and the uncertainty on her face was now clouded with something darker and sadder. "I was... found. I don't know what happened." A small smile, and not a very convincing one. "All I could remember - all I've ever remembered from before Hogwarts - was my name."

"Caitlin Gibbs?"

She looked at him like he was a little slow, and the expression was so familiar it was almost painful. "Yes, Caitlin Gibbs. I don't mean to be rude, but why do you keep asking my name?"

Tony risked a glance at Gibbs, who was still a decidedly funny colour, and decided that maybe tackling this a little at a time would be a good idea.

"It's just... Well, you look like-" understatement of the century "-a woman we worked with. And her name was also Caitlin. Except she almost always went by Kate." And by the way, she's dead. And also you could be her twin sister. And when she died Gibbs - no relation, strange huh? - went a little crazy for a while. No, no need to freak her out by piling on all the weird in one go.

"Oh. Oh, I see."

There was a pause while she digested that.

"Is it... possible that you have- you know, normal- I mean, muggle relatives or family?"

"I- I really don't know. I'm sorry." Tony shook his head sympathetically at her repeated apology, but didn't interrupt. "All I know is that someone found me, and brought me here. The healers looked after me, and I had no other home to go to. Then I started helping in classes, and when the old teacher retired, I took over Muggle Studies. No one else was interested in teaching it, and I love it."

"How long have you been here, at Hogwarts?"

She thought for a moment. "Six years - or maybe closer to seven, now." Not long after Kate died, he couldn't help but notice. "It took a while for me to- well. I was a little lost, when they found me. Madame Pomfrey was so kind... When I got better, and no one could find out where I was from, it was natural to stay here at Hogwarts."

"And you ended up teaching?" It might be important to know just how that panned out, but Tony found he was also genuinely curious. It was strange to imagine Kate, or at least a near perfect facsimile of Kate, as a schoolteacher. It seemed such a sedate career, so unlike something Kate would choose. Though Caitlin seemed to be softer, gentler than the Kate he remembered.

A shrug and a rather more genuine smile than they'd seen from her so far. "Spending time with the children... it helped me come back to myself. And I found out that I was good with them. I enjoy spending time with them, they like me... I suppose maybe I used to be a teacher."

"And you teach 'Muggle Studies'?" Ziva sounded incredulous. Tony could almost hear the air quotes dropping into place around the words.

"I've been fascinated by muggles for as long as I can remember-"

"Which isn't very long, right?" Tony hadn't really thought that question through. The glare she shot him was vintage Kate. If looks could kill... He smiled a little. "Sorry. That was a little insensitive."

"You think?" Man, she even had her Gibbs impression down pat. Even though she'd heard all of three words from the man.

At least it seemed to have snapped her out of the funk that their unanswerable questions had provoked. Her business face was back, and she looked around at them, suddenly curious and a little concerned.

"Who are you people, anyway? And how did you get here, if Minerva didn't arrange this? Muggles can't even see Hogwarts from the outside, and there are enchantments- are you really muggles? I should go and see the Headmistress, this can't be good, I-"

She started to get up from her chair, and Tony laid his hand firmly on her arm. The old Kate would never have let him stop her that way - he'd have lost a finger - but the contact was enough to make Caitlin pause and look him in the eye.

"Kate- Caitlin-" Damn name "-we are, uh, muggles. We don't really know how we ended up here, but we are government agents. We're used to keeping secrets, and we're used to keeping people safe."

He felt the tension leave her as she subsided. She didn't look quite convinced, but Tony couldn't help thinking that if the situation were reversed, he'd be freaking out far worse. So far, she'd taken this remarkably well.

"As for who we are, well, I'm very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo - you can call me Tony. This is Special Agent Ziva David, I still call her Probie but she's not any more, so I recommend you stick with Ziva because she's dangerous."

Caitlin looked over in alarm at his tongue in cheek warning, and Tony almost laughed. It felt so normal, in a very abnormal way, to be sitting here with her. He'd forgotten to temper his sense of humour. "Don't worry, she's well trained, she won't bite," he added, earning himself a scowl from Ziva. "And he-" yes, that guy who's looking at you like you're a ghost "- is Gibbs."

"Gibbs?" That got her attention.

"Yeah, weird, huh?"

"Yes..." For a moment it almost seemed she was about to say something, but instead she just turned towards Gibbs, her eyebrows drawing together in concentration as if she was trying to dredge her memory for his face.

Gibbs held her gaze for a few moments, then looked away and - holy crap - was the boss blushing, just a little?

"So," she said at last. "Now you know who I am and I know who you are... What I'd really like to know is what are you doing here?"

"That's-" he laughed "that's a good question, Caitlin. A really, really good question. And I don't have an answer right now."

Gibbs finally spoke up. "Last time, it was Dumbledore needing help with a crime - a murder. He needed a team who could process a crime scene."

She thought about that for a second, then nodded firmly. "I think- I think we should go to see the headmistress."