Agent Potter

Chapter One

When a witch or wizard dies any of their magic remaining in the mortal plain dies with them. That means that any wards, charms, spells, hexes, curses or enchanments a witch or wizard casts on something or someone will die out when the caster of the magic dies. It is a well known fact in the wizarding world but not one that most people choose to dwell on.

For the Potter family, though this fact will be both what tears them apart forever and makes them whole again...

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs got in to work even earlier than he usually did on Monday morning. His famous gut was churning and he didn't like it. His gut was telling him that there was something badly wrong with a member of his team and Gibbs wanted to figure out exactly what was going on.

There was no sign of anything amiss in the bullpen so Gibbs sat down at his desk, figuring that he may as well get started on his paperwork while he waited for his team to get in. About 30 minutes later Ziva arrived, followed quarter of an hour later by McGee. A call to the guards downstairs told Gibbs that Ducky, Abby and Palmer had arrived safely.

The only one missing now was his Senior Field Agent Tony.

"Where the hell are you, DiNozzo?" Gibbs growled. Tony had never been the most punctual, responsible person but his gut was telling him that this was something more than his SFA oversleeping or being hungover. Tony had made a lot of enemies over the years and if one of them had gotten hold of the agent...

"He's probably just overslept with one of slags again," Ziva said dismissively. "Nothing to worry about."

"Nothing for us to worry about, you mean," McGee mumbled in a voice he obviously felt was too quiet for Gibbs to hear. "Him, on the other hand...When the boss gets hold of him..."

Gibbs scowled at both of the junior agents. He'd noticed that Tony had been taking a lot of flack from both McGee and Ziva lately. The former marine hated dissension in the ranks and it pissed him off that the two junior agents were so blatantly disrespecting their senior agent but he'd wanted to give Tony a chance to deal with it himself before intervening. Tony was, after all, a fiercely independent person and he might not appreciate Gibbs barging in to his personal business and treating him like a little boy that needed to hide behind daddy.

He pushed that thought out of his mind, though. Gibbs would deal with it later. Right now he had more important things to worry about than his idiotic junior agents, with delusions of grandeur, who thought that they could do a better job of being SFA than the actual senior field agent...

"Ziva, trace DiNozzo's cellphone. McGee, check his credit cards," he barked.

The two junior agents looked distinctly unhappy about having to put themselves out, over Tony DiNozzo, of all people. They got an unexpected reprieve in the form of Director Vance, who came down the stairs from the mezzanine just in time to hear Gibbs give the order. "Actually, Agent Gibbs, that won't be necessary," Vance said briskly.

Gibbs' blood boiled. He knew full well that the director didn't like Tony. He knew that Vance had been trying to maneuver Tony out of the agency ever since he took over as director after Jen died. Gibbs was sick of it. "You don't think that a missing agent is something to get concerned about, Leon?" he growled, getting right up in the director's face.

To his credit, though Director Vance didn't so much as flinch. "A missing agent is something to worry about, yes," he conceded. "But the fact of the matter is Agent DiNozzo is not missing."

"That's funny. I don't see him at his desk where he's supposed to be," Gibbs said coldly.

"I spoke with Agent DiNozzo on Saturday morning when he phoned me, saying that he urgently needed to take a large amount of leave," Vance said. "He and I met here at the office, yesterday so he could sign the paperwork putting him on a six month sabbatical, at the end of which he may or may not return to NCIS."

Gibbs glared at the director, who couldn't quite keep the glee out of his voice at the prospect of Tony leaving the agency. "DiNozzo wouldn't do something like that, at least not without discussing it with me first," he growled. "Exactly what reason did he give you for this so-called sabbatical?"

Vance shrugged, unconcerned. "He's got more than enough leave owing to him so I didn't feel the need to ask. I got the impression that it was something to do with a family emergency, though. Believe it or not, Gibbs DiNozzo is a grown man who doesn't need you to hold his hand or give him permission to live is life."

Gibbs snorted. He knew that Vance's so-called impressions were totally off base. Tony hadn't seen or spoken to any of his maternal relatives in the UK since he was a teenager and he had only very sporadic contact with his father, who was based somewhere in New York. There was no way that Tony would turn his life upside down, practically giving up his career, for any of his so-called family. As for Vance's other supposition, that Gibbs believed he owned his agents, that was wrong as well; well, mostly wrong. Gibbs was well aware that his team were fully grown men and women, entitled to live their lives as they saw fit, but he did believe that, as team leader, he was entitled to a certain amount of, if not control then, information whenever one of his agents did something drastic.

"We'll see about that," Gibbs growled, turning back to his junior agents.

"I mean it, Gibbs," Director Vance called as he went back upstairs. "Let DiNozzo go. Agent McGee is acting Senior Field Agent, at least for the next six months. "Choose somebody new to bring onto your team as a junior agent by this time tomorrow or I'll choose someone for you."

Gibbs ignored the director. He wasn't going to bring anyone new onto his team if he could help it and, if he had to, it wouldn't be a junior agent. Gibbs didn't like training junior agents. If he had to have someone new on the team it would be someone with at least as much training as Ziva had. "Ziva, phone records. McGee, credit cards," he said shortly.

McGee looked startled. "But boss, the director said..." he began.

"Does it seem like I'm deaf, McGee?" Gibbs snarled, putting on his coat and grabbing his keys, badge and gun. "I heard what the director said as well as you both did. Now I'm telling you to check Tony's phone and credit records. I'll be at his apartment. Call me if you turn up anything interesting."

Gibbs got in his car and drove to Tony's apartment building. His bad knee burned as he went up the stairs to Tony's fourth floor apartment. Gibbs cursed the fact that the elevator in this place was never working and vowed to kill Tony if this turned out to be a practical joke or just some trivial matter.

Reaching Tony's floor, Gibbs walked towards his agent's door. Before he got there, though Gibbs ran into Mrs Langdon, one of Tony's longtime neighbors. Gibbs hadn't spent much time at Tony's these past few years - his own relationship with his SFA and onetime surrogate son had soured since his own Mexican sabbatical - but Mrs Langdon had lived next door to Tony for even longer than that, and Gibbs had spoken to her many times when he was keeping an eye on Tony while the younger man was recovering from the plague. Mrs Langdon was a widow, with no children, and positively doted on Tony. Gibbs gathered that Tony was a great favorite most of the building's elderly residents, doing shopping and basic home maintenance for them.

"Oh, Agent Gibbs!" she called, rushing over to him. "I was hoping that I'd see you. Has there been any news about Tony?"

"You've seen Tony in the last couple of days?" Gibbs inquired, straight away realizing that the old woman knew more about whatever was going on than he did.

"Yes," Mrs Langdon said sadly. "He dropped by last night to let me know that he probably wouldn't be around for quite a long time."

"Did he say where he was going?" Gibbs asked, really not liking the sound of that. At the same time he not a text message from McGee saying that Tony's credit card records showed he'd brought a ticket to London, England and airline records showed that the flight had taken off several hours earlier.

"He did," Mrs Langdon nodded. "He said that a relative of his in England was in trouble and needed his help. Oh, Agent Gibbs it's so sad!"

Gibbs frowned, as he tried to figure out what the hell was wrong was his senior field agent. He'd thought that Tony had sworn off dealing with his English cousins after the fiasco with his Uncle Clive's will several years earlier. "What, exactly, did he tell you?" he asked, wanting to get all the pertinent details from the older woman.

The heartbroken expression on Mrs Langdon's face showed how much she cared for Tony. Tears filled her eyes. "Agent Gibbs," she said. "Tony told me he was leaving and that he was probably never coming back!"