The usual disclaimers apply; I don't own Harry Potter or NCIS, nor do I benefit from the use of these characters beyond the satisfaction of their inclusion in my works.

Chapter 14- Settling In

When Gibbs went to collect the child from Ducky, he found the boy with his shirt off and Ducky gently massaging a numbing cream into the boy's back. Harry would occasionally shiver as Duckys hand passed over a particularly gruesome or sensitive scar. Despite the child facing away from the door, he gave a distinct twitch as Gibbs silently approached Ducky's domain. As the door opened and Gibbs walked through, the child looked over his shoulder and gave Gibbs a slight smile. Gibbs returned the smile with one of encouragement.

Seeing as Ducky was nearly done with the salve, Gibbs handed the child's shirt to him with a brief "stay here for a moment, Little Man."

He gestured for the Ducky to follow him into the hallway and the door closed behind them. Although they could still see the child shrugging into his shirt, the boy could not hear them.

"Duck. You know how I feel about secrets."

"Of course, Jethro. Tell no-one. If you must tell one other; there is no third best option for this" he waited patiently for Jethro to get to the point, an expectant look on his face.

"The boy's my son, Duck."

Ducky looked particularly poleaxed; "What do you mean the boy's your son? Why haven't you been raising him if that's the case?" Ducky looked to be roiling with questions.

"Didn't know about him" admitted Gibbs, catching Ducky off guard.

"How can you not know about your own child?"

"Best guess?"

Ducky nodded.

"This is the part the team doesn't' know… His mother was in Europe. She never knew my real name and was an operative in a covert war, one I was not assigned to. I doubt that she could have contacted me when our paths separated. I recently discovered Harry's mother died when Hadrian was one year old, a terrorist attack that he survived. He was sent to live with his closest known relatives."

"Oh dear" sighed Ducky. They both looked over at the boy; he was twisting his hands together and staring at the new shoes that Jethro had gifted him with earlier that day.

"Ducky."

Ducky turned toward Gibbs.

"This stays between us"

"Of course, Jethro."

Walking back into autopsy, Gibbs queried, "Ready to go, Little Man?"

Harry nodded his head and, in a show of courage, reached a hand out to Gibbs to hold as he slid himself down from the autopsy table. Gibbs didn't let go of his hand when he reached the floor though. Just like Abby, though Harry, maybe he likes to hold hands too? It is rather nice.

Gibbs escorted the child out of the building and, with a quick pit-stop for Chinese food, took him home.

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As they drove onto the property, Hadrian felt the magic of the new wards tickle him as they crossed them. He almost giggled at the feeling. If he were to hazard a guess, the feelings they brought to him were warmth, comfort, and home, like they wanted him to be safe. He relaxed before removing his seatbelt.

As they walked into the house, they saw Severus sitting on the couch sipping a small glass of bourbon, and reading through a potion's journal. He looked more relaxed then he had ever had before in their presence.

"Good day?" asked Gibbs.

"Successful" claimed Severus.

Gibbs nodded his head to the side with a there's more look.

Harry watched the by play but felt obliged to thank Severus for the wards; he could still feel their protection from the house.

"Uncle Severus?" he asked shyly.

"What is it, Harry?"

Hesitating only a short while before answering, he said "I just wanted to thank you for the wards. They make me feel…" here he paused for a second to identify the emotions before continuing, "warm and fuzzy inside. It's almost like they are telling me they'll keep me safe when we crossed them. Thank- you."

"You're very welcome, Hadrian. I'm glad you can feel the wards then- not many wizards can. Regardless, I have a gift for you." Severus produced a shopping bag from his pocket and enlarged it, much to the child's surprise- he didn't expect to get anything, let alone the many things that would be held in that bag.

Severus removed the contents of the bag by pulling out three pairs of jeans, black trousers, and kaki slacks, two pairs of basketball shorts, two, long sleeve, dress shirts (one white and one black), five t-shirts, black, navy, emerald, red, and royal blue in color, and two weeks' worth of pants.

Harry gapped at the assortment. The clothes were all in his size and still contained the shopping tags; they were brand new and just for him.

"It's too much" he whispered, not knowing how he could possibly repay him.

"Nonsense child, this is the smallest of wardrobes. I'm sure that Jethro will be adding to it as well when he has the time."

"That's right, Little Man. Uncle Severus is now as much your father as I am. He will see that you're safe, protected, and cared for… just as I will."

Harry was beginning to look overwhelmed, so Jethro placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and lead him up to his bedroom- formerly the guest bedroom- I'll have to do something about the decoration Jethro thought as he turned the child through the door frame.

Somehow all the clothes had followed them up the stairs, the tags were removing themselves, and they were then folding themselves on the top of the dresser. Jethro elected to ignore the sight and focus on the boy. Placing his hand on the child's chin, he brought the child's gaze toward his face before starting to sign to the child.

"How can I help?"

At this, tears started streaming down Harry's face, his nose scrunched up, and his eyes closed on their own accord.

Gibbs simply reached out to the child, gently manipulated him to sit on the bed, before pulling the unresisting, crying child into his arms. His actions eventually got through to the boy and he unconsciously leaned into the embrace and started mumbling "You care. You both care. You care. Do you really care? No, you actually care" before starting to cry harder in relief.

Throughout all of this, Gibbs held the child and, with his free arm, carded his fingers through the child's still raven-colored locks. Eventually the child cried himself to sleep and Gibbs headed downstairs to converse with Severus.

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"Jethro" Severus greeted

"Severus" Gibbs responded in turn

Seeing that the child was still upstairs and Gibb's shirt was extensively damp, Severus sent a drying charm to the shirt before answering Gibb's previous question.

"My day was a successful one. I first went to the United Stated Gringots' branch and had a meeting with the goblins. There was no trouble warding this house for the safety of Hadrian and I… I might have failed to mention that a non-magical individual also inhabits the home, but none-the-less, I had this done by lunchtime. It was a rush order, but so very worth it."

At Gibbs' questioning look he explained, "I did not expect that Hadrian would be able to feel the wards. In hindsight, I should have expected it with his abilities of wordless, wandless magic. However, this is a good thing as Hadrian's magic will likely subconsciously allow the magic of the wards to saturate anyplace he is in this house often. This means that there is a possibility that his magic will learn to project the protection wards as it has learned to sustain the numbing charm."

"You're saying that sense Hadrian can sense the wards and they make him happy, he might unconsciously recreate the effects into a walking ward?"

"It has never happened before, but with the way Hadrian's magic seems to work to accommodate him, I would not be surprised if that were the case. We shall have to wait and see, such an event, if it were to occur, may be years in the making."

Gibbs nodded and gestured for Severus to go on.

"After overseeing the construction of the wards, I picked up a wardrobe for Hadrian. We will have to add a wizzard's wardrobe as well, but that is not particularly urgent at the moment. I spoke with one of my contacts in the American Wizzarding Government and managed to fast-track the processing of your golden scroll through the non-magical side of things. Signatures and paperwork were automatically filed when the duplicate of your scroll came through. I didn't want Hadrian's guardianship in limbo in any world."

Gibbs nodded appreciatively, this move may have gotten him in hot water with the director, but it was better that Hadrian was properly claimed as soon as possible.

"I also retrieved literature regarding the magical world for you. It covers the politics of both the United Kingdom as well as politics of the States. I've found that obtaining citizenship for a child of an American citizen is particularly simple if going through the magical means of it. I took the liberty of retrieving the paperwork for you." He produced a half-foot stack of paperwork, a stack which Gibbs gave an incredulous look.

"This… is simple?" Gibbs asked.

"Wizzards, as a whole, don't like to double check things. They are rather lazy and have come to depend on magic. These forms are spelled for truthful answers. So long as you can answer truthfully that Hadrian is, indeed, your son in blood, then you will be able to secure him American citizenship on the magical side of things… like with the golden scroll, the paperwork will automatically be copied into the mundane's government files. While securing him citizenship may happen instantly in the wizarding side, it may take a couple weeks to get the citizenship filed on the muggle side" At Gibb's questioning look he supplied. "I don't have many American government contacts outside of the potions prevue. I decided that what favors I did have needed to be pulled for the child's guardianship, not necessarily his citizenship. American Magical citizenship will provide him fake documents until the non-magical side is processed."

Gibbs nodded his understanding, grabbing a pen, and starting on the paperwork.

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So… I did some research and have figured that the HP universe has been brought forward roughly 19 years in my fandom. This would place Harry's conception in 1998 and birth in 1999. His conception would be before the marriage of Gibbs' 4th wife, Stephanie Flynn,, but after the divorce from the 3rd. Assuming that Kate joins the NCIS team in 2004 (meaning that NCIS season 1 is placed in 2004), Harry would be 7, about to turn 8, years old sometime during the 4th season, when he is found by Gibbs. This would be in the year 2007. (At least that's what I think is happening in my fic.! It's gotten rather more complicated then it seemed to be in my head!) Shannon and Kelly were killed in late February, 1991, so however I crunch the dates, Gibbs never cheated on one of his wives… so no worries there.