AN: This is going to be a slower chapter focusing a lot more on Harry's thoughts about the team and the way that their relationships are progressing. I hope to get to more action in the next chapter, but I really don't know what's gonna get included until I sit down to write. Enjoy the chapter!

The still image showed a man in some ornate robes with a mask covering the upper half of his face and a long, thin stick, a bit over a foot long, in his hand.

All of the sudden, the members of the team heard Harry mutter under his breath.

"Fuck."

"Harry. What the hell am I looking at? Who are these people?"

"Those are members of a British terrorist group called Death Eaters. As for what, I legally can't tell you unless you get clearance. I need to make a call."

On that abrupt note, Harry quickly stepped out of the room, and into the elevator to go back up to the main floor. He needed not only the director of NCIS's permission, but he also needed to contact the USDM, the United States Department of Magic. Unlike Britain, the USDM was a department within the US government that oversaw all things concerning magic within the borders of the US. Getting an exemption from the International Statute of Secrecy was not easy, and getting 7, as would be needed for this case, would be damn near impossible without conceding to them getting oblivated afterwards. He would need every political muscle he had and his influence as the Conqueror-of-Voldemort on top of that to pull this off.

"Hermione, I need your legal expertise…"

As the elevator closed and Harry's voice faded off, the team looked at one another in confusion. They were of course familiar with the concept of needing clearance in order to be able to discuss certain topics, but not even being able to tell someone how a person died? That went further than any of them had heard of before.

"Agent Potter what you are suggesting would be one of the largest single breaches of the International Statue of Secrecy since World War II! There is next to no legal precedent for it, and the fact of the matter is that even your considerable fame won't buy you that much leeway!"

Harry was frustrated. For nearly all of his time in the magical world, he had gotten very used to simply doing what he wanted and then dealing with the consequences later. It very rarely mattered what school rules, or even international laws, he ended up breaking because he could almost always point at the good that came about as a result of his actions as a justification. It was much harder to justify his actions beforehand seeing how most people would be hard pressed to see the necessity of his actions without actually being on the ground themselves.

"And I am telling you, Supreme Mugwump, that the precedent for it is there in the 1963 case of the capture of Richard Locke and the 1989 debacle with the collapse of the Berlin Wall. This is before we even take into account the 1993 release of information regarding Sirius Black en mass to the muggles. There is all of the legal precedent that you could ever need, especially when we have video evidence of Death Eater activity in the United States! Due to the presence of Death Eaters, the UK has a right to send a representative, which will be myself, and the fact that the attack took place on American soil means that the US will take the lead on the investigation. Thus far, these attacks have been against a muggle, albeit one that was married to a witch, meaning the muggle authorities have jurisdiction."

"Muggles have no idea how to track a wizard! Even if we agreed that there was evidence, the USDM would be the ones to take over, not this NCIS that you mentioned."

"US law clearly states that in matters where the deceased are active navy or marines, the case will be taken over by NCIS. There is no exception for magicals, which the Corporal was not anyways."

"Fine Potter. Have it your way, but the fallout from this is going to be on you head if it turns out for the worse."

With that sudden dismissal, the floo call abruptly ended, and Harry felt like jumping for joy. It had taken him and Hermione nearly three days of constant arguing and harassing members of the International Confederation of Warlocks to see it their way, but he had finally gotten what he was after, 7 permanent exceptions to the ISS with a clause stating that they would not be oblivated of their knowledge of magic at any point in the future without an emergency situation being declared.

The team was considerably nervous regarding Harry's sudden withdrawal from society, but the fact that Harry would say that he was trying to get them clearance for his latest op helped get them off of his back. Actually being able to explain to them what he had been doing would be an absolute godsend.

Harry had actually become decent friends with the members of "Team Gibbs" that he had met over the few days that he had been in Washington. Tony seemed to simply be a combination of Ron and Sirius. He was as lazy as Ron at the worst of times, but he could always manage to put in the work when it was truly necessary for the task at hand. Like Sirius, Tony seemed to enjoy constant practical jokes, usually at the expense of McGee, but they rarely seemed malicious, and usually helped to lighten the mood in a job environment that could quickly wear down even the most hardened of people.

While Harry rarely understood exactly what Abby or McGee were talking about, they both reminded him too much of Hermione for him to see them in anything other than a positive light. They were both very passionate about their chosen fields, and they had a desire to share that enthusiasm with others.

Palmer was a bit odder, but the kid seemed to have a good heart and wanted to help others, so Harry could hardly get mad at him. Despite the fact that Palmer was older than him, Harry couldn't help but think of him in the same terms that he often thought of the younger years, as someone that he had to look out for, even if he knew that Palmer wouldn't always appreciate it.

Ducky was, in many ways, exactly the kind of person that Harry wanted as a mentor while at Hogwarts. He had the knowledge and presence that Dumbledore seemed to so often have, but he was also much less self-righteous and willing to listen to his issues in the same way that McGonagall was after his first year. The man seemed so excited to have another Brit there, and when Harry admitted to having gone to school in Scotland, there was little Harry could do to stop the man from sitting Harry down and regaling him with stories from long ago. Harry couldn't help but think that if Binns had spoken with half the personality of Ducky, than no one would have been able to fall asleep in that classroom.

Gibbs was, in many ways, the easiest for Harry to simply fall back in line with. He had always considered Gibbs to be a father figure to him, and that need for someone in Harry's life to be proud of him and his accomplishments had not diminished over time. Harry had tried to live his life partially by Gibbs's example, and actually having the man see at least part of where he had gotten in life was like a long time dream coming true for the orphaned boy.

It was perhaps the hardest to think about the ways he and Ziva had interacted over the past few days. Harry was far from blind to the fact that she was a very beautiful woman, and she seemed to have very little shame in stating that he was by no means as ugly as he liked to imagine himself to be. In fact, she seemed to remind him constantly of this whenever he attempted to make a self-deprecating joke about his many scars or his lack of height. In learning about her childhood and the distance that existed between her and her father, the two grew even closer. Harry could understand better than anyone the fact that blood did not make family, his aunt clear proof of that, and the fact that Harry could truly empathize with her situation helped immensely.

In addition to connecting over their issues, the two seemed to have much in common, from the way that they both loved going extremely fast to the fact that they both enjoyed learning new languages and new fighting techniques whenever they got the chance. While Harry rarely had time to bother with something as non-essential as languages while fighting in the Second Blood War, as it was now called, he truly did have a passion for the subject, and enjoyed being able to keep in contact with both Fleur Delacour, now Weasley, and Victor Krum in their native languages. It was especially useful for Victor considering the man's grasp of the English language was tenuous at the best of times.

Despite being unwilling to think about his growing attraction to the Mossad Officer, Harry truly was enjoying the time he spend with her, either at one of their apartments or the gym that Ziva liked to work out and practice her marital arts at. While Harry did not know Krav Maga specifically, all Mossad officers were required to be proficient in it, and Harry's knowledge of Jiu Jitsu and Kick Boxing tended to make up for it in their spars. The fact that they could manage to spend time together while also comparing and learning each other's fighting styles was a win-win as far as the pair were concerned, and Ziva was happy to help Harry in his quest to learn Hebrew that he had recent undertaken. While he was laughably bad at this point, he had only been at it for a short while, and it was the thought that counted with his desire to learn.

At a certain point, the desire to get the team exemptions to the Statue of Secrecy became less about gaining their help in capturing the rogue Death Eaters and more and more about gaining the ability to share all of himself with the people that he was rapidly considering his friends. His magic will always be a part of him, and without his friend knowing about it, Harry constantly felt as if he was holding back part of himself. He could never seem to tell the full story when he talked about his friends and their misadventures, and the fact that he was lying by omission had Harry feeling very uncomfortable about the whole situation. These exemptions would help with all of that, clearing the way for Harry to be fully truthful with his friends, both new and old.

"This is absolute bullshit"

"Tony! Harry wouldn't just lie to us like that!"

"McGee, what Harry is saying is flat out impossible. I'm as big of a fan of magic as the next person, but what he is saying is strictly not possible."

Harry revealing the existence of magic to the team had certain requirements. He needed to be in a space where they were not monitored and there was no way for someone else to accidently overhear them, which ruled out most of NCIS headquarters besides the Director's office. Harry had instead decided to simply invite the team over to a dinner at the apartment that he was currently renting. That way he could tell all of them at once without there being a chance of someone walking in on them.

Harry sighed deeply and finally spoke up, "You do know that I'm not expecting you to believe me without proof, yes? I can actually demonstrate what I am talking about," and with that and a sudden wave of his wand, Harry transfigured the glass bottle that was in Tony's hand into a small black kitten that was meowing for attention.

The sudden transformation caused nearly ever member of the table to jump back in shock and Tony accidently dumped the kitten on his lap in his surprise. The kitten, in response, hissed at him and jumped over to Harry who started petting the cat now perched on his lap.

"There. That cat clearly wasn't there before, and I managed to change the bottle that you were drinking out of into a real, breathing animal. Unless you're going to insist that that was simply a party trick too, than you have to admit that magic is real. We've done a very good job of hiding our community, but the proof is right in front of your eyes, Tony."

Ducky seemed to be the most contemplative of all of them. Where McGee, Abby, Palmer were just excited and wanted to know what this hidden world offered, and Gibbs and Ziva mostly were concerned with the threats that might come from this world, Ducky seemed to be in deep thought about something.

"So that's what Augusta was going on about. She never would explain to me where she went to school or what she did for work."

Harry was dumbstruck, "Augusta Longbottom, perchance?"

"Why yes, my dear boy, how ever did you know? She was a childhood friend of mine that I have simply lost contact with over the years."

"I actually went to school with her grandson, Neville. We roomed together for six years. Would have been seven if it wasn't for the war."

It felt so good to Harry to finally come clear about his life and the actions that he had been forced to do. How could he ever tell anyone that he had killed for the first time at age 11, even if it was in self-defense, without first explaining about magic and the situation that made him killing Quirrell necessary? How could he ever talk about the war that he fought in without explaining that no muggle government forced him to become a child solider for a war that most had never heard of?

Gibbs was mostly angry and proud right now. He was angry at the numerous people who had decided to take the sweet kid that he had known and force him into fighting in a war at an age when most would be more concerned about asking out their crushes and getting through school. He was also so proud of Harry for all that he had accomplished. The awards were nice and all, but Gibbs was mostly proud of Harry for how good he still managed to be despite all of the hardships that he had gone through. It would have been easy, and even extremely understandable, for Harry to have grown bitter over what happened or have decided that he had had his fill of violence, but instead Harry had decided to go out and continue helping people and go through actual MI5 training in order to further that goal. There certainly was a lot to be proud of when someone helped raise a kid like Harry Potter.