Author's Note: This is a second beginning of my story "Memory Machine". This is only going to be one chapter and I have not given up on "Memory Machine"!. Please review, I'll mentally give you a cookie.
Just six weeks ago had the "Movie Memory" machine been released and now law enforcement agencies have been requiring that investigative teams be subject to it. Today was the day in which the NCIS teams were going to step up and relive their lives. The "Movie Memory" machine is basically a rectangular box that the subject enters and his or her memories are picked up by neural scanners within. Depending on the pain of the memories the person could be in agony, this was only a slight problem though…considering only one subject had had such a bad reaction out of the thousands they tested. What they didn't know is that this test subject had been a wizard at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…this wizard had lived through the battle that had taken place and sustained all the emotional blows of war. What they didn't know was that another wizard was going to have a similar experience this very day.
The NCIS team led by Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was the last team to go that day. The other members of this team include: Agent Anthony Dinozzo, Agent Ziva Davede, Agent Timothy Mcgee, and Agent Harry Potter. But Agent Harry Potter was no ordinary twenty-eight year old agent. No…he was a wizard who had fought in the war against Voldemort and lost more than anyone can imagine. In the end he won, but at what cost? After the war Harry had decided to work in the muggle law enforcement world, he was tired of fighting yet couldn't see himself in any other occupation, so he decided that he would investigate and try to prevent crime rather than just clean it up. He had told nobody at NCIS of his world and kept his wand hidden in a holster on his right calf should he ever need it. This is why he was required to take part in reliving his memories just like everyone else; in the magical world this was not required, as everyone knew how much pain and loss their people had suffered. Since Harry had not made anyone aware of his situation he had decided to go through with this endeavor and hope that the machine was kind enough to avoid focusing in on any wands when creating his videos.
The rest of his team had already entered the machine and been let out a minute later, only slight winces fluttering across their facial expressions. Finally it was his turn, summoning up his courage he entered the machine and waited. After approximately five seconds Harry began to wonder why his reaction was so good. Then suddenly he felt an agony spreading from his scar down the rest of his body, his knees buckled and his hands were pressed in around his head. He was crouching in a fetal position when the pain started to lessen; immediately he felt hands closing in around him pulling him out of the glass box. Loud voices were nagging at his ears and all he wanted to do was sleep. Blackness was slowly encroaching; unlike so many times previous he took this option and fell into a peaceful abyss.
Special Agent Gibbs was in shock. He who had lost his wife and child to murder had suffered no ill reaction to the machine and yet his youngest agent had crumpled like a ragdoll yelling out in pain. He watched transfixed as Ducky bent over him after Mcgee and Pachee, the nearest agents, had dragged him from the machine. Harry appeared to be unconscious and his breathing was erratic. Ducky had already noticed this and placed an oxygen mask on his face and began checking his vitals. After a few minutes Ducky stood up.
"I've no idea what's wrong with him." He stated.
"This young man must have been through hell and back to suffer such a reaction, I read that one man out of the thousand trial testers had such a reaction, he was the same age as our boy Harry here. It raises questions."
Gibbs now out of his shock began to bark orders.
"Ducky I want you to get him down to autopsy on a stretcher, the rest of us will be down shortly. Get ready to wake him up but wait for us to do it. "
Turing toward Vance he started yelling, in front of all the agents in the bullpen to see.
"Why the hell did you let him do this? You have his history, you should have known this would happen!"
"Agent Gibbs, I can assure you I had no information about Mr. Potter that seemed horrific enough to keep him from doing this." The director replied coolly.
"I find it more prudent for you and your teammates to make your way down to autopsy than to yell at me, once Mr. Potter is awake you may want to start with watching videos about his life first. Be sure to look for trailers in the search bar, I think we would find them to be interesting." And with that Vance left to supervise the move of the machine from the Navy Yard to the FBI building a few blocks over.
"Gibbs! Gibbs! Is he going to be okay? Is Harry going to be okay?" Abby was whispering into his shoulder after running full force into him, enveloping him in a bone-crushing hug.
"I don't know Abs. Lets find out." And on that note he led his team down to autopsy.
The team's reactions at seeing Harry laying out on the examination table unconscious were clearly evident on their faces. Abby let out a short gasp before hugging Mcgee. Ziva and Tony did their best to remain stoic but were not doing so very well. Gibbs just stared in wonder at the young man wondering what in the world happened to him.
Harry's face even in sleep was troubled, Ducky had left his glasses on and they had gone askew. As the team walked up to the table Gibbs noticed that Harry began to whimper and moan. This did not go unnoticed by the rest of the team either.
"Ducky?" Mcgee asked.
"Yes Timothy?"
"What's going on with him?"
"What are you talking about…oh! It appears he is having a nightmare. Shall I wake him Jethro?"
"No Ducky." Gibbs replied.
"Why?"
"I need to see what is so bad that he would never have mentioned. Why he had such a horrible reaction to that dreaded machine."
"Alright Jethro, but if it becomes too painful for the dear boy then I'm waking him."
Ducky went back to looking at Harry, in the time it had taken for their conversation to transpire Harry had begun to thrash around. His head was lolling from side to side and his face was screwed up as if in pain. To Gibbs's horror Harry began to talk, began to beg.
"No! Not Cedric. Please…don't kill Cedric. Kill me instead. Please! No!" Harry screamed the last part before curling in on himself and continuing to moan. Before anyone could wake him up he began to talk once more.
"Please, Wormtail…I saved your life. Don't…please. Ah!" With that Harry grabbed his right forearm in his left and screamed. Ducky began to look for smelling salts with which to wake Harry. Before he got back Harry had screamed one last time. Only this scream was different, this scream they all knew it. It was the scream of torture. Harry's scream was filled with such an anguish they had never heard. With that scream Harry sat bolt upright clutching the scar on his forehead and in the process fell off the autopsy table.
The team saw Harry fall over and rushed to his side. He eyed them wearily before relaxing, finally recognizing who it was. He was still holding the scar on his forehead and he looked as though he were in pain. He leaned his head back against the table, his hand falling to his side as Ducky came around and handed him a cup of water.
"You have these nightmares every night don't you?" Gibbs asked while Harry sipped at his water.
"Yes, I do. Not the same one but almost every night."
"God Harry. How do you live?" Tony asked, but even then he remembered the days when Harry was falling asleep on the job, when he came in with circles under his eyes. How whenever they stayed to work overnight Harry always slept somewhere else other than the bullpen.
"I learned to deal. They used to be much worse, I'm used to them."
"Harry this is serious, you should see a psychologist." Ducky stated.
"No, I can't Duck. After you watch the videos that damn machine created I'm sure you'll understand why." Harry replied.
After an uncomfortable silence in which Gibbs and the teammates all eyed Harry suspiciously after seeing him in such a new and disturbing light, Gibbs finally asked the question they had all been to scared to ask.
"Harry, who is Cedric? What happened?"
Harry eyed him for a moment, realizing he wasn't going to get out of this without talking about it. Doing his best to explain without bringing magic into the mix would be difficult but nevertheless he began.
" Um…let me start at the beginning I guess. When I was fourteen there was a tournament of sorts at my boarding school. Two other schools joined us that year and we would select one student from each school to compete who was seventeen or older. We used a machine thingy to select the champions from students who had entered their names. The Beauxebatons champion was Fleur Delacour, the Durmstrag Champion was Viktor Krum, and the two Hogwarts champions were Cedric Diggory and myself. Before you say anything let me explain…someone tampered with the machine so it would select two champions and also illegally entered my name. Any questions so far?" Harry said while starting to pace around the room.
"Yeah, what kind of boarding school names are these?!" Tony asked cynically, after which he received two Gibbs-slaps from the namesake himself and Abby.
"Mine, so shut up!' Harry replied.
"Anyway, so there were three tasks. We got through the first two find and dandy, well not really dandy but nothing serious. The third task was when it happened. The task was a huge maze, twenty food hedges and miles across. We all entered at different times and places and the objective was to find the cup in the middle of the maze while avoiding obstacles, none of which I can explain. Fleur was knocked unconscious by one of them and taken out of the maze, Krum was inhibited by something in the maze and attempted to take Cedric out of the running. I got there after hearing Cedric scream and knocked Krum unconscious before any damage was done. "
"Then what happened?" Abby asked, as Harry had taken a steadying breath and was starting to look distressed.
'Uh…an obstacle started coming out way so we were both running. We saw the cup and agreed to take it together. The cup was a means of transportation, which again I can't explain. Merlin…if I'd just taken it alone…"
Abby stood up and gave him a hug; it looked like he needed it.
"Why should you have taken it alone? What happened" Ziva asked quietly.
"We were transported to a graveyard. Before I could realize what happened I was struck by something and was in too much pain to do anything, I couldn't see…I could only hear. The man who was with the man who caused me that pain murdered Cedric before I had a chance to do anything." Harry said solemnly.
"Then what happened Harry?" Both Ziva and Abby asked simultaneously.
"That man, Wormtail, bound me and used a knife on my arm. I can't tell you why. The other man was strong enough now…he recalled his ranks, said his arrogant little speech before…torturing me."
"Oh God Harry, I'm so sorry. That must have been awful!" Were just a few of the things being said at once. Then Gibbs said,
"How did you get out of there?"
"I was given a chance to fight, I surprised him and managed to escape and bring Cedric's body back to Hogwarts. " Harry finished.
Silence accompanied his words. They were all wondering how he really escaped and thinking about all that he said he couldn't tell them. Did he not trust them? Was it even worse than what he explained? The silence was broken by Gibbs.
"Harry…I think we need to watch your videos…"