Chapter 18
Dinner rolled around and the Trio caught up to Tony just as the last student filed out of his classroom.
“What did Collie want?” Mi wanted to know, Ron closing the door behind them.
“Evidently, she suspects there’s an intruder on her property,” Tony crossed his arms as he leaned on the desk next to Harry. “I’m going out tomorrow to have a look. It might be connected to what Mi saw the other night, if not connected to what Harry saw downstairs.”
“Do you think so?” Harry frowned at him.
“Possible. But if it turns out otherwise, at least I get to think about something other than school for a few hours. Tonight, I’m going to have her try some things out and to head to a friend’s place if something happens.”
“And if something does?” Ron asked.
“Then I’ll have her stay away for a bit and open an ongoing investigation. About time I pulled an all-nighter again, anyway.”
“You won’t go alone, right?” Mi fretted.
“I never said that,” he smiled reassuringly. Luckily, he’d already sent a note out for help that should – if all went well – arrive tomorrow after dinner.
Speaking of dinner …
“I’m getting a bit peckish,” he announced, herding them out of the room. “Time to eat.”
The Trio let the subject drop for now as they joined the crowd’s stragglers heading for the Great Hall. Harry and Mi took the lead and Ron hung back with Tony, the four of them making a square as they moved along.
It would not be the last occurrence as their friendship grew and took them to new distances, but it was the first time Tony would make note of it.
“Er, Tony?”
“Yeah, Ron?” he glanced over to see him lift a shoulder.
“Remember what you said before the wedding about .. doing something together?”
Oh, yes.
It had been something he had thought of since they found out they’d all married each other. Harry had spent a lot of time with him and it hadn’t seemed fair since both Ron and Mi were just as much a part of it as Harry was. Mi had already spent some time with him over the summer, but now it was Ron’s turn and Tony just didn’t know what to do with him.
“I’m still working on that,” Tony sighed. “It’s surprisingly harder than it looks with you.”
“But you’ll let me know, right?” he glanced over anxiously.
“You will be the second to know.”
“Why second?”
“I’ll have to find out first,” he quirked a grin at his laugh.
They went on down the corridor and met up with Neville, who had a very familiar bit of paper in his hand.
‘Oh, yes,’ he hid a smile. ‘Things are going exactly as planned.’
* **
Just after dinner the very next evening, a severely unnerved Tony DiNozzo paced the Headmaster’s office as he waited for his three friends to arrive.
He scrubbed his short brown hair, impatient to get going to solve this once and for all.
Fawkes cooed at him from its perch and he shook his head.
“I can’t calm down,” he told it. “Vince’s mother came running to the door late last night and I think it’s high time we figured out what’s going on!”
He paused and breathed, memories casting back to being dragged out of bed in the dead of night and into this very room where Collie waited, McGonagall’s arms wrapped around the shaking Witch.
Dumbledore explained that she was found racing toward the school gates in her bathrobe and slippers, almost hysterical.
She’d been certain that she had been alone in her house, but the noises coming from upstairs said otherwise. And she swore someone was out in the clearing watching the house.
The most concerning of all: none of the wards went off.
Half the teachers went to the house, but found – and experienced – nothing.
Vince had been understandably upset to find his mom climbing down from the Seventh Year girls’ dormitories with an equally upset Mi and tonight’s task had been on Tony and the Trio’s minds all day.
Another cooed trill brought the Italian out of his thoughts.
“I’m fine,” he breathed deeply again. “We’ll be fine.”
Dumbledore let him investigate – probably knowing that he’d go off without his approval if he had to – and promised to stay at the school and not go gallivanting off on ‘school business’. The Order needed to stay put, anyway, just in case.
Tony knew he’d keep the promise for almost that reason alone, since they still hadn’t caught Mi’s lurker yet and the news that had spread about the Muldoon household made everyone even more nervous. They couldn’t figure out if Harry, H and AJ’s experience had a connection to either, but Tony had still dropped some information into Dumbledore’s ear just to be safe. While even Dumbledore didn’t believe the threat there was entirely credible given Harry’s connection to Tony, he had agreed to keep an eye out.
As insurance for Dumbledore’s presence, Tony added a fool-proof method of extracting the man’s absolute word.
(“But, Tony,” Ron frowned at them. “That’s not an Unbreakable Vow.” “It doesn’t need to be,” he solemnly stared into Dumbledore’s amused blue eyes even though the other nodded solemnly back. “But it’s not.” “Yeah, but you just don’t go back on your word after a pinky swear!”)
On the other hand, he couldn’t help thinking that maybe he’d been spending too much time with Abby…
The fireplace suddenly flashed green and Deeks tumbled out, tripping over a rug and almost face-planting on the floor had Tony not been in front of the fire at that moment.
Mac and Palmer followed and Tony was still blinking the stars from his eyes as the fire went back to normal.
“You two alright?” Mac entered his line of sight and raised a brow.
“No,” he grumbled, rubbing the back of his head as Deeks scrambled up and off him. “My lungs have no air anymore and my head’s killing me. Good grief, Deeks, you’re heavy for a skinny guy.”
“Sorry,” Deeks helped him up as Palmer gently pressed a palm over the bump.
“Thanks, Palmer,” Tony sighed as the pain numbed.
“Anytime,” the ME Assistant had done it many a time in the past.
“Alright,” Deeks clapped his hands once he deemed Tony not on his deathbed. “So, what’s the plan?”
Tony had only told them that they were investigating an intruder situation and to find the time to help.
They watched him now and he breathed again.
“You all know Vince Muldoon from the wedding. He usually lives in Hogsmeade with his mother and she told me yesterday that something’s been going on at their place for about the last week, I think. I told her to try out her wards again – in addition to some other ones – and she came back last night in hysterics because not a one of those wards were tripped. That said, I’m heading out tonight to investigate.”
“I’m in,” Deeks immediately volunteered.
“Me, too,” Palmer agreed. He grinned, “It’s not often I get to go out with you in the field as an investigator. I think it’s exciting.”
“And I’ll be going along with you, of course,” Mac nodded.
Mac had a good handle on Defense – the reason why he thought of inviting her on tonight’s adventure – and he figured it was low-risk enough to see how Deeks operated as an investigator.
Palmer was really there because Tony knew he’d get a kick out of it.
“Do you know where the house is?” Mac wanted to know.
“Of course,” he scoffed. “I was there for a week last year, remember?” While Deeks didn’t know the story, Mac and Palmer nodded. “I know the property and I’ll tell you that there are woods bordering the entire place.”
“Didn’t the Hogwarts grounds used to include where Hogsmeade now lies?” Palmer frowned.
“It certainly did,” one of the first Headmasters confirmed from his portrait on the wall next to them, absently rocking in his chair. “It changed after I died. Usually, Headmasters and mistresses were required to live in Hogsmeade between school years. Now, it’s optional.”
“And the village was under Hogwarts protection because of that,” Mac picked up. “But even after the Village was granted independence, there were still those who lump the village and the school as the same entity on the same grounds. The village’s actual grounds still contains traces of the wards surrounding the school itself dating from that joined state and there are theories that the village is still connected to the school to this day. By that, I mean that what affects the wards around the school would affect the wards around the village and vice versa. Of course,” she gave a shrug, “we can’t actually tell if there’s any truth to the theories, but it’s something to think about and take in consideration when it comes to a Reset.”
An interesting bit of trivia, to be sure, but Tony glanced at the time and decided they’d hung around long enough.
“Alright!” Deeks hopped in place. “Let’s get to work!”
They said goodbye to the former Heads who wished them luck and made their way down to the Great Hall corridor where students milled about, a few remembering Mac and Deeks and calling out to them as they passed. The group ran into the Trio just before hitting the stairs, dessert obviously having ended.
“Be careful,” Harry told them as they grouped together.
“We will,” Mac assured.
Mi hugged them all for luck as she repeated the sentiment and Ron told them to do their best, advising them to get help if they felt like they needed it.
A few students came up to chat with Mac, Palmer and Deeks and Tony used the distraction to draw the Trio to the side. “Listen,” he glanced over a shoulder before turning back to them, green eyes catching each of theirs. “I’m going dark on this one. I know that we’ll still be able to contact each other with the radios, but I’m going to be working a second radio with the others.”
“We understand,” Harry assured him. “We don’t want to be a distraction.”
“We never did get the Map back,” Mi sighed, eyeing the darkness outside with a wary look.
The boys knew that she wanted the Map back after the incident at Hagrid’s, but Moony was still checking it to be sure.
“Just be careful on your rounds,” Tony advised. “Harry,” he turned to him. “I don’t need to tell you to stay in the Tower, do I?”
“You just did,” he smiled slightly, “but don’t worry about midnight adventures tonight. I’m definitely not interested until we get the Map back.”
Since there were no answers to any questions related to lurkers, no one was taking chances.
Tony gave them a nod and collected his back-up before Deeks decided to take a lap or seven around the Pitch (“Are you kidding? I don’t get to fly for long at home. That would be awesome.”) and they left through the doors.
They lit their wands as they started for Hogsmeade along the path that included a small bridge and kept up some chatter to pass the time.
“But, man,” Deeks spared a glance upward, “that’s some sky you got out here.”
“You don’t get this view back home,” Mac agreed.
There were all bundled up in the cold night, Tony huffing as he remembered last year and the stories he’d heard from the others about the weather.
It was cold in the mountains, especially at night, and it was going to get colder as October transitioned into November. Tony wouldn’t be surprised to find snow before Thanksgiving, to be honest.
“Any plans for Thanksgiving or Christmas?” he idly threw out.
The conversation continued as they passed by the Three Broomsticks and headed off for the right trail. They walked for about an hour before they came upon the familiar house that looked exactly as Tony remembered.
While the modest (not really) two-story had looked very welcoming and homey with the dark blue shutters and light red trim nestled amidst beautiful greenery and decorated with just the hint of spring flowers in the front yard garden, it looked almost like it was part of the landscape now in the grip of Fall.
The leaves were either in deep Autumn colors or already gone and the house looked kind of solemn as the group approached. Almost as if the house knew change was coming and was sad at the prospect that things would never be the same.
Upon reaching the front door, Tony stopped them and gave Mac a nod as he extracted his own flashlight.
Taking the nod as the signal it was, she reached into her pockets and started handing items out. “I signed the radios out of the MNP and we are on channel Three. The flashlights came from Tony’s office and from mine.”
“You do know we can do magic, right?” Deeks blinked at them.
“Always good to keep a Muggle light source at hand no matter what,” Tony told him. “Besides, we’re going the Muggle way tonight. The possible intruder in question no doubt has Magic, so it’s best to find a way to differentiate between us and them. This way, no one mistakes anyone else of being a lurker and accidentally get knocked out by friendly fire.”
“Eames’ll probably never let him live that down,” Palmer chuckled. “I don’t know where you were at the time, Mac, but Eames had dropped by for a visit some years back and the three of us were sent to check this property for squatters, right, Tony?”
“Well, I was sent there,” Tony corrected. “I’m still not sure why the two of you came with me.”
“It was about sunset and all we knew was that there was a Wizard running around that may have been squatting, so we split up and almost an hour later, I find out that Tony had knocked Eames out by mistake!”
“It was his own fault,” Tony stood by his story. Eames shouldn’t have been jumping out at people anyway. Honestly, it was a wonder that Tony hadn’t seriously hurt his ass at this point.
“Well, I think it’s safe to say that Eames isn’t here tonight,” Mac told them. She swept her light from side to side. “Just remember to target the ones who don’t have a flashlight.”
“How are we getting in?” Palmer glanced at the door.
Tony took a set of keys from his pocket. “Collie told me that she put up wards a few days ago to keep people from coming in via Magic. Like my place.” He picked out the key for the front door and paused to study the lock before inserting it. “If there is someone getting in,” he added, “it’s not through the front door. No sign of lock picking.”
He turned the key, disengaged the lock and exchanged looks with the other three before slowly opening the door.
Candles flared to life on various surfaces as the four entered the foyer.
“Spread out?” Deeks sidled up close to whisper in his ear.
“Yeah. Take Palmer. Mac, with me.”
Tony led Mac further into the first floor as the other two hung back to make a more thorough sweep.
Tony used his memory to check every area and mentally shook his head as he got a good look at the things he remembered seeing. It was one thing to see this place as a dog, but quite another to actually see it as a person.
It wasn’t as big, for one, and things seemed smaller now that he towered over them. He didn’t have to worry about hitting anything – especially with a tail – and could actually use his hands now.
The living room was big and cozy, though big might be overstating it.
It was slightly bigger than his .. or Gibbs’ living room, to be more accurate. The kitchen branched off from the living room like the Burrow’s did and had a full dining area, nook and well-furnished kitchen.
“Clear,” Mac reported, Tony nodding and calling out the same.
Deeks echoed and Palmer followed suite a minute later.
Regrouping in the living room, Tony looked around at them. “Reports go from upstairs noises to movement outside. Muldoon said that she starts hearing things when she’s in her room on the second floor. Third floor is for guest bedrooms like much of the second, but there’s two studies up there and some storage spaces. There’s also an attic area above that. I don’t think there are any other ways into the house, but we’ll have to make sure. Outside, there’s a trail that takes two hours to travel inside the tree line, looping around the clearing and returning to the backyard. Muldoon says that she’s seen a few lights out there, but she says no one comes onto the property from the woods. We might also want to check that. Maybe a couple hours further in from the trail, there’s a ditch of unknown origin or purpose that she can’t find much information about and it might’ve been part of a sort of garden system for all we know. She doubts there’s anything significant beyond that, but she and Vince haven’t actually explored the woods around here since moving in about seven – eight years ago.”
“I think we should check the outside first,” Mac suggested, “to be absolutely sure that no one’s getting in from the back somewhere.”
“Sounds good,” Deeks agreed.
“And once we secure the outside perimeter,” Palmer lit up, “we’ll go upstairs to see what’s been making noise up there.”
“Very good,” Tony nodded.
They secured the front door and moved out the back, Tony glancing around the garden as they went. Maybe some investigation of the garden would be good, too, just to cover their bases.
The house rested on a gentle rise, the backyard extending well beyond the house’s borders into a wide swath of land or small meadow that cut into the surrounding woods in the shape of a ‘U’. They stopped in the middle of the rounded clearing and got their bearings, Tony glancing back to the house and surveying the darkened windows devoid of the candlelight that had gone out when they did.
‘Nothing there,’ he nodded to himself. The house sat on a slightly higher elevation than their location, so he could see that Collie just needed to peek out the window to catch a flash of light from the surrounding area even as far as the curved middle of the U. There was nothing but darkness now, only the four of them acting as any kind of light source.
Mac led them into the trees exactly in front of them, where anyone at the house’s back door would have a direct line of sight, and onto the middle of the trail’s loop exactly one hour from the house in both directions.
“About fifteen minutes further in is a crescent shaped rock,” Tony kept walking until they reached it, a smile tugging his lips as he remembered the picnic he’d had with Vince, AJ, Harry and Mi over spring break. He’d still been a dog and hadn’t been able to get the full scale of the feature until now.
“That’s pretty neat,” Deeks grinned as he and Mac jumped up on it, Tony and Palmer rounding it in different directions.
“Impressive,” Tony nodded, seeing a weather worn rock in the distinct shape of an actual crescent moon. It was certainly big enough for Mac and Deeks to lay flat on, legs probably in danger of hanging off the side.
“How do you think this ended up here and in this shape?” Mac mused wonderingly.
“Magic,” Tony deadpanned.
“Oh, be creative,” she snickered. “Like Eames says, ‘Dream a little bigger.’ Maybe a Giant put this here a long, long time ago as a location marker or it was a bracelet they didn’t want anymore.”
“Only one problem with the Giant theory,” Deeks quipped.
“What’s that?”
“I’m not sure one of them would’ve been so gentle with it.”
Tony gave a shrug. He’d always imagined some Giants to toss stuff without regard of where it ended up and the shape it ended up in. He’d seen Giants of all kinds toss crap without caring about consequences – but, he also knew that other Giants could be more careful.
“All of the Village used to be part of the school, remember,” Palmer added. “Maybe this was put here for whatever reason back then.”
They went silent for a moment to take stock of their surroundings, dead silence surrounding them the longer they stood there. There wasn’t a hint of breeze around, though Tony wouldn’t be surprised if it started kicking up by the middle of next week.
Tony listened to the occasional dropping leaf around them, breaking the silence with soft wisps that reminded him of raindrops hitting pretty green leaves.
Nothing – Magical or otherwise – moved after several minutes and Mac shook her head. “Let’s get going. We’ll come back out this way.”
For a moment there, Tony felt reluctant to move. There wasn’t a particular reason why, he just didn’t want to leave the crescent. The others prodded him to move and he eventually forced himself on, the four trekking to the very edge of the Muldoon property.
“Keep an eye out for that ditch thing,” Deeks called out as they spread out into a line.
“Part of it runs through the property,” Tony added as they started walking in straight lines. Their flashlights illuminated the ground and trip hazards before them, Tony sometimes glancing back to see if he could spot any movement.
After about an hour from the Muldoon property line, they hit a literal stone wall that was spelled to keep intruders out and Charmed to alert the house if anyone managed to get across the wall.
“Some of the teachers were out this way last night just to make sure none of these particular alarms were triggered,” Tony informed them as he checked with his wand. “At least one of them comes out from the school to help keep things up to date every four years or so. The spells are particularly built up after this last spring when Harry was here.”
“And they left it to dissolve on its own,” Palmer added. “It would probably disrupt something if they tampered with it now.”
“Good job, Palmer,” Tony shot him a proud smile. “Nice to see you’re picking useful stuff up from the Robbery Unit.”
“I actually got it from Jay and Le Philips,” he modestly shrugged, referencing the regular Special Liaisons that hung around the MNP/NCIS office. Tony was fairly sure they were from up North, but they seemed content where they were so he didn’t push. “We’d gotten into a discussion about wards after Harry and Hermione left for the Burrow for the last of their Spring break.”
Tony had been stuck with the Benson girls, but he’d heard that the two had had some fun poking around his apartment and running around the MNP as they searched for his notebook with the gold star.
“Well, it’s still good that you’re getting this information,” Mac told him.
Tony refocused on the wall, studying it and shaking his head. “If none of the alarms have gone off, it’s probably not this way into the property.”
He heaved a sigh and leaned against the wall, the stone rough at his back. Honestly? Three Hagrids stacked on top of each other probably couldn’t ‘hop the fence’ as it were, the thing was that high.
“I doubted that, too,” Deeks nodded thoughtfully. “Doesn’t look like anything’s been disturbed. Think we should walk it?”
“Nah,” Tony idly flashed his light straight in front of him. “It’s been thoroughly investigated.”
“How can you be sure?” Palmer frowned.
“Trust me. You don’t get much more thorough than Snape.”
The Potions Master was a double agent for both Riddle and the Order. He was just as in the dark as the rest of them concerning the recent lurker activity, but he made sure the adjourning property wasn’t DE accessible. Honestly, though, it was an excellent warning: a Death Eater breaches this section, the house gets alerted and then, presumably, the occupants alert the school.
… he didn’t think Collie was affiliated with the Order.
On the other hand, it was possible to be doing something for Dumbledore and thinking it was your own idea. Tony didn’t think Dumbledore was entirely aware of how his ‘manipulation’ could affect others whether he meant it to or not. (Probably for the best to keep him in the dark on that, though. He’d been serious to Ginny about starting to offer lemon drops to people and it wouldn’t be a surprise to find himself doing it without even knowing how it happened.)
Or maybe Dumbledore was being opportunistic about the fortunate circumstances of having a Hogwarts parent and student purchasing the property and asked them to keep him appraised.
Tony wasn’t sure what Snape had used to be so sure and firm about his claim, but he also wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Maybe Snape could have come up with a spell to alert him of others in the vicinity or something.
You couldn’t really find an Eater until you’ve seen their arm, but maybe members had a way of tracking each other?
Tony stared straight ahead into the darkness beyond them, cold stone at his back, and sighed. His light shone into the darkness, encountering no obstacle before tapering off further than the beam could go.
“I don’t know,” Mac suddenly broke the silence. “Why don’t we walk it just to be sure?”
Not able to tell the truth about Snape or the Order – though he kind of wanted to tell of the first, but his concern about continued access to the Trio stayed his hand on the latter -, he shrugged and conceded to walk the wall back toward the house.
“It’s incredibly well-hidden, though,” Palmer mused as they moved along. “You never would’ve guessed this was here.”
Tony wasn’t too certain if Collie had said anything within his hearing about the wall, but he only really found out about it not too long ago when some First Years were asking Vince about living in Hogsmeade and thus so close to school.
“Does it surround the property?” Deeks led the group as they explored. “How far does it extend and where does it start?”
“It kind of reminds me of the low stone wall outlining the path from the school,” Mac said idly, her light sweeping their immediate surroundings.
“We’d have to ask Dumbledore about it to learn more,” Tony shrugged, “but I think it’s been around for a lot longer than the school itself.”
“The Founders put it there, you think?”
“It’s possible that the wall was there way before the Founders came along. It all looks that old.”
Since they didn’t necessarily have to be anywhere on a schedule, they took their time wandering alongside the wall. Chatter was easy between them, though much of the walk was in silence.
About a half hour later, Tony was idly wandering further from the group in favor of exploring more freely and was keeping the others in sight when he did a double-take as his flashlight beam moved over a pile of bricks not too far from him.
“Hey,” he piped up, interrupting Palmer’s treatise on Useful Plants Commonly Discarded as Weeds. (“It’s a dandelion, Palmer. What’s so useful about that piece of junk?” “…” “Now you’ve done it, Deeks.”) “I’ve got something here.” He advanced to the brick pile as the others followed.
“What is it?” Mac wanted to know.
Tony stood in front of the bricks and shook his head as his green eyes scanned the eroded pile, “I don’t know.” Upon closer inspection, however, it wasn’t just a single pile, but it was the biggest in a series of smaller ones.
Undergrowth had masked a majority of the pile, but Fall was starting to reveal them as the leaves died.
“What do you think these are doing here?” Deeks stood next to him, also looking around as Mac and Palmer moved around the area.
“Not for the wall’s construction,” Tony glanced at him. “Not for the house, either. Maybe something else.”
“Yeah,” Mac knelt down to brush some flora debris aside and glanced up. “Tony, look. There’s something here.”
Tony knelt beside her and nodded, finding a group of stone set into the earth. They brushed more plant remains away to find even more stone.
“There’s some over here, too,” Palmer called, Deeks confirming it from where he brushed the ground by the first pile.
“If this was part of the school property,” Tony suddenly stood and stepped onto what he now suspected as a – “It’s a stone floor,” he concluded, walking on the overgrown floor from Mac to Palmer and then to Deeks. “There was a structure here.”
“A Groundskeeper cottage?” Mac stood and waved her flashlight around the floor.
“Gotta be. Or at least a really small house.”
They eventually mapped out a door area, a fireplace and four walls solely from the floor plan alone.
“How long do you think it’s been here?” Deeks was trampling the outline of the stone foundation so they could see it more clearly.
“Does Vince and Collie know this is here?” Palmer wanted to know.
“I’m not sure,” Tony answered. “It’s the remains of something, alright.” He moved off the foundation and away from the group swarming the building remains to look toward the house’s direction, crossing his arms and idly clicking his light on and off in thought.
He couldn’t tell for sure what it used to be or the purpose of it, but it was definitely older than the Muldoon house. WWII era, maybe? Possibly a lot older than that, but the climate could definitely give that ‘older than dirt’ illusion, so…
He shook his head. Magic could do many things, but not date them. That he would probably need Abby for that sparked an idea. “Palmer, Deeks,” he spoke, looking toward them. “Abby, Eric and Nell might be able to give us some idea about the general date of this area. I don’t expect the most ideal results, but I’ll dig up some information about this area and see what we come up with.”
“Alright,” Deeks nodded. “I’m sure it’ll give them something to do on the side.”
“Sure,” Palmer agreed.
Tony nodded in response as they started looking for good samples and just so happened to look back off toward the house.
It took him a moment to realize just what he was seeing.
It was faint, but there was no mistaking the light flashing between the trees.
Almost unthinkingly, he turned the flashlight in his hand back toward the other three and flashed it once, then twice.
It had been a code he’d first come up with during one of his earliest cases with Peoria and polished it further during his first official case in Denver with his Trial Buddy and his Muggle best friend.
Since then, Sherlock, Eames, Mac, Palmer, Donners, Stevens, Tony’s NCIS team and probably a few others besides had adopted it. One flash for silence, two for eyes on target, three for help, four for danger. While Peter wasn’t as adept in the field as he was, Tony had still made sure to teach him and he’d last heard that his cousin was trying to teach Elle and his own Muggle team.
For now, though, he was just grateful that he spent so much time with Mac and Palmer, because they froze at the first flash and the second one drew them to his side.
“Tony?” Mac stopped lightly next to him as Deeks uncertainly followed. The Italian was vaguely aware of Palmer quietly explaining as he leaned toward her. “Right there,” he breathed, pointing directly at it as it began to move further away from them and toward the house. “It’s faint, though, even for me.”
“We’ll follow,” he felt the light touch on his arm as she tensed to give chase, her brown eyes no doubt sparkling with energy.
It was the same energy filling him as a grin crossed his face.
Without waiting for the others and knowing they would follow, he immediately shot off, eyes darting from the light to occasionally check the floor and back again to make sure he was going in the right direction. All he could really see was the light beckoning him forward and his body took care of the rest, just like another day at NCIS.
Sherlock had been right.
When you got a taste of the Game, there was no walking away.
And now?
It was on.
* **
Stumbling after him, Mac could hear Deeks and Palmer behind her as she chased Tony’s flashlight, the Italian focused on something only he could see.
Her legs pushed and pumped off uneven ground in her bid to catch up, unable to see what they were chasing but trusting Tony to not lead them astray.
Mac felt her heart racing as Deeks and Palmer caught up, their longer legs not needed as much effort to run faster like her shorter ones did.
“I don’t see anything,” Deeks voiced, dodging branches as much as he could.
“Me, either,” she responded, branches whipping at her and cold air filling her lungs as he passed her. Tony was getting further away from them, intent on catching up to the light he had in his crosshairs.
It was all kinds of exciting, she reflected, ducking under a branch that would have left a nasty bruise. She didn’t usually get to go on cases or actual stakeouts very often and she all but jumped at whatever offer Tony or Palmer extended to her.
Take tonight, for example.
When Tony had written that they were going to investigate a lurker, she almost immediately agreed, waiting until she was behind closed doors to let out some magic in excitement.
She knew that Deeks, Tony and Eames – and Palmer to a lesser degree – were constantly running around for one reason or another and, as in love with her job as she was, she hadn’t been able to quash the jealousy that cropped up when an outing had to be cut short or something and they had to run.
Tony, darling that he was, noticed and invited her along on one of his MNP cases. It had been a learning experience for her to realize that being a lawyer was one thing, but being an Agent – Liaison or not – was something totally different. She’d gotten to see Tony in his element and had been enamored of his talents ever since.
Fred Stevens had laughed when she showed up again a few months after her first taste, teasing Tony about recruiting from Legal. Tony retorted that Lawyers had hobbies, too, and promptly forgot about it.
Right now, she couldn’t help imagining herself as an Agent like Tony was. She would spend all her time running down clues and investigating mysterious places like the house site back near the wall and murders and maybe getting shot at and –
She was suddenly jerked to a halt, her thoughts crashing to a stop as the grip on her waist stopped her.
Dragging lungfuls of cold air into her system, she blinked up at Tony. “What?”
“Ditch,” he smiled slightly at her before releasing his grip. “You almost ran into it.”
Sure enough, she looked forward as Palmer show up behind them and saw a ditch more than thirteen feet across with the forest continuing on the other side. She didn’t know how deep it was, plant matter having filled it over time.
“Lost the damn light,” Tony heaved a frustrated sigh as he followed her gaze.
“You’ve got good eyes,” Deeks told him from where he leaned on his bent knees to regain his breath. “I was about on top of you and I didn’t see what we were chasing.”
They stayed for long moments, heart rates slowly dropping as they tried catching another look at Tony’s light.
“Think they got scared off?” Palmer mused.
“We’ll head back to the house,” Tony decided. “Maybe they doubled back or something.”
“Where did you lose it?” Mac wanted to know.
“Right before I almost went tumbling down into the ditch,” he huffed. “Maybe it was a spell to distract us so they could get to the house without us being any the wiser.”
“But if they are going to the house,” Deeks frowned, “what could they possibly be doing? Looking for something?”
That was the main question.
They got their bearings and turned toward the house. The light had evidently led them away from it and that made them hurry to get to the house even more in case the light was a decoy of some sort.
If it had been, then maybe Mi and Harry’s experiences weren’t as unrelated as they thought.
The four found themselves near the crescent as they rounded the last group of trees, Tony wasting no time as he led them back into the clearing where he gave a sigh.
“The only way around that ditch is to go straight back there from a spot in the woods between the crescent and the house. Palmer, did you and Deeks get those samples?”
Both extracted them from pockets with grins.
“Let me know about the results,” he turned in a full circle to watch the woods around them. “Whoever that was didn’t get in from the ditch. I didn’t get the impression that the ditch ran into the wall, so no one could’ve gotten in from a hole running under it. How did they get on the grounds if it wasn’t the ditch and no one’s tripped the perimeter wards around the front of the house? I noticed the light when I glanced toward the house’s direction, so I wouldn’t have the first idea of where they came from.”
Mac shook her head after a moment. “Didn’t you say that Collie thought there was someone on the upper floors, too? Maybe the light was a way to get people out of the house on a wild goose chase.”
“Maybe. Let’s go in. It’s time to thaw out.”
Once they got back inside the house and Tony made hot chocolate, they stayed in the kitchen to see if something was going to happen.
“They could be hiding upstairs,” Palmer thought aloud.
“They could,” Tony finished his cup and let the sink do the work. “We’ll go to the bedroom and see if we can hear these noises. Maybe it’s something Magical running around.”
After they all finished and put the cups in the sink, Mac and the other two followed Tony to the second floor. The stairs ended on the third, but that would be for a different time. They went left from the landing and went to the end bedroom that had a window overlooking part of the backyard.
It kind of reminded her of her own room, a Queen-sized bed against the far right corner, a dresser, bathroom, walk-in closet and two bedside tables. A lamp and armchair stood directly across the room from the bed, presumably for reading purposes.
“Nothing interesting here,” Deeks mused, going over to look out the window.
“I guess we wait,” Mac perched on the chair’s arm with a sigh. “We’re still a couple hours from midnight, after all.”
“She said it’s between now and one-thirty that she would start hearing things,” Tony shrugged.
“Where from?”
“I don’t know,” he shook his head. “But there’s no bedrooms up there. Well, some were built to be rooms, especially on this side of the house.”
They waited for something to happen.
Five minutes passed.
Fifteen.
Mac had moved to inspect the bathroom.
There was a sunken tub, a nice little shower and a place where Collie could do her hair and things at the sink.
Nothing really interesting there, either, but as she was about to step out the door, something caught her attention.
It was soft, she tilted her head to hear better, but definitely a footstep. Tony caught her eye and levered himself off the floor to stand next to her.
Him stiffening at another footstep made her nod. She pointed up and counted fingers as they heard more.
Deeks and Palmer crowded next to them, the blond’s eyes widening at a particularly loud step.
Tony grabbed his arm and they took off, Mac and Palmer staying behind to keep track of the steps that seemed to be pacing.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
The steps abruptly stopped moments later.
“What was that?” Palmer asked in her ear.
“I don’t know,” she studied the ceiling for long silent moments, the both of them almost hitting it when Mac’s radio squawked.
“No one’s here,” Tony sounded puzzled. “Anything down there?”
“They stopped,” Mac answered. “It sounded like they were pacing, right? Like they were waiting for something?”
“That’s definitely what we thought. We were certain that we were sneaking up on it.” They heard one of them start walking on the floor above them. “This was definitely intended as a bedroom,” Tony went on. “It’s a mirror image of the room down there. The only difference is, the bathroom’s locked up here.”
“You’re kidding,” she blurted. “That’s where we heard the footsteps,” she and Palmer exchanged looks. “We’ll be right up.”
“Roger.”
It took them a few minutes to get there, but they soon stood at the door above the room they just left.
“Good Merlin,” Palmer stared.
She wasn’t much better.
Boxes filled the room in towers, creating little pathways that one would have to slide sideways to get through.
“ ‘Good Merlin’ is right,” Deeks peered around one of the towers ahead. “Tony’s trying to unlock the door now.”
“What do you mean?” Mac frowned, slowly making her way to him. “Someone was walking around up here.”
“I know,” he shrugged. “We all heard it. When we got up here, we thought the same thing until we found the door locked. Strange thing is,” Deeks carded a hand through his hair, “when you hear it downstairs, the only way we would’ve been able to hear anything would have been if someone was walking through the locked door.”
Mac finally managed to squeeze through and found Tony scowling at the locked bathroom door. “What is it?”
“Collie never said why the door would be locked,” he told her. “She didn’t even say it was. And why the hell would it be locked, anyway?” he tugged at the stubborn knob.
“Something valuable?” Deeks suggested, he and Palmer joining them.
“No,” Mac negated. “They have Gringotts for that.”
“Is this all the family’s stuff?” Palmer looked around at the towering piles.
“Not all,” Tony broke his staring contest with the door to explain. “Some of this crap is extended family stuff. The things in here are mostly since they’ve been here in the Village.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“You have eyes,” he shrugged. “You tell me.” He went back to the door as the others exchanged looks.
Sometimes, Tony forgot that they weren’t actually trained investigators. Besides Deeks, of course, and he could only do so much.
A few minutes later, the door didn’t seem like it was going to move anytime soon and Tony finally gave it up for lost. “We can come back,” he sighed. “Maybe we can get Vince or Collie to unlock it or something.”
Investigation wrapped for the time being, they made their way downstairs to the kitchen.
“Think we lulled the intruder into a false sense of security?” Deeks wanted to know as they stood in front of the door to the outside, all of them looking out into the night. “I mean, we haven’t been out for a while.”
“Maybe,” Tony frowned thoughtfully. “Let’s go back out to the Crescent and see if anything turns up.”
They made sure the kitchen door was closed before they trooped back to the clearing in single file.
The hour was late and it was icy cold, but Mac didn’t mind as she trudged along with the boys. A mystery was yet to be solved before the night’s end and she wanted to see it through. Blades of grass bent under them as they walked, the length coming up to cover their ankles as they crunched through leaves that had blown out into the area.
The group found themselves back into the trees and found themselves back at the moon shaped rock.
“Now what?” Palmer wanted to know.
“Wait,” Tony shrugged. “Nothing else we can do. See if our lurker is still here.”
They made themselves comfortable around the rock and settled in before turning their lights off, Mac unable to help moving closer to Deeks who moved closer in response.
They sat there for an hour, but nothing happened.
“Think we should go back in?” Deeks voiced.
“Maybe,” Tony sighed from somewhere behind them, the four of them back to back on the rock to cover the Cardinal Points as they scoured the darkness for activity.
Eventually giving it up for lost and turning their flashlights back on, they readied to leave and Mac was heading away from the rock with Deeks when they heard Palmer calling Tony’s name. She turned just in time to see him racing off into the woods.
“Now what?” Palmer sighed, the three of them resignedly chasing after him.
“Think he saw that light from earlier?” Deeks questioned.
“The light he thought he saw, maybe,” Mac corrected as they chased Tony’s flashlight beam.
“So what? We’re chasing hallucinations, now?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Well, do you see anything?”
“No, but Tony’s got very sharp eyes.”
“Great. Running blind through the woods, chasing an Italian who might or might not be hallucinating things.”
“Could be a holdover … from one of the Trio,” Palmer panted as he tried keeping pace.
“I thought Mi’s birthday was a while ago,” Deeks pointed out.
“Time will tell,” Mac told him.
“That’s not cryptic at all!”
They ran after Tony for long minutes, trying to keep an eye on him while watching the path and anything that could trip them.
Mac had slowed down so she saw Deeks up ahead as he slammed into a branch that came out of nowhere, his speed into the branch landing him flat on his back. “Okay, Deeks?” she passed him, slowing further to make sure he was in one piece.
“Pride took a beating,” he gasped, Mac turning back around just in time to see Tony’s flashlight beam suddenly disappear.
“Tony!” she went into a sprint to reach his last location, her Marine reflexes stopping her on a dime right before she, too, went over the ravine edge.
“Where’d he go?” Palmer coughed as he and Deeks caught up to her.
“Down,” she waved a hand. “It’s deeper than I thought,” she frowned, glancing over to make sure Deeks was okay.
“Or it’s deeper at this end,” the blond didn’t seem any worse for wear as he pointed. “That’s where we were last time.” He looked down and called out, “Hey, Tony! You still alive?”
They waited for a moment before they heard rustling down below.
“One day,” he stated over the radio, “when I look back on my life – and I will -, I will look back on this moment and wonder how Dumbledore ever got me to say yes.”
* **