A/N: This is a long one, people. I'm hoping for a three parter but time will tell. Interference is the first part of Harry's tale and serves as a prologue in itself to the greater plot, but don't worry, there's plenty of action and angst ahead. I'm a huge fan of both fandoms so I'll try to stay as true to the books and the show as possible. I'm neither a bestselling author nor involved with the BBC in any way. Actually I'm very very Irish but we really don't have an equivalent that I can get this excited about. Without any further adieu - allons-y!
Prologue
In all of existence, there is one thing that every life form has in common. Even the smart ones, the ones who've figured out the exact concentrations of interstellar gas and dust that once collapsed under their own gravitational attraction to form what we call stars – even they have looked out into those very stars for answers at some point in their lives. Destiny, love, death: mysteries impossible to solve and yet that's never stopped us from trying.
To put it another way: what does it mean to be alive?
Close your eyes. Good. Now imagine a pebble skimming the surface of a pond. You notice the points where it hits the water line, where the water ripples outwards and settles into a perfect mirror of its former state. Down sinks the pebble and we forget it ever disturbed that chilling blankness. Because human eyes aren't designed to detect the slight rise in the water level, nor the displacement of water molecules too small to distinguish from their neighbours. The truth is that not a drop of water is unaffected. We all have our role in the great game and only once you're out do you even get a peek at the rulebook. But it only takes a moment in time to forever alter the landscape of our universe and rewrite what has been, what is and what always will be mapped out for us. Basically, free will exists. Have you got that?
Well, it's nothing like that.
Chapter One: First Night
'Doctor, is it supposed to do that?' asked Amy.
'Can you be more specific?' rang out the Doctor's voice from below the console, slightly muffled by the sporadic clinking of metal against metal. 'The TARDIS does a lot of things, most of them loud and spacey'.
'Yeah, I'm used to spacey. It's more the red flashing light that I'm worried about' she shouted back at him, stepping up warily to the controls to get a closer look.
'It's probably just the protoplasm resettling after that dive we took in Aridius. Don't worry, Pond! I'm sure there's nothing to worry ab' –
A great heaving lurch threw Amy suddenly into the railing and she grasped on tightly as an alarm rang out through the TARDIS.
'Amy!'
'Rory?'
Amy felt a hand at her shoulder and turned to find the more than ruffled appearance of her husband as they were tossed backwards towards the console. Then the floor of the ship stilled and the Doctor climbed up to examine the digital interface, which had gone mercifully silent.
'Did we just turn around?' asked Rory doubtfully.
'I suppose so!' said the Doctor excitedly. 'Well, we might have if there were any real direction or stable matter in the vortex to turn around in' he amended, pressing a number of buttons and seeming to find meaning in the endless lines of code the TARDIS offered him.
'Old girl, what have they done to you?' he asked in a quiet voice.
'Doctor?'
'Someone's hijacked the TARDIS' said the Doctor with wonder.
'But how is that possible?' asked Amy. 'Don't you have shields up?'
'They were temporarily down while I reconfigured the extrapolator. But even so, no one should be able to hack into the main data frame! It's impossible. It's unprecedented. It's very, very clever' said the Doctor rather quickly, arms flapping about as they tended to do at the prospect of a good puzzle. He pulled out a screen and the other two could see his eyes widen further.
'Where are we, then?' asked Amy, cheerful now that their brief stunt of turbulence had led to another adventure so soon after their disastrous trip to 18th century Madrid. Suffice it to say that Rory and Casanova did not get on.
'I feel like a planet, something with green people and a big red button' she told Rory as the Doctor adjusted his bow tie and they all headed expectantly for the TARDIS door.
'Well you did ask for a planet' said Rory in an undertone as they stepped out to look at their surroundings.
The neighbourhood they had materialised in was something out of one of Amy's pre-TARDIS nightmares. At one point her wedding jitters had gotten so bad as to induce a recurring dream where she was stuck in a similar endless row of suburban houses. It was her fear of this flavour of boring which had made her so receptive to the idea of running away with an alien on her wedding night.
'Maybe there's a militia of attic monsters or something' suggested Rory with sympathy.
'Doctor, are you sure you didn't just jiggle something in the controls again?' asked Amy sceptically.
The Doctor was busy examining a hydrangea bush on his hands and knees, the sound of the sonic whirring distinctively in the stillness of what looked like late evening. Across the road, Amy could see a face peeking out at them from behind a curtain in the shadows and tried to arrange her expression into that of a responsible adult. Not that she'd had much practice lately.
'Exactly as I thought' he said, standing up and examining a fallen leaf closely before tossing it over his shoulder. 'This street is completely normal. Well, as normal as your average community of humans. Lots of secrets behind closed doors, I should think. And a great place for an alien to hide in plain sight'.
'But you just said there was nothing weird about this place' Rory reminded him.
'There isn't. It's the most not weird place I've ever seen. Yet something on this street managed to hijack the TARDIS – yanked it clear out of the time vortex, through nebulas and dying stars, through multiple galaxies and a universe of complex communication systems! I've had distress calls before but the TARDIS couldn't process the message in any known language. And now I can't pick up a trace of it anywhere!'
'But how do you know that it's one person? It could be another ship or a group or something' said Amy.
'That's true. It could also be a weapon of mass destruction waiting to blow us to bits, but I doubt it. A system of that magnitude always leaves traces. But a living, most probably breathing person? They can get riled up and calm down quicker than any operations system, let me tell you'.
'So what do we do, just wait for them to reveal themselves?' asked Rory. 'Because I'm getting a very suggestive glare from the owner of the garden you just trampled on.
Sure enough, there was a scathing look waiting for them at the window of the house behind them. The middle-aged woman seemed unaffected by the Doctor's apologetic grin and goofy wave, but eventually they heard the sound of the television turning on and the three started walking.
They were a few minutes down the pathway when a car drove towards them and slowed to a stop. The driver's window rolled down to reveal a rather large and red-faced man.
'You lot!' he barked gruffly and the Doctor stopped in his tracks to smile accommodatingly at the man.
'Hello, there' he greeted brightly. 'Pleasant evening for a drive, eh? Lots of…squirrels and things about. I'm the Doct'-
'What – listen, you. I'll not have street performers in this neighbourhood, you hear me?' the man interrupted, pointing a thick finger back behind them to where they had left the TARDIS fairly conspicuously. 'You better move that rubbish right now'.
'Rubbish?!' spluttered the Doctor, uncharacteristically affronted. 'You wouldn't believe how much I could get for it if I ever became mad enough to sell it. I'd sooner sell my grandmother, if I had a grandmother. Nearly lost it in a poker game one day, I said Ludwig' –
'What the ruddy hell are you blabbering on about?' the man asked furiously. The Doctor and the Ponds unconsciously took a step backwards, less out of intimidation and more to protect themselves from a shower of spittle. That bulging vein in his neck looked ready to burst any moment now.
'Why aren't we moving?' complained a childish voice from the back of the car.
'Vernon, forget them' said a bony woman sitting next to her husband, looking over at Amy's short denim skirt with haughty disapproval. 'We'll be late for dinner with the Hastings'.
'You lot better be gone by the time we get back or I'll be calling the police' warned Vernon. 'And take that blue monstrosity with you! We don't tolerate freaks on this street'.
'But you see, we are the police' said the Doctor, holding out his psychic paper with a triumphant flourish. 'Detective Inspector John Smith, just doing a general check-up, nothing to worry about. Have you seen anything strange around here in the last few days?'
'Stranger than a nutter with a blank piece of paper? The nerve!' he grunted furiously, rolling up the window again with some effort.
With a last impressive scowl from the couple, which seemed to be hereditary judging by their son's fair imitation through the back window, the car drove off.
'That was unpleasant' deadpanned Rory. 'Are you sure they're not the ones we're looking for? Half Dalek, half Sontaran?'
'And another half Slitheen, just for fun' smirked Amy. 'How did he see through your psychic paper?'
'It's a very rare condition, I only come across it once every century or so' said the Doctor with a sigh. 'That man has absolutely no imagination. All the same, people like that make you appreciate the good ones' he said. 'Let's hope it's a friendly one that dragged us here, eh?'
Amy and Rory continued to keep their eye open for something unusual as they followed the Doctor but so far they had seen nothing but a row of identical houses, most emitting the sounds of families watching the telly or the clinking of cutlery. It wasn't until the end of the street that either of them got the sense that the cogs in the Doctor's brain were beginning to turn, his head craning into each window as if in search of a familiar face. Then he stopped abruptly in front of a dark house.
'This one looks as good as any' he announced.
'Is that a random guess?' asked Rory.
'No, it's not a guess, it's an informed….jab at it' he denied.
'It's because it's dark and empty and all mysterious-looking' said Amy tartly.
'I know' he grinned, rapping on the front door.
'It doesn't look like there's anybody home' said Rory after a moment, noticing the closed curtains in the front window. 'It could be abandoned'.
'With a garden this tidy?' argued the Doctor.
'How is it that we've gone this long without learning how to pick a lock?' wondered Amy, trying the front door just to be sure. 'Doctor?' she asked, noticing that he had frozen while taking out his psychic paper.
'If there's nobody home then who sent this message?' asked the Doctor, holding it up to the light of the streetlamp so that the others could see. It was just two words, but they were enough to make Amy shiver anew in the cool air:
Don't blink.
.
.
.
Harry held very still, shivering despite himself as a gust of cold wind blew through the thin left wall of his cupboard. He had never minded the dark, really, had always been able to distract himself some way or another. But he couldn't help the terror that had coursed through him when his small light had given a final flicker and gone out. Since then, he'd been breathing heavily despite himself and trying not to think about what it meant or the fact that he was alone in the house. Maybe it was better that way.
He jumped and pulled his arms around his knees when a heavy crash came from the hall. Had that been the front door?
'Maybe the Dursleys forgot something' he thought hopefully and with more than a bit of relief, despite... well, the Dursleys. He listened carefully, but could hear nothing. And never had he known his relatives to do anything quietly.
'Wait' he thought he heard, in a whisper. He tensed, fighting the urge to hide himself under his blanket. But no, it was smarter than that. Keep your eyes open.
'There has to be a reason' he heard, before the sound died away again.
Slowly, the latch on the cupboard door creaked open and Harry tried to silently grab something with which to defend himself from his measly collection of broken toys. What was he going to do, stab it with a toy soldier's head? Before he had time to come up with a better strategy, the door was flung open noiselessly and Harry found himself temporarily blinded by a strange green light.
Wide green eyes slowly focused on three people staring back at him with obvious surprise, in the faint glow coming from some sort of torch in the middle man's hand.
'Hello?' asked Harry softly, unsure of how they would react. At least they're human this time, he thought. As wary as he was of people when they were angry at him, which they often and inexplicably were around Harry, he couldn't help but relax a bit now that he could see again.
'Hello' said the middle one, who Harry noticed was wearing a bow tie, much like the one Uncle Vernon sometimes wore when people came over for dinner and he had to stay very quiet.
'You're not an alien, then?'
Rory sighed heavily as Harry stared back at the Doctor wide-eyed.
'Well, not to worry. We'll just leave you to it then' said the Doctor, slamming the cupboard door shut, only to reopen it again a moment later.
'Why are you in a cupboard? And you're alone – you're alone in a dark house. Are you the one who called me?' he asked, furrowing his brow at the sight of the small boy in baggy clothes squashed into such a narrow room. It looked smaller on the inside, if anything.
'No, I…I'm not allowed to use the phone. Are you a policeman?' he asked, looking doubtfully at the man's strange attire.
'No, in fact you might say I'm the opposite of a policeman. No you wouldn't, that's rubbish. Call me the Doctor'.
'Doctor' whispered Amy into his ear. 'He's obviously terrified'.
'I'll get the lights' agreed Rory, reaching around blindly in the hallway until his hand caught a switch.
The Doctor lowered his screwdriver and smiled at the boy reassuringly. 'It's alright, we don't bite. Unless it's culturally required' he added. 'What's your name, then?'
'I'm Harry' he said, his voice coming out steadier than before. 'Harry Potter'.
'Do you want to come out into the living room? We can have a chat while we wait for your parents to come home'.
'My parents are dead' Harry answered and the three time travellers shared a quick glance. 'I live with the Dursleys but they won't be back for hours'.
'Why don't you come out all the same?' the Doctor asked kindly, stepping back to give the child some space and pulling the Ponds along with him.
'What the hell was that?' said Rory in an angry whisper. 'Did you see inside there? It looks like a bedroom. Who keeps a kid locked in a cupboard?'
'Hush, now, Rory. We don't want to jump to any conclusions' said the Doctor absentmindedly. His focus was already on the state of the living room, which was far too tidy for his tastes. Where were the toys, the half-finished cups of tea, the crayon wall-paintings? – in effect, all of those humany, lived-in things that make up a home.
The three of them turned around as Harry entered cautiously, looking like he didn't know quite where to put his limbs.
'Are these the Dursleys, Harry?' asked the Doctor calmly, pointing to a collection of family photographs displayed proudly on the mantle. Both Amy and Rory looked to him worryingly when they recognised their occupants but the Doctor kept his face blank as Harry shifted nervously and nodded.
'They're my aunt and uncle. And my cousin Dudley. I'm sorry, but…who are you?'
'Amy and Rory and me, the Doctor' he grinned, pointing accordingly.
'You're a doctor?' asked Harry with confusion, still standing stiffly beside the door.
'I'm the Doctor. But don't worry, you're just an article off. Did your cousin lock you in that cupboard, Harry?' he asked.
Harry didn't seem to know what to say and looked back and forth between them before shifting his eyes noticeably to the glass doors facing the back garden.
'You should leave' he said, his jaw clenched with a resolve strange in one so young. 'It's not... you should come back tomorrow, during the daytime'.
'And why is that?' asked the Doctor. 'Have you seen something?'
'You can tell us anything, you know' said Amy gently. 'The three of us, we've seen some strange things and there isn't much that we wouldn't believe at this point'.
'You don't understand' Harry shook his head, desperation growing from somewhere deep within him, his eyes still flitting towards that back window as if expecting it to blow away suddenly. 'Nobody will listen'.
'Listening's our job. The talking part's just an added bonus. Love a good story, don't we, Ponds?' he smiled at the couple, Harry's determination wavering.
'We meet all sorts travelling so we've heard some beauties. Stories about pirates and vampires, lizard people who live beneath the earth! Even stories about monsters: statues that can only move when you're not looking at them'.
Harry's eyes shot up to the Doctor's in shock. He must have found what he was looking for in the Time Lord's expression because he let out a breath as if to ready himself for something unpleasant.
The Doctor nodded at him encouragingly. 'Why don't you tell us what happened and we'll see if we can't just make the monsters go away?'
'I was cooking dinner a few days ago' Harry began in a quiet voice, after a pause. 'I looked out the window and it was just … standing there. The statue. I looked away for a minute and when I looked back, it was closer. It kept getting closer, every time I stopped watching it. All I had to do was blink'.
Harry watched the strangers closely, waiting for their inevitable reaction - disbelief, anger, probably the word 'liar' thrown around a few times. But there was something about them, he noticed. They seemed to know more about what was going on than he did.
'How did you get away?' asked Amy.
'He didn't' said the Doctor. 'It's still here'.
'What?' asked Rory, looking around in a panic. 'Should we be running towards the TARDIS right about now?'
'Don't be stupid, Rory. We'd never make it to the TARDIS. It's dark outside, which means we're an Angel food buffet waiting to happen. No, our best plan is to stay inside where it's bright'.
'You should make a run for it. It's not going to stop' said Harry, his voice breaking.
'Well I'm sure we can think of something to do' said the Doctor, clapping his hands together enthusiastically. 'Late eighties, is it? Tell me you've got Scrabble because I'm rubbish at Guess Who. No offence, but you all look the same to me. Give me a good multi-species identification game any day. Have you got one of those?'
'Doctor, why is an Angel stalking him? Is that normal?' asked Amy with concern.
'Of course it isn't. But Harry here's used to not normal, aren't you?' he asked with a wink. 'Three strangers break into your house and want to know about the alien no one else believes is real, not to mention the fact that a statue has been spying on you for days now. And you want us to leave, why?' he asked curiously. 'Aren't you scared?'
'I…' stuttered Harry, seemingly taken aback by the Doctor's interest in him. 'Did you say alien? Look, it doesn't care about my relatives, it never bothers them. You'll probably be safe'.
'Great word, probably' smiled the Doctor, holding a picture of Dudley at the beach up to his eye line to compare it with the spluttering boy in front of him. 'Say, where'd you get that scar?'
'What? We don't have time for this!' yelled Harry. 'Please just go. Just leave!'
Then the light in the hall went out.
'Did anyone remember to close the front door?' asked Rory tensely as he reached out for Harry's shoulder to pull him further into the room.
The light in the living room flickered and they all jumped at the sudden sight of the Weeping Angel, its mouth opened in a vicious snarl revealing sharp teeth, arms outstretched as if to lunge at Harry.
'No one blink!' warned the Doctor. His own attention was focused on holding his screwdriver up to the ceiling lamp, trying to block the fluctuation the Angel was using to disable the lights.
'Doctor' warned Amy shakily as the light flickered again and the Angel appeared a step closer.
'Why is it here?' asked Harry, staring into the hungry face of the statue with eyes quickly watering from the effort to stay open. 'Leave them alone!' He shook off the hands resting protectively on his shoulders to step forwards.
'Quickly, everyone behind me' the Doctor warned with panic in his voice now, the light bulb flashing with the strain of their duel interference.
It burst with a flash of electricity and the room was engulfed in darkness once more.
'Harry!' yelled Amy but her voice was swallowed up by a resounding crash. For a moment she thought the ceiling had toppled in on them as she heard several heavy somethings fall to the ground hard around them. The room was eerily quiet after that and Amy reached out blindly to clasp Rory's hand.
'Is everyone alright?' asked the Doctor, feeling his way forward into the hallway to the light switch.
When he returned, Harry was on his knees on the ground, white with shock and what looked like a layer of dust. It took a moment for Amy, Rory and the Doctor to realise the significance of the jagged pieces of stone spread out around them on the once spotless carpet.
'Doctor, is that….?' asked Rory uncertainly.
The Doctor's mind was going around in circles, trying to make sense of the remains of the Weeping Angel.
They were notoriously difficult to kill, even while quantum locked. It was one of the most impressive survival mechanisms in the universe and even the Doctor had had to up his creativity to outsmart them in the past. Funny, he'd never considered blowing them up with his mind.
'I'm sorry' gasped Harry, looking fearfully up at the three of them. 'I didn't mean to! Please don't tell them. They'll kill me, I can't' –
Amy and Rory exchanged a worried look but the Doctor kept his eyes fixed on Harry as the boy attempted to sweep up the dust from the carpet with his hands.
'Has something like this happened before, Harry?' he asked very slowly.
The boy shook his head, still grasping at the smaller stones as if he could wipe away all trace of the Angel.
'I need to clean this up, they can't see' –
'We'll take care of everything. Fully qualified alien cleaner-uppers, that's us' rambled the Doctor, bending down to Harry's level and removing a large piece of rubble from his hands.
'Right. Why don't I make tea?' asked Rory awkwardly, which earned an exasperated look from his wife. 'It's my dad's cure for everything, I have no other coping skills'.
'Wonderful idea! Tea and a biscuit, just what the Doctor ordered. Sorry Rory, there isn't an equivalent saying for plastic Roman soldiers. Yet. Pond and I will get to work on that and … also the cleaning, while Harry shows you to the kitchen. Is that a plan or isn't it?'
It was a testament to how shaken the child was that he just nodded his head curtly and decided to ignore the string of nonsense the strange man was spurting out. He stood up with a final horrified glance at the remains of the statue and allowed himself to be guided out of the room by Rory.
'Please tell me you know what's going on' said Amy once they'd left. 'What happened to the Angel?'
'Harry got upset, is what happened' said the Doctor with wonder, eyeing the jagged piece of one of the deadliest creatures in existence still lying in his palm. 'Whatever killed the Angel was wild and unfocused. I don't think even he knew he was capable of it'.
'How can a kid kill a Weeping Angel? He has to be an alien. Do you think these people are even his family? Family being the operative word' added Amy, the knot that had grown in her stomach when they had first found Harry tightening uncomfortably.
Something was definitely not right in this house.
'I don't know' the Doctor admitted, the words sounding odd coming from the usually confident Time Lord. 'The more important question is what attracted the Weeping Angel in the first place. They're called the Lonely Assassins for a reason so it was definitely working alone. But you never know, another one might pass through and spot the same thing that this one did'.
'We're not leaving him here!' exclaimed Amy with outrage. 'You have to know what's going on, he looks half starved'.
'Travelling with us would hardly be safer. I suppose we could always drop him off at an orphanage with a note' he suggested distractedly.
Amy was well used to the Doctor's love of reverse psychology and could usually smell it from a mile away. As much as she wanted to protect the boy with the emerald green eyes – so small in his baggy clothes - who had stood up to one of her worst fears to protect a group of strangers, something was holding her back.
A tiny pair of blue eyes looking up at her, with that pink newborn smell she was pretty sure she would never find the equal of in all of time and space.
'We can't just replace Melody' she said and something softened in the Doctor's eyes.
'And you never have to. But tell me you don't want to see his reaction when he steps into the TARDIS for the first time' smiled the Doctor knowingly.
'So we kidnap children now, do we?' laughed Amy.
'Little Amelia Pond didn't seem to have a problem with it'.
'Oh shut up' scoffed Amy. 'Let's go ask him, then. We're not really going to clean this up though, are we?' she asked with a raised eyebrow, pointing to the mess of stone and dust.
'It looks better this way' said the Doctor, slinging an arm over Amy's shoulder as they headed for the kitchen.
There was a burden that came with being a Time Lord and God knows the Doctor had been bearing more than his fair share of it for hundreds of years now.
But never in a million years would he stop enjoying the perks for all they were worth. This was turning out to be one of the good days.
'Now let's go introduce a boy to all of time and space'.