Author's Note:Yay reviews! Lol thank you so much, reading your reviews and knowing that you like this story enough to say so made my day :) Also, I forgot to say so last chapter, but thanks and much love to my awesome beta, Ash, who also happens to be the friend I'm writing this fic for :) She doesn't have time to read/review everything I write, but she's very good about answering all my questions about the Doctor Who verse :)

I feel I should probably mention that while I will try to update at least once a week, life happens, and even when it doesn't, I'm really, really bad about keeping to a schedule. Feel free to poke me and hurry me up if I take too long, but don't freak out too badly or anything ^_^

Chapter Two: So Aliens *Do* Exist!

Harry stood there for a minute or so after the TARDIS disappeared, still trying to make sense of everything.

One minute he'd been standing by the lake, indulging in a bit of a sulk, as he liked to do. The next, a strange man in a bow tie waltzed out of the Forbidden Forest, shook his hand, and disappeared in a time machine/spaceship that looked like a telephone box.

It sounded like something he'd see on the telly.

Suddenly, the air in front of him started shimmering again, and after a few moments, the TARDIS reappeared. The doors opened, and The Doctor stuck his head out. Upon spotting Harry, he frowned. "What year is it?"

"1995, same as it was when you left."

"That's…not good." He ducked his head back inside. The TARDIS shimmered again, started to fade…and then came back.

The Doctor stuck his head out again. "Still 1995?"

"Yeah."

"Very not good." The Doctor sighed, then opened the door more fully. "Come on in and give me a hand?"

"I don't know anything about fixing a TARDIS. Or, well, fixing things in general."

"Don't worry, there's nothing to it. Just hand me things and act impressed." The Doctor replied with a grin, stepping back and allowing the young wizard to enter.

Harry felt his jaw drop the second he stepped inside.

It was bigger—much bigger—on the inside, rather like those tents he and the Weasleys had stayed in during the World Cup. Instead of a kitchen/living room/dining room, however, Harry found himself walking into a…he didn't even know what to call it.

A number of circular glowing lights lit up the walls, emitting a soft orange glow, while a bluish-glow surrounded the big, glowing tube thing in the centre of the room. The tube rose up from a hole in the floor and seemed to go straight through the ceiling; it seemed to have something like a control panel running around it, and what looked vaguely like a television set hanging from the top. A metal platform was built around the tube, with several sets of stairs leading up to it from different directions. There were a couple of chairs scattered around the platform as well, and a set of stairs leading from the platform up to somewhere else.

"I don't think I'm going to have to pretend to be impressed."

The Doctor smiled widely at that. "Glad to hear it! Most people do find it impressive, but you get the odd one here and there who barely seems to notice how cool this is. I wasn't sure if you'd be one of them; you've had such an exciting life of your own."

"Nothing quite like this, though. How does it all work?"

"It's…complicated." The Doctor had wiggled his way into the pit of wires underneath the platform and was trying to pry two of the wires apart. "Hand me the atomic particle resonator, will you?"

"The what?"

"That thing on the floor behind you, with the three prongs on the end."

Harry turned around, and noticed several…things, which apparently were tools of some kind, scattered about the floor several feet away. He ran over, grabbed the atomic whatever thingie, and ran back to The Doctor, who had suddenly acquired goggles.

"Cheers, Harry." It emitted a low buzzing sound as he ran it over the wires.

"Can you give me a sort of "Idiot's Guide to the TARDIS" explanation?" Harry asked after a few minutes of handing The Doctor things and watching as he pulled everything apart, rearranged it, and put it back together. "I'd love to know how this stuff works."

"Hm. I can try, I suppose. Run up to the console and pull the red lever, will you? The one next to the big green button on the left hand side."

It was a good thing he'd added that description, Harry thought as he did as he was asked. There were a lot of red levers on the console.

"Excellent, thank you! Now, the first thing you need to know," The Doctor said as Harry rejoined him below the platform, "is that I am a Time Lord. Not a human. Time Lords travel through time as well as space, exactly as advertised." He fiddled with a few dials on a metal box that Harry had hit his head on earlier. "The TARDIS is, well, I suppose calling her a 'time machine' is the simplest explanation, but honestly, it doesn't do the old girl justice." He tapped the metal box fondly, and a flurry of sparks emitted from it, causing The Doctor to wince.

"I could tell you what all of the various buttons and dials and levers do, of course, but we'd be here for a few weeks and you'd never remember it all anyway. Basically, I poke things and the TARDIS goes places. Not always the places I mean to go, but honestly, not knowing where I'm going to end up is half the fun."

Harry laughed. "I can imagine. What's the point of me thinking up places to go, then, if there's no guarantee we'll even get there?"

"You never know, it might happen. It'll give us a place to start, at least." The Doctor grinned, then pulled himself up from where he'd been sitting and strolled over to Harry. "Right then! Thanks for all your help, don't mean to be rude, but I need you to get out of the TARDIS before I am responsible for introducing you to your future self."

"I understand," Harry replied, smiling a little. He did still remember Hermione's speech about Time Turners, after all. "It was nice to meet you, Doctor," he continued, shaking The Doctor's hand, then turning to leave. "And I guess I'll see you in a few years."

"Something like that, anyway. Take care of yourself, Harry."