He was locked in a room. The door will only open for Voldemort, coming to kill him. As the realisation sunk in, Harry rebelled against it. He had accepted a death like this once, yes, but under different circumstances. He might not be able to travel back in time and see his own reality again, but it didn't mean he had to die here, too. Inside him, something fell into place, and he wasted no more time. First, he tested the door. "Alohomora," he whispered, aiming the Elder wand at the door. Nothing happened. Whatever spell had been used to lock it, it must have been a more complex spell than a simple door lock. Snape must have realised that Harry walking into the next room would not be the best way to show his loyalty to Voldemort. At least he had left him untied, Harry reflected. And had let him keep the wand. He looked for a second at the wand in his hand, and muttered 'Accio wand' under his breath. He still wanted his own wand. Within seconds, that wand flew into his hand through the open window, the wand of holly and phoenix feather. For a moment, Harry tensed, trying to listen through the door to whatever was going on in the next room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. No one called in surprise, or even seemed to notice the Holly wand was gone. Harry held on to the Elder wand for a moment longer, and then put it away under his shirt.

Next - a way out. Harry examined the small window more carefully this time, but realised once again there was no way he could climb through it. He was considering a complex - and somewhat dangerous - manoeuvre that included the chair and a levitation charm, when he heard noises from the the door.

On the other side of the door, the Death Eaters were kneeling in front of their Master, who had returned at last from his journey, victorious. Half grovelling in fear, half looking in jealousy and resentment at those of their number who had been allowed to accompany their lord to his recent expedition and have returned triumphant. The Death Eaters were holding on to two prisoners, bound by a powerful spell.

Dishevelled, with filthy clothes and messy long hair, the prisoners were pushed into the floor, while the Death Eaters, rising with the permission of their master, jeered at them. Even through the magical paralysis, the two prisoners looked at their captives in defiance, one with a pair of hazel eyes, his friend with grey eyes.

Lord Voldemort raised a hand, stopping his Death Eaters from speaking.

"James Potter," he touched one of the prisoners with his foot. "And Sirius Black," he touched the other one. "We meet again. Although, I am afraid, this time might not end as well for you as the last time. Crucio!"

James Potter's screams filled the room, and Voldemort laughed. Behind him, the Death Eaters join in with the laughter. Sirius struggled against the ropes binding him, desperate to help his friend, but in vain. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, the curse was lifted, and James' screams subsided. Voldemort's attention was now directed at Sirius.

"The loyal side-kick," he sneered. "You always were the one with the least sense in your family, Black. But, as you chose to share Potter's fate..." he lifted his wand and aimed it this time at Sirius. "Crucio!" he repeated the curse, and this time it was Sirius' screams that echoed through the big manor house.

"I could do this all day," Voldemort sneered when the screaming stopped. "But no matter, no matter. Time to end this, I think. Dumbledore's pets have been an annoyance far too long. Time for you to join you wife and son, Potter," and he lifted his wand once again at James Potter.

But he did not hit him with the curse, because at that exact moment, the realisation dawned on one of his Death Eaters. "Wait a minute," Amycus Carrow looked from the prisoners, bound on the floor, to Severus Snape, to the closed door, to the prisoners again.

Lord Voldemort turned his head in amazement. His expression was close to shock. He had never been stopped from killing an enemy before, not by one of his Death Eaters - and least of all by Amycus Carrow. His nostrils widened in anger, but Carrow had not realised the danger he was in, as he was still looking, not at his Master, but at the locked door. Severus Snape took several steps back. "If that's Potter there, who's the one locked in the room?"

Voldemort lowered his wand for a second in confusion. Then, several things happened at once.

A loud bang was heard, and James Potter and Sirius Black were free of the ropes binding them. They rolled on the floor, away from harm's way. Lord Voldemort had noticed his pray was escaping and turned, roaring, towards the two - who had now become three. From his corner of the room, Severus Snape had Disarmed several Death Eaters, throwing their wands towards the two prisoners. A killing curse missed him by inches, and Lord Voldemort screamed in fury. Chaos reigned in the room.

And behind the locked door, through howls of pain, screams and curses, Harry Potter struggled to make sense of the scene he could not see. He was so intent on listening, his wand at his hand, that he didn't realise he was no longer alone in the room.

"I think," said a familiar voice behind him, "it's time for us to leave."

Harry jumped, turned around, and nearly sent a curse at the speaker. The Doctor was standing behind him. He lowered his wand in shock.

"How - ?"

"In through the window," he pointed at the same small, high window Harry had contemplated escaping through before, and for some reason, seemed very pleased with himself.

"But I saw - you were - they killed you!"

"Not human, remember?" the Doctor smiled. "The killing curse is designed to kill humans. Oh, it knocked me out," he added, "took a while before I came to, that's what took me so long. Didn't quite realise where I was, before I remembered this was the 27th floor..."

Harry stared at him, wondering whether the curse that had failed to kill him had nonetheless addled his mind. The Doctor's pleased grin seemed to fade a little. "Back to the Future? No? Wizards!" He muttered. "Anyway," he said again quickly, trying to cover the awkward moment Harry still didn't quite understand, "like I said before, magic doesn't affect me the way it does you. I still wouldn't want to wait and see what happens if Voldemort tries to attack me, though. Or Dumbledore, for that matter, although he's not here and there really isn't a lot of reason for him to try and curse me... Anyway. Let's get out of here?"

"You think we can get out through the window?" Harry eyed it again.

"Well, we could," the Doctor said, "but it might take some time. I was thinking more of getting the Tardis here."

"Can you do that?"

The Doctor sighed. "Remote. One day I'll get a remote. Right now, I was thinking more about you."

Harry looked at him confused, then followed the Doctor's gaze to the wand in his hand. "And that's going to work?" he asked in doubt.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, an amused expression on his face. "Let's find out."

"Listen, we don't have time for mistakes here, in case you haven't realised, that's Voldemort - "

"We can't afford being caught, Harry. It's the best way."

Harry shrugged. Normally he would never have doubted his magical powers, but seeing the Doctor walking and talking... he concentrated instead on the blue box. "Accio Tardis!" he called.

Nothing happened.

"How do we know it's worked?"

The Doctor didn't seem to register his question. Instead, he was staring at the empty space in front of them, as if waiting for some invisible cue. "Doctor?" Harry asked tentatively again, but the Doctor raised his hand in a gesture that seemed to signal 'Shut up!' clearly enough. Harry stood there for several more seconds, staring at the Doctor, when the alien's face broke into a smile. "Brilliant," he said, and catching Harry's bemused expression, said, "Listen!"

Harry listened. At first, he heard nothing, getting angrier and angrier with the Doctor, who insisted they stood there instead of going out, looking for the Tardis - or even join in with the fight, that had evidently not stopped yet... and then, quite distinct from the voices on the other side of the door, he finally heard it. The familiar whizzing sound, the Tardis' time-rotor, the unmistakable sound of the time machine dematerialising, growing louder and louder.

Right in front of him, the impression of a big blue box started to appear, phasing in and out of the room, in and out of reality.

"That's not how the spell's supposed to work," he said, slightly stupidly, as the contours of the Tardis disappeared again, only to appear stronger a second later.

"Well," the Doctor said in a non-committed voice. Harry didn't really expect him to explain properly, and so he was not surprised that the sentence was not continued.

They stood there for a few more moments, waiting for the time machine to finish materialising. But before it could, the door flew open.

Three men hurried into the room, their backs turned towards the Doctor and Harry, the wands hard at work. A curse flew in after them. Without thinking, Harry jumped into the fight. He could hear the Doctor shouting something behind him, but he didn't care. He shot a Stunning spell at a Death Eater, whose body slumped at the entrance, blocking his friends. Next to him, Sirius stopped his spell-casting for a moment, ready to thank his unexpected saviour, and nearly dropped his wand in shock.

"Sirius!" Harry screamed and cast a shield charm to protect his godfather from the curse that was sent his way at that moment. Sirius, clearly shaken, returned to casting spells at the door.

"We need - to block - that thing," he muttered.

"A shame, then, you didn't think of it when you cursed the door open," Snape did not give up the opportunity to throw a snide comment at Sirius, even as they were fighting side-by-side against Voldemort.

"Shut - " Sirius started, but reserved his next word for a well-cast spell. Another body crumpled at the entrance to the room.

Harry shot another Stunning spell himself, and backed further into the room. His back hit something sold. Surely, it couldn't be - but it wasn't the wall. The blue box now stood, fully materialised, in the middle of the room, and above the shouts he could make up the Doctor's voice.

"Harry! We need to go, now!"

Just as he turned around, he heard another blast from the door. The bodies that have blocked the entrance, allowing the five temporary refuge, were gone. Lord Voldemort stood at the entrance to the room. His wand in his hand, wrath written all over his face, Harry stared at the face that still haunted his nightmares. The pupils were red slits, the nostrils snake-like, and face itself white as marble. His face was twisted with rage, and Harry knew it was the kind of rage that brought death with it. In the past he had felt that rage more than seen it, all those times Lord Voldemort's wrath had infiltrated into his mind through the scar, through the piece of soul that had latched itself unto him, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt that the terrible expression he was watching now was identical to all those he had felt previously.

It was that moment of hesitation by Voldemort, as he looked into Harry's eyes himself, that had saved him. Someone caught him by his shirt, dragged him sideways and into safety under the chair, as Harry's own mind was frozen with the snake-like face. The spell broken, he looked up at his saviour - and saw not his father, Sirius, or even the Doctor, but Severus Snape, breathing in his ear. "Save her." Harry nodded, unable to express his gratitude. At that moment, a killing curse that was aimed at him - or perhaps at Snape - had hit the chair, blasting it to pieces. He got up and rushed to the door at the front of the Tardis, where the Doctor looked at him anxiously, keeping it open. A man rushed to the same spot at the same time, a man with untidy black hair and hazel eyes. For a split second the green eyes met the hazel ones, which widened in shock, and he could see his father recognised him for who he was. And then, a shower of green sparks had hit James Potter, and he fell. Harry slammed the door behind him, knowing he couldn't help him anymore.

"Go - go - go!" he shouted, but no need - the time rotor was already going up and down in the central column, the Tardis surely fading in and out of existence inside the Malfoy Manor. He imagined for a moment he could hear Voldemort's furious scream - had he realised who he, Harry, was? What they were doing there? What it meant for Voldemort's fate himself? He didn't know. And at that moment, he didn't care. All he could think of were those hazel eyes, in the face that was so much like his own, and the light that seemed to be extinguished from them as the killing curse hit him.

He didn't remember letting go of the door or walking up the ramp, but he must have, because the next thing he noticed were the seats at the centre of the room.

He lifted his head, locating the Doctor. The Time Lord was looking at him, sadness in his eyes. His eyes were brown, not blue, his hair brown and short rather than white and long, he was sporting no beard or spectacles and his Muggle - human - suit would not be misplaced in Vernon Dudley's home, but at the same time, Harry couldn't help but imagining his old mentor in his stead.

"I'm glad you're alive," he said simply, realising he didn't get the chance to say it in the confusion that surrounded them before.

The Doctor nodded. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry."

Harry nodded. "He's going to die anyway," he said in a hollow voice. "That's what we're setting out to do, isn't it? Set the timeline right again? I know when it is we're supposed to be going, by the way. Snape told me," and once again he wasn't quite sure how he felt about the man, who wouldn't save his life, but sacrificed his cover - and most likely, his own life - for the two men he hated with passion from the day they had met, trying to bring down the one he hated most of all. Loyal to Dumbledore until the end.

But the Doctor didn't ask him where it was they were going, what date they would travel to next, but just continued to look at him in a penetrating look, and Harry found himself wondering for a moment whether Dumbledore had learned this particular technique from the Doctor, or whether it was the other way around.

"I know they have to die," he said, averting his gaze from the Doctor. "Destiny, right? Or the right timeline, or whatever it is you want to call it. In order to defeat Voldemort and get to the right timeline again, they have to die. Fixed moment, can't undo it, like you said."

"No," the Doctor said quietly, and Harry's glance shot upwards, staring at the Time Lord.

"They don't have to - "

"No," the Doctor shook his head sadly. "They will die. That's a fixed moment in time."

Harry looked at him apprehensively.

"It's not 'destiny', Harry. You need to understand this. I shouldn't have taken you at all, I knew it was a mistake, but Harry Potter!" He calmed down a bit. "I couldn't resist. Like always. That'd be my end one day. But you're here, so you deserve to understand."

"Understand what?"

"It could happen. Your parents could be alive, and you could live happily with them, such a timeline is possible. And Voldemort would still be defeated. Or never come into power. Or a thousand other possibilities that could change and still give you a happy life with your parents. There is no 'destiny'. This isn't something that can't ever be changed. The right choice, the right word, the right intervention, one fragile moment, and it all 's what my people did, for years. Before the war, before they died. They would watch, and learn, identify the right moment, the exact point, how it could be changed, manipulated, how to create the universe that they thought was best."

Harry knew what was the next word. "But?" he added it to the discussion, on his own.

"But that's the nature of fixed moments. They're dead, and this ability is lost with them. We can't tell. There's no way of knowing what change would bring this result, and what would bring a much worse disaster. All we know is that if this moment changes, the universe can't recuperate. For better or for worse, it will be forever altered. I can't change the Time Lords' fate..." the Doctor seemed almost overcome with sadness when he said these words, "and you can't change your parents'. But there's no destiny."

"Just the best of a bad lot."

"You could say that," the Doctor conceded.

Harry stood there for a moment, rooted in place. For a moment he resented the Doctor, standing there, explaining the death of his parents so calmly. He resented the Time Lords, who had to die and leave him with no way out, even though it wasn't fate, or destiny, or prophecy, and he resented their Time. The image of his parents burned in his mind, just as fresh as the first time he'd seen them in the Mirror of Erised, all those years ago. For a moment he thought of rebelling, of arguing, of shouting, something to match the way his heart seemed to be clutched by a cold hand inside his chest. But he knew even before he opened his mouth that he wouldn't. What was done was done. No magic could bring back the dead, and he had learned to come to terms with that, a long time ago. Not even time was magic enough. "What are we waiting for, then? Let's go," Harry said, and gave the Doctor the date that would serve as their next destination. He watched the Time Lord spin a dial and press some buttons, sending the time-rotor moving up and down again towards their new destination, but could only see hazel eyes looking back at him.