As it turned out, they needed to get to Muggle London after all. The room in the Hog's Head had been a temporary base, where Dr. Shaw - Liz, as she insisted he called her - was bored to death for a day, waiting for the Doctor to show up. Liz had spent most of the past three weeks in the Master's company in his secret London base, where the advanced equipment with which he planned his invasion of Gallifrey was constructed.

This, of course, meant that the Master and the Doctor were probably already there. The only thing that Harry and Liz had in their favour, as she soon pointed out, was that while the base was made to avoid being detected by humans, the Master did not even consider wizards before. "He was quite shocked when we ended up here," she said. He must have known about wizards, as he didn't seem shocked at their existence, only that the Doctor's travels would lead him to the Hog's Head. He would have made his base impenetrable to forces like UNIT, not a wizard who could take a Muggle with him in a well-aimed side-along-Apparation.

"Does it hurt?" she looked slightly apprehensive when he told her that's how they would be travelling, and what it entailed.

"Well, there are more comfortable ways to travel," he admitted, and she sighed. But they had no time to waste. She described to him in detail the base and its location, and he closed his eyes, concentrated hard, and turned on the spot with her holding on to his arm.

When he opened his eyes again, they were no longer in the rainy street of Hogsmeade. In fact, they weren't anywhere he'd ever seen. It was a long, well-lit corridor, shining and clean - the exact opposite of the Hog's Head. There were doors in each direction, glass doors that stoor between them and what looked like strange, futuristic laboratories. Mountains of equipment cluttered each room, tubes and liquids and computers that looked to Harry's eyes too advanced for 1998, let along 1980.

Liz, on the other hand, didn't look at all surprised. "Are we here?" he whispered, and she nodded and started walking down the corridor.

He followed her deeper inside. She was stopping at every door and looking at the lab behind it, her expression becoming more and more confused. All of the labs were abandoned. No security measures seemed to be in sight. The Master must have really thought his complex was inaccessible to anyone but himself. After a couple of minutes, Harry started relaxing a bit. If they didn't run into any trouble so far, maybe there was a chance this would actually end up alright?

And just as the thought entered his mind, and as if the universe was trying to chide him for his ill-considered optimism, they heard voices. Liz froze for a moment, looking straight ahead. From beyond the corner, the Master's voice was clearly heard. " - take the Artron emissions to - "

They needed to find a place to hide, and fast. Liz quickly opened the door nearest to them, a room full of petri dishes and microscopes. Both her and Harry rushed just in time under one of the tables and behind a counter, whose wooden body could hide them even through the glass doors.

Daring to have a look every couple of seconds, Harry could see the two Time Lords passing by. "C'mon," he whispered to Liz. "Where they're going is probably where we should be."

Still crouching, he moved from the table towards the door. For a moment he thought the Doctor had noticed him: he stopped for a moment, as if listening to something. Harry froze, afraid that any movement or the slightest noise would give him away. But after a moment, the Doctor had resumed walking next to the Master. Still inside the lab, not daring to open the door and step outside to the corridor, Harry followed the two with his eyes. They kept on walking, until they arrived at a door at the other side of the corridor. The Doctor stepped inside, and the Master followed.

Liz, who had settled on the other side of the door, nodded. Slowly and quietly, she opened the glass door, and went out to the corridor. Harry followed, drawing his wand. They went next to the wall, stopping at every door to look inside and be sure it's not the Master's lab. After what seemed like forever, they made it to the right door. It was full of heavy computers and strange-looking machinery. At the centre, the Doctor and the Master were working, connecting wires and turning dials. Every once in a while one of them would say something and the other would crack a smile, or one would toss some parts at the other. At one point, they gave up working for a couple of seconds to toss back and forth a ball of wires at each other, the Master with cold amusement, the Doctor smiling gleefully, like a little boy.

If they wouldn't have been two extremely powerful beings attempting to take over the universe, they could have just been two very old friends, having fun in each other's company. Or maybe, Harry mused, they were both.

What now? he mouthed at Liz. She shrugged and pointed at the adjacent lab. He nodded, and they half-crawled, half-crouched inside. This one, too, was full of computers and heavy machinery. Some of the wires seemed to go through small holes in the wall straight into the next room, the laboratory in which the Doctor and the Master were working. An engine of sorts that must have been attached to one of the machines was making a lot of noise, but Harry realised that they could be certain not to be overheard that way, and was willing to suffer the noise. After the technology used by the Daleks on Messaline, he was reluctant to cast a spell and risk being discovered by the Time Lords.

Once the door was closed, and they were both in position to note anyone who would walk the corridor in either direction, Harry turned to Liz. "So what's the plan?" he asked her.

"Well, my original plan was to break the power source. He needs a lot of power for those machines. Told me all about it, the arrogant idiot."

"I guess he thought that being human, you wouldn't understand," said Harry reasonably, but Liz snorted.

"If you ask me," she said, "I think it had more to do with being a woman. Or maybe both."

"Well, that'll teach him. So, where is the power source?"

Her face darkened.

"Inside the room?" he asked, and she nodded. "Okay, that might actually be a problem."

"Yes," she admitted. "Although, even if they both manage to go through, we might still have a chance. The Master said that the power source would have to remain active for several minutes after they both go through before the transfer is complete with no side effects."

"What side effects?"

"I don't know."

"So, theoretically, they can pass through to Gallifrey, we break the power source and the universe implodes as a side effect."

"That would be bad, yes," she said testily. "But unless they decide to nip out for dinner before taking over the world, we can't count on them to leave that place before completing their work."

"Well, it has been a while since we've had a decent meal," Harry said as his stomach rumbled in agreement, but without real conviction. If the Doctor had managed so long without sleep, surely he didn't feel hunger the way Harry did?

"I think we're going to have to assume the universe would not implode just yet," she said.

And then there were footsteps in the hallway, and they both froze. The Doctor stopped in front of their door, calling the Master. They were going to go inside. Harry looked desperately for counters or tables or cupboards, anything they could use for cover, but there were none in this room, only the machinery next to the wall.

There was nowhere to hide.

Any minute now they would open the door and discover the two intruders. He could kick himself - why didn't he take his invisibility cloak with him? It would have solved so many problems.

There were other ways of turning someone invisible, of course. And he would have to hope that the Master didn't have the same technology as the Daleks, or didn't think of the possibility of wizards following him in. "Don't panic," he whispered to Liz, and tapped his wand over her head. The Disillusionment Charm worked immediately. With a surprised expression, she vanished in front of his eyes. Sighing with relief, he touched his wand to his own head, and the cold and wet sensation of the charm working its way through him engulfed him.

And just in time, too. As soon as he disappeared, the Doctor opened the door, and the Master followed him in.

"What's this noise?" the Doctor asked, and the Master muttered something about an engine. He turned to one of the machines and turned it off. The engine coughed once, twice, and the room turned quiet.

"So this thing is attached to the power source?" asked the Doctor casually, pointing at the big machine that was now blissfully quiet.

"Yes."

"Alright, you attach all those computers there, I'll do the same thing here," he said and walked straight towards Harry and Liz. The two squeezed as close as possible to the wall, trying to get out of his way without giving a sign of their existence. They were lucky - the Doctor might as well have been intentionally bypassing them. He didn't notice a thing. Even as his leg brushed next to Harry's arm, and the hair at the back of his neck stood in tension, the Doctor remained oblivious to their presence. He must be so enamoured by the Master, Harry thought in resentment, that he doesn't notice a thing. But he couldn't complain, of course, if indeed this was the reason they had remained undetected.

"What's that?" the Master asked all of a sudden, pointing directly at them.

The Doctor looked in their direction, puzzled. "What's what?" he asked.

"There's something there! Next to your foot!"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "There's nothing there. Are you alright?"

"Of course I'm alright! But I saw something..."

"Nah," the Doctor said and waved his arm inches from Harry's nose, causing Harry to hold his breath in horror. "I reckon you've been around here all by yourself for too long. Starting to see things, old chap."

"Oh, but I wasn't alone. I've had the company of the charming Ms. Shaw."

"She is very charming, isn't she," the Doctor said with a nostalgic smile.

"Now, now, Doctor. We have work to do, it is not the time to find yourself in yet another nostalgic moment of self-pity."

"Would you prefer delusions of grandeur?"

"My dear Doctor, you are soaking in those already."

The Doctor smiled at these words again, his face lighting up. His eyes, that had looked old and weary from the first moment Harry had met him, seemed almost young. Despite Liz's story of the rivalry between these two, it was obvious they had been friends far longer than enemies. Working together seemed like a second nature to them, a part of them that came as naturally as using their hands and talking. A part of the Doctor he must have missed for a long time, Harry thought with a pang.

But feeling sorry for the Doctor would lead them nowhere. What he was doing was still mad, and wrong, and Harry had to stop him.

The Doctor waved his sonic screwdriver around, and the machine started working again - this time with a higher pitch. Harry had to cover his ears with his hands. He felt as if the noise would soon cause his ears to bleed.

"What are you doing?" the Master demanded. Evidently, he did not enjoy the noise as well.

"If we want me to get through we'll have to have more power," the Doctor half-shouted over the noise. "I told you, I'm from after your time. I can't just waltz into your Gallifrey, can I?"

"But does it have to make all that noise!"

"They're your machines, not mine! If you'd rather do it on your own..."

The Master's next words were completely unintelligible. The Doctor smiled, and kept on working.

After a few moments, Harry realised the Master was saying something.

"I said - " he shouted again - "is this thing connected?"

"Just about!"

"Well then, let's get out of here!" He hurried towards the door, to escape the noise.

Once they were both gone, Harry turned to look for Liz. Since he knew she was there, of course, it was no trouble finding her. The Disillusionment Charm was not like an invisibility cloak - at least, not like his invisibility cloak. There were ways to locate a person who has been Disillusioned. There was just that extra depth, the line that didn't quite fit, and then he could tap over her head with his wand and see her showing up again, her hands on her ears.

She opened her mouth and said something that looked like his name, but he couldn't hear a word. The machines were drowning everything. Instead, he tapped with his wand over himself and gestured towards the door once he was visible again. They opened it carefully and sneaked outside.

"Finally!" Liz whispered. "I was starting to get a headache."

"Yeah."

"What was that thing you did - you can make us invisible?"

"Sort of invisible... but it works well enough, I guess. If you know someone's out there and try real hard, you can sort of see them. Maybe we should try it again, that way we won't have to run back inside every time they come out."

She nodded, but looked reluctant. "Does it have to feel so... slimy?" she asked.

"Sorry," he shrugged. "That's the way it is."

"Alright," she said, and he tapped his wand on her head again, and then at his.

"We better wait next to the door, and get inside whenever they open it," he whispered.

"Alright," she whispered back.

He would have attempted opening the door himself, but with the Master already apparently suspicious something was going on, he didn't want to risk it. They would have several minutes after the Time Lords leave. For a moment, he felt a pang of guilt - what if they end up dead? What if he gets the Doctor stranded or killed or frozen? He wanted to tell himself that the Doctor had made his choice, but couldn't shake the uneasy feeling.

Still, he couldn't take his eyes off the Time Lord. The Doctor was sitting next to a table, flashing his sonic screwdriver at something or other. In front of him, the Master was sitting and connecting cables.

"You know, Doctor," the Master said suddenly, "I didn't quite think this plan of mine will work."

"Well, it's not working yet, not until we finish connecting these couplings," the Doctor said without raising his head.

"No, you fool, not that plan."

"Oh?"

The Master threw a small box at the Doctor, who put down the sonic screwdriver and took it in both hands. "What's that?" he asked.

"A - jamming device, don't these Earthlings call it?"

The Doctor examined the box without saying anything.

"You see, it was hard for me to imagine a time when my dear friend, the Doctor, would find it appropriate to help my plans. I rather thought you had shared my dreams only when you were younger, much younger than this."

The Doctor gave the box an experimental shake, apparently ignoring the Master's words. "It's connected to the Tardis?"

"Indeed. It's a two-way deal, of course. First make sure it is the right incarnation that is lured back to Earth, then find where it is you've gone. It's taken so long I was starting to think my plan had failed and you were not coming at all. And then you showed up. What is it, Doctor?"

"I'm sorry?"

Harry wasn't fooled for a moment. He knew the Doctor had heard the Master's words well enough. He just didn't want to answer. And the Master knew it too - he gave a loud, hearty laughter.

"Come now, Doctor. Let us not play games. When we were young you had that sense of adventure! But ever since... well, I couldn't possibly imagine you would come to my help, especially not against the Time Lords. I thought I would have the younger, foolish adventurer with the dreams of grandeur, but instead, I got - you. What has happened to change your mind?"

The Doctor stared intently at the box. "I haven't seen Gallifrey for so long," he said wistfully.

"Ah. I see your exile has finally changed your mind about the Time Lords."

The Doctor just kept on staring.

Harry, in turn, was staring at the Doctor so intently, that he hadn't noticed the Master had moved. It was Liz who noticed that Harry was standing right in the Master's path. She grabbed at his arm and pulled him out of the Master's way, but being unable to see Harry properly, she caught him with too much force, and Harry almost toppled over her, gaining his balance in the very last second.

The Master, standing at the foot of the glass door, froze in place. He stared for a long moment at the place Harry had been standing only a second ago.

"Doctor?" he called.

"Yeah?"

"Come here for a second."

"I'm right in the middle of something here, can't it wait?" the Doctor complained.

"No."

He stepped outside as well, giving the Master a look of impatience. "What is it now?" he asked.

The Master pointed directly at Harry. Harry had a sinking feeling that even if the Master couldn't actually see him, he could sense something of their presence. Were Time Lords telepathic? "Do you see anything there?" he asked the Doctor.

The Doctor rubbed his ear impatiently. "Haven't we been through this before? There's nothing here."

"Are you sure your wizard friend isn't here?"

Harry's hopes were gone. He knew they were there. He must have.

"Harry? Nah," the Doctor answered, the impatience all but gone from his voice, replaced with sadness. "He went to finish what we came here to do. He's much more responsible than I am. He sees things through to the end."

Harry could feel uncertainty filling him. Did he make the wrong choice? Was he allowing Marvin to escape by following the Doctor here? After all, the Tardis had brought them into the Hog's Head intentionally.

"Well, if you're sure," the Master said, still sceptic. "I will now fetch the Tardis. Keep on working."

"Take your time," the Doctor called after him. The Master didn't reply, but went down the corridor.

The Doctor looked at him leave, then turned to look directly where the Master was pointing at a second before, directly at Harry. And then - he opened his mouth to speak.

"We need to time this exactly right, or we don't have much of a chance. The Master will only be gone for a couple of minutes. Once he is back, the two of us will connect his Tardis to the machines. In theory, this is supposed to allow him to enter Gallifrey undetected. The official plan is that he then will connect a small device to the defence screen there, boosting the signal and allowing me through, but I don't think he has any intentions to follow that part of the plan. We are going to have to break the connection while he's in flight. It's going to be a bit longer than usual, with the tinkering we had to do in order to get him to Gallifrey undetected, but that's still not a lot of time. Harry, as soon as the Tardis starts disappearing, I'm going to need you to aim a a really strong curse at a very specific area of one of the machines here. It has to be strong and it has to be precise. Can you do that?"

"But - what - "

"No time to explain!" the Doctor snapped. "Leave it for later. We have a minute, at most. Can you do it?"

"Just show me where to hit," Harry answered, keeping all the questions he had at bay.

"Brilliant." The Doctor now opened the door, and both Harry and Liz walked through. The Doctor walked them to one corner of the room, right next to a large mirror. He then pointed at one of the machines that the two had connected earlier with the next laboratory.

"The blue little lever at the centre of that thing," he said, and Harry nodded, and then, not sure whether the Doctor could actually see him or just sense him in some way, cleared his throat. "No problem," he said.

"Brilliant. Now shush, he's coming back."

And indeed - the whizzing sound of the Tardis - or rather, Harry thought now, a Tardis - was becoming more and more pronounced. And then - Harry blinked, and it was gone again, but there it was! As if blinking in and out of existence, another machine showed up for a second, then disappeared, then showed up again. It looked exactly like the computers, the power supplying machines and the other equipment in the room: metallic, heavy, full of small lightbulbs and tubes and wires. But unlike the rest of the machines, the front part of the thing opened, and the Master stepped out. Harry got a glimpse of the inside - it wasn't a dark cupboard, or full of wires. Instead, it was just like the Doctor's Tardis. It was bigger on the inside, even if it shone in strong white light instead of the more comfortable gold and green of the Doctor's Tardis.

"Well, Doctor?" the Master asked.

"Just in time," the Doctor finished typing something into one of the computers, and tuned around. "All ready to go."

"Now now, I better have a look at the code myself. Wouldn't want to find myself on the other side of the galaxy, now, would I?"

The Doctor only smiled, without humour, and said nothing. Instead, he took a long cable, and walked with it into the Tardis. "You'd want to connect this when you're done," he said.

It didn't take the Master long to check the Doctor's work. "Excellent, excellent," he muttered, and walked towards the Tardis where he connected the cable to one of the panels out front.

"Wait for my signal, Doctor," he said. "You better spend the time I'm gone bringing your own Tardis here."

"Good luck," the Doctor said, and the Master nodded.

"Good luck," he said and stepped into the Tardis again. After a couple of seconds, the familiar whizzing sound started again.

"Harry, now!" the Doctor shouted and took his own sonic screwdriver out of his pocket.

Harry pulled out his wand and aimed it directly at the blue lever. "Diffendo!" he shouted - but nothing happened.

The Doctor was busy with another machine. "What's the delay?" he shouted over the noise. "Get on with it!"

The whizzing sound was starting to fade. The Tardis could barely be seen. A soft noise - laugher? - could be heard. "Harry!" the Doctor shouted.

"Reducto!" Harry shouted again. That did it. The machine burst into flames. The Tardis completely disappeared.

Harry stood for a moment, staring at the Doctor. Then, remembering again his invisibility, he tapped himself, the Liz. The Doctor said nothing.

"Did it work?" he asked. The Doctor just scanned the room with the sonic screwdriver.

And then, the Doctor's face broke into a small grin. "I think it did, yes."

"Where did he end up?"

"Oh, on Gallifrey."

"On Gallifrey? But you said - "

"On Gallifrey, yes. But now how and where he expected. I'm afraid the Master won't forgive me as easily for what has happened to him now," the Doctor sighed, but for some reason, Harry had the feeling he was almost nostalgic. "I remember how his body looked, the next time I met him. It was... unpleasant."

"His body?" Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Let's say... I'm afraid he won't be wearing any more black and red robes for a while." The Doctor smiled again, but this time with sadness. He was not happy to do this to a man who had once been his friend, this much was obvious - and perhaps, not happy to do this to the one relic of home he had left.

"Anyway, you were brilliant! Well done. And you - " he turned to Liz, and only now seemed to register her expression fully. She was not pleased. Instead, she looked at him with cold fury, her arms crossed on her chest. "What?" he asked cautiously.

"Oh, nothing," she said, angry. "Just that I've been kidnapped because of you, had to spend three weeks with that raging psychopath because of you - "

" - Well, I wouldn't say 'raging' as such," he started, but stopped when he met her gaze, looking sheepish.

" - And," she continued as if not interrupted - "and, you show up here, after years of not even saying hello, with wizards and magic for a whole other reason entirely and pretend to be working with him? And all you have to say for yourself is..." she looked confused for a moment. "What were you saying, exactly?"

"That you were magnificent," he said earnestly. "Absolutely magnificent. And I couldn't have done it without you," he added.

"Well," she said, still frowning, but Harry had the feeling she was struggling to keep her anger with the Doctor.

"Thank you," he said quietly, and her face broke into a smile. The Doctor opened his arms and hugged her, and after a second her confused expression had changed into something softer, and she hugged him back. "Dr. Shaw!" he said, all excited and happy, and when he let go he looked at her again, pride radiating from his face. "My Liz," he said. "Thank you."

She looked at him again, and now had affection in her expression, and slight exasperation. "It's been a long time, Doctor."

"Longer than you think," he said quietly, but then his face brightened again. "And, if I remember correctly, and my memory is very good, you've left Cambridge and are working with the Brigadier again, aren't you? Building a moon base?"

"How do you know about that?" she looked at him suspiciously, but then laughed. "If I've ever met an alien as nosy as you are..."

He just laughed as well. "You'll do magnificently," he said. "And, mind you, you might find some useful things in here. Better call UNIT to come and pick this up. Don't leave this place empty, though. The energy spike must have registered on every piece of technology Torchwood have, and we really don't need them to come scavenging."

"Oh, you've heard of them as well, then?"

He just smiled.

"But why did you make us think you're working with him?" she asked.

For the first time Harry had seen him, the Doctor looked ashamed. "I didn't. Not at first. When the Master... it's been a while, Liz. I'm afraid I can't say too much, but things have changed. With my people. When we came to the Hog's Head, I felt the presence of the Master, and realised what that must mean, and then he showed up with this fantastic plan."

"You were tempted to fix it all? From the past?" she asked, perhaps a bit too knowingly.

The Doctor nodded. "His machine worked remarkably well. It really did find me at the time I was most likely to be tempted by his offer."

"What changed your mind?" she asked softly.

"Harry." He looked at Harry with pride. If there was something resembling yearning in his gaze, Harry pretended he didn't see it. "He made some very good points about the responsibilities of a Time Lord."

"I'm sorry," Harry said quietly. He thought he could imagine how the Doctor must feel, and why the knowledge he was doing the right thing could never quite take that haunting feeling away, that question. What if? It would keep on nagging at the back of his mind.

"Don't be," the Doctor said in a loud voice, as if dismissing the whole thing. "You were right. Besides, it's not worth doing it. Not for Time Lords. If I ever feel like breaking the most fundamental laws of time, it should be for you. Humans!" he called all of a sudden and collected Harry for a hug. "You're brilliant!"

Liz laughed and shook her head. "If only the Brigadier could hear you now," she said and then laughed even harder at the Doctor's mortified expression. "Don't worry. I won't be the one to tell him. As long as you don't do it again," she added sharply.

The Doctor looked genuinely relieved. "I would have told you, but - well, there was no way of explaining things to you without telling him. And then I saw you there - "

"So you did see us?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, it was becoming a bit hard not to step all over your toes. Also, I could see you through the door before you used the Disillusionment charm. Had to start up all the machines in order to distract the Master!"

"Oh," said Harry sheepishly. He should have realised, of course.

"Which reminds me - " the Doctor said and pointed his sonic screwdriver at one of the machines. A terrible lurching sound came from it and it stopped abruptly. He then pointed the sonic at three other machines, and did the same. "UNIT shouldn't have access to these yet, either," he said.

"Speaking of which, I better go call them," Liz said, and the Doctor nodded. "The telephone's that way, if I'm not mistaken?" she said and started going down the hall.

The Doctor watched her going. It was as if she realised this, as all of a sudden she stopped and turned around. "I'm not going to see you again, am I?" she asked.

"You were always clever," the Doctor answered, and she only replied, "And you've always underestimated me."

He nodded. There wasn't any point to deny it or argue about it. "You've done better without me," he said.

"Probably," she agreed. "But I still missed the excitement every once in a while. They said you took off a couple of months ago, with a young journalist and one of UNIT's doctors. I hope you're going to give them an adventure."

He nodded again, and she went to him and after a moment's hesitation hugged him again, if somewhat awkwardly. "Good luck," he murmured, and she just laughed and said, "Funny, I was about to say that same thing."

She broke form the hug and turned to Harry, offering her hand, and he took it gladly. "And good luck to you, too. I won't even pretend to understand what you're involved in."

He nodded too, unable to explain. A weight was starting to form again at the bottom of his stomach, something that had been blissfully postponed in this unexpected adventure.

"Well - goodbye," she said, and without even waiting for the Doctor's response, walked down the again and was gone from sight.

"Goodbye, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw," the Doctor whispered behind her.

And then he turned to Harry. "C'mon," he said, "we need to get going!"

Harry followed him, his legs made of lead. The blue Tardis door didn't look so inviting anymore, and the gold and green lights of the room weren't the warm comfort he remembered. He was full of dread of their next step, dread he didn't allow himself to think about as long as they were chasing maniacal Time Lords and aliens who wanted to take over the world, but now he could no longer deny it.

"Where are we going?" he asked in a voice that didn't sound much like his own.

"Back to the Hog's Head," the Doctor's response sounded almost cheerful, almost callous, but Harry had a feeling that once again, it wasn't completely honest. "Back to where the Tardis brought us."

"So you think Marvin might be there?"

"Oh, no. It's not Marvin we're supposed to meet there, and if we don't hurry, we might miss him."

Harry nodded. He had no idea what the Doctor was talking about, but was too occupied to try and figure it out.

The central column went up and down, once, twice, and was still. But the Doctor was still staring at it, as if he didn't realise they had reached their destination.

Harry, too, wasn't looking forward to leaving the Tardis behind them. Not yet. "Doctor?" he asked cautiously.

"Yeah," the Doctor sounded flat, distracted, deep in thoughts.

"What were they like? your people?"

And the Doctor turned around in surprise and despite his reluctance told Harry a story of a culture that had lasted ten million years and Harry listened with eyes opened wide and what was supposed to be a another way to delay the inevitable became a fascinating story of people who were kind and good and knew the dangers of their own power and did their best to let the universe continue. No matter what. The existence of a universe that no longer even remembered them, except for myths and whispers, was to be their legacy, the Doctor said, and Harry nodded and didn't say a word when the Time Lord's voice became slightly choked and he averted his gaze, and when he suddenly jumped and announced it was time to go, he said nothing again, and only followed.